Thursday, February 28, 2008

"Whoever does not gather with me scatters." --Luke 11:23

The journey of faith is not one on which we can take a breather. You are either moving forward, closer to God, or you are moving away from God. If you think you are in neutral, then you are drifting away. The same is true for spreading God's love and God's word to other people: either we are helping them towards God or we are helping them away from God. There is no inbetween.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Forgiveness

We must be willing to receive God's forgiveness. Matthew 18 tells us that God will forgive us only as we have forgiven others. This is not merely so that we get our just desserts. One who has not learned to forgive others is incapable of accepting someone's forgiveness of himself. We must accept God's forgiveness if we are to enter heaven, for it is only through His mercy that we may be worthy of His presence. If we have not learned to forgive, however, then how can we understand His forgiveness of us? We will hold our sins to ourselves and not let Him take them away, because we do not understand how or why He would want to. We must learn to forgive others--allow God to teach us how--in order to allow God to forgive us and remove our sins from us as the east from the west.

Monday, February 25, 2008

"But He passed through the midst of them and went away." --Luke 4:30

We have no need of fearing those who persecute us for doing God's work. No matter their anger or actions, they cannot touch us until our hour has come. And that hour is the hour for which God has prepared us, and therefore we have no need to fear it. Until that hour, we too will pass through their midst and go away unharmed. At that hour, we too will glorify God and play our part in the salvation of man. Let us pray then not to be spared, but rather to be prepared.

"If the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it?" --2 Kings 5:13

We, like Naaman, are prone to expecting God to work in extravagant ways befitting our own views of His majesty. And so, we miss His smaller directives through which He intends miracles! We must listen closely and learn obedience so that we let Him work in His majesty that allows Him to work miracles from a simple washing. Is not the God who can with a whisper change the human heart more majestic than a God reliant on stars shooting fire? It is like in confession. We must not expect large penances in accordance to our sins--nothing we do can remove them from us. We must then humble ourselves, and accept and trust in God's mercy, "Wash and be clean."

Sunday, February 24, 2008

"Go call your husband and come back." --John 4:16

Why does Jesus ask the woman at the well this question? Why does He then list to her sins? Is it to shame her to repentence? No! Rather it is to explain to her what He meant when He said that He shall give a living water which will bring an end to thirst! By listing her five husbands, He shows her that she is not satisfied--she thirsts. What is it she thirsts for? God. Sexual union is meant to be a glimpse of the union with God in heaven; it is a sacrament--a physical sign of grace. It is a sign to point us to heaven! Jesus was telling the woman, "See! You have had sexual 'freedom' and yet you are not satisfied. That is because you are not looking for a human person or physical fulfillment but rather God. You are looking for me. I am the living water for which you thirst!"

Friday, February 22, 2008

"Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" --Matthew 20:22

We often ask God to save us and bring us to Himself. And yet when He tries to purify us through trials, and calls on us to let go of attachments to the world that we may go to Him, we complain and resent it! To ask for sanctification is to ask to be purified by fire--and yet, like the scorched earth, it is then that new life begins with a sweeter taste.

"What return shall I give the Lord for all His goodness to me? I shall take the cup of salvation."--Psalm 116:13,14

Monday, February 18, 2008

"So in like manner, in the order of grace, the head and the members are born of one and the same Mother" --St. Louis de Montfort

The entire body--head and members--of a child is born of one and the same mother. Mary, espoused by the Holy Spirit, gave birth to Christ. In the Bible we find references to the Mystical Body of Christ, with Christ as the Head and His followers the members. If this is the case, then we too must be born of Mary, our Mother, for else we do not belong to His Body.

"I saw her, as beautiful as a dove, rising up over streams of water; the fragrance of her clothes was immeasurable." --Vesperae s. Lucae

True to my consecration to Jesus through Mary, I was praying to the Virgin before going up to receive Him in the Eucharist that she prepare me to receive her Son. I prayed she would receive Him for me as she received Him from the Father for all of mankind at her Annunciation. I prayed to Mary, God's most perfect creature, that she might enclose my weak vessel with hers that is most perfect; that she would hold for me the most abundant graces God gives us through the Eucharist.

When I rose to go to communion, my senses were filled with the fragrance of flowers. It was very strong and very beautiful, lasting until I returned to my seat. There were no flowers in the church, and when I asked my friends they said they did not smell anything.

"Forgive and you will be forgiven." --Luke 6:37

This reflects the Our Father, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Whenever I say this prayer, I add in a personal "And please help me to forgive!!" This can be a scary truth when we think about how often we do not forgive others. Especially when we realize that it says "those who trespass against us"-- not those who have trespassed, but those who trespass, present tense. This means those who have not asked for forgiveness, those who are still hurting us! What Jesus is asking us to do in this verse from Luke is a divine forgiveness, one that we can only achieve if we open ourselves to God in prayer, and ask Him to take away our anger, hurt and resentment. But He can only take it away if we truly desire Him to, because He respects our free will. Sometimes we must begin by asking God to give us the desire to forgive! But He will always answer, and desires us to relinquish these burdens to Him, that He may forgive us our trespasses and unite us to Him in heaven.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

"God, having willed to comence and to complete His greatest works by the most holy Virgin ever since He created her...

...we may well think He will not change His conduct in the eternal ages; for He is God, and He changes not, either in His sentiments or in His conduct. It was only through Mary that God the Father gave His Only-begotten to the world." --St. Louis de Montfort True Devotion to Mary



God created the Immaculate Mary that He might be able to give His Son to us for our redemption! We were unworthy of such a gift, so God created for us a mediator of His greatest gift to mankind. In choosing then to give us our Redemption through Mary, how much more so would He grant us His graces through Mary our Mother as well!! Let us pray to Mary for her intercession, for her mediation of the graces of God!!

Friday, February 15, 2008

"We have a deep need to meet with the mercy of God, to feel radically understood in the weakness of our wounded nature." --JP II

To feel radically understood-- what an incredible idea, and yet with God all things are credible! To be understood is to be loved. It is not possible to understand someone and not love them. Knowledge and understanding are two vastly different enterprises. But God has both, for He knows all, sees all, created all, and therefore understands all. He understands the entirety of our story, He understands our temptations and struggles and why we have them so much better than we do ourselves! Opening to Him in prayer and allowing Him to explain these things to us, to show us one blemish at a time so that we can then choose to ask Him to wipe it away, is the only way to be purified. And how ardently He desires for us to let Him make us His spotless bride.

God understands us as we wish we understood ourselves--perfectly. It is a radical understanding, not merely a sympathetic one! How freeing this realization is to His creatures as we fumble for words in prayer, and fumble for action in our lives. We do not need to know what is broken in us, but only to acknowledge that something is broken and invite Him in to heal us and make us beautiful again.

"Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift" --Matthew 5:23-24

When we come to worship the Lord, we must not be offering Him gifts with our hands while our minds and hearts are caught up in resentment or pride. It is only by humbling ourselves to others that we can come humble before God. If we have not come to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, how then can we love and serve our God? Loving and serving our brothers and sister in Christ must begin in our own families. Families imprint themselves within our consciousness. So many of our patterns of interaction with others are governed by our personality's reaction conditioned by familial relations. But these reactions are not our personalities, and if we humble ourselves before our families and seek to act in a love personalized by our personalities rather than the stung pride, we will come to love our families. The warmth of that love will seep into our interactions with all people, a warmth that will allow us to stop huddling within ourselves and open to God. Then, through opening and receiving we can offer the gift of ourselves to the Lord, who will enter and make us new.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

"Seek and you will find"--Matthew 7:7

The devil does not prevent us from finding, but rather from seeking. Because whoever seeks the Truth cannot be kept from it, but the one who does not seek will not find. With all of the noise of the world, our overloaded brains are inhibited from seeking more-- we must find a place of quiet where we can begin to seek the Truth of our Lord and our God.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

"Thus the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when in their sight I prove my holiness through you." --Ezekiel 36:23

God will prove his holiness through us?!? We'd better get moving on the path to sainthood! which is what we are all called to- a vocation of love, which is a vocation of participating in the eternal exchange of love which is God. Through being open and receptive to God, even in pain, is how we attain holiness.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

"Look to Him that you may be radiant with joy, and your faces may not blush with shame." --Psalm 34:6

It is in the Lord that we may be fulfilled and quench our thirst for love. In Him, there is nothing but joy, and you will know no shame. For He will wash us whiter than snow, and fill the infinite gap in our hearts.

"Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy." --Leviticus 19:2

We are called to be holy! God does not request of us something He is not-- He has taken on human suffering and temptation and death, and conquered all. He has done so that we too may be holy and unblemished in His sight.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Faith, Love, Hope

Receiving is rarely given enough credit for its difficultly! Whether one is receiving faith, love, hope, or anything else, it is an act that is near impossible to do correctly, to do humbly, to do without grasping. Praying over this recently, I had an image of holding a little bird in my cupped hands. He was flighty, and as much as I wanted to stroke him and hold him so he couldn't get away, I knew that if I moved, he would vanish. And so I had to just sit there, letting him choose to sit with me. I thought to myself, this is my faith- hope- the love of another- and after a little while my rock statue body relaxed and sat comfortably with the little bird, who after a time nestled down snugly into my cupped palms, and then allowed me to stroke him ever so gently to straighten out his feathers.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Institution of the Holy Eucharist

The fifth Luminous mystery is not only Luminous in that the disciples were told that Christ would be betrayed, nor that they were told they would receive Christ. Rather, in the reception itself of Christ's body and blood, they came to know Christ in the consummation of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. In the Eucharist we come to know Christ by becoming one flesh with Him. That is a deep knowledge that we rarely acknowledge!! We come to know Christ as Adam knew Eve, with an intimacy and depth that is not possible without becoming one flesh.

"When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets to win the praise of others" --Mt 6:2

[Ash Wednesday Gospel] This is true for all virtues as well-- as soon as you see a need to announce your virtue to the world, you can be certain that you have not attained it.

"Rend your hearts, not your garments" --Joel 2:13

This was read at the Ash Wednesday Mass, and it struck me that many people will apply this to correcting sins in their lives such as pride or greed, but rarely do they have the gumption to use it to battle for purity. Becoming pure in and through the Lord requires us to give up our twisted desires that are lodged in our hearts-- and often this is not simply something which can be handed over to the Lord, but rather something which involves His skillful operation (and us willingly climbing lying down on the operating table!). It requires us to not simply police our actions (rend our garments) but rather to root out impurity from the deepest part of our souls (rend our hearts). Until we are able to give up our addiction to near-occasions of lust to the Lord, we cannot be purified.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

"And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." --Luke 2:19

When I first read the gospel of Luke, I was struck by the frequency with which we are told that Mary "kept all these things in her heart" (Luke 2:51). We are not told her thoughts and ponderings, but they are referred to frequently, and in many cases out of the blue. At the time, I brushed it aside in favor of reflecting on the miracles etc, not yet understanding how to pray over scripture. But, interestingly enough, I "kept it in my heart".

Recently, I have begun to see the beauty and wisdom in this simple seemingly "tacked on" verse. Women are often seen as loving to talk and share their inner most secrets with each other-- but I was beginning to be tired of sharing so much of myself with others, and this verse kept entering my mind. And when I took it to prayer, I began to feel that this was in fact the secret to True Womanhood. It is written in Woman's body to receive, conceive, nuture, grow, and then bear forth new life. It is the same with all thoughts and experiences she is the recipient of. False Woman knows the end- to bear forth- and pours everything out, but there has been no gestation; she has thrown away her feminine gift. There is so much fruit to be had through support from others during pregnancy, and sharing the new life you have brought forth, but gestation must take place within you. It is not for the others to carry the life to term!

With Woman as the archetype for mankind in relation to God, Man too then must take this advice "to heart", and learn how to conceive divine life within from Woman, Mary.

Friday, February 1, 2008

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son" --Luke 1:31

The glory that God chose to bestow on Woman!! God could have chosen any way to enter into the world and bring us our salvation-- that He chose to do so as a human enters the world, through the womb of a Mother!! How glorious and dignified is woman, and how often she, in her femininity and fertility, is degraded today. Woman's body was the first tabernacle! Woman's finite womb contained the infinite!

The honor that God chose to bestow on Man!! To protect His Son and Mary, God assigned Joseph, a man. To protect Woman from humiliation and degradation, from all abuse; to give her love and provide for all her needs. To protect the Child, care for Him, and raise Him!! How could Man seek a higher honor than this?

"Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." --1 Samuel 3:9

God is calling us constantly in our lives. Like the old widow, He is persistent. He will continue to court us until we respond. In training ourselves in obedience, we can come to hear that call, as Samuel did. In obedience, Samuel sought to answer the call he heard, and in doing so found his way to the Lord despite his initial misunderstanding. When we hear a call, we must respond as Eli taught Samuel... and then in fact be listening. We must be receptive to the Lord, that we, like Mary, may conceive His divine life within us.

Give me souls...

I recently had the joy of visiting the National Shrine to the Immaculate Conception in DC. How glorious!! Kneeling in front of one of the shrines in the upper church, the glimmer of gold letters at the bottom of the altar caught my eye: "Give me souls; Away with all else." This struck me to the core of my being-- is this not our purpose on earth? to give our own soul completely to God, and that He might then use it while still incarnate to gain more souls for the communion of saints? We are all called to sainthood. We are all called to strive for perfection, a perfection of reception to God. Away with all else!