Simplify your senses

A brief prose poem for you today. This comes from my upcoming book, The Tao of Music, with a couple of minor modifications.

We seek the delight of many things

   which clamor for our attention,

      but few of them are worthy of more than a

cursory glance.

The true desires of the heart

whisper gently and we need to simplify our senses

 if we are to hear them.

All our faculties plead their case

   but can we learn to recognize

     the promptings of soul and spirit

     and treasure them above what fails to satisfy?

What part within us

   speaks the truth

that endures,

that does not change?

Find that part.

Nourish it. Cultivate it.

Treasure it.

And then you will find your True Self,

   and finding your True Self, you will realize

      that you are in union with God.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.

Angels in my life

Thursday, September 29, 2016

Feast of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael, and all angels

It is a mystery; a glorious mystery.

Our faith tells us that angels exist, but I take the doctrine a bit farther and look at my own life and see that my personal experience also tells me that angels exist. For example,

When I look back over my life, I tremble at the thought of all the foolish and stupid things I have done, especially in my younger years, and I often pray the words of Psalm 25, “Do not remember the sins of my youth.” And when I think back as a somewhat mature adult, I also realize that somehow I was protected from the consequences of some of the things I had done, and I can’t help but think that my guardian angel (whose feast us usually celebrated on October 2) and perhaps many other angels were at work protecting me from the results of my own folly. And who is to know just how often we have been protected from harm that threatened to approach us? And I give thanks especially to Saint Michael, the great warrior who cast in hell Satan and all his evil spirits.

I also recall times when I have suddenly said or done something that turned out to be a great blessing for others, and probably for myself, and wonder whose hand it was that moved me in that direction. Was it the Holy Spirit? Was it the angels? “Turn here. Say this. Do that.” I believe that the angels continually guide us on our way, pointing us toward the good that we wouldn’t think of attaining on our own. And I give thanks to St. Gabriel, the messenger of God, who announces good things and predicts wonderful futures.

I recently went for a physical examination, and everything looks good, thank God. But I have so many conditions that arise as part of the aging process as well as physical issues that I have carried with me for most of my life, and I wonder how it is that at an advanced age I have not yet been completely broken down by ailments known and unknown, and realize that there must be a great deal of healing taking place within me, and I give thanks to Saint Raphael that great healer and guide on the journey.

Enough said. Before I conclude today’s reflection, I would like to give you a little gift in the form of a beloved passage of scripture. I have meditated on it often and I offer it to you as well for your own meditation this day:

. . . you have drawn near to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to myriads of angels in festal gathering, to the assembly of the first-born enrolled in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks more eloquently than that of Abel. (Heb 12:28)

God bless you!

Life and scriptures intersect!

I was praying yesterday for a young man who is seriously depressed to the point of being suicidal. Perhaps you would pray for him as well. I resolved to offer my Mass for him last night (we have daily Masses at 5:15 pm), and the first reading was from Job. Job was seriously depressed, not to the point of suicide, but to the point where he was lamenting the day he was born:

“Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, ‘The child is a boy!’ Why did I not perish at birth, come forth from the womb and expire? Or why was I not buried away like an untimely birth, like babes that have never seen the light? wherefore did the knees receive me? or why did I suck at the breasts? For then I should have lain down and been tranquil; had I slept, I should then have been at rest.” (Job 3:1-3)

The appropriateness of this reading in light of what I held in my heart in prayer was uncanny. Once again, as it has so often, the scriptures for Mass have resonated with the concerns and prayers I had brought to the Mass.

Once again I was reminded that the Scriptures, all of the Scriptures, are about life—not about life in general, but actually about our lives in the here and now. And when those times come where we find the scriptures do not speak directly to us, well we should still immerse ourselves into the texts and pray for those in the world for whom those words may be relevant and true on any given day. And so, as that text was proclaimed, I united it to the suffering heart of the man I was praying for.

This happens a lot when we pray the psalms in the Monastic Office. The psalms are a poetic expression of our human emotions, and on any given day a psalm may speak not directly to we who are praying it, but it still does speak to and about people for who those words may be relevant and true, as I have said above.

This is true in so many cases. Oftentimes a psalm laments the poor state of someone who has been falsely accused in court of a crime he has not committed; consider all those who find themselves in such a condition and pray with them and for them; remember also that Our Lord Jesus Christ knows full well, through experience, what it is like to be falsely accused of something, even to the point where he receives a death sentence.

Sometimes the psalm expresses the pain of one who finds himself pressed in on every side from violent enemies. Consider the pain of all of those who are serving and suffering on battlefields throughout the world.

Sometimes the psalm is a great praise for blessings and gifts received, but on one particular day, we may not feel that way. Nonetheless, rejoice with those who are rejoicing, and also consider the realities in our own lives which are actual reasons for rejoicing even though on a particular day we may not feel like we are “an alleluia from head to foot,” to borrow one of St. Augustine’s favorite phrases.

Meanwhile, I pray for those who cannot pray for themselves. I encourage you to do that same thing.

God bless you!

12 love-notes from God

1. Be with me; as St. Anselm said, enter into your inner chamber, where you are alone with me and yet not alone at all. Hide yourself with me, and even in the midst of storms and trials and oppressions, for a time you are free from all of that, and hidden, and safe, and forever loved.

2. Look to the crucifix and see how much I love you, and know you need to anything to earn or deserve my love; it is there for you in all circumstances and at all times. My love and my forgiveness from you flow from the crucifix as surely as blood and water flowed from my side

.

3. My love for you is greater than anything you can figure out. Just open yourself an accept it as the fundamental reality of your existence; you are one-who-is-to-be-loved.

4. You can speak to me and tell me even your deepest, darkest most shameful secrets; I will not even flinch because the truth is that I already know them and they have not stopped my love from flowing into you and healing you from their existence and from the consequences of their existence. My love triumphs over any darkness that is in you, if only you would allow it.

5. I am always looking out for you. I send my angels to guard you and protect you and watch for you, and they protect you from dangers and pitfalls that you are never aware of, and that you will only realize at the end of time.

6. Carry me with you; carry me in your body as you receive the gift of My body and blood; carry me in your heart and in your soul. Rely on me; wherever you go, let everything around you be anointed with My love.

7. I love you because I am Love; that is My nature and My being. Become the person that I can pour My love into you ceaselessly and in unfathomable abundance.

8. I redeem you; I save you; I rescue you; I protect you; I empower you; I am the ground of your being. Be conscious of this and claim the gifts I am dying to pour out upon you. Gifts I have died that I may pour them upon you.

9. Your neediness is met by the overabundance of My love, and My love for you continues to expand and enrich itself in you when you allow Me.

10. I have set you free. My Spirit, which is the power of My love, will be with you always. In My Spirit you and I are linked forever, soulmates always in the verge of disovering something new about My love for you.

11. I send you tears as My gift when you are contrite and when you are overwhelmed by a deeper understanding of my love. I dry your tears that are the result of painful things that have happened in your life. Always and everywhere, give me your tears and let me heal them.

12. If you could surrender to me totally, I would give you the whole world. You are frustrated because you do not have the words that can say enough about My love; be at peace: in accepting my love, you say everything that you are meant to say.

God bless you!

A warning to the wealthy

Monday, September 26, 2016

Psalm study today: Psalm 49

The parable of the rich man and Lazarus was proclaimed in our churches yesterday, and I had my schola sing a little meditation which contrasted Lazarus’ misery to his peace and joy resting in the bosom of Abraham, while nothing is said of the rich man’s life but instead emphasizes the fact that his fate was one of eternal torment. The parable is meant to show the fate of anyone of means who neglects the needs of the poor, and I found myself wishing that some of our politicians would take this parable to heart.

For the refrain of the meditation I offered a somber and stern prediction: Woe to those who do not listen to the teachings of the Lord.

I don’t really believe in coincidences, and I prefer to call them “God-incidences.” No accident, perhaps, that in the afternoon I attended the performance of Bach’s Cantata #149 and heard this verse sung:

Ah, Lord, let your dear angels

at my last end carry my soul

to Abraham’s bosom, while

my body in its narrow chamber of sleep,

gently without pain and torment

rests until the last day!

This could well be a prayer that Lazarus himself uttered while begging at the door of the rich man and receiving nothing from him.

Now what does all this have to do with Psalm 49? Well, Psalm 49 is a didactic psalm (=one that teaches) exposing the folly and stupidity of the rich who “trust in their wealth and boast of the vastness of their riches” (v. 7) and, I presume, like the rich man in the parable, do not devote their wealth to good and charitable deeds which would assure for them riches in heaven, just like they do for us when we perform them and when we give.

The Psalm teaches that

·         they can’t buy their lives or ransom their souls with their riches

·         they can’t avoid death

·         when they die they will bring nothing with them of what the possessed on earth: “Like sheep they are driven to the grave, where death shall become their shepherd.” (v. 15)

·         they cannot take their earthly richness with them, or their fame and high standing in life.

·         and here is the fiercest condemnation: Though he flattered himself while he lived, ‘people will praise me for all my success,’ yet he will go to join his forebears, and will never see the light anymore.”

·         richness does not bring wisdom; it does not ensure eternal life; it turns the selfish one into a beast to be destroyed.

Of course, it is a warning to us as well, and I present to you as a commentary on the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

One further remark: perhaps when we consider these things, we might be protected from the vice of envy. Ultimately, there is nothing to be envied when we consider the rich.

God bless you!

A time to be born and a time to die

Friday, September 23, 2016

Ecclesiastes, chapter 3, begins “There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every thing under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. . . .”

There is a certain rhythm to the changeability of things, and we have known this throughout our lives, although there have been many time when we were unable or incapable to accept this. We tend to exalt the positive and degrade the negative; the times that we are happy are so precious to us; the times we are sad we would rather put aside and even forget. The time to be born us very often celebrated with joy and with love, but there are those for who a time to be born is filled with misery and pain, and we ought not forget that, especially in other parts of the world than our own relatively comfortable experience. The time to die can indeed be horrible, as in times of war and violence and terrorism; fortunate are those for whom dying is a beautiful rite of passage, a time of encouraging a loved one to let go, and then praying that his/her soul will be delivered into the hands of a merciful and loving God.

What is most important here, however, is that we become aware in the deepest parts of our minds and spirits that all of this is in the hands of God, and all of it is somehow a part of God’s loving plan. Nothing escapes Him, and to demonstrate this fact most fully, God has arranged for His own Son to pass through but the positive and the negative experiences of life and of death. Was His death a beautiful thing? We can possibly see it that way if we contemplate what was won for us by means of the death, and also to contemplate His death in light of the reality of the Resurrection.

In today’s Gospel (Friday of the 25^th Week in Ordinary Time—Luke 9:18-22), Jesus is exalted by his disciples as one among them, Peter, openly recognizes that he is “The Christ of God.” Jesus insists that they keep this knowledge secret for now, and immediately speaks not of His glory but rather of the Passion He is going to undergo—and His resurrection. We can well imagine that the disciples had a very hard time making sense of this, or as we might say in today’s language, “had a hard time wrapping their minds around it.” Of course they did! It was too much for them to comprehend, this juxtaposition of extreme opposites.

But then look again at the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, which presents one of the central paradoxes of life, again the juxtaposition of opposites: That is the way things are, and the way things have already been, in my life and in yours, and in the times to come. All of it is from God. All of it is somehow appointed by God, and, for a believer, the most beautiful thing is that the time is coming when all of it will be resolved, in our own Resurrections. And on that day what there is in our lives that we cannot make sense of will somehow all be made clear, and we will see God’s hand and God’s love in everything we have experienced.

This is our great hope. This is the great reality of all things. And when it is time, we shall see. We shall see.

God bless you!

Chasing after illusions

Thursday, September 22, 2016

Today I’m just offering you some things which you can put together in a way that helps you.

1. From today’s first reading (from Ecclesiastes)

Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities!

All things are vanity!

2. And here Jesus speaks, in The Imitation of Christ:

They are more joyful over an empty illusion than they are over the truth. Sometimes their hopes come to nothing, but my promise misleads no one, or does it send away empty-handed anyone who trusts in me.

3. And finally, another chapter from my upcoming book, The Tao of Music

Some pursue what only brings disappointment

   and kills the bliss of the song.

What are these things that imped the breath of beauty?

     seeking praise

     the quest for perfection

     hanging on

     controlling

     using

     possessing

     flaunting

               and others that you know for yourself.

None of these has ever brought the simple joy and freedom

          of letting things pass through.

I look back, and I know, and no one has to prove this to me.

By seeking what truly nourishes,

     I am enriched and strengthened

          and creativity begins to flow.

If I cherish these things,

     I must remain empty:

          empty of desire

              of preferences

                   of self-will.

I must surrender the illusion

     that my fullness is wiser

         than the Master’s emptiness.

Only in emptiness can the music fill me

    with what it was born to give.

True learning, true love, true beauty, true music

   come from silence and listening.

Silence and listening are blocked

   by the clamor of vain thoughts,

     idle chatter,

        worthless opinions,

and the arrogance which prevents true wisdom

            from entering the soul.

Better to do nothing

    so that we can gain everything.

This is the way things are.

This is Tao.

Please use what you find helpful, and leave the rest aside. Have a nice day.

God bless you!

Deeper awareness

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

I’m rereading a book called “Writing and the Spiritual Life” by Patrice Vecchione which I would recommend to anyone who is engaged or who wants to be engaged in creative pursuits. One of the things I like about the book is the way she encourages attitudes of mind and heart that are integral to the spiritual life. Today I’m going to quote from a chapter about awareness, and about looking at things not from the mind but from the heart. Here it is:

When I was a child my father occasionally spoke to me about light, particularly how the color of the buildings in certain neighborhoods in lower Manhattan were affected by late afternoon light. We’d be walking together and he’s stop me with a hand on my shoulder and say, “Look,” as he stared down the street. There was no parade going by, no movie star getting out of a limo; it was the light he was referring to, how it changed what he saw and gave everything a glow and warmed the colors. He had a tone of voice that was reserved for those observations alone. I wouldn’t otherwise have noticed that last bit of musty brightness before the dark comes. . . . He was drawing me to notice more than the actual light, to find a quality of attention that came from deep inside . . .  (p. 16)

Can you encourage yourself to see, to listen, to feel from a place within you that is deeper than where you usually see, listen and feel from? Can you reach down to the place within you where God has planted his Spirit that cries out, “Abba, Father,” and prays to the Father when you cannot pray and when you are oblivious to his action? If you could do that even just for a brief moment, you will have lived a more enlightened life than what you usually live.

God bless you!

How do we know we're doing the right thing?

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

A Proverb from today’s first reading:

All the ways of a man may be right in his own eyes,

but it is the Lord who proves hearts. (Prov. 21:2)

One of the effects of original sin is that we are born with a certain kind of blindness; that is, the inability to assess accurately the rightness or wrongness of our actions. It started at the very beginning with the sin of Eve. When she took the fruit from the tree and ate it, she was convinced that she was doing the right thing because Satan had distracted and confused her, and provided her with a right reason for doing what she did.

This happens to us as well, doesn’t it? Especially at times when we need to make good moral decisions. The sad truth is that we can almost always convince ourselves (or does the convincing come from the evil one?) that what we are doing is right.

Our higher nature always desires what is good and true and beautiful, and what will make us truly happy. The problem is that our “lower” nature deceives us and causes us to make wrong assessments of the goodness, truth and beauty of what we are being tricked into accepting.

I remember being in religion class many, many years ago, and having a teacher tell us that a bank robber is convinced that what he is doing is going to make him happy. Of course, in the long run, he finds out that he was wrong, because his action failed to take into consideration its consequences.

AA has a motto that says “think it through.” This is a helpful notion. “What will happen if I disobey the Lord’s command not to eat the fruit of this particular tree?” would have been the right question to ask, but the tempter had so confused her thinking that she became convinced that the consequences of her action would be good.

How about us? Where can we go, at times when we have to make a decision, to get a more accurate assessment of the reality of our actions and choices? To a trusted friend, to a therapist or spiritual director, to a counselor or to a member of the clergy . . . just a few of the resources we can use at times like these. Of course, the greatest resource of all is prayer. As for me personally, I find that as a result of meditation (where I am not asking any questions), I emerge better equipped to make a wise decision, yet still I will often “check it out” with one of my mentors if and when I can.

How about you?

God bless you this day!

Spiritual impoverishment

Monday, September 19, 2016

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says that “To anyone who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he seems to have will be taken away.” (Luke 8:18)

In Friday’s post, I offered a meditation I wrote for The Tao of Musicianship, and there was a passage in it which makes sense when seen in the light of Jesus’ words. Here it is:

Talk of the ecstasy you have in your song

to one who’s not tasted life’s depths,

   and you will be judged, not understood,

    and your bliss will flee lest it be wounded.

What Jesus says seems terribly unfair, and commentators tell us not to think that He is referring to materialism or finances, but rather to deep qualities of the human spirit. I used to reject this passage because it simply didn’t make sense to me, but as time has gone on I’ve discovered how true it can be.

I suggest that what we need to do is put the emphasis not on Jesus’s fairness, but rather on the reality that people create their own conditions through the choices that they make. I remember once visiting the home of someone who was lost in materialism, who gave me a tour of the house pointing out the beauty and value of the hundreds of knick-knacks and other trifles that she owned, but after the tour she didn’t really have anything to speak about. Even her children, who were adopted, she regarded as possessions. And, having possessed much, she was impoverished in what pertains to the spirit. As time went by, the friendship began to dissolve, because there was no common cord to bind us together, and I was very sad about that because I was quite fond of her.

People sometimes choose to live empty lives. When I used to teach Creativity, my students and I used to talk about people who had simply stopped growing in their lives, and I used to give them this quote to consider. I think it says better what I’m trying to say here, so I offer it to you as well:

Our culture suffers from a negation of the inner self, the god-self

We don't often witness that self in each other. It's important to know

who we are, who others are, where our tender spots are. These are not

mechanized needs, nor needs that can be met in front of computer

screens. When a primary need is ignored, it may express itself in

destructive ways: Our preoccupation with material. possessions is

unsettling. The violence on the part of young people must be, m part,

a call for attention to the soul. There are children I know who, after

school, instead of playing on the street or at the homes of friends,

park themselves in front of the computer and play games. Carl Jung

said, "The cat neglected becomes the unconscious tiger:' We're seeing

a number of neglected cats these days. When the need to attend

to the inner self isn't modeled as valuable, when art and the spiritual

life aren't integrated into the culture, the self may choose destructive

routes for attention, such as reckless displays of violence.    Veccione, Writing and the Spiritual Life, p. 15

Could there be a connection between the spiritual impoverishment that so many suffer from and the fact that reckless violence is constantly increasing in the world we live in? Veccione might be considered as a prophet here.

God bless you!

The mystery of music

Friday, September 16, 2016

Back in 2001 I wrote a little collection of prose poems based on the Chinese classic, the Tao Te Ching. The name of the collection was The Tao of Musicianship, addressed not only to musicians, but to all of us who have music in our hearts. This morning, as I was praying for inspiration for today’s reflection, my gaze was directed towards this little book. Today I offer you the first poem in the series, again encouraging you to take what resonates with you and to leave the rest aside for now. And so, here it is:

Together we share experiences

     that cannot be put into words.

   Trying to describe such moments

                we lose them

                     like one trying to grasp a wisp of cloud.

Do you find this to be true at times?

   The most beautiful, the most precious,

                the most splendid,

       the music that makes life luminous

                is tarnished in the telling.

Try to describe that phrase

where suddenly

   the veil between heaven and earth was rent,

   and you joined the choirs of heaven in concert:

It cannot be done: in frustration, you end up doubting

whether is ever really happened.

Try to tell  another of the joy you find in the lover,

     and you desecrate that love.

Talk of the ecstasy you have in your song

to one who’s not tasted life’s depths,

   and you will be judged, not understood,

    and your bliss will flee lest it be wounded.

‘Tis a mystery, this gift (as all great gifts are),

                that blows where it will,

     eluding description,

          eluding manipulation.

It can be savored, but it cannot be evoked.

It can be tasted only when we do not chase it

     or want it or lay claim to it.

It happens only when we have forgotten these things,

    and give ourselves to the music,

      open and empty,

          without baggage or foothold,

                allowing the flow of the song

                                to take us where it will.

When it is there,

                it leads us to what is eternal,

                    and true, and good,

                                given, not taken,

                                                cherished, but not captured.

© 2001, Bede Gary Camera, O.S.B.

God bless you!

The awesome and awful power of grace

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

from the first reading of the Mass of the day:

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective. (1 Co 15:10)

If we do anything good in the world, if our work or even our way of being has in any way helped bring the good things of the Lord to another person in need, if our station in life has changed—that is, if we have been rescued from the grip of darkness and set down in the realm of light, or if we have been gifted such as Paul was, to do work that we never ever merited to be able to do, or, perhaps even if our state in life has declined due to age or any other circumstance, and we are no longer able to do what we once did, then we are able to make this statement with Paul.

Remember that Paul was a terrible sinner, a persecutor of the infant church of the Lord, and yet literally like a thunderbolt the Lord entered his life and rearranged it to suit His purposes, and so that is true for many of us in many different ways. This was the work of grace which, we must remember, is a unmerited and free gift bestowed by God for reasons that sometimes never become readily apparent to us.

Perhaps that work of grace is evident in your life as well—and don’t forget that this grace effects a profound change in us, and we find ourselves doing things that we never could have predicted we would be doing just a short while ago. But even if our life trajectory causes us to “fall up,” to borrow the title of a book by Richard Rohr, that does not mean that God is giving up on us or is no longer interested in working through us to reach others.

“and he grace to me has not been ineffective”

This statement assumes one thing: that we cooperate with the grace that is given to us. Paul says that because of this grace he works harder than all; what does it mean in our lives to say that we actively take a part in the gift of grace through our own cooperation, participation, sacrifices and hard work or whatever else it may be?

Hail Mary, full of grace: the grace that was given to Our Blessed Mother was a grace that brought her through a period of terrible darkness and loss. As Simeon had predicted, a sword was to pierce her heart. One commentator on the Gospel story of the crucifixion reflects that when Jesus said to her, “woman, behold your son,” (referring to St. John) that too was a crucifixion for her as her divine Son was to be taken from her and in His place she would be given someone merely human. Another commentator has noted that we all stand in the place of Saint John, and that through this work of the Lord, Mary became the mother of us all, a mother full of compassion because she is a mother who has suffered so much in her life of grace.

To say that grace is a gift is not to say that grace brings us blessings and happiness all the days of our lives. Like Mary, we too may be brought through periods of loss and darkness and suffering so that we can emerge from it all larger than what we were before and more capable of becoming blessings for others.

If your grace is bringing you through a difficult time, especially, look to the Mother of us all and ask her to bring you a greater awareness of whatever may be going on in your life.

“Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.”

Where would we be without the cross?

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

The Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross

Let us reflect first on one simply reality: if it were not for the cross, we wouldn’t be here now. I would never have written these words, and you would never have read them. Without the cross of Christ, our lives would be so much different, and, dare I say, so empty and meaningless and ultimately hopeless. So let us first of all give thanks for that.

Without the cross, where would we go to make sense out of the many sufferings, big and small, that are part of the fabric of our lives?

Without the cross, where could we go to be fed the Food that leads to eternal life?

Without the cross, how could we realize that our God is a God who did not look upon suffering from a safe seat in heaven, but who entered into human reality and endured suffering Himself so that we may be united with Him in both the misery and the triumph of existence?

Without the cross, how could we endure the many contradictions that are part of our lives, considering that the cross itself is a “sign of contradiction” itself and that Our Blessed Lord literally bore the tensions between the two cross-bars of the tree?

And when we look upon the cross and consider it as a sign of contradiction, can we realize that reality itself is a contradiction. It is neither fully perfect nor totally miserable and defeated. Can we also acknowledge the fact that we ourselves are neither perfectly holy nor miserably un-holy, and can we bring that contradiction itself to the cross and to our prayer, and accept the fact that the two exist side-by-side. It is only when we evolve to the point where we can do this, without trying to insist that only one side is true or that only one side is valid, that we begin to experience a mature spirituality.

Fr. Richard Rohr writes that “The price you pay for holding together the contradictions within yourself, others and the world is always some form of crucifixion, but the gift you receive and the gift you offer is that—at least in you---“everything belongs” (Things Hidden, p. 205).

May the Lord bless you this day!

Shunning the light

Tuesday, September 13, 2006

At about 7 am this morning, I was driving to a doctor’s appointment. The fierce glow of the rising sun made it hard to drive whenever the road I took was facing east. Even with the visor down and sunglasses on, it was hard to make my way. I also noticed that the front windshield of the car, when seen in the light of the sun, looked terribly dirty. Small spots on the window actually glowed and sparkled and it was as if I was trying to see past a sheet of diamonds to make my way up the road. I’m not describing anything that you haven’t experienced yourself from time to time, I am sure.

All this caused me to think about how our souls must look when pierced by the light of God’s glory. The things that we barely notice of pay attention to might suddenly appear to be significant blemishes in such a light, things that we would find it hard to wipe away by our own efforts. And sometimes, we would try to block out the light, much as I did this morning by wearing sunglasses and putting the visor down---but even then, the blemishes still remained, for the light overcame any attempt to shield myself from it.

Down through history, there have been prophets who spoke with the light of God, and they often were annihilated because the people couldn’t bare to look at themselves in the light of what they were saying. I think of John the Baptist who spoke about Herod’s unlawful relationship with his brother’s wife, whom Herod eventually had beheaded. And I think today of Saint John Chrysostom (“Chrysostom” means “golden mouth” and was given this name because of the renowned beauty of his preaching).

St. John spoke out about the luxurious vane life style of the empress Eudoxia (of Constantinople—4^th century). Eventually he was driven into exile on the basis of trumped up charges, and suffered so much that he died en route from one place to another.

The Psalms often speak of one betrayed by the false accusations of another. Look especially at Psalms 52 – 59). And we need not forget that Jesus was condemned to crucifixion because of the lies uttered against him by his enemies who could not bear the bright light of his teaching or the bright witness of the many miracles he had worked.

The great hope our Catholic faith offers us, however, is that the blemishes on our own souls which become evident in God’s holy light will indeed be wiped away and we will be made perfect. The doctrine of the purification of our souls makes logical sense. Who, in fact, would be happy walking around heaven with all their failings, weaknesses, peccadillos and even crimes being made fully visible in the kingdom to come, where there will be no need for sun or moon, for Christ will be the light?

In a few short weeks, the Church will provide a special day when we pray for the dead (Nov. 2—all Souls’ Day) which gives us a special opportunity to remember those who have gone before us and to pray for their ultimate purification. And meanwhile, we can continue to pray for our own, at the beginning of every Mass and through frequent repetition of the Jesus Prayer, and in the Hail Mary, where we ask to blessed Mother to pray for us sinners “now and at the hour of our death.”

And may Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, have mercy on us all. And may he bless us all. Amen.

P.S. For a list of very challenging quotes by St. John Chrysostom, go to this address:

http://www.azquotes.com/author/21940-Saint_John_Chrysostom

Who is worthy?

Monday, September 12, 2016

From the Gospel according to Luke (7:10-10)

Lord, I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof; . . .

say the word and my servant shall be healed.

These words from the Gospel of Saint Luke provide the basis of the prayer we say at every single Mass right before receiving the Eucharist: Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed. They were originally spoken by a Roman Centurion who was asking the Lord to heal his servant. Jesus marveled at his faith and healed the servant from afar. We can certainly imagine that some among the Jewish leaders were completely scandalized by this little scene. Jesus spoke to heal a Roman, the hated enemies and suppressors of Israel. This should indeed be a sign to us that Jesus’ love and compassion and healing power was to be extended to those who were not of the self-acknowledged “proper” members of His people. But what Jesus was demonstrating to them that “His people” included those they would consider as improper and, indeed, unworthy.

The Centurion acknowledges this: “I am not worthy.” But as a man of power and authority, he recognizes that power and authority that Jesus has---which is something that many of his own people refused to see and respect, let along to celebrate that fact that such a marvelous sign was being performed among them. As Saint John would say in the prologue to his Gospel: “To his own he came, yet his own did not accept him. Any who did accept him he empowered to become children of God.”

So the Centurion and his servant are embraced into the divine family above and beyond of those who should have been automatically included but whose hardness of heart refused to accept this gift.

So what does this mean for us? I’d like to point out the following:

·         We are not worthy. No one is worthy to receive the very Body and Blood of the Lord into his or her own body.

·         The fact that we are not worthy does not mean that the Lord refuses to give us this gift.

·         Those that we may feel or think are not worthy are also included in the family of God by virtue of their faith, not their worthiness or suitableness. Some of these the Church itself declares to be (temporarily) excluded from receiving the gift, and there are many within the Church these days who are disturbed by this contradiction, but we must remember that Jesus said to Peter, “what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” (This statement is recorded twice in Matthew’s Gospel: 16:19 and 18:18). (I for one pray that the day will come when the Eucharist is open to all no matter what their circumstances, for all are unworthy and all need the gift that Christ died to give us.)

·         Having acknowledged our unworthiness, we then turn our attention to what we all need so desperately: Healing. And by placing this statement so close to the moment when we receive the Eucharist, the Church is underscoring the reality that the Eucharist is, first and foremost, about healing.

·         Sometimes we recite these words mindlessly, and fail to realize that we are about to receive what works healing within us. It would be a far better thing if we were to be truly mindful that we are, indeed, approaching the altar so that might be healed. As one Lutheran writer once said (and I forget his name): Sometimes we come to the service and our arms are not open enough to receive all the blessings the Lord is waiting to pour upon us. Approach the altar with arms wide open, with heart wide open, and awestruck that the Lord will do so much for someone who is so basically unworthy. This gets to the very heart of the Lord’s mercy and compassion: mercy and compassion that is meant for all who will believe.

God bless you! 

Perrenial Wisdom

Friday-Saturday, September 9-10

There is a core of wisdom teaching that is common to most of the world’s great religions. There is a name for these teachings: Perennial Wisdom. Much of this teaching deals with spirituality. Rami Shapiro says that the signs of a spiritual person are “compassion, selflessness, humility, equanimity, forgiveness, grounded and reasonable.” Perennial Wisdom, p. 196 This reminds me of Paul’s teaching about the fruit of the Holy Spirit: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Gal 5:22).

Today I’d like to present to you a passage from the Hindu scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita. Take from these teachings what resonates with you, and leave the rest behind. Here it is:

One who is incapable of hatred toward any being,

who is kind and compassionate, free from selfishness,

without pride, equable in pleasure and in pain, and forgiving.

Always contented, self-centered, self-controlled, resolute

with mind and reason dedicated to Me,

such a devote of Mine is My beloved.

One who does not harm the world,

and whom the world cannot harm,

who is not carried away by any impulse of joy, anger, or fear,

such a once is My beloved.

One who expects nothing,

who is pure, watchful, indifferent, unruffled,

and who renounces all initiative,

such a one is My beloved.

One who is beyond joy and hate,

who neither laments nor desires,

to whom good and evil fortunes are the same,

such a one is My beloved.

One to whom friend and foe are alike,

who welcomes equally honor and dishonor,

heat and cold, pleasure and pain, who is enamored of nothing,

who is indifferent to praise and censure,

who enjoys silence,

who is contented with every fate,

who has no fixed abode,

who is steadfast in mind and filled with devotion,

such a one is My beloved.

Bhagavad Gita 12:13-19, quoted in Perrenial Wisdom, p. 197.

Some of these lines need further explanation, and perhaps I will write about them in future reflections. But, as I said, take what makes sense to you, but be especially attentive to things that puzzle you. They may open the door to greater wisdom for you.

God bless you!

Deeper peace

Thursday, September 8, 2016

The Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

From the collect for the Mass of the day:

Impart for your servants, we pray, o Lord,

the gift of heavenly grace,

that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin

may bring deeper peace

to those for whom the birth of her Son

was the dawning of salvation.

Notice that this prayer doesn’t mention anything we should do to earn of merit this grace it speaks of. Grace itself is pure and total gift bestowed upon us, worthy or not, imperfect certainly, filled with sin and the memory of sins committed, beset by weaknesses and temptations. According to the prayer, the feast itself is the channel through which this grace flows to us, even if we are unaware of the significance of this day.

Notice also that the word “Nativity” is used for this feast. Nativity is a word we generally associate with the birth of Jesus Christ, so notice how the two events are linked together by the language the Church uses today.

The Orthodox Churches celebrate this feast as the beginning of the Liturgical Year, emphasizing the fact that, as the prayer says, the birth of Mary is actually the very beginning of the story of our salvation. Let it be a new beginning for us as well, for while we were still asleep, God began to put into operation His eternal plan for our salvation with this wonderful birth. And remember also that our tradition teaches us that Mary was born without the stain of Original Sin, that she might be the perfect vessel through which our Savior was to come into the world. Nothing less than perfection would do, and Mary is something that we cannot be, the perfect human being.

All is gift. Miraculous gift. What might that gift be for you today?

The prayer asks for deeper peace. The assumption is that we already possess within ourselves a certain measure of peace, peace that is ours by right of our faith in these heavenly realities and our faith in Mary’s Son Jesus Christ. Take a moment when you can to locate within yourself, or to identify the peace that you already have, even if you are going through a time of trial or suffering. And then realize that today the Church prays that we might be given deeper peace because of this feast.

What might be the deeper peace you are yearning for? If you can identify it, name it in your prayers today. Let the grace of this day, this day of overwhelming grace for the entire human race, touch your heart and soul in the places that are open to receiving a deeper measure of grace and love, hope and faith and peace.

God bless you! Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

When we have really made a mess of things

Psalm Study: Psalm 51  This reflection is a reprint of two reflections that were posted back in February, where I commented on the same passage from Psalm 51.

                Create in me a clean heart, O God.

                and renew in me a steadfast spirit. (51:12)

Sometimes when we look back over the past with the sensitivities and conscience of the present, we realize that we had done something perhaps years ago that now fills us with guilt and contrition. “If only I knew then what I know now!” we might cry. Times like that are times to turn to Psalm 51, which is David’s Psalm of repentance after the prophet Nathan had opened his eyes to see what sins he had committed: fornication, adultery and murder. (You can read the entire story in II Samuel, chapters 11 and 12.) And David’s psalm of repentance and contrition is asking not only for forgiveness of sin, but also a healing of the emotional, physical and social consequences of his sin. (And of our sins as well.)

Create in me a clean heart: This is asking for a lot. It’s not only a question of forgiveness or cleansing; it is begging for something completely new by an act of God’s creative power. We might pray, “Create in me a new clean heart.”

And God promises to do this. Ezekiel 36: 25-27:  I will sprinkle clean water upon you to cleanse you from all your impurities, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts.

Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David. Remember that David was chosen by God, a fearless warrior, a great and powerful king and a virtuous one at that. His prayer was sublime and eloquent. He was the composer of most of the 150 psalms we have; in fact, this particular psalm was his psalm of repentance when he realized what wrong he had done.

And the great and almighty are fallen. David reached the heights of human perfection, but was brought down low by temptation to the point where he was guilty of adultery and indirect murder. (See II Samuel 11 and 12.)

If such a thing could happen to David, what might happen to us. Every single day, it is God’s grace that keeps us from falling into decadence and depravity, and we must always remember that, especially when we are tempted to judge people who have fallen prey to what is the worst in human nature. “There but for the grace of God go I” must be our constant prayer.

Notice in these verses that the first one speaks of the “heart” while the second one speaks of the “spirit.” These two words are used interchangeably in the scriptures. “Heart” generally refers to what is particular to the body while “spirit” refers to the supernatural part of our being. What David prays for in this verse, and we as well, one commentator says, is a “total renovation of his entire mental and moral nature, which he recognizes as corrupt and depraved.” (See www.biblehub.com/commentaries for excellent information about any passage of Scripture).

Do we sometimes perceive our natures as corrupt and depraved? If not, we still must recognize that no matter how “well-off” we think we may be in the spiritual life, it is possible for us to fall as David had fallen. And at that time, we need not lose hope, for God’s love is greatest for those who are most in need of his mercy. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” We can pray no more honest prayer than that. It also helps to consider Saint Peter, who also fell in a horrible way, but yet was restored by his Lord who asked him, despite everything, “Do you love me?”

One final observation: David prays for a “steadfast” spirit. The Hebrew word used here means “firm, constant or steadfast.” What David is praying for is a spirit so fixed and unmovable that it will not easily be shaken in time of even the most powerful temptations. Something for us to pray for as well, is it not?

God bless you!

I can't, You can

Sunday, September 4, 2016

The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Gospel passage today (Luke 14:25-33) is a difficult one to listen to or read because it contains the words of Jesus, the Stern Teacher. “If you cannot renounce all your own possessions, hate family, and take up your cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.” Thanks be to God.

As our preacher this morning (Father Mathias, O.S.B.) pointed out, this hardly sounds like Good News, and we aren’t left in a condition where we really mean it when we pray “Thanks be to God.” Or can we?

Since this also happens to be the very day when Mother Teresa is canonized, we have before us the example of someone who did live the Gospel message in all its exacting fullness, and so we are left feeling even more inadequate and unworthy. This is a good day to spend time repeating the Jesus Prayer and mean it: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

And yes we are unworthy, inadequate, resistant, perhaps even spiteful in the face of the reality that we fall so far short of the things that Jesus asks of us, no matter how much good we may do, no matter how many little (and sometimes petty) sacrifices we may sometimes grudgingly make. There is still so much more that can be done, so many habits of mind and tongue and body that we have not yet left behind, so much selfishness that seems to reside in our very genes and that trips us up and so often reminds us of just how petty we can be, and how addicted we are to things that don’t really matter, to things that  may keep us from God at times, and to things that we know lie outside of what little sense we can make of God’s great plans for us in His great love.

And that is as it should be: in and of ourselves, we are inadequate. If we rely on our own resources, we will always come up short, we will always fail, we will always be left feeling far from God and far from the Kingdom that He continually offers us . . . if only we could . . .

Ah! There’s the catch. “If only we could,” but the truth is that we can’t. This reminds me of one of my favorite brief prayers, one that I encourage you to use today and always. It is only 4 words, but it sums up much of the Christian anthropology: “I can’t, you can.”

God is the one who makes us into the image of His Son, in His own ways and in His own time, and as it says on so many coffee mugs, God isn’t finished with us yet. Thank God. We come away from today’s Gospel feeling crushed and defeated until we realize that we are meant not to live lives based on our own strength and our own heroic capacities, but rather on the grace of God and the love that He continually pours out upon us that makes up in all ways for what is lacking in us. That is the great joy, great peace, and great hope of Christian reality and we cannot exist without it—but we don’t have to.

And when he directs us to “take up our cross,” in addition to whatever trials and pains and sufferings we have loaded on our backs as we make our way through this world, we might also add the knowledge that without his grace we are hopeless, helpless and hapless.

Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s life was so filled with that grace that it overflowed from her to the lives of countless destitute and miserable men, women and children throughout the world and will still do even  more now that she is no longer limited by earthly limitations. St. Teresa, Mother, pray for us all, because we are so aware that even we who have so much are still so destitute in what is truly needed, and still sick and helpless in our own human conditions. Amen.