Bathed in the fire of the Spirit (Deb Organ)

  It was amazing! Fire and wind brought a word that came from beyond the fear, beyond the gaps that separated those ancient people.  Many of them could listen to one another for the first time.

  Peter and the other followers of the Risen Jesus could not hide from that wind and the fire.  It came to them, and it moved them to be and do something they could never have imagined.

  Fast forward to right now.  Today is Pentecost.  Together we can gather in the sure and certain expectation of being permeated by the Spirit’s wind and fire that come from beyond our fears, divisions and wounds.  This is truly amazing! […]

  Feel the wind in your hair as you move and live in our divided society, open to vision a new way forward that fosters life for everyone.  Bathed in the fire of the Spirit, we know that we are capable of talking with and listening to one another.  The same ancient fire that went in a column before the Israelites as they wandered in the desert rests on your head as you look again at the person with whom you are the most at odds. […]

  Today is Pentecost.  The ever-new presence of God surrounding us, in the very context of our fear and hiding, is given still and again to us today and challenges us to remember.

  The power of the Spirit of the resurrected Christ has not diminished.  The immense love that God showers in abundance in wind and flame has not changed, and the capacity of God to speak a word from beyond but right into our complicated and frightening reality remains real and true.

  Today is Pentecost.  Feel the wind in your hair.

--Deb Organ, Catholic Women Preach

Image source:  Pentecost, dome of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, Missouri, https://www.timesnewspapers.com/westendword/cathedral-basilica-of-saint-louis/collection_de3fde54-fd85-11e8-adf0-9fbbcccaa298.html

Quotation source

The Holy Spirit, a person, a relationship, a spirit (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Scripture assures us that the Holy Spirit is not a generic force, or a one-size-fits-all, but a person, a relationship, a spirit that has particular manifestations and gives itself to each of us uniquely so that the understanding and strength we receive are geared to help us in our own particular struggles.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Facebook         

Image source: 13^th-century Pentecost capital depicting the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Virgin Mary and the disciples, Coimbra, Portugal, https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/18-may/faith/faith-features/what-is-the-significance-of-pentecost-where-is-it-mentioned-in-the-bible

Mary, blessed one (Aaron Thompson)

Peace, O bright Mother of Mercy,

So pure and so brave,

We honor your virtue

And dignity praise.

Every angel salutes you

The Earth calls you blessed

We look to you, Mother

for mercy and rest.

Ave! Ave! Ave! Ave! Ave! Ave!

Blessed one.

God exalted you, daughter,

And called you in time

To offer your womb

To bring forth the Divine.

You were willing to serve

Though you knew not a man.

You trusted in God

And said yes to his plan.

Refrain

Your consent to God’s Spirit

Was fruitful and free

Accepting God’s Son

In a great mystery

For the Lord, you remained

Ever virgin in faith

Delivered by doubt

And assisted by grace.

Refrain

Now we hail you, O daughter,

Of mercy and light.

O pray we embrace peace

And good, love and right.

You are splendid, enthroned

Above moon, star and earth.

O Queen of the Heavens,

Your Son saved the world!

Refrain

To hear Blessed One by Aaron Thompson, click on the video below:

Image source:  https://catholictruth.net/CTNet_RC/en/archive.asp?d=20141218L

Video source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 31, 2020: The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness...

The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness…

What can the Spirit of God accomplish in us?

  In the Old Testament, the people of God are bound to God in covenant through the spirit of God that comes upon them; to break covenant is a sign of self-focus, an indication of a failure to give room to the spirit of God working within them.  We see this failure to recognize a need for God’s spirit at work in the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis, when the people look to the work of their own hands as sufficient to greatness; in Exodus, on the other hand, the people are bound to God and God to God’s people through the work of God’s spirit in covenant, visible to them in the form of peals of thunder and lightening, a heavy cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast .  The dry bones of Ezekiel are another example of a people dead to God through sin, but when God breathes spirit into them, they are lifted to new life.  God’s ability to transform us through God’s spirit is evident in Joel as well, when God says, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and all people with thereby coming to unity in God.  Lord, send out your spirit, and renew the face of the earth, we sing in Psalm 104 – this is God’s action in our lives, time and time again, from the beginning of time.

  Jesus is clear to his disciples on this point:  Rivers of living water will flow from within him who believes in me, he tells the crowd at the end of the Feast of Tabernacles in John’s Gospel.  He is speaking in reference to the Spirit that we will receive once he has died and risen, a Spirit that will flow through us and from us to other.  That Spirit is the breath Jesus breathes upon the apostles in the upper room in John as well:  Receive the Holy Spirit, he tells them, receive, that is, the ability to do what I am sending you to do, to open yourselves to the Spirit in your life so you can understand those who need to be forgiven and forgive them.  It is the same Spirit that comes like a strong driving wind upon the disciples at the time for Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles – the tongues as of fire that come to rest upon them offer them enlightenment, a light they did not have previously, a kind of interior vision.  Henceforth, as Paul tells the Corinthians, all of our different gifts are given to us by the same Spirit, even our ability to proclaim Jesus as Lord.  It is the Spirit that makes it possible to come together in one Body, coming to the aid of our weakness as Paul notes in the Letter to the Romans, drawing us closer, ever closer to God, our faithful guide to perfect Love. 

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

Image source:  www.wordcloud.com

To write the love of God above (Mercy Me)

The love of God is far greater

Than tongue or pen can ever tell

It goes beyond the highest star

And reaches to the lowest hell

The guilty pair, bowed down with care

God gave his Son to win

His erring child He reconciled

And pardoned from his sin

Could we with ink the ocean fill

And were the skies of parchment made

Were every stalk on earth a quill

And every man a scribe by trade

To write the love of God above

Would drain the oceans dry

Nor could the scroll contain the whole

Through stretched from sky to sky

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

Hallelujah

O love of God, how rich and pure!

How measureless and strong!

It shall forevermore endure

The saints’ and angels’ song!

To hear The Love of God performed by Mercy Me, click on the video below:

Image source:  https://www.facebook.com/JohnGrady1571/photos/a.1634270769941214/1663866633648294/?type=3&theater

Video source

We complete one another (David Haas)

     It is, at least for me, difficult to understand and embrace fully Christ’s teaching to be one with the poor.  But I think it comes down to this:  Poverty is to radically accept that we are all called to depend totally on the gift of God’s love. This distinctive care and concern for one another communicate how beautifully we need one another, that we celebrate the goodness in one another, in their unique gifts and wisdom.  Such poverty announces loudly that if I do not have you in my life – with all that you bring with your life – I cannot totally be me; I cannot be free.  We complete one another. If we cling to ourselves only and the things that are attached to ourselves, we fail at our ability to embrace the blessings of poverty.  We need to work at forgetting ourselves – so that we can let the other person into our heart.

--David Haas, Reflection

Facebook, March 7, 2019

Image source:  https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/PuzzleDisassembly.jpg

No love is greater (J. Veltri, S.J.)

Gracious God, on this Memorial Day weekend,

we remember and give thanks

for those who have given their lives

in the service of our country.

When the need was greatest,

They stepped forward and did their duty

to defend the freedoms that we enjoy,

and to win the same for others.

O God, you yourself have taught us

that no love is greater than that

which gives itself for another.

These honored dead gave

the most precious gift they had,

life itself,

for loved ones and neighbors,

for comrades and country – and for us.

Help us to honor their memory

by caring for the family members

they have left behind,

by ensuring that their wounded comrades

are properly cared for,

by being watchful caretakers of the freedoms

for which they gave their lives,

and by demanding that no other young men and women

follow them to a soldier’s grave

unless the reason is worthy and the cause is just.

Holy One, help us to remember that freedom is not free.

There are times when its cost is, indeed dear.

Never let us forget those who paid so terrible a price

to ensure that freedom would be our legacy.

Though their names may fade

with the passing of generations,

may we never forget what they have done.

Help us to be worthy of their sacrifice.

O God, help us to be worthy.

--J. Veltri, S.J.      

Our Lady of Mt. Carmel honors our fallen heroes...

(Photo:  2019 Memorial Day Parade)

                   

Image source 1:  https://www.calendarlabs.com/holidays/us/memorial-day.php

Image source 2:  https://www.facebook.com/pg/mountcarmelmv/photos/?ref=page_internal

Quotation source

Something completely new (Gretchen Crowder)

  The disciples post-resurrection have something very important to realize about their friend Jesus… and perhaps this realization is difficult to wrap their minds around:  their old friend has passed away.  Jesus as they knew Him has died and He will never be the same again.  He is not less special, He is not less their friend, not less in love with each one of them… but he is something completely new.  And at this moment if the disciples fail to recognize this newness, if they dwell on what has passed, they might miss so much ahead that is truly special.  If they continue to raise their eyes up to Heaven instead of looking forward to the Christ 

in their midst they will miss the point.

--Gretchen Crowder, Catholic Women Preach

To read Ms. Crowder’s entire article, click here.

Image source: Hans Süss von Kulmbach, The Ascension of Christ (1513),  https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436835

Quotation source

A new kind of presence is born (Macrina Wiederkehr)

     Ascensions into heaven are like falling leaves, sad and happy all at the same time.  Going away isn’t really sad, especially when your going enables a new kind of presence to be born.

--Macrina Wiederkehr,

Seasons of Your Heart

Image source:  https://rove.me/to/beijing/ginkgo-avenues

Quotation source

Mary, Star of the Sea (Robert Cyril)

Soft and blue are thy robes, my Mother,

Azure and clear as an angel’s eyes –

Let me hide in them, oh, my Mother –

Radiant Queen of the summer skies!

Softly piled on the far horizon

Smoky white clouds drifting here and there;

These the border on your blue mantle –

Mother most holy, Virgin most fair!

Deep and blue and wide is the ocean –

Deep as the call of its peace to me;

Jeweled and shining… Thy veil, my Mother?

Thy silvered veil, oh Star of the Sea?

--Robert Cyril, 

Mary Immaculate: 

God’s Mother and Mine, 

Marist Press, 1946

In May we remember Mary...

Image source: Bro. Mickey McGrath, Mary, Star of the Sea, available at https://embracedbygod.org/product/star-of-the-sea/

Poem source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 24, 2020: He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight...

He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight…

How are we to connect as Church once Jesus has ascended?

  The beginning of the Acts of the Apostles recounts the end of Jesus’ physical presence on earth; his Ascension is the beginning of the Church that is to carry on Jesus’ presence in the world.  As long as the disciples have Jesus physically present with them, they can’t be Church.  But when he gathers them together one last time, they are confused. Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? they ask.  He does not answer their question directly – it is not for you to know the times or the seasons, he says, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.  The disciples’ hearts are not yet open to the full truth, to the fact that Jesus came to ransom us, to open the door to God’s heart, to move us from a life of separation to a life of connection, connection within the Body of Christ.  But they will know that love, and soon…

  In his Letter to the Ephesians, Paul reminds the Christian community that the Spirit promised by Jesus is a Spirit of wisdom and understanding resulting in knowledge of him, a Spirit that draws us closer to God, draws us more profoundly into God’s love for us.  When the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, we can see that love clearly as it is manifested in the surpassing greatness of his power, the power of that being Psalm 47 calls the great king over all the earth:  God’s love is made manifest in the forgiveness of our sins.  Thanks to this forgiveness, we can forgive one another, drawing closer to God and to others, united in the love of Christ.  That love is the source of all human connection; it is a gift of the Spirit that descends as Jesus ascends to God.

  And it is nothing less than this love that effects our ultimate commissioning, as that commissioning began with the eleven disciples at the end of Matthew’s Gospel.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, Jesus tells them before he ascends. Go and establish with all people a relationship with Christ, full engagement with the love of God.  Instill that love within them, so they feel the God’s power, God’s love, in their lives.  This was the mission of the original disciples and it remains our mission today:  to fill every heart with the love of God, a love we know because of the Spirit that dwells within us, a love born of forgiveness that leads to connection, to life as Church. 

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Create in my soul (St. Elizabeth of the Trinity)

   O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, come upon me, and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word:  that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery.  And You, O Father, bend lovingly over Your poor little creature, cover her with Your shadow, seeing in her only the Beloved in whom You are well pleased.

--St. Elizabeth of the Trinity

Image source:  Rassouli, https://nomindsland.blogspot.com/2015/02/naomi-stone-indwelling-spirit.html?m=0

Quotation source

To enter into the divine coinherence (Bishop Robert Barron)

  Charles Williams stated that the master idea of Christianity is coinherence, mutual indwelling.  If you want to see this idea concretely displayed, look to the pages of the Book of Kells, that masterpiece of early Christian illumination.  Lines, interwoven, designs turning in and around on each other, plays of plants, animals, planets, human beings, angels, and saints.  The Germans all it Ineinander (one in the other). 

  God – the ultimate reality – is a family of coinherent relations, each marked by the capacity for self-emptying.  Though Father and Son are really distinct, they are utterly implicated in each other by a mutual act of love.

  The impossibly good news is that Jesus and the Father have invited us to enter fully into their divine coinherence.  The love between the Father and the Son – which is called the Holy Spirit – can be participated in.

--Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, April 3, 2020

Image source:  Illumination from The Book of Kells (Ireland, 9^th century), https://www.medievalists.net/2019/03/free-online-course-on-the-book-of-kells-returns/

Him present within us (St. Teresa of Avila)

We need no wings 

to go in search of Him, 

but have only to look 

upon Him present within us.

--St. Teresa of Avila, 

The Way of Perfection

Image source: Ulo Sooster, Eye in the Egg (1962), created in the period after the artist had spent seven years doing hard labor in a Soviet prison camp, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Egg

To allow that space to exist where God can dwell (Henri Nouwen)

  With a smile, John Eudes said, Take this as a koan:  ‘I am the glory of God.’ Make that thought the center of your meditation so that it slowly becomes not only a thought but a living reality.  You are the place where God chose to dwell, you are the topos tou theou (God’s place) and the spiritual life is nothing more or less than to allow that space to exist where God can dwell, to create the space where his glory can manifest itself.  In your meditation you can ask yourself, Where is the glory of God. If the glory of God is not there where I am, where else can it be?

--Henri Nouwen                

Note:  a koan is a paradoxical anecdote or riddle 

meant to help one reach enlightenment.

Image source:  https://www.lizcurtishiggs.com/opening-your-heart-to-god/

Quotation source

Your darkest place (Fr. Greg Boyle)

  But in your darkest place, or what you believe is your most hidden hideousness, even there, God is dwelling.

--Fr. Greg Boyle,

Barking to the Choir:

The Power of Radical Kinship

Image source:  https://mybestrelationship.com/the-darkest-place-in-the-universe/

Mary, an echo of God (St. Louis de Montfort)

  She is an echo of God, speaking and repeating only God. If you say ‘Mary’ she says ‘God.’

--St. Louis-Marie 

Grignion de Montfort

In May we remember Mary...

Image source:  Our Lady and the Holy Trinity, 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/258253359856151951/

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 17, 2020: You are in me and I in you...

You are in me and I in you…

How do we prepare a place for Christ to dwell in us?

  In the Last Supper Discourses of John’s Gospel, Jesus prepares his disciples for a future without his physical body living among them, promising them another Advocate who will be with you always.  This Advocate is the Spirit of truth – he will remain with the disciples and be in them.  In his time on earth, Jesus has not just touched them without, he has touched them within, has come to dwell within them because of their faith and belief in him.  As he prepares to leave them, he wants them to know they will never be alone.  God does not intend to work from a distance after Jesus dies and rises – God wants to dwell within us, in close relationship with us.  We know him because he remains in us and will be in us.  This is a continuance of God’s constant and ever-faithful care of God’s people, as expressed in Psalm 66:  Come and see the works of God, the psalmist sings, while I declare what he has done for me.

  The early Christians understood the importance of the Spirit coming to dwell within God’s people.  When, in the Acts of the Apostles, Philip converts a great part of the population of Samaria, Peter and John go down and lay hands on the people, and they received the Holy Spirit.  The First Letter of Peter reminds us that, for this to be an ongoing indwelling, we must prepare a place for the Spirit:  Sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts.  We are to align our hearts with Christ alone to allow him and only him to rule our hearts such that nothing else may get in the way.  As Christ was brought to life in the Spirit, so will we be brought to new life, lifted out of our brokenness, draw beyond ourselves into God’s love as God’s love, the Spirit itself, dwells in us.  Even now, so long after his death and rising, Jesus’ life continues within us, through the Advocate and the love Christ reveals to us and in us... if only we open our hearts to his truth and sanctify him as Lord therein!

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com