Love is stronger than death (Henri Nouwen)

    True friendships are lasting because true love is eternal. A friendship in which heart speaks to heart is a gift from God, and no gift that comes from God is temporary or occasional. All that comes from God participates in God’s eternal life. Love between people, when given by God, is stronger than death. In this sense, true friendships continue beyond the boundary of death. When you have loved deeply that love can grow even stronger after the death of the person you love. This is the core message of Jesus. 

    When Jesus died, the disciples’ friendship with him did not diminish. On the contrary, it grew. This is what the sending of the Spirit was all about. The Spirit of Jesus made Jesus’ friendship with his disciples everlasting, stronger, and more intimate than before his death. That is what Paul experienced when he said, “It is no longer I, but Christ living in me” (Galatians 2:20). 

    You have to trust that every true friendship has no end, that a communion of saints exists among all those, living and dead, who have truly loved God and one another. You know from experience how real this is. Those you have loved deeply and who have died live on in you, not just as memories but as real presences. 

    Dare to love and be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as to those whom God has given you to love. 

--Henri Nouwen

In November we remember All Souls... 

Image source: Benny Andrews, Mourners (1974), https://www.arthistoryproject.com/subjects/feelings/mourning/
Quotation source

Stand ready! (Henri Nouwen)

    When Jesus speaks about the end of time, he speaks precisely about the importance of waiting. He says that nations will fight against nations and that there will be wars and earthquakes and misery. People will be in agony, and they will say, “The Christ is there! No, he is here!” Many will be confused and many will be deceived. But Jesus says, you must stand ready, stand awake, stay tuned to the word of God, so that you will survive all that is going to happen and be able to stand confidently (con-fide, with trust) in the presence of God together in community. That is the attitude of waiting that allows us to be people who can live in a very chaotic world and survive spiritually. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://tinybuddha.com/blog/when-life-gets-hard-how-to-find-peace-within-the-chaos/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 17, 2024: Of that day or hour, no one knows...

Of that day or hour, no one knows…
Do you worry about what is to come? 

    In the Book of Daniel, probably written during the persecutions of Antiochus IV Epiphanes in the 2nd century BC, the prophet speaks of a time unsurpassed in distress, but assures the people that those whose names are written in the book of truth shall escape. In his description of the cataclysm to come, the author was not speaking of eternal life, but simply of those who would survive past the events predicted: the wise shall shine brightly, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever. Clearly, the author of Daniel believed his community needed reassurance about the future! 

    Jesus similarly offers reassurance to his disciples in Mark’s Gospel. Yes, tribulation will happen, he says, but they are not to worry themselves about the precise timing of the events: of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. So, rather than stress over the future, get ready now! Don’t wait until later, until it’s convenient or imminent. Get ready now by recognizing who you are and what you have already: God is already at work in you. Even Jesus himself is waiting for the end times, as the Letter to the Hebrews tells us: Jesus took his seat forever at the right hand of God; now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool, that is, until we on earth have completed what he began and all, former enemies included, now serve him, know him, and believe in him, aware that he offered one sacrifice for sins, theirs included. Thus, all may be made perfect forever, consecrated, set aside for a holy purpose. 

    We gather daily at Mass to participate in Christ’s sacrifice for all. As Psalm 16 reminds us, only when we place ourselves under God’s care, allowing the Lord to direct our existence through prayer and Eucharist, can we set the Lord ever before us, confident that with him at our right hand, we shall not be disturbed. Thus, there is no need to worry about what is to come, for he shows us the path to life, fullness of joys in his presence, the delights at his right hand forever. Get ready! 

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

Have the audacity to trust (Tim Shriver)

    I was lucky to spend an hour with [Fr. Thomas] Keating two months before his death. In our last conversation, he emphasized trust. He heard my confession and stopped me when I said I was struggling to trust in these times of fear and violence and division. “Focus on trust,” he said. “When you trust that we are all part of something beautiful beyond our wildest imagination, you will find healing.” 

   As we neared the end of our time, he gave me an instruction in prayer: “Keep returning to silence. It’s God’s first language, and everything else is a poor translation. And say just one Hail Mary, but say it slowly so you can feel the unconditional trust that made it possible for Mary to allow God’s love to take over her life.... Meet her and understand her model of trust in God and let her heal you.” 

   I left him moments later. “Til we meet again” were his final words to me, yet another expression of a man who trusted in the totality of God’s love and who taught prayer as an act of surrender, an act of presence, an act of love. Have the audacity to trust that we all belong to God: It may seem like an unlikely call to action in 2018, but it may be the only call that can start the healing in our divisive and fearful times. 

--Tim Shriver 

Image source: L’Annonciation, stained glass window, Notre-Dame de Banneux, Sanctuaire de la Vierge des Pauvres, Liège, Belgium.- Ardennes Belges - Belgique sanctuaire de la Vierge des Pauvres, https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=8747414591938655&set=gm.2746196392201824&idorvanity=517611451727007
Quotation source & complete article

Love is the gift of self (Fr. Greg Boyle / Bishop Robert Barron)

You go to the margins not to make a difference, 

but so that the widow, orphan and 

stranger can make you different. 

--Fr. Greg Boyle SJ, 

Commencement Address, 

Le Moyne College 

    [In this week’s Gospel,] Jesus praises the widow who gave all her resources to the treasury: “I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.” She is a model of detachment for us. 

    If the spiritual life is essentially about love, and love is the gift of self, then possessions are a problem. This means that the game of filling up the empty ego with the goods of this world is not the way forward; rather, giving one’s life away is the way forward. 

    Once you let go of the world in a spirit of detachment, once you remove the things of this world from your grasp and see them without distortion, you will really have them. They will appear as they are, as God intended them. They will no longer be objects for your manipulation or possession, but beautiful realities in themselves. 

    G.K. Chesterton insisted that only when he realized that the things of this world would not make him ultimately happy did he find real joy in them. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, 

November 27, 2023 

Image source: James Tissot, The Widow’s Mite / Le denier de la veuve (1850), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesson_of_the_widow%27s_mite#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Widow's_Mite_(Le_denier_de_la_veuve)_-_James_Tissot.jpg

Does the path seem too steep? (St. Augustine / Pope Francis)

Beware of despairing about yourself;
 you are commanded to place
your trust in God, and not in yourself.

 --St. Augustine 

    Let us not be discouraged if at times the peak of Christian life seems too high and the path too steep. Let us look to Jesus, always; let us look to Jesus who walks beside us, who welcomes our frailties, shares our efforts and rests his firm and gentle arm on our weak shoulders. With Him close at hand, let us also reach out to one another and renew our trust. With Jesus, what seems impossible on our own is no longer so; with Jesus we can go forth! 

--Pope Francis, August 27, 2024 

On Veterans Day, we honor all those 
who have loved their country 
with a willingness to serve and sacrifice 
for the common good with trust and confidence! 

Image source: G. Hillyard Swinstead, The White Comrade (1915), depicting two soldiers, one wounded, being comforted on the battlefield by a vision of Christ, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:First_World_War;_two_soldiers,_one_badly_wounded,_being_comf_Wellcome_V0015798.jpg 
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source

To lean upon thy great strength (St. Francis of Assisi)

Lord, help me to live this day, quietly, easily. 

To lean upon Thy great strength, trustfully, restfully. 

To wait for the unfolding of Thy will, patiently, serenely. 

To meet others, peacefully, joyously. 

To face tomorrow, confidently, courageously. 

--St. Francis of Assisi 

Image source: Giovanni Francesco di Bernadone, Saint Francis of Assisi (early 17th century), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Italian_%28Lombard%29_School_-_Saint_Francis_in_Prayer_-_959446_-_National_Trust.jpg 

Quotation source

They are with us still (Fr. Joseph Veneroso)

We do not run the race alone
Nor go into exile by ourselves.
For we journey along the Way
Made smooth by those who’ve gone before
And though invisible to the eye
They are with us still, forebears in faith
Whose example, wisdom and yes, prayers
Inspire, encourage and guide us
Through the valleys and mountains of life.
And in the silence of the night
Listen for the soft whisper of
Ancestors, relatives and friends
Who, though gone from the sidelines
Still cheer us on and
Whose love and countless kindnesses
Brought us to this very day
Alone no longer (as if we ever were)
We are part of a vast, unending
Procession of love and life
Past, present and to come,
Where memory and meaning mingle
To create an eternal, dynamic
Community of souls and
Communion of saints. 

--Fr. Joseph Veneroso,

Poem published in
Maryknoll Magazine,

November 2020

In November we remember All Souls...

Image source 1: https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/contributors/why-we-pray-for-all-souls-today/
Image source 2: https://www.forestryengland.uk/blog/running-wild-why-you-should-be-running-the-forest

A command from God (Dr. Loren Crow)

    What seems at first like a hopeless act — a last meal before curling up to die — becomes the very means by which hope comes in. Her obedience to the prophet’s word results in her receiving God’s provision of food as well as, later on, the life of her son.

    But Jesus’ observation is still apropos: God might have sent Elijah to any number of Israelite widows to save them, but instead sent him to this foreigner to save her. What do we learn about God by observing this? We learn what Israel needed to learn, too, that God is not only the Lord of us and our people, but the Lord of aliens, legal and otherwise, and even the Lord of other nations regardless of whether or not they know it. God loves and cares for the unclean as well as the clean, the sick as well as the whole, the addicted as well as the teetotalers, the Canaanites as well as the Israelites. 

    In this story it’s precisely the miraculous provision of food that leads to the widow’s conversion. Like all Jews and Gentiles, she is presented with a command from God obedience to which will make her live. That command, which we also receive multiple times in Scripture, is that she care for the stranger living in her vicinity. Even this Phoenician woman can recognize the truth of that command and obey it. Will we? 

--Dr. Loren Crow 

Image source 1: https://walkingintheshadowlands.com/2018/10/20/kept-for-us/ 

Image source 2: https://choosefaith.com.au/lessons-from-the-widow-of-zarephath/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 7, 2024: She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had...

She, from her poverty, has contributed all she had… 

How strong is our trust in the Lord?

    In the First Book of Kings, God directs Elijah to go to Zarephath, a town in Gentile territory. A terrible drought has caused famine in the land, but the Lord has instructed a widow there to feed Elijah. When Elijah meets the widow and asks, Please bring me a small cupful of water to drink… and a bit of bread, the woman responds, As the Lord, your God, lives, I have nothing, yet she does as he asks! How interesting that this woman not only is familiar with but also trusts Elijah’s God enough to do what he has instructed her. Her trust will be rewarded when Elijah promises that her jar of flour shall not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry. The widow of Zarephath’s faith opens God’s ability to act in her life more profoundly. Perhaps she would, as Psalm 146 says, praise the Lord, now having irrefutable proof that the God of Elijah sustains the fatherless and the widow, among others. 

    The fate of widows had not improved by Jesus’ time. In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus warns the crowds that the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept seats of honor in synagogues also devour the houses of widows! Jesus then observes how the crowd puts money into the temple treasury. These are not taxes but donations, and the larger the donation, the louder the sound the coins make as they go into the donation box. Although the rich scribes put in large sums, their gift is nothing compared to that of a poor widow who puts in two small coins worth a few cents. Where they give from their surplus, she contributes all she has, a sign of her complete and utter trust in the Lord to take care of her. Having given away her freedom, the widow’s hands are empty and open to receive from the hand of God. 

    The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus himself will likewise give away all he has, offering himself once for all, to take away sin by his sacrifice. We are assured that he will appear a second time, not to take away sin but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await him. We have but to trust, as the widows did, and to wait eagerly for his return! 

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

To trust in the love that unites us (Pope. Francis / Fr. Patrick Michaels)

In the great commandment,
Christ binds God and neighbor.
There is no authentic religious experience
that is deaf to the cry of the world.
There is no love of God
without care and concern for our neighbor.

 --Pope Francis, November 10, 2023 

    If you feel that you love God with all that is in you but you do not love your neighbor, you might be kidding yourself. Because if we can’t see those we have so much in common with, if we can’t love them, then how can we love God whom we can’t see? How can we stretch out the boundaries of our hearts? 

    If we loved God with everything that is in us and we loved our neighbor, we would be concerned for every life. We would love every life. We would have a concern for the poor, whom we must love and greet and value and show compassion. For that is what we are about; that’s all we have. 

    Love isn’t a warm, fuzzy feeling; love is an action, something we do, something we live, something we are. We can restore our collective integrity as a Church. We can learn to face any problem. But we are going to have to trust in the love that brings us together and unites us. We are going to have to try and participate in it at every opportunity. Then, we will be one. Love does that like nothing else can. Then, the Lord will be a force to be reckoned with in the world, because he will be revealed… in us. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, October 29, 2023 

Image source: Augustus Edwin Mulready, Uncared For (1871), one of many of Mulready’s paintings meant to draw people’'s attention to the plight of the unhoused street children of his age. Notice the torn street poster above the little girl’s head. For this and other work by Mulready, go to https://victorianpeeper.blogspot.com/2010/09/more-news-from-art-world.html

So many neighbors to love (St. Maximilian Kolbe / Rev. Benjamin Cramer)

The cross is the school of love.

--St. Maximilian Kolbe 

   Beware of any Christian movement that insists it has so many enemies to conquer rather than so many neighbors to love. 

--Rev. Benjamin Cremer 

Image source 1: https://www.wearemakingdisciples.com/blog.aspx?action=view&id=68
Image source 2: https://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/news/2022/05/15/fifth-sunday-of-easter-may-15-2022
Quotation source

You need both to be a Christian (Jen Arnold)

   There is no doubt that the cross is the most recognized symbol of Christianity. It symbolizes what our Lord endured for us, what we carry, and our hope for salvation. There is so much meaning wrapped up in this one symbol of our faith. Not by coincidence, the cross is made up of two beams of wood – one vertical and one horizontal. The vertical beam symbolizes your relationship with God while the horizontal beam represents your relationship with others. You need both to form a cross. You need both to be Christian. 

   We use the vertical beam to represent our relationship with God because we are inferior and He is all-supreme. We look up at Him while He lovingly looks down upon us. We reach for heaven while He extends His mercy and grace down to us. This vertical relationship illustrated in the cross is a beautiful thing to imagine. We need to put effort strengthening that vertical relationship. We do this by praying to God every day and listening to how He speaks back to us, just as we would in any other relationship. We need to frequent the Sacraments and receive His grace in all the ways He has offered to us. We need to go to Mass to hear His Word in Scripture and receive His Body in the Eucharist. This vertical relationship is not passive... 

   The horizontal beam represents our relationship with others. We know that we make up the Body of Christ and that we are all connected to one another on this horizontal plane. Everything we do affects the rest of the parcels on that beam. When we sin, it affects our neighbor. When we are charitable and loving, it also affects our neighbor. Again, this relationship between persons is not passive. Christians are called to action. Remember the corporal acts of mercy in Mahew 25:35-40 where Jesus tells us to do things like feed the hungry, clothe the naked and visit the imprisoned. He reminds us that, in doing these things for the least of our brothers, we are doing them for Him. We honor Jesus Christ by being in the right relationship with our neighbor and thereby strengthening our horizontal beam. 

--Jen Arnold
 

Image source 1: https://www.equip.org/hank-unplugged-podcast-and-shorts/the-sign-of-the-cross-the-symbol-the-history-the-mystery-with-andreas-andreopoulos/
Image source 2: Mezuzah, Dove with Olive Branch with Adorned Hoshen, https://www.holyshroudfragrance.com/p-4959-mezuzah-dove-with-olive-branch-with-adorned-hoshen-blue.aspx. A mezuzah is a small scroll of parchment contained withing a decorative box. The Shema Yisrael is one of the texts inscribed on the scroll. Traditionally, the mezuzah is affixed to the doorpost at the entrance of a Jewish home to remind them of their love for the Lord God.
Quotation source & complete article

What it means to love (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   Why did Jesus provide two commandments when one was asked for? What would have happened if Jesus had just given the greatest commandment – the first? Then the focus of our lives would be upon ourselves: it’s all about what I need to do in my relationship with God. The second expands it, so that we truly understand what that relationship is about. 

    Love of neighbor is absolutely necessary in the pursuit of a relationship with God. Look at your neighbor and realize that God made them, too. They are just as extraordinary in God’s act of creation as you are. And they are on the same journey. The two commandments fill out what it means to love; they complete what would otherwise be an incomplete concept. That’s why Jesus gives two when one is asked for. But then he summarizes all the law in those two, because if your love for God is expressed in your love for neighbor, the rest of the law would be superfluous, unnecessary. 

   God offers us the fullness of life… in the neighbors around us, those who are in need and who are right here. He gives us life all the time; we have but to choose it. 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, August 23, 2024

Image source: https://cmmb.org/to-love-god-to-love-your-neighbor/

Even death cannot end it (Thomas Campbell / Fr. James Martin)

To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die. 

--Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) 

    On All Souls Day we remember all the "faithful departed," who enjoy new life with God. 

    Sometimes it's hard for even devout Christians to believe in the afterlife. But Jesus promises his disciples eternal life many times, as in today's Gospel (Jn 6); he shows them that death has no power with the raising of the dead in his public ministry (not only Lazarus, but also the Widow of Nain's Son and Jairus's Daughter); and then he reveals it definitively at his own Resurrection, on Easter Sunday. 

   But you can also think of it this way: God loved us into being and loves us every day of our life. God enters into a loving relationship with us at our conception. So why would God end that relationship? It makes no sense. God would never end the loving relationship God has with you. Even death cannot end it. 

   Trust in Jesus's promises about what God has in store for believers: eternal life. 

--Fr. James Martin,

Facebook, November 2, 2021

Today is the Commemoration
of the Faithful Departed!
In November we remember All Souls… 

Image source: Marko Ivan Rupnik, Resurrection of Christ, detail (2006), mosaic, St. Stanislaus College Chapel, Ljubljana, Slovenia, https://www.imb.org/2017/04/12/journey-cross-artists-visualize-christs-passion-part-2/
Quotation source 1
Quotation source 2

Recalling the stories of saints (St. John of Kronstadt / Tish Harrison Warren)

Ask the angels and the saints to intercede for you,
just as you’d ask people who are alive.
Stand face to face with them,
in the belief that they’re also
standing face to face with you.

 --St. John of Kronstadt 

   Saints are imperfect people. And this is what draws me to this day. Christians don’t remember these men and women because they were perfect. We remember them because, like us, they were broken, selfish and fearful, yet God wrought beauty and light through their lives. 

   All Saints’ Day reminds me that God meets us, saints and sinners, despite our contradictions, and makes good out of haphazard lives. It tells me that all of us, even the best of us, are in need of unimaginable mercy and forgiveness. The church is “first and foremost, a community of forgiven sinners,” writes the theologian Gilbert Meilaender. It is not “a community that embodies the practices of perfection” but instead “a body of believers who still live ‘in the flesh,’ who are still part of the world, suffering the transformations effected by God’s grace on its pilgrim way.” Recalling the stories of saints is, in the end, a celebration not of perfection but of grace. 

--Tish Harrison Warren

Today is the Solemnity of All Saints!

Celebrate by reading about 

the life of your favorite saint! 

Image source: https://www.amazon.com/Stories-Saints-Tales-Adventure-Courage/dp/0761193278
Quotation 1 source
Quotation 2 source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, November 3, 2024: I love you, Lord, my strength...

I love you, Lord, my strength… 

How do we demonstrate our love for God? 

    The Jewish practice of the mezuzah – a small prayer scroll contained within a protective case and affixed to the main doorpost of a home – probably dates back to about 1300 BC, when the people settled in the land of Canaan after their sojourn in the desert. (While they may have had the words of the prayer inscribed upon a tiny scroll to carry with them through the desert, they didn’t have doorposts to affix them to!) 

    For the people of Moses’ time, this prayer, found in the Book of Deuteronomy and known as Shema Yisrael – The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength – was to be inscribed on their hearts, so that they would remember God at every moment of every day. If they wished to be a prosperous nation when they entered the promised land, they had to remember that the Lord was the source of all they had: lives, property, every blessing! And they were to bless God in turn: I love you, Lord, my strength, the psalmist prays in Psalm 18. It is a song of thanksgiving for God’s steadfast presence as rock of refuge, fortress, deliverer, and so much more! 

    In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus, challenged by a scribe, likewise cites the Shema Yisrael as the first of all the commandments. But then Jesus adds a second: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Why? Because to love your neighbor is how you live out your love for God, how you give proof of that love for God. The scribe is so impressed that he riffs off Jesus’ statement, adding that love of neighbor is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. Thanks to the scribe’s immediate grasp of Jesus’ statement, Jesus can tell him, You are not far from the kingdom of God! This scribe knows how important God’s constant presence is in his life, and is willing to love his neighbor to demonstrate his own love for God. 

    Jesus loved with his life, dying once for all when he offered himself on the cross, the ultimate demonstration of love for humanity. There is no long any need, the Letter to the Hebrews says, to offer sacrifice day after day; Jesus lives forever to make intercession for all who approach God through him, so that all might know the forgiveness of his eternal Father, and respond with love to the Lord who loves all by filling the world with love of neighbor, as Jesus did. 

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

O have pity on my night (Richard Crashaw)

Silence, silence, O vile crowd;
Yea, I will now cry aloud:
He comes near, Who is to me
Light and life and liberty.
Silence seek ye? yes, I’ll be
Silent when He speaks to me, 
He my Hope; ah, meek and still,
I shall ’bide His holy will.
O crowd, ye it may surprise,
But His voice holdeth my eyes:
O have pity on my night,
By the day that gives glad light;
O have pity on my night,
By the day would lose its light,
If it gat not of Thee sight;
O have pity on my night,
By day of faith upspringing bright;
That day within my soul that burns,
And for eyes’ day unto Thee turns.
Lord, O Lord, give me this day,
Nor do Thou take that away. 

--Richard Crashaw (1613-1649),
The Blind Supplicant 

Image & poem source: Christ Healing the Blind Bartimaeus, 17th century panel on oak, https://www.anticstore.art/99340P

Soaking in His eternal love for you (Tom Mulcahy)

   When is the last time you rested in God the Father’s love? When is the last time you sat, so to speak, on His lap (to use an image from Saint Therese of Lisieux she drew from Isaiah 66:12) just soaking in His eternal love for you? It is in the Father’s Heart that we find green pastures and still waters: it is in Him that we renew our soul. God is the Eternally Good Shepherd. 

   Like me, you’ve probably prayed the Our Father a gazillion times, but have you ever stopped just for a moment to rest in the wonderful truth that God really is your Father? He made you. He has known and loved you with an everlasting love (Jeremiah 31:3); and He loves you with the full might of a God Who Is Love (1 John 4:8). We are truly His children (1 John 3:2). Amazing, but true! 

   Saint Francis de Sales calls this resting in God the love of complacency. Since God is Infinite Goodness and Infinite Love, our true rest and delight is in Him. Father Faber defines the love of complacency as, “being content with God. It not only wants nothing more, but it only wants Him as He is…. Complacency fixes its eyes upon what it knows of God with intense delight and with intense tranquility. It rejoices that HE is what HE is. It tells Him so. It tells [Him so] over and over again. Whole hours of prayer pass, and it has done nothing else but tell Him this.” 

-- Tom Mulcahy

Image source: Pamela Suran, The Compassion of Jesus (Bartimaeus), http://www.pamelasuran.com/PorView.aspx?lid=7&itemview=62 

Quotation source

Just another blind Bartimaeus (Katie Reed)

I press through the crowd
Stumbling to find my way
Could this be the day
The day I see Your face
Years and years and years of darkness
Desperation rises
The passersby tell me to be quiet 

Son of David
I'm just another blind Bartimaeus
Don't pass me by, open my eyes 

I feel the ache
The pain that grips so deep
and the tears fly down
Free
Has my life come to this
What happened to the flame in my heart
And the tenderness 

Let my reach, arise
Let my reach, arise 

Refrain 

Son of David!
Son of David! 

Refrain 

To hear Katie Reed perform Bartimaeus, click on the video below.  (Note: You will also hear a narrtor's voice overlaying the video; the stand-alone video was not available for posting.)

Image & video source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnsydI9fQjg

What does your cloak look like? (Fr. Derek Sakowski)

   The cloak of Bartimaeus is so much more than a cloak. It represents a way of life for him – how he had learned to cope and survive in an existence devoid of intimacy, connection, kindness, or care. 

    It is [thus] even more remarkable to me that he leaves his cloak behind – even before Jesus heals him. He recognizes that the cloak – his loyal and faithful companion – is actually an obstacle to real connection. It has hindered him from receiving and will continue hindering if he doesn’t change his ways. More importantly, a desire so intense and deep is welling up in his heart – so strong that it overflows and overpowers his “settling” for survival. He wants to be well! He intuits that Jesus can give him more – so much more. No doubt, he also hears the whispers of his cloak – warning him that he is making a fool of himself, gently enticing him to hide himself away once again and return to the safety of self-protection. But desire wins the day. Bartimaeus not only cries out all the louder; he actually casts aside his cloak and runs up to Jesus. He wants to see. Jesus heals him. He begins following Jesus. 

    What does your cloak look like and feel like? Where in your life do you find yourself hiding or isolating, pulling away from relationships, or preferring the predictable comfort and safety of self-soothing or self-protection? How do you feel about casting aside your cloak and running vulnerably to Jesus to be healed? Do you want to be well? Do you trust that the healing, love, and communion offered by Jesus will be enough? 

--Fr. Derek Sakowski 

To read all of Fr. Sakowski’s remarkable article on “The Cloak of Bartimaeus,” click here. 

Image & quotation source: https://www.abideinlove.com/wp/?p=1690/

Why many have trouble recognizing Jesus (Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez)

      The Son of God was born in a marginal area. He lived with the poor and emerged from among them to inaugurate a kingdom of love and justice. That is why many have trouble recognizing him. 

--Fr. Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928-2024) 

Image source: Thobias Minzi, Christ Healing the Blind (Tanzania), https://pewboy.net/2021/10/21/vision-that-has-nothing-to-do-with-eyesight/
Quotation source

Glimpsing God's invitation (Fr. James Martin)

What do you want me to do for you? 

--Jesus to Bartimaeus, Mark 10:51 

   Sometimes in life, you might find yourself lacking the desire for something that you want to desire. Let's say you are living in a comfortable world with scant contact with the poor. You may say, "I know I'm supposed to want to live simply and work with the poor, but I have no desire to do this." Perhaps you know that you should want to be more generous, more loving, more forgiving, but don't desire it. How can you pray for that with honesty? 

   In reply, Ignatius would ask, "Do you at least have the desire for this desire?" Even if you don't want it, do you want to want it? Do you wish that you were the kind of person that wanted this? Even this can be seen as an invitation from God. It is a way of glimpsing God's invitation even in the faintest traces of desire. 

   Because desire is a key way God speaks to us. 

--Fr. James Martin 

Image source: https://loandbeholdbible.com/2019/06/12/the-healing-of-bartimaeus-mark-1046-52/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 27, 2024: Go on your way: your faith has saved you...

Go your way: your faith has saved you…
What does salvation look like? 

    Most of Jeremiah’s prophecy to the people of Israel was a downer. God sent Jeremiah to tell the people, You can’t win against your enemies, so cut your losses and give up now! But it’s not all gloom and doom. Jeremiah also offers an oracle of restoration: Shout with joy for Jacob – Behold, I will bring them back from the land of the north; I will gather them from the ends of the earth, with the blind and the lame in their midst. God loves God’s people and so God will restore what Assyria had destroyed. Much later, those returning from exile could sing Psalm 126: The Lord has done great things for us; we are filled with joy! Sent home by Cyrus to rebuild their temple, they find their city in ruins, but they know that those who sow in tears shall reap rejoicing! Their salvation lies in the God who loves them infinitely. 

    In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus’ miracles are intended, in part, to teach people what salvation looks like. When blind Bartimaeus cries out, Jesus, son of David, have pity on me, those around him try to silence him. But Bartimaeus is persistent and Jesus restores his sight: Go your way; your faith has saved you, Jesus tells him. While the disciples are still struggling to see their salvation revealed in the person of Jesus, Bartimaeus is ready to see, and immediately follows Jesus on the way. Jesus will continue to deal patiently with the ignorant and the erring. The Letter to the Hebrews reminds us that, begotten by God, Jesus Christ became the Great and Perfect last high priest, he who, offering himself as a sacrifice for sin once and for all, restored access to God to all who believe. We just need to open our eyes and see… for this is true salvation. Shout with joy! 

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

What can suffering produce? (Palapa Gamage)

Did you know that pearls are a product of pain? 

   Every pearl is the result of an oyster that has been wounded by a grain of sand that has entered inside it. An oyster that has not been wounded cannot produce pearls. On the inside of the clam is a substance called "nácar" and when a grain of sand accidentally penetrates the inside of the oyster valves, this covers it with thousands and thousands of layers of nácar to protect itself. As a result, a beautiful and shiny pearl is forming. 

   I have come to think of this fact of nature as a metaphor. Pearls, like tears, are a product of pain and suffering. 

--Palapa Gamage 

Image source: https://mettahu.wordpress.com/2014/03/09/the-lesson-of-the-pearl-and-the-oyster/
Quotation source

How much patience Jesus had! (Pope Francis)

   Let us consider how much patience Jesus had with the disciples: often they did not understand his words (Lk 9:51-56), sometimes they did not get along with each other (Mk 10:41), for a long time they did not succeed in accepting essential aspects of his preaching, for example, service (Lk 22:27). Nevertheless, Jesus chose them and continued to believe in them. This is important, the Lord chose us to be Christians. And we are sinners, we commit one sin after another, but the Lord continues to believe in us. This is wonderful! 

 

--Pope Francis,
March 12, 2024

 

Image source: Jesus' disciples John & James in The Chosen, https://www.thebibleartist.com/post/james-john-in-the-chosen-adapting-biblical-characters
Quotation source

Are you drinking your cup of suffering? (Bishop Robert Barron)

   [In our Gospel this week,] James and John ask Jesus on their behalf for high places of authority in his kingdom. Ah, there is the voice of ambition. Some people don’t care at all about money or power or pleasure—but they care passionately about honor. A lot of people can identify with James and John. They want to go places; they want to be movers and shakers in society. Perhaps a number of people reading this reflection are filled with these emotions. 

   But Jesus turns the tables on them: “You do not know what you are asking.” He is indeed a King, and he will indeed rule Israel, but his crown will be made of thorns, and his throne will be a Roman instrument of torture. 

   And so he tries to clarify: “Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?” The key to honor in the kingdom of God is to drink the cup of suffering, to be willing to suffer out of love, to give one’s life away as a gift. Look at the lives of the saints. It is not about aggrandizing the ego, but emptying it out. 

   Reflect: Are you drinking your cup of suffering alongside Jesus? If so, how do you think and feel about that suffering? 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
March 3, 2021

Image source: https://amdgmagis.blogspot.com/2012/01/holding-lifting-and-drinking-cup.html

Steeped in forgiveness and mercy (Fr. Patrick Michaels)

   To preach, your faith needs to be steeped in forgiveness and mercy. You need to understand just how much it cost to die for your sake, to give life to you by giving up life. It's necessary to have an ongoing experience of repentance, recognizing what is wrong and growing from it. No one travels through life in perfection; we fall daily -- we lose sight of the power of God's love at work in us, and we need to be forgiven so that we can be forgiving. How can you preach repentance unless you know it from the depth of your being, unless you know how much you are loved, and unless you can live from that love? 

--Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Homily, July 11, 2021
 

 

Image source 1: Ludovico Pogliaghi, Pietà / Mercy Seat, Duomo, Milan, Italy, 
http://drfumblefinger.com/blog/2019/09/doors-of-milans-duomo/
Image source 2: Mercy Seat, Eglise St. Pierre de Chaillot, Paris, France, 
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Eglise_Saint-Pierre_de_Chaillot_%40_Paris_%2831253515152%29.jpg 

Show me (Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen)

Show me your hands.
Do they have scars from giving?
Show me your feet.
Are they wounded in service?
Show me your heart.
Have you left a place for divine love? 

--Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen 

Image source: https://ministry-to-children.com/discipline-of-serving/ 

Quotation source

The narrow road of Jesus (Henri Nouwen)

   Suffering and death belong to the narrow road of Jesus. Jesus does not glorify them, or call them beautiful, good, or something to be desired. Jesus does not call for heroism or suicidal self-sacrifice. No, Jesus invites us to look at the reality of our existence and reveals this harsh reality as the way to new life. The core message of Jesus is that real joy and peace can never be reached while bypassing suffering and death, but only by going right through them. 

   We could say: “We really have no choice.” Indeed, who escapes suffering and death? Yet there is still a choice. We can deny the reality of life, or we can face it. When we face it not in despair, but with the eyes of Jesus, we discover that where we least expect it, something is hidden that holds a promise stronger than death itself. Jesus lived his life with the trust that God’s love is stronger than death and that death, therefore, does not have the last word. He invites us to face the painful reality of our existence with the same trust. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: G. W. Dauphinais, Simon Abets Jesus (2016), https://saintbarnabas.org/2016/03/21/the-artists-way-of-the-cross-bill-dauphinais/
Quotation source