The evolutionary path

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Feast of Saint Andrew (Wednesday of the first week of Advent)

Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew. If you remember your Gospel, Andrew was Peter’s brother, and they were fishermen. Jesus called to them and invited them to follow Him, and they left everything---boats and nets and their livelihood—and went to follow him. Consider this in light of the theme of evolution that I have been writing about lately.

There is a passage from the prophet Isaiah that speaks in metaphorical language about the process that Andrew and his brother were to undergo.

And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.  (Isaiah 42:16)

No matter what we may have planned, we don’t really know what the rest of this day will bring us. Perhaps things will go as we have planned, but perhaps things will go the way God has planned and perhaps His plans are different than ours. Perhaps our journey will begin as the result of some kind of loss or demotion in stature: for Andrew, it was the loss of his very livelihood.

The path that God lies before us is the one in which our evolution can unfold. It might not be the one we have chosen. And yet, it is the most perfect of all possible paths for us. Our job is to ask for the grace we need to adjust to the new path, to embrace it as God’s will for us, and to trust that we will continue to evolve by accepting God’s sometimes surprising will for us.

Through it all, God is with us, and the promise He makes through the prophet Isaiah can reassure us if we take it to heart. It is He Who is leading us, He Who will bring us through whatever life might throw at us, He Who is most powerful in our lives when things seem most hopeless, He Who is most powerful in our lives when it seems to us that He isn’t there at all. (Consider the famous “footprints” poem.)

Don’t forget that these words were directed to the people of Israel when they were living in miserable exile in a land that they didn’t know and that they would never have chosen for themselves. But even at this time, when things seemed the bleakest, He was working something out for them.

He is doing that for you as well.

May this prediction from Isaiah fill you with peace, and hope and a new type of wisdom that you wouldn’t have been able to understand a short time ago as your faith continues to grow and evolve. And may Saint Andrew, who left everything to follow a new evolutionary path, pray for you as you experience your own journey, your own evolution.

Blessed Advent to you!

Evolution: who are you becoming?

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

From the prophet Isaiah

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. (Is 11: 2-3)

I am particularly fond of this passage, which we will hear proclaimed again this coming Sunday; in fact, I am currently writing a piece of music for my schola to sing this Sunday, based on the passage I have just quoted.

How might we contemplate this passage and make some personal appropriations of what it has to say about our own spiritual evolution, or salvation? I prefer the word “evolution” because it evokes the notion of an ongoing process, a sense of becoming what not is yet evident, a sense of growth and change to something better than what we have in the here and now, and that is what our salvation is all about. It is not simply a one-time event that happens to us such as what happens at revival meeting altar-calls or what fundamentalists refer to as a “born again experience.” Our salvation is something that needs to be worked out and experienced over the course of time and on a daily basis. “Work out with anxious concern to achieve your salvation” (Phil 2:12), and 2Tim 3:15 speaks of “the sacred Scriptures, the source of the wisdom which through faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation.” We grow towards our salvation during a lifetime of study and hearing of the Scriptures.

And so what I am trying to demonstrate here is that we evolve towards our salvation, drawing on the graces and the helps that God bestows on us, sometimes even without our consciously asking.

Read the Isaiah passage again in that light. Jesus Christ is the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit which are listed here are the gifts He has to bestow on us. Which Spirit do you need the most this Advent.

I would also like to point a few very important words from the passage: not by appearance does he judge, nor by hearsay does he decide. Can we pray for the graces we need to grow to become a people who lives by those words? For myself, I continually pray for the grace to see beyond appearances, and when I catch myself not doing that, I remember what I am praying for and put a check on the sinful tendency of my mind to judge.

What graces do you want the most in your personal journey this Advent? Are you willing to cooperate with the graces when and if they are given to you? If so, you will experience yourself evolving towards the fullness of holiness that is your ultimate destiny. May God bring about the good He died to bring to you.

God bless you!

Advent: the next stage of our evolution

Monday, November 28, 2016: Monday of the First Week of Advent

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

On that day, the branch of the Lord will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors in Jerusalem. (Is 4:2).

Advent began yesterday, and here we are at first weekday of Advent and we hear a promise of things to come. As always, and particularly during Advent, I suggest that when you hear or read the words “Jerusalem” or “Israel,” you take to mean your own soul and the souls of the people who are in your life. And by doing that, this prophecy may have something to do with you in particular.

The prophecy continues: everyone who remains in Jerusalem will be called “holy;” the Lord is coming to wash away filth and to cleanse and to purge from impurity “with a blast of searing judgment.” And then finally, the Lord’s glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain. (Is 4:6)

How might all of these things apply to you, at this stage in your journey of faith, and in your evolution into what you are becoming? Always becoming, always evolving, never remaining static or stuck, for God comes to bring about change and renewal and evolution in our minds, in our hearts and in our souls.

My reading lately has caused me to think more about the concept of evolution, about our own personal growth towards some goal so marvelous that we can hardly wrap our minds around it. Check it out by considering your own life. Consider yourself, if you will, on the first Monday of Advent a year ago, or perhaps on the first Monday in Advent several years ago. How have you evolved? What new understandings have you reached about the quality and magnificence of your God? How have your relationship been transformed, or perhaps deformed? What have you lost? What have you had to give up, or give away, and how has that evolution changed you or transformed you?

And finally, what would you like to pray for this Advent? Christ comes anew and in His coming, if we be open to it, he will carry our personal evolution in His hands, and give us the graces we need to negotiate and even to transcend the next part of the road of our life.

Ask especially, that He bring healing and mercy to those parts of your life that still need strengthening, cleansing or even purging, and that He may bring to completion those gifts which He has already bestowed on you.

Finally, don’t get caught up in the trap of trying to predict the future or to imagine what it might be like. Hasn’t your life experience taught you that this is simply wasted mental effort? Simply put yourself in the hands of God: He is the author of your evolution; He is the source of your salvation. Pray, and let Him do His job.

God bless you!

I"m going to heaven: practical consequences

Friday, November 25, 2016

Last time I invited you to consider the practical consequences of realizing that you are destined for heaven, especially in light of St. Benedict’s admonition to “remind yourself every day that you are going to die.”

We are going to die and, when God judges you, if his mercy triumphs over judgment, then we will attain heaven, not as a result of the good we have done (which is all from God anyway) but rather as the free gift which was bestowed on us when we were created in God’s image and likeness.

How can we bear God’s image and likeness and not make it to heaven? The older I get, the more I wonder how this could be possible while at the same time realizing that there are many things in my history and in my person that could, perhaps, deprive me of heaven if God were the stern and unforgiving judge. But since I do not want my fate to be determined by such a God, despite the fact that over the centuries many have presented God in such a way and that there are even in our own time churchmen who try to sell us that concept of God---which I utterly reject after years of prayer and study and contemplation---then there follows these practical consequences I wrote about last time and I wish to think about for a brief time here and now. A few basic propositions:

1.       I must be careful not to be a stern, unforgiving judge in my dealings with others, or even within the silent thoughts of my own mind, because “the measure you measure with will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

2.       I must want those I love to be in heaven with me.

3.       I must want those I do not love to be in heaven with me.

4.       It will become easier to “let go” of all sorts of things which keep me stuck in unforgiveness, impatience, aggravation, or merely simple crabbiness.

5.       I will not get tossed around like a ship in a storm whenever I read the daily news, which by its very nature wants to take me on an emotional roller-coaster ride.

6.       Possessions and accumulations will become less and less important.

7.       So what if I’m not famous or if anyone doesn’t like me? It will all get sorted out in the long run.

8.       I might naturally be better tuned into the glimpses and traces of heaven that I experience in my daily down-to-earth life.

9.       Failures will not hurt so much and, in the long run, will not matter.

10.   It will become easier to bear the crosses that I am called to bear in this life, knowing that the Cross leads to the Resurrection.

Perhaps you can add your own items to this list. I encourage you to do so.

This is the final reflection for the current Church Year. Advent begins here in the monastery at 5:30 tomorrow with the first vespers of the First Sunday in Advent. This year we have the longest Advent possible, since Christmas falls on a Sunday. May God give us all the grace to profit from the extended period of time to prepare well once again for the coming of God to earth as a little child.

And may God bless you all! Have a nice weekend!

Heaven tomorrow?

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

This is the third of a three-part meditation based on this passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

Today we take up the last line of the passage, the destiny that the first two lines are meant to prepare us for. Yesterday we emphasized the virtue of hope as the means by which we could properly yearn for everlasting life, and now we come to the endpoint which is actually a point of departure into a new beginning.

If I am aware every day that I am going to die, and I reflect on it with hope, then it might be possible for me also to consider that my death leads beyond itself to heaven. And that is precisely what I invite you to contemplate, as I repeat what I said yesterday: our destiny is heaven. Perhaps the next step in your existence will be the time when you pass through purification and enter into the heaven which you have yearned for but you have not be able to picture. It will indeed be more than we can think of. Consider Saint Paul quoting Isaiah:

Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,

nor has it so  much as dawned on man

what God has prepared for those who love him. (I Cor 2:9)

That is what is awaiting us when we die, assuming that God’s mercy for us triumphs over any judgment due us, and if we have learned nothing during this past year of mercy, let it be that mercy always triumphs over judgment.

So what are the practical consequences of thinking this way? Well, what do you think? What difference will it make in your life if you knew that tomorrow you would be entering heaven? How about judgments, resentments, likes or dislikes? How might you treat the person(s) you find it most difficult to live with? What affect does it have on your priorities? how about good deeds? What might you be able to let go of that you have been holding onto for so long? What about your worries, concerns, petty agendas or fiercely held opinions?

What does any of it matter if you know that tomorrow you will have a chance to be in heaven?

Think on this. Think with gratitude. If you are American, be thankful for it as you celebrate our holiday tomorrow.

And may God bless you in all things.

There will not be a reflection tomorrow due to the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

Yearning

Wednesday, November 22, 2016

This is the second of a three-part meditation based on this passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

Notice how nicely balanced the passage is. The first line speaks of hell; the second line speaks of heaven. The first line evokes feelings of fear and terror and, God forbid, condemnation and agony; the second line speaks of yearning and “holy desire” for the end of all suffering and life lived in eternal bliss. First judgment, then reward. First fear, then a peace which we can just barely sense in this life. First horror, then hope, yearning and desire for all that is good.

Do we live now with a holy desire for all that is good? Is it manifest in our thoughts, words and actions? Are we free to choose what directs us towards heaven, or is there something within us which weakens our ability to choose? This line from the Rule seems so positive and so hopeful, and yet it speaks of a state of mind which we have to struggle to attain. And it is good for us to admit that sometimes we are powerless (the first of the 12 steps), sometimes our lives are unmanageable, and sometimes we do not have the ability to operated in complete freedom. (Fr. Richard Rohr suggests that everyone would benefit from working through the 12-steps that addicts of all stripes use as a tool for their survival, that in one way or another, we are all addicts.)

But yet: this yearning filled with hope is entirely accessible to us and can to one extent or another help determine the choices we make in life. But it has to be cultivated, and not just because we fear the alternative, but because in and of itself it is so attractive and desirable that it draws us to itself despite anything that may be pulling us in the other direction.

Many of us learned that in our basic Catechism studies as children: God wants us to be happy with him in heaven. That is our ultimate destiny according to His will. And if that be the case, well can we not assume that He would put the desire and the yearning within us, and that sometimes we might be able to lift our heads up and out of the muck and mire of even the messiest life and see the clear light of a future destiny shining forth to entice us, to draw us, to seduce us and to win us over?

Can that be our hope? Once again, I remind you that the virtue of hope is a theological virtue and is something poured into us from outside of us according to the capacity we have to receive it.

Work on widening that capacity. Open it up. Accept the gift. And all will be well, as Julian of Norwich states so beautifully.

Tomorrow we will look at the third line of the passage.

God bless you!

Please not there will not be a reflection for Thursday, November 24, which is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

Healthy fear

Monday, November 21, 2016

This will be a three-part meditation based on a passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

A “cheerful” reflection to begin the week, perhaps, but sobering, to be sure. Notice that the first of these three propositions is one that few people in our contemporary culture would be able to accept, but rather would be easily dismissed. We live in a culture that presumes that everyone is going to make it to heaven; how often do we hear such sentiments expressed during our funeral liturgies, where it seems that the deceased person is already canonized even while we are praying a Mass for the ultimate redemption of his/her soul!

And yet, it pays for us to be rigorously honest with ourselves. Is there not a repository of sins, mistakes and failings in your life that you really need to pray will be judged with a mercy that triumphs over judgment? Can you presume that every sinful thought, word and deed will be quickly glossed over and easily dismissed on judgment day? That is why is makes just so much sense to make the Jesus Prayer a vital part of your regular prayer life: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

He will hear that prayer; it has been promised throughout the psalms:

To you all flesh will come

with its burden of sin.

Too heavy for us, our offences,

but you wipe them away.  (Ps 65:3-4, Old Grail Translation)

It is the Lord who forgives all your sins,

who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

who crowns you with love and compassion. (Ps 103:3-5, New Grail Translation)

And so we approach the seat of judgment with holy fear, but also with a hope which has been fortified by our constant study of the Scriptures and of the messages of mercy we receive in our own contemplative prayer.

Reflecting on these things might challenge us to be less judgmental and more patient and merciful to others as they go through their own times of failure, weakness and sinfulness. Reflecting on these things might also equip us to obey the command given in chapter 72 of the Rule to bear with greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior. (RB 72:5)

It is only after we pass through this sobering verse of the Rule, that we might dare to move on to the next line quoted above. More about that tomorrow.

God bless you!

Surprised by beauty

Friday, November 18, 2016

I walked into my office this morning in a glum mood, wondering what I would write about today, when I was suddenly cut short by the view outside my window. There is an empty field that stretches for about 80 feet. Across from it is a wooded area. The empty field is covered with fallen leaves and the sun is making them glisten. I see browns, yellows, oranges and tufts of green grass poking up among the leaves. How exquisitely beautiful! I stopped, and looked, and savored the beautiful sight for a good chunk of time. I uttered a prayer of thanksgiving for the moment of beauty I had been given. I was pleased with myself that I had opened my eyes to see something beautiful despite the fact that I had originally been in a glum mood. Needless to say, the mood dispersed, and I was even more delighted when I realized that this would be a good topic for a reflection on the last day of the week, yet another example of what it means to be living reflectively. I marvel at God’s creativity, and how it flows over me when I least expect it.

Catch a sight of beauty today

no matter what may be on your mind.

It is a gift to you from a God who loves you

and who invites you to rise above your cares,

above your worries, above your burdens,

even if only for an instant.

Look. Tune up the receptors of your soul,

let the beauty reach you,

hear the music as if for the first time,

close your eyes and smile

just for two seconds,

and breathe deeply.

Give thanks.

Move on, ready for what is to come.

Ready for another reminder

that you are loved.

God bless you. Have a nice weekend.

Living Reflectively: 9 points

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Yesterday I wrote about living reflectively without ever defining what that means. And so today I’d like to take up the subject more fully by seeking answers to this question:

What does it mean to live reflectively? I offer you 9 points.

1.       First and foremost it means carving out time for silence and solitude in even the busiest of days. Silence and solitude are necessities, not luxuries.

2.       To live reflectively, we need to be able to see beyond appearances.

3.       To live reflectively, we need to learn control the quick impulses, snap judgments and automatic reactions to things we see or hear or read about.

4.       To live reflectively, we need to nourish our spirits with good reading, music or conversation on a regular basis.

5.       To live reflectively, we need to dialogue internally with the things that happen in our lives. What is this particular event, or disappointment, or insight saying to me right now? Is God speaking to me through this person? What is there for me to learn from all this?

6.       To live reflectively, we need to develop a greater sensitivity to signs of joy or pain in those around us.

7.       To live reflectively, we need to become more honest about our own personal character defects, to learn to recognize when we are speaking or acting out of these defects, and to ask God to help us remove them from our lives.

8.       To live reflectively, we need to increase our capacity to see clearly, to hear what others are saying—that is, to follow the admonition of St. Benedict to “listen with the ear of our hearts.”

9.       To live reflectively, we need to follow the example of the Blessed Mother who “treasured all these things (=what had been happening in her life) and reflected on them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

Perhaps you can add to this list. I would appreciate it if you could send me your own thoughts on the matter, and if I get enough feedback, I will publish what I receive in a later reflection.

God bless you!

We are more than we think we are

We are made in God’s image. (Genesis 1.27)

But what does that mean? Can we fully understand it? I don’t think we can, because we can’t fully understand God. If we are made in his image, then there is a part of ourselves far beyond what we can grasp: something so much greater, and magnificent, and mind-blowing, and, let’s not forget:  immortal.

Practical application: Although we need to aware of and accept our limitations and weaknesses, we don’t ever to be discouraged: our destiny will take us far beyond our limitations, and our weaknesses, and our failures, and our sins. Too good to be true? Well, we don’t even have to understand how this is meant to happen. That is God’s work. That is the work of God’s grace--over the course of our lifetimes and even beyond.

Listen to Saint John:  “Beloved, we are God’s children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when [the Savior] appears, we shall be like him.” (1 John 3.2)

And here is what Pope Francis has said about the matter, and I think, gets to the heart of what I’ve been trying to say:

“Thanks solely to this encounter—or renewed encounter—with God’s love, . . . we become fully human when we become more than human, when we let God bring us beyond ourselves in order to attain the fullest truth of our being.”  (“The joy of the Gospel,” paragraph 8)

United with God’s love, we become more than ourselves. Perhaps you’ve had a small taste of this reality even for the briefest of moments. Become aware of it. It will become more evident in your life if you continue to live reflectively.

God bless you!

Open the door

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, then I will enter his house and dine with him and he with me.” (Rev 3:20) (the first reading for Tuesday of the 33^rd Week in Ordinary Time)

This promise is being made first to the people of the city of Laodicea who have grown fat and complacent in their wealth. An angel tells St. John to write a letter to them to warn them of impending doom. This is how he accuses them (and perhaps accuses us as well):

You say ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything, and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.’ (Rev 3:17)

We might meditate on this verse and ask ourselves how we might be wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked. Do none of these things apply? If they don’t, perhaps it will be a good idea to take a closer look. I’m a monk in an affluent monastery, and many praise us here, but that puts me in great danger. I must continually reflect on my poverty—that is, on my constant and immediate help from God to rise above my sinfulness and to do whatever it may be that He wants me to do. I must continually reflect on my blindness—how I judge things by appearances far too often, how I cannot see what is beneath even my  most exalted motives. I must see how I am to be pitied, I must admit that although I wear the monastic habit, I am not yet clothed with the pure white garments that are the dress of those who have won the final victory over sin.

Some might bristle at being accused of such things, but I take great comfort in the words of Revelation that follow: Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent. (Rev 3:19)

And immediately after being reproved in such a way, the Lord offers us a great promise and blessing, the one I placed at the beginning of this meditation. He is there, knocking at our door and calling out to us. Can we hear him? Can we hear his knock, or be able to listen to his voice above all the other voices that are continually calling out to us? Notice especially that the Christ does not barge in on us: He waits. We are the ones who have to open the door. We have to make that choice.

As it says in the book of Deuteronomy: “Choose life, . . . that you may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him.” (Dt 30:19-20)

God bless you!

Help that comes from outside of you

Monday, November 14, 2016

From today’s Gospel passage (Monday of the 33^rd week in Ordinary Time):

Jesus is walking by and a blind beggar calls out, “Son of David, have pity on me!” People rebuked him and tried to silence him, but he called out all the more. Jesus heeds his call and approaches him and asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” The beggar asks, “Lord, please let me see.” And his sight is immediately restored. Jesus says to him, “your faith has saved you.” (Luke 18-35-43)

My reflection for today focuses on the two statements in bold print above.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

It is good to replay that question in our heart when we come to prayer. What do you want Him to do for you today? It may take time and reflection to answer this question, for sometimes, we do not know how to ask, and at other times, our faith may be too weak to take into account that He is willing to help us in all things, the mundane as well as the spectacular, and it is often difficult to focus on the mundane. What do I ask for today? I ask for the self-discipline to work my way through my daily tasks, for this is not a high-energy day for me. How about you? What do you want Him to do for you today?

“Your faith has saved you.”

The beggar’s faith is great and persistent and urgent. Even though he is blind, he has been given the grace to realize that the one passing by is the hope of Israel, and even though he is blind, he has been given the grace to beg for pity, and then to ask to have his sight restored. And his faith is praised.

Faith is a theological virtue that comes from God and is poured into our hearts from outside of us. This is important to realize because it is a gift given, not an innate quality or capacity. Don’t protest that your faith is too weak. As for more, and maybe that will be your request for today. The blind beggar, pour and helpless that he was, received a strong infusion of faith which, as Jesus said, ended up saving him and bringing him a further blessing that was not in his power to bestow on himself.

As I ask for self-discipline today, I believe that it is not within me on this particular day; I am asking the Lord to supply what is lacking in me. In doing this, I am following the admonition of Saint Benedict in his Rule: What is not possible to us by nature, let us ask the Lord to supply by the help of his grace. (Prologue, v. 41).

(And, by the way, another thing I ask for repeatedly is that I may be able to see beyond appearances. You  might do well to think about your own personal blindness in making your prayer to the Son of David today.)

Ask.

God bless you!

Letting go and moving on

Friday, November 11, 2016

From today’s Gospel (Friday of week 32 in Ordinary Time)

Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lost it, but whoever loses it will save it. (Luke 17:33)

As the Church Year hastens towards its last days, the Gospel passages at Mass are also focused on the last days and the coming of the kingdom. These passages are somewhat difficult to work with, and it is also difficult to find something in them that we can take away with us or use for our own personal reflection and meditation. But in all of them, the overriding message can be a warning for us as well. I would sum it up this way: The time is coming when things are going to very different than what we know now; focus on what will really matter at the end of time and give less of yourself to those things that are transient, temporary, merely interesting and ultimately short-lived

Consider Luke 17:33 in this light. As we make our way through life, we are continually in a process of letting go and moving on. The two are essentially linked: Where we refuse to let go, we cannot progress. What we hang on to blocks the on-going process of conversion and the finding of new life.

How might God be prompting us to move on these days? What might He be urging us to lose? It could be a grudge, or a hard-held opinion that we cling to although it isn’t necessarily true. It could be a temptation or a habit. It could be a weakness of character that it’s time to surrender into God’s hands. it could be so many, many things.

And when we do let go, when we surrender to the call to lose whatever it may be, we find that we become richer than we were when we were still clinging or holding on to what we are called to lose.

Lot and his family were called to lose their homeland and everything that was associated with it and to move on. Lot’s wife looked back; she wasn’t able to relinquish what she was called to surrender. She became immobilized.

Sometimes, we become immobilized as well. Jesus, in His great and unlimited mercy, warns us about this today. Something new is in store for you. What you know must come to an end. Are you ready to let go and move on?

God bless you!

Dealing with disappointment

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Sometimes there are coincidences that are uncanny. I dropped in on a discussion group yesterday and found out that the topic for discussion (prompted by the USA election results, no doubt) was “dealing with disappointment.”

I offered one word as my contribution to the discussion: remember. And I’d like to use that word for today’s brief reflection. The command to remember is used repeatedly in the Scriptures, in many different contexts. I point out just two examples and then I’ll explain why I chose the word remember to help us address times of disappointment:

“Remember the days of old; consider the years long past.” (Dt 32:7)

“I remember the deeds of the Lord,

I remember your wonders of old.” (Ps 77:12)

And, for what it is worth, my explanation:

Remember. Think back. Think back to times when you have suffered disappointment, times that you had to take to prayer. Remember how you were helped, and possibly how the aid came to you more quickly or more wondrously than you could have imagined possible. Remember how God sustained you during times of disappointment as soon as you remembered to turn to Him. Remember how you had managed to survive painful and unexpected disappointments. Remember how you wanted to turn to the east but the events of your life turned you towards the west, and although you couldn’t realize it at the time, you now realize that it was the hand of God that had turned you to a new direction that brought you safely to a new land.

Remember prayers answered. Remember prayers denied, and then you learned how it was for a better reason. Remember hopes unfulfilled, and how in the disappointment you found yourself drawing closer to God than ever before.

Many of us in the USA fear that we are about to embark upon dark times. And perhaps we are. But remember how, in the darkest times of your life, God was doing for you what you could not do for yourself. Remember your faith and realize that trials serve to increase your faith, not whittle it away, and remember how the most important thing in your existence is the closeness of your personal relationship to Our Lord, and how that relationship will be strengthened by whatever may come. And finally, remember how many times, during a visitation from the Divine, these words were spoken: Do not be afraid. I am with you.

Remember these things. Be at peace.

God bless you!

Words of Consolation

Wednesday, November 09, 2016

In light of the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States

I was looking about for some words of consolation today, and I came upon a brief reflection I had written back in June of 2015. I share it with you now:

“I will lead the blind on their journey.

By paths unknown I will guide them.”

(Isaiah 42)

A few months ago I was praying for things to turn out a certain way. Well, they didn’t. And so, once again, like so many other times in my life, I am walking on ground I have not walked on before. Just like Abraham, and Moses, and the Blessed Mother, and the apostles, and so many of the saints, and in the lives of countless ordinary people who have been led in directions they never would have planned for or predicted or perhaps even wanted.

It is sacred ground we are traveling. As I’ve said so many times before, it is simply our task to keep going and to bow before the mystery, and, above all, to place our trust in the One who alone is worthy of all our trust.

May the Lord continue to guide us, as He has at every moment of our lives in the past.

God uses everything

Tuesday, November 08, 2016

U.S.A. Election Day---please pray for us if you are not from this country!

From the first reading for today’s Mass (Titus 2:11-14) Tuesday of Week 32 in Ordinary Time

For the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age . . . “

Historically, there have been movements in religion that have tried to carry this message to its extremes, and to live in such a way as to reject any and all things that belonged to the world. This has gone so far as for groups of men or women to live in such a way that rejected the body and anything that pertained to the body as worthless, needing to be disparaged, subjecting themselves to extreme fasts, heroic ascetic ways of life to the point where they did serious damage to their own health and often to their own sanity. If you would like to read further about these things, I would suggest you look up “Jansenism,” which appeared in 17^th Century France.

In our own time, however, there have been some, and I count myself among them, who have come to realize that God is in everything, that everything has been made in Christ Jesus, and that God looks upon all of creation as something good and blessed. Even us poor, compromised, often-defeated human beings who, we must remember, were created in God’s image and likeness and who are destined to enjoy eternal life with Him in the kingdom to come.

All was created in Jesus. All is redeemed by Jesus. All is loved and sustained by Jesus and through Jesus and in Jesus. As for this beautiful verse from the letter to Titus, see it as a guideline for balanced, wholesome and upright living, not as a mandate to inflict extreme behavior upon yourself. As a Benedictine, I study and love the Rule of Saint Benedict which has been praised through the centuries as a model of balance and discretion, and even at that, there are some aspects of the Rule which we no longer observe, such as corporal punishment, because the discretion of time has seen even that as too extreme.

God can use everything there is in our lives as a means of leading us closer to himself and closer to the Kingdom of Heaven. Everything---and this includes those parts of our lives that have been less than perfect, less than holy, less than wholesome and upright. Do not try to suppress or deny or hate any parts of your life, present or past, that you know have fallen far short of the mark. Simply hold it up to Jesus and get out of the way so that He can use your history in ways that He alone understands will accrue to your benefit.

Again, please note: God uses everything.

And for those parts of our existence that cause us dismay, take great solace in the acute wisdom of the Jesus Prayer and use it often: Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

God bless you!

How much faith?

Monday, November 07, 2016

From the Gospel for Monday of the 32^nd Week of Ordinary Time:

“If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you would say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.” Luke 17:6

I don’t know about you, but apparently my faith is smaller than a mustard seed, because I am not yet at the point where I could go about uprooting trees and moving them around the earth.

Please notice, however, that I used an important little word in that last statement: yet.

Consider if you will that faith is on a continuum with total lack of faith on one end and extraordinary faith on the other end, the kind of faith that can move mountains. Where does your faith exist on that continuum? Remember also that faith is called a theological virtue; that is, a virtue which relates directly to God, a virtue which, according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “adapts man’s faculties for participation in the divine nature.” ¶ 1812.

And so once again we consider the overwhelmingly extensive quality of our destiny as children of God: that, given a gift by God, we are to share in His glory, His goodness, His truth and beauty, and His power. I can’t help but recall the great passage from the Letter to the Ephesians which we hear proclaimed on the Feast of the Ascension:

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead . . . (Ephesians 1: 17-20a  NRSV translation)

This is the best description I know of the ultimate power of the faith that he has poured into us. Thus I invite you to consider the following:

·         What is the difference between your life as it is now and your life back when your faith was weak or non –existent?

·         How many times and in what ways has the power of your faith made it possible for you to surmount challenges, difficulties or even sufferings in your life?

·         What can you imagine your life would be like if you cooperated with God’s efforts to give you an even stronger faith?

·         How does the faith you already have express itself in good works and deeds, for this is an essential requirement for faith to be proved genuine (Catechism, ¶ 1814-1815)

May the Lord continue to bless you and may He grant you an increase of faith!

Remember your destiny

Friday, November 04, 2016

“Their minds are occupied with earthly things.”  (Philippians 3:19) 1^st reading for Friday of the 31^st Week in Ordinary Time.

As we go about our days, we are naturally occupied with practical ordinary things: getting the laundry done, our to-do lists at work, various studies at school, plans for the weekend, shopping, taking care of children, and so on. But these are not the “earthly” things that Paul is talking about when he writes to the Philippians. Paul is referring to what becomes important to us when we are in the grips of the 7 deadly sins. He mentions gluttony specifically: “Their God is in their stomach; their glory is in their “shame.”

I find the use of the word “shame” ironic. What Paul sees as “shame,” that is, the stuff of sin, those lost in sin do not necessarily regard as something shameful in our sense of the word. The problem is that once one is given over to sin, the voice of conscience is weakened or even blotted out by the power of desire, the attraction of the sin, or even what those in 12-step programs call “the addict.”

What I’m getting at is this: the sin that we are given over to blinds and confuses our minds to the point where we cannot think clearly about the particular moral issue involved. And if one is living life without any reference to God, the scope of this blindness and confusion is overwhelming.

Is there any remedy to this? With God’s grace, of course there is. It involves realizing that we are children of God, that we have a Savior who is risen from the dead and who promises to lead us to eternal life. This is our nature. This is the reality of very single man and woman whether they realize it or not. And if we are troubled by any particular vice, weakness or sin, we can strengthen ourselves by directing our thinking and our attention to one simply phrase used by Paul in this passage: Our citizenship is in heaven.

In the monastery we sing an antiphon during the Easter season which reminds us to recall our destiny: “since you have been raised to life with Christ, seek the things that are above.” In all matters, recall who you are (a child of God); recall that your God’s mercy is directed towards your ultimate salvation, recall the many teachings you have heard which give you hope and strength and courage. Turn your back on the “earthly things” even while you are doing the laundry, making plans for the weekend or taking care of the children.

Again, Remember who you are, remember your ultimate destiny and remember that you are not alone in your progress towards your destiny. And all will be well.

God bless you. Have a nice weekend.

The Quest for Joy

Thursday, November 3, 2016

For those of you who get these reflections by email: You may have missed a reflection for a day or two because I had lost the REFLECTIONS distribution list on my computer. Finally, with the help of our technology department, and prayers to St. Anthony, I was able to recover it.

I was frustrated and sad when I had lost my list because there was no was that I could reconstruct it. I tried to do everything I could, searching through my computer files carefully, and I was reminded of that today when I read in our Gospel passage for the day (Wed. of the 31^st week in Ordinary Time—Luke 15:1-10) about the woman who swept her whole house in order to find a lost coin, and how happy she was when she finally found it.

Perhaps you have had the same experience: losing something and then searching carefully for it, perhaps enduring a time of panic and anxiety (especially when we lose our cell phones these days) until at long last the lost object is found.

We move from anxiety to great joy in our little experiences of losing and then finding, and I am wondering today whether the joy and relief we taste when at last we find what we have lost might give us a little taste of what Jesus calls the “rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

Has heaven rejoiced over you and me in that way? And once we are “found,” is it not true that continue to stray and to get lost all over again in little ways as well in big ways?

Perhaps I am too prideful, but I like to think that when God looks upon me in the monastery and sees that I am at peace and happy, that He too rejoices, because it is His eternal aim to see all of us as peace and happy one day, and if we are not in that state at the moment, if we are going through those dark times and sad turns in our lives, we do well to remember that “this too shall pass,” and like the lost sheep who becomes paralyzed from fear, we who are paralyzed because of anything whatsoever will be put upon his shoulders and carried back home and we will eventually be at peace, and heaven, too, will rejoice.

And in this Year of Mercy, I’d like to suggest that one of the things that motivates mercy is God’s unending quest to see us in a state of joy.

God bless you.

Random Thoughts # 8

Wednesday, November 02, 2016

Wednesdays are “random thoughts days,” since I have to leave early in the morning to go out of town. Here are today’s selections.

Foot washing

Jesus Christ kneeling before you like a slave, doing something personal and intimate to save your soul and your life. 

It's hard to wash your own feet.  If you're built like me, sometimes it's hard even to see your own feet.  So people washed each other's feet.  It's also hard to wash your own soul.  In fact, impossible.  When it comes to souls, we're all like people in the hospital, paralyzed, or perhaps unconscious, too helpless to take care of ourselves.  We need the nurses to do the washing, or someone else.  And so, when it comes to souls, we need to get washed by others.  That's why we need a community.  That's why Jesus gave us one.

And then He told us to do the same. To journey from the heights of our pride to the depths of humble, loving service. Oh, our journey is such a tiny step compared to the journey He made for us. And yet we so often travel our own little inch resisting, resentful, rebellious, whining and moaning all of the way. What a stupid illusion it is, this sense of "dignity" or "pride" or "honor" that makes it so difficult for us to just let go, to lay aside our garments, and to find our identity in the act of serving others, quietly and humbly.    

Forgiveness

When we do not forgive, we can do no good. We can bring no peace. We can share no joy. We are so far from love.

                Instead, we are cast into the prison of our bitterness, where we are tortured by hateful feelings, until the last drop of life has been wrenched from our souls. And the saddest thing about it is this: in the long run, we suffer far more than those we have refused to forgive. They may lose a friend. We lose heaven itself.  

Our refusal to forgive does not punish those who have hurt us as much as it punishes us ourselves, for it shuts us up in a prison of our own making. 

Forgive AS THE LORD HAS FORGIVEN YOU.  (Col 3:14)  It goes right back to God, and to God's love for you personally. Again, I would suggest that none of us has this power of forgiveness naturally within us. It has got to be fueled by the forgiveness that we experience from God himself in our own lives, for our own peccadilloes, weaknesses, failures, sins, crimes and hidden secret shames. 

the power of those words, Your sins are forgiven you, was won at a very great price, let us not forget: at the price of more pain and agony and mental torture and inner turmoil than any of us ever will have to face ever: unless we fail to hear His voice and choose Hell for ourselves by choosing NOT to listen. 

Freedom of Choice

We can make choices about how to deal with a particular incident not based on patterns of the past, but rather, based on possibilities of the present.

God bless you!

Special note: ON Tuesday, I accidentally deleted my entire “reflections” mailing list. If you know of anyone who was receiving these reflections, please send me that person’s email address.

bcamera@anselm.edu

The flow of sainthood

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

All Saints’ Day

6 propositions about the saints

1. The Church has an exacting process for canonization and all of the “official” saints named by the Church have undergone that process. As you may or may not know, sometimes the process takes centuries; sometimes its moves along more quickly. However, there are a great many more saints in heaven than the ones the Church has honored with the title “saint.” Perhaps you know some of your own. Perhaps there is someone you have asked to intercede for you and your prayers have been answered. Sometimes the “miracles” attributed to a particular saint are not as heroic or sublime as the little “miracles” you have experienced in your own life.

2. Let’s take a look at the saints the Church has canonized. What we are looking at here is the magnificent mystery of grace; that is, of gifts freely given to those who perhaps have never asked for them. And when we consider the Church’s saints, what we are given to look at is the reality that God has poured blessings and graces into a particular saint’s life that went far beyond the ordinary and normal. Consider, for example, Saint Mother Theresa and the extraordinary gift she has to see Christ in the poorest of the poor and to devote all of her being to their care and to gather around herself a very large number of people who would be given the grace to imitate her.

3. Consider any of the saints and consider their gifts and the fact that they cooperated with the graces that were given them. Could it be, perhaps, that we too have been given gifts that we have not been able to embody or express into the world? If so, we do well to ask the saints to intercede for us.

4. We do well if we never cease asking for even a small portion of the graces that were given to those we know as saints, and that we ask for the openness it takes to let those graces flow through us.

5. Ultimately, it is all about love: the love God has poured into the lives of the saints themselves, as well as how he has used these men and women to show His love to the particular people they have cared for in their lives.

6. We are part and parcel of the flow of that love. It is all around us. It is in us, even when we don’t seem to be able to recognize it. It will carry us to sainthood as well if we stay open to it and let it express itself in our lives.

May God bless you on this wonderful feast day!