Minute Meditations with Mary
  • Minute Meditations
  • Photo Gallery

Jesus Our Light

2/20/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
     Often, when we want to explain that we suddenly "get" something,  we use the expression "I see the light." Often, in cartoons, we see a lightbulb switching on over someone's head to suggest that the character has gotten an idea, or suddenly understands something. On the other hand, if we want to describe virulent evil, we call it "The Forces of Darkness." 
      Light is Life. When we're confused, or depressed, or trapped in sin, feeling numb and lifeless, we seem to stumble around in darkness. Weeping all night, our spirits flattened by grief, our hearts can lift when the first rays of dawn enter our window.
      Light is Life. In Genesis, God's first words of creation are "Let there be light!" Jesus calls himself the "Light of the World," and says that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. If we believe and trust in him, he promises to lead us out of the darkness of sin, fear, addiction, self-absorbed egotism, and spiritual confusion into the light and life of ever-flowing heavenly grace: love, connectedness, justice, mercy, peace. Jesus, our Light, empowers us to "get" the deepest meanings of existence. Jesus, our Light, is the lightbulb switching on over our heads to free our creativity and our optimism.

​
Picture
    We can pay lip service to Jesus, we can recite our prayers perfectly, or go to Church regularly, but until we make a personal decision to follow Jesus unreservedly as his disciples, we are people walking blind who don't even know that they are blind. We stumble in a self-imposed darkness, unable to grasp that Jesus is shining in our darkness, waiting to enlighten us, the Source of new life. Jesus is shining in the darkness for all people, but how often do we not recognize him? 
      Bishop Robert Barron says this about Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary:
      "
He preached in order to share the truth of God’s kingdom; he went to the cross in order to demonstrate the range of the divine love; he worked miracles because he was the embodiment of Yahweh’s desire to save his people.
      "Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah: 'Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf cleared. Then will the lame leap like a stag, then the tongue of the dumb will sing.'
      "These are tremendous words, expressive of Israel’s hope in the saving God. God intends life and abundant life for his people, and he is impatient with a world gone wrong. He longs to set it right, to recreate what sin and fear and death have uncreated."
      
In Mark 8, 22-26, we hear a story about Jesus healing a blind man.
     "They came to Bethsaida, where some people brought a blind man to Jesus and begged him to touch him. Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the village. After spitting on the man's eyes, Jesus placed his hands on him  and asked him, 'Can you see anything?'
      "The man looked up and said, 'Yes, I can see people, but they look like trees walking around.'
​      "Jesus again placed his hands on the man's eyes. This time the man looked intently, his eyesight returned, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus then sent him home with the order, 'Don't go back into the village.'"
      Let's meditate on this story, line by line. The blind man's friends bring him to Jesus because we are all connected to one another, and in our lives, there are many who lead us to Jesus, beg him to touch us and our lives. But, it's our choice whether we admit to ourselves that we ARE blind, in need of healing. It's our choice whether we want to allow Jesus so close to us that he enters our lives. It's our choice whether, blind as we are, we allow Jesus to take us by the hand, and lead us out and away from everything that distracts us so he can heal us. 
      Why did Jesus use spit? In John's Gospel, he mixes his spit with earth and uses this as a paste. Got Questions website says,
"One possible reason for Jesus’ use of His saliva has to do with the beliefs of His contemporary culture. Several Roman writers and Jewish rabbis considered saliva to be a valid treatment for blindness. Since the people of that day had a high view of saliva’s healing properties, Jesus used spit to communicate His intention to heal. Those being healed would have naturally interpreted Jesus’ spitting as a sign that they would soon be cured.
      "The greater need of each of those healed was the need for increased faith. Jesus recognized this spiritual need and offered a physical action as a means of raising their expectations and focusing their faith on Himself. Thus, in Mark 8, the man’s spiritual sight was strengthened even as physical sight was imparted to him."
​      The fascinating thing that happens in this miracle is that the healing is progressive. After Jesus first lays hands on the blind man, he asks him what he sees, and the man's vision is only partial.  He doesn't see people clearly, for they appear to be trees walking. It's only after Jesus lays hands on him a second time that he sees everything clearly.  Isn't this just like us? It actually takes a lifetime for us to grow more and more deeply in faith, to focus more and more precisely on Jesus as our Light who empowers us so that we can see clearly, see as God sees. 
      Fr. Richard Rohr says insightfully, "
Remember, light is not so much what you directly see as that by which you see everything else."
      In other words, Jesus wants us to use Him as the Light by which we see everyone and everything else, the whole of creation. If Jesus enlightens the eyes of our souls, we  see the whole of everyone and everything, the light and darkness, in everyone and everything. We see with love, tenderness, mercy, and forgiveness, and also justly, and peacefully. We see as God sees.
    Why do I say that when Jesus is our Light, he affects how we see the whole of creation? In Colossians 1:12-20, we learn that in Jesus, God the beloved Son, the Christ Mystery, God our Father created everything in heaven and on earth, things visible and invisible. Everything was created through him and for him, and in him everything continues in existence. Jesus the Christ unifies and reconciles everything in himself! Jesus the Christ has eternally existed, and all creation exists for him and is brought into wholeness in him. Everyone and everything is important to God, and filled with the Presence, the Life of God. God creates, sees, and loves, the universe. And so, if we see as God sees, everyone and everything deserves our respect, our reverence, our sense of their dignity, because they contain the divine.
​      Fr. Richard Rohr says,
      "
All you have to do today is go outside and gaze at one leaf, long and lovingly, until you know, really know, that this leaf is a participation in the eternal being of God. It’s enough to create ecstasy. The seeming value or dignity of an object doesn’t matter; it is the dignity of your relationship to the thing that matters. For a true contemplative, a gratuitously falling leaf will awaken awe and wonder just as much as a golden tabernacle in a cathedral."
      Because of our upbringing, our social class, our race, our life experiences, we are all limited human beings, blind in some areas of our lives. We are continually in need of Jesus laying his hands on us another time. For, there is always someone whom we are not seeing clearly in the Light of Jesus, someone who seems to be not human, only a tree walking. It could be a relative, a co-worker, someone with disabilities, someone with darker or lighter skin, someone of a different faith or no faith, a different sexual orientation, someone who inspires such fear or loathing in us that he or she seems to be the Enemy instead of another child of God. Sinful fear, anger, envy, competitiveness, unforgiveness, prejudice, or a desire to use or abuse are some of the spiritual cataracts that are affecting our vision. And so we should be continually on our spiritual knees, crying out,
   "Jesus, I'm still blind! Lay your hands on me again, my Light! Help me to see everyone and everything with your eyes! Help me to accept that all people, including me, are both sinners and holy, all of us are on a spiritual journey, needing one another's prayers. Help me to reverence all of your creation - the earth, water, air, insects, animals, and fish - and work so that all is protected and reverenced. I choose you alone to be the Light of the World for me. Do not let me be led astray by any false lights. For you alone are the eternal Light of Life." 




0 Comments

Jesus Our Bridge

2/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
      Who can forget those wonderful lyrics from Simon and Garfunkel:
"Like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down"? 
The duo’s biggest hit, "Bridge Over Troubled Water," spent six weeks at No.1 in the US (three weeks in the UK). It swept the Grammys in 1971, claiming six awards including Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year. The song has been translated into many languages, it’s been covered by hundreds of artists, including Johnny Cash, Annie Lennox, Bonnie Tyler, Elvis Presley, and Aretha Franklin. The inspirational lyrics and melody were composed by Paul Simon, and Art Garfunkel provided the soaring, spine-tingling vocals. But few people know the story behind the song.

Picture
     It was the Spring of 1969. Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were gone – assassinated. Racial tensions were erupting across the US. Paul Simon, sensitive and introspective, was digging deep into himself for some words of solace for himself and everyone who listened to his and Art's music.    He already had the opening lines of a new song: "‘When you’re weary/Feeling small/When tears are in your eyes/I will dry them all.’ He especially liked how the melody to the second couplet echoed one of his favourite Bach chorales.
But, beyond those lines, “I was stuck for a while,” Simon admits. “Everywhere I went led to somewhere I didn’t want to be.”
      What ultimately inspired him to finish his “humble little gospel song” was an album by the Southern gospel group the "Swan Silvertones": “Every time I came home, I put that record on, so it was in my mind. I started to go to gospel chord changes, and took the melody further. Then there was one song where the lead singer was scatting, and he shouted out: ‘I’ll be your bridge over deep water/If you trust in my name.’ And, well, I guess I stole it.” 
​
Picture
   The Swan Silvertones are justly remembered especially for their classic "Oh Mary Don't You Weep," and Simon revered their "Gospel Sound."  Simon is a spiritual seeker, whose songs are filled with religious images.  He seeks out conversations with spiritual leaders, and is humbled whenever people tell him that they believe God has spoken to them through his music. But it took Aretha Franklin's amazing musical interpretation of "Bridge" to place it squarely back into its Gospel, spiritual roots, its faith proclamation that Jesus is our bridge between humans and God, earth and Heaven, a bridge to carry us safely over the raging waters of our sins and temptations.
​

Picture
      Travel back into the 14th century and we find Italian mystic and activist St. Catherine of Siena (March 25, 1347 - April 29, 1380) writing and preaching about Christ our bridge. Catherine pictures sin as the flood of a stormy river, beating against us constantly with its waves; it is so easy to slip, fall into this river, and drown so that we become deadened to the Voice of God. We human beings, through sin, have broken down our communication, our own bridge, between us and God. Our own bridge is loaded with potholes and broken pavement. God, out of immense love for us -  Catherine writes that God is crazy in love with the world - gives us his Son to be our bridge on which we can cross over the many stormy seas of life without drowning. In one of her dialogues with God, she heard God say to her: "Look at the bridge of my only-begotten Son, and notice its greatness. Look! It stretches from heaven to earth, joining the earth of your humanity with the greatness of the Godhead....through my union with humanity."
​

      If you look closely at this Italian bridge, you can see that it has many levels of shops and dwellings. Catherine pictured believers "walking across Christ their bridge" at different levels of belief and practice.
Picture
      The first, lowest level of the Christ Bridge is walked across by beginners - those who have given up on sin because of fear of God and fear of damnation.  She said that these souls were living in the feet of Christ. They are finally learning to walk in the footsteps of the crucified Christ. But fear stands in the way of their drawing near enough to God to love God. 
​     
Picture
      Those who have learned to love God mainly for His consolations and spiritual benefits live in the open heart of the crucified Christ, live "heart to heart" with him in a beginning intimacy. But these souls are so in love with "spiritual highs" and God's gifts that at the first sign of suffering, they do not understand: "How can my beloved allow this to happen if he loves me?"
      Those who live on the third, highest level of the bridge of Christ are the true sons and daughters of God. Their friendship with God is based on loving God for the sake of love. These souls are willing to accept suffering out of love for God and their union with the crucified Christ. This is the abandonment of self which leads to deification - the union of the human and divine in us. These souls live in a constant holy movement of kissing the mouth of Christ their Bridegroom, as it says in the Biblical Song of Songs:
"Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,
For your lovemaking is sweeter than wine....
Show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely....My love is mine and I am his."
​      Christ our Bridegroom calls to us, "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in my name!"
      Are we going to creep over this Christ Bridge, trembling with every step, since we're only crossing because we fear the deep waters of sin and the punishment of God? It is so good that we are finally following with our feet in his footsteps, but can we eventually go to the next level?
      Or, are we going to skip over this Christ Bridge, gladdened because the sweetness of God's love has been poured over us, and we live heart to heart with him, and we think that, if we stay in the Heart of Christ, no evil can happen to us or those we love? Or, can we realize that God's love for us cannot prevent all sorrow, and eventually go to the next level?
​    Or will we walk slowly and prayerfully over this Christ Bridge, totally surrendered to the Crucified Christ, so in love with him that we yearn to be united with him, even though that means embracing his cross? Where there is the deepest surrender, there is great love, which always brings great suffering because it hurts to surrender our egos. But here is the greatest and highest peace and joy. 
      In these troubled times of insecurity and turmoil, only one bridge is safe to take, only one bridge can bring peace to our souls. "When you're weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all." Surrender to the peace, majesty, comfort, and challenge of the Bridge of Christ; stretch out your hands and feet to cross over him, even when you know there is suffering on the other side. Trust that the love and strength of him will stay beneath you as a firm and faithful foundation to support you. One day, He will dry all those tears.
​      Perhaps, you stand next to the bridge and are undecided. Or afraid. You know that, once you take that first step, your life will radically change. Or, perhaps, you've traveled halfway across, and you want to go back. Can you choose to allow the Holy Spirit to fill your soul with the love and endurance it takes to walk all the way from earth to heaven across this Bridge Which is Christ? He is the only Way to Salvation. God the Father said to St. Catherine:
​       "And why should he have made of himself a roadway? So that you might in truth come to the same joy as the angels. But my Son's having made of himself a bridge for you could not bring you to life unless you make your way along that bridge."

0 Comments

The Truth Will Set You Free: Part 3

1/26/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
      In the first two parts of this extended meditation, we looked at all the ways we've been wounded and scarred in our lives, by people and traumatic events. We saw all the ways that we can build strongholds of self-protection that wall out God and leave our wounds unhealed - because only God can heal us. We learned how the toxic bacteria of sinfulness can seep into and infect our wounds if they are still open, if we haven't seen to their healing.
      Even if we think that we believe that God our Father Almighty created us, and that Jesus is true God and true man, who saved us from our sins, who  founded a Church, and that the Holy Spirit reminds us of all that Jesus taught us - even if we think we believe all those truths contained in the Creed that gets recited in many Christian Churches on Sundays - do we understand and believe that God personally desires that those truths become enfleshed in our individual lives?
       Is our belief empty because we have not yet personally encountered Jesus, Son of God and Son of Mary, in our own lives? Are our hearts  ambivalent, not yet ready to embrace the Good Shepherd who daily wants to meet us, heal us, and set us free from the psychological and sinful wounds that still keep us imprisoned? The Sacraments are the lifeblood of the Church, times of powerful Encounter with the living Christ who still acts in this world to bring us unity, healing, strength for our faith journeys. If we lack the faith to recognize the Divine Physician himself in the Sacraments, we will receive little healing from him through them.
      Jesus our Shepherd and Healer waits for us to encounter the power and healing force of his life through his Presence in the Sacraments, which, as therapist Bob Schuchts reminds us, "have existed in some form or other in all the Christian Churches and throughout the entire history of the Old and New Testaments." ( from "Be Healed," Ave Maria Press, 2014). The Sacraments are precious gifts, pouring forth from Jesus' side on the cross. Every sacrament is a tangible, real participation in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, tangible because we use things of this earth to celebrate them - water, bread, wine, oil, human touch. Jesus, the most tangible Sacrament of all, comes to us in the Sacraments as truly as he walked this earth and touched, healed, fed, forgave, and galvanized people so that they would never be the same. 
      But - Jesus waits for us to spiritually enter his Presence during a Sacramental experience, waits for us to spiritually cooperate with him so that he can touch us. And, how often are we bored? Bored during a Baptism because it's only a culturally expected ceremony? Bored during the Mass? Bored during Confirmation while the Bishop waves his hands over us? Quick to wiggle out of going to Confession? Bored during the Marriage or Ordination ceremony till we get to the party? And, who needs the Sacrament of the Sick until they're dying, anyway? 
      We can ask ourselves why, if the Sacraments are supposed to unleash Jesus' healing power in our lives, we haven't experienced this illumination, this healing, this peace, this joy? Perhaps our unhealed wounds and sins are keeping us bound so we can't awaken to his Presence as our Physician. Perhaps we haven't awakened to this teaching about the Sacraments that we've heard all our lives because, at a certain unconscious level, we've rejected the teaching because we're afraid of such intimacy, afraid of what Jesus, really Present in the Sacraments, can really "do" to us to de-rail our lives as we know them.
      The graces (or life of God) of the Sacrament of Baptism in which we truly became adopted sons and daughters of God our Father, and the graces of the other  sacraments we've received, perhaps haven't been released in their full power in us yet due to our lack of faith and those strongholds we've erected against God because of our unhealed wounds and sins.
       All those wounds from lack of love and from abuse - wounds of abandonment, fear, powerlessness, hopelessness, confusion, rejection, and shame - and the resultant false identity beliefs about ourselves -  may have kept us too crippled to fully welcome Jesus when he comes to us in the Sacraments. We feel too all alone, too afraid, incapable of change or growth, unloved and unlovable, bad, dirty, tainted. He gives himself fully; we give ourselves partially, if at all. 
      Father Raniero Cantalamesa, the respected household preacher to St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict the Sixteenth, explains:
      "The outpouring of the Spirit actualizes and revives our baptism....Catholic theology can help us understand how a sacrament can be valid and legal but 'unreleased' if its fruit remains bound or unused....Sacraments are not magic rites that act mechanically, without people's knowledge or collaboration....The fruit of the sacrament depends wholly on divine grace, however this divine grace does not act without the 'yes,' ....the consent and affirmation of the person....God acts like a bridegroom who does not impose his love by force, but awaits the free consent of the bride." (from "Sober Intoxication of the Spirit: Filled With the Fullness of God," Servant Books, 2005.) 
      Yet, if we say 'yes' to the Divine Bridegroom, and we  take down the gates that bar our hearts from intimacy, and open ourselves to the Presence of the Lord, the sacraments can act as light switches for spiritual electrical current in our lives. Therapist Bob Schuchts talks about being a very wounded man, wounded by his family members and other traumatic events. Yet at a Christ Renews His Parish retreat, he opened his heart enough to say "yes" to Christ, and began a deeper time of healing than he'd ever experienced before.
      "I spent the first twenty-four hours of that retreat in a hellish desolation, watching everyone around me fully engage the Spirit.....As soon as I confessed my sins and received absolution, I sensed an immediate lifting of this oppressive spirit. Soon after confession, I heard a seventeen year old give witness to the real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. I don't remember what he said, but I remember his confident faith and joyful gratitude to Jesus. As he spoke, my spirit suddenly awakened to the Church's teaching, which I had heard about all my life, but never fully believed in my heart. Like a light switch, suddenly turned on, I could finally accept what I had been taught all those years.
      "Receiving the sacraments that night, my heart awakened from death to life. I was encountering the life-giving presence of Jesus, the physician of my soul and body. He revealed his presence in several ways: in the consecrated bread and wine; in the priest (the Sacrament of Holy Orders),; and in our community united with him in the Sacraments of Baptism and Communion. We were experiencing the joy of being 'one heart and mind' in our collective identity as the Body of Christ (Acts 4:32).... Three hours later, as my friends and I prayed together, the graces of our Confirmations manifested in a new way, as we experienced the corporate outpouring of the Holy Spirit similar to the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4).....
      "When I returned home that weekend and embraced my wife and daughters, I felt a love I never knew before. This experience gave me a greater insight into the love Jesus called us to when we received the Sacrament of Matrimony.  I caught a glimpse of what it means to love my wife and children 'as Christ loved the Church' (Ephesians 5:25). In less than a day, these once 'boring' sacraments became alive in my heart and changed my life forever." (from "Be Healed.")
      Mother Angelica has said
"
A sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality." 
​      That invisible reality is the presence of Jesus the Christ, alive now and forever, impacting on your 
soul, as the Sacrament is visibly impacting on your body, through the agency of the priest or deacon.
​      Do you feel abandoned, unloved, living without family? Here comes Jesus to deluge you in water and bless you with God as your Father and a whole world, a Mystical Body, of brothers and sisters in Christ.
     Do you feel wounded, blind, deaf, dirty, a leper, dis-engaged from life, bound up in solitary, loveless living, even dying? Here comes Jesus, standing right in front of you, touching you tenderly, anointing you, healing you with oil, or laying gentle hands on your head and forgiving your sins... Or taking you by the hand and leading you into eternal life....
​      Do you feel physically starving and thirsty, dry as dust from overwork and burn-out? Here comes Jesus, giving you his total self in living Bread and and the spilled blood and honey of Wine.
​      Do you feel spiritless, ungifted, bored, useless? Here comes Jesus, anointing you again and blessing you to unleash his beautiful, bountiful, burning Holy Spirit on and into your life so that you suddenly discover you are loved and gifted and enthusiastic beyond belief. Come, Holy Spirit, and fill us with the fire of your Divine Love!
​      Do you yearn to discover what your true identity is, your true pathway in life? Here comes Jesus to show you intimacy in committing yourself to the beloved body of your beloved spouse, or committing your life to your beloved spouse the Church. It is He who is our Peace, who makes the two of us one, who makes our community one, breaking down the barriers that have kept us apart...
      Jesus the Christ walks with you, present to you at all the apex moments of your life, from birth to death, in the Sacraments of the Church. Every sacrament is a Feast at which you can nourish yourself with the life of God and learn how to truly live.  And yet, if a sacrament is a visible sign of an invisible reality, than every moment of your life is likewise a sacramental moment, a visible reality in which our invisible God can be glimpsed, encountered, and loved.
      Noted spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill said, "
God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament."
      At every moment of your life, no matter how wounded and unfree you are, how blind, deaf, shunned, or abused, God waits to love you, heal you, strengthen you, in every sacramental moment and in the Sacraments of the Church. Because God not only created you; God chooses you to be FREE! Freed from your wounds, your sins, freed from what cripples you and holds you back from becoming fully the person God dreams you can be. Wait for God, call out to God, open the gates that wall God out, that bar entrance to your hearts, and invite God to stop, to encounter you, to enter and change your life forever.  


      

0 Comments

The Truth Will Set You Free:  Part 2

1/22/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
       While I believe strongly in Psychology's insights, and in the marvelous work of psychiatrists, psychotherapists, and social worker counselors, wholistic medicine also needs to incorporate spirituality. Especially when we confront the many ways we have been psychologically and spiritually wounded in our lives!
In the final analysis, Jesus is the One Who frees us with the Truth, gives us new insight and visions into ourselves and others, and mends our wounded hearts.  
       In Biblical times, cities had walls protecting the people inside from invaders; these were called "fortresses." Each of us has many inner wounds, inflicted by  people and events in our lives who have acted as invaders, destroying our inner peace and sense of being secure and loved. And so, each of us has built inner fortresses, spiritual and psychological fortresses to protect our traumatized minds and hearts from further harm by making us self-reliant, self-protected. But, if those traumatic wounds have been left unhealed, many times we wall out the One Who is truly our Fortress, our Rock of Refuge, our Deliverer. In "Be Healed,"Therapist Bob Schuchts says,
      "As children and teenagers, many of us did not know how to turn to God in the midst of our traumas, especially when those we trusted to protect us were the ones causing us harm. Starting at a young age, we instinctively pulled our hearts away from God, especially when threatened by traumas. We turned our gaze inward toward ourselves rather than looking outward toward the Father. ....When these wounds are left untended, they eventually become infected by sin. Before we know it, we have been brought into spiritual slavery in a particular area of our lives.
      "These strongholds  create barriers in our minds and hearts, which can prevent us from receiving God's love and grace and from knowing our identity as God's beloved sons and daughters. Whether we are aware or not, we participate in creating these fortresses for self-protection and false comfort."
      Our small, human reactions to hurt can become doorways for unhealthy, and later sinful,  reactions. Anger begins in us as a healthy emotion, signaling an injustice. But, without the wisdom of the Holy Spirit guiding us, anger can easily morph into a destructive force in our lives, damaging our relationships.
   In Ephesians 4: 26-27, St. Paul talks about how we can become bound by the deadly sin of anger. He says, "Be angry, but do not sin; do not let the sun set on your anger, and do not leave room for the devil (other translations say 'Do not give the devil a foothold.") He goes on to describe unhealthy, even sinful, demonstrations of anger: bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling. We THINK we are protecting ourselves when we give in to such rage. Instead, we are building our self-protective walls higher instead of letting the One Who is Peace and Love in to heal us and our relationships. 
      Our wounds can occur in two ways. Type A traumas are the most common, and are often overlooked. They occur through the deprivation of love. A deprivation of love can occur through not being cherished and celebrated by our parents, or not being understood or nurtured, or not receiving appropriate discipline or boundaries, or not being given the freedom to develop personal gifts or talents.
      Type B traumas are the bad things that happen to us, traumatic events, or the unloving actions that violate our personal boundaries: death, divorce, violence, verbal abuse, abandonment by a parent or spouse, witnessing someone else being abused or injured, etc. 
      These wounds affect us, in every way. Schuchts tells us,
      "Both types of trauma inflict pain and suffering, which then become permanently stored in our brains and in every cell of our bodies. That is the conclusion of Wilder Penfield, a neurosurgeon at McGill University in Montreal, who made his discoveries while doing surgery on the brain. He found that our brain records all of our experiences. When probed, our brain remembers every perception and feeling associated with those experiences. Even when not conscious, these memories influence our thoughts, actions, and behavior for the rest of our life, until they are healed."
      Schuchts lists seven deadly wounds, seven "tastes of hell," and the false identity beliefs that result when we build illusory fortresses of protection around ourselves:
WOUNDS.                            IDENTITY BELIEFS
Abandonment                     I am alone; no one cares or understands 

Fear                                      I am afraid; if I trust, I will be hurt/die

Powerlessness.                  I can't change it; I am too small/weak

Hopelessness                    Things will never get better; I want to die

Confusion                          I don't understand what is happening

Rejection                           I am not loved, wanted, or desired

Shame (Tainted)               I am bad, dirty, shameful, stupid, and worthless.
                                           Because of what happened to me, I am   unlovable; 
I will never recover

     "When we are wounded, we often internalize messages about ourselves. This in turn deeply affects our identity, the way we see ourselves. We may believe with our intellects that we are God's beloved children, but our hearts believe a different message. For example, when we are rejected, we may believe we are not wanted, loved, or desired..." (Schuchts)
​      How often has someone we love made an abusive comment, and we instantly retaliate with bitter, insulting anger because we've taken on that false identity of being stupid and worthless? How often has someone said "I love you" and we inwardly pull away because we're afraid to trust? How often has a group rejected something we've said, and immediately we assume that false identity of feeling shamed and unloved? When these emotions overwhelm us, we are believing in unholy, false lies about our identities, instead of remembering that our self-worth and dignity come from being beloved children of God! These false beliefs create walls between ourselves and the reality of our relationships with others and our relationship with God. We inwardly and outwardly negatively react to others instead of calmly and wisely responding from an inner fortress of security in God our Father.
       So often, especially during Lent or Holy Week, we read/pray over that marvelous Scripture about Jesus: "By His wounds we are/were healed." Immediately we think about how Jesus freed us from sin, and about his horrific physical wounds. But - Jesus also bore these seven deadly soul wounds during his Passion,  and was tempted by these seven false identity beliefs. These soul wounds maybe gave him even deeper anguish than his physical wounds!
By entering into his Passion and meditating on how Jesus bore these seven deadly soul wounds, so similar to ours, we can bring our soul wounds to him and ask for healing, and the grace to bear and offer up our own suffering.
      During his Passion, Jesus offered everything, even his clothing, for he hung naked on the cross.  He generously and freely offered his body and blood, his soul and divinity, for us, trusting his Father's Providence even during his darkest hour.  He endured suffering, as we endure suffering, to become our Way, our Truth, our Life. Schuchts meditates:
      "Jesus never gave even the slightest foothold for the evil one through all that he suffered. He never came into agreement with the enemy's lies, or gave into their power to define his identity. He refrained from every hint of bitterness, formed no ungodly judgments, and avoided self-reliant vows that might keep him from trusting completely in his Father.
      "Even in the midst of all the evil that threatened to overtake him, Jesus continued believing in the Father's goodness. He remained deeply rooted and grounded in the Father's love and never lost sight of his own true identity. Through his redemptive suffering, Jesus provides the supreme example for how each of us can face our own suffering with the grace of his redemptive love.
      "Facing the most terrifying anguish of body and soul, Jesus didn't give in to fear or the deceptive lies that would lead him to withhold or protect himself. Instead, he trusted his Father's protective love through every moment of his Passion. Though 'spurned and avoided by men' (Isaiah 53:3) he did not internalize the shame  that invariably comes with rejection. Instead he 'endured the cross, despising its shame.' (Heb. 12:2) Jesus freely chose to enter into powerlessness and the apparent hopelessness and confusion of the cross, but he never lost sight of God's will and mighty power. He remained anchored in the hope of the resurrection that was to come and fixed on the purposes that the Father laid out for him.
      "Perhaps the most painful of all was his experience of abandonment, not only from his friends and followers, but also from his ever-present Father. Who is not pierced to the Corey Jesus' bellowing lament from the cross: 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' (Mt. 27:46).
      "Stop and listen to Jesus utter these words from the depths of his soul. Allow his anguished cry to express your own pain of abandonment. Have you ever touched this depth of pain in your life? I have experienced it a few times in my life....Knowing just the smallest measure of his pain, I am amazed at Jesus' confidence in his Father. Though he felt abandoned by him, he continued to turn towards him. He did not turn his back on the Father or try to take care of himself like I often do. He did not internalize the lie that he was alone or unheard. Through all his suffering, Jesus continued trusting his father, believing he remained with him at every moment, even while the searing pain of abandonment overwhelmed all the faculties of his soul. No one cries out unless he believes someone is listening."
      It is very hard to acknowledge the intense feelings that we suffer. It is far easier to deny them. But, if we avoid and deny them we become trapped in them and in all our unhealthy responses to pain. If we open ourselves to experience what we are feeling - and then realize we can unite our suffering selves with Jesus in his suffering - we need no longer feel that we are hopelessly alone.   Jesus the healer has brought us to new insights about the lies that our wounds tempt us to tell ourselves, lies that we are alone, or afraid, or powerless, or unloved, or bad, or dirty, or shameful, stupid or worthless.
     Jesus has kept his wounds in Heaven, and they shine to remind us that it is by ALL Jesus' wounds, physical and emotional and spiritual, that we are healed. Jesus' wounded hands hold ours; Jesus' pierced heart loves our hearts and strengthens them, and even mends them because his love for us is so total. He tells us the Truth: that our suffering need not destroy who we are, need not destroy our dignity or worth, need not leave us feeling hopeless or bitter or rejected. Jesus can touch us with healing, not only in our prayers but in our relationships. 
      Jesus not only saves us, Jesus is our Way. If we become his disciples, we bear our sufferings in the Way that Jesus bore his. Jesus says: trust our Father. Believe that you, like I, are God's Beloved Child. Live through this pain trusting God, and you will be transformed, not only in the next life, but in this life. You will be transformed by my healing Love so that you too can receive new Life. You can see a new, life-giving vision, a vision of offering yourselves, body and soul, as living sacrifices. Unite your suffering to mine, and it becomes redemptive, like mine.  You too can be a source of life for others! Allow your pain to become transformed in Me into a river of healing grace for others.  You too, as a Christ Bearer,  will be able to mend hearts in my Name. And that, too, is Good News!  



0 Comments

The Truth Will Set You Free

1/14/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
      The people in our lives have both blessed and burdened us, both freed us and made us captives, both healed us and crippled us. Sadly enough, it's often the burdening, the imprisoning, and the crippling that most affect our souls. Because, what do we often remember the most vividly? The unkind words.  The votes of no confidence. The insults. The abandonments and the betrayals. Even the blows. No matter the goodness or even love that animated or animates the people around us, we hold on to the ways people have used or abused us. We hold on with a vengeance to the memories of the ways we've been wounded, struck to the heart. These are the memories that imprison us, cripple us.
     There is only One Who can bless us, free us, and heal us to the depths of our beings, the One Who says "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." What is the Truth? The eternal Truth is that we are all closely guided, divinely protected, and infinitely loved by God. Even when we are afflicted, we can be filled to overflowing by the supernatural Joy of knowing that God loves us totally, regardless of our failings, disabilities, illnesses, or weaknesses. God not only loves; God IS Love!!! God is our Fortress Who surrounds us and fills us with peace, regardless of what the world is doing to us. 
      But, if the people in our lives have gravely wounded us, we find it hard to believe in unconditional Love. In fact, we may not want it! We don't want to rely on anyone but ourselves! If others have made us feel useless or helpless or worthless, we believe in total independence, because human beings have proved to be unreliable and hurtful. We believe in doing it ourselves because that proves that we are strong. There is no need to believe in the spiritual or the supernatural, we say. We are complete in ourselves. Oh, we may let others into our lives a little bit, but not the whole way. The last thing in the world that we want is to be hurt again.
      When we've been wounded by others, we adopt behaviors and mechanisms for self-preservation. Even if we love God, believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, yet there can be areas of our lives that are resistant to God's grace and healing. There can be sinfulness that has developed as a way of survival and self-preservation. Woundedness sends us on a mad, self-destructive race to find different, false gods. Sins can hide deeper insecurities, ways of relying on ourselves and our objects of idolatry rather than on God. These sins can have a greater or lesser influence on our lives, but if we want the truth of self-knowledge, it's good to see the chinks in our spiritual armor. Marriage and Family Therapist Bob Schuchts explains:
      "Each of the deadly sins hides deeper insecurities in each of our lives. Are you aware of what you are hiding through your specific deadly sins?
      "If you use anger to gain power and control, my guess is that you struggle with feelings of powerlessness and fear.
     "If your capital sin is greed, I would venture a guess that you have a lot of insecurity and use wealth as a way of bolstering your security and self-worth.
    " If lust is the issue you struggle with most, I imagine that  you use sex or sexual imagery to soothe the pain of rejection or feelings of not being desirable.
     "If gluttony is your sin of choice, experience tells me that you use food, drink, or drugs to numb your pain and fill the emptiness of abandonment in your life.
      "If you wrestle with sloth, you have probably given up trying because it is too hard to meet others' expectations.
      "If it is envy that consumes you, I suggest you ask yourself if you have a deep insecurity about your sense of worthiness. 
      "Are you beset by shame? Rather than face those issues in your own heart, you may tear down others who have status or possessions, as did Cain with Abel. (Genesis 4). 
      "In each of these situations, deadly sins give the illusion of satisfying unmet needs, but in actuality, they block us from God's grace."(from "Be Healed").
      Only the One Who is Truth can set us free from these illusions about ourselves, and the sins we harbor that separate us from the All-consuming, warming, vivifying, forgiving, healing Love of God. Jesus came to show us the Face, Voice, and Loving Arms of God. Jesus, God in the flesh, came to redeem us, to forgive and heal us, to restore us individually to wholeness and then all of us to unity. 
      If we have been baptized, or baptized and confirmed, we have been filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit comes NOW out of Jesus, at every moment of our lives. The Holy Spirit of Unity reunites us with our own souls, with God, and with each other. The Holy Spirit frees us from the paralyzing power of fear - fear of interdependence, fear of commitment, fear of forgiveness, fear of love.
      Do you remember the story of Jesus' Baptism in the River Jordan by his cousin John? (Luke 3: 21-22.) Do you remember that a Voice - God's Voice - came from the heavens: "This is My Beloved Son; with you I am well pleased." Notice that God says this to Jesus before he has begun his public ministry. Schuchts says,
      "Can you envision yourself on the side of the Jordan watching this scene unfold? Notice that before Jesus accomplishes anything, the Father expresses unconditional love and delight in His Son. The Father's approval is not based on Jesus' performance. Rather, he delights in Jesus because of who he is. Those of us who have children and grandchildren can relate, at least in a small measure, to the Father's unconditional love for his son. When I look at my children, grandchildren, and spiritual children, my heart often swells with love. I delight in each of them and treasure each of them for who they are, individually and uniquely. Though I enjoy seeing their accomplishments, it is not the foundation of my love for them. How much more the Father freely delights in his beloved son. Can you even begin to comprehend the Father's love for Jesus? I can almost see and hear the Father looking down from heaven and saying to all who will listen, 'This is my son. I delight in him. He brings great joy to my heart.'"
     But here is the most amazing, unbelievable Truth: at our baptisms, we were united with Jesus, God's beloved son. We became equally beloved sons and daughters of God! EQUALLY beloved! Loved for who we are, rather than for our accomplishments, loved with a love strong enough to melt our rigid, self-protective defenses, to erase the unhealthy and unhappy sinful behaviors we've adopted to keep our hearts away from God's tender love. At each of our baptisms, God said to us and about us: "This is My Beloved Son/Daughter; with you I am well pleased." Listen for God's Voice - God says it to you at every moment.
      The Holy Spirit invites us to contemplate this mystery. The Holy Spirit rests upon us, nestles into our hearts, to take our hands so we do not fear, and to walk us into the depths of self-knowledge, of truth about ourselves. The Holy Spirit anoints us with many gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, understanding. The Holy Spirit is our Supreme Counselor, Who gently illuminates our darkness so that we can be transformed. The Holy Spirit heals us over, and over, day after day, to deepen our trust in the Trinity's Love for us.
      In the silence of our times of prayer, God comes to us. Don't be afraid! Don't run away! Dare to choose to be freed from the imprisonment of your crippling negative memories and experiences by the Truth of God's everlasting Love..
      Dare to call God "Father" regardless of how you may have been wounded by earthly parents or others. Pray this prayer (from "Be Healed").
​      "Heavenly Father, please speak to our hearts and allow us to know that, in Jesus, we are your beloved children in whom you delight. Stir into flame the gift of the Holy Spirit that you have placed within each of us, filling us with your love, joy, and strength and taking away our fear. (1 Timothy 1; 6-7.) We ask this in union with your beloved Son, Jesus. Amen."
0 Comments

Finding Our Children

1/4/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
      At one of our holiday parties, one of our little grand-daughters momentarily disappeared. The whole family immediately went into controlled panic mode. Some searched upstairs, some searched all the rooms on the main floor, some went downstairs, some even opened the back door to see if she'd gone outside. Xenia was found in a matter of minutes. But even that short absence of her had ripped everyone's heart to shreds. As we parents' hearts get ripped to shreds, over and over. Because, in some way, we are always searching for our children. And, praise God, eventually finding them.
      Our children grow so fast that we are always playing catch-up ball to discover who they are becoming. The infant becomes the toddler, the toddler the school-goer, the middle school child eventually becomes a teen, and the teen grows old enough to get a job and a driver's license, and suddenly they are working full-time or going to college, and then suddenly they have found someone, moved out of the house, moved away...
      All these changes! At each new stage, we're asking ourselves "Where is the child I knew once? What are his/her new likes, dislikes, priorities, beliefs, values, dreams?" It takes a great deal of concentrated listening and observing, talking with teachers and other parents, or counselors, sometimes being the first one to send the text message or make the phone call to the student in a dorm.  We do a lot of nail-biting and lip biting to LEARN to listen, to make comments and observations that are supportive, but subtly challenging when necessary. It's not easy to find our child, over and over, through these rapid growing years. They are continually changing, and we have to take a leap of faith to change with them.
      It's not easy to find our children when they begin to enter adulthood. Growing pains are replaced by love pangs, and eventually maybe by labor pains. Our child may become a parent, and we watch with pride and maybe wistfulness as they struggle like we did to learn, one step forward, two steps back, what it means to be a parent.  We can be floored by their new insights, surprised that they do not parent as we parented because so many new techniques and beliefs are in vogue that are radically different from what we believed and practiced. We struggle to keep up with what's taught today, and try to be supportive and understanding, remembering that there is, as old folk wisdom taught, "more than one way to skin a cat." 
      It's so easy to lose a child! To drugs, to unhealthy behaviors, to physical or mental illnesses, to depression, to friends who are a bad influence and lead them away from us. Suddenly we're confronted with situations we hardly know how to cope with! How do you reach a child who is struggling against an addiction or illness you've never experienced yourself? How do you reach a child who has emotionally cut you off? We can search, as Mary and Joseph did, for days, or weeks, or years, - and, when we find them, tearfully ask "Why did you do this? Didn't you know how we were searching for you, heart-broken, agonized?" And they can reply, "But didn't you understand?"  Or, even worse,  "You never understand!" And then we understand why the prophet Simon predicted to Mary that her heart would be pierced by a sword. Every parent's heart is pierced by a sword, sooner or later.
      Sometimes we can rail against God "Why is this happening to my child? Why is this happening to ME, because I don't know how to deal with this!" We might even wonder why God gave us this particular child when we don't seem to have the personality or gifts, strength or insight, to be a good parent to him or her.
      But God has promised us that God is faithful. Our patient Father/Mother God promises to give us the gift of patience, the gift of understanding, the gift of love, the gift of compassion, the gift of courageous confrontation, the gift of endurance, all these gifts we need to raise our children, to search for them, to find them, over and over again through the years. All that God asks of us is that we be a faithful parent to our children as God is a faithful parent to us. Even when we are in the depths of self-pity and unlikeableness, the depths of selfishness and sin, God does not leave us, does not cut us off, does not throw us away. Can we stand firm and not desert our children, even when they desert us? Can we still search, still pray, still let them know that the door will always be open?
      What God has started in your life the moment a child began to grow in its mother's womb, the moment you became a parent, God will be able to finish. Even if that child dies "on your watch," you can believe that God is loving your child as a Parent in an eternity we cannot begin to even imagine. Slowly God is creating a wonderful human being in your child, even if there seem to be roadblocks in the way. And, through your years of self-sacrifice, of searching and finding, of love and patient endurance, happiness and tears as a parent, God is creating a wonderful human being in you!


0 Comments

Ordinary, Holy Families

1/3/2019

0 Comments

 
Picture
      Family parties during the holidays are a tradition - and each one reflects what it means to be an ordinary, holy family. Don't choke on your eggnog, please! Yes, I do mean both ordinary AND holy. I know, there's the deliberate avoidance of politics - or the heated political arguments. Various personalities mesh or clash. Teens play video games or hang around the peripheries, lonely. Toddlers cheer everyone up with their exuberance, and make lightning dashes under everyones' feet in mortal danger of being trampled. Elders share their wisdom, and also bemoan the fact (obvious to them) that the country and the world are going to hell in a hand basket. As we look at various groups, we think of the pains individual family members have endured, or are enduring, the various psychological, or marital problems, the addictions being battled, the griefs.
      And yet, like a golden thread running through these various family groups, we also see Bright Love stitching us all together, with a Divine Thread that will not break. Bright Love overflows through everyone's experiences, love in spite of the differences, the various pains, trials, and griefs. Bright Love, which brings Bright Joy in its wake, so that every corner of the room takes turns resounding with laughter. This this! is an ordinary, holy family.
      Just reflect upon the FIRST Holy Family. Their first family party - the birth of their son - took place in a chilly stable, and Mary probably slept much of the time, exhausted from her labor, and Joseph took care of the new baby. I realize that there are strong opinions about Mary that she did not suffer from labor pains because she was born free from sin. But, there's also strong theological opinion that since Mary's Son, divine and human and free from sin, suffered the torments of the Passion, his mother would also have been like us in all ways - including suffering labor pains. 
      For Jesus and Mary to be sinless does NOT mean that they did not suffer from physical pain, doubts, temptations, and confusion, just as we do. One of my favorite Marian songs is Amy Grant's beautiful "Breath of Heaven." Mary, pregnant, weary, frightened, confused, prays to the Holy Spirit, the Breath of Heaven, to support her and always be with her.

Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song)
Amy Grant
I have traveled many moonless nights
Cold and weary with a babe inside
And I wonder what I've done
Holy father you have come
And chosen me now to carry your son
I am waiting in a silent prayer
I am frightened by the load I bear
In a world as cold as stone
Must I walk this path alone?
Be with me now
Be with me now
Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever near me
Breath of heaven
Breath of heaven
Lighten my darkness
Pour over me your holiness
For you are holy
Breath of heaven
Do you wonder as you watch my face
If a wiser one should have had my place
But I offer all I am
For the mercy of your plan
Help me be strong
Help me be
Help me
Breath of heaven
Hold me together
Be forever…

      Mary shows us the way by asking the Spirit to tell her what God expects of her at every moment of her life, and she honestly reveals to her God all of her pain, fear, confusion, and doubt. She knows she has a Mission - to care for this child. Because she is faithful, later she receives another mission: to care for her Son's Church.
      Like Mary, each of us as individuals, and also each of our families, has been given a 
mission by God, and God will bring our mission to completion, in spite of our mistakes or failures or confusions. All God asks is that, like Mary, we ask God in prayer to pour His holiness over us, to be with us. What does God ask of us? Hospitality. Warm welcoming. Openness to the stranger. Reaching out to the wounded. We begin by treating our own families with hospitality and openness, reaching out with healing love to our own wounded, welcoming new family members or friends or even strangers to our get-togethers, and especially by listening to one another without judgement - something that's especially hard when we know people. Then we can reach out even further, each individual and each family in its own unique way, with our own unique gifts.
      Pope Francis says (in "Gaudete Et Exsultate," "The Call to Holiness"):
      "The most important thing is that each believer discern his or her own path, that they bring out the very best of themselves, the most personal gifts that God has placed in their hearts (cf. 1 For 122:7), rather than hopelessly trying to imitate something not meant for them. We are all called to be witnesses, but there are many actual ways of bearing witness....We are all called to be holy by living our lives with love and by bearing witness in everything we do, wherever we find ourselves." (11 and 14)
      For most of us, life is a series of small gestures. Doing a job with integrity. Feeding children lunch, holding one's temper even when the children scrap and fight. Quietly praying a rosary in a quiet moment. Paying it forward by paying for the coffee of the person behind you in line at Tim Horton's. Refusing to indulge in mean or vindictive gossip about someone. Listening to the heart-broken. Encouraging the beaten-down. Individuals and families, acting as one, do acts of love that spread ripples of love that reach out farther than we know. Only God knows!
      At our ordinary, holy family parties, we can see these small acts of love happening. People who have already eaten quietly get up so that the new arrivals have places to sit and eat. People circulate to make sure that they have greeted everyone. People mix and mingle regardless of religious or political affiliation, and, by doing so, silently let one another know that the person is much greater than their beliefs; in fact, we believe that each person has infinite worth as a child of God.
      Believe that God has a mission for you as an individual and also for your family: a mission to spread love, joy, hospitality, welcome to the stranger and the vulnerable, and to be a Sign of the Peace of the Infant Who IS Peace. Follow Mary, and, like Mary, ask the Breath of Heaven to be with you always, hold you together, lighten your darkness, pour over you God's Holiness.  Perhaps a wiser one could have taken your place, but YOU are the one God wants for this mission; your family is the one God has chosen to be an ordinary, holy family to build up His Kingdom in your own unique way. Believe it!   
      
0 Comments

In Our Hearts Are The Roads.....

12/20/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
      Driving up to the Post Office this morning, I saw people coming and going purposefully, holding Christmas cards to mail. The business part of the Office was closed down, but everyone was making a bee line to the slot for envelopes, driven by duty or love, or maybe both, to get those precious wishes and gifts to their loved ones by Christmas. One woman, a stranger, smiled beatifically at me as if we could read each others' minds. We're on the same wave length, her smile said. We're sending Love across the miles, and it must arrive on time! 
      Love across the miles....coast to coast or continent to continent....whether it's cards or packages or Facebook messages, we know we can send love, compassion, mercy as far as it needs to go. Coast to coast and continent to continent, we can rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Love has no limits on it of time or space or years. Love knows the roads to travel to go where it needs to go, whether those roads cross countrysides, or bridges over water, or are plane routes through air, or are spiritual roads that link  heart to heart. Love can cross infinite miles - and will always arrive on time.
      Joseph and Mary traveled hard roads to get to Bethlehem, carrying Love with them, and they reached a stable on time for Jesus to be born.
      Jesus traveled a hard road to Jerusalem to die, and after his death but before his mother and followers could sink into a dark despair too deep to rise from, he rose from the dead to give them and us hope. Jesus traveled the road to death first - and showed us that Death will never conquer Love: Love arrived for us, right on time.
      In our hearts live the spiritual roads we travel to come home to God. Hard roads, some of them, that lead us through sickness, grief, separation, death. But we never travel alone. God lives in our hearts to walk those roads with us, those infinite roads, to make them places of springs even in deserts, to flood those roads with light even when they lead through darkness, to keep us warmed by Love  even when we travel through bone-chilling, heart-chilling snows. God gives us inner serenity to uplift our spirits because God promises that, wherever those roads lead us, eventually they will lead us all home.
        After all, we're God's everlasting Gifts TO God! We each travel individual roads to reach God, gift packages decorated as differently as packages can be decorated - elegant or whimsical, color-coordinated or patchwork - sent by land, water, or air - but all traveling to the same Final Destination. And since Love sends us, we will all arrive on time. 
      Driving up to the Post Office this morning, I saw people with one thought on their minds: to deliver Love on time, whichever route it had to take. May we always, as Gifts, take the right routes, the right roads, not veering away from the ones which take us where we're afraid to go, not growing angry because a road would lead us among strangers, not giving up because the terrain we travel is harsh or too mountainous. We have to believe that we're truly Gifts, that we're meant to deliver Love On Time wherever God sends us. Our Final Destination is the same for all of us, but we travel different roads to deliver Love to different people, Love meant to arrive On Time if we say "yes" as Mary said "yes."
      Love on time for the sick, the dying in Hospice, the abandoned child,  the confused, the despairing. Love on time for the stranger, the refugee, the homeless.
      Just imagine our first Christmas, once we arrive at our Final Destination! Imagine kneeling in front of the manger, melted by that intense Light - that consuming Fire, that Morning Star, with chubby hands and a milk-stained mouth. Imagine His Mother thanking you for having the courage to say "yes," as she did, to all the meandering, sometimes frightening roads of your life. Imagine the Father gently unwrapping you, peeling off all those layers of doubt, fear,  sins and mistakes, almost-deadly wounds, peeling off all that outer wrapping until you are revealed for who you are. You look at your soul, that crystal palace on fire with the indwelling Spirit, too beautiful to behold, and you fall on your knees in amazement. 
      "You really did make me an everlasting Gift to You!" You cry out.
​      "You chose to travel the right roads," your father softly replies. "You made sure that Love arrived On Time."
      

0 Comments

And An Autistic Child Shall Lead Them

12/16/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
    Rejoice in the Lord always! No matter how many tragedies there are in the world, the Lord is near. Our God Who rejoices in us when we love, do justice, and have mercy, is alive and at work in the souls of so many people! And the amazing, wonderful, joyful Truth is that our God delights in raising up the ones whom society considers the poor and the weak to confound and shame the strong and powerful. 
      Who could ever imagine that Greta Thunberg, (in photo above) a fifteen year old girl from Sweden, a girl with special needs - autism, A.D.H.D, and other conditions - would ever be asked to address a global climate change conference? But just this past week, she did just that. She spoke to nearly 200 delegates from around the world assembled in Katowice, Poland,  to develop a "rule book" to further implement the famous Paris Agreement and share stories about what is working in their countries and what is not. 
      Greta's address was so uncompromising, so powerful, that you can find it on Youtube. 
      "You have ignored us in the past, and you will ignore us again," she said. "You say you love your children above all else, and yet you are stealing their future before their very eyes....You speak only about green, eternal, economic growth because you are too scared of being unpopular. You only talk about moving forward with the same bad ideas that got us into this mess even when the only sensible thing to do is pull the emergency brake. You are not mature enough to tell it like it is."
       She has told the New Yorker, when it did a profile on her, "Our biosphere is being sacrificed so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. It is the suffering of many that pay for the luxuries of few."
      Greta is very young, but she's already spent years working as a climate activist - and she credits her neurological differences with her incredible ability to focus on this one political issue. "I see the world a bit different, from another perspective," she explained to Masha Gessen, staff writer for the New Yorker. "I have a special interest. It's very common that people on the autism spectrum have a special interest.... I can do the same thing for hours." (from "Greta Thunberg, the Fifteen year Old Climate Activist Who Is Demanding A New Kind of Politics," Masha Gessen, The New Yorker, Oct. 2, 2018.)  
      Greta developed her special interest in climate change when she was nine years old and in the third grade. "They were always talking about how we should turn off lights, save water, not throw out food," she told Gessen. "I asked why, and they explained about climate change. And I thought this was very strange. If humans could really change the climate, everyone would be talking about it and people wouldn't be talking about anything else. But this wasn't happening."
      So Greta focused her formidable concentration on researching climate change. What she discovered is that we basically live in a greenhouse. Life on earth depends on energy coming from the sun. About half the light reaching earth's atmosphere passes through the air and clouds to earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiated upward in the form of infrared heat. About 90% of this heat is then absorbed by greenhouse gases and radiated back toward the earth's surface. In other words, a layer of greenhouse gases - water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide - acts as a thermal blanket for the earth, absorbing heat and warming the earth to a life-supporting average of 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius.) 
       However, human activities are changing the natural greenhouse. For example, over the last century, the burning of fossil fuels like coal and oil has increased the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Most climate scientists agree the main cause of the current global warming trend is human expansion of the "greenhouse effect" - global warming that results when the atmosphere traps heat radiating from Earth toward space.  
      In its Fifth Assessment Report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group of 1,300 independent scientific experts from countries all over the world under the auspices of the United Nations, concluded there's a more than 95% probability that human activities, such as
human-produced greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide, have warmed our planet, have caused much of the observed increase in Earth's temperatures over the past 50 years.  They have also ruled out the possibility that current global warming could be explained by changes in energy from the sun.
​      Because of this global warming, the Panel concluded, the world's populations will see major consequences as early as 2040: more droughts, more wildfires, more catastrophic hurricanes, more poverty, higher temperatures.  That's only twenty-two years. The amount of global warming we've already seen - 1 degree Celsius, 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit - has upended the Arctic, is killing coral reefs, and may have begun to destabilize a massive part of Antarctica. Smaller island nations are already in danger because of rising seas. The only answer is for all the world's nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Yet some nations' emissions have even gone up.
      Greta took her research unconditionally to heart and began spreading the word. "She has stopped eating meat and buying anything that is not absolutely necessary. In 2015 she stopped flying on airplanes - "a waste of carbon" -  and a year later, her mother, (a well known opera singer), followed suit, giving up an international performing career. The family has installed solar batteries and has started growing their own vegetables on an allotment outside the city." (Gessen) The family rides bikes much of the time and uses an electric car when necessary.
      But Greta felt the need to take her message even further. Inspired by the protests staged by American students in response to the Parkland shooting, she decided to stage her own very public protest. "Before the country's parliamentary election on September 9, 2018, she went on strike and sat on the steps of the parliamentary building, in Stockholm, every day during school hours for four days a week; she now spends her Fridays on the steps of Parliament. She is demanding that the government undertake a radical response to climate change." (Gessen)
      A number of members of parliament came out on the steps to express support for her position, though, like her parents, they want to see her back in school.  One unexpected outcome was that people brought her food, and this autistic child with limited food tastes suddenly discovered that she likes falafel and noodles. 
      The ripples from her protest moved ever wider. In the Fall, Greta was asked to come to Finland to address the largest climate rally in Helsinki history, and then she went to London for the launch of a new civil disobedience movement called Extinction Rebellion. In November, inspired by her example, thousands of Australian students marched out of school demanding that their government be more proactive on eliminating coal production and turning to green energy.
      Bill McKibben, writing about Greta Thunberg for Sojouner's magazine (Jan. 2019) says,
      "Part of her appeal is her completely straightforward and no-nonsense take on our predicament. 'Some people say that we should study to become climate scientists so that we can 'solve the climate crisis,' she said recently. 'But the climate crisis has already been solved. We already have all the facts and solutions. All we need to do is to wake up and change.' Which is essentially true. The engineers have brought down the price of solar and wind power to the point where there is no logical reason not to be deploying them at rapid pace; only inertia and the illogical power of the fossil fuel industry, keep us from making progress."
      Wake up and change! Wasn't that Jesus' call to his followers? Wasn't that  St. Paul's call to early Christians? Isn't this a call to us to begin the conversion of mind and heart so vitally necessary to take up our holy responsibility to care for creation before many species - including ours - become extinct?  What a massive sin that would be!
      In the 1400's, St. Joan of Arc, a teenager, turned around the course of the 100 Years War between France and England. 
 Joan led French troops against the English and recaptured the cities of Orléans and Troyes. This enabled Charles VII to be crowned as king in Reims in 1429. One can imagine Joan saying something similar to "Wake up and change!" to those demoralized troops to get them to move. Today we have a God-given autistic teenager, Greta Thunberg, to rejoice over, as she leads us in our battle against climate change.
​      Bill McKibben says it so well: "Clearly our leaders have done little, if anything, despite plenty of warning from scientists. The rest of us have not roused ourselves sufficiently to force their hand. God works in mysterious ways, and if it takes a child to lead us, then so be it."

      
 
Picture
0 Comments

The Lord Will Surely Come

12/9/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
    One of the most beautiful Advent prayers is this: "The Lord will come; he is true to his word. If he seems to delay, keep watch for him, for he will surely come, alleluia."
      Sometimes it seems we're spending our lives waiting for the Lord to come into our lives and change things. We keep praying, asking Him to change our job, change our parents or our spouse, heal this person, keep that person from dying, take away all the temptations that surround us. But this prayer reminds us - "If he seems to delay, keep watch for him. The Lord WILL come!"  In fact, God only SEEMS to delay! He is ALWAYS coming into our lives! But, we have to keep watch, stay vigilant,  because it's so easy to miss His appearance! How many people, for example, missed Jesus' coming when he came as a tiny, helpless baby?
      It's only through God's compassionate grace that we can recognize God's appearance in our lives.  Every day we are surrounded on all sides by signs of God's Presence, but it's only through God's grace that we can keep watch for those signs and truly understand that the Lord is intimately near to us.
      Often we don't recognize the Lord's appearance in our lives because we need an attitude adjustment. WE EXPECT GOD TO CHANGE WHAT WE THINK HE SHOULD CHANGE, BUT TO THINK THAT WAY IS TO MAKE OURSELVES GOD. God is Mystery, God is Alpha and Omega, God's thoughts and ways are not our thoughts and ways.
      How often do we ask God to CHANGE US? To remove the things that keep us from opening our hearts to welcome His Son? How often do we ask God to take the blinders off our eyes, the ear plugs out of our ears, the nose plugs out of our noses, the muffler off our mouths, so we can sense the Lord in all areas of our lives, and be filled with joy? How often do we ask God to level the mountains of our pride and bitterness, and fill up  the deep, dark valleys of our loneliness and despair?
      Be still, be very still, and "catch wind" of the Lord in your life, in your heart, warm, precious, as a steady candle flame of joy. We can rejoice because we trust in the Lord! Even when God doesn't look at our lives the way we do, or change our lives the way we think He should, He still is coming into our lives, always coming, always at work to fulfill His plans for us, the plans of His Divine Heart. And in the rosy prism of that joy, that joy of suddenly recognizing that God is indeed near to us, our lives smell, taste, and appear different because we suddenly realize God is walking every path with us and bringing all things to the good for us.
      God is both above and beyond all things and in all things, and so we can discover His Presence anywhere and everywhere in all His creation. God comforts us in a hot mug of peppermint cocoa, even as He enlivens us with a cold snowflake melting on our nose. God warms our arms with the wiggly toddler we tuck into bed while we're happily singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer." God soothes us with the cat who jumps into our lap and with the calming scent of lavender skin cream.  
      God enlightens our inner vision so that we can be grateful for twenty-five dollars to spend on a Christmas present when we had cried because it wasn't fifty dollars. God softens our hearts to appreciate our boring job - because we have a job. God knows our hearts are breaking because of the loved one who died who won't be spending Christmas with us - and suddenly the fresh, clean, smell of a living Christmas tree reminds us that our loved one's life has been transplanted fresh and new into Paradise.
      God only SEEMS to delay. Keep watch - because God is always coming into your life, humbly tucked into every experience as surely as He came once tucked into swaddling clothes. Be still, be very still, and you'll find him in the enlightenment of your heart, luminous hope and joy to lighten your darkness,   steady as the light of an Advent candle. 
      Because God is Love. Wherever there is Love, there is God. Love has chosen the paths of the stars and orbits of the planets over our heads, and the ebb and flow of the tides; Love has chosen the directions of a compass. Love accompanies the ebbs and flows of our hearts, the orbits of our successes and failures,  and the directions of our lives. All our wandering paths come from Love and lead to Love.  Love lies in every direction, and so Love will always bring us safely home to the arms of God. 
      "The Lord will come; he is true to his word. If he seems to delay, keep watch for him, for he will surely come, alleluia."
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Mary C. Weisenburger

    BIOGRAPHY
    I've loved to write since I was twelve years old. The smells of fresh paper and ink galvanized me! Now I'm galvanized by the sight of a keyboard. Short stories were fun; then I wrote poetry at Sacred Heart Academy, and Rosary Hill College.  By the time I attended Christ the King Seminary, my friend Kathy Sutter and I co-wrote two musicals, "ACTS" and "Hadassah", and Kath began the Alden Christian Theater Society.  My husband, Paul, is a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, New York, whom I met through our mutual loves of words and music - in singing, acting and writing.  We have five children ( all into music, drama, dancing, and writing), eleven grand-children, and numerous siblings and cousins.  One of our sons died two years ago; his loss confronted me with how precious the gifts of relationships and time are. My great loves are reading, especially murder mysteries, writing (I'm currently writing a murder mystery), doing crossword puzzles, traveling, and most especially visiting our family and friends throughout the Diocese and country. 

    Archives

    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014

    Categories

    Marriage/Parenting
    Prayer
    Reflections on Scripture
    Spirituality

    Senior Moments
    Senior Living

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.