Forgive my meltdown

I had a meltdown yesterday, please forgive my negativity.

3 Ps – Pentecost, Prayer and Peace

Today, I think we can all be sure that the Pope Emeritus is praying for Francis’s prayers for peace in the Middle East. At the start of his Middle East trip Benedict XVI said: 

“Friends, unlike the pilgrims of old, I do not come bearing gifts or offerings. I come simply with one intention, a hope: to pray for the precious gift of unity and peace, most specifically for the Middle East. Peace for individuals, for parents and children, for communities, peace for Jerusalem, for the Holy Land, for the region, peace for the entire human family; the lasting peace born of justice, integrity and compassion, the peace that arises from humility, forgiveness and the profound desire to live in harmony as one.

Prayer is hope in action. And in fact true reason is contained in prayer: we come into loving contact with the one God, the universal Creator, and in so doing we come to realize the futility of human divisions and prejudices and we sense the wondrous possibilities that open up before us when our hearts are converted to God’s truth, to his design for each of us and our world.” http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/speeches/2009/may/documents/hf_ben-xvi_spe_20090508_regina-pacis_en.html

I am sure he is praying to the Father for peace just as Francis is praying for peace.  Today, Francis begged:

“To him, the Father, in the Spirit of Jesus Christ, I now turn, begging the intercession of the Virgin Mary, a daughter of the Holy Land and our Mother.

Lord God of peace, hear our prayer!

We have tried so many times and over so many years to resolve our conflicts by our own powers and by the force of our arms.  How many moments of hostility and darkness have we experienced; how much blood has been shed; how many lives have been shattered; how many hopes have been buried…  But our efforts have been in vain.

Now, Lord, come to our aid!  Grant us peace, teach us peace; guide our steps in the way of peace.  Open our eyes and our hearts, and give us the courage to say: “Never again war!”; “With war everything is lost”.  Instil in our hearts the courage to take concrete steps to achieve peace.

Lord, God of Abraham, God of the Prophets, God of Love, you created us and you call us to live as brothers and sisters.  Give us the strength daily to be instruments of peace; enable us to see everyone who crosses our path as our brother or sister.  Make us sensitive to the plea of our citizens who entreat us to turn our weapons of war into implements of peace, our trepidation into confident trust, and our quarreling into forgiveness.

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation.  In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words “division”, “hatred” and “war” be banished from the heart of every man and woman.  Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands.  Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be “brother”, and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!”http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2014/june/documents/papa-francesco_20140608_invocazione-pace.html

Let us all beg for Peace – Come Holy Spirit Come, Enkindle in us the fire of your love! Amen 

Popes and Prayer

There is a silly story going on in Italy brought to my attention by John Allen’s Boston Globe article here.  Skim toward the end of the article.

I think this is silly.  Yes, Benedict is still spiritually connected but there are not two popes.  “Pope” is not an office or vocation, it is a description for a person holding an office.  Emeritus is used as an honorary title – nothing more – basically it means the former person was once Pope-Father…. Benedict did not choose the emeritus Bishop of Rome title.  I’m sure it is for the very reason we are reading today – so that authority and mission rests in one person.   There is no controversy here – any ex-Pope who did not give himself any title would probably be doing the same thing as Benedict – praying and living in the Vatican grounds…. To go home would mean dislocation for all the neighbors – something that a thoughtful person would not do….  To not pray would be a rejection of his consecration as a priest and bishop.  Silliness….

The benefit of this article is that prayer as a powerful weapon is brought to the world’s attention.  No one should ever underestimate the power of prayer whether it is from the lowliest sinner to the greatest of the saints.  Benedict did a whole catechesis on prayer.  This is something from his first one worth pondering (http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110504_en.html):

“Dear friends, in these examples of prayer of different epochs and civilizations emerge the human being’s awareness of his creatural condition and of his dependence on Another superior to him and the source of every good. The human being of all times prays because he cannot fail to wonder about the meaning of his life, which remains obscure and discomforting of it is not put in relations to the mystery of God and if his plan for the world.

Human life is a fabric woven of good and of evil, of undeserved suffering and of joy and beauty that spontaneously and irresistibly impel us to ask God for that light and that inner strength which support us on earth and reveal a hope beyond the boundaries of death.”

Months later and more apropos to our current liturgical season is this gem:

“Furthermore, to learn to live more intensely our personal relationship with God, we have learned to invoke the Holy Spirit, the first gift of the Risen One to believers, because it is he who “helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought” (Rom 8:26), St Paul says, and we know how right he is.

At this point, after a long series of Catecheses on prayer in Scripture, we can ask ourselves; how can I let myself be formed by the Holy Spirit and thereby become able to enter into the atmosphere of God, of prayer with God? What is this school in which he teaches me to pray, comes to help me in my attempts to speak to God correctly? The first school of prayer — as we have seen in these weeks — is the Word of God, Sacred Scripture. Sacred Scripture is an ongoing dialogue between God and man, a progressive dialogue in which God shows himself ever closer, in which we can become ever better acquainted with his face, his voice, his being; and man learns to accept to know God and to talk to God. Therefore, in these weeks, in reading Sacred Scripture we have sought to learn from Scripture, from this ongoing dialogue, how we may enter into contact with God.“

And so, at this time of year when we ask – Come Holy Spirit, Come,  I offer Benedict’s prayer at the end of that first catechesis as my prayer for this evening – a prayer asking the Lord to teach us to pray.  I ask the Lord to make my prayer worthy, I ask Him to hear my prayer and to hear the prayers of my brothers and sisters as we journey though joy and sorrow in this life.  Help us to be closer to You, Oh Lord.    And here is Benedict’s prayer from May 4, 2011:

“At the beginning of our journey in the “school of prayer” let us now ask the Lord to illumine our minds and hearts so that the relationship with him in prayer may be ever more intense, affectionate and constant. Once again, let us say to him: “Lord, teach us to pray” (Lk 11:1).” 

AMEN.

Memorial Day

We are out of town without a good internet connection.  Tonight’s reflection is on the honor and memory of those who have given their lives in service to their country.  We also reflect and honor the memory of our deceased relatives.  Pope Francis is in the Holy Land and prayers are extended to his safety as well as a successful mission.

May God Bless all of us, whether we are Americans or not on this solemn and festive holiday.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled”

These are Jesus’ words in the Gospel today.  I confess to being greatly troubled often.  I should trust more.  I look at Benedict’s example, his profound trust in the Lord.  I wonder often when he learned the peace he had because of this trust.  Sometimes, I wish I could sit down and ask him.  I am sure it is in his writings somewhere.  I am too preoccupied to hunt down a passage that might speak to this.  He rarely talked about his own spiritual life.  One has to think that his prayer life was and is very deep.  This gives me comfort in my times when my heart is troubled.  Someone who carried greater weight on his shoulders than I can possibly imagine did so with a great and humble faith.  He journeyed with the Lord.  He still does.  And so, tonight I pray that the Lord hears Benedict’s prayers.  I am sure that his prayers are for the benefit of all and for the Church.

As for me, I need to remember that Christ is the Way.  I need to pick up my cross and bear it.  I need to do so with great love and honesty.  I need to do so by being WITH the Lord.  Funny how a small word can be packed with so much meaning.  The Lord’s way will lead us home.  It fills me with joy.  It times of a troubled heart – joy is an important antidote. Today’s responsorial psalm is my prayer – Benedict prayed it today!

R/ (22) Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
Exult, you just, in the LORD;
praise from the upright is fitting.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten-stringed lyre chant his praises.
R/ Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R/ Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R/ Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear him,
upon those who hope for his kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
R/ Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.
or:
R/ Alleluia.

URGENT: CDF STATMENT ON LCWR

URGENT: CDF STATMENT ON LCWR.

LCWR

I am still in awe at the stubbornness of the women who are in the LCWR (see here and here ).  As many Catholics know, they  have been subject to oversight by the Vatican because they promote beliefs and spirituality that are not congruent with Catholic faith and spirituality.  In their defense they argue that the men don’t get them and they’ve been denied due process, etc., etc.  Not once in everything I have read do they say the one thing, the one thing that would solve this whole dilemma.  What is that one thing you ask?- Jesus is Lord. Truly this is what the fight is really about.

The first reading today is helpful.  Peter says: “Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice, and proclaimed: “Let the whole house of Israel know for certain
that God has made both Lord and Christ,
this Jesus whom you crucified.”” If only the women would witness this and witness Jesus’ own words in the Gospel reading:

“So Jesus said again, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
I am the gate for the sheep.
All who came before me are thieves and robbers,
but the sheep did not listen to them.
I am the gate.
Whoever enters through me will be saved,
and will come in and go out and find pasture.
A thief comes only to steal and slaughter and destroy;
I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.””

If you are not Catholic, you may not care.  You may see the Vatican as stifling debate etc.  If you are Catholic you might buy into the argument that they are oppressed.  But really – is it so hard for them to get up in the public square and say – ‘I believe Jesus is Lord.  I committed my life to this.  My actions aren’t just about social justice, my actions are about bringing Jesus to you so that you might have life, and life in abundance, not just the equality my social justice activities strive for – but life, life in abundance’.  Barbara Marx Hubbard, one of their conference speakers, doesn’t bring life, life in abundance.  Post-Christian planning at another one of their Conferences doesn’t send this message either!

Is it so hard for them to say it – that Jesus is Lord.  Are they so stuck in their us against them mentality that they can’t say it? Are they so opposed to giving allegiance and obedience to this man? Do they have to reinvent God to do so?  Their award recipient this year, Elizabeth Johnson, tries to persuade readers to use feminist language when thinking and discussing God.  She diminishes Scripture to make God more palatable to her and other like minded people’s way of thinking.

Ratzinger wrote in at least one of his books that we don’t know God’s gender. But he also, as the Church, does reminds readers that Jesus is Son who called God – Father.  Why is it so hard to accept this? Why is it so hard to say – I love Jesus, I follow Him? Why are the faithful supposed to pay attention to their kind of witness – the kind that we are warned about today in the readings, the kind that leads to confusion away from Christ as He is, not how we want Him to be?

Benedict started this process of dialogue and hopefully, renewal with the women of the LCWR.  Let us pray that they can publicly say as well as hold in their hearts:  Jesus, my Lord and God.

In 2008 in his homily in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in the presence of women religious, he said: “So let us lift our gaze upward!  And with great humility and confidence, let us ask the Spirit to enable us each day to grow in the holiness that will make us living stones in the temple which he is even now raising up in the midst of our world.  If we are to be true forces of unity, let us be the first to seek inner reconciliation through penance.  Let us forgive the wrongs we have suffered and put aside all anger and contention.  Let us be the first to demonstrate the humility and purity of heart which are required to approach the splendor of God’s truth.  In fidelity to the deposit of faith entrusted to the Apostles (cf. 1 Tim 6:20), let us be joyful witnesses of the transforming power of the Gospel!

Dear brothers and sisters, in the finest traditions of the Church in this country, may you also be the first friend of the poor, the homeless, the stranger, the sick and all who suffer.  Act as beacons of hope, casting the light of Christ upon the world, and encouraging young people to discover the beauty of a life given completely to the Lord and his Church.  I make this plea in a particular way to the many seminarians and young religious present.  All of you have a special place in my heart.  Never forget that you are called to carry on, with all the enthusiasm and joy that the Spirit has given you, a work that others have begun, a legacy that one day you too will have to pass on to a new generation.  Work generously and joyfully, for he whom you serve is the Lord!

The spires of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis, they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God.  As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us thank the Lord for allowing us to know him in the communion of the Church, to cooperate in building up his Mystical Body, and in bringing his saving word as good news to the men and women of our time.  And when we leave this great church, let us go forth as heralds of hope in the midst of this city, and all those places where God’s grace has placed us.  In this way, the Church in America will know a new springtime in the Spirit, and point the way to that other, greater city, the new Jerusalem, whose light is the Lamb (Rev21:23).  For there God is even now preparing for all people a banquet of unending joy and life”

Let us pray that with humility and insight the members of the LCWR lift their gaze upward, as well as inward, and recognize the truth of the Gospel, not just the metaphors.  Let us pray that we all transcend our own selves to love and humbly serve the Lord and our neighbor.  Amen.

On the Road

We are all on the road – Pilgrims on a journey.  I got lost in my day yesterday and didn’t post but the theme was and is – on the road.  In the Gospel Reading yesterday we re-lived Jesus’ meeting with disciples on the road to Emmaus.  You can find the readings here:http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/050414.cfm or Luke 24: 13-35.

In contemplating the reading, anyone of these questions is enough to ponder:

1.  What just did happen from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection?

2.  Would I recognize Jesus? Do I recognize Him even when near?

3.  What is it like to hear the news for the first time from people who were there?  Is this how I tell it? Is this how I hear it?

4. Do I listen to Scripture?

5.  Do I invite the Lord to stay?

6.  Do I recognize what is happening in the Breaking of the Bread?

7.  Am I travelling on the right road? Am I travelling with Jesus?

I am thinking about all of these questions.  Perhaps the one that inspired tonight’s thoughts are the last two. I am on the road, a pilgrim.  Sometimes I fall victim to bad forces on the road.  Sometimes, I take the wrong path.  Sometimes, I fall.  Sometimes, a fellow traveller picks me up.  All the time the Lord is travelling with me whether I am aware of it or not.

In his Regina Caeli on the Third Sunday of Easter in 2008 (April 6th), Benedict XVI offered an interesting reflection on this reading.  You can find it here: http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/angelus/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_reg_20080406_en.html

Toward the end is his little prayer – the prayer for this week:

“This marvellous Gospel text already contains the structure of Holy Mass: in the first part, listening to the Word through the Sacred Scriptures; in the second part, the Eucharistic liturgy and communion with Christ present in the Sacrament of his Body and his Blood. In nourishing herself at this two-fold table, the Church is constantly built up and renewed from day to day in faith, hope and charity. Through the intercession of Mary Most Holy, let us pray that in reliving the experience of the disciples of Emmaus every Christian and every community may rediscover the grace of the transforming encounter with the Risen Lord”

Mary Most Holy, I pray for your Church, may it be renewed.  May I be renewed and may we all discover the grace of the transforming encounter with the Risen Lord.  Amen

 

Jesus, I trust in thee.

In the Regina Caeli, April 15, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI said:

 

“What the Gospel says is very important: namely, that Jesus, in his two appearances to the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room, repeats several times the greeting: “Peace be with you” (Jn 20:19, 21, 26). Here, the traditional greeting with which people wish one another shalom, peace, becomes something new: it becomes the gift of the peace that Jesus alone can give because it is the fruit of his radical victory over evil.

The “peace” that Jesus gives to his friends is the fruit of the love of God which led him to die on the cross, to pour out all his blood, as a meek and humble lamb “full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14).

For this reason Bl. John Paul II chose to call this Sunday after Easter, Divine Mercy, with a very specific image: that of Jesus’ pierced side from which blood and water flowed, according to the account of an eyewitness, the Apostle John (cf. Jn 19:34-37). However Jesus is now risen and the paschal Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist flow from him, who is alive: those who receive them with faith receive the gift of eternal life.

Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the gift of peace which the Risen Jesus offers us, let us allow our hearts to be filled with his mercy! In this way, with the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit who raised Christ from the dead, we too can bring these Easter gifts to others. May Mary Most Holy obtain this for us.”

May Mary Most Holy obtain this for us, Amen.

and, Jesus, I trust in thee.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter!  Jesus Christ is Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia!

In a collection of homilies entitled, Seek that Which is Above, published by Ignatius Press in 1986 and again in 2007, Joseph Ratzinger wrote the following:

” “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it”: thus we sing in the words of the psalms of Israel, a psalm that had been waiting, in a manner of speaking, for the Risen Lord and so became the Easter hymn of Christians. We sing the Alleluia, a Hebrew word that has become a timeless expression of the joy of the redeemed.

But are we right to be glad? Or is joy not almost a kind of cynicism, a kind of mockery, in a world that is so full of suffering? Are we redeemed? Is the world redeemed?”  pp. 46-47

He goes on to give examples of his questions and then he answers:

“Against this background I think we can hear the message of Easter in a new way.  Christ is risen! There is justice for the world! There is complete justice for all, which is able to retroactively make good all past sufferings, and this is because God exists, and he has the power to do it.  As St. Bernard of Clairvaux once put it, although God cannot suffer, he can be compassionate.  And he can be compassionate because he can love.  It is this power of compassion springing from the power of love, which is able to make good the past and create justice.  Christ is risen: this means that there is a power that is able to create justice and that is actively creating it.  That is why the message of the Resurrection is not only a hymn to God but a hymn to the power of his love and hence a hymn to man, to the earth and to matter.  The whole is saved.  God does not allow any part of his creation to sink silently into a past gone for ever.  He has created everything so that it should exist, as the Book of Wisdom says.  He has created everything so that all should be one and should belong to him, so that “God shall be all in all”.” pp.  49-50

God made everything and saw it was good.  Glory and Praise to God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit on this glorious of days.