The fullness of the Gospel (Bishop Robert Barron)

   At the Annunciation, the angel had told Mary that the child to be conceived in her would be the new David. With that magnificent prophecy still ringing in her ears, Mary set out to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was married to Zechariah, a temple priest. No first-century Jew would have missed the significance of their residence being in the hill country of Judah. That was precisely where David found the ark, the bearer of God’s presence. To that same hill country now comes Mary, the definitive and final Ark of the Covenant. 

   Elizabeth is the first to proclaim the fullness of the Gospel: How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? – the Lord, which is to say, the God of Israel. Mary brings God into the world, thus making it, at least in principle, a temple. And then Elizabeth announces that at the sound of Mary’s greeting, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. This is the unborn John the Baptist doing his version of David’s dance before the ark of the covenant, his great act of worship of the King. 

   Can you feel the joy in this Gospel passage? When have you experienced such joy in your life of faith? 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection, December 21, 2020

HAPPY FEAST OF THE VISITATION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY! 

Image source: Sadao Watanabe, The Visitation: Mary and Elizabeth (1978), https://collections.lacma.org/node/2113171

We remember and give thanks (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.

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.

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.

Amen

--J. Veltri, S.J.         

Image source: https://www.birkmeiermonuments.com/about/news/15-cemetery-monuments-mean-more-on-memorial-day
Prayer source

We are forever understanding the Trinity (Lynn Cooper)

   Do you really understand the Trinity? Who could possibly say yes?

   Here’s the thing. It’s a mystery. The triune God – one in three. Difference is what defines the Trinity.

   In his book The Divine Dance, Richard Rohr says that it is not that the mystery is something we cannot understand, it’s that we are forever understanding it. On Trinity Sunday, we are invited to dwell in this reframing of mystery – the forever understanding – and consider…

   How have joy and sorrow from your past year redefined your relationship to the Trinity?

   How might we use the Trinity as a way to deepen our work for justice, honoring difference and diversity as holy?

   How might we make space to listen to and carouse with the Spirit, allowing everyday sacramental moments to break open our faith so we may remember, once again – in body and spirit – that God is a verb?

--Lynn Cooper     

To read Lynn Cooper’s complete article, click here.

Image source: Egino Weinert, Mercy Seat, https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-bronze-plaque-cross-mercy-1431852013
Quotation source

Stabat Mater (Philippe Jaroussky & Emöke Barath)

(To hear Stabat Mater performed by Philippe Jaroussky & Emöke Barath,
scroll down to the video below!)

At the Cross her station keeping,

stood the mournful Mother weeping,

close to her Son to the last.

Through her heart, His sorrow sharing,

all His bitter anguish bearing,

now at length the sword has passed.

O how sad and sore distressed

was that Mother, highly blest,

of the sole-begotten One.

Christ above in torment hangs,

she beneath beholds the pains

of her dying glorious Son.

Is there one who would not weep,

whelmed in miseries so deep,

Christ’s dear Mother to behold?

Can the human heart refrain

from partaking in her pain,

in that Mother’s pain untold?

Bruis’d, derided, curs’d, defiled,

She beheld her tender child

All with bloody scourges rent.

For the love of His own nation,

Saw Him hang in desolation,

Till His spirit forth He sent.

O thou Mother, fount of love!

Touch my spirit from above,

make my heart with thine accord;

Make me feel as thou hast felt;

make my soul to glow and melt

with the love of Christ my Lord.

Holy Mother! pierce me through,

in my heart each wound renew

of my Savior, crucified:

Let me share with thee His pain,

who for all my sins was slain,

who for me in torments died.

Let me mingle tears with thee,

mourning Him who mourned for me,

all the days that I may live:

By the Cross with thee to stay,

there with thee to weep and pray,

is all I ask of thee to give.

Virgin of all virgins blest!

Listen to my fond request:

let me share thy grief divine;

Let me, to my latest breath,

in my body bear the death

of that dying Son of thine.

Wounded with His every wound,

steep my soul till it hath swooned,

in His very Blood away;

Be to me, O Virgin, nigh,

lest in flames I burn and die,

in His awful Judgment Day.

Christ, when Thou shalt call me hence,

be Thy Mother my defense,

be Thy Cross my victory;

While my body here decays,

may my soul Thy goodness praise,

Safe in Paradise with thee. 

--Stabat Mater, translation by Edward Caswall 

To hear Philippe Jaroussky and Emöke Barath perform Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, click on the video below: 

Image source 1: Rogier van der Weyden, Crucifixion, 

https://www.thewinedarksea.com/2017/04/04/crucifixion-seven-sorrows-mary/ 

Image source 2: The Crucifixion, detail of window designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1887-1888), 

https://victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/bj/glass/55.html 

Text source 

Video source

A dynamic and personal experience of God (Karl Rahner)

   People want and need to have a dynamic and personal experience of God. They want an intimate encounter and union with God.

--Karl Rahner            

Image source: Hoe Yen Tam, Moses & Burning Bush, http://theartoftam.blogspot.com/2015/05/moses-burning-bush-acrylic-painting-2015.html Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 30, 2021: We are children of God...

We are children of God…

But how do we live out our relationship with the Holy Trinity?

   From time immemorial, God has sought relationship with humanity – not in the aggregate sense, but individually. It has taken some time, however, for us to come to an understanding of what that relationship might look like. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people that the God that created them also gives them commandments by which to live – commandments which involve not a set of rules to follow, but an opening of oneself to God, that we might know his will and do it. Commandments are meant to reveal the will of God to God’s people, that they might live in his ways, with him as their God. Moses reminds the people that this invitation to relationship is extraordinary: Did anything so great ever happen before? Psalm 33 similarly stresses that God’s covenant, as expressed through God’s kindness and justice, is itself an expression of God’s love for all God has created; we must thus put our hope in God, trusting in his promises.

   Those promises will be fulfilled in the person of Jesus, who invites us to union with God, a union made possible by his death and resurrection, which gave us access to God, and by Jesus’ ascension, which enables the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts. By that Spirit, Paul tells the Romans, we experience adoption as sons of God and heirs with Christ. We fear death, but Christ conquered death, freeing us from fear, from the spirit of slavery, and allowing us to embrace our adoption as children of a God whose love is limitless. Jesus thus exhorts his followers in Matthew’s Gospel to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Go out, in other words, and gather all nations into this adoption, that all might be heirs, free of slavery to sin, joined in relationship and union with God and with each other in a shared life of love and connection, indeed, to a life in which love is revealed in connection, knowing he is with us, always, until the end of the age.

   The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity reminds us to open our hearts to God regularly and often, to listen to the Lord, and be present to him, to live in him and to allow him to live in us. In so doing, may we find our identity in a God whose very existence in the Trinity is an expression of divine love for all, a love – and a relationship – we are called to share with our world.

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

The love that connects the Father and the Son (Bishop Robert Barron)

   The Holy Spirit’s principal sign is love. The Holy Spirit is the love that connects the Father and the Son. From all eternity, he is breathed back and forth between the Father and the Son, and hence he is nothing but love. When therefore he comes to dwell in you and me, he turns us to the path of love. On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me, and whoever loves me will be loved by the Father. 

    God has created a dynamic universe, moving restlessly and relentlessly toward a goal, and this goal has been disclosed to us in Christ: the sharing in the love between the Father and the Son. Therefore, if we wish to know the creaturely realm in all of its complexity and multiplicity, in both its coming and going, we must immerse ourselves in the stream of the Spiritus Sanctus. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, May 11, 2020

Image source: https://fll.cc/en/inspire/want-receive-life-deepest-longing-heavenly-gifts-waiting/

O Holy Spirit (St. Augustine)

   O Holy Spirit, infuse thy grace, and descend plentifully into my heart; enlighten the dark corners of this neglected dwelling, and scatter there thy cheerful beams.

 --St. Augustine 

Image source:  Sadao Watanabe, Pentecost (1965), https://artandtheology.org/tag/pentecost/ 

Quotation source

The great gift of God (Henri Nouwen)

   The Holy Spirit, whom Jesus promised to his followers, is the great gift of God. Without the Spirit of Jesus, we can do nothing, but in and through his Spirit we can live free, joyful, and courageous lives. We cannot pray, but the Spirit of Christ can pray in us. We cannot create peace and joy, but the Spirit of Christ can fill us with a peace and joy that is not of this world. We cannot break through the many barriers that divide races, sexes, and nations, but the Spirit of Christ unites all people in the all-embracing love of God. The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. That is the great liberation of Pentecost. 

--Henri Nouwen

Image source: P. Solomon Raj, Pentecost (1980s, batik), https://artandtheology.org/tag/pentecost/
Quotation source

A word that came from beyond fear (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.

   Today is Pentecost. Feel the wind in your hair as you sit with your daughter or son, your mother or father, maybe for the first time in a long while. Is it possible, in really listening to one another, that the love that is deeper than the gap could show itself again? 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 the desert rests on your head as you look again at the person with whom you are 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 

Image source: https://www.htlcto.org/sermon/day-of-pentecost-worship-may-31-2020-the-power-of-difference/ 

Quotation source (& complete article)

Mary's remarkable life (Fr. James Martin)

   By the time of the Wedding Feast at Cana, Mary fully understands her son’s role. Mary’s remarkable life includes a visit from an angel, her son’s miraculous birth, supporting him during his public ministry, accompanying him at his agonizing death, and rejoicing with him at his Resurrection.

   Throughout, Mary is not afraid to ask questions, as she does in Nazareth with the Angel Gabriel; or give voice to her worries, as she does in Capernaum with Jesus; or tell people what needs to be done at Cana to the stewards: Do whatever he tells you.

   Conceived without sin, Mary is nonetheless like us in so many ways, most especially as a person who shows us what it means to accompany Jesus along the way, with deep faith and trust.

--Fr. James Martin,
Facebook, November 22, 2019

In May we honor Mary...

Image source: Wilhelm Borremans, The Miracle at Cana, detail & complete painting (1717), ceiling fresco, Church of Santa Maria dell’Amiraglio, Sicily, https://www.christianiconography.info/cana.html
or https://www.christianiconography.info/sicily/canaMartorana.html

The Holy Spirit is a relationship (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

    Scripture assures us that the Holy Spirit is not a generic force, 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 that we receive are geared to help us in our own particular struggles. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI 

Image source: https://www.curtlandry.com/manifestation-of-the-gifts-of-the-spirit/#.YIyKjWZKgzU 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 23, 2021: We were all given to drink of one Spirit...

We were all given to drink of one Spirit…

How, then, do we become a source of life for others?

   In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve trade their solid relationship with God for control; it is the beginning of a diminishment of humankind’s connection with the Lord. The building of the tower at Babel is yet another example of humankind’s desire for control; the people migrating to Shinar seek dominance, presuming to make a name for themselves by creating a structure with its top in the sky, and God puts an end to their efforts by confusing their speech. Renewal is necessary, as Psalm 104 reminds the people of Israel: Lord, send forth your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth, the psalmist prays. Jesus’ death and rising will restore us to relationship with God. When, at Pentecost, he promises the disciples an Advocate, he sends the Holy Spirit who will intercede for us, as Paul tells the Romans, coming to the aid of our weakness by perfecting our petitions and helping us to open ourselves to God in prayer. If we respond in love to God’s invitation to open to him, we will be able to allow his love to flow from within us like living water, as John's Gospel states, that all might come and drink. It is thus through us that the love of God flows out to the world, an expression of life-giving grace that transforms the world.

   If the hubris of the people of Israel caused the confusion of tongues at the tower at Babel, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost is a reversal of this confusion, since, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, each person present hears the disciples in his native language. It is an event that marks a radical change, as the apostles now embrace their ability to share the love of God that they have experienced themselves. In John’s Gospel, a similar event occurs in the upper room, when Jesus breathes on the disciples, inviting them to receive the Holy Spirit, a renewal of relationship wherein they can ground themselves in the love of God. Paul tells the Corinthians that to each individual, the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. We need to open ourselves not only to God and the Spirit, but also to community, allowing ourselves to depend on that community to form a whole wherein each has different kinds of spiritual gifts. The Spirit is meant to flow from us all; we are to reveal the Word with love and generosity of heart. To be sent to proclaim the good news is to find in our hearts the capacity to love, to love always, to love under any circumstances. This is the ultimate lesson of Pentecost, an outpouring of God’s love into our hearts that we must share with our world. 

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

Blessed and lucky (10,000 Maniacs)

Never before and never since, I promise

Will the whole world be warm as this, 

And as you feel it, you’ll know it’s true 

That you are blessed and lucky 

It’s true, that you are touched by something 

That will grow and bloom in you 

These are the days you’ll remember 

When May is rushing over you with desire 

To be part of the miracles you see in every hour 

You’ll know it’s true, that you are blessed and lucky 

It’s true, that you are touched by something 

That will grow and bloom in you 

 These are the days 

That you might fill with laughter 

Until you break 

These days you might feel a shaft of light 

Make its way across your face 

And when you do 

You’ll know how it was meant to be 

See the signs and know their meaning 

You’ll know how it was meant to be 

Hear the signs and 

Know they’re speaking to you 

To you 

To hear 10,000 Maniacs perform “These Are The Days,” click on the video below:

Image source: https://darpanmagazine.com/lifestyle/healthfitness/may-is-national-sunshine-month/ 

Video source

He is on the right hand of God (St. John Henry Newman)

God mounts his throne to shouts of joy… 

--Psalm 47 

    Christ is already in that place of peace, which is all in all. He is on the right hand of God. He is hidden in the brightness of the radiance which issues from the everlasting throne. He is in the very abyss of peace, where there is no voice of tumult or distress, but a deep stillness – stillness, that greatest and most awful of all goods which we can fancy; that most perfect of joys, the utter profound, ineffable tranquillity of the Divine Essence. He has entered his rest. That is our home; here we are on a pilgrimage and Christ calls us to His many mansions which he has prepared. 

--St. John Henry Newman 

Image source: http://apostles-creed.org/interpretation/and-sits-at-the-right-hand-of-god-the-father-almighty/ 

Quotation source

Every step is a little bit of eternity (Muriel Barbery)

Why are you standing there looking at the sky?

(Acts 1:11)

   If you dread tomorrow, it’s because you don’t know how to build the present, and when you don’t know how to build the present, you tell yourself you can deal with it tomorrow, and it’s a lost cause anyway because tomorrow always ends up being today, don’t you see… We have to live with the certainty that we’ll get old and that it won’t look nice or be good or feel happy. And tell ourselves that it’s now that matters: to build something now at any price using all our strength. Always remember that there’s a retirement home waiting somewhere and so we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That’s what the future is for: to build the present with real plans made by living people. 

--Muriel Barbery, The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Image source: https://www.rmiguides.com/himalaya/everest

Ascension Verbs (Fr. John McKenna)

 --A verb is a part of speech 

that denotes action.

 

Go 

Go out (into the whole world) 

Make 

Make disciples (of all the nations) 

Baptize (them) 

In the name of the Father 

And of the Son 

And of the Holy Spirit 

(Share with them our life) 

Welcome them into the community of our love 

(Reveal to them their true identity) 

Teach (them) 

To observe (the commandments) 

Know 

Know that 

I am with you (always) 

Immanuel 

God with us. 

An Ascension Christian is a verb person, a person of action. 

The Christian is a missionary, one who will not sit home, but will leave comfort and comfort zones with the love of God burning in their hearts. 

Disciples are made – by welcoming people into our hearts. 

Disciples are made – by welcoming people into an embracing community. 

In Baptism, heaven and earth meet in us. 

The powerful seed of faith is sown. 

We are God’s children, and brothers and sisters of the same Father God and Mother Church. 

Teaching most often happens, not in a classroom; 

It happens in the home, in friendships on the sly, what we see out of the corner of the eye; how we treat, talk about, and care for each other. 

Teaching comes only after the experience of being welcomed as a disciple into the community of disciples. 

Baptism only makes sense in the context of community. 

We have to know who before we learn what. 

Who is God? Who am I and whose am I? 

Jesus remains with us forever; 

In Eucharist, in the Word, and in the Community of the disciples, the Church. 

--Fr. John McKenna, C.Ss.R.,

Ascension Verbs

Image source: Rembrandt, The Ascension of Jesus (1636), https://www.wga.hu/html_m/r/rembrand/12passio/05passio.html 

Poem source

Holy Mother, where are you? (Eric Clapton / Luciano Pavarotti)

Holy Mother, where are you?

Tonight, I feel broken in two

I’ve seen the stars fall from the sky

Holy Mother, can’t keep from crying

Oh, I need your help this time

Get me through this lonely night

Tell me, please, which way to turn

To find my self again

Holy Mother, hear my prayer

Somehow, I know you’re still there

Send me, please, some peace of mind

Take away this pain

I can’t wait, I can’t wait

I can’t wait any longer

I can’t wait, I can’t wait

I can’t wait for you

Holy Mother, hear my cry

I’ve cursed your name a thousand times

I’ve felt the anger running through my soul

All I need is a hand to hold

Oh, I feel the end has come

No longer my legs will run

You know I would rather be

In your arms tonight

When my hands no longer play

My voice is still, I fade away,

Holy Mother, then I’ll be

Lying in, safe within your arms

To hear Eric Clapton perform this song with Luciano Pavarotti, click on the video below. To read the story behind Clapton’s composition of this song, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, click here.

Image source: Jen Norton, The Fourth Station: Jesus meets his Mother, 
https://www.etsy.com/listing/667841380/fourth-station-jesus-meets-his-mother (available for purchase)
Video source

Looking forward to the Christ in their midst (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                 

Image source: Helge Boe, On the Road to Emmaus, https://www.jesus-story.net/emmaus/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 16, 2021: May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened...

May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened…

How clear is your sight?

   It’s easy to miss what the Lord intends us to see. Just before Jesus ascends to heaven in the Acts of the Apostles, the disciples are still asking, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? They are still failing to see God’s point: Jesus did not come to overturn Rome. Moreover, as the two men dressed in white garments tell them, the disciples are not to look at the sky but rather on God’s kingdom here and now, where they will be able to participate in salvation history through their witness to the world. Only with the intervention of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost will the disciples’ ability to see be truly focused; the story of the Ascension is the beginning of their transition from being stargazers to being lifegazers, focused not on the sacred that is to come, but on the sacred that is already happening. And so, while we hear in Psalm 47 that God mounts his throne to shouts of joy, the important thing is to recognize that God is king over all creation, rather than training our gaze on a heaven we imagine to the exclusion of the world here on earth. 

   All of which requires, as Paul notes in his Letter to the Ephesians, using the enlightened eyes of our hearts. Jesus was sent so that we might come to know the Lord and what he has in store for us. The Spirit reveals the depth of God’s love for us, and the eyes of our hearts are necessary to help us see clearly what is not physically visible but rather what is intangible. Using these eyes, we will know what is the hope that belongs to Christ’s call: a hope for eternal life, for perfect union in the love of God. Ultimately, we must see clearly so that we might be his witnesses, or, as Jesus exhorts the disciples in Mark’s Gospel, go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. And they do: Mark notes that the disciples went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them. The Holy Spirit has filled their hearts, and they enjoy new life in Christ, one in which they can be witnesses to the riches of his glory and the surpassing greatness of his power, a power revealed in the depth of the love of God. We are called to no less. 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Here to love each other (Maya Angelou)

We are here to love each other. 

That is why you are alive. 

 That is what life is for. 

--Maya Angelou             

Image source: https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/18/the-benefits-of-hugging/ 

Quotation source

Living for others (Sanskrit Proverb)

            Rivers do not drink their own water; trees do not eat their own fruit; the sun does not shine on itself and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves. Living for others is a rule of nature. We are all born to help each other. No matter how difficult it is… Life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you. 

--Sanskrit Proverb        

Image source: https://genesisdx.com/news-forum/blog/help-others/ 

Quotation source

Love lives through sacrifice (St. Maximilian Kolbe)

    Let us remember that love lives through sacrifice and is nourished by giving. Without sacrifice, there is no love. 

--St. Maximilian Kolbe              

Image source: https://stmargaretmary.org/sacrificial-love/ 

Quotation source

The love of a mother (A prayer for Mother's Day)

Holy God,

you compare your own love for your people

to the love of a mother for her children.

Look with kindness on all mothers,

give them comfort in times of sorrow,

 and joy in their work for their families.

Listen to their prayers.

And bless them in all they do for you.

Let them share with Jesus your Son

and Mary our Mother

in the everlasting happiness of heaven.
Amen.

Image source: Gaetano Previati, Maternità (1885), https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2b/Gaetano_Previati_-_Maternit%C3%A0.jpg with a related article at:  https://www.guggenheim.org/blogs/checklist/divisionism-disease-and-degeneration-how-reactionary-politics-met-art-criticism-in-late-19th-century-italy
Prayer source

Mary's consecrated body (Pat McDonough)

    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.

--Pat McDonough

In May we honor Mary...

Image source: https://udayton.edu/imri/mary/f/flight-into-egypt.php
Quotation source

Seen with eyes of perfect love (Henri Nouwen)

    The spiritual life starts at the place where you can hear God’s voice. Where somehow you can claim that long before your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your school, your church touched you, loved you, and wounded you – long before that, you were held safe in an eternal embrace. You were seen with eyes of perfect love long before you entered into the dark valley of life. 

    The spiritual life starts at the moment that you can go beyond all of the wounds and claim that there was a love that was perfect and unlimited, long before that perfect love became reflected in the imperfect and limited, conditional love of people. 

    The spiritual life starts where you dare to claim the first love. Love one another because I have loved you first (John 4: 19). 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.lionsroar.com/the-perfect-love-we-seek-the-imperfect-love-we-live/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 9, 2021: Love one another as I have loved you...

Love one another as I have loved you…

What does it mean to be a good friend?

   Imagine if Jesus were to tell you in person that he loved you! In the Last Supper discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus does just that: As the Father loves me, so I also love you, he tells his disciples, and so he is ready to lay down his life for his friends. It is an extraordinary gift. But to understand that gift, the disciples must do as Jesus has done: they must pay attention to God’s will and follow his commandments:  You are my friends if you do what I command you, he tells them. Jesus explains that he is willing to sacrifice his life for us because he loves us, loves us so completely that he subordinates himself to all of humankind, so that in the end he might raise us up.

   Moreover, the invitation is open to all, as Peter discovers in the home of the Gentile Cornelius in the Acts of the Apostles: In truth, I see that God shows no partiality. God sends his Holy Spirit into the hearts of all who are open to that Spirit at work in them and willing to help others to open to the Spirit as well. To be filled with the Holy Spirit is to be free of self-concern, focused on the world in which we live rather than on ourselves. The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts, freeing us of all that might stand in the way of relationship both with God and with one another. It is a fulfillment of the covenant that God made with all of humankind, as Psalm 98 explains: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation by our God, a salvation that is manifested in God’s kindness and faithfulness toward all nations.

   For our part, we are called to see the death and rising of Jesus as a pattern for our own lives – to die to self, that we might rise in love. Love one as I have loved you, he says: love one another, in other words, enough to want to serve one another, to put others’ needs above your own. The First Letter of John reiterates this invitation: let us love one another, because love is of God. Once again, love here is experienced as mercy revealed through the death and rising of Jesus for the expiation of our sins. Such an extraordinary expression of love transcends our sins; we experience God’s love as we come to know God’s mercy and forgiveness, and every experience of that love will change us, leaving us different than we were before, leaving us ever more ready to be good friends through the love and mercy that we share with one another, manifesting God’s love to all.

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

Jesus is the vine (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Jesus declares that he is the vine, and we are the branches who must remain in him. If we ourselves do not participate in who Jesus was, we miss the spiritual power that he meant to unleash. 

    If John’s Gospel is any indication, Jesus does not want worshipers but followers, or better, participants: I am the vine, you are the branches; live on in me; my body is real food and my blood real drink. The one who feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 

   The beautifully organic images that John presents are meant to communicate the life-changing power of the Incarnation: the Logos became flesh, our flesh, so that we might allow the divine energy to come to birth in us. 

   Much of this is summed up in the oft-repeated patristic adage that God became human that humans might become God, sharing in the symbiosis that is the Incarnation, as the proper goal of human life. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, May 13, 2020 

Image source: The Word Became Flesh, St. John’s Bible, https://www.saintjameslancaster.org/urban-well/urban-well-events/the-saint-johns-bible-series/

God wants to prune me (Henri Nouwen)

    It helps me to think about painful rejections, moments of loneliness, feelings of inner darkness and despair, and lack of support and human affection as God’s pruning. I am aware that I might have settled too soon for the few fruits that I can recognize in my life. I might say, Well, I am doing some good here and there, and I should be grateful for and content with the little good I do. But that might be false modesty and even a form of spiritual laziness. 

   God calls me to more. God wants to prune me. A pruned vine does not look beautiful, but during harvest time it produces much fruit. The great challenge is to continue to recognize God’s pruning hand in my life. Then I can avoid resentment and depression and become even more grateful that I am called upon to bear even more fruit than I thought I could. Suffering then becomes a way of purification and allows me to rejoice in its fruits with deep gratitude and without pride. 

 --Henri Nouwen

Image source 1: https://blog.jordanwinery.com/how-to-prune-grape-vines/
Image source 2: https://aviancontrolinc.com/bird-control-vineyards/
Quotation source

The Vine (Brother Isaiah)

Falling, yeah, falling again Lord
And I’m tempted to lose my heart, my peace
Falling, yeah, falling once again, Lord
And I’m tempted to lose my heart, my peace 

And you say, I am the vine, o child,
You are the branches, the branches of my love
Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches
Come grow in me, come grow in me, come grow in me 

Slowly, slowly, my child, is growing, is growing in me
Patience, oh patience, my child, is growing, is growing in me 

And he said, I am the vine and you the branches

Yes, I am the vine and you are the branches

Remain in me, remain in me, and you will see

Remain in me, remain in me, and you will see

Abide in my love now, abide in my love now, yeah

And come begin again child, come begin again child, oh, now,

Abide in my love now, abide in my love now, and begin again

This is the first day of the rest of your life

‘Cause I am the vine and you are the branches

Remain in me, remain in me, and come to see, yeah

Remain in me, remain in me, and come to see

Patience, patience, patience, patience

To hear Brother Isaiah perform The Vine, from his new album Shade, click on the video below.  To purchase Shade, click here.

Image source: https://brentkuhlman.files.wordpress.com/2018/04/vine-jesus.jpg
Video source