Healthy Spirituality

Today will see another writing from St. Alberto Hurtado.  Here he speaks about what represents a healthy spirituality.  He was perhaps even ahead of his time a bit, as today many people look in all kinds of direction for spirituality, but fail to look at the right place: the Scriptures!  This hypothesis of mine was confirmed by the most recent Apostolic Exhortation Verbum Domini #86: "The Word of God is at the basis of all authentic Christian spirituality."

What did St. Alberto have to say?  I think what he says is brilliant and true.  Here is what he wrote:

A Healthy Spirituality

Those who are concerned about the spiritual life are not numerous and unfortunately, among them, not all are on a sure path.  How many have made their meditation and their spiritual reading for dozens of years without much benefit?  How many are more concerned about following a method rather than the Holy Spirit?  How many wish to literally imitate the practices of one saint or another?  How many aspire to extraordinary states, to the wonderful, to sensible graces?  How many forget that they are part of suffering humanity and create an egotistic religion that does not remember these brothers and sisters?  How many read and reread the manuals, or search for recipes without ever really understanding the Gospel, without ever remembering Paul? 

For others, the spiritual life is confused with pious practices: spiritual reading, prayer, examen.  The active life comes to be like a band-aid that is applied but is not a prolongation or a preparation for the interior life.  The concerns of ordinary life, the difficulties to be overcome, the duties of our state in life are kept out of prayer: it seems unworthy to mix God with these banalities. 

In this fashion a complicated and artificial spiritual life is forged.  Instead of searching for God in the circumstances where He has placed us, in the profound needs of our own personality, in the circumstances of our temporal and local milieu, we prefer to act as though we were in the abstract.  God and real life never appear together in the same area of thought and of love.  We struggle to maintain an affective sentimentalism toward the divine and with enormous effort we maintain our gaze fixed on God to sublimate ourselves intensely, or, on the contrary, we content ourselves with sugary formulas taken from so called pious books.  All this brings to mind the comment of Pascal: man is neither angel nor beast but he who wishes to be like an angel, acts like a beast.

Even more serious: priests, men of study, who work with the supernatural, preachers who spend their days dedicated to the miseries of their brothers, in aiding them, will try to disassociate themselves from the memory of the poor while they assist at Mass.  Apostles overwhelmed with responsibilities for the Kingdom of God will consider it almost a fault to find themselves distracted by their concerns and anxieties. 

As though all our life should not be oriented toward God, as though thinking about everything for God, weren’t the same as thinking in God; or as if we could liberate ourselves by our own free will from the concerns that God Himself has put before us.  On the other hand, it is so easy, so necessary, to raise ourselves to God, to lose ourselves in Him starting from our own misery, our failures, our great desires.  Why then would we try to cast them from us instead of using them as a springboard? Then let us throw down the bridge of faith, hope and love between our soul and God. 

A healthy spirituality gives all spiritual methods their relative importance but not the exaggerated importance given by some.  A healthy spirituality is one that accommodates itself to individuals and personalities.  It adapts itself to temperaments, to education, culture, experiences, means, states, circumstances, generosity. It takes each one as he is, in his full human life, in the midst of temptation, in his work, in all his obligations.  The Spirit blows wherever it pleases;  you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going (cf. Jn 3,8); it uses each one for its divine ends respecting the personal development of each, for the construction of the great collective work that is the Church.  Every person serves a purpose in this march of humanity towards God; all find their tasks in the construction of the Church; the work of each one, which is dear to God, will be revealed in the circumstances in which God has placed them and by the light given to them at each moment.  The only spirituality that suits us is the one which introduces us into the divine plan, in accord with our own dimensions, in order to realize this plan in total obedience.   

Any method that is too rigid, any direction that is too absolute, any substitution of the letter for the spirit, any failure to take into account one’s individual reality, will achieve nothing more than to decrease one’s progress toward God.

Any method imposed with uniformity will prove to be false.  Likewise will prove false all those methods that pretend to lead us to God by making us forget our brothers and sisters; all that causes us to shut our eyes to anything beyond the universe instead of teaching us to open them in order to elevate all to the Creator of all being; all those that make us egoists, folded back upon ourselves; all those that pretend to frame our lives from the outside without penetrating us interiorly in order to transform us; all those that give humans the advantage over God . 

When we compare the Gospel to the lives of the majority of us, we as Christians feel uncomfortable. The majority of us have forgotten that we are the salt of the earth, the light on the candlestick, the yeast in the mass (cf. Mt 5, 13-15).  The breath of the Spirit does not animate many Christians; rather a spirit of mediocrity consumes us.  There are among us active people, too active, perhaps agitated is a better word; however the causes that consume us are not the cause of Christianity.  

After looking at oneself over and over and at what one finds around oneself, I take the Gospel, turn to St. Paul and here I find a Christianity that is all fire, all life, all conquering; a true Christianity that takes all of a person, that rectifies all of life, that exhausts all activity.  It is like an incandescent river of burning lava that gushes from the very depths of religion.

Surrender to the Creator! In every devout spiritual path there is always the beginnings of the gift of oneself.  If we multiply the readings, the prayers, the examens without arriving finally at the gift of oneself, this is a sign that we have failed. Before any practice, method or exercise a generous and universal offering of one’s entire being, all that one has and possesses is demanded.  The secret of all progress is in this complete offering of oneself, an act of the spirit and of the will, whereby we are brought into contact with God in faith and love.

St. Alberto Hurtado

I find it difficult to believe that an entire week has gone by without me posting anything, but the date on my previous post doesn't lie!!!  Anyway, I have been fairly busy, because a French Passionist priest friend of mine from Lourdes is here visiting in Rome.  I have been attempting to help him around and visit a few sites with him.  I know... excuses, excuses.  As it is attributed to St. Bernard of Clairvaux as saying: "Hell is paved with good intentions."  Therefore, no more excuses!

Today, in my studies, I randomly came across a saint of whom I was very unfamiliar: St. Alberto Hurtado.  I fell in love with the man very quickly reading some of his writings.  He was a Chilean Jesuit who died in 1952.  I would like to share with you today one of those writings which I read.  Let us beware of the erroneous ways of imitating Christ.

"Our Imitation of Christ

Talk given to professors and students at a 1940 conference at Catholic University.

All sanctification consists in knowing Christ and in imitating him. The entire Gospel and all the saints are filled with this ideal, which is the Christian ideal par excellence. To live in Christ; to be transformed into Christ… St. Paul tells us: “I had no thought of bringing you any other knowledge than that of Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1Cor 2,2)… “I live now not I but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2,20).  The task of all the saints is to achieve the Pauline ideal to live the life of Christ, in the measure of their capabilities and in accord with the graces given to each. To imitate Christ, meditate on his life and follow his example… The most popular book in the Church after the Gospels is the Imitation of Christ, but in how many different ways this imitation has been understood!

A. Erroneous ways of imitating Christ

1. For some, the imitation of Christ is reduced to a study of the historical Jesus.  They search for the historical Christ and stay with this. They study him. They read the Gospel, investigate the chronology, study the customs of the Jewish people… And their study, more scientific than spiritual, is cold and inert. The imitation of Christ for them is reduced to a literal copy of his life. But it is not this. No: “The spirit is life giving; the letter kills” (2Cor 3,6).

2. For others, the imitation of Christ is rather a speculative affair. They see in Jesus a great legislator; one who solves all the human problems, the sociologist par excellence; the artist who delights in nature, who is pleased to be with the little ones… For some, he is an artist, a philosopher, a reformer, a sociologist and they contemplate him, admire him but do not change their lives because of him. Christ remains only in their intelligence and in their sensitivity, but has not pervaded their lives. 

3. Another group, believing that they imitate him, concern themselves only with the observance of his commandments, being faithfully observant of divine and ecclesiastical law. They are scrupulous in the practice of fasting and abstinence. They contemplate the life of Christ as a prolonged duty and our lives as a duty that prolongs that of Christ. To the laws given by Christ, they add others to fill the voids in such a way that all life becomes a continuous set of obligations and duties, a rule of perfection in total ignorance of liberty of spirit.  

The focus of their attention is not Christ but sin. The essential sacrament of the Church is not the Eucharist, nor baptism but confession. Their only concern is to flee sin.  For them, the imitation of Christ means to escape bad thoughts, to escape all danger, limit the liberty of the world and be suspicious of evil intentions in all the events of life. No, this is not the imitation of Christ that we propose.  This could well be the attitude of the Pharisees but not that of Christ.

4. For yet others, the imitation of Christ is apostolic activism, a multiplication of efforts to give direction to the apostolate, a continuous movement to create ever more works, to multiply meetings and associations. Some situate the triumph of Catholicism purely in political attitudes.  For others, the accent is on torchlight processions, monster meetings, the founding of a periodical… I say that these things are not necessarily the answer. All things are necessary but these are not what is essential to Catholicism. 

B. The True Solution   

In the first place, our religion does not consist in a reconstruction of the historical Christ; nor a purely metaphysical, sociological or political Christ; nor is it only a cold and sterile struggle against sin; nor is it primarily an attitude of conquest. Neither does it consist in doing what Christ did, our civilization and conditions of life are so different!

Our imitation of Christ consists in living the life of Christ, in having this inner and outer attitude that in all things we are conformed to Christ, doing what Christ would do if he were in my place.

The first thing essential if we are to imitate Christ is to be assimilated into him by grace, which is participation in the divine life. Consequently, one should esteem above all else baptism, which initiates us into divine life, the Eucharist, which sustains it and gives us Christ and penance for its recovery when lost. 

Possessing this life, we must endeavor to put it into action in all the circumstances of life through the practice of all the virtues which Christ practiced, in particular charity, the virtue most loved by Christ. 

The historical incarnation necessarily restricted Christ and his divine-human life to a limited space and time. The mystical incarnation which is the Mystical Body of Christ, the Church, does away with all restrictions and amplifies itself to include all times and places where there are baptized. The divine life appears throughout the world. The historical Christ was a Jew and lived in Palestine in the time of the Roman Empire. The mystical Christ is Chilean, French, German, African… and lives in the 20^th century… He is a teacher, a merchant, an engineer, lawyer, worker, prisoner or a king… He is all Christians who live in the grace of God, aspire to integrate their lives in the norms of the life of Christ, in their most secret aspirations. And to aspire always to do whatever one does as Christ would do it were he in one’s place. To teach engineering, the law… as Christ would do it… to perform surgery with the delicacy of Christ…, to treat one’s students with the gentle, loving and respectful firmness of Christ, to interest oneself in them as Christ would were he in one’s place. To travel as Christ would travel, to pray as Christ used to pray, to behave in politics, economy, in your domestic life as Christ would.

This supposes a knowledge of the Gospels and of Church tradition and a struggle against sin, it includes metaphysics, esthetics, sociology, and an ardent spirit of conquest… but not a primal dependence on them.  If one fails, humanly speaking, if success does not crown the apostolate, one must not grow impatient.  The only defeat consists in failing to be Christ because of apostasy or sin.

This is the Catholicism of a Francis of Assisi, of Ignatius and Xavier and of so many young and not so young who live their daily lives as married couples, teachers, single men and women, students, religious, athletes, politicians, with the criterion of being Christ. These are the beacons that convert souls and save nations."

I found this to be an astute evaluation of Christianity today, even though it was written 70 years ago!  May we become the saints God wants us to become: the beacons that convert souls and save nations!

Immaculate Conception

Feast Day

Today is the beautiful feast of the Immaculate Conception.  It was on this day 9 years ago that the Mission Society of Mandeville was founded in Bull Savannah by Bishop Boyle.  What a memorable day that was!  May the Blessed Virgin Mary continue to guide our little religious family there where Her Son wants us to be!  May we always be faithful sons of the Church and devoted servants of Her Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart.  Please pray for the Mission Society, for vocations to the Society, and for the holiness of its members.

Seeing their faith!

Is 35, 1-10, Ps 84, Lk 5, 17-26

What I found extremely interesting about today's gospel (and, for some reason, this had never really struck me before) is that Jesus tells the paralyzed man that his sins are forgiven after "seeing their faith", i.e., the faith of those who were carrying him on his cot.  In other words, it seems that Luke is trying to say that people's sins can be forgiven by God after seeing the faith of others.  This is another great sign of hope.  By our simple acts of faith, as simple as helping someone in their illness, we can help move God to forgive others their sins.  Jesus had said that if we had faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains... certainly the forgiveness of sins by God is much greater than moving mountains.  Let us ask daily for an increase of faith!

Gift giving!

Readings for 2nd Sunday of Advent: Is 11:1-10, Ps 71, Rm 15:4-9, Mt 3, 1-12
Of course, Italy has little meditation books for everyday of the week like Magnificat which exists in France and the US.  I liked the thought behind the meditation book which I have.  It talks about gift giving.  You, like myself, might think it kind of strange to be talking about giving gifts on the 2nd Sunday of Advent, but I liked the thought.  Here is a kind of summary of what is written in "Messa Meditazione".

When we think about giving gifts, we are forced to think about the person to whom we want to give the gift.  We want to please that person, so we choose something we think he/she likes and/or needs.  In order for this gift to "function", a couple of things have to happen.  First, the giver must know the other person in order to think of just the right gift.  Secondly, the receiver has to be disposed to receive/accept the gift.  This happens also in our meetings with God.  His desire to give Himself to us must be met with our readiness to accept His gift.  This readiness, in today's gospel, is called "conversion".  The Greek term "metanoia" evokes a "change of mind" or "change of perspective".  The change to which we are called is to accept that the gift of the love of God isn't won or merited, but must be received and welcomed by us.

Therefore, let us welcome the love of God as He presents Himself to us in our day-to-day lives: in our struggles, our joys... in everything.  Let us think of one aspect of our life that needs much "conversion".  Let's ask God to help us change this aspect for the better so that we can love Him more and serve Him better.

"Oh God, I Love You"

Since today is the memorial of St. Francis Xavier, co-patron of the Missions, I thought it would be a good idea to share this video with my readers. My we learn to love God like Francis did and may our love carry us to bring that message of love to the ends of the earth. O God, increase our love for you. O Mary, you who love your Son the most, teach me to love God with your maternal love and care.

Advent reading

As my readers may have noticed, I have trying to comment on the daily Scripture readings for Advent.  Today, however, I would just like to recommend a little Advent "penance".  Why don't we all take up the latest Apostolic Exhortation on the Word of God, "Verbum Domini" and try to complete it during this Advent season.  Perhaps it will be an eye-opener for some of us, for others, an occasion to become more familiar with their Bibles, and, for others, a simple rediscovery of their Christian roots.  Happy Advent reading to all!

Compassion for all

Dec. 1 (Is 25: 6-10 and Mt 15: 29-37)

I find that there is a link between today's readings and a topic that we recently looked at in our Sacraments class: that of the fate of unbaptized children who die without receiving baptism.  Isaiah says, "Look, this is our God, in him we put our hope that he should save us, this is Yahweh, we put our hope in him.  Let us exult and rejoice since he has saved us."  Jesus says in today's gospel, "I have compassion on the crowd, because they have been with me now three days, and have nothing to eat..."  In 2007, the International Theological Commission made a fairly lengthly study on this topic of the fate of unbaptized infants who die without being baptized. The end result of the report is that we cannot say with any certainty what happens.  However, there are grounds for great hope that there is a way in which God can also save these infants... even perhaps aborted fetuses.

In looking at this issue, it is necessary to keep in mind 2 great guiding principles: 1. the necessity of baptism - "unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." (Jn 3:5) and 2. the infinite mercy of God - in today's gospel, compassion comes from a Greek word which literally means "innards" or "intestines".  The people of that age felt, and quite correctly so, that true compassion and mercy is something we feel stirring inside us.  When we stop to think about it, if we, who are humans and so frail, can oftentimes muster up compassion in the face of situations which we believe to be unjust or intolerable, how much more can God who is infinitely just and compassionate!  There lies our hope.  "In him, we put our hope that he should save us!"  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, in #389, that the "doctrine of original sin is, so to speak, the 'reverse side' of the Good News that Jesus is the Savior of all men, that all need salvation, and that salvation is offered to all through Christ.  The Church, which has the mind of Christ, knows very well that we cannot tamper with the revelation of original sin without undermining the mystery of Christ."  So, this document gives a few possible ways one might conceive of circumventing the first guiding principle I mentioned above, the necessity of baptism.  I don't have time here to go through all the possible solutions, but just wanted to offer that great virtue of hope to all who might be tempted to despair in the face of troubling situations.  The Church always asks us to pray and ask for God's infinite mercy.  May we continue to be a people of hope when we bring all these souls to the altar at Mass!

Follow back a me!

Jamaicans have this cute expression: "Follow back a me."  On this feast of St. Andrew, one of the apostles, this is what Jesus basically asks him (and us) to do, "Follow back a me!"  During my meditation this a.m., I wondered what on earth must have made Jesus so special that Andrew, Peter, James and John immediately left everything to follow him.  Notice that the adverb immediately is repeated in today's reading (Mt 4, 18-22).  What did they see in him?  What made him so attractive that would make them ready to leave everything behind?  Whatever it was, he must have exuded such a sweet perfume of holiness, joy, peace, innocence, trustworthiness, and, above all, charity.  It must have been apparent that he was a virtuous man.  Otherwise, why would they have left their livelihood to follow this man? I don't think they yet realized this man was God at this stage.  They, like others in Israel, were looking and waiting for a Messiah, but what kind of Messiah were they expecting?  What kind of Messiah are we expecting to find at the end of this Advent season?  Do we recognize Jesus in our everyday lives and in the persons we meet?  Do we meet Him in the Scriptures and in the breaking of the bread?  I invite my readers to take up the Scriptures daily and meditate on them so as to discover Jesus working in your daily life.  As Paul says to the Romans in today's first reading, "Whoever confesses with his mouth that 'Jesus is Lord' and believes in his heart that God raised Him from the dead, he will be saved."

Waiting!

Our Holy Father gave a beautiful reflection at the Angelus yesterday on Advent and the theme of waiting.

"Today, the first Sunday of Advent, the Church begins a new liturgical year, a new journey of faith that, on one hand, remembers the event of Jesus Christ and, on the other, opens onto its ultimate fulfillment. It is precisely in this double perspective that the season of Advent is situated, both looking to the first coming of the Son of God, when he was born of the Virgin Mary, and to his glorious return, when he will come "to judge the living and the dead," as we say in the "Credo." I would now like to reflect briefly on this suggestive theme of "waiting" (attesa), because it involves a profoundly human reality in which the faith becomes, so to say, completely one with our flesh and our heart.
Our whole personal, familial and social existence passes through this dimension of waiting. Waiting is something that is present in a 1,000 situations, from the smallest and most banal to the most important, which draw us in completely and in the deepest way. Among these, we think of a husband and wife waiting for a child; of waiting for a relative or friend who is coming from far away to visit us; we think of a young person waiting to know his grade on a major exam or the outcome of a job interview; in romantic relationships, of waiting to meet the beloved person, of waiting for a letter, or of receiving forgiveness... One could say that man is alive so long as he waits, so long as hope is alive in his heart. And man is able to recognize that what he waits for and what he hopes for discloses something about his moral and spiritual "stature."
Everyone of us, therefore, especially in this season in which we prepare for Christmas, can ask himself: What am I waiting for? For what, in this moment of my life, does my heart long? And this same question can be posed at the level of the family, of the community, of the nation. What are we waiting for, together? What unifies our aspirations, what do they have in common? In the time before Jesus' birth the expectation of the Messiah -- that is, of an Anointed one, a descendent of King David, who would have finally liberated the people from every moral and political slavery and have founded the Kingdom of God -- was very strong in Israel. But no one could have imagined that the Messiah would be born from a humble girl like Mary, the betrothed of the just man Joseph. Not even she could have thought of it, and yet in her heart the longing for the Savior was so great, her faith and hope were so ardent, that he was able to find in her a worthy mother. After all, God himself had prepared her before all time. There is a mysterious correspondence between the waiting for God and the waiting for Mary, the creature "full of grace," totally transparent to the plan of love of the Most High. Let us learn from her, the woman of Advent, to live with a new spirit in our daily gestures, with the sentiment of a profound expectation that only the coming of God can fulfill."

In today's gospel (Mt 8, 5-11), we hear the Roman centurion say, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed."  Isn't a marvel that the words of a pagan soldier are still used daily throughout the world in the liturgy of the Catholic Church in the Eucharist?  It makes one think about what we heard yesterday (or someday last week!): "People will come from the East and the West and take their place in the Kingdom of Heaven..."  Today's opening prayer was also beautiful in this respect:

Lord God, Father of all,
in your Son, Jesus Christ,
you invite everyone and all to know and love you and to live in your unending peace.
Keep alive in us the zeal
to bring the light of your truth
and the riches of your life and love to all,
without any distinction
of race, language, or culture.
May everyone on earth come to know you 
as the merciful Father of all
through our brother and Savior,
Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Advent: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ

Alas, Advent is already upon us.  We are invited in today's liturgy to stay awake and to put on the "armor of light", i.e., to "put on the Lord Jesus Christ".  I found on a nice meditation on this beginning of the Advent Season on a blog posted by the American Dominicans.  I share it with you and then I will end with a comment of my own.

For the first part of Advent, the emphasis is on the Second Coming of the Lord.  The first Advent preface, used during the first part of Advent, recalls our Lord's first coming at His birth over two millennia ago, but more heavily stresses His Second Coming.  We are told that the Son of God humbled Himself to come among us as a man (Advent Preface I).  But as quickly as we remember the Christ who has already come, this first preface points to the Christ who will come again.  For, we watch for the day, hoping that the salvation promised us will be ours when Christ our Lord will come again in His glory (Advent Preface I).  By recalling the first coming of Christ, the coming that we will joyfully celebrate at Christmas, we gain confidence that Christ has not abandoned us but will come again.

From the earliest days, followers of Christ, like St. Paul, have watched for the Lord's Second Coming (see 1 Thes 1:10).  We know that the Lord did not come in glory during the lifetime of St. Paul.  Were St. Paul's preparations in vain?  Advent's first preface says that we are to watch for the day of Christ's coming in glory.  Will our preparations for the Second Coming be in vain?  Our efforts would not be in vain if we realize that in order to prepare our hearts to welcome the Lord . . . we must learn to recognize His presence in the events of daily life (JP II).  The first part of Advent calls us to watch for the coming of our Lord at every moment of our lives.  It is by recognizing Him who continuously comes in every aspect of our lives that we are drawn into deeper communion with our Lord who will come in glory. 

The readings for this First Sunday of Advent show us the way to recognize Him who continuously comes.  The Gospel of the First Sunday implores us:  Stay awake!  For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.  For at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come (Mt 24:42, 44).  We do not know the day or the hour, but the only way to watch for the Lord is by staying awake.  To be awake and watchful for the One who is to come means to be awake and watchful for the One who continuously comes.  In order to stay awake, we cannot live in darkness.  If we live in darkness, we will fall asleep and not recognize the Christ who continuously comes.  This darkness can only be dispelled with the Light of Christ which enables us to stay awake and recognize Him who continuously comes.  It is in this way that, in the second reading, St. Paul tells the Romans and us tothrow off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us conduct ourselves properly as in the day, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and lust, not in rivalry and jealousy (Rom 13:12-13).  The Light of Christ becomes our armor with which we are able to throw off whatever works of darkness are in our lives so that we may live in the light.  By living in the light, we will be able to stay awake and see Him who continuously comes and be prepared to receive Him who will come again. 

My spiritual director gave me an interesting little "job" to do at the beginning of this Advent season which I invite my readers to try as well.  Today, I am to write a letter to God stating all the intentions I have in my heart and then place that in a sealed envelope only to be opened at the end of the liturgical year, Christ the King, in 2011.  This will allow me to see the "marvels the Lord has done for me" over the course of the year.  I had better get started because I have a lot of things to say to the Lord!!!  Happy Advent Season!

Birthdays, thankfulness, sadness, and fortitude

Today I must give God thanks for my 37 years of life which I have now completed.  I must admit, however, that this time of the year is almost always the time when I most miss my family.  I have never quite figured out why.  I suppose it's a mixture of diverse factors.  My birthday always falls around Thanksgiving which is truly a familial celebratory time of the year.  Perhaps, it is just psychological and, when it's your birthday, you just have to think about from whence you came.  I really don't know.  I know that, for others who, like me, have left all to follow Christ, Christmas was oftentimes the most difficult time of the year in terms of "homesickness".  However, that usually wasn't the case for me.  That strange feeling of loneliness creeps up most at this time of the year for me.  Maybe I am just weird!!!

Today is also the feast of a whole slew of martyrs from Vietnam.  It is estimated that, over a period of about 250 years from the 17th to the 19th century, 130,000 Christians would have been martyred.  Only 117 of these have officially been canonized, but this is certainly a staggering amount.  This kind of witness certainly beckons a question from us... how great is our faith?  Are we willing to die for it?  We are invited by today's gospel (Lk 21: 12-19) to meditate on this.  Jesus said that this "will be a time for you to bear testimony".  That "bear"ing "testimony" is exactly the Greek word from which we get the English martyr.  "You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's sake.  But not a hair of your head will perish.  By your endurance you will gain your lives."  I guess we have to be ready for any and all eventualities.  Let us pray that God may grant us the faith that, if we might ever be called to give our lives for His name, we would be ready and willing to do so.... let's ask for an increase in the virtue of fortitude!  Maybe one of these years, I will be able to overcome my "loneliness" at this time of the year with an extra dose of fortitude!!!

Turning towards the Lord!

Recently, thanks to a suggestion from a confrere of mine to read a blog from the Papal Nuncio of the Caribbean, I have been meditating (pondering) on what the Second Vatican Council meant when it stated in Sacrosanctum Concilium #14, "Mother Church earnestly desires that all the faithful should be led to that fully conscious, and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy."  After having had my curiosity piqued by the reading of the blog from the Papal Nuncio, I proceeded to read a book entitled, "Turning Towards the Lord: Orientation in Liturgical Prayer" by Uwe Michael Lang.  Not wanting to overburden you with my nonsensical reasoning, I will present here an article I found on the internet by a Fr. Coulter.  He gives a broad overview of the discussion on orientation of the priest and he echoes my thoughts.  I reproduce it here for you.  This priest did his homework and gives several references to articles, homilies and books by others, including a certain Cardinal Ratzinger... I wonder who he is!!!


Besides the change in the Mass after the Second Vatican Council, we have learned that Latin is still used by the Church and has a proper place in our worship. Therefore I want to discuss a second change made after 1965, the direction which the priest faces during Mass. We will examine three points: one, what is the teaching of the Church about the orientation of the priest at Mass; two, what is some of the history and tradition of the priest facing toward the East; three, what can the priest's position teach us about the Mass and our participation in it.
What does the Church teach about the priest's orientation at Mass? After the Second Vatican Council, one most evident change was the construction of freestanding altars. The celebration versus populum (towards the people) was adopted throughout the Latin Church, and it became the prevailing practice during Mass for the celebrant to stand behind the altar facing the congregation. This has led to a widespread misunderstanding that the priest's "turning his back on the people" is characteristic of the Tridentine rite, the old Latin Mass of Pope Saint Pius V; whereas the priest's "turning towards the people" belongs to the New Mass of Pope Paul VI. It is also widely thought that the celebration of Mass "facing the people" was required, even imposed, by the liturgical reform of Vatican II.
In reality, the Council did not even mention the issue, only an instruction afterwards said it was desirable to set up a main altar separate from the back wall, so that the priest can walk around it and a celebration facing the people is possible. Contrary to what often took place, the Church never instructed that the old high altars should be torn down, rather that a freestanding altar should be present in the sanctuary - perhaps in addition to the high altar.
The Sacramentary we use, the Missal of the renewed Mass, it gives the instruction at several points during Mass that the priest should turn towards the people.* In order for the priest to turn towards the people, this implies that beforehand the priest and people were facing a common direction, that is, towards the altar for the core of the Eucharistic liturgy.
In summary, the Church teaches that it is legitimate and often advisable for the priest to celebrate Mass facing the people, but the Church has never forbidden or excluded that possibility that a priest can celebrate Mass facing the other direction, something the sacramentary envisions.
So why did the priest used to always celebrate Mass facing the other direction? What is the reason for this orientation?
The first thing to remember is that the Eucharistic sacrifice is offered to the one and triune God, just as all Christian prayer is an act of worshipping God. So how this can be communicated most fittingly in liturgical gesture? When we speak to someone, we obviously face that person. Accordingly, if whole liturgical assembly, priest and people, face the same way, they turn towards God to whom prayers and offerings are addressed in this common act of worship. It is a mistaken idea that in this case the celebrating priest is facing "towards the altar", "towards the tabernacle", or even "towards the wall". (cf. Ratzinger, Feast of Faith: Approaches to a Theology of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 139-143)
I have often heard the phrase that Mass is being celebrated with the priest "turning his back on the people". This is confusing theology with physical position. The crucial point is that the Mass is a common act of worship where priest and people together, representing the pilgrim Church, reach out for the transcendent God. The priest isn't turning his back on the people; he is joining the people in prayer. At Mass, all of us are praying together to God through Jesus Christ. Whether the priest celebrates towards the people or not, all of us - both you and me - are turned towards God as our first spiritual movement in prayer.
The physical position must be distinguished from the interior spiritual orientation of all. It would be a grave error to imagine that the principal orientation of the sacrificial action is towards the community. (CDW, 25 September 2000, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estévez)
Notice that during the Eucharistic prayer, the prayers are not addressed towards you - but to the Father. At that moment in the Mass, the priest is not speaking to the faithful; he is offering prayer to the Father as a representative of the entire Church.
This is why, since the earliest times, Mass has been celebrated with both the people and priest facing the same direction, ad orientem, toward the East. Even after Churches were built where it was not literally possible to face East, then at least symbolically the priest and people were turned toward the Lord. It had nothing to do with trying to obstruct people's view of what is happening, or of the priest turning his back on the people. Nor is it even primarily for the sake of facing the altar or tabernacle. Rather, when the priest and faithful together face the same way, it manifests our common act of worship; it symbolizes our common pilgrimage toward the returning Lord, the Sun of Justice and our hope in the resurrection and the world beyond the here-and-now, our pilgrimage to the Promised Land.
The priest and people can both face the same direction. And celebrating ad orientem, the Eastward position, is both biblical and patristic and has been done throughout the history of the Church. So what can this teach us about the Mass?
Pope Benedict XVI addressed the topic in a Wednesday audience saying how liturgy evokes the mystery of the transcendent God: "a joyful celebration which includes, on the one hand, the adoring people, the liturgical assembly, and on the other, the Lord Who returns and is again present and active... The heart of the liturgy is in this intersection between priests and faithful on one side, and the Lord and His might on the other." (Pope Benedict audience 9/14/05, 3)
As he put it the next Wednesday audience, the liturgy is where "God and man meet each other in an embrace of salvation". (Pope Benedict audience 10/5/05, 3)
The Mass is to have the sense of an ordered, solemn ceremony addressed to God. There is what we call a vertical dimension - that mystery of the transcendent God. Although ordained to administer the sacraments, it is not the priest who gives grace; it is not I who shed my blood on the cross. When the priest faces the congregation, we can forget or misunderstand that only Christ is the source and giver of all grace. ad orientem avoids focusing attention on the personality and mannerisms of the celebrant and reminds us that the priest stands at the altar in persona Christi, offering the Sacrifice of Christ on Calvary.
Again we can ask: what is full and active participation in the Mass? Yes, participation includes external actions, like reading and singing. But external actions are secondary to out interior action of prayer. Cardinal Ratzinger, before being elected pope said: "Doing really must stop when we come to the heart of the matter: prayer (the oratio). It must be plainly evident that prayer (the oratio) is the heart of the matter, but that it is important precisely because it provides a space for the action (actio) of God. Anyone who grasps this will easily see that it is not now a matter of looking at or toward the priest, but of looking together toward the Lord and going out to meet him." (Ratzinger, The Spirit of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2000), 174)
Theologically, the Mass includes God speaking to his people (versus populum), especially during the Liturgy of the Word. But today, during the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we can recall that the Mass is directed at the same time towards God (ad orientem). We now know that the Church allows us to continue this long tradition of priest and people facing the same direction, for together we join in offering our prayer to the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit. To Jesus Christ be all praise and glory forever.
* The parts of Mass in which the priest faces the Congregation are: The Sign of the Cross, Opening Greeting, and Penitential Rite; Orate Fratres; Pax Domini; Ecce Agnus Dei; Final Blessing and Dismissal.

"Of men and gods"

On Wednesday p.m., I went to see the movie "Des hommes et des dieux" which is the story about the 7 Cistercian monks who were kipnapped and murdered in Algeria back in 1996.  It is, indeed, a powerful movie which demonstrated well the struggles, yet the enduring faith, of these men.  They were truly pastors of the flock entrusted to them.  In this case, most of the surrounding villagers were Muslim.  That did not stop them from being there for them and witnessing their faith.  Overall, it was a very lovely movie encouraging those watching the movie to grow in their love for God and for all humankind.

Tomorrow is the feast of Christ the King and the gospel is one of my favourites... the thief on the cross asking to be "remembered" when Jesus comes into His Kingdom.  Bishop Sheen liked to say that the thief remained a thief until his dying breath for he stole heaven!  I think all of us can empathize with the "good thief" for we all find ourselves as lowly and sinful creatures when we come before Almighty God.  However, He lets Himself be "stolen".  This is the one time we are allowed to steal!!!  One cannot but marvel at this "good thief" who sees, at least by human standards, a fellow "criminal" being crucified like him, yet is able to recognize the divinity of the Incarnate Christ.  May we have the faith to contemplate the Crucified Christ and ask Him to remember us in our day-to-day lives, so that we may, one day, come to be with Him for life everlasting!  Mary, help us grow daily in love for Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ!

Come down out of that tree!

Lk 19:1-10

"Zacchaeus, make haste and come down; for today it is necessary for me to stay in your house." How often do we invite the Lord to stay in our inner "house", to take up his dwelling there. And yet, by our very baptism, that is what Christians are, and that is what they are called to be, temples of the Holy Spirit... even more, temples of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit! How should we live this reality? Perhaps the answer is in the following words from Scripture: "So he made haste and came down, and received him joyfully." Our attitude towards others must always be one of joy, even in the midst of persecution and suffering. If you click on the link below, you will be taken to short video which hopefully will solicit your perseverance in praying for those Christians who are being persecuted throughout the world still today, and also may it help increase our fortitude in times of trial. Lord, may we grow in the virtue of fortitude so that we will be strong enough to defend our faith, even until death!

We are the Christians of Iraq

Key points from Pope's “Verbum Domini” on the Bible

Key points from Pope's “Verbum Domini” on the Bible

Verbum Domini and other things!

Wow!  I had not realized it had been that long since I last posted.  Time has really been flying by!

There are just a couple of small matters I would like to bring up today.  In today's gospel (Lk 18:35-43), the blind man from Jericho asks in Greek, "that I may see up!"  That is if one were to translate it literally.  In this case, it obviously has the meaning of seeing again or anew, but the actual word used could also, in other contexts, mean "look up", as in the direction.  I reflected on that this morning during my meditation.  Over the years, we oftentimes let bad habits, or worries, or just simply human errors and our own little pat ways of doing things accumulate and eventually let them "blind" us from seeing reality, as it should be seen, i.e. through God's eyes.  That is why we always need to "look again" at the gospel and "look up" at Jesus on the cross.  In Verbum Domini, the newly released Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Benedict XVI to all the faithful, our Holy Father states, "The Word of God makes us change our concept of realism: the realist is the one who recognizes in the word of God the foundation of all things.  This realism is particularly needed in our own time, when many things in which we trust for building our lives, things in which we are tempted to put our hopes, prove ephemeral." (10)  That is why I have been using the readings of each day for my morning meditation over the past several months.  This keeps me in contact with the Word of God and with the Church, since it is the Church which proposes these daily Scripture readings to us.  How much Catholics would change if they were to stick to this practice daily!  Because, whether we realize it or not, the Word of God, if taken seriously, has to effect a change in us over time.  It is God's Word and we have his Word on that!  That's better than any human guarantee we could ever have!  "The novelty of biblical revelation consists in the fact that God becomes known through the dialogue which he desires to have with us."  A dialogue requires two persons!  God and you!  Isn't it time we all take up the Scriptures and converse with God, united in and with the Church which His Son founded?

I would like to end this brief meditation with one of the options for opening prayer from Mass yesterday.  I found it extraordinarily beautiful.  Yes, I know.  They are the same ones every year, but sometimes we have to have prayed with them for 36 years before recognizing the beauty of the prayer!

Father in heaven,
ever-living source of all that is good,
from the beginning of time you promised man salvation
through the future coming of your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Help us to drink of his truth
and expand our hearts with the joy of his promises, 
so that we may serve you in faith and in love 
and know for ever the joy of your presence.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Thankfulness

After a very looooooooooooooong day, I just wish to share with you one little remark from today's gospel (Lk 17:11-19) about the 10 lepers.  All of them were cleansed, but only one was healed.  Many times we like to think that we have been healed of a certain defect or of a certain fault, but then, it pops up its head again!  Let us ask for the grace to be healed of our innermost hurts and the grace to be thankful for everything we have already received.  Note that it was only after the leper came back to thank Jesus that he heard the words, "Your faith has saved you!"  Let us thank the Lord so we may also hear him say to us, "Your faith has saved you."

Meditation on this Sunday's readings

Fr. Thomas Rosica, whom I met in Rome about two years ago, gives reflections for each Sunday's readings during the year on Zenit, a web-based news center for the Vatican.  I feel his reflections are very pertinent to this week's readings and would like to share them with you, if you have not already read them.  God bless and have a wonderful Sunday, day of the Resurrection!

Biblical Reflection for 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time C

By Father Thomas Rosica, CSB             

TORONTO, NOV. 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Christian faith in the resurrection has met with incomprehension and opposition from the very beginning. On no point does the Christian faith encounter more opposition than on the resurrection of the body.  The question of the resurrection is vital not only to the Christian faith but to all people who reflect on life and death.

No spirit of inquiry

Judaism has never been monolithic, and to say "the Jews believed" is to be misinformed and to misinform. In today's Gospel (Luke 20:27-38) we encounter the Sadducees, one of several groups or parties within Judaism. Sadducees were of the priestly class, many of them aristocratic, wealthy, and theologically conservative. Scripture for them consisted of only the five books of Moses. No teaching was authoritative if it was not found in the Pentateuch, and they found no doctrine of the resurrection in the books of Moses.

These Jerusalem religious leaders or their representatives attempt to incriminate Jesus with the Romans and to discredit him with the people. Their air is to argue, to embarrass, to force Jesus into one particular school of thought, or perhaps just to divide the audience. There is among them no spirit of inquiry or desire to learn. They are simply baiting Jesus with one of their classic "what if" questions, a question on which their minds had been settled long ago: There is no resurrection of the dead (v. 27; Acts 23:8).

Belief in the resurrection

The Pharisees and many of the Lord's contemporaries hoped for the resurrection. They not only included the prophets and the writings in their Scripture but also believed in the authority of the oral tradition from Moses. The basis for belief in the resurrection was found in that oral tradition. The subject was heatedly debated between the two parties of Pharisees and Sadducees, a fact that Paul made use of to draw attention away from himself during his trial before the Jewish Council (Acts 23:6-10)

The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection. Their question in today's Gospel, based on the law of levirate marriage recorded in Deuteronomy 25:5-10, details the duty of a man toward a deceased brother. The Pharisees ridicule the idea of the resurrection. Jesus rejects their naïve understanding of the resurrection (vv. 35-36) and then argues on behalf of the resurrection of the dead on the basis of the written law (vv. 37-38) that the Sadducees accept.

Jesus' answer is twofold. The first part (vv. 34-36) simply points out the inappropriateness of the question, given the difference between life in this age and the age to come. In this age, the fact of death makes marriage and perpetuation of life essential. However, in the age to come there is no death, but those who attain to the resurrection are equal to the angels, they are children of God.

In the second part of his answer, Jesus draws on the Sadducees' own Bible, the book of Moses (vv. 37-40). Jesus answers them with Exodus 3:6: God is a God of the living and not of the dead. If follows then, says Jesus, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are living, not dead.

The two parts of Jesus' answer to the Sadducees constitute an argument from reason (condition of this life do not constitute proof of conditions in the next) and Scripture (Exodus 3:6) for the belief in the resurrection of the dead. In this belief Jesus was in agreement with the Pharisees. The argumentation has to do with the resurrection of Jesus, not with a doctrine of resurrection in general.

Acquaintance and true knowledge

In Jesus time, The Pharisees and the Sadducees were externally acquainted with Jesus, they learned his teaching and knew many details about him but they did not know him in his truth.  The members of these groups or parties know him, but superficially; they know various things about him, but they do not really know him.

On the other hand, the Twelve Apostles have at least understood in substance and begun to discover who Jesus is. This different manner of knowing still exists today: There are learned people who know many details about Jesus and never get to really know and love him. Many such people have even studied theology! There are also many simple, unlearned people who have no knowledge of these details but have known him in the fullness of his truth and beauty.

Gift and mystery

Marriage has as its natural end the procreation of children, it assures the continuance of the human race and the creation of new beings, since human beings are destined to die and need to leave successors. How many times did the Servant of God, Pope John Paul II tell us, "The future of humanity passes through the family."

Consecrated celibacy and chastity are signs of the resurrection and of the Kingdom of God which is drawing near, for in the resurrection and the kingdom there will be neither marrying nor giving in marriage. Celibacy and chastity in the Church draw attention to the new order of the Gospel. They relate to the resurrection of the dead; they are signs of eternity, of incorruptibility, of life.

The celibate state is a sign of the world to come, which we priests of the Latin Rite strive to live with our whole existence as a follower of Jesus Christ, in the ministry of the Gospel, in contemplative prayer at the feet of the Master, in proclaiming the coming kingdom of God, and in offering the sacrifice of the Eucharist, which sums up our entire priesthood. This was what Christ intended when founding the state of voluntary celibacy and chastity "for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven": establishing a resemblance to Christ, which is not only spiritual but physical and practical too. Voluntary celibacy and freely chosen chastity are a state particularly suited to the service of the kingdom. Like Jesus, the priest can commit himself entirely -- spiritually and humanly -- to the ministry and service. We are not celibate and chaste so as to be more peaceful and free to do what we wish, but to resemble Christ in his commitment to the kingdom.

The reason for celibacy

Let me apply today's Gospel to my life as an ordained priest and consecrated religious. The world asks today: "Why does the Church continue to defend a practice that seems so unnatural and unnecessary and even cruel?" "Is married life is spiritually suspect?" "Are priests spiritual athletes above reproach? Is that the reason why we priests shouldn't be married?"

Genesis tells us that God saw great goodness in what he created and took delight in it. But there is more to the doctrine of creation than an affirmation of the goodness of the world. This distinction between God and the world is the ground for the anti-idolatry principle that is reiterated from the beginning to the end of the Bible: Do not turn something less than God into God. The doctrine of creation involves both a great "yes" and a great "no" to the universe. Detachment is the refusal to make anything less than God the organizing principle or center of one's life.  Everything in this world -- including sex and intimate friendship -- is good, but impermanently and imperfectly so.

In the biblical stories of the Old Testament, when God wanted to make a certain truth vividly known and visible to his people, he often chose a prophet and commanded him to act out that truth, to embody it concretely. For example, God told Hosea to marry the unfaithful Gomer in order to sacramentalize God's fidelity to wavering and sinful Israel. Thus, the truth of the non-ultimacy of sex, family and worldly relationship can and should be proclaimed through words, but it will be believed only when people can see it in flesh and blood.

I really believe that this is why God chooses certain people to be celibate. Our mission is to witness to a transcendent form of love, the way that we will love in heaven. In our life with God, we will experience a communion (bodily and spiritual) compared to which even the most intense forms of earthly communion pale into insignificance. Celibates make this truth blatantly real for a world that is bent on the immediate, the visible, the tangible, and the now. Though we might be able to articulate practical reasons for it, celibacy only finally makes sense in the eschatological context. It is ultimately a matter for the world yet to come!

The longer I am a priest (soon to be 25 years), and a consecrated religious (soon to be 30 years), I am more and more convinced that the compelling quality of the priesthood is not a matter of superficial celebrity, masterful administration, clerical savvy, brilliant oratory, youthful agility or diplomatic charm. It is something much more mysterious, deeper, and even mystical. It is a fascination for something we cannot yet fully grasp, see or understand. It is a profound matter of the heart, a real "cor ad cor loquitur" [heart speaking to heart], in the words of Blessed John Henry Newman. It is, in the final analysis, a matter of knowing and loving Jesus Christ, being totally seized by him, becoming a true "witness to his Resurrection." Encounters with the Risen Christ characterize the Christian hope of resurrection. We shall rise like Christ, with him, and through him. That is indeed cause for rejoicing in these dying November days.

A prayer for us this week

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage our hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word. Our Lord is faithful; he will strengthen us and guard us from the evil one. May he direct our hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ (Thessalonians 2:16-3:5)

Lord, when your glory appears, my joy will be full. Keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings. But I in justice shall behold your face; on waking I shall be content in your presence. (Psalm 17:1, 5-6, 8, 15)

[The readings for the 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time are 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14; 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5; Luke 20:27-38 or Luke 20:27, 34-38]

Prayer to Jesus Crucified

Here is a prayer I like to say especially on Fridays.

Lord Jesus, by your suffering and death, You made it possible for us to be holy and to share in the eternal joy of Your Resurrection.
With trust and confidence we look upon You on Your cross and strive to unite ourselves with You in the passion of our daily lives.
Look down on us and draw us close to You.
Give us, we beg You, a share of Your courage in times of adversity and anxiety.
Strengthen us in our struggle against physical and spiritual evil.
In our efforts to imitate You in your Passion, help us to look upon those around us with loving care and concern.
We pray that those who have turned away from you may be drawn back to You through the merits You gained for us on Calvary, so that all of us might live in never-ending peace with You forever.
Amen.

St. Martin de Porres

It is customary in Jamaica to have what they call "devotions" at some point in time during the school day.  This is usually a sort of Christian exercise where some point of Christian faith is emphasized.  When I was Vice-Principal, I was in charge of devotions one day a week for the entire school.  A few years ago (at least 3, perhaps 4 or 5), I devoted most of my devotions that year to illustrating different saints and the examples that they set for us.  I made these different presentations using Powerpoint.  I did one presentation on St. Martin de Porres, today's saint.  I had originally thought I could simply transfer the Powerpoint document to this blog, but it seems like I am not able to accomplish that (it just goes to show my ignorance with these technological innovations!)  After going about this in a roundabout way, here is the powerpoint presentation below!!!

All Souls Day

Sorry, but today was a fairly busy day, and I did not have (make) time to share with you my thoughts on the Word of God which I read this a.m., but here is another video which basically gives the author's thoughts on a passage from St. Paul to the Corinthians.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen!

Let us empty purgatory today and send all these souls to heaven so that we can praise them (and ask for their intercession) on Nov. 1 next year!!!

Happy All Saints' Day!!!

Since I am new at this, blogging that is, I have not yet figured out how to insert more than one video at a time.  This is the reason there are three separate entries for videos below - all pertaining to All Saints' Day!

Readings for today: Rev. 7:2-4,9-14; Ps. 23(24); 1Jn 3:1-3; Mt. 5:1-12

I don't know where to start.  The readings are all so wonderful today.  If I commented on each one, you would stop reading this before getting to the end (you might do that anyway!), so I just content myself to comment on the first letter of John, one of my favourites.
John addresses a number of issues in this letter, but one thing he wants us to understand is the importance of our baptism and how this should essentially change our lives.  "See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and we are!"  The Greek used here gives us a few insights.  First, the word "see", like in yesterday's post, connotes a certain knowledge.  Therefore, "understand" may even be better in this case.  The word John uses for "has given" is in the perfect tense in Greek.  This may seem completely unimportant to us, but to anyone with Greek ears, it has a particular meaning.  The perfect tense in Greek connotes the past (as it does in all modern languages), but, unlike in English, it has repercussions until the present.  In other words, to a Greek, it might sound like this: understand what love the Father has given and still continues to give us.  Isn't it a wonderful thought that we have a God who continuously pours out his love upon us?  So much so that we can be called "Children of God", and, lest we think it is only an appellation, John adds, "And we are!"  John continues, "When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."  Remember that for the Israelites, no one could see God and live.  Yet, through sanctifying grace received in baptism, God has given us the gift, that's what grace is, of being his children.  Now, may we only live as his children, as children of the light!  How do we do this?  John will tell us later in the letter (this is not in today's reading), "No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us." (4:12)  So, my friends, go out loving one another today, thereby showing that are truly a child of God and belong to his family in heaven with all the saints and angels!  As the opening prayer of Mass says today, "Today we rejoice in the holy men and women of every time and place.  May their prayers bring us your forgiveness and love."  Have a wonderful All Saints' Day!

Deifying Grace

There is a quote attributed to St. Athanasius which says, "God became man, so that man could become God." That is part of the mystery of baptism and part of the mystery of the feast we celebrate today as explained in this video!

An Attraction to Heaven

Happy All Saints' Day!

Glorified In Your Saints

I should have published this yesterday, but here it is... still relevant about All Saints' Day.

Seeking Jesus, and being sought by Him

Today's gospel: Luke 19:1-10

The story of Zacchaeus that we have in today's gospel is another one of those only found in Luke. I would like to reflect with you for a minute on two short verses in the passage. In verse 3, we read, "And he (Zacchaeus) sought (was seeking) to see who Jesus is, ..." In the New Testament, there are 3 verbs used for the word, "to see". One ("blepo") means simply to see something with your eyes, whereas the other two verbs and their various forms also indicate a type of perception that goes beyond the mere reality of visible sight. Luke uses one of these 2 verbs here. Therefore, Zacchaeus didn't just want to see Jesus for the mere fact of being able to say, "I saw an important person!", but rather he wanted to get to know Jesus personally. That is what each one of us is called to do daily... to get to know ("see") Jesus better every day. We can ask ourselves, "To what pains do I go through to see Jesus active in my day-to-day life? How much time do I spend each day meditating on his Word? How many times a day do I ask Him what I should do at a particularly difficult moment?" We should be able to say with the Greeks in John's gospel (12:21), "We want to see Jesus!" (Again, same verb in Greek used here!)

At the end of the gospel, we have the verb "to seek" again, which was the same as in verse 3. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost." Even when we sin and God is furthest from our minds and hearts, He is still there seeking us out. May we long to see and search for God everyday of our lives. As the psalmist says, "As the deer that yearns for running streams, so my soul yearns for you, my God."

Today is the last day of October, the month dedicated to Our Lady of the rosary. Below is a video I found with many beautiful images and icons of Our Lady, accompanied by the Ave Maria. Enjoy!

Back online and the Word of God

Finally, they seem to have repaired the Wireless connection and everything should run smoothly.  (Hint: The key words in that sentence are italicized!)  Anyway, I would now like to share with my readers a couple of paragraphs from one of the books which I am presently reading, entitled Prayer.  This is a book written by a great theologian, Hans Urs van Balthasar.  I have not reached very far in the book and I may not even be able to finish it (it might go way over my head!), but, nonetheless, his introductory words are full of wisdom and insight.
"Prayer... is communication, in which God's word has the initiative and we, at first, are simply listeners.  Consequently, what we have to do is, first, listen to God's word and then, through that word, learn how to answer.  His word is the truth make known for our sakes.  There is no final, unquestionable truth in man.  He is fully aware of that as he looks to God for an answer and comes closer to him.  God's word is his invitation to us to enter into the truth and abide there with him.  It is like a rope-ladder thrown down to us in danger of drowning, so that we can climb into the ship; or, a carpet unrolled before us leading to the Father's throne; a torch shining in the darkness of a silent and sullen world, in whose light we are no longer harassed by problems, but learn to live with them.  God's word is, ultimately, himself, that in him which is most living and profound: it is his only-begotten Son, of the same nature as himself, whom he sent into the world to bring it back to him.  That is why God spoke to us of his Word dwelling on earth: 'This is my beloved Son, listen to Him'.
We are harassed by the burden of living; exhausted, we look round for a place of repose, tranquillity and renewal.  We would gladly rest in God and commit ourselves to him, so as to draw from him fresh strength to go on living.  But we do not look for him there where he awaits us, where he is to be found, namely in his Son, who is his Word.  Or else we do seek him because there are a thousand things we want to ask him, and imagine that, unless they are answered, we cannot go on living; we pester him with problems, demand answers, solutions, explanations, forgetting all the time that in his Word he has solved all questions and given us all the explanations we are capable of grasping in this life.  We do not turn where God speaks, there where his word resounded in the world, a final utterance sufficient for all times, whose riches can never be exhausted."
The highlighting is my addition.  It was after having read this several months ago that I began to concentrate my meditation time every morning on the Word of God which the Church presents to us for that day.  This has been a tremendous help to me, and I invite you to do just that.  As von Balthasar says elsewhere in the book, we will only find the real truth about ourselves in listening to Him who is Truth Himself!  God bless, enjoy your day, and let the Word of God enrich your life!

My God, why have you abandoned me?

Today being Friday, it is a tradition in the Passionist congregation to occasionally offer Mass on Fridays remembering some aspect of the Passion of Christ.  This is a very healthy tradition for all of us.  Today's gospel therefore was taken from the Passion according to Matthew, where we hear Jesus cry out, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"  Therefore, below I give you a video of that hymn in Italian.  Even if you don't speak Italian, you can appreciate the music and St. Peter's Basilica from the outside.  It's one of my favourite Italian hymns!  They sing this every year on Palm Sunday.  That is my favourite Papal mass.
P.S.:  I am still writing this while sitting in my chair in a corridor... no Wi-Fi service in my room!!!