Image source: Georges de La Tour, The Penitent Magdalen (ca. 1640), detail, https://www.metmuseum.org/blogs/now-at-the-met/2014/reflections-charles-le-bruns-mirrored-presence
Quotation source
Welcome to the parish blog of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Mill Valley, California
God grant youthe light of Christmas, which is faith;the radiance of Christmas, which is purity;the righteousness of Christmas,
which is justice;the belief in Christmas, which is truth;the all of Christmas, which is Christ.
It happens when we least expect it.
When we wake in the night
with the worries of the day.
When we mask a child
too young to have her face unseen.
When we ache to see people
but fear to invite them.
When we touch a forehead
and hope it is not hot.
Sometimes comfort comes,
arriving as grace
into exhaustion.
It must be a mistake,
nothing has changed.
Dare we allow it in?
Are the angels of Bethlehem
still wandering the world,
trumpets uplifted,
visiting us with Christmas news?
There is One among you
who brings peace.
Yesterday Iwas clever,so I wantedto changethe world.
Today I amwise, so Iam changingmyself.
What tongue, human or angelic, may ever describe a power so immeasurable as that exercised by the simplest priest in Mass? Who could ever have imagined that the voice of man, which by nature hath not the power even to raise a straw from the ground, should obtain through grace a power so stupendous as to bring from Heaven to earth the Son of God?
--St. Leonard of Port Maurice (1676-1751)
We wish for you, Fr. Patrick Michaels, every blessing on this, the anniversary of your ordination. Over the first twenty months of the ongoing pandemic, you served your flock with unflagging persistence, celebrating Mass daily from day two of lockdown. Your devotion to your vocation is a constant gift and blessing to us all.
May God bless you with peace and rest during your well-deserved vacation. You remain in our prayers, daily!
Happy Anniversary, Fr. Pat!
Image source: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3218782054849861&type=3
Quotation source
The state of the world suggests to me the urgent need for a spirituality that takes the end things very seriously, not a spirituality of withdrawal, nor of blindness to the powers of the world, but a spirituality that allows us to live in this world without belonging to it, a spirituality that allows us to take the joy and peace of the divine life even when we are surrounded by the powers and principalities of evil, death, and destruction.
I wonder if a spirituality of liberation does not need to be deepened by a spirituality of exile or captivity. I wonder if a spirituality that focuses on the alleviation of poverty should not be deepened by a spirituality that allows people to continue their lives when their poverty only increases. I wonder if a spirituality that encourages peacemaking should not be deepened by a spirituality that allows us to remain faithful when the only things we see are dying children, burning houses, and the total destruction of our civilization.
May God prevent any of these horrors from taking place, may we do all that is possible to prevent them, but may we never lose our faith when great misery [descends] on the land and wrath on this people… [when there are] signs in the sun and the moon and the stars… [when] nations [are] in agony, bewildered by the clamor of the ocean and its waves (Luke 21: 24-26). I pray that we will not be swept away by our curiosity, sensationalism, and panic, but remain attentive to him who comes and will say, Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world (Matthew 25: 34-35).