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Jun172020

Father Jacques Phillipe on St Therese’s Little Way

The Gospel path is just the opposite. It leads us to receive everything from God: the meaning of our lives, the courage we need, the light by which we make our choices. It leads us to recieve everything from God in trust, prayer and simplicity. That is one aspect of what Therese means by “staying little”: consenting to recieve everything necessary from God’s hand, day by day, without worrying about either the past or the future. Day by day, we do what is asked of us, without anxiety, without fear, certain that God is faithful and will give us what we need from moment to moment; never falling prey to the illusion that one day we will be able to manage without God.

Therese continued: “So I have always stayed little, having no other occupation than that of picking flowers, the flowers of love and sacrifice, and offering to god for his pleasure.”

This means: I don’t aim at extraordinary feats or grandiose deeds that everyone would admire. In the banality of my daily life, I seek to please God in little things, alert for every opportunity of showing simple signs of love, offering myself, etc–not to accumulate merits or rise above other people, but for love, to please God, as a child seeks to please her father.

–Father Jacques Phillippe “The Way of Trust and Love”

 

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May062020

Apology

A good drunk is never enough
The vomiting, the shitting,
The heartbreak, the loneliness,
The abandonment of God,
Betraying Mary, who showed
Herself to me, the fear, the shame,
How many people have I hurt,
The number continues to grow,
Nobody trust me, I don’t trust
Myself, I feel sick, I am sick,
I am sorry Lord, forgive me

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Apr192020

Divine Mercy Sunday

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;
in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions.
Thoroughly wash away my guilt;
and from my sin cleanse me.
For I know my transgressions;
my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your eyes
So that you are just in your word,
and without reproach in your judgment.
Behold, I was born in guilt,
in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, you desire true sincerity;
and secretly you teach me wisdom.
Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
You will let me hear gladness and joy;
the bones you have crushed will rejoice.

Turn away your face from my sins;
blot out all my iniquities.
A clean heart create for me, God;
renew within me a steadfast spirit.
Do not drive me from before your face,
nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore to me the gladness of your salvation;
uphold me with a willing spirit.
I will teach the wicked your ways,
that sinners may return to you.
Rescue me from violent bloodshed, God, my saving God,
and my tongue will sing joyfully of your justice.
Lord, you will open my lips;
and my mouth will proclaim your praise.
For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it;
a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.

Treat Zion kindly according to your good will;
build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will desire the sacrifices of the just,
burnt offering and whole offerings;
then they will offer up young bulls on your altar.

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Apr152020

Resurrected Presence

When they drew near to the village
to which they were going,
he made as if to go on;
but they pressed him to stay…
‘It is nearly evening,
and the day is almost over.’
So he went in to stay with them.
Now while he was with them at table,
he took the bread
and said the blessing;
then he broke it
and handed it to them.
And their eyes were opened
and they recognized him;
but he had vanished
from their sight.
Then they said to each other,
‘Did not our hearts burn within us…

Gospel of Luke 24

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Mar192020

Pope John Paul II: Roman Triptych Part 1

The Stream

Ruah

The Spirit of God hovered above the waters.

1. Wonderment

The undulating wood slopes down
to the rhythm of mountain streams.
To me this rhythm is revealing You,
the Primordial Word.

How remarkable is Your silence

in everything, in all that on every side
unveils the created world around us …
all that, like the undulating wood,
runs down every slope …
all that is carried away by the stream’s
silvery cascade,
rhythmically falling from the mountain,
carried by its own current—carried where?

What are you saying to me, mountain stream?
Where, in which place, do we meet?
Do you meet me who is also passing—
just like you.

But is it like you?
(Allow me to pause here;
allow me to stop at a threshold,
the threshold of simple wonder).
The running stream cannot marvel,
and silently the woods slope down,
following the rhythm of the stream—
but man can marvel!
The threshold which the world crosses in him
is the threshold of wonderment.
(Once, this very wonder was called “Adam”).

He was alone in his wonder,
among creatures incapable of wonder—
for them it is enough to exist and go their way.
Man went his way with them,
filled with wonder!
But being amazed, he always emerged
from the tide that carried him,
as if saying to everything around him:
“Stop—in me is your harbour”,
“in me is the place of meeting
with the Primordial Word”.
“Stop, this passing has meaning …
has meaning … has meaning”.

2. The source

The undulating wood slopes down
to the rhythm of mountain streams….
If you want to find the source,
you have to go up, against the current,
tear through, seek, don’t give up,
you know it must be somewhere here.
Where are you, source? Where are you, source?!

Silence….
Stream, stream in the wood,
tell me the secret of your beginning!

(Silence—why are you silent?
How carefully you have hidden the secret of your beginning).

Allow me to wet my lips
in spring water,
to feel its freshness,
reviving freshness.

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