Remain in me (Fr. James Martin)

    What might it mean to remain in Jesus today? Well, we can remain or abide or stay in Jesus in three ways, I’d say.

   First, follow his teachings. That is, listen to what he says and put his words into practice. Love. Forgive. Serve the poor. Live the life of the Beatitudes. So remain in him and be faithful to his teachings.

   Second, meditate on his word. There’s a spiritual sense to this as well. Dwell in the Word, in Scripture. Let it be a place that you remain and to which you return in prayer. Also, in an Ignatian sense, think about me, says Jesus. Imagine yourself with me. Remain in me and let me remain in your prayers and in your heart.

   Third, trust in Jesus. There’s a sense that Remain with me means Stay close to me and Don’t worry. It would be as if you were a frightened child and your parent said to you, Oh, just stay close to me. All will be well.
 
   At first Remain in me may sound a little odd. But when we think of it, it’s another beautiful invitation from Jesus addressed to the disciples and to us. It comes from the Jesus who loves us, and who prepares a wonderful world for us, and wants nothing more than for us to come and see.

--Fr. James Martin, SJ
Facebook, April 9, 2014

Image source: https://br.pinterest.com/pin/811140582866038052/

I am the vine, you are the branches (Bishop Robert Barron)

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

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

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

   Much of this is summed up in the oft-repeated patristic adage that God became human that humans might become God. Many of our great theologians and spiritual masters speak unselfconsciously of "divinization"—that is to say, a sharing in the symbiosis that is the Incarnation, as the proper goal of human life. 

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

Image source: https://www.frbill.org/frbillblog/2015/11/questions-about-eucharist-part-ii.html

A life given as gift (Fr. Patrick Michaels / Henri Nouwen)

 

Ours is not meant to be a life of judgment.
 It is not meant to be a life of vengeance.
 It is not to be a life of one-upmanship.
It is to be a life given as gift to all.

 --Fr. Patrick Michaels,
Good Friday Homily 2024 

   It is remarkable how easy it is to bless others, to speak good things to and about them, to call forth their beauty and truth, when you yourself are in touch with your own blessedness. The blessed one always blesses. And people want to be blessed! 

   As the “blessed ones,” we can walk through this world and offer blessings. It doesn’t require much effort. It flows naturally from our hearts. When we hear within ourselves the voice calling us by name and blessing us, the darkness no longer distracts us. The voice that calls us the Beloved will give us words to bless others and reveal to them that they are no less blessed than we. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Loving God, you created all the people of the world and you know each of us by name. We thank you for our pastor, Fr. Patrick Michaels, whose birthday we celebrate today. Bless him with your love and friendship, that he may continue to grow in wisdom, knowledge, and grace. Amen! 

Happy Birthday, Fr. Pat! May you continue to be blessed with a constant awareness of all that God is doing in your life, as you are blessing and source of revelation of his love to us all! 

Image source: El Greco, Christ Blessing (The Saviour of the World), ca. 1600. https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/34183/christ-blessing-saviour-world
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Loving and being loved (Madeleine de Scudéry)

   The pleasure of loving and of being loved fills the heart with infinite sweetness. 

--Madeleine de Scudéry 

Do you know how much God loves you? 

Image source: https://www.momjunction.com/articles/best-funny-quotes-about-friendship-for-kids_00680631/
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Allowing God to prune (Monique Jacobs)

   Have you ever engaged in any bush, tree, or rose pruning? Then you know what lies ahead for the Vine grower. When I prune… I often do so reluctantly, not all that sure that where I place the blade will actually bear the fruit or bring to blossom the glorious rose, as I hope it will! 

    No such fear with God. Seeing the BIG picture, God knows just what to leave and what to remove. The Gospel tells us that God removes BOTH what bears fruit and what does not. “Wait! It’s not supposed to be that way!” 

   Allowing God a free hand to respond to the longing which exists in our deepest heart, will certainly result in an abundance we never knew possible. 

--Monique Jacobs

Image source 1: https://paulchappell.com/2012/08/15/when-god-prunes-dont-resist/
Image source 2:  https://silveroak.com/blog/vine-pruning/
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 25, 2024: Remain in me, as I remain in you...

Remain in me, as I remain in you…

What does it take to remain in Christ? 

    In the midst of the Last Supper Discourse in John’s Gospel, Jesus asks his disciples to remain in him as a branch remains on the vine, so that they might bear much fruit. In every vineyard, pruning and tending is necessary on an ongoing basis, in order to keep the vine alive, generation after generation. God has long tended the vine that is humankind, pruning when necessary, keeping alive what is best in us, taking away that which does not produce any fruit. In the Acts of the Apostles, Saul – not yet called Paul – is no longer persecuting the Church; once outside, he is now inside, and he will remain in Christ even when many try to kill him. That which was not fruitful in Saul has been cut away, leading to a radical conversion. Saul now speaks out boldly in the name of Jesus. One can imagine him praying Psalm 22, I will praise you, Lord, in the assembly of your people. Saul bows down to a power greater than his own; he is subject to God’s will, freely and of his own accord, thanks to his conversion at the word of Christ. 

    Our conversion may not be as radical as St. Paul’s, but we go through conversion daily; it is an ongoing process. We come to Eucharist every week that we might allow Christ in, allow him to be one with us, that he might remain in us and inspire us with his love. We remain in him if we allow the Lord to prune us, to transform us, helping us to be Christ-centered rather than self-centered. In so doing, we must, as the First Letter of John reminds us, believe in the name of God’s Son and love one another. Keeping his commandments is another way that we remain in him and he in us. We must live as he lived and love as he loved, love not in word and speech only, but in deed and in truth, not superficially, but from the depths of our being. If we do so, we will remain in him, the branch to his vine, producing the fruit of his love, daily.

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

Our real journey (Wendell Berry)

When we no longer know what to do,
we have come to our real work,
and when we no longer know which way to go,
we have begun our real journey. 

 --Wendell Berry  

Image source: https://www.thegoodbook.com/blog/interestingthoughts/2020/02/19/what-journeys-tell-us-about-jesus/
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Lord, open my hands (Henri Nouwen)

Dear God, 

I so much want to be in control.
I want to be the master of my own destiny.
Still, I know that you are saying:
“Let me take you by the hand and lead you. 
Accept my love
and trust that where I will bring you,
the deepest desires of your heart will be fulfilled.” 

Lord, open my hands to receive your gift of love. 

 Amen.

 --Henri Nouwen      

 
Image source: https://www.worldchallenge.org/take-jesus%E2%80%99-hand-and-follow 
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Earth as altar (Sr. Joan Chittister / Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer)

Not to save the whole of creation
shrinks our spiritual vision and 
separates us from the wholeness of life.

 --Sr. Joan Chittister 

I want to worship
at the shrine of everywhere,
want to know every inch
of this earth as an altar—
every walk, a pilgrimage.
Every step, a step
from holy to holy
to holy. 

--Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Sacred Ground

May we, on this Earth Day 2024,

begin to pay more attention to our planet 

and its needs as a site of holiness and wholeness!

Image source: Paul Baliker, A Matter of Time (2013), which the sculptor considers “a call to action.” For close-ups of this remarkable piece, visit: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2385560/Paul-Balikers-vast-sculpture-A-Matter-Of-Time-carved-entirely-DRIFTWOOD.html
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The voice of Jesus (Bishop Robert Barron)

 

    In [John’s] Gospel, Jesus declares: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me.” He specifies that he knows intimately those whom he will gather—and that they know him. 

    A good shepherd will be able to recognize clearly which sheep are of his flock, and the sheep themselves will be able to distinguish the voice of their shepherd from the array of voices and sounds that surround them. 

    What is it that leads people to accept Jesus Christ? What is it that appeals to them when they read Scripture or they approach the sacraments? We could say that it is only custom or background or luck that leads them to say yes, but I think that something much deeper is going on. There is a resonance when Christ’s voice is heard precisely because the whole world has been wired to hear it. 

    It’s not unlike the acorn theory of personal development. When a child encounters what they are “meant” to be, somehow it grabs them and chooses them. So it goes with the voice of Jesus. We lost sheep implicitly recognize it and respond. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, May 1, 2023 

Image source: Jesus as the Good Shepherd, mosaic (5th c.), Galla Placidia Mausoleum, Ravenna, Italy, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Galla_Placidia#/media/File:%22The_good_Shepherd%22_mosaic_-_Mausoleum_of_Galla_Placidia.jpg, with a discussion of the Good Shepherd in art at: https://seeinggodinart.wordpress.com/2015/02/06/the-good-shepherd/

Do with me what you will (St. Ignatius of Loyola)

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

My memory, my understanding

And my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace.

That is enough for me.

Amen. 

 --St. Ignatius of Loyola       

To hear Dan Schutte’s song, These Alone Are Enough, based on this Ignatian prayer, click on the video below: 

Image source 1: https://beckyeldredge.com/resisting-jesus-resisting-surrender/
Image source 2: Peter Paul Rubens, St. Ignatius of Loyola (1610-1612), https://www.worldhistory.org/Ignatius_of_Loyola/
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A child of God (Maya Angelou)

   I found that I knew not only that there was a God but that I was a child of God. When I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous. 

 --Maya Angelou 

Image source: https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/2019/2/6/maya-angelou-on-being-christian
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Surrendering (C.S. Lewis)

     Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement; he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry, realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life all over again from the ground floor – that is the only way out of a “hole.” This process of surrender – this movement full speed astern – is repentance. 

--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 

Image source: William Blake, God Judging Adam (1795), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_man#/media/File:God_judging_adam_blake_1795.jpg 

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Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 21, 2024: A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep...

A good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep…

Are you ready to surrender to the will of God? 

    We know that Jesus is often called the Good Shepherd, but what does that mean? In John’s Gospel, Jesus explains, A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. Jesus will die for our sake; he will surrender himself to the Father’s will out of a deep and abiding love for us, his sheep, with whom he feels an intimate connection: I know mine and mine know me, he says. We are baptized into the life that Jesus shares with the Father; he also shares that life with us. And we are not the only ones; Jesus will lay down his life for all sheep, even those who do not belong to his fold. In the process, Jesus will be, in the words of Psalm 118, the stone which the builders rejected that becomes the cornerstone. In its original context, that stone was a reference to the people of Israel, to whom God gave the strength to be victorious, so long as they surrendered to God’s will and held fast to their confidence that his mercy endures forever. 

    In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter will similarly ask that all who hear him preach the good news of salvation surrender to God’s will through belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the Nazorean, for there is no salvation through anyone else, nor is there any other name under heaven given to the human race by which we are to be saved. God works outside our rules, allowing his Son to be rejected and crucified, that we might be saved. In baptism we pass from death into the life we share through Jesus with God. For to be called the children of God is to share in Christ’s resurrected life. This is our first identity, the primary way we are to understand ourselves, though it is not the fulfillment of all the promises. We are still becoming: what we shall be, the First Letter of John reminds us, has not yet been revealed. Our journey toward the fullness of life is predicated on our surrender to the love the Father has bestowed on us, that we may be called the children of God. This is God’s will for us; we have but to open to it. 

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

Christ moves the believer (Bishop Robert Barron)

     Christianity is, first and foremost, a religion of the concrete and not the abstract. It takes its power not from a general religious consciousness, not from an ethical conviction, not from a comfortable abstraction, but from the person of Jesus Christ. 

     It is Christ—in his uncompromising call to repentance, his unforgettable gestures of healing, his unique and disturbing praxis of forgiveness, his provocative nonviolence, and especially his movement from godforsaken death to shalom-radiating Resurrection—that moves the believer to change of life and gift of self. 

  

     And it is the unique Christ—depicted vividly in the poetry of Dante, the frescoes of Michelangelo, the sermons of Augustine, the stained-glass windows of the Sainte Chapelle, and the sacred ballet of the liturgy—who speaks transformatively to hearts and souls across the Christian centuries. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, Gospel Reflection, July 6, 2020 

 

Image source: Michelangelo, Mary & Christ, detail of The Last Judgment, fresco, Sistine Chapel (1537-1541), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_%28Michelangelo%29#/media/File:Michelangelo,_Giudizio_Universale_03.jpg

God's faithfulness (Henri Nouwen)

   The resurrection does not solve our problems about dying and death. It is not the happy ending to our life’s struggle, nor is it the big surprise that God has kept in store for us. No, the resurrection is the expression of God’s faithfulness to Jesus and to all God’s children. Through the resurrection, God has said to Jesus, “You are indeed my beloved Son, and my love is everlasting,” and to us God has said, “You indeed are my beloved children, and my love is everlasting.” The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost — not even our mortal bodies. The resurrection doesn’t answer any of our curious questions about life after death, such as: How will it be? How will it look? But it does reveal to us that, indeed, love is stronger than death. After that revelation, we must remain silent, leave the whys, wheres, hows, and whens behind, and simply trust. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: https://www.iwnsvg.com/2020/04/12/resurrection-sunday-jesus-love-for-souls/
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My goal is to share good news (Sr. Thea Bowman)

   My goal is to share good news. I want people to know that happiness is possible. 

   Traditions and rituals that embody that faith, values, and love have to be worked on, and so we have family histories, memories, prayer, and catechesis, and celebrations as well as family dreams, goals, and plans. In faith we remember our history; we remember that we've come this far by faith. We celebrate that faith in our liturgies. We pass on our values when we dream and plan and work together. We celebrate the love we bear for one another in family fun, being together, enjoying one another, and in family ministry. We minister to our family, we minister within our family, we minister within the Black community. We, as church, minister to our brothers and sisters, wherever we find them. 

--Servant of God Sr. Thea Bowman 

Image source: Br. Mickey McGrath, Sr. Thea Bowman, https://www.loyola.edu/department/campus-ministry/justice/spirituality-sister-thea-bowman
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Bearing witness (Pope Francis)

  Like the first disciples, do not neglect to nourish your life and your apostolate with the Word of God, the Eucharist and prayer. For the mission, like communion, is first and foremost a mystery of Grace. It is not our work, but God's; we do it not alone, but moved by the Spirit and docile to his action. Mission and communion spring from prayer, are shaped day by day by listening to the Word of God - listening in prayer - and have as their ultimate goal the salvation of the brothers and sisters the Lord entrusts to us. Without these foundations, they become empty and end up being reduced to a mere sociological or welfare dimension. And the Church is not interested in providing welfare… helping, yes, but first of all, evangelizing, bearing witness: if you give assistance, let it come from witnessing, not from proselytizing methods. 

--Pope Francis, Audience to the members of

Missionary Institutes in Italy, May 13, 2023 

Image source: Nicolas Poussin, Sts. Peter and John Healing the Lame Man (1655), https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/are-the-acts-of-the-apostles-examples-for-us-to-follow/
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Speak about Christ (Paul Claudel / Daniel J. Harrington SJ)

Speak about Christ only when you are asked,
but live so that people ask about Christ.

 

--Paul Claudel 

   The thrust of Jesus’s teaching is not esoteric, the preserve of the initiated few. Rather it was intended from the start to be public property. 

--Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, Sacra Pagina 

Image source:  https://www.wordonfire.org/articles/barron/how-to-preach-like-the-apostles/
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A community of witnesses (Nichole Flores)

   As we gather and celebrate this Easter, we do so as a community of witnesses. We have encountered Jesus not only in the bright light of midday, but in the confusion before dawn. We have encountered him in the context of our daily lives, in moments of sorrow and in moments of joy. 

   We also gather as a community of testimony, as those witnesses who now proclaim the Good News. 

    As we enter into this season of rejoicing, how can we create space for the practices of witnessing and testifying in our daily lives? How might these practices help us to attend to our confusion, our suffering, and our wounds in the context of our daily lives, in lo cotidiano? And how might these practices help us to hear Jesus’s joyful call, beckoning us to see the face of the Lord crucified and risen who has been with us all along? 

--Nichole Flores 

Image source: Fra Angelico, St. Peter Preaching in the Presence of St. Mark (ca. 1433), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fra_Angelico_-_St_Peter_Preaching_in_the_Presence_of_St_Mark_-_WGA00464.jpg
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 11, 2024: You are witnesses of these things...

You are witnesses of these things…

What story are we to tell? 

    While we know that our salvation is a direct consequence of Jesus’ life, death, and rising, we sometimes forget our responsibility to be witnesses to this core belief of our faith. In Luke’s Gospel, after Jesus has risen from the dead, he appears to his disciples and asks, Have you anything here to eat? Why would Jesus make such a banal request? Jesus wants the disciples to look at his hands and his feet. Touch me and see, he adds, to assure yourselves that I am not a ghost. Jesus wants them to be witnesses of these things, to recount all that they have seen and heard to all who will listen, that all might believe and be saved. 

    This is what Peter goes on to do, as we hear in the Acts of the Apostles: The author of life you put to death, but God raised him from the dead; of this we are witnesses. Peter notes that this is precisely what the prophet Isaiah had proclaimed in the Suffering Servant discourses: God has thus brought to fulfillment what he had announced beforehand, that his Christ would suffer. No one understood this at first; Peter acknowledges that they acted out of ignorance in putting the Messiah to death. But now, thanks to Peter’s witness, the people have the opportunity understand, and so he calls upon them to repent and be converted, that their sins may be wiped away. 

    The death of Jesus was thus necessary for salvation, according to God’s plan, as it demonstrated the depths of God’s love for humankind. God is merciful, and that mercy defines our relationship with God. Psalm 4 reminds us that the Lord does wonders for his faithful ones, letting the light of his countenance shine upon us. We can turn to God and have confidence that he will care for us, as will Jesus, our Advocate with the Father of whom the First Letter of John speaks. Jesus advocates for us because he knows intimately what it means to be human. Jesus knows our struggles; the way we may be sure that we know him is to keep his commandments, because those commandments – to love God and neighbor and self – lead us to him. We are all moving toward a place where we hope the love of God will be perfected in us. This is the good news of salvation, to which we too must be witnesses, that one day the love of God might be truly perfected in all. 

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

The mystery of community (Henri Nouwen)

   Friendship, marriage, family, religious life, and every other form of community is solitude greeting solitude, spirit speaking to spirit, and heart calling to heart. It is the grateful recognition of God’s call to share life together and the joyful offering of a hospitable space where the re-creating power of God’s Spirit can become manifest. Thus, all forms of life together can become ways to reveal to each other the real presence of God in our midst. 

    Community has little to do with mutual compatibility. Similarities in educational background, psychological makeup, or social status can bring us together, but they can never be the basis for community. Community is grounded in God, who calls us together, and not in the attractiveness of people to each other… The mystery of community is precisely that it embraces all people, whatever their individual differences may be, and allows them to live together as brothers and sisters of Christ and sons and daughters of his heavenly Father. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Wangari Mathenge, The Ascendants XI (Homage to Ecclesiastes Three, One Through Eight), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/t-magazine/friendship-art-creative-partnerships.html

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Welcoming his Word (Pope Francis)

     Dear brothers and sisters, the Lord does not seek skilled commentators of the Scriptures, as much as he seeks docile hearts that, welcoming his Word, allow themselves to be changed within. This is why it is so important to be familiar with the Gospel, to always have it at hand — even a small-sized Gospel in our pockets, in our purses to read and reread, to be passionate about it. When we do this, Jesus, the Word of the Father, enters into our hearts, he becomes intimate with us, and we bear fruit in Him. It is not enough to read it and understand that we should love God and our neighbour. It is necessary that this commandment, which is the “great commandment”, resound in us, that it be assimilated, that it become the voice of our conscience. 

--Pope Francis 

Image source: https://www.bibles4mideast.com/home-1/2017/03/05/carry-and-read-the-bible-as-if-it-were-a-mobile-pope-francis
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Be the person who cares (Charlotte Freeman)

   Be the person who cares, even if it's too much. Be the person who loves, be the person who sees the good in each soul you cross paths with. Be the person who spreads kindness. Be the person who checks in on the people who haven't been themselves lately. Be the person who sends a text to someone close to you to let them know you're thinking of them. Be the person who makes your loved ones feel important and appreciated each day. Be the person who listens, someone who understands, someone who is genuinely happy for the people around them, be someone who doesn’t hold others back, but encourages them to grow and be everything they dream to be. Be the person who helps people you care about without hesitation, and who doesn't expect anything in return. Be the person you know you are even though you have been hurt before by being exactly you, by being too loving, too caring, too available. Do not let the actions of others take away the most beautiful qualities you have. Be the person who knows that the only way to attract the exact people who are meant for you is the be exactly who you are. 

--Charlotte Freeman

Image source: James Tissot, The Ointment of the Magdalene (c.1900), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anointing_of_Jesus#/media/File:Brooklyn_Museum_-_The_Ointment_of_the_Magdalene_(Le_parfum_de_Madeleine)_-_James_Tissot.jpg
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Bonds founded on Christ (Terence McGoldrick)

   That humble gratitude for Christ’s love when we were not lovable, our redemption and dignity in God, makes us love mercifully and generously in return. This mercy, St. Francis [de Sales] would often say, should extend not only to our neighbors and our intimates, but also to ourselves. The “gentle struggle of friendship” is all of these; it is the interior life of every Christian. It makes its bonds much more permanent because they are founded on Christ, it makes its intimacy deeper and its day-to-day life gentler and more elastic, and finally, it reaches out, always inviting equals and unequals to share in its medicinal participation in the very intimacy of the Trinity. 

--Terence McGoldrick,
The Sweet and Gentle Struggle:
 Francis de Sales on the Necessity of Spiritual Friendship

Image source: San Rafael Homeless Find Christmas Succor at [St. Vincent de Paul] Dining Room https://www.marinij.com/2017/12/25/san-rafael-homeless-find-christmas-succor-at-dining-hall/

True community (Pauli Murray)

    True community is based upon equality, mutuality, and reciprocity. It affirms the richness of individual diversity as well as the common human ties that bind us together. 

--Pauli Murray 

Image source: https://www.chronicle.com/article/friendships-can-heal-campus-divisions-study-finds-and-administrators-play-a-big-role
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The search for community (Henri Nouwen)

   The search for community is a deeply human search and I have felt that the ideal community remains mostly the object of my hopes and dreams. But I have also experienced that if I keep those hopes and dreams alive, true community will reveal itself in the most unexpected places and times. Somehow, community is first of all a quality of the heart, a quality that touches all those whom you meet in your life, not only your own family, but also the people you work and play with. 

   The source of all community, however, is your most intimate relationship with the Lord because the deeper you enter into communion with him, the more clearly you will find that all those whom you love are hidden in his heart. This truth does not solve all our pains and problems, but it certainly can set us free at times to travel on and to move forward even though our emotions can make us feel very lonely. 

   Keep close to the Bible and taste it to the full. There is a very deep hunger in many people for the life in the Spirit and many people need to be nurtured continuously by the Word of God. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Source of images: J. Bacon & J. Kraus, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, Advent, December 2023, https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.757479833084100&type=3
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Sunday Gospel Reflection, April 7, 2024: The community of believers was of one heart and mind...

The community of believers was of one heart and mind…

How can a Christian community thrive? 

    In the Gospel of John, when Jesus first appears to his disciples after his resurrection, he immediately says, Peace be with you. Breathing on them, Jesus gives them new life in the Spirit, echoing creation when God breathed the breath of life into the man he formed out of the dust of the ground. Like the first man, the disciples will be transformed by this experience of the risen Lord, but the Lord’s primary intention is that they transition from an experience of his physical presence to one in which he will be spiritually present to them, spiritually connected to the community and its members. Jesus therefore first calls them to the peace they need to find in him, that they might thrive and, like Thomas, proclaim their faith, My Lord and my God! 

    It is this peace that will allow the community, in the Acts of the Apostles, to pool their resources, that the Twelve might dedicate themselves to preaching the good news, bearing witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The preaching of the Word is altering the way people live, the way they see themselves and others. The Acts of the Apostles offers an idyllic vision of Christian community, one they strive for, one they try to live fully. Their transformation is fueled by the Word of God, such that they can, as in Psalm 118, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and recognize that his love is everlasting. The community will thrive if they ground themselves first and foremost in the Word of God that is Christ. 

    To be begotten by God is to have received the gift of faith in God through Jesus Christ, the First Letter of John tells us. To love the Father is to love Jesus, and, by extension, to love the Christian community, those begotten through baptism. Our participation in the life, death and resurrection of the Lord by keeping his commandments is a sure way to express our love for God and for all members of the Christian community, and our identity in that community is not static, but dynamic. All are part of this one identity, grounded in the multi-dimensional idea of what it means to belong to God and to be begotten by God. When we experience the Spirit of God at work in us, the Spirit testifies to our faith, to our being begotten, to truth. And most of all, the Spirit breathes life into the community we share in Christ. Only then can we truly thrive! 

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

New life from the ashes (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   The resurrection ultimately is about the transcendent power of God breaking into nature and into our lives and doing for us what we can’t do simply through will-power and positive thinking. It is a power that can rearrange the very atoms inside of our physical bodies, our aching emotions, and our divided world and raise up new life from the ashes. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI
Facebook, April 24, 2019

Image source1: https://brightly.eco/blog/controlled-burns-benefits
Image source 2: https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2021/08/15/a-year-after-fire-burned-santa-cruz-forests-painted-with-green-but-regrowing-takes-time/

Fully known and fully loved (Henri Nouwen)

   We have heard the story of the encounter between Jesus and Mary of Magdala, two people who love each other. Jesus says, “Mary.” She recognizes him and says, “ ‘Rabboni,’ ” which means Master” (John 20:16). This simple and deeply moving story brings me in touch with my fear as well as my desire to be known… 

   Often I am tempted to think that I am loved only as I remain partially unknown. I fear that the love I receive is conditional and then say to myself, “If they really knew me, they would not love me.” But when Jesus calls Mary by name he speaks to her entire being. She realizes that the One who knows her most deeply is not moving away from her, but is coming to her offering her his unconditional love…. Mary feels at once fully known and fully loved. The division between what she feels safe to show and what she does not dare to reveal no longer exists. She is fully seen and she knows that the eyes that see her are the eyes of forgiveness, mercy, love, and unconditional acceptance… 

   What a joy to be fully known and fully loved at the same time! It is the joy of belonging through Jesus to God and being fully safe and fully free. 

--Henri Nouwen 

Image source: Mary Magdalene in the Garden with Jesus, detail of a mosaic, Resurrection Chapel, Washington National Cathedral, https://trinitasblog.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/mary-magdalene-and-the-reversal-of-eden/ Quotation source

Nothing is impossible with God (Fr. James Martin)

   On a daily level, the Resurrection reminds us that no matter how bleak life may seem, things can change. I often think of the disciples on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, cowering behind closed doors, certain that everything is over, nothing good can happen and things are done. Easter shows us that suffering is never the last word and nothing is impossible with God. Nothing. And that is something that should be proclaimed every day! Happy Easter!   

--Fr. James Martin, Facebook

Outreach, April 9, 2023 

Image source: Maurice Denis, Le Mystère de Pâques (Easter Mystery, 1891), with an explanation from the Art Institute of Chicago, https://www.facebook.com/artic/photos/a.60730488149/10159003639318150/?type=3