The Tangled Web....

We continue on our post Easter journey. I am very well aware of the fact that there is, always some part of us, if not all of us, still suffering, and wallowing in the pre-Easter events. We do not , or cannot, encounter the real God in fantasy. The real God of Jesus Christ can only be encountered, in reality. When we accept the reality of where we are at, and what is happening to us we are able to connect with God and allow God to connect with us. In this encounter with the real, God meets us, we meet Him. He meets us, and so the miracle of grace begins its’ mysterious work. How it works, the manner in which it works, and the time frame all this happens is NONE of our business.

The Easter and post Easter events we read about for ourselves, or hear them proclaimed to us, are meant to remind us again and again, of what we forget, again and again. We are after all human, so we need to be dipped, and dipped, in what we forget, again and again. We are in constant need of being reminded, now more than ever, of the great gift of hope, which is the message, and the gift of this season. We need to be continuously immersed in The Mystery we call Paschal, until we get to the place where we see, or more correctly, are led to see, what? Our everyday life, and the events of the same, are our actual, personal encounter with the life, suffering, death, burial, resurrection, Ascension, and the sending down of His Spirit.

Life can and does come at us so hard and fast, we can and do lose focus. We lose focus on the fact, this is what Jesus had to suffer.
This is what he had to endure. This is what He was tempted to recoil from. This IS my personal participation in that Mystery we call Paschal. In this belief, I have the assurance I will never suffer alone. What consolation? When we read what the disciples went through, we are given a preview of what you, and I, are to journey through as well. The story is the same, only the place and the scenery, have changed.

Locked doors, personal feelings of guilt, fear, and shame, are not powerful enough to keep the Risen Christ from being with those He loved. He will not be kept from those whom He has loved, to the end. He is being The Good Shepherd, searching out His lost and disillusioned disciples. (As He did, so he does, with you and I.) There has been a change. There has been a change in the human Jesus whom they thought they knew, and loved, in so far as they were able to. Their knowledge of what it means to be "risen", will take time to develop, and accept. That knowledge, will have to be purified and strengthened, as it goes in the doubting stage. They had to go through the same process of transformation that we go through. Consolation? This
Risen Jesus, who is now the Christ of God, is no longer bound by the constraints of time and space. As He was present to His disciples, so He is present to you and I…. right NOW! He is not only present to both you and I, He is present in His risen life, within you and I, right now. Where we are, there He dwells. Were He is, so is the Father, and Holy Spirit. They are present , within us, loving us as they love one another. What a party that is going on! We must ask for the love, to love ourselves enough, to let go of our so called failures, regrets, doubts, and fears, so we can join in the celebration.

In the joining in, the celebration we are slowly lead to the fullness of the Aisling of God, the dream of God. This aisling, this dream, is expressed in the following,

" I have come that you would have life, and have it to the fullest".

God will not settle for anything less, why should we? We are offered the Shalom of God, always and everywhere. What is the aspect of Shalom you need right now? (Read the list from last week, and claim it). You are the beloved daughter/ son, claim that right NOW! "Now is the time of salvation"
Christ rose from the darkness of the tomb. The tomb was actually the womb from which came new life. The tomb experience teaches us the hard lesson that when everything seems to be lost, at its’ worst, it is then we are in the best place to deepen our understanding of the Easter – Ascension - Pentecost Mystery. The process continues. The more personal you make the journey, the more rewarding it will be. The more you will have to share with those God’s love will place on your path, so you can be their companion, and they yours. What a tangled web the love of God weaves ????

Shower....Of.....Shalom

We were afforded the great gift of forty days, to prepare ourselves, yet again, for the great feast of Easter. We celebrate The Paschal Mystery again and again because we are ever experiencing that reality, always anew. So you see, we have to take this years’ experience of the mystery and confer on its’ uniqueness, by celebrating it as a new and never before reality. That is precisely what each and every liturgical celebration is. We took three days to celebrate The Easter mystery, The Paschal mystery. These twenty four hours are from evening to evening. From the evening of Holy Thursday to the evening of Good Friday is one day, and the same with the other two days. Now we are going to be afforded another 50 days to contemplate on how we experience, what we celebrated, as a daily realty. Otherwise, Jesus Christ did all that he did, suffered what he suffered, for nothing, His life was then a farce, and the same could be said of our lives too.

It is our lives being led as the life of The Contemporary Christ, that gives our life, and every second we lead untold value. In each and every moment of our lives, in each and every action of our lives, we are revealing anew, Jesus Christ. I live, no not I, it is Christ who lives. What an amazing power grace has, and how Gently is it exercised. This gentleness is portrayed in the first meeting of the Risen Christ with His Dispirited disciples .

What a feeling there must have been in that room. The fear had to be palatable. The doors were locked. They had to speak in whispers for fear of detection. They had to reflect on the events of The Last Supper, Gethsemane, the betrayal by one of their own, the denial by one of their own, the suicide, the scourging, the mockery, the scorn, that long journey to Calvary, the crucifixion, the burial, the closed tomb, now the news of the empty tomb. They had to reflect on their own failure to be a supportive presence. When their Leader needed them the most, they were not there. Just a very few were able to stand and be counted, the rest fled in fear. Now, there are the feelings of not just of fear, there are those feelings of helplessness, confusion , bewilderment, hopelessness, frustration, guilt, disappointment, anger, shame, hurt, and pain. As those were the feelings of the disciples, so they are our feeling today. The only thing we have to do is to be honest enough to admit them. Human nature does not change. As it was, so it is, and ever shall be. We, each day have the great challenge of being humble enough to embrace and admit to the human condition.

" We are born human and spend our whole life coming to understand what human means.” An ever deepening reflection on the Paschal Mystery is one of the avenues open to you and I. There are times when we can reflect on this mystery from a distance. Other times life immerse us in a depth we never expected to be in, or in a place we never expected to be at. Life does throw us some real curve balls, and we are left lost beaten and bewildered. We are now ready to encounter the reality of the risen Christ. We are now in the best possible place to receive the gifts He brings. We are lost. We are empty, and emptied out. We are on the best possible place. We are now be open to having a Savior. This Savior brings with Him, Not peace, but Shalom. Shalom is something much more than peace. The wish for Shalom brings with it the following, hold out your emptiness so you can receive the following;

Completeness, wholeness, health, peace welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation and discord.

We think of peace just as the absence of war. The Shalom on The Risen Christ Is so much more than that. It is always there for us. Here is a little exercise I recommend. Take a look at that list. Then take a look at you life's journey. Now make a decision what as regards the particular gift you are in need of right now. As you stand under the shower let the running water be the reality of what you ache for. You will have to leave the shower at some point in time, but let that memory of the running water be a constant reminder of the deeper reality. That reality is GOD pouring down, you as constant stream, that gift you so desire. This constant stream will pore down on you each and every second of the day. I must remind you are in charge of the tap. God cannot take over your free will, He loves you too much. God will not turn that tap for you. I hope and pray you will love yourself enough to enjoy the......Shower........ Of..........Shalom.





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From Death to New Life

The Pascal Mystery transforms, transfigures and leads an always and 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 Pascal 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 Pascal 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 Pascal 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. Pascal 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 Pascal death and resurrected life."

Continuing on, in the same chapter entitled "The Spirituality of the Pascal 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 Pascal 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."

T....transformation....transfiguration

Last week we left off with the younger son, the rebellious one, back safe and secure, in the home of his prodigal Father. His dream for you and I, is to live a life that is grounded in the reality of His love. A love, that to the calculating eye, makes no sense. (Thank God, our God is like that.) This son has returned, not as hired hand, as he wanted to be, he has come back to his inheritance, as son. He did not earn it, actually, far from it. He did not deserve it, he was just given it. There is a little battle here. The son wanted to be as, "one of the hired hands",. Hired hands come and go, a son, has to remain. He has also the responsibility of growing up to be, a father. To be a responsible father to himself, and to future generations. What a wonder- full example that son had to model his fatherhood on. This goes for women as well. Women have to be responsible mothers to themselves ,first, then becoming healthy mothers, of the coming generations. All of what has been just written demands, a great deal of hard work. Giving birth to who we really are, is never easy. This birthing cannot happen, without grace. It is grace that calls us to this new reality. A reality that emerges from a place , and at a time we least expect. This birthing is a NEVER ending process.

So, the party is going on. A celebration, that is going on to celebrate the return of the son, safe and sound. A celebration, the father said "has to happen". He had no choice but to celebrate. Because of this, there is one very unhappy camper-the eldest son. Brother of the rebellious one. Up until now he has been the hardworking, obedient one. That is up to now. Now when he sees what has happened, he goes ballistic on the father. He is so caught up in his anger and resentment he does not address him as father. He does not recognize
his relationship with his brother. He calls him "that son of yours". The father must have been taken aback by the appearance of this aspect of this son, who up to now, appeared so respectful. He now appears to be full of anger and resentment. He will not go into the party. His resentment is preventing him from joining the celebration. How sad that picture is. The standoff between the father who is celebrating, and the son standing there, seemingly unmoved by what has transpired. There we have the confrontation, between thanksgiving, gratitude, and resentment. The battle that rages in your soul, and mine. These two realities cannot coexist. They are mutually exclusive. We have to make the decision, are we going with the desire to be the prodigal mother/ father, or are we going to live out our lives in resentment. We have the choice of showing compassion to the rebellious, just like the father, or turn our backs and live our lives in isolation.

John'O Donohue has written the following, in his great classic 'ANAM CARA",

"To the resentful eye, everything is begrudged. People who allowed the canker of resentment into their vision can never enjoy who they are or what they have. They are always looking outward others with resentment. Perhaps they are resentful because they see others as more beautiful, more gifted, or richer than themselves. The resentful eye lives out of its own inner poverty and forgets its own inner harvest."

In order to enter the great celebration of, death and resurrection, let us bring both the rebellious, and the resentful parts of us to the reconciling love of our Prodigal Father. We die a little each time we acknowledge the fact this reconciliation is not the result of anything we can do. The reconciliation will come in God's time not in our time, nor unfortunately, according to our schedule. We will have to spend way more time with our rebellious and resentful selves that we really ever wanted to. (At least that is my experience.) This dying is a Paschal Death, bringing with it new life. With this new life comes the experience of a new freedom. A new vitality has entered our lives.

Again O'DONOHUE writes,

"When you awaken to your incredible freedom, the walls of your inner prisons gradually become the thresholds of your new life, your place of new growth".

This new life of real freedom, is God's Ashling, God's dream for you and I. His dream for you and I, is a live to be loved in His reality. "In Him we are to live and move and have our being”. Let us then entrust ourselves, without reservation, to the loving, compassionate embrace of our Prodigal Father. It is real scary to say "not my will, but your will be done". He will take us at our word.
Through the desert of our weakness, and our brokenness, we will be guided ever so gently, to that Promised land were all things, are being made new. In this new, and unfamiliar land we are in the process of becoming, one. We are in the process of becoming, whole. We are in the process of becoming, holy. Yes, it is a painful process. Yes, we enter this experience of dying and rising again and again (Lent is every year). Each time we experience the abandonment at an ever deepening level. We will cry out from a different place , "my God, my God why have toy abandoned me". We enter the fullness of our participation in the dying and rising slowly. We have to gradually prepare for the ongoing immersion into the Paschal Mystery. We must also be prepared for a deepening of the celebration, and all that comes with that. The peace, joy, and love that is beyond our expectation, and our ability to understand. There is a radical
transformation, and transfiguration taking place in us. What that is, is none of our business. Ours is to enjoy, to celebrate, and so fulfill Our God's fondest dream for you and I. We are to be the ongoing, living, breathing, contemporary reality of His BELOVED son, Jesus, who is the Christ.

R...Radical Change

To those who are new to this blog, we are now in the second year. In an effort to not repeat myself, (which as you know, I do real
Well), I am going to ask you to please go back and reread the blogs of this time last year. That would be the weeks beginning March 4th, 2009.

During this season of Lent, we are made very much aware of three realities. The reality of sin, the reality of God's compassion, and our need for ongoing conversion. Many times we get so caught up in the sin part, we do not focus enough on the compassion part. We are so inclined to believe the bad, and fight the good about ourselves, and the duty of our deepest reality. I like that saying, "God help me to believe the truth about myself, no matter how BEAUTIFUL it is."

The wonder-full, beauty-full, mysterious compassion of our God is constantly being revealed to us. This revelation takes place in our ongoing, deepening understanding of who our God really is. This reality is revealed to us, in the person of Jesus Christ. He is the enfleshment of the compassion of God. He came to reveal, to model for us, the real compassion, which will confront our imagined concepts of the same. These will always sell God short. Nobody can forgive us the way our God forgives. His is, an infinite Compassion, and Forgiveness. The experience we have of the forgiveness of others, no matter how good it is, is still limited. God's compassion is unlimited, unrestricted, unconditioned and infinite. Jesus having assumed our humanity, was able, through His mission and ministry, to encounter real people, in real human experiences. In that encounter was able to reveal the mystery of God's unconditioned love for us. He met the people as they were, doing what was their lot in life. They were greeted with no judgment, no condition. "You are who you are, and I love you. Will you allow Me to love you?”. This to my mind was the approach of Jesus, and nothing has changed in the meantime. That was his approach to The Samaritan Woman, to the woman caught in adultery, to Zacchaeus (up a tree), and Levi collecting taxes. All were, in the minds of the many, people to be condemned, avoided, and shunned. Jesus, as the mind and heart of God, sees the essential goodness. As it was, so it is, with you and I. Thank God we have those consoling words of scripture, "not as man sees does God see, because man see the appearance but God looks into the heart." When he looks into our hearts, all he sees is the indwelling of His family, the Holy Trinity. In that loving gaze, into our hearts, all our God sees is, LOVE.

Fr.. Rohr points out this amazing fact, 75% of the parables of Jesus were all about mercy and compassion. And people say I repeat myself?.
My favorite, it the Parable of The Prodigal Father. In that gospel we meet THREE people we encounter each and every moment of our spiritual journey. They are present in each and every one of us. It has been pointed out, the younger son, the rebellious one, is us in the first half of life. The resentful one is you and I, in the second half of life. We as the prodigal father/mother must grow in our unconditioned love of both. We must grow in reconciliation with both so we can life a fuller, and a more joyful life. This reconciliation process involves a change.

Change. Who likes change? We all like certainty, we all like the familiar. To change, we have to let go of something, and wait for, as of yet, the unknown. That is what Paschal death is all about. That is why we celebrate that reality year after year, because it is our reality day after day, moment after moment -The change, the new life that comes to us, from death and loss. There are times we have to take responsibility for the death, and or loss. Other times we are caught up in the reality of life, and the pain that life brings with it.

The rebellious son, brings it on himself. In a desire to after an apparent good, he brings hurt to his family. When he asks his father for his inheritance. What he is actually saying is, "I cannot wait for you to die to get the money coming to me, so i want it now". Wrong, he had no right to the money. It was the fathers’ to give, after his death. The prodigal father gives him the money. Off goes the son. Away from his home, to a far off land. He leaves home. He turns his back on the place where he was the beloved, and all that it meant to be the beloved. We, too, leave that place where we call home. As we are caught up in those voices that trumpet, oh so loudly, the praises of power, popularity, pleasure, and prestige, we leave home. Henri Nouwen points out, anger, resentment, jealousy, desire for revenge, lust, greed, antagonisms, and rivalries are obvious signs we have left home. He goes on to say that happens quite easily. Rather than focusing on being the beloved, I can be caught up in finding myself brooding about someone else's success, my own loneliness. I can catch myself daydreaming about becoming rich and famous. I get caught up in the fear of not being liked, blamed, put aside, passed over, ignored, persecuted, and killed. This will lead to constantly developing strategies to defend myself and thereby assure myself of the love I need and deserve. With that frame of mind we are in deep doo-doo. We are deep, in the manure of the pig sty. When all seems to be lost, it is then things begin to change.

The gospel say the rebellious one, "coming to his senses", came to remember the truth about who he really was and where he came from. In that moment of conversion, he was on the way BACK, to where his true home lay. [That is what conversion is….turning around and going the opposite direction.] That memory of the place where he was the beloved, started him on the journey homeward. As it is so easy for us to leave home we need to constantly be vigilant of where our thoughts are, and where they are leading us to. Lent is the season when we are asked to face that which we allow, to force us from our true home. Lent affords the opportunity to reclaim, who we are as the Beloved (son/daughter). Lent provides the great opportunity to rethink what is of lasting value, rather than concentrating on that what is of its nature , transitory.

It is in our pig sties, our Good Shepherd finds us, or can I say, catches up with us. In that pig sty we are weak, hungry, and discouraged. We are lost in our guilt, fear and shame. In that place of “lostness”, we are found. Our GOOD Shepherd gently lifts us out of that place of torment, places us on his strong shoulders and carries us home. On that journey home, we come to realize, the Good Shepherd is not only the one who carries us home, he is FOOD for the journey as well. How generous our God is. In that return journey, there is a radical change brought about, by grace. We come to realize and gradual accept, we are never lost. There is no place, where our God cannot find us. There is no limit to His compassion, His love, His forgiveness, or His relentless search for us. The only limit, is the limit, that we impose. Let us look deep inside, and honestly accept that part we shun, avoid, condemn, and persecute. We have created our own pig sty. We must invite the Good Shepherd to come and work the miracle of his reconciling, transforming love.

"Out of the depths I cry, I cry to you O Lord, Lord hear my cry",
"A humbled and broken heart you will not spurn",
"As far as the east is from the west so far have your sins been placed behind you"

Next week….. "The tough one"

E...Effects

"God of all compassion, Father of all goodness....when weakness causes discouragement, let Your compassion fill us with Hope.....lead to the beauty of Easter joy. Let us keep that in mind, we are praying for Easter joy. That is a particular joy which comes, from us being immersed in the Paschal Mystery. We enter Easter joy, as we leave behind the suffering, and death of the false self. This is a real crucifixion. A crucifixion, where we join The Crucified One, as He went from 'My God my God why have you abandoned me" to “Father into your hands I commit my spirit.” There is no Easter joy apart from that journey with the suffering, historical Jesus. That is how the historical Jesus became the Christ of God. We cannot become Christian, unless we follow Him, whom we have been called to be, to that place of suffering, and death. This suffering like all suffering, is a mystery.

This mystery has a name, it is called the Paschal Mystery. It is an essential part of us, who are called Christian. This is what Our Baptism call really means for us, on a daily basis. It is only on a daily basis we can enter into and gradually understand this mystery. This will lead us to gain a personal insight as to how we are living out this mystery. You have heard the saying "Life is not a problem to be solved, it is a mystery to be lived". This why we have Lent. This mystery is so vast, and personal, we spend 40 days (LENT) preparing ourselves to celebrate the Paschal mystery. We will take three full days to celebrate [Tridium]. Then we will have another 50 days to come to a new, and more life-giving understanding, as how we encounter that reality, in the reality of our everyday living.

The Paschal Mystery is about death, dying, and entering NEW life. In is not the same as terminal, death. In terminal death, there is death, once, forever. Paschal death, on the other hand is a death we enter again, and again. The pain goes deeper, and the new life we are led to becomes more and more joyous, not necessarily happier. That sounds weird? I have had a great deal of trouble becoming reconciled with that one. I have come to the belief, that it is true. All our pain and suffering, is actually the suffering of Christ, within you and I. Our God suffers in us, through us, and with us. We NEVER suffer alone. We may think it, we may feel it, but at our deepest reality, it is God and us who are doing the suffering. The suffering of the MAN-GOD, led to a new life so our association with Him, and our participation with Him leads us also to a new and transformed life. The pain of death gives way to new life. The pain is not really a death pain it is a life giving pain. It is the birthing pain of you and I, as we enter into the reality of who we really are, in God's plan. This is the pain of the desert journey. The pain of the desert journey leads to the far greater pain of Gethsemane. It was there that Jesus in His loneliness and fear asks that the chalice he will have to drink of, would be taken from Him. We were there in that suffering. We were also present in His body in the excruciating pain of the abandonment of the cross. We were there in His body, so now as we continue the suffering of Christ as His body, He suffers with us. Where He was, we are, where we are so He is. Mystery, to be not understood, but entered into with reverence.

The prayer of this week provides us with the strengthening hope necessary for this journey. Our journey into death, dying, and rising to new life in and with our Savior, Jesus Christ. For me, this is one of the greatest prayers of the whole year. Type it out, and place it in a place you can see it on a daily basis. Say it and reflect on it each and every day. Why? Because it is in our everyday living we constantly encounter the reality of the mystery, so it is each and every day we need this great reassuring gift.

"May our faith, hope, and love, turn
Hatred to love, conflict to peace,
death to eternal life.

This then is the other, "E", of desert. This “E” stands for EFFECTS. Our desert journey brings about, a radical change within you and I. It is a real encounter, with all that it means to be a limited human being, in the crucible, of our every day living. This can and does, when allowed, bring to you and I a peace which is beyond all understanding. We are led through the many deaths, we endure in our daily living, to the real life of our union with Christ. This life reveals a new light into the sacramentality of every moment. This daily encounter with the sacred in each and every person place and event (sacrament) will bring home to us, the great love our God has for us. This love will come to us, not in the people, or places we expect, but in the persons and places we least expect. The Spirit of The RISEN blows where it wills, and we will gradually, and oh so gradually, come to see and accept that reality.

S... Selfishness...Self-centeredness

“Let us pray for confidence in the love of God and the strength to overcome all our weakness. Father, you have taught us to overcome our sins by prayer, fasting, and works of mercy. When we are discouraged by our weakness, give us confidence in your love.”

This is the opening prayer of this weekend's Mass. How appropriate for this time of Lent when we will be led, by the scriptures, to face the fact that all of us, yes, all of us, are sinners. We have sinned and will in the future sin, again and again. We are in constant need of conversion, and renewal. That is why we have this season of Lent, every year. In Arizona, we have that rite of Spring-Spring Training. Is it because the players have forgotten how to play the game? Of course not. This is the opportunity to get back to basics and practice them again, again, and again, until they become automatic. Then in the heat of a pressure game, they do not have to think of what to do, it comes automatically. That triple play is practiced over and over. We, in the spiritual life, have a triple play as well, it is called prayer, fasting, and alms giving. This triple play is given to us so when we will face the triple threat of "the toxic trinity" (guilt, fear, and shame), we will not have to think, we will have the inner strength, to respond in a spiritually healthy way. In prayer, we will be led, by grace, to an ever-deepening belief that we are the beloved. Nothing that we can or will do, can change that reality. This is a gift that is offered to us, let us pray for the acceptance of that gift. It is in this acceptance our lives have changed by God’s grace not by us.

Lent leads us beyond the guilt, fear, and shame of our sins. We will be led from discouragement to the confidence in the prodigal, extravagant, reckless love our gracious God has for you and I. That is a choice we have to make, not each and every day, no, that choice is made each and every MOMENT. Yes, each and every, NOW moment we are going to be life-givers to ourselves, and a consequence to others. We can also, by our now decisions, be death-dealers to ourselves, and others. We will always see others through the lens of our reality, just as others do not see or cannot see us, except through their reality.
That is very freeing. This brings to the Question, through what lens does God see us? I go back to this prayer of Thomas Merton again, and again;

“Oh great God, Father of all, Whose infinite light is darkness to me, Whose immensity is to me as the void, You have called me forth out of Yourself because you love me in Yourself, and I am a transient expression of Your inexhaustible and eternal reality. If I could not know You, I would be lost in this darkness, I would fall away from You into this void and if You did not hold me to Yourself in the Heart Your only begotten son. Father I love You whom I do not know, and I embrace You whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You…because Your love in me Your only begotten son. You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which has brought Him to death, for me, on the cross…You have willed to see me only in Him, but in willing this You have willed to see me more really as I am for the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self You have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted for myself. And, I no longer want this false self. But now Father, I come to You in your Son’s self for it is in His Sacred Heart that He has taken possession of me and destroyed my sins and it is He who presents me to you. And where? In the sanctuary of His own Heart.?”

That prayer is, for me, a great source of hope and encouragement as I face those tough, confronting words of,1JOHN:8,10,
" If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us...If we say we have not sinned, we make HIM a liar, and His Word is not in us.”

In Lent, we also pray this prayer, “We are to master our sinfulness and conquer our pride". Easier said than done. During our Lenten journey, we have to face the facts that we are selfish and self-centered. We are caught up in what the "I" wants, rather than what God wants for us, and from us. Sin is saying "NO" to God's love and yes to the love of self, which is opposed, and in conflict with God's love for us. We get caught up in control, comparison, and competition, and lose sight of the fact that which is essential, is FREE. This is the "S" of DESERT. It is a real encounter with our powerlessness to do anything that is good. We ALWAYS need grace, and apart from grace nothing of any spiritual value can be accomplished by us. The ONLY thing we have to offer to God, which is all of our own doing is, our sins. This is hard to accept. Acceptance is essential for spiritual growth.
Peter van Breemen writes the following,

"A life without acceptance is a life in which the most basic human need goes unfulfilled. Acceptance means that though there is need for growth I am not forced. I do not have to be the person I am not. Acceptance liberates everything that is in me. Only when I am loved in that deep sense of complete acceptance can I really be myself."

For myself, I do not find acceptance very easy. For me, acceptance can be summed up in my accepting of the fact that I am not accepting, and, that will be on a good day! I have to grow in the acceptance of the unconditioned, unrestricted, unlimited love I am loved with as the beloved. Why? Because NO ONE PERSON in this life, no matter how they wish or how they try cannot make that happen. I will through grace, that mysterious love, of our LOVER GOD can become a deeper reality in our hearts, souls, minds. Henri Nouwen reminds us of what Christ is telling us;

"You have a home....I am your home..claim me as your home....I am where you are..in your innermost being...in your heart."

This then must be or Lenten focus. Not on our faults and failings, but on God's faithful love for us. Acceptance of this love will allow us to be at home. At home in our reality, so when the Lord comes and knocks, we are going to open the door of our soul to the Good Shepherd who has come to claim one of His lost sheep.

“The Lord IS my shepherd, I shall not want, I shall not fear, I will be lead to green pastures, where I will find rest.”

A peaceful rest which comes to me to me when I stop the struggling for power, property, and prestige and surrender to all that is offered, without cost, in that sacred place we call the, "right now'.

E...Encounter

Lent is a season of grace. In the season, we will be offered the grace we need to face, and name the lie. We will be given the strength to reject the lie, about face and follow the truth, no matter how difficult it is.
As someone once said, “the truth will set you free, but first, it will tee you off”. The truth will have to become bad news, before it can, under grace, become good news for us, as well as for others. The good news is ALWAYS given, to be shared. Life, God, will present us with the person, or persons, that needs that particular gift we have just been given. The ways of God are truly mysterious.

On our Lenten journey, we have to pay special attention to the commands, "You are to love your neighbor, as you love yourself”,
"love your enemy" [Jesus Chris], "kiss the leper within", St. Francis. On the desert journey we will discover parts of ourselves, we wish were not there. We will say, “how can something like that be really part of me?”. In the desert we will have to face, within us, every sin another can commit. Blessed Mother Teresa, discovered, above all people, Hitler, to be alive and well within her. What humility she had to have to, first of all - to admit, and then reveal, such a reality. William Johnson in one of his books, warns us as we journey within, we encounter within ourselves each any every sin another human being can commit. We are then led to pray with what one saint said "there go I, but for the grace of God”. This is real death and resurrection work. It is here, that the rubber really hits the road. This is where one of the great movements of the spiritual life takes place; we move from hostility to hospitality [the other two are from loneliness to solitude, illusion to prayer]. That is taken from Henri Nouwen’s book “REACHING OUT". This is a movement we will experience every day. We are destined not to stay in any one place.

When we are in one place, we have to say, “this too shall pass”, even when we are in the best place possible, we have to say “this too shall pass”. Remember on Mount Tabor, when St. Peter wanted to stay, Jesus says “O'K, this is good, but let’s move on”. This is a good time to remind ourselves, success teaches us NOTHING, about the deep realities, of the spiritual life. It is ALWAYS failure, that is our teacher. We are asked to be taught to reflect the understanding of death and resurrection in our daily lives and living. In order to understand, may I suggest a lens, through which to look at the "lenting", of our daily living. In other words, the "H...O...W" of Lent 2010.

H.....HONESTY...HOSTILITY.. HOSPITALITY.
The Lenten journey challenges us to honesty. Honesty, in some instances often leads to hostility. From the hostility, that can be engendered, we are to open ourselves up to the prodigal love, of our gracious Father. Through the mysterious movement of His grace and Love, we will be led across the threshold of guilt, fear, and shame, to the place where all things have been made new. This will be like a flash of lightening which lightens up the darkened sky, and blinds us because of its brilliance. That flash of lightening cannot be planned . It will come in our darkest hour, and at a time and in a place we least expect. God's ways are truly not our ways. Would it not be a lot easier if God would do it our way rather that His way?

O....OWN. . .OWNERSHIP.
The spiritual way demands of us that we take ownership of who we are, and what we doing or not doing. We have to embrace the place of rebellion. Painful, and humbling, though it may be. Correction is painful and humbling. "NO PAIN NO GAIN". It will lead to a new level of powerlessness, where all we can do, is cry out to That which is greater than us. Our Savior God and Father, as revealed in the Paschal Mystery of our fellow human being, Jesus. This Jesus became The Christ, only through His death and resurrection. We become an authentic Christian only when we follow in His footsteps.

W.....Welcome.
We slowly, and sometimes with a lot of fear and mistrust, welcome the love of God. This mysterious love is infinitely greater than any love we have experienced, or can imagine. This is particularly true when we are in a place of shame, loathing, and self rejection. Where there is no love, sow love, and we will find, not only love, but live, new life. Not only new life, but a life beyond our wildest dreams. This DOES NOT happen overnight. It is a long process. During this process, we can, and will, get discouraged. It is then that we truly know what powerlessness is. We are now ready for a Savior who will take our trembling hand in His pierced hand. Together we journey into the dawning light of a new day. This day, it is our experience of the resurrected life that is our destiny. AWE-FULL??????

I hope, and pray, these few words will encourage, strengthen, and console you, as you make your desert journey, this week. This week we will continue our encounter with the demons of our desert. That is the "E" of desert, for this year. In our desert, we experience our many demons. Three of the toughest to face are what I call the "the toxic trinity, namely; guilt, fear, and shame. They want, to it put very bluntly, to destroy you and I. They are death dealers, and life destroyers. There is NO life giving quality, about these deceivers. I addressed these three last year. So, if you are new to the blog, I would encourage you, no I beg you, to go back and slowly read what was written last year. These three, like all of our demons, are not to be faced alone. When these are faced alone, they chew us up and spit us out. These have to be brought to, and encountered in prayer. In isolation, we are powerless. In prayer, we are powered with the power of God. In this experience, we discover what Fr. Rohr preaches-the powerlessness of power and the power of powerlessness. When we encounter these demons in isolation, we will live our lives believing we are "less than", and "not good enough" to name just some of the lies we accept as truth. We will join the others who believe in the same lies. The result is a life, if you want to call it a life, that our God does not want us to lead or live. We have to choose to reject the lies of the "toxic trinity", so we can enjoy the joy-full, life giving, and life enhancing freedom, as the beloved daughter and son of our gracious Father.

This is another reminder of God's dream for you and I. That is- the Aisling of God we are invited to, are living out each day, when we so choose. As we make our Lenten journey, and are “Lented”, we will come to, in the words of Thomas Merton, “the center of our nothingness where, in apparent DESPAIR, one meets God -and is found completely in His mercy". That is pretty good, isn’t it???? Hold the phone…. it is going to get better. Merton also has this to say,

"At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is untouched by sin and illusion,
a point of pure truth, a point or spark which belongs entirely to God......this little point.......
is the pure glory of God in us....
It is like a pure diamond, blazing with the invisible light OF HEAVEN.
IT IS IN EVERYBODY"

D...Demanding...Disarming...Dismantling

We all have heard the expression, "be careful what you pray for, you may get it', well, that goes double for this weekend's opening prayer. We will pray

"Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son's death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives."

We must ALWAYS keep before us, the fact that, Lent is EVERY day. We must also remember that Easter is everyday as well. What we are doing during these days is just focusing deeper on, an everyday reality. We take 40 days to focus on a deeper level, that which is our reality 24/7. Each and every day, we, just like Jesus had to do, face the temptations that come with us being spiritual beings, having a human experience. These temptations come to us through the people, places, and events of our daily living. We cannot avoid temptation, all we are called to do is to say, "No". We must also remember temptation, is, NOT, a sin. [Our thoughts, feelings, emotions are not sin.] We are never alone in temptation, all our fellow human beings are going through the same struggle. It is great to know, that there is no one who is exempt, not even Jesus Himself. We all have to face the struggle that comes with encountering evil, disguised as apparent good. That is what sin is, the reaching out to the apparent good, only to find out, what the scriptures reminds of "angels of darkness, do appear as angels of light". We must always be cognoscente of the fact, we will NEVER do anything that at that MOMENT did not appear to us to be good. We have done things that five seconds later, “not a good decision:, five days later, “a bad decision”, five years later, “how could I have done something like that?”. We are all in the same boat, and through the mercy of God, it is not the Titanic!!! To help us make the right, and healthy decisions, we come with that, which when listened to, will always lead us in the right road. It is called conscience. We are obliged to have an informed conscience, that is one guided by The Truth, not what we would like it to be, but the real truth. It is formed in us, through the power of the Spirit of Truth. That formation, IS a life-long process. That same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead, is the same power we are offered to enable us to make healthy decisions, and so, make a good decision. The Holy Spirit is given to us as our guide, and Comforter.

A guide, can only be an effective guide, only when listened to, and his advice is followed. The season of Lent is given to us so we can take an honest look, that is an HONEST look at our lives. Honesty is tough. It is difficult to face. That is why we need enemies, they tell us, with great glee, I might add, what our friends will not tell us, but we need to hear. Honesty is tough, and disarming.
It takes away all illusions. It is essential for spiritual growth.

Thank God, it is progressive. What we can handle will be revealed to us, what would overwhelm us will be held back until a later time. How good our God is, and how merciful. In Lent we are asked to take a look at our lives, in a way most of us never do during the rest of the year. We are not only asked to take a look at our actions. We are also asked to do something which is really difficult, we must take a look at the MOTIVES, behind the actions, nasty. This honesty will challenge us to stop scapegoating others. We have to accept the fact that we cannot blame others for what are our actions. The classics are;

You make me angry.....
You make sad...
You make me drink...
You make me use drugs..
You make me gamble..
You made me have an affair..

That list goes on and on. Also "you made me do…" has to go as well. As I said, honesty is tough, disarming and dismantling. Honesty reveals to you and I, a nakedness we would prefer not to look at. We see how Jesus was also stripped naked and then was crucified. We have to look at ourselves through the new lens of honesty and come to admit we have been looking for love in all the wrong places. There must be a change. The great challenge is to accept the fact that we do NOT choose the change, it is the Holy Spirit who will lead us to our unique way of renewal, repentance, and conversion. So there is no need to check what others are doing for Lent, they are not you. The Holy Spirit is meeting them, and working with them in their own reality. We all need to be converted.

Conversion means turning around, yes, make a U-EE. God loves people that make U-EES. We turn around from the direction we are headed. We begin the great journey, the great quest, to discover what we have been looking for on the outside, has all the time been hidden inside of us. This reality has been waiting to be discovered, and wait for this, to be loved by us into existence. Real happiness, comes to us when we respond to the courage given, and admit to the lie we have been believing and living. We stop buying into someone else’s lie, and, yes, even to the point of risking losing them out of our lives. Then we will know, "a new freedom and a new happiness”. It will be a happiness we will not be able to explain, so do not waste the energy. What you can do, is enjoy and celebrate so that others will see and be drawn to the source, Our heavenly Father.

“There is a beauty that has suffered its way through the ache of desolation until the words are music emerged to equal the hunger and desperation of the human heart.” John O’Donohue

“Through love and prayer are learned in the now when prayer becomes impossible and your heart turns to stone.” Thomas Merton

D...E...S...E...R...T

"How blest are the poor in spirit for there is the Kingdom of Heaven", Matthew. "Blessed are you poor; the reign of God IS yours", Luke.
Wednesday will be Ash Wednesday. The beginning of Lent. Lent brings with it, the invitation to again join Jesus on His journey into the desert, so that when we find ourselves in our desert experience, there find we WILL find Jesus journeying with us. We will find in the person of Jesus Christ, both a companion, and a shepherd. On reflection we will come to see, that it is within the desert journey the strength of The Good Shepherd, is really revealed to you, and I. He, because of His desert experience, will and does accompany us, on our journey. He will not only be the companion we so desperately need, He will be our guide, and strengthening presence. We will enter the desert again, and again, on this our human experience as spiritual beings. We must remember there is never anything in the spiritual life once forever. How I wish that was not so!

From my many hikes and personal journeys in the desert, the following thoughts have bubbled up. I now see that word broken down as follows.
D....demanding....disarming....dismantling
E....encounter
S... selfishness...self-centeredness
E....effecting in
R....radical
T....transformation....transfiguration.

"God makes ALL things work together for good"????

This then, is how I have come to see, and believe what the desert is all about. Jesus was led, according to one writer, he was driven into the desert according to another author, what is important, He ended up in the desert. His ancestors in faith, who are our ancestors in faith as well, were led into the desert. They were led into the desert, on their way out of slavery, into the freedom of the promised land. We must always keep before ourselves that sequence of
events. God's own chosen people were in slavery. In order to be freed from that state, where there was some, and only some security, they had to do what? They had to leave that state and enter the insecurity, and uncertainty of the wilderness. This led them to many trials, and temptations. The desert wilderness was for them, as it is for us, a place, and a process of purgation, and purification. A process which led them ultimately, to an ever deepening belief, and understanding of who they were as The Chosen People of God. I have read that some authors look at the desert journey, as a courting effort on the part of God. What a courting that turned out to be. Then Shakespeare says, 'all is well that ends well".

The journey of the chosen people of the Old Covenant, is now the journey of us who are the chosen people on the new covenant of grace.
We are Always on some part of the journey. On the journey, we will either find ourselves in the slavery of sin, or journeying in the desert, or enjoying the promises of the promised land. Again and again we encounter the different aspects of the original journey. Because of our humanity, we have to be reminded again and again, of all the different, and somewhat difficult aspects of what is our present day journey, from slavery, to the desert, to the promised land.

Lent 2010 will become our first Lenten journey as we are today. We will journey through familiar places, mysteriously for the first time. There will be feelings of consolation and desolation, comfort and discomfort, security and anxiety, as we are guided through a landscape, "so ancient and so new". Through all of this we will have that carrot of the scriptures held out ever before us, how blessed are the poor in spirit, the kingdom of God is yours now. The promised land is in the here and now. We for our part must have, or develop an attitude which will empower us to make this Lent ,not only our first Lent but our most meaningful one. We are going to enter again the Paschal Mystery, to become enlightened, enlivened, radically changed, resulting in each one being transformed, and transfigured, into a more authentic presence of the Risen Christ. This is who we are called to be.

Next week, we have a look at the attitude we must allow ourselves to adopt for a meaningful yet uncomfortable Lenten journey. Warning...letting go, is NOT easy.!!!!

Good News...Bad News...Good News...

This year, we will become aware of the fact, that the Gospel readings will be taken mainly from the writings of St. Luke. What a gift, what a blessing, this is going to be for us who are broken, bruised, and weakened from our human experience as spiritual beings. The Gospel of Luke is also called the Gospel of the poor. Looking at this Gospel, through the lens of our brokenness and poverty, will offer to you and I great hope and consolation. It will enlighten and enliven the spirit within us. That is why it is also called the Gospel of the Holy Spirit. Gospel, means good news, right? There is a snag to that, and here it is . You see “the good news has to become bad news before it can become good news”.
Eugene LaVerdiere has this to say in his book on the Gospel of Luke, (The book is called "Luke").

“Luke’s narrative of the story of Jesus can be summarized as a human life and the message of the son of God. In view of the disciples association with Jesus, it can also be seen as a human life and message of those who share in His divine friendship.”

The message, and the ministry, of Jesus Christ, can best be summed up in the words of Jesus Himself, which are found in the fourth chapter
of Luke. This is how The Jesus of Luke, describes His mission and ministry "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recover of sight for the blind, to let the oppressed go free." You and I then have the same mission. We are called to the vocation of being that presence, which He has described. A tall order, for us ALONE , yes, but we are not alone. We have within us, the same Spirit, who descended on Jesus at the Jordan, and raised Him from the dead . That is what it means to be Baptized.

We may well ask the question, “where do I have to go to find that poor person, the prisoner in captivity, that person who needs sight to really see reality, and lastly the oppressed one aching for freedom?”. You and I have to look no further than the mirror. That person, who so desperately needs to hear the good news is both waiting on, and wanting the Good news, is within you and I. We have to begin our ministry to the suffering one, that is the suffering Christ, within ourselves first. We then will be able to be an authentic presence of Him, who has called and chosen us for this vocation from all of eternity. This is who we are, who we have been called to be, and now it is time to acknowledge who has done the calling. On reflection, this reality makes each one of us, someone very special, in God's universal plan.

Last, but in no way least, what we do to the poor one, we are doing it for Christ, The Christ within, check Matt 25. As we are led deeper within ourselves, and there is no result until we go deep, (this week’s Gospel) we will be led to an encounter with the good news . This is the Good News, you are loved as you are, no questions are asked. It is not only you who is suffering, Christ has joined you, and IS suffering within you, through you, and with you. So, then the opening prayer of this week’s Mass is really true, "no tear goes unheeded'. Why that is so simple! When you cry, Christ cries in you and with you. How can God not pay attention to the cries and tears of His beloved Son.

The bad news is, there will always be some part of ourselves, we will find it hard and difficult, to bring the good news to. Why? As I reach out in compassionate understanding I am tacitly accepting what I have up to now, that is rejected or denied. From this place we pray "out of the depths of my fear, anger and shame I cry out you my Savior God. I alone cannot face this part of me, I need your grace, I need your help to discover the reality of you within this place of me". The secret place is now exposed, and merciful love, now begins to flow. The threshold into freedom has been crossed. We are now the incarnation of the good news in this. So then, we now have the experience of good news becoming bad news so it can become good news.

“We are as sick as we are secret.” [John Barryman]

"Where there is no love, sew love, and, you will find love." [St. John of the Cross]

Our Weakness...God's Opportunity

This is the continuation of the reflection of the opening prayer, of the Third Sunday Of Ordinary Time, begun last week. This week, we pick up the prayer, was we pray,

"So that the limits of our faults and weaknesses may not obscure the vision of Your Glory or keep us from the peace you have promised."

Our Father-God is Always faithful to His promises. God never reneges on His promises. We as human beings, on the other hand, come up short again and again. We are told what we have in our everyday experience that is what we have with God, we therefore expect God to do the same. He cannot. God has to be forever faithful to his promises, because He has to be faithful to Himself. We are His Beloved forever, and, for always. We are His 'delight', and nothing we can ever do, will be able to change that. We may forget, or better, we will forget who we are. God can never forget who He is, and who we are, in His love. The scriptures are given to us, to remind us remind of the fact, "it is not that I love God but that he loves me, it is not that I give love, but that I accept it. We then, need to be reminded, again and again, our faults and weaknesses not only do not get in the way of God's love for us, they actually reveal how deep and mind-blowing that love is. Yes, indeed it is, mystery. Each and every time we are drawn into the mystery of our God's gracious love and mercy, we are further enlightened, and enlivened, for the continuation of the journey. We are forced to ask the question, "can it really be this good?" The answer is "yes", and what is more amazing, it is better than we can ever imagine. That is the reason I like to repeat, over and over the great words of Henri Nouwen:

"God's mercy is greater than our sins. There is an awareness of sin that does not lead to God but to self-pre-occupation. Our temptation is to be so impressed by our sins and failings and so overwhelmed by our lack of generosity that we get stuck in a paralyzing guilt. It is the guilt that says: "I am too sinful to deserve God's mercy." It is the guilt that leads to introspection instead of directing our eyes to God. It is the guilt that has become an idol and therefore a form of pride. Lent is the time to break down this idol and to direct our attention to our loving Lord. The question is: "Are we like Judas, who was so overcome by his sin that he could not
believe in God's mercy any longer and hanged himself, or are we like Peter who returned to his Lord with repentance and cried bitterly for his sins? "The season of Lent, during which winter and spring struggle with each other for dominance, helps us in a special way to cry out for God's mercy."

So then, our sins, faults, and apparent weaknesses are actually the
opportunities we afford God to be the God Jesus Christ came to reveal to us. Our God has a great love for us. A love we will never realize until and unless we begin to grow in the acceptance of our faults and weaknesses. A love that is freely offered, and a love that waits to be accepted. Is it always accepted? I am sorry to say, no. We make the mistake of keeping our eyes on the sin , fault, weakness, and never lift our eyes to the merciful, compassionate gaze of our Lover.

New Freedom...Deeper Happiness

The opening prayer of this weekend's Mass, can be seen as the continuation of the thought of the opening prayer of last week's celebration. Last week's prayer was an expression in the belief, as all prayer is, "that even the tension and tragedies of sin cannot frustrate the loving plans of our Father God". (We must always remember our God ONLY has loving plans for you and I. Because of the nature of God, because of who He is, it cannot be otherwise). This week, that thought is taken further. This week we express our belief in the fact that the love our Father God offers to us always, that is ALWAYS, exceeds the furthest expression of our human longing. Why is this so?

Because our God IS greater than our human heart. Yes, that is a fact, a reality, we must always keep before us, and never lose sight of. Easy to say, but so hard to do. Whatever we think, whatever we say, whatever we feel, even whatever we know, is NOT God. God is always more.

"Direct each thought, each effort of our lives.." This is where the Holy Spirit comes in. The Holy Spirit will give us the strength, the guidance, to make good decisions, to do good deeds, but will not do the action for us. God's love for us is so great we are always free to say yes or to say no. God is...

G...good,
O...orderly,
D...direction,

Yet we are always free to respond, with or "yes" or "no", otherwise we are not human. We then will have to do the footwork, we will have to put forth the effort, but in the long run we want God to be God. We will have to surrender to the good orderly direction, and so become who Our God has chosen us to be from all of eternity, the co-creators ,and co-perfectors of His creation. What a dignity has been bestowed on us. In order to fulfill our vocation we will have to make good healthy decisions, for ourselves first, so we can have healthy relationships with those who share our journey. Last, but in no way least, we must have a healthy respect and reverence for the creation we are privileged to be the guests of. That is right, "we have not here a lasting city", this is our temporary home. Just because it our temporary home, this does not afford us the right to trash, use, and abuse it. WE must keep before us this is going to be the dwelling place of our Beloved sisters and brothers, yet to be born. In spite of our best efforts, and our best intentions we come up short again, and again. You and I will be found wanting. Around the 30 year mark we have to face some difficult home truths. We are not the best at anything. To make matters worse, all of our plans have either come up short, or have not worked at all. That is GREAT, (spiritually speaking) because we are forced to accept ourselves as regular human beings, and in doing so, discover for ourselves a Savior. A Savior who was ever and always present, but never called on, or welcomed into our daily living. That has to change.

The change begins, in our 30s. It is then we wake up to the fact our plans have not worked out the way we expected them to work out. We can become angry and resentful, as the result of our expectations. They are after all just PLANNED resentments. Is that the only choice we have ? Thank God it is not. We have another choice to make. This choice, I have to warn you, is not made without a great deal of struggle. That is why this choice is the result of grace, not human effort. Through the journey of the 30s we are GENTLY lead, to the realization we are after all, what God intended us to be, wait for it, spiritual beings having a human experience. We will slowly come to this acceptance, and so be lead to a new and deeper freedom, enjoying a level of happiness we never thought was possible. God's way is definitely, not our way, and our way is not His way until there is that great change of heart, we call conversion. Conversion is, a new way of looking at the same reality. Our new vision comes to us through the lens of God's love, revealed to us through the life, mission, and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of God's love, within the human condition. He has come to set the captive in each one of us free. This will not happen without our help, permission and
cooperation.

Here are the questions we all need to face:

What is the part of us we have placed in prison?
What is the part, you and I are punishing?
What is the part that is hidden away in the prison of guilt, and shame?
It is to that part of us, to that person in each one of us, to that place in each one of us that the Jesus Christ, of Luke's Gospel, is speaking to this weekend. Not only this weekend, but each and any every moment we, as spiritual beings continue on our journey within the human condition.

Next week will be a continuation of the reflection on the prayer, as we deal with so called human faults, and weaknesses.

"In my deepest wounds, I see your glory and it dazzles me." St. Augustine.

A dreamer's journey continues.......

Our First Love...

Whether we want to call it, two thousand and ten, or twenty ten, a new decade, and a new year, is here for both you, and I. We will make the choice, again and again, each day to live, to celebrate this new time given to us. We will make this new time, Kairos time. We will learn to live life , not just survive life. Pope John 23rd, once said "We are not on earth as museum keepers, but to cultivate a flourishing garden"

That which will help us cultivate a colorful, vibrant, vital, verdant
garden, is a positive response to the council of Henri Nouwen, that we claim this fact, again, again, and again, "I am the beloved". Yes, this very simple practice IS, life changing. Then in time, you will find yourself being led to the understanding, that love is not just, an idea, or concept, rather love becomes for us a 'lived experience'.

Nouwen prays as following, "O,Lord....We can only love each other because you have loved us first. Let us know that first love so we can see all human love as a reflection of a greater love, a love without condition or limitation." (Our first LOVE)

The great challenge for us then, is to love as we have been loved. IN this we always are coming up short, we are not divine, we are human, and by nature limited. To love as we have first been loved, we must be connected to that FIRST LOVE. That is why we have the sacraments of Word & Eucharist and Reconciliation.(Confession). These sacraments are offered to us, so we can have life, and have it to the fullest. When we either avoid, or deny ourselves this Source of Life we should not be surprised, when we find our lives empty, disconnected, and lifeless. We are now left to depend on second love, which by it's very nature cannot do what The First Love has already done.The memory of The First Love is always with us. It cannot be replaced, no matter how hard we may try. To expect that to happen, is, to court disaster. We all have gone down that path, and the result is addiction, alienation, discouragement, and entrance into many, many other places of darkness.

This can look and sound very bleak?? Yes!! It does. This is where the great gift of faith comes in. You see we have to learn, and what a difficult thing it is to learn, faith IS not faith until and unless it is the only thing we have to hang on to. This brings me to the opening prayer of this, the second week in Ordinary time. What great encouragement, what great hope, what great strength is offered to you and I, in these words.

'Almighty and ever present Father, your watchful care reaches from end to end and orders all things in such power that even the tensions the tragedies of sin CANNOT FRUSTRATE your loving plan. Help us to embrace your will, give us the strength to follow your call, so that YOUR truth may live in our hearts and reflect peace to those who believe in your love.'

The tragedy of Haiti is so present before us. These, our suffering sisters and brothers, must be uppermost in our thoughts, and in our prayers. We must also bring to prayer the parts of our world that have crumbled, or are beginning to crumble.
God does NNNOOOTTT intend this to happen. What will He do? He will take the rubble of our lives, and through His power, and our cooperation, give to us things we could never imagine. Okay, let us all say together,

I, BELIEVE LORD, HELP MY DISBELIEF.

The dreamer's journey continues....

From Fall --- to Beloved

Did you by any chance see last Sunday's Family Circus ? It was really great, actually it was wonder-full. It was not only a great cartoon, but within the pictures presented, there was, both hidden and revealed, one of the essential messages of the spiritual life. A message once accepted and believed in, changes our whole outlook on life. It is a belief we grow into over time. It is a belief we are never too young, or too old, to learn, and begin to PRACTICE. The cartoon begins with a little girl falling and hitting her chin on the ground. There is a look of amazement on her face as she looks around. (Which one of us is not surprised when we take a fall?) There is no one around so she gets up and heads out. There is a little bit of speed indicated here. She reaches home, goes in the door, looks around the kitchen, again there is no one there. She then heads up the stairs. She rushes into the bedroom, where her mother is making the bed. The little girl, with OPEN ARMS reaches out to her mother. The final picture is priceless. We see the mother bending down to the child's level. We see a great look of concern on her face, as she
reaches out to place one of her arms around her child. What happens next ? Well it is then, and ONLY THEN, that the child let loose her great big howl!!!!!!! What a picture to treasure. How many times have we been in that same situation, in that same reality? What has been the lesson, what has been the gift received from "the fall'???

That last picture also describes our understanding of God, because of His incarnation. In the incarnation, God becoming human, God has come down to our level, the fully human level. He has done so, so we will always be able to experience His constant presence, so we can experience the constant hugging of our God. Our God has taken up residence, and has made His residence in our humanity. So, when we come home to what it means to be truly human, there our God is waiting to embrace us.

To my mind's eye, those series of cartoon pictures captures a reality, which is essential for us to have, so, we in turn can have a healthy spirituality. As human beings, we fall again and again. Falling, and failing IS part and parcel, of our human experience. In many, and various ways we encounter the great pain that accompanies failure. What is essential for us is to have a place where we feel warm, safe, and secure. A sanctuary, as it were, where we can express our sorrow, shed our tears. We all are in deep need of that place where we receive the welcoming embrace, the caring arm around our shoulder, and if you are not an affects person, you are reached out to with a reassuring, strong hand. Such a place is essential for you, and I for our spiritual, and psychological health. We each must have that place, we must have that person, that sanctuary, where we are embraced in our
tears, and fears, without question, restriction, or reservation. It is okay that you are hurting, and in that hurting place you are received without condition. In that warm embrace we can cry some more. Many times it is ONLY within the secure embrace, can we too, like the little girl of the cartoon, really begin to howl. What relief there is. It is okay to be sad, angry, disappointed, teed off, (to put it
politely), and there is no one to say "you should not feel that way". Instead you receive the message, you are not alone, you are here, you are safe, and above all, you are loved. You are loved as you are right now. You are not a stranger, an alien, rather you are loved as you are and where you are at. In other words you are the BELOVED, His beloved. We are always asked to remember, it is not about how we see or feel about God, rather it is about how GOD, sees us and feels, about us, they will never be the same. We will ALWAYS sell God short. As Saint John says" it is not about us loving God, it is about God loving us. It is NOT about giving love, it is about RECEIVING love. The beloved does not earn, deserve, or qualify for the love of the BELOVED, all that can be done is, SURRENDER to the loved offered. A lifelong process.

So I ask you to again visit last week's blog ,and reread the second last paragraph. Read it SLOWLY, LET it sink deep down into the depths. When you are finished, then, and only then read the following:

"Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper. I have been doing a lot of digging lately and I know that I am just beginning to see a little stream bubbling up through the dry sand. I have to keep digging because that little stream comes from a huge reservoir beneath the desert of my life." -Henry Nowen

The Gift of Homeless Child

Christmas Day has come and gone. Well not completely gone. Some of us are carrying around an extra pound or two, as a result of the festivities which accompany the celebration of the birth of The God-man. We celebrate, and now continue to celebrate, that fact that Love became a human being. He became like us in all things, except sin. In this wonderful mystery of Love becoming human, we come to realize, our first love has caught up with us again. First loves, are always special, and are never forgotten. As we live in that reality, therein a challenge for you and I. We have come from the love of God. A love experienced in The Community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Would it be fair to say that that really is the original Holy Family? All of us have left the place where we were one. We were one with God, and we were one with one another, in the love of God. We have left that place, which is our original and permanent home, to enter into our second and transitory home of our human experience. Like all exiles, what we carry with us, is a memory of the first home, and our first love. Being in exile is not easy. I can tell you that truthfully, from my own experience, of living a life, in exile for 47 years. The memories of home, and loved ones, are always with you. From time to time your heart really aches for the familiar. The familiar home voices, accent, streets, neighborhood, and above all countryside. The exile is an exile forever until a home, a sanctuary or the spirit is created. That creation like all creation is an ongoing process. The process demands of us to connect again and again with the Aishling of God, the dream of God, for us. For us as individuals, as family, and as the family of humankind. We must allow the light, life and love, of God to guide us as we make this journey, all the while a sanctuary is being created. This creation is the work of grace, God’s love in action. This is a journey, this is a process, we make one moment at a time. A journey we take one step at a time. It is our mysterious, sacred hike.

A few times on a hike, out of state, I have come across fellow Irish-exiles on the trail. It was the sound of the accents from our greetings that led to the question, “And where are you from?”. This led to a long conversation. Why? Because it takes an Irish person at least five minutes just to say “hello”, and “how is it going?” There is joy and laughter in the conversation. A conversation always tinged with a sadness. One knows as good as this is, it is going to stop. There has to be, “the moving on”. Because of the encounter, you move on a little lighter in your step, your spirit has been brightened by the meeting of a fellow exile.

“The savage loves his native shore, though rude the soil and chill the air, well then may Erin’s sons adore. Their isle, which nature formed so fair.” [James Orr.]

Exiles need fellow exiles. To my way of thinking, our Father must have looked down on us, His exiled children, and what He saw moved Him to compassion. He saw us at times being lost, dispirited, scared, lonely, disconnected, being battered by feelings of alienation and abandonment. So, He sent His son into exile, with us. A son, who came, emptied of the trappings of divinity so he could be immersed and be able to embrace all that it means to be human. Jesus, God in exile, embraced your humanity and my humanity. He embraced it to the point where He too, knew what it was to be lonely, abandoned, betrayed, scared, hungering for human companionship. He not only drank from the cup of our humanity, He drained it to the last drop, to the bitter end.

So we would not be threatened, God comes to us as a vulnerable baby. It is as if to say to you and I, “I am not here to scare you, to threaten you, to trigger feelings of guilt, fear and shame. I am here to remind you of the love which you are loved from the very beginning. The love from which you came from and the love to which you shall return. Of all my creations, there is no newborn more vulnerable than the human child. Here I am-I am with you. That is why I am called Emmanuel. I am here to live with you-to suffer with you and to die for you.” The following is a quotation from Henry Nowen, the quotation which we can imagine the Christ-child saying to you and I;

“I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine and I am yours. You are my Beloved, in you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted your together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness and care for you with a care more intimate than that of a mother for her child. I have counted every hair of your head and guided you every step. Wherever you go, I go with you, and wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food, I will satisfy all your hunger and give you drink that quench all of your thirst. I will not hide my face from you. You know me as your own, as I know you as my own. You belong to me. I am your father, your mother, your brother, your sister, your lover, and your spouse. . . yes, even your child. . . Wherever you are, I will be. Nothing will ever separate us, we are one.”

As we begin to listen, as we begin to accept the reality of what that tiny voice says to us, our home, our sanctuary is being constructed. We will now have a place to call home, here on earth. What a gift this homeless Child bestows upon us, this gift is given to open hand, not, clinched fists.

A dreamer's journey continues....

Merry Christmas...

“What is Christmas?” I wanted to share with you this wonderful quotation. This quotation is from where else? The Web. Now that I am a full-fledged techno-geek, I have TWO computers, I find all sorts of fascinating ideas. “It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup overflow with blessings rich and eternal and that every path leads to peace.” (Agnes Paho) That is my wish for you and your loved ones as we all journey through a season that is supposed to be filled with Peace, Joy and Love. I know that is the reality for some of you, how blessed you are. For more of you, my dear friends, that is not to be your reality this year. For you, this is a journey into the Paschal death of the man, Jesus, who birth others are celebrating. Let us all be encouraged by this fact of faith. Whatever the journey it will all lead to a deeper appreciation of God’s Life, Light, and Love. Our faith gives us the knowledge that leads to the wisdom. Out of all the struggles of this life, whatever the pain may be, we will be led through grace to an even newer and a more transformed a way of living. How I wish many times on a daily basis, there was another and an easier way of doing this, there is not. That is a fact of the spiritual life that is so difficult to accept. Thank God, we do not have to like it, only accept it. Acceptance is a process, not an event.

I rejoice and celebrate with those of you, who are able to embrace this time as a season of celebration. I join with the others of you, who have to embrace this time as your Gethsemane time. So then, wherever we are, in whatever place we may find ourselves to be in , let us embrace that reality. Let us enclose it, wrap it up in whatever type of prayer we can muster. It is out of that place and in that reality we pray., O Come O Come Emmanuel and He does. Let me say that again HE DOES. Not in the way we expect, but in the way we need to experience His enfleshment. We then have to be alert, be awake to the Mystery. Why? There is another fact of the spiritual life, which I do not like. It is at a the most inconvenient times, in the most unexpected place, through the most unusual people. The Mystery of the Incarnation is continually being revealed to you and me. What a sense of humor our God has. Some of my friends call it a very sick one.

I am now in my third year of my new way of living. I cannot call it retirement. This past year was a least different. I cannot decide the reason why. Is it the fact that I turned 70? Although I am telling people I am now doing 35 for the third time. The first two times around were not very good actually it was painful. Life is demanding that I adopt and adapt to a new way of living. This is turn is leading to a new way of thinking. I am having some and real great encounters on my long hikes. Conversations, in which I have never dreamed of, are taking place. Yes, “things they are a changing”. Just today, I was told, on two separate occasions I was being “silly”. Me, at my age, being silly, now there is someone with which I can grow old. So you could say I am growing into and slowly accepting a new way of living. This in turn is leading to a still newer and more vital way of living.

Last Saturday I hiked Telegraphy Pass, and beyond for four hours. On Sunday, it was another part of the same park for three and a half hours.

My Summer trip was not as long this year. I was able to drive 8,300 miles and hike about 350-400 miles. I was able to spend 26 days in Yellowstone Park, what a gift.

I am now on Facebook (FB), and have placed some of the photos on my FB page. There is also a link for my blog on the same page. I started the blog last Lent. The address is http://AislingOnEarth.Blogspot.com and my email is PapaJH@mac.com .
The profile photo on FB is the picture of an elk. (Good Hunting)

You will be remembered in my three Masses on Christmas. I hope and pray, you and your loved ones will be blessed with peace of mind, leading to good health, all leading to being able to live life and live it to the fullest. May every day be, at least in part, be a celebration of your chosen-ness, to be the living Presence of Him, whose birth in time is celebrated in the here and now. May the New Year lead you further into the mystery of who you are. My prayer is that you not only have reverence, but also truly celebrate all the aspects of the quest.

God Bless,

Fr. Joe
(aka on FB, Papa J.)

Welcome!

Christmas music has the great ability to touch us at a depth, that the music of other seasons never seems to reach. At least, that is my experience. The soaring music of Handels Messiah leaves one breathless, lost in silent wonder. A definite religious experience. We are taken to a place of awe, and mystery. You know you are in the presence, of the sacred . Not too many radio stations broadcast that music, on a regular basis. Thank God a few do. What reaches our ears is the more homey, down to earth music, which speaks to us, of our everyday needs, and wants. It is that which speaks to us of the journey of the human heart. This reaches us as well, and brings us in touch with the everyday living, of the everyday person. It too, is sacrament, in the broad understanding of the word.

One of my favorite Christmas songs is, “I'll be home for Christmas”. It speaks of the deep cry of the human heart, for the hearth where one is warm, safe, cozy, and above all , loved. That song, I read recently, is second only to “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”. I have not been home for Christmas in 47 years, yet when I hear that song something awakens within. To go home for Christmas is a physical impossibility, for me, as there is no home to go to, or is there? Hold on to that.

Someone has written "Home is a magical word. Within that mystical circle are comforts and warmth never found outside it". That is why the other song I like is “There is No Place Like Home for the Holidays". Christmas and home go together like, milk and cookies, pie and ice cream. The memories home and Christmas engender are thoughts, feelings, and emotions, which seen to ease the ache within the human heart. To know one is going to a home is great. When that home is your own, that is even better. When one is AT home, in the place one calls home, that is the ultimate destination. That is, “the Pearl of Great Price”.

We all seek, and search to have the sanctuary of a home, where we can experience safety, warmth and security. Now it seems, as never before, humankind is in search of that place, where the homeless part, can rest safe and secure. This can only come from within. Home is deep within each one of us. We cannot buy it. It cannot be paid for. It is Free, yes, Free.

When we think of home, and of homecoming, we are enlivened by the thought of being welcomed and cared for. There is that wonder-full feeling you can now rest, and relax. Everything is going to be okay. As a matter of fact as I write this, I am reminded of what it was like to go home, when both my Dad and Mom were alive. They would pick me up at Shannon airport. When I got to Castlemartyr, there was that famous Irish breakfast waiting for me, comprised of bangers [sausages], rashers [bacon], eggs, fried tomatoes, and brown bread and strong tea. After the meal,
Then it was off to bed! I can still recall the feeling of being at peace, warm and secure in that bed. What a luxuary to be in bed and enjoying a hot water bottle, in June.!!!! I would not be home for Christmas, so I experienced Christmas in June or so I thought at that time. The reality was I was able to experience some of the aspects of The Season. A fuller and more complete understanding was to come in time, and at a price.

My journey to my Bethlehem has been through the valley of darkness. Through the valley of pain, loss, abuse, abandonment, depression, alienation, loneliness. As you journey through all of that, you are emptied out of any ability to do anything. The only thing you can do is fall on your knees, literally or figuratively, and cry out from the depths, the words of the psalm,
"My God, my God, why have you abandoned me" and “Out of the depths I cry to you o Lord, Lord hear my voice". That is repeated again and again. Then in time, there is a little break in the darkness. A little light breaks through. A very small, oh so very small ray of hope , enters to tell you it will be okay, not easy but okay. It is true, that no matter how long the night, or how dark at night, dawn always breaks! Life begins to happen again. The light becomes clearer, to reveal that Bethlehem has been visited and a Savior has been welcomed. There is the home one never leaves. There is home that is always there to visit, a home never to be destroyed. It cannot be destroyed by wars, whatever the forces the physical or spiritual can throw against it. There is a home of safety, security, warmth, and tenderness. There the gentle, but firm grasp of the Child will take hold of you and never will let go. "O Holy Night... When Christ was Born."

So then, Advent is all about, the humility, to honestly bring who we really are, just as we are, to prayer. We offer our broken selves, to be doers of God’s will, and be prepared to pay the price. We welcome the transforming, and transfiguring power of God, into our own personal darkness. We welcome AGAIN and AGAIN a PERSONAL Savior into your own place of powerlessness. It is there, you will experience the death of the ego, the excruciating pain you experience, is in reality, the BIRTHING pains of your true self, The CHRIST CHILD within you. Mary is now your reality.

Offer....

"We need a renaissance of wonder. We need to renew, in our hearts and in our souls, the deathless dream, the eternal poetry, the perennial sense that life is miracle and magic."
These are these are the words of E.Merill Root. I would like to add to his words, the word, “mystery”. A mystery that is to be lived, never solved or exhausted.

This year, more than ever we need to exercise, and celebrate our wonder-full, God given gift of wonder. Thomas Caryle said that "wonder is the basis of worship". It is not surprising then that wonder is one of the manifestations of the presence of The Holy Spirit. I am so grateful to my Dad, for awakening in me , at a very early age, the possibility there is so much more to life than that which is before your eyes. There is the beyond. There is, the around the corner. There is the person behind the person you see. Now the words of scripture make sense, " what is seen is transitory, what is unseen lasts
forever".

For a number of years now, I have been reading that each person in the scriptures is actually a part of me. It is consoling to look for an encounter with Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wisemen, all the good guys. I also have to make sure that Harrod and his cohorts are also alive and well within me. After a period of time, I have accepted the fact that both groups are alive and well and do exist within me.

John The Baptist, a wild looking man, and a desert dweller. When you are in the desert you can feel safe that not too many people
can track you down. Then, the Lord is not just any person. The Word of the Lord came and reached John in his desert dwelling. He was not
hanging out at the Ritz with the power brokers. He was not properly dressed for cocktail hour. What he had to say was not for the faint of heart, or for the self-righteous . His was a message of repentance, and reform. A very deadly mixture. He of course paid the ultimate price, but this was the price that every prophet paid. When he received the call to be a prophet, he offered his life to, and for, God's plan. Because he said 'yes', the way was prepared for the coming of the Full revelation of God in human form.

We see that whatever happened to John, the same thing happened to his cousin Jesus. Jesus was to bring to a fuller understanding what John first taught. He was not the Light, but was preparing the world for Light that was to come. John was opposed, so too, The light would be opposed. Death could not overcome the Light. In this time of darkness it is so very important for us to remember that salient fact. Evil, darkness, death, is NOT the final word. The final word is LIFE. Our choice. We can say yes to life, or say yes, to the enemies of life. We will be the presence of John the Baptist, in this world, when we proclaim the truth and live its challenge knowing that we too, like John, will suffer persecution. We, too like John will have people in our lives conspiring to eliminate us.

John, announced the coming of The Word. Mary, on the other hand, by her "yes", her fiat, gave FLESH to the word of God. Who was Mary? Mary was a 16 year old, living the life of a teenager in a little village. She had to be excited, and the whole village with her. She was engaged to Joseph, the local carpenter. Their wedding was going to be a great community celebration. Then came a radical change, for Mary and Joseph. Life as they knew it came to a screeching halt. Mary had to journey through FEAR, and questioning to that place where she was able to say to God's messenger “I, am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me as he wills”. With that "YES" the relationship between the human and the divine was forever changed. "Earth was united with Heaven'. The Infinite love of GOD became Enfleshed. “Love became a Man.” This continues today through our "yes", to what is right, just, and life giving. We continue Mary’s life-giving work.

What a simple that word YES is. Yet so powerful. Wonder of wonders we by our “yes” can continue the work of Mary. We, by grace, allow the Incarnation to take root in us in every moment of every day. We become the "contemporary Christ" in the place our God has placed us in. We have the God given gift to say no as well as to say yes.

As dreamer's journey continues...

Humanity....Humility...

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our lifetime;
therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing that is true or beautiful or good
makes complete sense in any immediate context of history;
therefore we must be saved by Faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous,
can be accomplished alone;
therefore we must be saved by Love.”

Those lines are given to us, by the same author who gave us the Serenity Prayer, Reinhold Niebuhr. They reveal to us one person’s understanding of what it means to be human, to be limited. Yet this limited humanity was not something our God shied away from. After all, this was the result of a creation that lost its’ way. This was a part of the creation He saw, not only as good, rather He saw it, as very good. He ,you can say, had a dream [Aisling], and the dream turned out to be a nightmare. Like a good parent, or conscientious creator, that was no reason for Him to abandon the design just because it did the original did not work out.. The design was GOOD, what messed it up was the human person in particular, the gift of free-will. God, then in wisdom, decided to enter into the reality of the mess, to reveal , again what His dream was . Not only to reveal the dream, but to bring to it an even newer and a more personal reality.

“Christ Jesus… did not count the quality with Godas thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in your human form, He humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross.” PHIL. 2:5-8

Human beings were found to be wanting, so God decided to enter into that same humanity. He entered into our humanity so we would see Him not speaking to us from a distance, but actually to be a god who is present in the here and now. God in the person of The Second Person of The Holy Trinity, Jesus Christ. He became enfleshed in our frayed, and weakened humanity, to SHOW you and I how to live the life He always intended us to have. He came and said by His mission and ministry, I am not here to talk the walk, I am here to walk the talk, so that each and every person will have a living example to follow. The dream can again be within the reach of each human being, by living the life of an authentic human being. The historical person of Jesus spent much time in prayer, reaching out to that Supportive Reality in His life which He called, ABBA. Honest, gut honest, prayer, is the essence of humility. When we pray is to accept the fact that we are human, and that God is God. That is a healthy spirituality.

We are most human when we embrace that which our God emptied Himself to embrace. Is it not ironic that which we want to abandon, run away from, is the VERY SAME humanity Jesus assumed, in all of its poverty, to reveal, ever anew the original dream, but now in a new and more personal way. In a way that reaches us just as we are, and in the place we find ourselves to be, that is the here and now. To be present to all that the here and now says is exactly what God IS going to use to reveal his Infinite Presence. It is in that encounter the mystery of the Incarnation is again, and again being revealed to the world. The Christ Child is once again been given birth to. What a wonder-full way of living our God has gifted us with that in our everyday living we again give birth to His son. It has been said, unless we give birth to the Christ Child within our hearts, then Mary gave birth in vain. We have been given the power to make God’s dream for us and the world become more and more a reality. So, this Advent season, be faithful who you are in God’s plan, in His Aisling, for you. You and I by living faithfully that reality, will be in need of nothing from the outside. The answer to our needs is found on the inside.

Hospitality towards our humanity, in honest prayer,
saying, YES, again and again,
to the Creative Love, The Holy Spirit,
gives birth to an ever newer, ????????? (what is your answer)

Let the wonder-full, wondering continue.........