To come to possess all (St. John of the Cross)

To reach satisfaction in all, desire satisfaction in nothing.
To come to possess all, desire the possession of nothing. 

To arrive at being all, desire to be nothing. 

To come to the knowledge of all, desire the knowledge of nothing. 

 --St. John of the Cross 

Image source: Crucifix drawn by St. John of the Cross after a vision, https://aleteia.org/2017/09/22/discover-the-crucifix-drawn-by-saint-john-of-the-cross-after-a-mystical-vision/
Quotation source

Let go (Yoda)

 

Train yourself to let go 

of everything you fear to lose. 

--Yoda       

 Image & quotation source: https://www.starwars.com/news/8-great-life-teachings-from-yoda

The timeless embrace of God (Henri Nouwen)

    I have always been very conscious of my clock-time. Often, I asked myself: Can I still double my years? When I was thirty, I said: I can easily live another thirty! When I was forty, I mused, Maybe I am only halfway! Today I can no longer say that, and my question has become: How am I going to use the few years left to me? 

   All these concerns about our clock-time come from below. They are based on the presupposition that our chronology is all we have to live. But looked upon from above, from God’s perspective, our clock-time is embedded in the timeless embrace of God. Looked upon from above, our years on earth are not simply chronos, but kairos—another Greek word for time—which is the opportunity to claim for ourselves the love that God offers us from eternity to eternity. 

--Henri Nouwen          

Image source: https://www.stephenchamberlain.net/personal-reflections/chronos-and-kairos-the-gods-of-time 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 31, 2022: Rich in what matters to God...

Rich in what matters to God… 

Where do you find meaning? 

    In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the teacher Qoheleth suggests that people often seek meaning in their possessions or their achievements, when in fact, such an endeavor is simply vanity, For what profit comes to a man from all the toil and anxiety of heart with which he has labored under the sun? In fact, the truth we need to focus ourselves in is not a tangible one; true wisdom comes from an appreciation of all that God is doing in our midst. We pursue the temporary when in fact we need to focus on the eternal, the timeless that God has put into our hearts. Otherwise, all things are vanity! Psalm 90 similarly encourages us to seek wisdom of heart rather than of head: Teach us to number our days aright, the psalmist asks. God is a power beyond our comprehension, an extraordinary power at work in our lives, not because we earned it, deserved it but because God loves us. Imagine if we began each day aware that we are filled at daybreak with God’s kindness, and lived from that kindness! 

    Jesus similarly encouraged his disciples to beware privileging the temporal over the eternal: Take care to guard against greed, he tells them in Luke’s Gospel, for to hoard our possessions for ourselves is another form of vanity. The parable of the rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest but who dies before being able to enjoy his wealth is ample illustration of this essential truth. He believes he has found meaning in life, but that life will be cut short. As Paul tells the Colossians, if you were raised with Christ, seek what is above. All that is earthly will pass away; our focus must be on what is above. If we consider in every instance how what we are about to do relates first to Christ, we might find new meaning in our every action. For true meaning comes from the knowledge that Christ is all and in all. 

    What if we lived all of our life in Christ, for the sake of Christ? What if all we gained in life became gift for other for the sake of the Lord, rather than for our own sense of achievement, our own sense of meaning? What if we found true meaning in what God was accomplishing in and through us, rather than in our own vainglorious achievements? Then we would have identified that which is truly valuable, a meaning both timeless and intangible, a meaning found only in Christ. 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

To see the will of God (Ven. Aloysius Schwartz)

 

   When you pray, you only have to ask for two things: You should ask for the light to see the will of God, and you have to ask for the courage to be able to do the will of God. 

--Ven. Msgr. Aloysius Schwartz 

Image source: Egino Weinert, God loved his creation, and he expects a response, but on top of it all, he gave us a choice, https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egino_Weinert
Quotation source

Persistent prayer (William McGill)

   The value of persistent prayer is not that He will hear us, but that we will finally hear him. 

--William McGill 

Image source: Jean-François Millet, The Angelus (1857-1859), https://www.catholicstop.com/archives/category/prayer/ 

Quotation source

An uninterrupted dialogue with You (Etty Hillesum)

Sometimes the most important thing 

in a whole day is the rest we take 

between two deep breaths, 

or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. 

--Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life

    You have made me so rich, oh God, please let me share out Your beauty with open hands. 

    My life has become an uninterrupted dialogue with You, oh God, one great dialogue. Sometimes when I stand in some corner of the camp, my feet planted on Your earth, my eyes raised toward Your Heaven, tears sometimes run down my face, tears of deep emotion and gratitude. 

     At night, too, when I lie in bed and rest in You, oh God, tears of gratitude run down my face, and that is my prayer. 

--Etty Hillesum (1914-1943), Prayer from Auschwitz 

Image source: https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/a-prayer-for-holocaust-memorial-day/

The prayer for the Christian journey (Bishop Robert Barron)

The Lord’s Prayer [is] the prayer for the Christian journey. I want to consider three of the prayer’s petitions. 

   Father, hallowed be your name. We’re not implying that God should make his name holy (as though it isn’t); we’re praying that we might make it holy for us, that God might be honored above all. Everything else in the spiritual life flows from this prioritization. 

   Your Kingdom come. God’s kingdom refers to God’s way of ordering things. Jesus’ teaching and his manner of life give us a very good idea of what this kingdom would look like: peace, nonviolence, forgiveness, healing, walking the path of compassion. 

   Forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us. How central to the teaching of Jesus is forgiveness. And how central to the suffering of the world is the incapacity to forgive, both on the smallest, most intimate level and on the grandest, geo-political scale. How wonderful and how deeply challenging that, at the very heart of the prayer that the Son of God taught us is a petition to be given the grace to forgive. 

--Bishop Robert Barron Gospel Reflection, October 7, 2020 

Image source: https://www.catholic.com/tract/the-lords-prayer

To hear God's voice within (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   When we go to pray, what we most need to ask for is to hear God’s voice within us saying: “I love you!” 

 --Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI, Facebook, May 4, 2020 

Image source: https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/topical-studies/how-to-hear-gods-voice-in-a-world-so-full-of-noise.html

A conversation with love (Henri Nouwen)

    Prayer is not introspection. It is not a scrupulous, inward-looking analysis of our own thoughts and feelings but it is a careful attentiveness to the Presence of Love personified inviting us to an encounter. Prayer is the presentation of our thoughts— reflective thoughts, as well as daydreams, and night dreams—to the One who receives them, sees them in the light of unconditional love, and responds to them with divine compassion. This context of thinking in the Presence, of conversation and dialogue with Love, is the joyful affirmation of our gentle Companion on the journey with God who knows our minds and hearts, our goodness and our beauty, our darkness and our light. The Psalmist prays the prayer for us (Psalms 139:1–3; 23–24): 

O Lord, you search me and you know me, 

you know my resting and my rising, 

you discern my purpose from afar. 

You mark when I walk or lie down, 

all my ways lie open to you... 

O search me, God, and know my heart. 

O test me and know my thoughts. 

See that I follow not the wrong path 

and lead me in the path of life eternal. 

--Henri Nouwen        

Image source: http://www.piercedhands.com/50-ways-talk-god/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 24, 2022: Lord, teach us to pray...

Lord, teach us to pray…

How persistent is your prayer? 

    The Bible is replete with examples of persistence in prayer. In the Book of Genesis, Abraham, God’s friend, converses freely with the Lord, to the point of challenging God’s plan to punish the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for their grave sin. Abraham seeks to understand divine justice, and so he asks the Lord: Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty? Abraham’s persistent prayer is that God will show mercy even if only fifty or thirty or even just ten innocent people remain in Sodom, and in the end, God capitulates, For the sake of those ten, I will not destroy it. God answers Abraham’s prayer, as in Psalm 138: Lord, on the day I called for help, you answered me. 

    In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus similarly encourages his disciples to persistence in prayer, giving them the words they need – Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come – and sharing with them the parable of the man who is persistent in his efforts to convince his friend to give him the food he requires for a guest. But it’s not enough to be persistent in our asking – Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, Jesus says – we must also be persistent in our efforts to understand God’s answer. Prayer is an essential component of our relationship with the Lord, and it involves listening as well as speaking, that we might come to know God’s will for us, and respond to God’s ongoing invitations. 

   Prayer is also essential to our ever-deepening awareness of all that the death and rising of Jesus was meant to reveal, and to our ever-deepening appreciation of the relationship we have with the Lord thanks to that dying and rising. You were buried with him in baptism, Paul tells the Colossians, in which you were also raised with him. Mosaic law kept people from true relationship with God; thanks to Jesus, who nailed the law to the cross, we are now free to live that relationship more fully. We do that first and foremost through persistent communication as we open ourselves daily to the Lord in prayer, as Jesus taught us, for, as he assures his disciples, to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Only then can true intimacy begin. 

 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Jesus allowed women in (Bishop Robert Barron)

   In service of God’s way of ordering the world, Jesus allowed women into his inner circle. The story of Martha and Mary gives us a very interesting clue in this regard. Martha is in the space reserved for women: she is in the kitchen preparing the meal. But Mary is in the place reserved for men: she is sitting at the feet of the rabbi. It is the attitude of the disciple. 

    Luke, who told this story, was a companion of Paul, and his Gospel reflects many of Paul’s themes. In Galatians, Paul famously said, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

   This was very radical stuff, for these were some of the most basic social divisions of the time, and each carried a clear evaluative weight. Free men were a lot better off than slaves; Jews had huge advantages over Greeks, and males were seen as superior to females. But not anymore, in light of the kingdom of God that Jesus announced. 

 --Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, 

October 6, 2020 

Image source: St. John’s Bible, Jesus with Mary and Martha, https://magazine.berea.edu/summer-2015/a-year-with-the-saint-johns-bible-seeing-the-divine/

Sitting at her Master's feet (St. Francis de Sales)

   [W]hen sitting at her Master's feet, Mary heard his holy word. Behold her, I beseech you, Theotimus; she is in a profound tranquillity, she says not a word, she weeps not, she sobs not, she sighs not, she stirs not, she prays not. Martha, full of business passes and repasses through the hall: Mary notices her not. And what then is she doing? She is doing nothing, but only hearkening. And what does this mean—she hearkens? It means that she is there as a vessel of honour, to receive drop by drop the myrrh of sweetness which the lips of her well-beloved distilled into her heart; and this divine lover, jealous of this love-sleep and repose of this well-beloved, chid Martha for wanting to awaken her: Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary, Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her. But what was Mary's portion or part? To remain in peace, repose, and quiet, near unto her sweet Jesus. 

--St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God 

Image source: Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (ca. 1654-1656), https://turningthepage.co.nz/sitting-at-the-feet-of-jesus-like-mary/ For a study of this painting, see http://www.essentialvermeer.com/cat_about/christ.html
Quotation source

Now. Here. This. Now. Here. (Fr. Greg Boyle)

   Whenever the desert fathers and mothers would get absolutely despondent and didn’t know how they were going to put one foot in front of the next, they had this mantra. And the mantra wasn’t God and the word wasn’t Jesus, but the word was today. And that’s sort of the key. 

    There’s a play off-Broadway right now, called Now. Here. This. And that’s kind of my — that’s become my mantra. I’m big on mantras. So, when I’m walking, or before a kid comes into my office, I always say, Now. Here. This. Now. Here. This, so that I’ll be present and right here to the person in front of me. 

 --Fr. Greg Boyle SJ

Fr. Greg Boyle is a Jesuit priest who founded and directs HomeBoy Industries, an extraordinarily successful gang intervention and rehabilitation program in Los Angeles.  His books include Tattoos on the Heart and Barking to the Choir.

Image source: Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, anonymous (c.1520), https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/BK-NM-9380 

Quotation source

My guest is Christ (Dorothy Day)

    And the loveliest of all relationships in Christ’s life, after His relationship with his Mother, is His friendship with Martha, Mary and Lazarus and the continual hospitality He found with them – for there was always a bed for Him there, always a welcome, always a meal. It is a staggering thought that there were once two sisters and a brother whom Jesus looked on almost as His family and where He found a second home, where Martha got on with her work, bustling round in her house-proud way, and Mary simply sat in silence with Him. 

    If we hadn’t got Christ’s own words for it, it would seem raving lunacy to believe that if I offer a bed and food and hospitality for Christmas–or any other time, for that matter–to some man, woman or child, I am replaying the part of Lazarus or Martha or Mary and that my guest is Christ. There is nothing to show it, perhaps. There are no haloes already glowing round their heads – at least none that human eyes can see. […] [Yet Christ is] disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth. 

    To see how far one realizes this, it is a good thing to ask honestly what you would do, or have done, when a beggar asked at your house for food. Would you –or did you– give it on an old cracked plate, thinking that was good enough? Do you think that Martha and Mary thought that the old and chipped dish was good for their guest? 

    In Christ’s human life there were always a few who made up for the neglect of the crowd. […] We can do it too, exactly as they did. We are not born too late. We do it by seeing Christ and serving Christ in friends and strangers, in everyone we come in contact with. While almost no one is unable to give some hospitality or help to others, those for whom it is really impossible are not debarred from giving room to Christ, because, to take the simplest of examples, in those they live with or work with is Christ disguised. All our life is bound up with other people; for almost all of us happiness and unhappiness are conditioned by our relationship with other people. What a simplification of life it would be if we forced ourselves to see that everywhere we go is Christ, wearing out socks we have to darn, eating the food we have to cook, laughing with us, silent with us, sleeping with us. 

--Dorothy Day

Image source 1: Jesus, Martha, Mary & Lazarus, icon,   https://twitter.com/e11holy/status/1288418939345809408 
Image source 2:  Georg Friedrich Stettner, Christ in the Home of Martha (17th c.), https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Jesus_at_the_home_of_Martha_and_Mary#/google_vignette (This page also has some interesting insights into the story of Martha and Mary!)
Quotation source

God's love reaches in (Fr. Michael-Joseph of Saint Thérèse)

   Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the mother of mercy, and she comes to our help in our greatest moment of need. This is not simply limited to the moment we pass to the next life, but throughout our spiritual lives. Thomas Aquinas said, Divine mercy is the love of God that reaches down into our deepest misery and lifts us up. This is evident in the way that God works in our interior lives. God’s love reaches into the personal misery of our disorders, our inner poverty, our struggles, and he purifies us and transforms us in Jesus. The Holy Spirit desires to carry out this work through Mary and her maternal love for us, even in this life. Mary is our spiritual mother through whom God gives us his grace. 

--Fr. Michael-Joseph of Saint Thérèse, OCD 

Today is the Feast of our Patron, 

Our Lady of Mount Carmel! 

To view Fr. Michael-Joseph’s complete video (in English or in Spanish), Who is Our Lady of Mount Carmel?, go to https://discalcedcarmel.org/our-lady-of-mt-carmel-and-the-brown-scapular-la-virgen-del-carmen-y-el-escapulario-marron/

Image source: Statue, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Mill Valley, CA, http://www.randomactsofcatholics.org/home/2017/5/2/our-lady-of-mount-carmel-blesses-raoc 

Quotation and video source

To welcome the stranger (Henri Nouwen)

   [I]f there is any concept worth restoring to its original depth and evocative potential, it is the concept of hospitality. It is one of the richest biblical terms that can deepen and broaden our insight in our relationships to our fellow human beings. Old and New Testament stories not only show how serious our obligation is to welcome the stranger to our home, but they also tell us that guests are carrying precious gifts with them, which they are eager to reveal to a receptive host. When Abraham received three strangers at Mamre and offered them water, bread and a fine tender calf, they revealed themselves to him as the Lord announcing that Sarah his wife would give birth to a son (Genesis 18: 1-15). When the widow of Zarephath offered food and shelter to Elijah, he revealed himself as a man of God offering her an abundance of oil and meal and raising her son from the dead (1 Kings 17:9-24). When two travelers to Emmaus invited the stranger, who had joined them on the road to stay with them for the night, he made himself known in the breaking of the bread as their Lord and Saviour (Luke 24:13-35). 

   When hostility is converted into hospitality, then strangers can become guests revealing to their hosts the promise they are carrying with them.... Thus the biblical stories help us to realize not just that hospitality is an important virtue, but even more that in the context of hospitality guest and host can reveal their most precious gifts and bring new life to each other. 

--Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out 

Image source: Marc Chagall, Abraham and the Three Angels (1966), https://www.wikiart.org/en/marc-chagall/abraham-and-three-angels-1966

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 17, 2022: The Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre...

The Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre… 

What would you do if you met the Lord today? 

    When, in the Book of Genesis, Abraham, sitting in the entrance of his tent, looks up and sees three men standing nearby, he immediately springs into action, offering them hospitality in great abundance: a tender, choice steer, curds and milk, and rolls made of three measures of fine flour. It’s a feast! Not only that, Abraham waits on them under the tree while they eat. Abraham offers all of this as pure gift to other, giving them his complete attention. He does not know that he is in the presence of the Lord who appears to Abraham under the guise of these men; that fact will become clear to him once his aging wife Sarah is with child. But Abraham embodies the teaching of Psalm 15 – He who does justice will live in the presence of the Lord – in his openness to God and to God’s promise. His life is dedicated to other; to do justice is to serve other, building up the community God has created. 

    Martha and Mary have a similar opportunity to offer the Lord hospitality in Luke’s Gospel: Jesus enters a village where a woman whose name is Martha welcomes him. And Martha busies herself with the efforts of hospitality to the point of criticizing her sister Mary’s inaction in this regard: my sister has left me by myself to do the serving, Martha tells Jesus. Martha’s hospitality is gift, to be sure, but it cannot be total gift to Jesus because it is diminished by her resentment. Mary’s gift to Jesus, on the other hand, is one of undivided attention; she is present to him, sitting beside him at his feet. The Word of God, which Mary receives from the source, is what Paul strives to offer the Colossians, in order to make known the riches of the glory of God and teaching everyone with all wisdom. Paul has never known the hospitality of the Colossians, yet he is present to them as he sends them the wisdom of Christ, that they might participate in the mystery that is a life dedicated to other, a life in which they too may rejoice in their suffering for the sake of all. The Colossians will meet the Lord and have the opportunity to offer him their hospitality as well. Christ is present to them in the Word and in each other; they are to proclaim him, ministering to all, building up their community.  We are called to no less.

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

What we see in others (Author unknown)

    Once upon a time there was an old wise man. He was sitting at the edges of an oasis, at the entrance of a city in the Middle East.

     A young man approached and asked him: I have never been here. What are the inhabitants of this city like? 

    The wise man replied in turn with a question: What were the inhabitants of the city you came from like? 

    Selfish and bad, he replied. That's why I was glad to leave there. 

    So are the inhabitants of this city, answered the wise man. 

    Shortly after, another young man approached the wise man and asked him the same question: I just got to this country. What are the inhabitants of this city like? 

    The wise man replied again with the same question: What were the inhabitants of the city you came from like? 

    They were good, generous, hospitable, honest. I had so many friends and I had a hard time leaving them. 

   Just so are the inhabitants of this city, answered the old wise man. 

    A merchant who had brought his camels to the watering hole had heard the conversations. When the second young man turned away, he turned to the old man in tone of reproach: How can you give two completely different answers to the same question? 

    My son, answered the wise, each brings in his heart what he himself is. A man who hasn't found anything good in the past, won't find anything good even here. By contrast, he who had loyal friends in the other city, will also find some loyal and loyal friends here. Because, you see, every human being is brought to see in others what is in his heart. 

--Author unknown 

Image & quotation source: https://www.comunicareilsorrisodidio.it/il-saggio-alle-porte-della-citta-puoi-vedere-negli-altri-solo-cio-che-hai-nel-cuore/

God loves you and I love you (Mother Angelica)

   The whole world needs to hear two things with strength and power: God loves you and I love you. You must say it often to your friends. This world is not starving from lack of money. It’s starving from a want of love. 

--Mother Angelica 

Image source:  https://the-art-of-autism.com/how-drawing-helps-me-express-the-loneliness-and-alienation-i-feel/

Quotation source

All I can do is to try and help you, and let you help me (Anne Lamott)

   I heard a story last week from a sober friend that almost completely captures my understand of goodness and life, a story that has been medicine for my worried, worried soul: 

   Caroline stopped drinking 30 years ago, at the age of 40, with zero interest or belief in any kind of higher power to whom she might be able to turn when cravings overcame her. But after a year of white-knuckle sobriety, contemptuous of a higher power, hanging on through will power, she one day heard and then found a frog in her shower. 

   She lifted it and gently carried it in her cupped hands through the house. She could feel and, of course, imagine its terror. She took it out to the garden, where there was a moist patch of earth over near the blackberries, and set it down. It sat stock still for a bit, and then hopped away into the bushes. 

   She said, My name is Caroline. I’m that frog. 

   I am, too, and I am also a big helper. When I have felt most isolated and lost, I have always ended up being carried back to the garden in people’s good hands, to where I need to be, afraid and not breathing. for much of the way. And I have helped carry scared people, the best I could. You have, too. 

   Isn’t that what grace is, when some force of kindness, against all odds, with unknown hands, brings us from fear and hard tiles to a moist patch earth, and sets us down? 

   If I were God’s west coast representative, I would speed up the process a bit, and hand out klieg lights but I can’t. All I can do is to try and help you get back to where there is moist soil and fresh air, and let you help me. And those happen to be the two things I most want in life. 

--Anne Lamott        

Image source: Vincent van Gogh, The Good Samaritan (1890), https://www.vincentvangogh.org/the-good-samaritan.jsp 
Story source

The relationships we find ourselves thrust into (Dr. Tom Neal)

    For Catholics, according to the late Francis Cardinal George, it is above all in those relationships we find ourselves thrust into—relationships that resist the shifting sands of whim or preference—that we learn what it means to be truly human. 

   Jesus’ Good Samaritan parable is about a man who finds himself confronted by a victim of violence who, simply by virtue of his proximity, imposes the severe demands of mercy on the Samaritan passerby. Unlike the priest and Levite, the Samaritan traveler refuses to unchoose this victim by passing on the other side of the road. Rather, he draws nigh, stooping low and pouring out compassion on a stranger’s wounds he claimed as his own. 

   The moral of the story is made even more stark by Jesus’ insertion of the dark Jewish-Samaritan history of ethnic, cultural, and religious hatred. Such ancient and powerful rationales for unchoosing others simply dissolve under the force of this parable’s inexorable logic, making clear to all hearers there is no room in the kingdom of God for those who choose to exclude anyone from laying claim on their own freely offered love. 

--Dr. Tom Neal       

Image source: William Henry Margetson, The Good Samaritan (1890), 
https://gallerix.org/storeroom/1252460235/N/1621882042/

Quotation source & full article

A love that overflows all bounds (Simone Campbell)

   Let us have space for those who disagree and find our connections before the Divine together in a love that overflows all bounds. Then may we be marked by love, [and] in some way let us make manifest that we do in deed care for those who differ. Let us remember to love our neighbors as ourselves for this indeed is the reign of God. 

--Simone Campbell, SSS      

Image source: https://www.foodista.com/ 

Quotation source

Single-minded commitment (Henri Nouwen)

   Perhaps we must continually remind ourselves that the first commandment requiring us to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind is indeed the first. I wonder if we really believe this. It seems that in fact we live as if we should give as much of our heart, soul, and mind as possible to our fellow human beings, while trying hard not to forget God. At least we feel that our attention should be divided evenly between God and our neighbor. 

    But Jesus’ claim is much more radical. He asks for a single-minded commitment to God and God alone. God wants all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of our soul. It is this unconditional and unreserved love for God that leads to the care for our neighbor, not as an activity that distracts us from God or competes with our attention to God, but as an expression of our love for God who reveals himself to us as the God of all people. It is in God that we find our neighbors and discover our responsibility to them. We might even say that only in God does our neighbor become a neighbor rather than an infringement upon our autonomy, and that only in and through God does service become possible. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://photoworkshopsandtours.com/index.php/2019/06/26/florida-diving-and-feeding-osprey-photography-workshop-2019/ 

Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, July 10, 2022: You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart...

You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart…

Do you have it in you? 

    In Moses’ final address to the people of Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy, his primary goal is to remind them that, while God’s commandments and statutes may seem mysterious and remote, in fact, all of them are already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry them out. The people have affirmed that they will be faithful to the Lord; they have experienced God’s love for them and will respond in kind with love and fidelity. Moses knows they are not perfect – their love for God is something they must grow into – but Moses asks them to invest fully in that love based on what they hold within, in the depths of their hearts. Their love for God will be manifested in part in their song of gratitude and devotion, as in Psalm 69: I will praise the name of God in song, and I will glorify him with thanksgiving. 

    In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus will reiterate to his disciples that the single commandment that matters is, You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. Do we have it us to do that? The story of the Good Samaritan gives concrete understanding of the definition of neighbor on both sides of the equation, for it is the Samaritan who is neighbor to the robbers’ victim, as the victim is neighbor to the Samaritan, no matter their cities of origin. God’s love for us never wavers, never changes, as Paul makes clear to the Colossians; Jesus made peace by the blood of his cross, suffering for us, dying and rising, that we might find our way back to the love that is at our core. When we choose to love our neighbor more than our self, we are tapping into that love within us. 

    God created us out of love and it is his love that we are drawn to; that love is at the core of our identity. God is not asking us for the impossible: we have it in ourselves to do the impossible because we have God’s love within us. We need to work to tap into that love for and remain in relationship with the Lord, open to his call, that we might share his love with all, loving God and neighbor alike, until we know no boundaries, no divisions, only the perfect love of God. 

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

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

A new creation (Nina Simone)

Birds flying high, you know how I feel 

Sun in the sky, you know how I feel 

Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel 

It's a new dawn 

It's a new day 

It's a new life for me, yeah 

It's a new dawn 

It's a new day 

It's a new life for me, ooh 

And I'm feeling good 

Fish in the sea, you know how I feel 

River running free, you know how I feel 

Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel 

Refrain 

Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know? 

Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean 

Sleep in peace when day is done, that’s what I mean 

And this old world is a new world 

And a bold world, for me 

Stars when you shine, you know how I feel 

Scent of the pine, you know how I feel 

Oh, freedom is mine 

And I know how I feel 

Refrain 

To hear Nina Simone sing Feeling Good, click on the video below: 

Image source:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfly#/media/File:Damselfly_October_2007_Osaka_Japan.jpg

Video source

Laborers for the harvest (Bishop Robert Barron)

    Jesus instructs us to pray for laborers for the harvest, for disciples to do the work of evangelization. We need to organize our lives around evangelization. Everything we do ought to be related somehow to it. This doesn’t mean that we all have to become professional evangelizers; remember, you can evangelize by the moral quality of your life. But it does mean that nothing in our lives ought to be more important than announcing the victory of Jesus. 

    We should think of others not as objects to be used, or annoying people in the way of realizing our projects, but rather as those whom we are called to serve. Instead of saying, Why is this annoying person in my way? we should ask, What opportunity for evangelization has presented itself? Has God put this person in your life precisely for this purpose? 

Reflect: How are evangelization and love connected? 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, December 5, 2020

Image source: http://stelizabethcc.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-harvest-is-abundant-but-laborers.html

Renew our faith in freedom (Rev. Edward G. Latch)

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

--Psalm 33:12

   Eternal God, stir thou our minds and stimulate our hearts with a high sense of patriotism as we approach the Fourth of July. May all that this day symbolizes renew our faith in freedom, our devotion to democracy, and redouble our efforts to keep a government of the people, by the people, and for the people truly alive in our world. 

   Grant that we may highly resolve on this great day to dedicate ourselves anew to the task of ushering in an era when good will shall live in the hearts of a free people, justice shall be the light to guide their feet, and peace shall be the goal of humankind: to the glory of thy holy name and the good of our nation and of all mankind. Amen. 

--Rev. Edward G. Latch, Chaplain

US House of Representatives

July 3, 1974 

Image source: https://b-m.facebook.com/tapestryonthehudson/photos/a.627530431058601/631513503993627/?type=3&source=48
Prayer source

Relationships are scary (Fr. Damian Ference)

   There is no religion quite like Christianity. We believe that God the Father sent us his only Son, like us in all things but sin, in order to suffer, die, and rise from the dead to save us from sin, which is to save us from ourselves, by bringing us back into relationship with Him. Are relationships scary? Sure, they can be, especially if you’ve been hurt before by people who were supposed to love you, or by people who do love you, but not perfectly. But look at the person of Jesus Christ. He knows all about being betrayed, denied, mocked, scorned, abused, and abandoned. How did he treat the one who denied him three times after his Resurrection? He forgave him. How did he treat St. Paul when he met him on the road to Damascus? He transformed him. And so how is it that the Risen Lord wants to be in relationship with us? In the same way that he was in relationship with all his friends that he loved in the Gospels. He’s not a threat. He didn’t rise to hurt us. He didn’t rise to take revenge. He rose to recreate us, to heal us, to enter into relationship with us, to restore our relationship with the Father. And he does all this through his very person, and it’s that same person we encounter every time we celebrate the sacraments and pray with the Word.

--Fr. Damian Ference 

Image source: Life of St Paul, detail, St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Paulsgrove, UK, created by Sunrise Stained Glass Studio, https://stainedglassartist.wordpress.com/2012/11/21/st-paul-stained-glass-window/ 

Quotation source

Seek a relationship (Fr. Mike Schmitz)

   Seek a relationship when you pray, not answers. You won’t always find answers, but you will always find Jesus. 

--Fr. Mike Schmitz       

Image source: https://boxofficerevolution.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/following-the-subplots-of-the-chosen-season-2-episode-4-the-perfect-opportunity/ 

Quotation source

The mother-like love of God (Stephanie Rische)

As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you.

--Isaiah 66:13 

   I’ve long loved this tender image of the mother-like love of God. But I thought of the love it describes only in terms of volitional love—the love a mother chooses for her child, the love God chooses for his people. 

   But now, as I find myself overflowing with milk in the wee hours of the morning, it occurs to me: a nursing mother’s love is more than an act of sentimentality. In fact, it’s hardly a choice at all. She has milk to give, milk that must come forth. It’s part of her very nature, and it will pain her not to give what she has. 

   And so it is with God. Love pours out of him; it is part of his very nature. He must give love. 

   According to scholars, the Hebrew word for love used in [Isaiah] also means womb. God is not distant or aloof; he pulses with love—the kind of mysterious, unbreakable bond that forms between a mother and her child as the child rests beneath her own pulsing heart. 

   God is committed to you with an irrepressible love—a love that flows out like a life-giving force. He loves you with a womb-love that defies explanation. He is tethered to you, by choice and by nature. 

   He could no more stop loving you than he could stop being God. 

--Stephanie Rische 

Image source: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, A Woman Nursing a Child (1894), https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/5354 

Quotation source