" Come, Holy Spirit and fill the heart of the faithful, especially the heart of this, faithless one." GGP

 The Spirit we have been given is , the Spirit of freedom, not the spirit of slavery, leading us back into fear. We have been given the Spirit of adoption, by which we cry out "Abba, Father". St. Paul. Romans, 8:15.....

" Man, Humans(jh), are born free, and everywhere I look I see him (them)  (jh)  chained" Rousseau.

" We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (human beings jh) are created equal, that they were endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness......" Declaration of Independence Please read on and become more aware of the responsibilities of those who are governed and the responsibilities of those who are governed. We are  among the ones who are being governed. According to The Bishops of  the Dioceses of Arizona, we are challenged, as never before, in my long memory, to become conversant with the social teaching of our Catholic Church. We begin way back when Pope Leo X the 13 the began to crystallize said teaching.

       Our Creator God, in His Wisdom and Freedom, uniquely created us, in eternity to become co-creators, with The Creator of all that was to evolve. We are co-creators of a mysterious Cosmic reality. To reiterate again, we have been chosen from eternity to be our unique selves. The Creative Spirit played and rejoiced in us as The Scriptures reveal to us. Such a truth has to have supernatural origins. Who can with unaided reason come to this very mysterious reality.We all have been gifted with The Divine Creative Spirit  so that together the work of creation may always be evolving into a newness. Our Cosmic home is continuing to grow and expand, into a newness we are being challenged to seek out, search out, and take each step in The Mystery filled darkness. That is why our innate calling is to be who we really are, mystics, YES, MYSTICS. The Mystical journey, or another way of describing moment  our slog, is a journey into The Darkness, into The Unknown. ( Read last night, this morning about 3 AM. The Unknown was how Jung described The Indescribable.)

We are called to be free human being, within whose depths has been placed a  one-of-a kind design for, creative living. Yes, each  action in every moment is a creative act  contributing to Cosmic evolution.To make sure we are can fulfill    out  We have been gifted with The Holy Spirit, Whose Being within our being, demand our cooperation in a freedom which allows us to be authentic human beings.  How are we meeting the challenge of living the life of, free, authentic, human beings. It is an unalienable right for all. Not for just  the one percent majority, but for all, especially those, on the margins, whose waking hours are consumed with the questions , " How am I going to have  just enough, to exist ?" " Not live, exist ?" "How can I really face the unbelievable challenge of being recognized for who I really am, not someone to be used, abused, de-humanized, and then cast aside to end up on the waste dumps of society ? Those waste dumps are many, where do we encounter the left overs of society ? Is it too hard a question to ask, where is my waste dump, what part of myself have I lost reverence for ? This is where The Paschal Mystery, the reality of being Simon and Veronica, ministering to my wounded self, so preparing to meet the challenge of a country and world that has lost its soul. Soul is that which gives life to our lives. Christ Who is our life, dwells with each human being, and that Presence must be recognized and brought to life.

  That is why we have to celebrate those who have sacrificed that all may be free. Freedom comes at a devastating cost for some. It is incumbent on each  and every one, to raise their collective voices in thanksgiving for those who have become Eucharist for us. The Fourth of July cannot be a one day, or just moments of recognition. The sacrifices of those contemporary Christs, have created the space where, new heavens and new earths, may evolve, in freedom. Let us not loose respect, no reverence, for the Sacred. Our lives must be  lived as authentic witnesses, death was the end for some, but the many have been given the opportunity to be faith-full prophets. WARNING !!!! being a prophet is an extremely risky  way of living. Let us continue the struggle, so that all sacrificial deaths may not have been sacrificed in vain. Can we honestly sing, we are "the home of the brave"?  I hope your Fourth of July will be a day of  respect-full reverence, leading to meaning action.           Love prayers and blessings. Great grandpa. The ancient one.

" Come, O Holy Spirit come, and fill the heart of this faith-less one."

  "So long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth" Words written by Johann Von Goethe, "The Holy Land.

We are not meant to be "troubled guests' we are meant to be so much more. That which we are called to be cannot just be wished for, we have to do it "the old fashioned way, we have to earn it, work for it." It is hard work that calls for, demands perseverance. We are destined to fulfill a role, a calling, that is eternal. We are eternal, we are not time bound. We are always to look for what is beyond what we see. We do not meet this challenge alone, we have The Trinitarian Presence, celebrating their love, in our very depths. The spiritual journey, and its demanding hard work, will get us to that Presence. 

      Our prayer is that we are able to join in the dance of The Trinity, and so become an active participant in their eternal celebration. Every,  "now" moment welcomes into the celebration of Infinite Love, and The lover(s) within. We are called to be, and become that which is way beyond our unaided vision. We are constantly called to become "alert", become "woke"to the infinite Mystery, and The Mysterious Trinity encased within our human form. We are, thanks to the power of The Creative,  Who is always creating. So  we are challenged to look out for the new. Some wise people encourage us to look for THREE surprises every day. Our look in the mirror is our first surprise. That which we see looking back at us is, The Face Of The Divine, God. The Incarnation is revealed to us, ever anew. The Creative One, does not create duplicates. (Is it time to check into your awe-full-ness. This blows ordinariness our dull ness, out of the ballpark. Need I need to remind you your life is Awe-full not awesome.

          Let's take a look at what Fr. Ronald Rolheiser has written in his great book, The Holy Longing. He starts with a  supposed quote fro Plato: " We are fired into life with a madness that comes from the gods and which would have us believe that we can have great love, perpetuate our own seed, and contemplate the divine". ' it is no easy task towels this earth and find peace. Inside of us, it would seem, something is at odds with the very rhythm of things we are forever restless, dissatisfied, frustrated, and aching. ( AA teaches us that when our disease is active, we are restless, irritable, and discontent. For ongoing recovery these realities must be confronted, and brought to the prayer of  abandonment and powerlessness.) 

 When we settle into the lie about the ordinariness, the dullness, the lifeless of our lives, lets take time to reflect on the following, taken from the same book: " everybody is ultimately talking about the same unquenchable fire, a restlessness, a longing, a loneliness, a gnawing nostalgia, a wildness that cannot be tamed, a congenital all-embracing ache that lies at the center of human experience and is the ultimate force that drives everything." This dis-ease is universal, we are all infected from birth. St Augustine wrote these words : "You have made us for Yourself O Lord, and we will never rest, until we rest in You." That restless journey is another name for, spirituality." 

A great deal more to come as we face how we are prepared for the every day, every moment's  struggle with the challenges of journeying in and with a wounded humanity. Love, prayers, and blessings. GGJ.

   

       I really feel bad that there is no conventional "Happy Something" to wish you. Hold your horses now, of course there is. Wait for it, A Happy Birthday to you all. This is taking seriously that every day is a new birthing day for you. The person that was yesterday is now part of the foundations of the now you. Brand new, and even more deeply mysterious, than you were yesterday. The Creative-Creating is working on a masterpiece, which is you. You are a masterpiece to be viewed in a museum, but you are being created, one nano second at time, to be viewed by all those who need for Mystery is being met by, and in your presence. We are told Our Creator God is ever new. We being His/Her living presence are always new. ETERNALLY SO. Is there ever a moment that is not appropriate to join with all the cosmos in singing , shouting loudly as possible, "Happy BIRTHING to you, in this sacramental moment." in eternity.

             Now that you are being birthed, anew, let us journey through some other reasons to sing, shout gloriously another  "Happy". Happy Christmas, seems appropriate. To day, The Mystery of The Incarnation is receiving a new revelation in, and through every nano second you will be privileged to  live. "The Glory of God, is,  the human person fully alive" St. Irenaeus. We are not being created to  just exist, we are called to "live life, and live it to the fullest". We are then challenged to be the best person we can be, in this moment. We must remember this is, you are looking at it. the best version of yourself, that has ever existed. "Never better". (Msgr. O,Grady R.I..P.)  

   Who we are in the continuous process of becoming, of evolution into a newness.We are becoming an new reality. This new reality, which we will be privileged  inhabit, is being built on on belief that each nano second ,a new revelation of The Mystery of Being, is best revealed in this new  version of our authentic human-being-ness. We must ever remind ourselves, there is a God, and we are not that, Infinite Being. Every moment is a Christmas moment. Every moment is, a moment The Incarnation is newly revealed. Where is that going to take you ? Reflect on your "now" uniqueness ???

          Well, every "now" moment, is,  mysteriously unique.  No two ,are the same. Life's moments,  cannot, of their essence be boring. Why?  Within the depths of every new , ever fleeting  moment, is mysteriously  presents ALL,Yes ,ALL that  the Liturgical Year, and  the unique Liturgical Celebrations, takes a complete year to recognize and celebrate.  We can look back ,and upon reflection, come to discover, all that  which , were present within every Liturgy  is now, present. Yes. Yes, right here , and right now, period. So in the now, in this, not so  "simple moment", within its depths, is everything that it  the Liturgical year takes to celebrate. This then is how mysterious each moment is.  Here and now what is hidden within, is exposed for celebration You have had the experience of looking at something through a magnifying  glass or microscope. What seems to be kinda ordinary, and sometimes dead, under the microscope is filled with life, and vitality. Liturgy, and the Liturgical year is the magnifying glass which extends our so called ordinary moments, into weeks and months of  rediscovery and celebration. ( If you can get through these last sentences in one read, you are mystically magnificent. I have lost time on how long it has taken to get those few sentences on paper. I am missing golf on t.v. No pain, no gain????? )

         Within the present moments, all the mysterious  moments of Holy Week and The Paschal Mystery is  our hidden reality.  We are today, now, challenged  to see and embrace Christ, Who  is again beaten, bruised, betrayed, brutalized, and crucified, in the most powerless of His sisters and brothers. We are faced with all the ramification of poverty, and powerlessness. Our neighborhoods, communities are reliving in their moment to moment realities what first happened almost 2,000 years ago.( Remember, in the spiritual there is no time and space.) We are again exposed to the cross being carried by the contemporary Christs. Where is Simon and Veronica to be encountered ministering to The Suffering One, in all suffering of all humankind. 

     We are in tomb time again. All of humankind and the rest of creation is sitting, waiting and watching for the darkness of the unknown to be pierced again, with the transforming, transfiguring power of The Resurrected One. Liminal time is really, really tough to endure, by ourselves. We need community and community celebrations to rekindle the fire, that is now to be  searched for, and rediscovered among the ashes. There is life in the ashes, of the seemingly ashes of life. "Death is not an end, death is a beginning." So easy to repeat, is it not? To put it into practice, "walk the talk" not talk the walk. We need each other as never before. These are uncertain times, so we must be exposed for revivification to the Gracious Creative Spirit Whose job description is to stir up faith and hope among us who are faithless, and hopeless. " I believe, Lord, help my disbelief/unbelief". From within the  fear-filled darkness, in our "absolute dependence on a Higher Power", EVER and Always we shall emerge, newly birthed , newly vitalized. Yes, from  the place of powerlessness,  The Paschal Mystery within or lived experience, shall emerge "new heavens, and a new earth."  

       

 

 Well, "Happy Easter" is not appropriate, but, "Happy Birthday" is, as today we celebrate the birthday of the Mother  Church.. For Joe it is "Happy sixty-second Anniversary", that is of, ordination. On June 8th 1963, in Carlow, Cathedral  30 very nervous young, and one  mature adult answered the call. They were each called by name, in latin, and the answer was "ad sum". That was when I was called to the priesthood. Until then we were just candidates for ordination. It was a six year process of vetting as to whether we had what it took to be ordained, or, not. I was all of, 23 years .  

            In August of that year, three other Corkonians, boarder a plane at Shannon Airport and winged their way from the green grasses of Ireland, to the brown deserts of Arizona. I was immediately immersed in the convulsions of the Catholic Church as she adapted to the  resolutions, and revelations of The Second Vatican Council.  I like all others are riding out the waves of change,  right up to this present moment.  It is help-full to know, "the only thing certain, is change" ?????  Great consolation to us who are struggling. Adding to the challenge of change here we are adapting to the election, under the guidance of The Holy Spirit, of Pope  Leo 14th. Blessing on Him and His Bride as they journey further along the trail , and trials, of an evolutionary journey. " Faith", it helps to know, or not, " is a journey into uncertainty, NOT certainty" Is it not also called, "the dark night of faith." Far cry from all the certainties I came with in 1963. At 85 I find I have to work harder than I ever did in the seminary. Back then one of the funnies was,  a seminary was "a home for expectant fathers". There was more truth, than poetry to that, as the Irishman said.

         To sing "Happy Birthday, to us" is a very appropriate rhythm for today. As I have mentioned before, one of the books that radically changed me was, "The People are The Church" by Eugene Kennedy. As you know well, one of my favorite sayings is, " Every blessing is a curse, and every curse is a blessing". There were, and are times I wished I was  not exposed to the challenge that book proposed and consequently  exposed me to, over there 62 years, There was a companion to that publication, " Comfort my People". The challenging truths of the 60's are alive and well in our world today, and as consequence in our church. Every individual, that is you and I, are being challenged as never before, to adopt and adept ourselves to the challenges of our ever evolving realities.

             We cannot, we were not chosen and created to live a life of security and safety. The Holy Spirit has directed the evolution of the cosmos, for at least 13.4 billion years, It has guided the relationship with emerging humanity for eons. This guidance into "all truth" is happening within the reality of this present moment. It cannot happen in any other way. The Creative Spirit always looks for the cooperation of human instrumentality  to achieve It's evolutionary goals. In this moment your response to the call, will depend the wellbeing of the present creation, and the chance of a healthy evolutionary future. That is why every moment is sacred. Charged with the Glorious Presence, Who reaches out in desperate need of our human cooperation. We do not have to be perfect in all of this. We, as, "perfectly imperfect human beings" are called on to make our best effort at all times. We do our best, and The Creative Spirit, does the rest. That is The Holy Spirit's job description, to bring order to chaos. As it was, so it is, and ever shall be.

Let us all pray for this confident belief, we are not just accidents of nature. We have been part of the eternal plan, that is being lived in you and through all the created universe. Hope your birthday celebrations will reflect the dignity a people, chosen to be, The Gracious Creator's, very own !!!! 

Pray for me as I enter the unknown 63 third year of a very mysterious, challenging slog. Gramps.

              

              

 Still Easter, 2025, but not for long more. The calendar time will run out, but our reflection on The Paschal Mystery and its mysterious, very heady, meanings are to be our constant companion. The every day journey into  reality, and so into Reality, will bring us to a constant new awarenesses. This is what can make our every day, so-called humdrum  life explode with mystery, and a new level of meaning. This breathes excitement into our moment to moment living out of the gift of, living freely. This freedom, like all freedoms comes at a price. The greater the freedom the greater the price. So we have Memorial Day, and Lent, Easter Mysteries. We also have lives that have lived that can be checked as regards the price was paid in vain.  As a result we grow into an ever deepening understanding of  mysterious life that is ours that is to be lived in freedom that came at the price of someone else, life-blood. 

             One has to be extremely blind not to accept the fact that the quality of life is not what was envisioned by Jesus, The Christ and our Founding Fathers. The Historical Jesus, who became The Christ Of God, through His sacrificial death, through His, Vicar on Earth, is challenging us not to  betray the vision, " Have come that you may have life, and have it to the fullest". St.Irenaeus has written, "The Glory of God, is the human person fully alive." As we look at the lives of billions, they are blatantly not living lives that reflect, full human  aliveness. The billions who are barely subsisting, far, far, from living a life that befits a child of The Loving  Creator God.  To meet the challenge, and a consequence challenges you and I we find that there are always Good Samaritans to be found, ministering to The Presence of The Suffering Who is to be found in refugees, migrants, disenfranchised, and all who do not measure up to something thatbreflects anything but Gospel values. Can we say, as we honestly look at our country, and world as say this is the living which encourages, and makes possible, authentic human living ? Let us become the people who embrace unvarnished truth, not people of the lie, compounding the ongoing Crucifixion, of "the least of the brethren ".

            We must, possible in a new way of living, free our  inner Veronica and Simon, so we can bravely step forward to do what is necessary to make the lives of all, especially the lives of the  vulnerable, lives that can "Thank You" for the sacrifices of those who fought,  so,"that all men/women can be free." The vision of The Historical Jesus, Who became the Christ, and those who formed a vision for our country, must regain its place. A tough question , " Has enough blood been spilt, lives eviscerated, humans dehumanized,  and enough of the vulnerable, exploited ?. 

      We must start with the vulnerable person we meet, as we  look in the mirror every morning. What are the plans to be the contemporary Good Samaritan, to the wounded one we encounter lying in pain, in the depths of our broken, wounded humanity ? We must ask for the strength, the courage, not to live lives of lies, of denial, but that bravely embrace our deepest embarrassing  secret reality. This is where conversion begins. We are turning around, confront the lies, and live a live of real freedom, not the  apparent freedom that leads us back into denial, inaction and a death that is certain to say, " I do not respect the sacrifices of those who have  made the unlimited sacrifice. I will squander my freedom because I lack the conviction that " I am my sister's/brother's keeper".  " Whatever you do to the least ones, you do it to Me".  

              We must  then, make Matthew 25, the corner stone of our current formation, of our conscious and will. " I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was in prison and you visited me......" Nowhere can be found a condition that must be met before ministry takes place. We must all confront fearlessly, or as best we can, the lies that have made their way into our hearts and minds that has allowed us to live a life of neglect, as far as The Contemporary Wounded Christ is concerned. We are the " home of the brave". Suit up as those who we remembered on Memorial Weekend suited up to meet the challenge to  their common freedom. " No one is free, until all humankind is free".