Thursday, December 31, 2020

The object of a new year (G. K. Chesterton)


    The object of a new year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective. 

--G. K. Chesterton, A Chesterton Calendar 

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Sunday Gospel Reflection, January 3, 2021: They were overjoyed at seeing the star...

Have you seen the light? 

   Light in all its many forms is a gift from God. Isaiah offers the people of Israel an image of light pouring over them, blanketing them in God’s splendor: the glory of the Lord shines upon you! The exile of the people had been a time of darkness; now, upon their return to their homeland, they themselves will serve as a beacon of God’s glory for all the world, a revelation of God’s goodness: Nations shall walk by your light, and kings by your shining radiance. And the emotional consequences of God’s gift are powerful: your heart shall throb and overflow, Isaiah tells them, so that the blessings of the Lord will be made manifest to all. Indeed, as Psalm 72 notes, monarchs from the world over will come to pay tribute to the God of Israel: the kings of Tarshish and the Isles, the kings of Arabia and Seba come to bear witness to the justice and profound peace of Israel’s compassionate God. 

   A like glory is seen by the magi in Matthew’s Gospel when, following the light of the star, they arrive at the place where the child is. Light in this story is not only a physical entity – the light of a celestial body– but also the realization of the child’s significance: they prostrate themselves and do him homage because they realize they have found the ruler who is to shepherd God’s people Israel. In other words, they see the light! And light in the form of revelation is also the subject of St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: the mystery was made known to me by revelation, he tells them, and it is his responsibility to make this revelation known to the world, namely, that the Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and copartners in the promise of Christ Jesus. It is no longer just the people of Israel who are blessed with God’s light, but all the world.  

   Where, since Christmas, have we seen the glory of the Lord revealed? Where have our own epiphanies, our sightings of God’s action in our lives, occurred? How can we be that light, the glory of God, revealed to the nations? How do we participate in the revelation that is God’s love for all people? How can we be stewards of God’s grace, and for whom? For we too are called to live salvation so manifestly that it becomes the universal language spoken by our very existence, and thereby bring God’s love, and God’s light, to bear upon the world. May we be a light to the nations, that God’s may indeed reach to the ends of the earth!  

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

We must seek the child Jesus (St. Oscar Romero)


   We must not seek the child Jesus in the pretty figures of our Christmas cribs. We must seek him among the undernourished children who have gone to bed at night with nothing to eat, among the poor newsboys who will sleep covered with newspapers in doorways. 

   Let us not tire of preaching love; it is the force that will overcome the world. 

 --St. Oscar Romero      

Image source: Lee Silk Kaercher, Waiting for the Wise Men, https://maryloudriedger2.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/waiting-for-the-wise-men/
Quotation source

Monday, December 28, 2020

Holding God's promise in his hands (David Lose)

   Each time I hear these words [of Simeon], I – as I imagine Mary and Joseph did – grow strangely uncomfortable. Listen to them again: “Lord, now you let your servant go in peace; your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen the salvation which you have prepared in the sight of every people, a light to reveal you to the nations and the glory of your people Israel.” Beautiful words, to be sure, but also troubling, for let’s not kid ourselves, when Simeon asks that he be allowed to go, he’s asking to die.

   And so, I wonder, why does Luke record this strange scene and song? Why would he move from the beauty and light and joy of the nativity straight to Simeon’s morbid request for death? 

   Take note: St. Luke is clear that Simeon is able to speak of death so honestly only in the light of the coming of the promised messiah, only, that is, by the confidence that in this helpless child God has come to redeem Israel and save all the world… Simeon perceives that in the Christ-child God has kept God’s promises; that in this babe, set for the rising and fall of many, God has acted once and for all to address the question and specter of death with the promise of life. 

   And so, Simeon does not ask for death; rather, he accepts it courageously and confidently in the light of God’s promised salvation. And he does so only upon seeing and holding God’s promise in his hands, only after touching and feeling the promise of life which God granted to him through Christ… and which God grants also to us. 

   And so, we continue singing Simeon’s song simply because it tells of God’s great love for us, a love that even death cannot destroy. For, like Simeon, we also need to hear and see and touch and feel God’s promise, the promise that God will be with us and for us forever, the promise announced in the birth of that innocent babe. 

 --David Lose              

Image source: http://ohclectionary.blogspot.com/2014/02/presentation-of-jesus-in-temple-feb-2.html
Quotation source & complete article

Sunday, December 27, 2020

An intimate community of life and love (St. John Paul II)

 

    For every believer, and especially for Christian families, the humble dwelling place in Nazareth is an authentic school of the Gospel. Here we admire, put into practice, the divine plan to make the family an intimate community of life and love; here we learn that every Christian family is called to be a small ‘domestic church’ that must shine with Gospel virtues. Recollection and prayer, mutual understanding and respect, personal discipline and community asceticism and a spirit of sacrifice, work and solidarity are typical features that make the family of Nazareth a model for every home. 

 --St. Pope John Paul II, Angelus, December 30, 2001 

Image source: El Greco, The Holy Family (1595), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Family_(El_Greco,_Hospital_de_Tavera)#/media/File:El_Greco_028.jpg
Quotation source

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 27, 2020: As numerous as the stars in the sky...


How are you blessed?  

   In the Book of Genesis, God promises Abram that his descendants will be as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sands on the seashore. Why? Because Abram has faith, a faith that remains a model of fidelity to relationship with God to this day. By faith, as the Letter to the Hebrews states, Abram received power to generate; his extraordinary extended family is a consequence of his right relationship with God, an intimate relationship in which God serves as Abram’s shield. Abram’s wife Sarah will bear a son, Isaac, and for generations to come the family will, as Psalm 105 suggests, give thanks to the Lord and sing his praise, their hearts seeking the Lord, because God remembers forever his covenant. Abram is the model of intimate relationship with God through faith, blessed by the fruit of that relationship within his own home and family.

   We see similar examples of deep faith in God’s promise in Luke's Gospel in the persons of Simeon and Anna, to whom Mary and Joseph introduce their newborn son, when they come to present him to the Lord in the temple. As faithful servants of the Lord, when they see the long-awaited child before them, Simeon and Anna are prompted by the Spirit to give thanks to God as a sign of the redemption that will come through Jesus for all people. We too are called to be faithful to our relationship with the Lord and to recognize his action in our lives, for it is that intimate relationship that allows all other relationships to flourish, not only within our own nuclear (or not so nuclear) families, but also in our relationship with fratelli tutti, our brothers and sisters throughout the world. And it is in our loving attention to that broadest of families that we help to further the salvation of all! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Friday, December 25, 2020

Christmas (Hans Urs van Balthasar)


Christmas 
is not an event within history, 
but is rather 
the invasion of time by eternity.
 
 --Hans Urs von Balthasar,
Light of the Word




BLESSINGS AT CHRISTMAS 
FROM OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, 
MILL VALLEY! 


Thursday, December 24, 2020

Christ Child's Lullabye (Kathy Mattea)

My love, my treasured one are you 
My sweet and lovely son are you 
You are my love, my darling new 
Unworthy I, of you Alleluia, 
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia 
Your mild and gentle eyes proclaim 
The loving heart with which you came 
A tender, helpless tiny babe 
With boundless gifts of grace 
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia 
King of Kings, Most Holy One 
God the Son, Eternal One 
You are my God and helpless son 
High Ruler of Mankind 
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia… 

To hear Kathy Mattea sing this beautiful Christmas song, click on the video below: 

Image source: Virginie Demont-Breton, Alma Mater (n.d.), https://eclecticlight.co/2017/12/25/the-nativity-ancient-and-modern/ 
Video source

Receiving this child (Yadira Vieyra Alvarez)


   Receiving this [Christ] child is a decision. If we do not accept and embrace the presence of Jesus in our daily lives, of what use is his peaceful dominion? 

   Christ is born to bring constancy, meaning faithfulness, commitment, dedication. The challenge lies in having the eyes to see it. Constancy is necessary for our souls, but do we believe God has been constantly with us? Do we accept his faithfulness? 

   What could keep us from celebrating today? 

   As you celebrate the birth of Jesus, what are you clinging onto? Your worries? Your plans for your future? Your fears? Or are you clinging onto the only one darkness could not overcome? Is your heart ready to to welcome the son of God made flesh for us? Do you see the birth of Jesus as a renewed opportunity to trust in God’s constancy, like Mary did? 

 --Yadira Vieyra Alvarez 

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

When she said 'yes' (Pope Francis)


   Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then in the flesh, when she said ‘yes’ to the message God gave her through the angel. What does this mean? It means that God did not want to become a man by bypassing our freedom; he wanted to pass through Mary’s free assent, through her ‘yes.’ He asked her, ‘Are you prepared to do this?’ And she replied: ‘Yes.’ 

   But what took place most singularly in the Virgin Mary also takes place within us, spiritually, when we receive the Word of God with a good and sincere heart and put it into practice. It is as if God takes flesh within us; he comes to dwell in us, for he dwells in all who love him and keep his word. It is not easy to understand this, but really, it is easy to feel it in our heart. 

 --Pope Francis, October 12, 2013 

Image source: Fra Angelico, Annunciation of Cortona (1433-34), https://blog.franciscanmedia.org/franciscan-spirit/pope-francis-on-marys-yes 

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Transforming womb of God (Rev. Sally Dyck)

Transforming womb of God, 
Conceive in us; 
Create in us; 
Create a new life; 
Faith, the confidence to bear 
Hope, continuously expectant 
Love, the true beginning. Amen. 

 --Rev. Dr. Sally Dyck       

Image source: http://reigniteuk.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-womb-of-god.html
Poem source

Monday, December 21, 2020

Christmas is saying yes (Henri Nouwen)


    Somehow, I realized that songs, music, good feelings, beautiful liturgies, nice presents, big dinner, and many sweet words do not make Christmas. Christmas is saying yes to something beyond all emotions and feelings. Christmas is saying yes to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work and not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying… But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior. 
--Henri Nouwen             

Sunday, December 20, 2020

Ave Maria (Michal Lorenc)


Ave Maria 
Gratia plena 
Maria, gratia plena 
Maria, gratia plena 
Ave, ave dominus 
Dominus tecum 
Benedicta tu in mulieribus 
Et benedictus 
Benedictus fructus, 
Fructus ventris 
Ventris tui, Jesus 
Ave Maria 
Ave Maria 
Mater Dei 
Ora pro nobis peccatoribus 
Ora, ora pro nobis 
Ora, ora pro nobis 

To hear the Ave Maria performed by Michal Lorenc (1995), click on the video below: 


Image source: Leonardo da Vinci, Annunciation (ca. 1472), https://medium.com/thinksheet/symbols-in-art-the-annunciation-7347bddb89d
Video source

Saturday, December 19, 2020

Be it done to me as you say (Bishop Robert Barron)


   Despite her fear and despite the darkness, Mary says, I am the maidservant of the Lord; let it be done to me as you say. At the crucial moment, Mary of Nazareth allows herself to fall in love with God, and in that moment of ecstasy, the Son of God enters the world for its salvation. 

   The human tragedy began with Adam and Eve’s grasp; the divine comedy commences with Mary’s letting-go. This is why the medieval commentators, with their delicious sense of the co-penetration of all parts of the Bible, observed that the Ave of the angel of the Annunciation reverses Eva, the mother of all the living. 

   Mary said, Be it done to me as you say. Why is surrender such a critical part of falling in love with God?  

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
December 20, 2019
 

Image source: Hail, Mary, Full of Grace, Kerala, India, https://globalworship.tumblr.com/post/105233311695/the-annunciation-india-song-paintings

Friday, December 18, 2020

Mary's yes made her whole (Pat McDonogh)


   God consecrated the female body, not only the womb that would welcome the Incarnation, but the breasts that provided mother’s milk to the Messiah and her poor, postpartum body that rode a donkey into exile, emigrating to Egypt with a newborn, so far from her own mother and the comfort and companionship of her cousin Elizabeth. Consecrated, too, was the physical anxiety that drove the frenzied search for the boy who went missing in Jerusalem after the Passover; the gut-wrenching pain of people turning against her son, calling him crazy, plotting his demise and abandoning him in the hour of his death. Holy was the commitment standing on Calvary, drawing on a physical and emotional strength so intrinsic to who Mary was, that it seems to have been cellular, similar to the courage born in her marrow bone, to borrow an expression from the Irish poet, William Butler Yeats: She that sings a lasting song, Thinks in a marrow-bone. Mary’s yes made her whole, a wholeness for which we all long. She shared so single-heartedly, so fully in the life of Jesus, that God invited Mary to share fully in his resurrection. If we say yes, we can become whole. 

 --Pat McDonogh         

Image source: Paul Woelfel, Annunciation (Nigeria), https://curiouschristian.blog/2018/12/14/the-annunciation-nigerian-style/

Thursday, December 17, 2020

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 20, 2020: Let it be done to me according to your word...

How open are you to the will of God? 

   God made it clear to the people of Israel from the beginning that their focus should be not on their own actions, but rather on what God promises to do in them and for them. In the Second Book of Samuel, God gives King David hope: I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm. Salvation will not come through David’s efforts, but through God’s – David has but to open to God’s work in him. Christians read this passage as a promise fulfilled in Jesus, the Son of God, a promise extended to all people. Psalm 89 extols this promise: through all generations my mouth shall proclaim your faithfulness. We are fully aware of the enormity of the covenant sworn to David and, we now know, fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. 

   Unlike David, who is concerned about what he himself can do, Mary does not question the activity of God: I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word, she tells the angel Gabriel in Luke's Gospel. Unlike David, Mary is not focused on herself, but rather on what God is doing in her, and she surrenders herself to God’s work in her. We don’t know what Mary’s plan was for that day, but it probably did not involve meeting with an angel; Gabriel is an interruption into the quiet life of Mary. And yet, when all that is left her is to accept or reject the angel’s statement, Mary says Yes, Fiat, let it be done to me according to your word. She never questions whether God will be with her; that is a given. Hers is the obedience of faith of which Paul speaks to the Romans. We cannot manufacture faith, for it is God’s gift, God working in us, God’s strength within us. We can only accept God’s work in us by owning it, participating it, actively choosing to accept the gift, and to accept Jesus Christ, revealed as the perfect love of the Father. 

   Salvation come from our saying yes to God: let it be done to us according to your word. What if every day were focused on what God was doing in us rather than on ourselves? If we were, every day would be an adventure! Mary surrenders herself to God’s work; for us, such surrender is much more difficult. But when God leads us in a direction different from the one we have foreseen, we need to be open to the interruption, open to God’s will, and present to whatever God brings us in the moment. Then the Lord will be with us as well! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Life is Advent (Henri Nouwen)

  The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Alexey Yegorov, Simeon the Righteous (1830’s-40’s), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_(Gospel_of_Luke)#/media/File:Yegorov-Simeon_the_Righteous.jpg Quotation source

Tuesday, December 15, 2020

We dare to rejoice (Mary Ponsot)


Rejoice rejoice that the taken seed
asserts its place; the voice
love summoned up now shouts out, Be
become, come; we dare to rejoice.  

Others name God, praise God; 
we merely and perfectly exhibit Him; 
our silent blood embraces seed and shape 
God warrants good. Our rejoicing voices 
tremble but do not trouble the unborn 
witnesses who wear 
God’s garment gloriously. 

Glory be to God or love and love, the time 
needs lovers; make them. 
Lunar months will form, wake and show them 
sacred forever and knowing, as may 
the God-made, God-loved, how to love. 

 --Mary Ponsot, Conception, May 21, 1955      

Image source: Bernaert van Orley, The Annunciation (ca. 1517).  For a fascinating article on this painting, click on this link:   https://artmirrorsart.wordpress.com/2014/01/14/1002-virgins-and-their-alleged-mirrors/ 

Monday, December 14, 2020

Mastering the rejoice choice (Elyse Galloway)


  Like all great things, mastery of the rejoice choice requires intention. It requires a conscious decision to do so each day. Practices to shift and develop new perspective. Whether it’s speaking daily affirmations into your life, practicing mindfulness, cultivating a thankfulness and gratitude practice, find something that ties your happiness to a divine relationship with God. This Gaudete Sunday and all days going forward, I challenge myself and all of you to master the rejoice choice. Choose to rejoice. Because he, God, provides us with too many reasons to be counted. 
 
--Elyse Galloway       

Image source: Jan Steen, Baker Oostwaert and His Wife (1658), https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/fun-and-joy-in-jan-steen-paintings/ 

Sunday, December 13, 2020

He doused them each with water (K. Chirpczuk)

He didn’t see it but felt it 
through the darkness 
of his mother’s womb, 
the flame that baptized 
drawn close enough 
to singe his foot, 
which caused him to leap. 

The wild fire caught 
and grew, ruining him 
for a life of conformity. 
So he moved to the wilderness 
somewhere near the river’s edge 
where others were drawn 
by the smoldering flame. 

He doused them each with water, 
warning them one by one 
of the fire to come. 

Later, when he leapt 
from this world to the next, 
leaving his head behind, 
he was greeted by the fellowship 
of the flame – Isaiah 
with his charred black lips, 
Miriam who danced 
like a flickering wick, 
and the others, 
too many now to name, 
together they glowed like 
so many embers, 
lighting the long, dark night. 

 --K. Chirpczuk, John the Baptist 

Image source: Nicolas Poussin, St. John Baptizing the People (ca. 1636), https://www.wikiart.org/en/nicolas-poussin/st-john-baptising-the-people
Poem source

Saturday, December 12, 2020

What is God doing? (Bishop Robert Barron)

   What is God doing? Sometimes it is exceedingly hard to see. But we trust. It might happen slowly and in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence, but God is always acting. From the smallest beginnings can come the accomplishment of God’s purpose. God is working, though we can’t see it with our eyes. That’s why Jesus says, Amen, I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, Move from here to there, and it will move... Nothing will be impossible for you. 

--Bishop Robert Barron  


Friday, December 11, 2020

What's God saying to me? (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Jesus tells us to discern the finger of God in our lives by reading the signs of the times. The idea isn’t so much that we look to every kind of social, political, and religious analysis to try to understand what’s going on in the world, but rather that we look at every event in our lives, personal or global, and ask ourselves: What’s God saying to me in this event? 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI         

Image source: Michelangelo, Creation of Adam, detail, Sistine Chapel (c.1512), http://www.godgossip.org/article/gods-finger-in-our-lives 
Quotation source

Thursday, December 10, 2020

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 13, 2020: The Almighty has done great things for me...


Are you aware that God is at work in you right now?

 

  We tend to take it for granted that God is always at work in us… even if we aren’t even thinking about God or God’s work.  But in fact, God’s work in us is central to our existence and to our progress through life.  When Isaiah tells the people that God has clothed me with a robe of salvation and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, the prophet is reminding them that his growth and his call are not his own doing:  God is at work in him, and the people must likewise put their faith in God, opening to his work in them, that they might bring glad tidings to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, and more. 

 

  John the Baptist knows that the priests and Levites do not recognize what God is doing in their midst, though he himself does.  John's Gospel tells us that John came to testify to the light, to tell all that God is already at work bringing the Messiah they long for.  John may not understand fully who he himself is or what God is doing in him, but he trusts that God is at work and can give witness as the voice of one crying out in the desert because he believes in what God has sent him to do.  The intangible work of God is happening in us, always, and we must give thanks because we have faith that this is true; we must find joy in him, as John did in the womb, in the fact that the Lord is present and active in our lives, rejoicing that we can rely on his power, not our own, so long as we open to that power of his love, and to the mercy that is the best expression of that love.

 

   Similarly, Paul will instruct the Thessalonians to rejoice always, so that the God of peace may make you perfectly holy.  We are to be aware of God’s work in us in all circumstances, Paul says, never letting anything – and especially not suffering – put a damper on the Spirit, the light of Christ, at work in us.  Attention to God’s will will lead us to deeper mercy, deeper love.  Mary is aware of this when she sings, in Luke’s Canticle, the Almighty has done great things for me!  Mary’s soul rejoices because of all that God has done for her, and for the world, reaching out to all in need of his mercy.  By conceiving the child Jesus in her through the action of the Spirit, God has blessed her with his grace and mercy, not just for her sake but for the sake of the world – what better reason to rejoice?  May we too be ever aware of the working of God in us, that we may rejoice always before the wonders of God’s loving care and mercy!

 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Wednesday, December 9, 2020

To be hopeful in bad times (Howard Zinn)

   To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic.  It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.

   What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places – and there are so many – where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.

 

   And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future.  The future is an infinite series of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

 

--Howard Zinn

 

Image source:  https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/839011/what-would-happen-world-started-spinning-backwards-planets-science

Quotation source

Tuesday, December 8, 2020

Miriam's collaboration with God's plan (Elizabeth O'Donnell Gandolfo)


    Young Miriam (Mary)… made the courageous choice of collaboration with God’s plan for the Incarnation of Divine Love in a world of fear, loneliness, violence, and oppression.  What will we choose?  Will we choose the well-worn path of least resistance, clinging to or grasping for the power and privileges that promise a sense of security, sanctity, and superiority? Will we choose the false assurances of white supremacy, toxic masculinity, wealth accumulation, unbridled gun rights, mass incarceration, nuclear proliferation, and the doctrine of America First?  Or will we choose to open ourselves up and say yes to the grace that will empower us to stand with Miriam of Nazareth and, with our words and our lives, declare the greatness of a God who casts the mighty from their thrones and lifts up the lowly? 

--Elizabeth O’Donnell Gandolfo       

 

Image source:  Jean Sylvestre, Annunciation (recycled steel; 2013), from his Infancy of Jesus series, https://artandtheology.org/2017/12/23/infancy-of-christ-metalworks-by-haitian-artist-jean-sylvestre/

Quotation source

Monday, December 7, 2020

Sometimes hope is a radical act (Anne Lamott)

   Sometimes hope is a radical act, sometimes a quietly merciful response, sometimes a second wind or just an increased awareness of goodness and beauty.  Maybe you didn’t get what you prayed for, but what you got instead was waking to the momentousness of life, the power of loving hearts.  You hope to wake up in time to see the dawn, the first light, a Technicolor sunrise, but the early morning instead is cloudy with mist. Still, as you linger, the ridge stands majestically black against a milky sky.  And if you pay attention, you’ll see the setting of the moon that illumined us all as we slept.  And you see a new day dawn.

--Anne Lamott,

Facebook, May 14, 2020

 

Image source: The comet Neowise above the fog on Mt. Tam, by @glassmello, shared at:  https://www.sfchronicle.com/science/article/NEOWISE-hurtles-past-Earth-Everything-you-need-15411272.php

 

Sunday, December 6, 2020

A vision of life based on God's promise (Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)


   Hope is not based on whether the evening news is good or bad on a given day.  If we hope or despair on the basis of whether things seem to be improving or disintegrating in terms of world events, our spirits will go up and down like the stock market. 

   Hope looks at the facts, looks at God’s promise, and then, without denying the facts or turning away from the evening news, lives out a vision of life based upon God’s promise, trusting that a benevolent, all-powerful God is still in charge of this world and that is more important than whether or not the news looks good or bad on a given night.

 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Facebook, March 25, 2020

 

Image source: https://marketrealist.com/2020/07/worried-about-us-stock-market-crash-so-everyone/

Saturday, December 5, 2020

Hope (Fr. Greg Boyle)


Hope is not some assurance that everything will work out, but rather a confidence that purpose and luminous meaning can be found there, no matter how things unfold.
 

--Fr. Greg Boyle

 



(A note about the images in this post:  Hunter Kelly, son of Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly and his wife Jill, lived for over eight years with Krabbe Leukodystrophy (a fatal disease of the nervous system), yet his life was filled with hope and love, determination and grace, bravery and joy.  Hunter is remembered by the Hunter’s Hope Foundation, which raises money to provide hope to children suffering throughout the world.  For more information:  http://www.huntershope.org)




Image source: https://www.huntershope.org/

Quotation source

Friday, December 4, 2020

You will teach them to fly (St. Mother Teresa)

  You will teach them to fly, but they will not fly your flight. You will teach them to dream, but they will not dream your dream. You will teach them to live, but they will not live your life.   Nevertheless, in every flight, in every life, in every dream, the print of the way you taught them will remain.  

--St. Mother Teresa

   Even after so many years at Our Lady of Mount Carmel and so many apparently insurmountable challenges, you continue to teach us so much, Fr. Pat! Your pastoral devotion to this community throughout the pandemic has been extraordinary; your commitment to making Communion – and community – possible both in person and via live stream, has been phenomenal; your preaching on social justice and the gospel of love has inspired us all. On this, the anniversary of your ordination to the priesthood, we pray for you a version of the prayers said over confirmandees: 

   Renew in your servant Patrick Michaels the covenant you made with him at his baptism; send him forth in the power of that Spirit to perform the service you set before him.  Defend, O Lord, your servant Patrick Michaels with your heavenly grace, that he may continue yours for ever, and daily increase in your Holy Spirit more and more until he comes into the fullness of your everlasting kingdom. Strengthen, O Lord, your servant Patrick Michaels with your Holy Spirit, empower him for your service, and sustain him all the days of his life. 

Blessings to you on your anniversary, 
Fr. Patrick Michaels! 

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.3382414085153323/3382456685149063 (Photo credit:  Mike Kuczkowski)
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Thursday, December 3, 2020

Sunday Gospel Reflection, December 6, 2020: The Lord does not delay his promise...


The Lord does not delay his promise…

Do you hope in the promise of the kingdom to come?

 

   The people of Isaiah’s time have been in a state of despair but, as they near the end of their exile in Babylon, God calls upon them not to lose hope:  Jerusalem’s service is at an end, her guilt is expiated.  God promises a straight, flat path home for them through the desert – an extraordinary promise in a landscape that usually meanders up and over mountains and through valleys.  God as shepherd will carry the lambs in his bosom, a source of salvation to all who hope in him. Psalm 85 develops God’s promise with a focus on salvation – the intangible fulfillment of the promise of a kingdom filled with kindness and truth, justice and peace.  Hope is no longer hung solely upon a tangible path to follow home, but upon the intangible elements of true relationship with God.

 

   When, in Mark’s Gospel, John the Baptist appears in the desert, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, his baptism does have a physical, tangible element – but the tangible rite celebrates an intangible reality to which we need to open our very selves.  For true repentance to take place, true conversion must happen in our hearts.  John can proclaim the people capable of repentance, but only Jesus can transform those hearts, bringing them the hope of salvation. The Second Letter of Peter also focuses upon repentance as a path to new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.  If we are focused on our ultimate perfect union with God’s love, then we will live with our whole life is directed toward that intangible kingdom that is our hope for the future. 

 

   We live with a daily tension between our temporal, tangible reality and the eternal, intangible kingdom to come.  Our hope cannot be found in the tangible, but in the promise God has made to us and our ability to invest in that promise and to allow our hearts to be transformed by it.  This is the value we want to fuel our existence, a life conducted in holiness and devotion, that we might be ready for the kingdom when it comes in its fullness.

 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com


 

Wednesday, December 2, 2020

God respects our freedom (Fr. John Bartunek)

   We have difficulty understanding this, just as a blind man has difficulty understanding color, but our difficulty doesn’t alter this fact:  God’s omnipotence and omniscience respects our freedom.  In the core of our being we remain free to accept or reject God’s action in our lives – and to accept or reject it more or less intensely.  God wants us to accept him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength – in other words, as intensely as possible.  But he also knows that we are burdened with selfishness and beset by the devil, so it will take a great effort on our part to correspond to his grace… Every time our conscience nudges us to refrain from sharing or tolerating that little bit of gossip, every time we feel a tug in our hearts to say a prayer or give a little more effort, every time we detect an opportunity to do a hidden act of kindness to someone in need, we are faced with an opportunity to please the Lord by putting our faith in his will.

--Fr. John Bartunek

 

Image source:  https://time.com/3708399/blind-art-mona-lisa/

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Tuesday, December 1, 2020

Steep yourselves in the meaning of Advent (St. Bernard de Clairvaux)

 

   Steep yourselves in the meaning of these Advent days.  And above all, pay heed to him who is approaching; think whence he comes and whither it is he advances; consider his purpose in coming, the ripeness of the times, the route he may choose for his approach… The Universal Church would not celebrate this Advent time with such solemnity of devotion did it not contain within it some great mystery.


--St. Bernard of Clairvaux

 

Image source: Carl Gutherz, The Light of the Incarnation (1888), https://www.calledtocommunion.com/2018/07/on-denying-the-gospel-for-the-sake-of-gods-glory/

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