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
Quotation source

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
Quotation source

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