50+.....The Challenge...

"I became what I never thought I would " are lines from one of my favorite John Denver songs." (Some days are diamond, Somedays are Stone.") They sprang up when I was reflecting on last weekend. June 8th was my Golden Jubilee Anniversary Mass, I am so grateful to all who made it a special celebration. To be honest, I have real trouble writing those words golden jubilee. When I was younger, a golden jubileearian was a real old f.....! You can fill in the blank with what you think is a good word to describe Fr. Joe as he is right now. ( I would love to be able to read your minds, right now.) I must remind you who read this effort, I was ordained in the 60s. What a awe-full, wonder-full time that was. These were the times when we did not trust anyone over 30. Back then, I was not able to imagine my living beyond 30. Thirty was going to be the end. Beyond that there was to be no living. Yet I am alive today with some of the those same thoughts, ideas, ideals, and dreams. The Mammas and The Papas were big back then. "There is a new world a coming" sang Momma Cass. These words encapsulated what the dream of so many was. A world that was "coming in peace, coming in joy, coming in love." Do not those words sum up the kingdom that is supposed to be coming into reality in "the present age." Growing into old age does not, and cannot, put an end to the dream, or the dreamer. We, in our old age, I now have come to believe, are called, are challenged, to shout out that dream so ancient and so new, all the louder. When you are old you have so little to lose, so you can take the risk? On second thought, is it really a risk? In this raising of our voices are to bring, not comfort, but discomfort. We must challenge all the forces that conspire to frustrate the "coming of The Kingdom". We must point to the great warning in the scriptures, that the "angels of darkness, will appear as angels of light", was The Historical Jesus conspired against by outwardly evil people? For goodness sake, it was the religious leaders who conspired with ,the secular power, to destroy Him. Those out-worldly good people, who we men of God, did not recognize the manifestation, the appearance of God when He became enfleshed. Their minds were so conditions that anything contrary to what they knew to be true, was a lie. There was no challenge tolerated. Jesus's death was brought about because He spoke a new truth, that challenged the status quo. He was counter- cultural. He pointed out that the old way was coming to an end, and a New Dawn had already broken upon the world. A new Light had come into the world to shine light where it had never shone before. To light up the lives of all those who lived in darkness, and who were, sad to say, kept in darkness. Jesus was ostracized, why? Because He broke rules that kept people in bondage. Those religious rules He broke to raise the only son of a widowed mother. In last Sundays gospel, when He healed the leper by touching him, He himself from there on was to be treated as on would treat a leper. How we going to treat the "lepers" of our time, and in the place we meet them. Who is the leper for you and I? We have to name that "leper" when we meet him/her on the outside. is the task finished there? No! Of course not. Now we have to journey inside, to meet that "leper" who is dwelling within in the depths of who we are. Still not finished? Yep!!! Now we have to follow the exhortation of St. Francis, which is, "kiss the leper within". In this way we are readying ourselves to be willing participants in the vision of our Pope Francis "to be a church for the poor". We can pay lip service to those challenging words, and the consequent actions, of our Supreme Shepherd. As we meet The Pope's challenge, we too are going to be challenged. That is the what is to be expected when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. Is not persecution guaranteed, in the gospels? As The Lord was treated so are we. Jerusalem is our destiny. (As you know I love that prayer). Each one will have a unique trail to travel. Our way to our Jerusalem, is a hike over rough, and varied terrain. There are many, many, deserts, lush green valleys, and barren mountain tops." It is, a long, long road from which there is no return" (Neil Diamond.), there is no looking back. There will joy and sorrow, war and peace, crucifixions, deaths, and resurrections. As it was with our Suffering Good Shepherd so it will be for us. Let move resolutely forward in the knowledge and belief that there will be NO obstacle on the trail which will be too much for our God and us. So let us act like we are on a trail putting one foot in front of the other. Conscious of where we are at each moment, and knowing that in that moment we are safe.

The Pentecost...Spirit...At...Work

Since I was ordained ,almost 50 years ago, the only constant has been change. For some there have been too many, for others not enough. There is one change, however, I would love to see happen, yet deep down I know this will never happen. I was brought up with this fact, there is no harm in dreaming or in asking the question. So why stop now? We as Catholics are brought up to think, to reason. That is why we had two years of philosophy in the seminary, so we would be ordered in our thinking, and help others in their journey of discovery. This journey of discovery is a never-ending one. We go from discovery to discover without ever becoming satisfied with what we are in possession of. [G.K. Chesterton remarked "Catholicism is a thinking persons religion." He was a wonderful thinker himself, and add so much to the Catholic Church.] So what is this change I desire to see, and why do I think there needs to be a change? What is the reasoning behind this way of thinking? Well to begin with, I wish we would stop using those two words, "ordinary time”, to describe the time we are journeying through right now. It is NOTordinary, like all time it is extraordinary. It is like all time is to been seen as Kairos time. Kairos time is full of the awe and full of mystery of God. There is no moment in time that the Divine is not communicating with each one of us personally. In each and every one of our "creature" moments we meet with and are met by. Each and every moment is used by The Creator God to continue the creation, which had its origin in the mists of antiquity. Over these so many eons creation is being perfected. What is really mind blowing is that you and I have been chosen, even before the mists of time to be co-creators, and co-perfectors of this great mysterious endeavor. This is a dignity that must be claimed, again and again, otherwise we lose our Creators intention for our creation. How often have we been told that we are called to be "co-creators and co-perfectors of the universe"? How often have we heard that expression and we either forgot it or conveniently ignored it? Why? If we really believed in the radical trust our God has in us what a difference we would make. Our world would undergo a radical transformation and become that which The Creator originally planned. The Second Vatican Council sure changed our way of seeing, believing and acting. It was for those of us lucky enough to be around then, like a New Spring. It was an awakening that radically changed our lenses and thank God, it is still revealing an ongoing newness. With change and the threat of newness came opposition. Opposition that Pope Francis sees as working against the workings of The Holy Spirit. It was great to hear our Pope express so clearly that the efforts of The Holy Spirit must not be impeded by human fear. What we need, no, what is demanded of us, is a strong abiding belief in eternal newness of ourselves, our church and all of creation. What is demanded of us is a lively, life giving and life enhancing faith in the reality of a living and loving God. A God who is always pouring Herself/Himself out into an eternal act of fruit-full, creative love. This love, then of its essence, is creative and so where this love is, there is the creative force of Our Gracious God always creating. This creative, loving Spirit dwells within each of us, in the depths of who we really are. It is only in that place of my radical I-am-ness that that this gift is realized. (Oh what a journey that is.) The Holy Spirit ,This Loving Creative Force is first encountered by us in the Sacrament of Baptism. This Sacrament has in the past been called the Sacrament of Enlightenment. How come we have lost that awe-full, wonder-full name which conveys so much of what that Sacrament is intended to accomplish within each person. It conveys that which we are so desperately in need of right now. We need to be enlightened, to be reminded who we are, who we are called be, and Who it is that has done the calling? I would like to suggest we have a desperate need for this voice to be present in our minds, hearts, and souls. Why? Because we are exposed to so many loud voices whose sole purpose is, to drown out that gentle, whispering voice which dwells within. A voice which calls us Beloved. A voice which reminds we are previous, called, chosen, gifted, blessed and consecrated. The voices which strive, endlessly and sometimes unceasingly, wage endless war to distract us from who we are, who we have been called to be, and above all, Who it is that has done the calling. In each so called, "ordinary moment" of every day this is what is happening, the reality we face. There is The Voice of The Spirit of Pentecost, reminding us of who we are in our Creators Love. Then there is the is the voice of negativity, the voice of the prosecutor. The sole purpose of this voice is to somehow to bring disquiet ,and the denial of our essential goodness. This deceiver has only one goal. That goal is to ultimately destroy that loving eternal relationship we have, and have enjoyed, with The Eternal. These loud voices can be heard, not only in the world we are forced to live in, but are alive, as a destructive force within ourselves. As they are within ourselves they are, of necessity, to be encountered in our homes, parishes, ministries, local and universal church. With each day comes a death. With each dawn comes forth a new day. It is virginal. Untouched. We, each one of us, will choose in every moment to be life-givers, or death-dealers. How we act will result from which voice we listen to. Let us choose then to live each moment of every day in the freedom of being, beloved daughter/son, of our Prodigal God. In this way each and every moment becomes for us a sacrament. A sacramental "meeting with", is nothing ordinary, but very much extra-ordinary, awe-full, wonder-full. (I am aware of why it is called ordinary time, but I feel the question should be raised!)

Mother...Motherhood...Is a Sacrament...

There is an awe-full, mysterious, sacred presence in our lives. A presence, I am sad to say, that seems to be acknowledged, reverenced, and celebrated just one day out of 365. As we live out the other days is not this mysterious reality really taken for granted? Has not the place of our encounter with the Sacred become so familiar that we have lost our reverence, and respect for this God given gift. That is the danger of the familiar, it leads us into that death dealing place of apathy. We are always in the need to be awakened to the sacred to the mysterious that is part and parcel of our every day journey. That journey that is ours as spiritual beings immersed in the human condition. Within the depths of our mothers an encounter takes place, between the creative love of Creator God, and the human effort of human beings, acting freely. This hidden, sacred, mysterious encounter has led to the present day understanding of the sacramentality of sexuality. We sure have come a long ways in our ever growing understanding of human sexuality, and the sacramental aspect of this gift. Now we go a step further and are asked to reflect on the sacramentality of mothers and motherhood. I'm referring to sacrament with a small "s". A small "s" sacrament I would like to suggest is: " Each and every person, place, event, action, which brings us into contact with the deeper realities of life, ultimately with Reality itself, that Reality we call God”. The sacramental reality of mothers and motherhood must be visited again and again. Like all that is mysterious this journey always leads us to a deeper understanding of that which can never be explained, only reverenced. We find there is layer upon layer to the mystery that is "mothers" and "motherhood". Just stop and reflect on all that has been written, and is being written. It is never ending, so we must be open to ever new, life enhancing, life enriching revelations. Speaking of revelation the scriptures have some wonder-full passages offered for our encouragement. Our Father/Mother God, in Isaiah 49:15 "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you." So we are forever present in the minds of God, and to a lesser extent to our mothers. There are times when we will be absent from the conscious though of our mothers, after all they do have their own lives. In the mind of God we are always present to Him, as we journey with Him, and to Him. Our Father/Mother God is our origin and our destiny. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you?" Psalm 110:3, "from the womb before the day star, I have begotten you." Our place of origin then is the womb of God, Who is infinite love. We leave that place of comfort and security and journey into the uncertainty that is this life. God as not abandoned us. He has prepared for us a presence who will remind us of Who it is we came from, and the love that we originated from. The loving Gaze of mother's is the loving gaze of God enfleshed. This is a loving presence we can feel, hear, and above all touched by. This soothes the pain of the seeming loss of our First Love. Our mother's is to mirror the first love, and who we continue to be in that love. The best of plans do not always work out, not even God's plan "a". We are in His plan "b". There is a dark side to mothers and motherhood. The ideal is in so many case never actualized, and this results in human beings existing in a "living hell". Because of abuse their essential inner wholeness has been broken and in some cases destroyed. There are so many books written about "Daughters without Mothers", and the recovery that is necessary to return to wholeness. Thank God for the courage of those authors that tell their story and offer hope to those who have to honestly face that reality in their lives. Of course there are many sons without mothers as well. There is so much healing to be gone through to journey back to the place where you were the beloved. We must not allow transient evil sabotage our essential goodness and lovableness. That recovery, like all recovery, is not easy. The toxic shame will fight us each and every step of the way. Toxic shame which wants to communicate that we are not okay, somehow not "good enough", has to be faced. We are all more than we do, or have or achieve. We therefore need the-unconditioned love, undeserved, unlimited " first love" to become a reality. In this way, while we are still pilgrims, having no lasting home. We are somehow secure in the knowledge that our God is always a nourishing, ever creative, ever comforting, and always ever mercy-full. Why? Because we have experienced all within the lives who reveal the Mystery within mothers, and motherhood. Mothers you are the living sacrament of our living God. Be healthy so we can have a healthy understanding of, and a healthy relationship with The Source The Origin. We will then find ourselves living the aisling, the dream of our Mother/Father God.

Greed...The...Saboteur...Of...Dreams

Even though I am retired from the administrative side (boy do I thank God for that),I still have the privilege of interacting with a number of individuals. These are spiritual beings, who like myself, have that moment to moment struggle with our immersion in the human condition. I am, very slowly, getting a grasp of the disconcerting truth articulated by J.Metz, "We are (spiritual beings) born human, and spend our whole life coming to understand what that word human, means". This immersion, we are all sharing in, to my mind, is it not a royal pain? (I better stop there!!!!!) As a result of this immersion, do we do the things that are unhealthy for us, and fight the things that are healthy? Are you with me on this? If you are with me then we are all in great company. A saint by the name of Paul had the self same difficulty. He had to face that self same endless struggle. He came out fine, in the end, did he not? So we can relax, we are in great company. In his struggle, Paul was reminded where the real source of strength comes from. So, we too, must grow into that same acceptance of where the source of our strength lies. Acceptance is a process, and a slow one at that. I have to admit that the place I end up in is always better than the place where I began. This does not make the letting go any easier. I read that we are born knowing how to hang on, we have to learn to let go. That "letting go" is the essence of the spiritual life, and that is why is not very attractive to the ego. My ego is all about, power, property and prestige. Looking good in the eyes of the world, while all the time having to deal with that essential loneliness which is part and parcel of the human experience. This encounter, with that loneliness, if it allowed, is gut wrenching. That is why we run away from that inner loneliness, and set our eyes on that alleviate, that which we wish to avoid at any cost. We will do anything pay any price, go to any external extreme, rather than face ourselves as spiritual beings who have inherited a broken humanity. This is where we have to deal with the presence of greed in our own lives, in the lives of others, and in society. Frank Buckman has written: "There is enough in the world for everyone's need, but not for everyone's greed". Look at the price we have paid over the last number of years because of the havoc greed has wrecked on our individual lives, the lives of our families, and the life of our country. Insatiable greed has been the root cause of so much destruction. It is essential for us to face the presence of greed in our lives, otherwise we will never come to enjoy the asking, the dream has for us. This dream God has to live and share with us is? He/She wishes to meet us in the ordinary not the extraordinary. That is a big blow to our egos. Our Gracious, Living God, has chosen all that is ordinary to be place where this mysterious event happens. It is in the so-called ordinary person, place, and event God's dream is realized. In this way, there is tremendous dignity to all that is authentically human. We also have to face the fact that this aisling (dream) is not a reality. We also have to face the fact that even though it is God's dream it is not always realized. Not even God gets all She/He wants. Wow!!!, the power of free will. God's great blessing and curse. So many of our dreams are sabotaged. We are, at times, the saboteur. There are those who cannot deal with peace, joy, contentment, serenity, security, etc. It is a challenge that must be faced by not a few of our fellow travelers. Look around and you will see that person on your daily walk. Some of us have to the challenge of that person dwelling within the depths of who we are. Constant Vigilance is required to keep the saboteur from its destructive mission. John O'Donoghue, in Anam Cara writes the following about Greed: He says that greed is one of the powerful forces in the modern world. It is sad that a greedy person can never enjoy what they have, because they are haunted by what they do not yet possess. This can refer to land, books, companies, ideas, money, or art. (I would like to suggest that in the realm of religion this applies too. Unfortunately and the price is Endless.) The motor and the agenda of greed is always the same. Joy is possession, but sadly possession is ever restless; it is an inner insatiable hunger.....It can never engage presence..This greed is now poisoning the earth and impoverishing its people. Having has become the sinister enemy of being. Being and presence for me go together. We have to work at being still, to engage what is right here, right now. In this moment all that I need is right here. There is nothing missing, in God's way of seeing. For us we have to make the journey from could be, should be, ought to be, etc. to the wisdom my God, Who is All in All, is present Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. What more can there be? We also have to guard against those who look at you through greedy eyes. You will never be "enough" for them. No matter what you do more is expected, or subtle demanded. The greedy eye can appear to be so "nice". Say no to that expectation and there is heck to pay. One is also to be so careful when it comes to ministry. Good boundaries are necessary so that you are not stretched to the point of burnout, and breaking. The subtleties of greed are many. All are destructive. Let us not sabotage the dream God has for us. in this way we are not too likely to be a saboteur to the dream God has for others. There is a new world being created, in you and in me. The Creative Love is bring a newness to all of creation. Not living out of possessiveness will free us to be ready to embrace the new, as it is slowly revealed in each moment. Each moment is to be embraced-reverenced, and celebrated as our encounter with the Paschal Mystery? Then, horrors of horrors for the ego, Let Go.

Paschal....Hope-filled....Eyes

According to Chronos time, Holy Week has passed. The Resurrection has been celebrated. So we can say, "all of this is now in the past, and we are moving on". Or are we? Are we really moving on and leaving all that "stuff" behind us? Kairos time tells otherwise, and thank God for that. Otherwise, we would be setting ourselves up for real trouble. We would have lives filled with fear, anger and despair, with no help in sight. Kairos time offers us the gift of eternal hope. Kairos time, that is God's time, allows us to see that which we have celebrated is present today. The Paschal Mystery is being encountered in each and every moment of our human experience. The human experience we as spiritual beings are immersed in. So that which has been celebrated is being lived out right here, in the here and now. This is what I like to call "the beyond time" of The Paschal Mystery. We are always living in the "beyond time" of some encounter with The Sacred. So in this "beyond time", we are challenged to become more and more aware of The Paschal Mysteries that is ever and always present, and being encountered, in the sacramental now moment. We also refer to this sacred time as, the here and now. Because of this reality we become more and more immersed in this season's great Mystery. We will never, in this life, gain the full understanding of any of The Supernatural Mysteries of our faith. We enter, or need I say, are drawn into, an ever deeper immersion into that which is beyond our full understanding. Full understanding will never be ours in this life as mystery can never be exhausted. Mystery can only be reverenced and celebrated. As we approach, with a sense of deep reverence, we are drawn by grace, into the depths the mystery. Through grace we will be gifted with the following realization, that which we are celebrating is within the depths of who we are. We are being continuously "dipped and dyed" into this awakening reality, that which I am celebrating in the Liturgy, is being lived within. The journey into The Mystery, is a life long journey. It is the only one worth taking. In each stage, in each season, of life's journey we are offered a new, and different understanding of that wonder-full, Paschal Mystery. This is the Mystery we have been baptized into. In this Sacrament (big S) we have been called, chosen, and consecrated to be the beloved daughter/son of our passionate, living and loving Father-God. We are ever and always the object of this infinite, unconditioned, unlimited and unrestricted Love. Nothing, and I mean nothing, can come between us and that love. We are to be reminded that it is NOT that I love God, but that through the Spirit we were first loved. It is not that I give love, but that I accept love. A love that has already mine from eternity. Love is my Origin, and my Destiny. This love cannot be earned nor deserved, just simple accepted. Are not the simplest of thing the hardest to do? The same here. No amount or effort on our part, can make this loving possible. It is always free. All we have to say is "YES", and leave it at that. In this "Yes" there is the wonder-full transformation, and transfiguration happening secretly in the depths of who we are. Only on very rare occasions is this reality revealed to us. This is The Spirit's call, not ours. Fr. Rohr warns us, "We are not to put a thermometer in the soul". There then is an eternal newness happening within us. This is the fulfillment of the scriptures "behold I make all things new", "do you not see ?". The scripture says I make all things new, I am not making new things. So there is this constant renewal process within you and I. I sometimes wish this whole thing was over in a minute, but would I be ready for the shock? This very impatient Irishman must be constantly reminded of this salient fact, God's ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts!!!! I find the daily struggle to believe who I am in passionate, life giving, always creative love a real tough slog. It is so easy to get side tracked. Our human experience, and our interaction with others living out of that same reality is a great challenge. John O'Donoghue in his book "Anam Cara" makes a great connection with the way others see us, and the way we see ourselves. Maybe I do this too often, but here I go again. When it comes to the healthy vision necessary for a healthy spirituality, and hence for healthy living, the words of Robbie Burns always come to mind. He wrote "Would that God the gift to give me to see myself as others see me". That is a prayer I would ever want to be answered. This prayer, however, is a constant desire, "Would that God the gift to give me, to see myself as God sees me". For that desire to be fulfilled there is serious hard work to be done. Joe can so easily say "I am not what others say I am, I am not what others see me as "but the acceptance of that truth is not an easy task. Here are some of the "eyes" through which we and others see our reality. First there is the Fear-full eye, to this eye everything and everyone is perceived as a threat. There is the threat of danger, of serious damage, and of loss around every corner. This is the life that is lived without the faith grounded in the Paschal Mystery. This is faith-less life and life-less. Yes every day we encounter danger death, and destruction. What we are experiencing right now is man's inhumanity towards his fellow man, and woman. Yes there are losses. There is death. There is pain. There is confusion. These are not end moments. These are "the beyond moments" where the ever deepening, life transforming mystery of The Paschal Mystery is continuously being revealed. We must always keep before us the eternal truth of The Paschal Mystery: death, pain, confusion, destruction are steps on the way to a new way of seeing, believing, and acting. These are not intended by God, but are used to lead us ever deeper into the following of His Beloved Son. We are then called to walk though our fears into a more intimate and trusting relationship with or Shepherd-God. There is no real intimacy in any relationship as long as fear is in control. We all have to pass through a raw naked fear, on our journey into intimacy with The One who is waiting for us at the end of this fear-full step. Merton's great prayer is such a comfort, "God I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead, nor do I really know myself...." (the rest is on Google). Fear and faith we will always be in one or the other, the choice is ours, every moment. (Over the next few blogs the other eyes will be looked at, i.e. the greedy eye, the judgmental eye, the resentful eye, the indifferent eye, the inferior eye. These eyes we see through, and are seen through on the way to the essential acceptance of who we are in the eyes of Love.

Paschal Mystery...Never Ends...

The Paschal Mystery transforms, transfigures and leads us,always, into a new and different way of living. It bestows on us the great gift of hope, that death is not, “the final word on life or despair the final days of human beings”. [Boff] As we make our journey into the light of the resurrection, we will be led again and again to the understanding that out of all of our pain, sorrow, and brokenness, comes new life and wonderful gifts. We will be led to the belief that the “greater the wound, the greater the pain…the greater the gift”. That is why each year, we are “dipped and dyed” in the Paschal Mystery to be awakened and to celebrate the new life that has come to us from what we thought was death. Death is never the end, it is always the beginning.

The Paschal Mystery is first and foremost a mystery. This mystery teaches that with every beginning there is an ending and with every ending there is a new beginning. It is a mystery dealing with the deepest working of God's grace. A mystery dealing with death, burial and new life. A spiritual mystery such as this cannot be explained, it can only be entered into and treated with reverence. I would like to suggest this year, more than ever, we need to open ourselves up to what this week offers in the way of hope, consolation and the promise of radical new life. This will come to us through the power of honesty, honesty about our everyday experience. There can be no spiritual growth unless we are developing a progressive honesty which is about embracing what is real. Where there is no honesty, there is no reality. So, there is no God. When we want to get a grip on reality and the Pascal Mystery within us, here are a number of words you and I cannot have in our vocabulary, the following are many words which have no connection with reality:
could, would, should, what if, if, if only, when, ought, try, interesting, or any similar words used to deny our real feelings and our real emotions.

A number of years ago, I read a book by Fr. Ronald Holheiser which enabled me to enter into a new and better life-giving understanding of what the Paschal Mystery is all about. In his book, The Holy Longing, he explains the difference between terminal death and Pascal death. "Terminal death is a death that ends life and then possibility. Paschal death, like terminal death, is real, however, Pascal death is a death that, while ending one kind of life, opens a person undergoing it to receive a deeper and richer form of life. The image of the grain of wheat falling into the ground and dying so as to produce new life is an image of Pascal death. Then resurrected life...is the reception of a radically new life... The Pascal Mystery is about Paschal death and resurrected life."

Continuing on, in the same chapter entitled "The Spirituality of the Paschal Mystery", we read the following:

The Pascal Mystery might be diagrammed as follows:
1) Good Friday...The loss of life-real death
2) Easter Sunday..."the reception of new life"
3) The Forty Days..."a time for readjustment to the new, and grieving the old"
4) Ascension..."letting go of the old and letting it bless you, the refusal to claim"
5) Pentecost..."the reception of new spirit, for the new life that one is already living"

Put into a more colloquial language and stated as personal Pascal challenge for each one of us, one might recap this diagram this way:
1) "Name of your death"
2) "Claim your birth"
3) "Grieve what you have lost and adjust to the new reality"
4) "Do not cling to the old, let it ascend and give you its blessing"
5) "Accept the spirit of the life that you are in fact living"

This cycle is not something we must undergo just once...It is rather something we must undergo daily, in every aspect of our lives. Christ spoke of many deaths, of daily deaths and of many risings and various Pentecosts. The Paschal Mystery is the secret to life. Ultimately, our happiness depends upon properly undergoing it... Unless we die in infancy, we will have many deaths in our lives and within each one of these we must receive new life and new spirit. Daily we must undergo the Pascal Mystery.

In her book, Little Pieces of Light, Sister Joyce has this to say, "Being able to let go and let God take over one's life demands a tremendous amount of trust in this Divine Companion. Thomas Merton writes that, 'True love and prayer are really learned in the hour when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone'. It is in within the hour of our greatest darkness that we discovered that we are never really alone. It is a time when we learn to trust as Gods love is much more than we ever imagined." This gives us the great freedom to be able to sing our Hallelujahs with real gusto. Death has turned into life. Christ is risen and is alive within you and me.

"O happy fault of Adam that has revealed to us such a God."

Come one, come ALL!!!!

"The Unfolding of The Paschal Mystery" that is what we will be looking at this week at Mt.Claret. Tuesday at 7 p.m. This is FREE!!! Just show up at the center, North of Camelback on 54th St. Right turn and keep going. Wed.morning beginning at 9 a.m. - 11.30. The same theme, plus reconciliation,Mass, and catered lunch. Reservations are necessary - Phone 602-840-5066 Blessings, Fr.Joe