God made a covenant with us (Henri Nouwen)

  God made a covenant with us.  The word covenant means coming together.  God wants to come together with us. In many of the stories in the Hebrew Bible, we see that God appears as a God who defends us against our enemies, protects us against dangers, and guides us to freedom. God is God-for-us.  When Jesus comes a new dimension of the covenant is revealed. In Jesus, God is born, grows to maturity, lives, suffers, and dies as we do. God is God-with-us.  Finally, when Jesus leaves, he promises the Holy Spirit.  In the Holy Spirit, God reveals the full depth of the covenant. God wants to be as close to us as our breath. God wants to breathe in us, so that all we say, think and do is completely inspired by God.  God is God-within-us.  Thus God’s covenant reveals to us how much God loves us. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source:  Taddeo Crivelli, The Trinity, tempera and gold on parchment, manuscript (1460-1470), https://cdn.britannica.com/78/197878-050-11717643/tempera-gold-Trinity-parchment-manuscript-Taddeo-Crivelli.jpg

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, August 2, 2020: What will separate us from the love of Christ?

What will separate us from the love of Christ?

God seeks relationship with you…

  From the beginning of time, God’s desire has been for relationship with God’s people.  The prophet Isaiah speaks to all of the ways God reaches out to establish that bond, to create connection:  God promises water to the thirsty, grain to those who have none, and life to all who listen, to all who heed God’s word.  The dynamic is ongoing and eternal – God wishes to bring God’s promises to fulfillment in this moment now and in the fullness of time, by feeding God’s people not just with physical sustenance but also, and especially, with food that nourishes the soul, meeting humankind’s spiritual needs in all possible ways. And so God is faithful to covenant.  Psalm 145 reminds us that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness – all covenant language.  And God gives us our food in due season, satisfying the desire of every living thing.  Following ancient rules of hospitality, God desires to provide all that we need; we have but to call upon God in truth.

  God’s desire for relationship is ultimately sealed by God’s Son Jesus.  In Matthew’s story of the loaves and fishes, Jesus wants to go off to a deserted place by himself, but, seeing the crowds, his heart is moved with pity for them.  Not only does he feed their bodies, he also finds their need, their living need, and heals them, thereby teaching them the nature of God’s great love for them.  Jesus enters into relationship with all of these people, even with those who are not ready for it; there are no barriers where Jesus is concerned – not even, as Paul tells the Romans, anguish or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or the sword.  Suffering is not meant to be an obstacle to our faith; the pain we might experience because of our relationship with God unites us more deeply in relationship with God.  Paul’s question, What will separate us from the love of Christ? has no tangible answer, for ultimately, nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, a love that, at its very core, seeks relationship with all.

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

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

Solomon in all his glory (Lynn Ungar)

Consider the lilies of the field,

the blue banks of camas opening

into acres of sky along the road.

Would the longing to lie down

and be washed by that beauty

abate if you knew their usefulness,

how the natives ground their bulbs

for flour, how the settlers’ hogs

uprooted them, grunting in gleeful

oblivion as the flowers fell?

           

And you – what of your rushed

and useful life?  Imagine setting it all down –

papers, plans, appointments, everything –

leaving only a note:  Gone

to the fields to be lovely.  Be back

when I’m through with blooming.

           

Even now, unneeded and uneaten,

the camas lilies gaze out above the grass

for their tender blue eyes.

Even in sleep your life will shine.

Make no mistake.  Of course

your work will always matter.

Yet Solomon in all his glory

was not arrayed like one of these.

--Lynn Ungar, Camas Lilies                         

Image source:  Sunrise at Camas Prairie Centennial Park, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camas_Prairie_Centennial_Marsh_Wildlife_Management_Area#/media/File:Sunrise_at_Camas_Prairie_Centennial_Park.jpg

Join Fr. Maria Joseph for his Final Vows as a Jesuit!

   All are invited to witness the final vows of Fr. Maria Joseph, which will take place this week Thursday evening at 9:00pm California time, which is actually 9:30am Friday morning in India, on July 31st, the Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola -- how perfectly fitting!  You will be able to view the live video by clicking on the video below, or by clicking here.  Please join him in prayer as he undertakes this most singular step on his journey as a Jesuit!  (In case you are wondering about the odd hours, the time difference between California and India is 12-1/2 hours...)

Image source: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/
Video link

Working to see God (Joanna Williams)

  When we start with the premise of God’s good and everlasting love, we suddenly notice the generosity of human beings around us.  We start to soak in the beauty of creation, hear more clearly the song of birds.  And a simple plate of rice, beans, and chicken takes on a glorious flavor.

  And once we work to see God, then through this belief that we may have life in his name.  A life that invites others, especially those clouded by despair, to see light in the darkness.

--Joanna Williams

Image source:  https://foodal.com/recipes/chicken/chili-lime-black-beans-rice/

Quotation source

A beautiful pearl (Stefan Salinas)

  

   Recall the Parable of the Pearl.  

   The Merchant in search of the pearl of great price. Why did Christ mention a pearl, not an amethyst, or a ruby, diamond, or onyx?  

   A pearl does not begin in a state of perfection.  It is shaped, layer by layer, over a stray grain of sand that pierces a poor oyster's soft inside.

   A source of pain.

   Christ wants the best for us, and can help take our suffering and our faults, and build us up into something more balanced and whole.

   Into a beautiful pearl.

  This page is from the webcomic The Sacramental Father Dom, a walk alongside a diocesan priest during six months of his life.  Set around 2014, in a city like San Francisco, the story was drawn from research, as well as from the lives of priests I have had the fortune to get to know over the years.  It is as honest a portrayal as I could make it, and has been a true learning experience and labor of love.

--Shared with the permission of
artist & author Stefan Salinas,

The Sacramental Father Dom, 2020

You can find all of The Sacramental Father Dom at:  

https://www.stefansalinas.com/fatherdom

Conscious of our treasures (Thornton Wilder)

   We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.

--Thornton Wilder, The Woman of Andros     

Image source:  https://sendthelight.wordpress.com/2020/01/04/treasure-of-the-heart-good-vs-evil/

Starving for wisdom (E.O. Wilson)

   We are drowning 

in information 

while starving 

for wisdom.

--E. O. Wilson          

Image source:  https://nationalempnetwork.org/2019/10/07/museums-digital-technology/

Quotation source

The pearl of great price (Annie Dillard)

  The secret of seeing is, then, the pearl of great price.  If I thought he could teach me to find it and keep it forever I would stagger barefoot across a hundred deserts after any lunatic at all.  But although the pearl may be found, it may not be sought.  The literature of illumination reveals this above all:  although it comes to those who wait for it, it is always, even to the most practiced and adept, a gift and a total surprise…. I cannot cause light; the most I can do I try to put myself in the path of its beam.  It is possible, in deep space, to sail on a solar wind.  Light, be it particle or wave, has force:  you rig a giant sail and go.  The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind.  Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, translucent, broadside to the merest puff.

--Annie Dillard               

Image source 1:  

https://www.livescience.com/32289-how-do-oysters-make-pearls.html

Image source 2:  Andrzej Mirecki, Solar Sail,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:IKAROS_solar_sail.jpg

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 26, 2020: The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure...

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure…

What do you treasure?

  When, in the First Book of Kings, God approaches Solomon and says, Ask something of me and I will give it you, Solomon’s response is unexpected.  After all, he is only fifteen, a mere youth.  But Solomon is conscious of the limitations of his age, and so he demonstrates humility and a knowledge of all that he lacks in order to reign effectively.  Thus, Solomon asks for an understanding heart, a heart that listens and is obedient to the word of God, so that it might judge justly and know right from wrong.  God is exceedingly generous to Solomon; God gives him a heart that is wise and understanding, such that Solomon will be able to see as God sees, the very definition of wisdom in that it means Solomon will conform entirely to God’s will. 

  Psalm 119 posits the Lord’s commands as the psalmist’s most precious treasure:  The law of your mouth is to me more precious than thousands of gold and silver pieces, he writes.  If true wisdom is to see as God sees, does this not include the ability to grasp the significance of God’s laws from within, knowing, as God knows, what is good and what is just?  Paul will tell the Roman community that all things work for good for those who love God. 

  In Christian terms, the treasure evoked here is salvation, the full realization of God’s eternal plan for us, as Paul describes to the Romans.  To be predestined, called, justified and glorified is to experience the waterfall of God’s blessings, all forms of treasure that ultimately coalesce in resurrection, the ultimate treasure of a life lived in wisdom and obedience.  Jesus will likewise address humankind’s appreciation of its treasure in his parables in Matthew’s Gospel.  When we read of a man who will sell all that he has to buy a field in which he knows a treasure is buried, or a merchant who will sell all that he has to buy a pearl of great price, we must asks ourselves if we, too, are willing to give all we have to gain the kingdom of God.  The kingdom is a treasure whose value we only recognize once we have it – and even then, it surpasses our expectations.  If we are to enter into the eternal kingdom of God, we must be the good that is put into buckets, recognized as righteous in the eyes of God.  For the kingdom of God is of inestimable value, an extraordinary treasure that comes from God alone, a gift freely given.  How do we live out of knowledge of that treasure, knowledge that salvation is ours, knowledge, ultimately, of the great treasure that is the vast and immeasurable love of God?

Image source:  www.wordclouds.com

It began with a seed (J.R.R. Tolkien)

  There is no resemblance between the mustard-seed and the full-grown tree.  For those living in the days of its branching growth, the Tree is the thing, for the history of a living thing is part of its life, and the history of a divine thing is sacred.  The wise may know that it began with a seed, but it is vain to try and dig it up, for it no longer exists, and the virtue and powers that it had now reside in the Tree. Very good:  but in husbandry, the authorities, the keepers of the Tree, must look after it, according to such wisdom as they possess, prune it, remove cankers, rid it of parasites and so forth.  (With trepidation, knowing how little their knowledge of growth is!). But they will certainly do harm if they are obsessed with the desire of going back to the seed or even to the first youth when it was (as they imagine) pretty and unafflicted by evils.

--J.R.R. Tolkien, 

letter to his son Michael, August 25, 1967, 

on the idea that the Church was not intended 

to be static or remain in perpetual childhood

Image source:  http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1986037_1986035_1986031,00.html

How do we look at the world? (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

  Sadly, for the most part, we look at ourselves and the world and our first mode of interpretation is depreciation rather than appreciation:  before we see what is good, we see what is wrong; before we appreciate, we judge; before we are pleased, we are disappointed; before we bless, we curse; and before there is joy, there is anger.

  Before there is appreciative consciousness there is always criticism.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI       

Image source: Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvHsIbCsqAE

Quotation source

Willing to let the Word penetrate our heart (Henri Nouwen)

   To take the Holy Scriptures and read them is the first thing we have to do to open ourselves to God’s call.  Reading the scriptures is not as easy as it seems, since in our academic world we tend to make anything and everything we read subject to analysis and discussion.  But the word of God should lead us first of all to contemplation and meditation.  Instead of taking the words apart, we should bring them together in our innermost being; instead of wondering if we agree or disagree, we should wonder which words are directly spoken to us and connect directly with our personal story.  Instead of thinking about the words as potential subjects for an interesting dialogue or paper, we should be willing to let them penetrate into the most hidden corners of our heart, even to those places where no other word has yet found entrance.  Then and only then can the word bear fruit as seed sown in rich soil.  Only then can we really hear and understand (Matthew 13:23).

--Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out    

Image source: https://www.biblestudytools.com/topical-verses/parables-of-jesus/

From the very small to the very great (Bishop Robert Barron)

  How does God tend to work?  From the very small to the very great – and by a slow, gradual process.  God tends to operate under the radar, on the edges of things, quietly, clandestinely, not drawing attention to himself.

  C.S. Lewis speaks to this principle.  How, he asks, did God enter history?  Quietly, in a forgotten corner of the Roman Empire sneaking behind enemy lines.  How was European Christianity established?  Through the handful of people that listened to St. Paul in Philippi and Athens.  How did the mighty Franciscan movement come to be?  One odd, mystical kid who heard a voice coming from a crucifix:  Francis, rebuild my church, which is falling into ruin.  A handful of followers joined him in his quixotic project, then dozens, then hundreds, then thousands.

  So don’t be afraid to do small things at the prompting of God!  Plant the seed, make the move, take the risk – take even the smallest step, and don’t worry about who notices or how much attention you’re getting.  Sow the seed and leave the rest to the mercy and providence of God.

--Bishop Robert Barron,

Gospel Reflection, January 31, 2020

Image source: El Greco, St. Francis receiving the stigmata (ca. 1590-1595),  https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:El_Greco_-_St._Francis_(National_Gallery_of_Ireland).jpg

Measuring others (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

  It is dangerous to make everybody go forward by the same road:  and worse to measure others by oneself.

--St. Ignatius of Loyola

Image source:  https://www.coach22.com/greatness-by-gods-standards/

Quotation source

God's love does not discriminate (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

  Jesus challenges us by saying, Be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.

  God’s love doesn’t discriminate, it simply embraces everything.  Like the sun, it doesn’t shine selectively, shedding its warmth on the vegetables because they are good and refusing its warmth to the weeds because they are bad.

  That’s a stunning truth:  God loves us when we are good and God loves us when we are bad and we are asked to love in the same way.  Jesus embraced everyone, sinners and saints alike, without ever suggesting that sin and virtue aren’t important.

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, Facebook, July 8, 2020

Image source:  https://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2013/october/subversive-kingdom-parable-of-wheat-and-weeds.html

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 19, 2020: Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds...

Jesus proposed another parable to the crowds…

What can we learn about the kingdom of God 

from the parables of Jesus?

  As he does with the loaves and fishes, Jesus multiplies his parables.  In Matthew’s Gospel, he speaks to the crowd using parable after parable, among them the parables of the weeds, the mustard seed, the yeast, and more.  The first of these stresses the time required for the kingdom of God to grow, and its limitations on earth.  When a man sows good seed in his field but his enemy sows weeds all through the wheat, the man does not rip out the weeds – his concern is that the good might be cast out with the bad, and so forbearance must be shown to all who might potentially play a part in that kingdom.  After all, the Book of Wisdom tells us, God judges with clemency, and governs with leniency. Psalm 86 echoes the idea that God is merciful and gracious to all:  Lord, you are good and forgiving, sings the psalmist, praying for mercy.  It isn’t up to us to predict – or second guess – God’s judgment, but to trust in God’s wisdom in all things.  And God, in God’s wisdom, will make the kingdom grow.

  The parables of the mustard seed and of the yeast add a nuance to this discussion of the kingdom.  Both are tiny – the smallest of all seeds, a bit of leaven – yet both yield tremendously, and so it should be with God’s kingdom:  starting with the most insignificant and hidden of elements, God is an irresistible force that will transform all of creation.  So even if we don’t see huge results in our individual efforts to make the kingdom a reality, we need to persist, to keep on keeping on… for God, in God’s wisdom, will make the kingdom grow.

  The parables of Jesus are not easy to understand; indeed, he spends a good deal of time explaining them to his disciples, and whoever has ears ought to hear.  In his Letter to the Romans Paul suggests additional assistance when deciphering of the parables:  the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness, helping us not only to pray in the traditional sense of the word, but also to discern the meaning of the Scriptures, so that we might be receptive to the challenges they pose, open to the eager yet sometimes inexpressible revelations of God and of the kingdom God is growing around us all the time.

Image source: www.wordclouds.com 

Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel (Fr. Gabriel)

   Devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel means a special call to the interior life, which is primarily a Marian life. Our Lady wants us to resemble her not only in our outward vesture but, far more, in heart and spirit.  If we gaze into Mary’s soul, we shall see that grace in her has flowered into a spiritual life of incalculable wealth:  a life of recollection, prayer, uninterrupted oblation to God, continual contact, and intimate union with him.  Mary’s soul is a sanctuary reserved for God alone, where no human creature has ever left its trace, where love and zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of mankind reign supreme. 

  Those who want to live their devotion to Our Lady of Mt. Carmel to the full must follow Mary into the depths of her interior life.  Carmel is the symbol of the contemplative life, the life wholly dedicated to the quest for God, wholly orientated towards intimacy with God; and the one who has best realized this highest of ideals is Our Lady herself, Queen and Splendor of Carmel.

--Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene de’ Pazzi, OCD

July 16th is the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel!

Join us at 7:45am Mass & celebrate with us --
Mass will be live streamed on our Facebook Page.

Image source: Mosaic, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Mill Valley

Quotation source

Some of the seed I have sown (Sr. Thea Bowman)

  God has given me the grace to see some of the seed I have sown bear good fruit – and I am so grateful.

--Sr. Thea Bowman      

Image source:  Fr. Mickey McGrath, This Little Light of Mine, 

https://www.sheencenter.org/shows/servantsopening/ 

available for purchase at:  https://embracedbygod.org/product/little-light-mine/

Quotation source:  Busted Halo, 12/4/19

Thy Kingdom Come (Rory Cooney)

Like seed and rain your word goes out

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Gardens of the heart to sprout

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

The blooms that grow there shall remain

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

There sent a sign of your holy rain

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

We wait in joy joy joy

We wait in joy joy joy

We wait in joy like flowers await the sun

We wait in joy joy joy

We wait in joy joy joy

We wait in joy

O Lord, thy kingdom come

And every heart that’s sick with sin

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

The healer-king has come to win

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

The wounded spirit he shall dress

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

With balms of love and tenderness

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Refrain

And when the skies you break at last

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Your kingdom come will take at last

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Then shall there be a joyful noise

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Your kingdom praise you with one voice

(O Lord, thy kingdom come)

Refrain

To hear Rory Cooney’s hymn, Thy Kingdom Come, click on the video below.  To purchase his CD Change Our Hearts, click here.

Image source: https://www.bobsmarket.com/blog/anthurium-plant-with-a-big-heart

Video source

For a seed to bear fruit (Henri Nouwen)

  One of the greatest acts of faith is to believe that the few years we live on this earth are like a little seed planted in very rich soil.  For this seed to bear fruit, it must die.  We often see or feel only the dying, but the harvest will be abundant even when we ourselves are the harvesters.

  How different would our life be were we truly able to trust that it multiplied in being given away!  How different would our life be if we could believe that every little act of faithfulness, every gesture of love, every word of forgiveness, every little bit of joy and peace will multiply and multiply as long as there are people to receive it… and that—even then—there will be leftovers!

--Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved

Image source:  https://lumiere-and-luna.tumblr.com/post/133939766312/tmnt-2012-and-the-mise-en-abyme/amp

God is like this crazy farmer (Bishop Robert Barron)

  Focus your attention on this absolutely mad sower.  Imagine a crowd of farmers listening to this parable:  a man goes out to sow and he throws the seed on the path, on rocky soil, on thorny soil and finally on good soil.  The original hearers of this tale would have exchanged glances and rolled their eyes at the ridiculousness of this farmer.

  That was precisely the reaction that Jesus wanted.  For God is like this crazy farmer, sowing the seed of his word and his love—not only on receptive soil, not only to those who will respond, but also on the path, the rocks, and the thorns, lavishly pouring out his love on those who are least likely to respond.  God’s love is irrational, extravagant, embarrassing, unreasonable, completely over the top.

--Bishop Robert Barron,

Gospel Reflection,

January 29, 2020

Image source:  http://blog.adw.org/2013/07/why-would-god-sow-seeds-he-knows-will-bear-no-fruit-pondering-the-parable-of-the-sower/

A mere seed (Pieces of Soul)

Think you can’t make a difference?

Look what a mere seed can do.

--Pieces of Soul     

Image source:  https://www.reddit.com/r/TreesSuckingAtThings/comments/2gvtm3/trees_suck_at_splitting_rocks/

For a seed to achieve its greatest expression (Cynthia Occelli)

    For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.  The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes.  To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.

--Cynthia Occelli      

Image source: https://isha.sadhguru.org/us/en/wisdom/article/3-is-for-spiritual-growth-letting-the-sacred-seed-grow

Quotation source