A Teacher of Prayer

On the 500th anniversary of the birth of St Teresa of Jesus, I wish, together with the whole Church, to give thanks to the great family of Discalced Carmelites—religious men and women and secular members—for the charism of this remarkable woman.

Pope Francis wrote in a letter to the Carmelites on the 500 anniversary of St Teresa of Avila:

"I consider it a providential grace that this anniversary coincides with the Year of Consecrated Life, in which the saint of Avila shines as a sure and attractive model of total self-giving to God. It is one more reason to look to the past with gratitude and to rediscover "the inspiring spark" that gave impetus to the founders and to the first communities (cf. Letter to all consecrated people, 21 November 2014).

How much goodness does the testimony of her consecration—born directly from the encounter with Christ, her experience of prayer as continuous dialogue with God, and her community life, rooted in the motherhood of the Church—do for us!

1. St Teresa is primarily a teacher of prayer. The discovery of Christ's humanity was central to her experience. Moved by the desire to share this personal experience with others, she describes it in a vivid and simple way, accessible to everyone, because it consists simply in "a relationship of friendship ... with he who we know loves us" (Life, 8, 5 ). Many times this same narrative becomes prayer, as if she had wanted to introduce the reader into her interior dialogue with Christ. Teresa’s prayer was not reserved only to one space or to one time of day; it arose spontaneously in the most diverse occasions: "It would be extremely difficult if you could only pray in secluded places" (Foundations, 5, 16). She was convinced of the value of continuous prayer, even if it was not always perfect. The saint asks us to be steadfast, faithful, even in times of dryness, personal difficulties or urgent needs that call us.

Teresa left us a great treasure to renew consecrated life today, full of concrete proposals, ways and methods to pray, that, far from closing us in on ourselves or leading us only to inner balance, always make us start again from Jesus and constitute a genuine school to grow in love for God and neighbour.

Overwhelmed?

Mother Stuart wrote in a letter to Alban Goodier:" To set out from such words as Sea of peace, eternal Trinity. ..' and wade out and out into the bare thought of them, until I lose my footing and am overwhelmed."
We have all had some experience of being overwhelmed by God but may not know how to express it. Perhaps it takes a poet.

I find Holy Week a bit overwhelming and will not write about it today but share another poem from my dear RSCJ sister, Carol Bialock.
The Best Kept Secret

The best kept secret of them all:
Here is enough,
Now is plenty.

Waiting for something else is to scorn diamonds,
Running elsewhere is to cast off pearls.

Take the jewels and adorn yourself.
You will never glow more brilliantly then here;
You will never be more radiant than now.

Evelyn Underhill thought that "no soul of any sensitiveness can live through Holy Week without an awed and grateful sense of being incorporated in a mystery of self-giving love which yet remains far beyond our span."

I think I feel overwhelmed by such love. From the tenderness of Jesus at the Last Supper, giving us Himself and showing His love by washing the feet of each. Jesus tells them that He is the Vine and they are the branches. He has chosen them and they are to bear fruit. He tells them to remain in His love. What He says to them, he still says to each of us.

He humbled Himself...

The Pope's homily for Palm Sunday has stayed with me. I again want to share with you as I know we want to be with Jesus this week when we remember how He humbled Himself even to death on the cross.
Pope Francis says:
"Humility is above all God’s way: God humbles himself to walk with his people, to put up with their infidelity. This is clear when we read the Book of Exodus. How humiliating for the Lord to hear all that grumbling, all those complaints against Moses, but ultimately against him, their Father, who brought them out of slavery and was leading them on the journey through the desert to the land of freedom.

This week, Holy Week, which leads us to Easter, we will take this path of Jesus’ own humiliation. Only in this way will this week be “holy” for us too!

We will feel the contempt of the leaders of his people and their attempts to trip him up. We will be there at the betrayal of Judas, one of the Twelve, who will sell him for thirty pieces of silver. We will see the Lord arrested and carried off like a criminal; abandoned by his disciples, dragged before the Sanhedrin, condemned to death, beaten and insulted. We will hear Peter, the “rock” among the disciples, deny him three times. We will hear the shouts of the crowd, egged on by their leaders, who demand that Barabas be freed and Jesus crucified. We will see him mocked by the soldiers, robed in purple and crowned with thorns. And then, as he makes his sorrowful way beneath the cross, we will hear the jeering of the people and their leaders, who scoff at his being King and Son of God.

Palm Sunday

The Pope's homily on Palm Sunday was posted early this morning. He speaks of the humility of Jesus and the humiliations he suffered and our need to make this week a Holy Week by following Jesus. Humility leads to service and is the opposite of worldliness.

The Pope said: "Following this path to the full, the Son of God took on the “form of a slave” (cf. Phil 2:7). In the end, humility means service. It means making room for God by stripping oneself, “emptying oneself”, as Scripture says (v. 7). This is the greatest humiliation of all.

Joy and suffering

Ode to Joy is what Vatican radio titled the homily Pope Francis gave March 27th. He spoke of Abraham's joy and then said
"the joy of faith, the joy of the Gospel is the touchstone of a person’s faith: without joy that person is not a true believer”.


Although we want to be with Jesus as we enter Holy Week, we know that He suffered, died, and now is risen! That is our faith and that gives us joy. I firmly believe that Jesus wants us to rejoice in His love and, as the Pope says, "without joy that person is not a true believer."
During Holy Week we enter into the feelings of Jesus as He prepared to die for us and to die on the cross. He suffered this horrible death for us. His Heart was pierced for us to contemplate His great love for each of us. Devotion to the Heart of Christ gives me joy because I know that I am loved. May we show our love for Jesus as we follow Him during Holy Week. Let us also remember that the Paschal Mystery is both death and resurrection.

My I-pad does not seem to want me to change to larger print - I need to learn more or just go find a computer to write this blog!

Last Friday before Holy Week

Fridays in Lent are special days and this is the last Friday before Holy Week. It is time for us to look back over our Lenten desires to be with Jesus in a special way. I have tried to see the face of Jesus in each; I did not always manage to do this but often had the opportunity to humble myself and look for Jesus in the same person the next day. It is a great way to be with Jesus and, hopefully, I will continue to see Jesus in each as this is something that continues after Lent.
Maybe, when I see Jesus in others, they are also finding Jesus in me. One hopes so.

Feast of the Annunciation

He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to him.

Mary always did what is pleasing to God. We are called to do the same. This requires us to live a discerning life.
Mary also heeded the need to be still and know her God.

"Stillness isn’t an escape. It’s an entrance, to your innermost self, right where you are today." God is always waiting for us! Let us ask Mary to help us do what is pleasing to God and to be aware of God's presence in us today.

Simplicity

Simplicity is a virtue that is dear to me. Ever since I read in our Constitutions that we "must love and desire that simplicity which springs from the calmness of a soul who seeks and longs for her God, and who, without any thought so self or of her own interests, looks only to God Whom alone she wishes to love and please in all things," I have loved and desired this virtue.

One of my favorite sayings of st. Madeleine Sophie is:  "Be humble, be simple, give joy to others."

Simplicity gives joy.

Seasons in our life

We all experience what In Courage posted on March 21.
Spiritual seasons occur no matter where we live. These seasons come and these seasons go. They are constantly changing. It doesn’t matter where we live or how old we are.

Although God never changes, His work in our lives often does. The way He moved in our past circumstances will not necessarily be the way that He will move in our current or future ones. There comes a time in our relationship with Him when He calls us to set aside our old thinking and old ways.

It’s hard, but it’s the only way He can bring us into the new thing He wants to do in our lives. It’s a process. And it takes time. But God is so patient with us. He doesn’t waste those wilderness, wasteland moments. He often uses them to usher us into the next place of promise and to encourage those around us who are walking through the same thing.

We were without power so I did not post yesterday. I love the thought that we want to see Jesus. We can see Him in each one we meet. I guess I am spending some time reflecting on the way God is acting in me now!

Pictures help me to pray

So much beauty to contemplate! First I see the still water and it speaks to me of God. Then I look at the mountains and think of Jesus climbing the mountain to pray and one time he invited his three friends and was transfigured in prayer. And then my eyes are drawn to the clouds. I think of how God used a cloud to lead the chosen people. When the cloud stopped, they stopped and stayed until the cloud moved ahead.
 I remember how I used to imagine I was on a magic carpet with Jesus floating through clouds and then soaring over the different continents, stopping to pray for those in need. My imagination does not need this picture as I have so many stored away. They help me to pray.
We are having a Lenten day of retreat and keeping silence today with two talks. 

The Lord dreams of me . . .

Have you thought about it? The Lord dreams of me! He thinks of me! I am in the Lord’s mind and in His heart! The Lord can change my life! And he has many projects: ‘we will build houses and plant vineyards, we will share our meals’… these are the dreams of someone who is in love…. Thus we can see that the Lord is in love with his people. And when he says to his people: ‘I haven’t chosen you because you are the strongest, the biggest, the most powerful. I have chosen you because you are the smallest of them all. You could add: the most miserable. This is whom I have chosen’. This is love”.

These words of Pope Francis are to be pondered and believed. God loves us so much and wants us to let Him love us. Try it today and enter into His joy. He loves every person in every part of the world.

This is in honor of St. Joseph: (Should have posted it yesterday)

“St. Joseph's silence kept him so much in touch with God; at each crisis or turning point in life, God's voice was heard indicating the way.  He waited and prayed and took counsel with God. Was not St. Joseph a markedly singlehearted man of great purity of intention? 'Always seek the Beholder of the heart.' A thing not learned in a day, but by constant practice of letting go of the human standard. To seek simply 'What does God think, judge, will, in this matter?' is an eternal thought, judgment and decision that will give peace, strength and stability. All human thoughts and wills flicker so feebly. This is a steady light.”

Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ

Where are you going?

Pictures of paths fascinate me.
I long to explore, to wander free
Watching the birds, wondering why 
When they have the entire sky
They wish to nest in a tree.

I think that we constantly need to discern what path to take and I have found that it is good to enlist the aid of others in discerning any change of path.

While I am using the exercise machine in the morning, I watch 
frisky squirrels playing hide and seek. There is a beautiful bird who hops around on slender legs, dressed in blue and cocky, too.
When the playful squirrels hit ground, my pretty friend takes flight.

God, I thank you for this world of wonder!

Love drops in

He came.
There had been no gilt-edged invitation,
No pleading for his presence.
Love just wanted to drop in,
to surprise, as when He came
through locked doors.
His presence was comfortable,
needing no whys or wherefores,
and when He left,
an odor remained in the room,
Proof of some other country.

This is another poem by Carol Bialock, RSCJ and the title is 
"Another Country".

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I usually send St. Patrick's Day cards, but not this year so I just want to wish all my readers a very joyful day!
I do not know if we will be doing anything special here, but the nurse's central desk has some green shamrocks hanging from the ceiling. Alas, I have nothing green to wear. It is suddenly summer weather here and I have my heaviest clothes and did not get to pack myself to come out to California. The weather has been beautiful, 
but now quite warm! 
We had a group of students come over to help us with computer skills. I will now be able to write my blog on a community computer in the library and create a file for my pictures.
Now for a spiritual thought to reflect on today: "our sins are also symptoms of a basic interior attitude, one of refusing to let God give himself to us."
This quote is from Miriam Pollard's "The Laughter of God".

Joy resides in me

Today I wish to share with you another poem by Carol Bialock that I find helpful. The title is "Resolution".

I will not let the angel of joy
Flood my soul in vain
I will not let darkness
Be victorious.
When fear tightens its noose,
Constricts the heart,
Clogs the mind,
I will go to the man of light
Who has always befriended me
And breathe deep 
in the release
Of his embrace.

"All our joys are seen as Thee" - this line has stayed with me.
I think the Holy Spirit is working in me so that I am able to see God's presence constantly in the people and events in each day. Maybe I just am having more time to reflect but it is a grace. 

God is rich in mercy . . .

I often pray over the the passage of St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 2:4-10, the second reading for the Fourth Sunday of Lent. This is also Laetare Sunday as the opening Antiphon begins: "Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her.
Be joyful, all who were in mourning;
Exult and be satisfied at her consoling breast."

Paul tells us that "God is rich in mercy, because of the great love He had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ-- by grace you have been saved-- raised us up with him....
It is so true that God loves each of us unconditionally! That gives me joy! I rejoice in His love for me, for you, for each...

We had Pat's funeral yesterday and it was beautiful! Then we had a sharing of memories and Pat's joy, gratitude, and holiness came forth from so many recounting memories of Pat.

A Jubilee Year of Mercy

The announcement of the Pope proclaiming a Jubilee Year of Mercy gave me grat joy! It begins December 8, 2015 and will end on the Feast of Christ the King, last Sunday in November.

Here is something from the Pope's homily last Thursday:


The Lord is clear with the people who “have lost their faithfulness”: “Those who aren’t with me are against me”. One could ask: “Isn’t there a way to compromise, a little here and a little there?”. No, the Pontiff said. “Either you are on the path of love, or you’re on the path of hypocrisy. Either you let yourself be loved by the mercy of God, or you do what you want, according to your heart which grows harder, each time, on this path”. There is no “third path of compromise: either you’re holy or you take the other path”. Whoever “doesn’t gather” with the Lord, not only “abandons things” but “worse: scatters, destroys. He/she is a corruptor”, one “who corrupts”.

 "Harden not your hearts" - it is so important to listen to God. "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

I have been struck by the idea that in prayer I listen to God. Since silence is God's first language,  I listen with my heart; God is also listening to my heart!

Anointing

There is a beautiful anointing within Mass that all of us experienced on Wednesday. It gave me great consolation to receive this Sacrament of Healing. All the prayers are wonderful but I will just give a tiny sample. After the Litany and Petitions, there is a prayer of thanksgiving over the Blest Oil and then the priest extends his hands over all to be anointed and prays for the entire group:
"Through this holy anointing, may the Lord in His love and mercy help you with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
May the Lord who frees you from sin, save you and raise you up.
Amen."

Then the priest went to each of us and anointed our foreheads and hands with the holy oil.

What struck me most were these phrases in the prayer after the Anointing. "Father in Heaven, through this Holy Anointing, grant our sisters and friends comfort in thir suffering:
-when they are afraid, give them courage,
-when afflicted, give them patience,
-when dejected, give them hope.
Keep them firm in faith and serene in hope, so that they may be an example of patient and joyful witness to the power of your love. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

I prayed for courage, patience, and hope for all!

The Great Reformer

As most of my readers probably know by now, I am a great reader of all Pope Francis writes and have read many of the biographies that have been written about the Pope, but now I have still another to recommend.
It is a well-written book by Austen Ivereigh, a British writer and journalist. The title of this contextual biography is "The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope." With Notes and Index, it I over 400 pages and I have only read a third of the book, but I am enjoying it very much and learning a great deal at this point about Argentina as well as more about Francis. I do continue to read The Pope App each day and recommend that again, too.

Here is something to reflect on today with no connection to the book recommendation:

Jean-Pierre de Caussade reminds us: “What God arranges for us to experience at each moment is the best and holiest thing that could happen to us.”

The Future of Community

We all come from a place of pain
and a place of peace
and the sharing is a renaissance

It's all right to be human, hungry, hurt;
and it's all right to have joy, serenity, hope.

Trust opens our mouths to tell the truth of our pain;
trust opens our hearts to the balm of love;
trust opens our eyes to the thread of light
         That weaves us into one.

This Poem is from a collection of poems by Carol Bialock, rscj.
I went to school with Carol who was a senior when I was a freshman at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles and then at Maryville; then we were in the novitiate together and later she came to Chile and now we are again together here in Oakwood.

The sixth month...

Sometimes we need perspective that only time can give. I think it is good to look back over our life from time to time. I usually did this monthly in preparation for spiritual direction. Yesterday, I realized that this is the sixth month of being in unusual circumstances (I have enjoyed good health and taken it for granted). I have been in the hospital for almost a month, then rehab, then out to Oakwood to recuperate and spending another 100 days in isolation and on antibiotics to try to get rid of an infection that kept returning. Yet, looking back over these months, I am aware of so many graces.
I am going to share with you what I wrote in my Journal yesterday: Graces received
- a deeper, more intimate and constant relationship with Jesus
-a felt presence of the Trinity, Mary, and sometimes my parents surrounding me
- my love and need for community
- the value of silence and solitude for contemplation
- an increased love for my vocation to he Society of the Sacred Heart
- deeper trust in the Heart of Jesus
- further confirmation that I am to pipe a song of joy to Jesus

I could continue, but that is what I wrote yesterday in prayer.

Another RSCJ went home to God...

Just across the hall from me was a good friend Sister Pat Thro. She wanted to go to heaven and God took her peacefully this morning while we were at Mass praying for her.
This is the third death since I came to recuperate at Oakwood. Pat was several years behind me but we both went to the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles. We took a seminar together at St. Louis University and then I got to know her when I would stay in her community in St. Louis. She was so welcoming when I arrived here. Having her just across the hall was wonderful, at least when I was not in isolation.
I guess a death so close makes us all realize that we are here on earth only for a short time. I am thinking of death but more about living to be happy to greet Jesus when we do die.

Third Sunday of Lent

Lord, you have the words of everlasting life... Jesus speaks to us in so many ways each day. Am I attentive to His voice?

Yesterday was the first Saturday of the month and, here at Oakwood, we pray an "Act of Consecration of the Society of the Sacred Heart to the Immaculate Heart of Mary".  I was so struck by what we say, that I felt I should copy it here for you.

Holy  Mary, Queen of Virgins, we come today with confidence and love to consecrate ourselves to your Immaculate Heart.
You are the Mother of Fair Love. In you is all hope of life and of virtue.
Grant us this day the desire of our hearts by giving us
  A love strong as death, which will separate us from all that is not God;
  A love so generous in its conformity to the good pleasure of God, that it may transform us and I give us new life;
  A love so ardent that it may enkindle the souls of those confided to our care;
  A love so insatiable that all work and suffering may be as fuel to feed its flame until our last breath.
Mother of Holy Hope set your Divine Son as a seal upon our hearts and upon our arms, that we may, after your example, live and act by Him and for Him alone.
Intercede for our Holy Mother the Church in all her needs.
Save all who put their trust in You.
Bless our Society so devoted to You and to your Son.
Be the stay and support of our Central Team, and grant that we who are united with you in love on earth may bless you and rejoice in you for all eternity. Amen.

God is not aloof from us...

It is time to look again at the Pope's Lenten Message:

Lent is a time of renewal for the whole Church, for each communities and every believer. Above all it is a “time of grace” (2 Cor 6:2). God does not ask of us anything that he himself has not first given us. “We love because he first has loved us” (1 Jn 4:19). He is not aloof from us. Each one of us has a place in his heart. He knows us by name, he cares for us and he seeks us out whenever we turn away from him. He is interested in each of us; his love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us. Usually, when we are healthy and comfortable, we forget about others (something God the Father never does): we are unconcerned with their problems, their sufferings and the injustices they endure... Our heart grows cold. As long as I am relatively healthy and comfortable, I don’t think about those less well off. Today, this selfish attitude of indifference has taken on global proportions, to the extent that we can speak of a globalization of indifference. It is a problem which we, as Christians, need to confront.
When the people of God are converted to his love, they find answers to the questions that history continually rises. One of the most urgent challenges which I would like to address in this Message is precisely the globalization of indifference. 
Indifference to our neighbor and to God also represents a real temptation for us Christians. Each year during Lent we need to hear once more the voice of the prophets who cry out and trouble our conscience.

Each one of us has a place in god's Heart!

He cares for us...he seeks us out whenever we turn away from Him...

His love does not allow him to be indifferent to what happens to us...

And how do we act? Am I indifferent to the plight of others? Am I part of the "globalization of indifference?

First Friday

i woke up at 5:30 and realized that I had left my window wide open last night. I closed it and went back to bed to think about all the First Friday's in my life that stand out because of different ways we celebrated each First Friday when I was a child at the Academy of the Visitation, then my two years at St. Roch's, the Academy of the Sacred Heart for High School and then Maryville where the Mass was obligatory unless the Dean of Students gave permission to be absent. Here at Oakwood, the Mass is at 9:30 instead of 9:00 so the Children of Mary can be present. The mixture of childhood memories ( white veils, procession with banner, red sashes, hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls!) still influence me today, but now it is a special day for me to honor the Heart of Jesus and tell Him of my love and let myself be loved by Him.

Why am I alive?

Do you ever ask yourself why you are alive when so many die? I woke up last night pondering this question because I was really ready to die and I am sure it was the power of prayer that kept me alive and a miracle that I am now well. God must want something from me still - God seems to have arranged things so that my life is more contemplative. As much as I want to get back to Miami, I realize that God is planning things so that I now will be here for Holy Week and Easter and then still have more time here before our meeting with the Central Team in Grand Coteau. And then I have another ten days in Coteau. We have the oldest Sacred Heart school in continuous existence in the Society of the Sacred Heart. I love the school, the grounds, the Jesuit retreat house, and the work we do there and have done since 1822.

Time and Space for God

"Through all stages of our life our prayer invites us to the depths of God."  This is another quote from the Chapter of 2008 that makes me stop and ponder. The depths of God - infinite deepness. How do we descend into the depths of God? I am sure my entrance is through the Heart of Christ. I do have a personal relationship with each membe of the Blessed Trinity and it is in quiet prayer that the descent into the depths happens. I only know that it is not my doing and it is pure grace.

"Giving time and space for prayer will help us to be the heart of God in our world."  That is true and essential. I will end my reflection on the priority of Contemplation with one more quote that I find consoling:"The desire for interior life finds a home in us and draws us to abide in God."
To abide in God is bliss!

In the secret place of the heart...

Again the Chapter of 2008 has led me to pray and reflect on our priority for contemplation. I remember having a visit with my Provincial as I began my 80th year of life. I told her that I thought the time had come for me to retire from the University. She said,
"But, Helen! What will you do?"
I replied that I hoped to become more contemplative! And I think I have and it is pure gift. I also still find myself daydreaming or thinking without taking the time to be still. The Chapter document says:"..we are called to stop, to choose silence and to open and let ourselves be opened to our inner depths where the Spirit of God allows us to feel, see and understand life and reality with God's heart. When we allow our bodies to be silent, our senses awaken and we are able to hear the voice of the Spirit within us. Then in the secret place of the heart the Spirit gradually transforms our feelings and responses, and draws us into an intimate relationship with God."
Let us explore the secret place of the heart today and there we find the Heart of Jesus opens for us to entr and descend into the depths.

Rooted in the Heart of Christ

The Chapter of 2008 has Contemplation as a priority and begins by saying that we are women rooted in the heart of Christ. I keep thinking about that phrase, "rooted in the Heart of Christ" and what that means for me. It is where I am planted. My roots go deep into His Heart where I find all I need.
I drink of the life-giving water; I draw out His Love to give it to others. Because I am rooted in Love, I stand firm through storms and even earthquakes.

I leave this phrase for you to reflect on your own experience of being rooted in Christ.

Encounter with Jesus

The Transfiguration is one of my favorite Gospel readings. Peter, James, and John were used to the very human Jesus who had called them, eaten with them, walked the dusty paths with them, etc. Now Jesus invites them to climb the mountain with him. They follow Jesus up the mountain and witness his transfiguration. It is an encounter with Jesus who is divine as well as human.

We are all invited to a personal encounter with Jesus. The Pope began his "Evangelii Gaudium"
saying:
"I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not for him or her” (EG, nr. 3).

This means that the ultimate purpose of evangelization is not the transmission of a doctrine, but an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ. The possibility of such a face to face encounter depends on the fact that Jesus, risen, is alive and desires to walk next to every believer, as he really walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus; more than that, as he was in their very heart, when they returned to Jerusalem, after having received him in the broken bread."

During Lent we encounter Jesus and, when we take time to be aware of the Presence of Jesus, we realize that Jesus is with us and walks with us even when we feel discouraged.