Contemplation

Apr292017

St Dominic early morning Holy Hour

The maturity of this communal prayer supplied during the St Dominic Holy Hour soothes with the profound.  At first, I was turned off, due to the simplification of speculating upon an exchange between God the Father and God the Son.  I am convinced Divine Communication must not be lowered down to human understanding.  The danger of reducing Jesus’ method of prayer down to a relatable human level, making Jesus just like all other humans, put me in a defensive mind state.  I am convinced Jesus’ spirituality must be praised in mystery.  Yet hearing the entirety of the prayer verbally read aloud, my heart and mind opened to the message, appeased by the serious humble message.

Reflection.  Jesus prays.  Jesus spends a whole night in prayer with His Father.  No doubt they discussed who should be among the apostles.  They went through the options one by one, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the men who would be chosen.  Jesus interceded for His future apostles, begging His Father for the graces they would need to carry out the mission they were going to be given.  Jesus calls me to follow Him as His apostle.  The call is not a half-hearted or hasty decision.  Jesus has pondered well my strengths and weaknesses before He calls me.  He knows me inside and out and still He invites me to be his apostle and share in His mission.

Called by name.  Imagine what it was like for the apostles to be assembled before Christ in the early morning and hear Him as He called out their names one by one.  What would it have been like to hear your name called?  When Jesus calls out your name the words are more than just an identification tag.  He is calling the whole person, the whole you—with all your personal history, your talents, and defects, your sins and virtues, your daydreams and generosity (your selfishness and pride).  Relish the beauty of this call.  Jesus wants you—the you that reaches from the depths of your soul to your outward appearance.  He wants you to be His apostle.

The mission to heal.  Christ’s call has a very concrete and distinct purpose: the salvation of humanity.  Humanity cries out for healing.  People come from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon thirsting for the truth of Christ’s words and the powerful touch of his grace.  This mission that Christ invites you to share in.  What a privilege!  What an honor to be chosen to be part of the team who will help rescue mankind from the misery of pride, sensuality and egoism, who will bring them to the fulfillment of a life of love and generosity.

Lord, thank you for this time of prayer and reflection.  Many times I forget what you have called me to.  I forget that I am just an individual acting on my own behalf but an apostle acting as your emissary.  I know you have called me with all my defects and weaknesses, but I do not want to use this as an excuse not to grow in virtue and overcome the obstacles of my human frailty (let me not wallow in self-loathing, or become attached to prideful shame). I will work to be a better apostle but at the same time I will have the serenity and peace of knowing that you know perfectly well who I am and whom you have called.

St Dominic receiving the Rosary from Our holy Mother

spacer
Apr162017

Triumphant and unified

Dear brothers and sisters, this year Christians of every confession celebrate Easter together. With one voice, in every part of the world, we proclaim the great message: “The Lord is truly risen, as he said!” May Jesus, who vanquished the darkness of sin and death, grant peace to our days.

……….

All of us, when we let ourselves be mastered by sin, lose the right way and end up straying like lost sheep. But God himself, our shepherd, has come in search of us. To save us, he lowered himself even to accepting death on the cross. Today we can proclaim: “The Good Shepherd has risen, who laid down his life for his sheep, and willingly died for his flock, alleluia” (Roman Missal, IV Sunday of Easter, Communion antiphon).

Happy Easter!

Pope Francis 

spacer
Apr032017

Holy Fool

By combating the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness in the eyes of God. St. Paul speaks frequently in this manner, but the greater percentage of us rely on this world’s wisdom. Yet Christ constantly warns us in his teaching that we should expect to be a contradiction and a paradox to the world. This does not mean that the world as such is evil, but it does mean that those who live and act for worldly goals and according to worldly standards will inevitably have to jettison the standards of God. The lives of the saints are replete with instances in which the gift of wisdom caused them to perform actions that were foolish in the eyes of the worldly but were divine and prudent from a supernatural point of view. –Father Jordan Aumann ‘Spiritual Theology’

We viewed an amazing documentary at the Cleveland Film Festival, a local effort by a Cleveland director portraying an astounding Cleveland immigrant.  The man truly proves the necessity of being a contradiction and paradox to the world.  A lovely story of love, an inspiring biography of a man’s whose dying words were three in number: ‘I love you’, an ode to his wife and a life of unimaginable providence. Insight into the film grew in depth after the film while attending a question and answer with the director and members of Peter Ertel’s family.

 

spacer
Apr022017

St Dominic Holy Hour

Lord Jesus Christ,
Make us serve you and others without pushing ourselves forward,
So that we may help our fellow men and women without humiliating them.
Make us dedicate ourselves to everything that is lowly
And unimportant in this world’s eyes,
So that we may do the things that no one else takes on.
Teach us to wait, to listen, and not to speak prematurely.
Make us humble and poor enough to accept help from others.
Send us on our way in search of your name, today and every day.
Forever and ever.
Amen

spacer
Mar272017

She’s gone to a peaceful night

“Awake, O sleeper,
and arise from the dead,
and Christ will give you light.”

A reflection on a video complimenting the viewing of Ingmar Bergman’s ‘The Virgin Spring’.  The wise old professor, a world weary soul, elicits a confession from the young shepherd boy, one of three brothers who have murdered and raped the young virgin princess.  The boy is innocent of the crime of his brothers, yet a participant by proxy, unable to stop his siblings from their sin and brutality.  He has become a haunted tormented boy, possessing no parents, family only to brothers who have proved atrocious in deed, a soul alone.  The professor perceives the truth and ministers.  This video is an edited alteration, slowed in motion, a soundtrack filling, a Youtube creation–it settled nicely with ruminations and lasting effects of the film.

spacer
Mar242017

The start of a Lenten novena

Most holy St. Jude–apostle, martyr and friend of Jesus, today I ask that you pray for the relenting of my thorns! You are the patron of the impossible. Pray for me! O St. Jude, pray that God’s grace and mercy will soothe my thorns. If it is God’s Will, pray for the impossible. Pray that I may have the grace to accept God’s holy will even if it is painful and difficult. St. Jude, you loved our Lord, help me to love Him more. O St. Jude, pray for me that I may grow in faith, hope and love and in the grace of Jesus Christ. Pray for the easing of my thorns. Implore Our Lord to remove the thorns, expose the wound, and let the scars be reminders. Not for the sake of comfort, yet for the opportunity to preserve peace, to abide within the silence of security, providing the opportunity to grow stronger in prayer and purity, becoming a channel of Christ’s love. I have known strife throughout my life. Pray St Jude that it is God’s Will to ease my burdens, granting the sanctifying grace to allow a humble harmonious prospering for the salvation of souls. Plead that Our Lord supplements personal freedom with the wisdom and understanding to concentrate upon an ever-growing devotion to Him and the strength to remain simple. Above all my concerns, pray that I may join you in heaven with God for all eternity. Amen.

O St. Jude, holy Apostle, faithful servant and friend of Jesus, you are honored and petitioned by the universal Church, as the patron of desperate, hopeless and impossible cases. Pray for me. I am so helpless and alone. Intercede for me that Almighty God may bring swift aid where it is needed most. Come to my assistance in my great time of need! Pray for me that I may be given the comfort and help of Jesus. Most importantly, pray that I may one day join you and all of the saints in heaven to praise God in consolation, rest and joy for all eternity. Amen

I was searching for an image of St Jude when I came across the profound stare of this boy.  The sadness within innocence, the charm within suffering, everything was perfect in opening my heart, mind, and will to the determination to seek God’s assistance in confronting the thorns still digging into my life. A resolution to become a greater prayer warrior, a man of simpler demeanor and desires, further formation on into holiness.  Researching the photo it turns out the hospital is in New Haven, Connecticut, synchronizing with the significant other’s upbringing and our visit to the area. Allowing God to present Himself through others, I felt it appropriate to post the image.

spacer
Mar092017

Lenten realization

St Bernard says, that in the exercise of mortification, we must always carry the hook in our hands; and that there is no person, no matter how mortified, who stands not in need of pruning or retrenching something or other. “Believe me,” says he, “that which is cut out, sprouts anew; that which is cast away returns; that which is extinct takes fire again; and that which appears asleep awakes upon a sudden. It is not sufficient therefore, adds the saint, “to have pruned once, we must cut it often, and even daily if possible; for if you will not deceive yourself, you’ll always find something to cut, and to retrench within yourself.” The hedges which we see in gardens furnish us with a very fit comparison for this subject. The myrrh and the box are cut with so much art, that here they represent the figure of a lion, there that of an eagle, and also a variety of other figures. But if the gardener be not very careful to cut off the leaves and little branches, which shootout every moment, in a very short time, we shall not see the form of an eagle, nor of a lion, nor of anything else; because nature continually, according to its custom, shoots forth new wood and leaves. The same happens here; though you should be a lion or an eagle; though you seem to yourself so strong, as to fear nothing; nevertheless, if you do not daily cut and retrench something by mortification, you will soon become like a monster without shape; because the root of the evil, which is within us, shoots forth branches every moment; so that there is always something to be mortified within us. “Whatever progress you may have made in virtue,” says St Bernard, “you deceive yourself, if you believe you have entirely destroyed all vices within you; for you have only brought them under, and whether you will or not, the Jebusite will always remain with you. It is an enemy you may overcome, but you’ll never be able to exterminate.” “I know,” says St Paul, “that there is nothing good within me, that is to say within my flesh.” And the same saint discoursing upon these words, says, that the apostle had said very little, if he had not presently added, that sin made its abode in him; saying, “I do not the good which I would do, but execute the evil I would not. But if I do what I would not, then it is not I that do it, but it is sin that dwells within me.” “Wherefore, hereafter,” adds the saint, “you must either prefer yourself to the apostle, or else acknowledge with him, that you are not exempt from vice.” –Saint Alphonsus Rodriguez ‘The Practice of Christian & Religious Perfection II’

A continual lifelong chant: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, forgive me for I am a sinner.

ST ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ, S.J.

spacer