How does this happen to me? (Ricardo da Silva SJ)

   Elizabeth’s question is a question for us, too. Think about the times where, like Elizabeth, you have felt the Lord’s presence in your life. Remember what it felt like to know that God was with you. That’s the promise we’re given today. Emanuel, from the Hebrew word meaning God-is-with-us. And as you bring yourself to feel God’s presence in your life, in both ordinary and extraordinary ways, ask that same question that Elizabeth asked: How does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

--Ricardo da Silva, SJ 

Image source: https://www.learnreligions.com/visitation-of-the-blessed-virgin-mary-542483
Quotation source

Looking forward to the eternal (C.S. Lewis)

  The continual looking forward to the eternal world is not a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do. 

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

Image source: Ascension of Jesus, Armenian Gospel Manuscript (1609), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ascension_of_Jesus#/media/File:Bodleian_Library_MS._Arm._d.13._Armenian_Gospels-0023-0.jpg

Know we honor you (Big Wide Grin)

Somewhere out there, I know that you are free
Looking down and watching over me
And your family will know that you are just fine
On the other side
On the other side 

I want to thank you for the life you gave 

For being so strong, and being so brave 

We will see you in the stars tonight 

On the other side 

On the other side 

Know we love you 

Know we honor you 

It’s hard to understand why wars are fought 

And why people die.  Still we are taught 

That the cost of freedom has carried you away 

To the other side 

On the other side 

Know we love you 

Know we honor you 

Until that day memories will remain 

And we’ll never be the same 

 You followed your heart 

You answered the call 

Your life with us here was a gift to us all 

Though we will cry 

 And mourn your passing to the light 

We will meet again 

On the other side 

We will meet again 

On the other side 

Know we love you 

Know we honor you 

Until that day, the memories will remain 

And we’ll never be the same 

Somewhere out there, I know that you are free 

To hear Big Wide Grin perform On the Other Side by L. Lambert, click on the video below: 

 Image source: https://www.facebook.com/mountcarmelmv/photos/a.2360514214009987/2360516634009745 

Video source

Hail, full of grace, mother of mercy (Brother Isaiah)

Hail, full of grace, mother of mercy

our life and our hope

to thee do we cry

to thee do we send up our sighs

sing hail, full of grace, mother mercy

our life and our hope

to thee do we cry

to thee do we send up our sighs

o Mary, sweetest mother Mary 

 

Sing hail, o hail, star of our ocean

take my heart, make yours, all yours

and let these lips speak only of devotion

to your son, our Lord, this day, alleluia  

Chorus

Sing hail, o hail, sweet seed of wisdom

take these hands, teach them to pray,

oh teach us to pray

that all the souls who wander

may find Christ, our Lord, this day, alleluia 

Chorus 

O Mary, sweetest mother Mary, pray for us

holy mother Mary, pray for us

sweetest mother Mary, pray for us 

arc of the covenant, pray for us

virgin most prudent, pray for us

mirror of justice, pray for us

house of gold, pray for us

tower of David, pray for us

tower of ivory, pray for us

gate of heaven, oh pray for us

morning star, morning star, come pray for us

come pray for us as we say 

Chorus 

sweetest mother Mary, pray for us

come pray for us come pray for us 

In May we honor Mary... 

To hear Brother Isaiah sing Gratia Plena (Full of Grace), click on the video below: 

Image source: Mary, Morning Star, https://lufkintxnunsblog.org/2020/05/ 
Video source

Permeated by the thought of God (Theophan the Recluse)

   Into every duty a God-fearing heart must be put, a heart constantly permeated by the thought of God; and this will be the door through which the soul will enter into active life...  The essence is to be established in the remembrance of God, and to walk in his presence. 

 --Theophan the Recluse,
19th-century Russian starets 

Image source: https://www.ibelieve.com/faith/what-does-god-is-love-mean-in-1-john-48.html Quotation source

Going more deeply into our world (Bishop Robert Barron)

    In [this Sunday]’s Gospel, Jesus is taken up to his Father in heaven. We tend to read the Ascension along essentially Enlightenment lines, rather than biblical lines—and that causes a good deal of mischief. Enlightenment thinkers introduced a two-tier understanding of heaven and earth. They held that God exists, but that he lives in a distant realm called heaven, where he looks at the human project moving along, pretty much on its own steam, on earth. 

   On this Enlightenment reading, the Ascension means that Jesus goes up, up, and away, off to a distant and finally irrelevant place. But the biblical point is this: Jesus has gone to heaven so as to direct operations more fully here on earth. That’s why we pray, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

   Jesus has not gone up, up, and away, but rather—if I can put it this way—more deeply into our world. He has gone to a dimension that transcends but impinges upon our universe. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, May 13, 2021 

Image source: https://soundcloud.com/yondertapes/deep-spiral-ritual-ecstatic-dance-rosh-pina-transmitted-by-yonder

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 29, 2022: He parted from them and was taken up to heaven...

He parted from them and was taken up to heaven…

Where is the Lord to be found?

    Luke’s Gospel is as straightforward as any account of the extraordinary can be: as Jesus blessed his disciples, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. When we think of heaven, we naturally look up at the sky as the disciples do in Luke’s second account of the Ascension in Acts of the Apostles, and we hear in Psalm 47, God mounts his throne to shouts of joy! What does it mean to mount one’s throne but to go up, to move in an upward direction? Indeed, the very word Ascension implies a movement upward. But the Ascension is precisely about transcending these limits of time and space. Why are you standing there looking at the sky? the angels ask the disciples in Acts. To look at the sky is to be focused in the wrong place; the disciples need to find Jesus in themselves and in their community. Only with the coming of the Holy Spirit will they begin to understand this, however, and Pentecost is days away. 

    Human beings tend to want to describe God in their own terms, and in so doing, we place limits on who God is and where God is. But the Trinitarian God is not confined by time and space; God transcends those human constructs. God is always greater than the limitations we place upon God, because God is without limits. This is a fundamental lesson of The Ascension of the Lord: God can’t be contained within our terms. Jesus was present at creation; the Holy Spirit was active in us before we were born. We can only open to this extraordinary truth, be aware of it – only then can we hope to have any notion of heaven in God’s terms. 

    The author of the Book of Hebrews tells us that after his death, Christ did not enter into a sanctuary made by hands, but heaven itself. In so doing, he gave us access to eternity through the new and living way he opened for us through the veil. That way goes through humanity, not past it; it exists through flesh, not despite it. We may continue to look up at the sky when we imagine heaven, knowing nonetheless that divinity cannot be contained in our finite terms. Yet, so long as we continue to approach the Lord with a sincere and open heart, we will be making progress. For the purpose of our life journey is to move toward him, toward perfect love, toward perfect union… even if we won’t know what heaven looks like (so to speak), or what direction we are taking, till we get there. 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

If we desire a more loving society (Gerald G. May)

   If we desire a more loving society, we individual persons must return to the deepest common sense of our hearts; we must claim love as our true treasure. Then comes the difficult part: we must try to live according to our desire in the moment-by-moment experiences of our lives. 

--Gerald G. May, The Awakened Heart 

Image source: https://iscjobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Treasure.jpg

The power of love (Jimi Hendrix)

 When the power of love overcomes 

the love of power, 

the world will know peace. 

 --Attributed to Jimi Hendrix

Image source:  https://jjwong.medium.com/the-redemptive-power-of-love-fcfd88cb09b1

Quotation source

To let go of my time-bound anxieties (Henri Nouwen)

   O Lord, Life passes by swiftly. Events that a few years ago kept me totally preoccupied have now become vague memories; conflicts that a few months ago seemed so crucial in my life now seem futile and hardly worth the energy; inner turmoil that robbed me of my sleep only a few weeks ago has now become a strange emotion of the past; books that filled me with amazement a few days ago now do not seem as important; thoughts that kept my mind captive only a few hours ago have now lost their power and have been replaced by others. . . . Why am I continuously trapped in this sense of urgency and emergency? Why do I not see that you are eternal, that your kingdom lasts forever, and that for you a thousand years are like one day? O Lord, let me enter into your presence and there taste the eternal, timeless, everlasting love with which you invite me to let go of my time-bound anxieties, fears, preoccupations, and worries. . . . Lord, teach me your ways and give me the courage to follow them. Amen. 

--Henri Nouwen       

Image source: https://discoveryseries.org/courses/the-god-of-eternity/
Quotation source

Mary's contemplative posture (Sr. Anne Arabome)

   Mary’s contemplative posture teaches us that the quality of our presence to one another, the depth of prayer in which we hold one another, and the expanse of our love for others can be life-giving beyond words and healing beyond all remedies, especially at times of anxieties and worries, loss and pain, uncertainty and despair, such as we have experienced during the pandemic. Her contemplative poise draws us into the loving embrace of the Divine, who loves and enfolds us in Christ. Her contemplative openness reveals God’s desire to touch and transform our lives with God’s light. Not only is Mary a missionary disciple, an apostle of joy, she is – to use a phrase from St. Ignatius of Loyola – a contemplative in action. 

   Like Mary, we, too, are called to cultivate and relish the interiority of God’s presence by opening our hearts to the deep and expansive love of God. Above all, we are called to be a source of life, a wellspring of healing, and a fount of hope for all women and men, especially those who are weak, vulnerable, abused, and marginalized. It takes a heart as deep as Mary’s to cherish and savor the gift of God-made-flesh for us. 

--Sr. Anne Arabome, SSS

Image source: https://stlukesokc.org/inspiration/st-lukes-blogs/daily-devotional/mary-treasured-these-things-in-her-heart/

Quotation source & complete article

Center your heart upon God (Thomas Merton)

   No matter how distracted you may be, pray by peaceful, even inarticulate, efforts to center your heart upon God, who is present to you in spite of all that may be going through your mind. 

--Thomas Merton       

Image source: https://lizkislik.com/pros-and-cons-of-urgency/ 

Quotation source

We live with constant anxiety (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   We live with constant anxiety because we sense that our health, security, and relationships are fragile, that our peace can easily disappear. We need to more deeply appropriate Jesus’ farewell gift to us: 

   I leave you a peace that no one can take from you: Know that you are loved and held unconditionally.  

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, 
Facebook, October 26, 2020 

Image source: Otto Gutfreund, Anxiety, 1911-1912, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Otto_Gutfreund_-_Anxiety.jpg

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 22, 2022: Whoever loves me will keep my word...

Whoever loves me will keep my word…

What does it take for us to be God’s love in our world?

   Jesus asks us to remain in his love. In John’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear how to do this: whoever loves me will keep my word. Knowing his love for us, opening to his love always, that love will teach us everything we need to know and help us to embody that love for our world. Do not let your hearts be troubled, he tells his disciples: if your heart is troubled, you have lost the focus; peace comes of true union with Christ in love. The love that Jesus offers us is so beyond our own comprehension that we can only move toward it, letting him perfect that love in us, that we might be his love and peace in our world. 

   This was the goal of the first Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles. Learning that other teachers have come through the community and disturbed their peace of mind, Paul, Barnabas and a few others go to remind the community that peace is to be their goal, first and foremost. If they affirm and proclaim God’s activity among them, they will be well-positioned to live in community, to love in community, to be community. Then, as Psalm 67 says, God’s face will shine upon them, showering blessings down constantly. And one day, the Book of Revelation promises, the New Jerusalem – the Church – will gleam with the splendor of God, its radiance like that of a precious stone, with the glory of God to give it light. All this, if we keep Jesus’ word, living in love and embodying that love to our world. 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

The Lights of the City (David Haas)

John tells us of a city so high up above,

Where we’ll meet in a spirit of love.

We’ll meet over yonder in that heavenly place.

There we’ll see each other face to face.

I can almost see the lights of the city,

Shining down on me.

I can almost see the lights of the city.

Forever Lord, I shall be free.

John tells us of a time, when time will be no more,

In the days, when the trumpet shall blow.

We’ll meet over yonder, in that heavenly place.

There we’ll see each other, face to face

Chorus

John tells us of the water, which brings us to life.

When we drink, we will not thirst forever more.

When we’re born, in that water, a heavenly place.

We’ll be brothers and sisters, face to face.

Chorus

To hear David Haas & company perform The Lights of the City, click on the video below:
 

Image source: https://wp1.nlfji.org/sermons/266
Video source

You will never look into the eyes of a person that God does not love (Matthew Newsome)

 

    As simple as it is to express, Jesus’ command to love one another as I have loved you is profound in its implications. Love is not an emotion. Love is something we choose. Love means willing the good of the other. The more pure our love, the more ardent and pure our desire for the other’s good will be. It is significant that Christ’s commandment is to love one another as I have loved you.

    How does Christ love? He loves completely. He holds nothing back for our good, not even his own life. His love is self-less and self-giving. He loves even when love comes at a personal cost. He loves when when it causes him to suffer. If we are only willing to love others when it's convenient or when our love doesn’t cause us pain, then we are not loving the way that Jesus loves. 

   Christ loves us for who we are, not what we do... 

    Christ loves even his enemies...

    Christ’s love is not limited...

    To love like Christ is to love without judgment. It is not necessary for us to know the details of someone’s life in order to love them with Christian charity. It is enough for us to know that Christ loves them. You will never look into the eyes of a person that God does not love. Think about that the next time you meet someone new, or have problems relating to someone. 

   Love is the life of God. By loving us as he does, Jesus shows us the Father’s heart. And he asks us to love each other with the same heart. That may seem impossible by human standards. But by incorporating us mystically into his body through baptism, and nourishing us with his grace through the Eucharist, Christ enables us to love with this divine power. That’s a mystery so profound that the greatest theologians can ponder it for a lifetime. It’s a mystery the saints will be contemplating for eternity. 

--Deacon Matthew Newsome

Image source: Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ Washing the Feet of His Disciples, study, https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/study-christ-washing-feet-disciples-23693 
Quotation source and complete article

Radical, over-the-top love (Bishop Robert Barron)

   [When] Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, he is giving them a visual proclamation of his new commandment: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. 

   When we accept this commandment, we walk the path of joy. When we internalize this law, we become happy. And so the paradox: happiness is never a function of filling oneself up; it is a wonderful function of giving oneself away. 

   When the divine grace enters one’s life (and everything we have is the result of divine grace), the task is to contrive a way to make it a gift. In a sense, the divine life—which exists only in gift form—can be had only on the fly. 

   Notice please that we are to love with a properly divine love: I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father. Radical, radical, radical. Complete, excessive, over-the-top. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, April 14, 2022

Image source: Jyoti Sahi, Jesus Washing the Feet of Peter, http://jyotiartashram.blogspot.com/2007/10/jesus-washing-feet-of-peter.html

Call upon Mary! (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)

     If the hurricanes of temptation rise against you, or you are running upon the rocks of trouble, look to the star – call on Mary! 

 --St. Bernard of Clairvaux 

In May, we celebrate our Blessed Mother Mary...

Image source: Wilhelm Bernatzik, Vision des heiligen Bernhard (The Vision of St. Bernard, 1882), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wilhelm_Bernatzik_-_Vision_des_heiligen_Bernhard_-_2705_-_Kunsthistorisches_Museum.jpg 

Quotation source

I saw your glory (St. Augustine)

In my deepest wound 

I saw your glory, 

and it dazzled me. 

 --St. Augustine of Hippo     

Image source: St. Francis Kissing the Wounds of Christ, crucifix, Arezzo, Italy, https://www.catholicregister.org/faith/item/27023-five-wounds-of-christ-pope-urges-recovery-of-traditional-devotion
Quotation source

The glory of love (Pope Francis)

     True glory is the glory of love, because it is the only one that gives life to the world. Certainly, this glory is the opposite of worldly glory, which comes when one is admired, praised, acclaimed. The glory of God, on the other hand, is paradoxical: no applause, no audience. At the center there is not the ego, but the other. 

     What is the glory I live for? Mine or God's? Do I just want to receive from others or also to give to others? 

     [The way to give God glory is to] live all that we do with love, do everything with the heart, as for Him.

--Pope Francis   

Image source 1: Leszek Forczek, Jesus Washing the Disciples’ Feet, https://faithandleadership.com/nathan-kirkpatrick-maundy-thursday 
Image source 2:  Pope Francis washing the feet of prisoners, April 14, 2022, 
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2022-04-14/pope-visits-italian-prison-for-traditional-foot-washing-mass
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, May 15, 2022: Now is the Son of Man glorified...

Now is the Son of Man glorified…

How do we participate in the glory of God? 

    In the midst of his Last Supper discourse in John's Gospel, after Jesus has washed the feet of his disciples and Judas has left on his nefarious errand, Jesus tells his disciples, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. God is glorified through what God accomplishes in the death and resurrection of Jesus; this glory reveals God for who God is, namely, absolute love, love stronger than death, love that transcends any limitations we might have as human beings. Although we might not entirely grasp this truth, we may still participate in that glory, as Jesus adds, As I have loved you, so you also should love one another. This is how we reveal God: by loving one another. We can only be one in Christ by loving one another; when we do so, we are participating in the glory of God. 

    As Paul and Barnabas travel from town to town in the Acts of the Apostles, they are persecuted: It is necessary for us to undergo many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. Paul is, on more than one occasion, beaten for proclaiming the good news. Yet throughout their trials, Paul and Barnabas have to continue to love those who persecuted them, for only in this way can they be one in Christ. Only through love can God’s work be accomplished through them, opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, so that the Word of God can spread. At every juncture, Paul and Barnabas share all that God has revealed to them – particularly the Son of Man glorified – with the communities they meet, so as to bring them into their common journey of love. As in Psalm 145, all the Lord’s works give the Lord thanks and discourse of the glory of his kingdom, a kingdom grounded in the love Christ came to share with all. 

    The Book of Revelation was also written to encourage a people undergoing persecution. John’s vision of a New Jerusalem descending, coming down out of heaven from God, is meant to be a sign of hope for those who remain open to God’s plan and to God’s will. Hardship is implicit, but God will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away. In this new heaven and new earth, in which God makes all things new, love will be the order of the day, that all might participate in the glory of the kingdom. 

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

Jesus' radical call to discipleship (Bishop Robert Barron)

    The life of a disciple is a matter of obeying commandments. Listening to commands is tied closely to love on the part of the one who commands, and since love is nothing but the willing of the good of the other, the obedience that Jesus speaks of is a surrender to the one who massively wants what is best for the surrenderer. 

    I am urging you all to see the radicality of Jesus’ call to discipleship, which cuts through so many of the social conventions of his time and ours. I am urging you to see that everyone—rich and poor, men and women, those on the inside and those on the outs—are summoned to discipleship, and that this summons is the most important consideration of all. It is the one thing necessary. 

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

Image source: https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/jesus-the-good-shepherd-leads-his-sheep-in-john-10/

The good shepherd on the cross (Dr. Tom Neal)

   Once one embraces his manner of loving, God’s unlimited strength evokes not fear but trust. He is the good shepherd whose response from the cross to our butchering was tender mercy. 

--Dr. Tom Neal, 

‘Abba, Father’: 

The Gentleness 

from Jesus’ Lips 

Image source: Daniel Bonnell, The Good Shepherd, available for purchase at: https://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-good-shepherd-daniel-bonnell.html 

Quotation source

How open am I to the voice of the Shepherd? (Jennifer Berridge)

    How open am I to the voice of the Shepherd in my life? Am I open to instruction and direction? Am I attentive? How receptive am I to feedback? How reachable am I in the depths of my soul to the leanings of the Shepherd? How teachable am I? How flexible am I? How available are we to the Shepherd? Are we distracted by the many other voices competing for our time, energy, and attention in our lives? I can honestly say that the answer for me varies on any given day. My answer to these questions is also based on how tired I am or how centered I feel. At times, don’t we all feel the tug of too many commitments and voices from others and from ourselves to do more, to be more, to get more? 

    There is a wonderful opportunity here to learn from both the sheep and the shepherd. What if the invitation here for all of us is to enter into the fields with the sheep and the shepherd? What if we bowed our heads low? What if we waited? What if we were silent and stood still? What if we postponed our own plans and delayed them in response to a call or a clarity in direction from Jesus? What if we truly listened to our good and gentle shepherd? As we know, as we have seen, as we may have felt, known, or experienced, God is faithful, even when we’re not. There have been times and there will be times in all of our lives when we may feel like sheep without a shepherd. What if in our humanity we were able to enter into the sheep pen more fully? What if we hung out in the fields and stayed there for awhile? What if we listened for the voice of our Shepherd? What if we took all that we learned there and applied it in our own lives? 

--Jennifer Berridge, CSJ       

Image source: https://www.goodnewsfl.org/sheep-listen-voice/ 

Quotation source and full article

Through her, streams of grace flow (St. Faustina)

   To give worthy praise to the Lord's mercy, we unite ourselves with your immaculate mother, for then our hymn will be more pleasing to you, because she is chosen from among men and angels. Through her, as through a pure crystal, your mercy was passed on to us. Through her, man became pleasing to God; Through her, streams of grace flowed down upon us. 

 -- St. Faustina

In May, 

we celebrate Mary...

Today,

we also celebrate all mothers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Image source: Miraculous Medal, stained glass window, Przeworsk, Poland,  https://vincentianpersons.azurewebsites.net/StVincentImages/Home/ViewArchive/185 

Quotation source

God's self-gift (Haley Stewart)

   The more we learn to imitate God’s generous self-gift, the closer we get to becoming the people we are designed to be. 

--Haley Stewart, “’The Lost Daughter’ 

and the Self-Gift of Motherhood” 

Image source: Jean Charlot, First Steps / Primeros pasos (1937), https://blantonmuseum.org/2018/05/08/the-art-of-motherhood/

Jesus spoke with authority (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   The Gospel texts which tell us that Jesus spoke with authority never suggest that he spoke with great energy or powerful charisma. In describing Jesus’ authority they use the word exousia, a Greek word for which we don’t have an English equivalent.  

   What’s exousia? We don’t have a term for it, but we have a concept: Exousia might be described as the combination of vulnerability, innocence, and helplessness that a baby brings into a room. Its very helplessness, innocence, and vulnerability have a unique authority and power to touch your conscience. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Facebook 

Image source 1: https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog-and-stories/when-jesus-really-born.html

Image source 2: Bartolome Esteban Murillo, Christ the Good Shepherd, detail (c.1660), https://churchlifejournal.nd.edu/articles/catechesis-of-the-good-shepherd-cultivating-the-christian-imagination-of-the-child/