"I am where God wills me to be, and so I have found rest and security.
God's wisdom governs me,
God's power defends me,
God's mercy encompasses me,
God's joy sustains me,
And all will go well with me."
I keep this on my desk and find it helps me to feel deep peace and joy.
"Christ's is the seed and Christ's is the harvest;
May he gather us all in his barn.
Christ's is the sea and Christ's the fish;
May his net embrace us all."
Let us pray and offer all we do today for peace!
"Above all remember that you are the most cherished object of God's most tender love. May God convince you of that."
I put a large "Amen!" under it and wrote on the back my gratitude. Giving a Busy Person's Retreat is always a grace.
I also had a zoom with the group that I spent last Saturday morning with on zoom doing a Guided Imagery. This Saturday, the entire group on zoom shared the fruit of our guided imagery and I was so impressed with the sharing of each. I also was reminded today of what my director told me in the wonderful 30-day retreat I had in Spain years ago. He told me that God only wants me to be effective, not efficient. I think that has helped me over the years to do many things that have been effective, if not always efficient.
It is always helpful to pray over this parable. Jesus was aware that the Pharisees and scribes were complaining because Jesus both welcomed sinners and ate with them. So, Jesus tells them about the father who has two sons. The younger son asks for his inheritance and then leaves. He spends all he has and is reduced to feeding pigs and wishing he could eat the husks he gives them. Finally, he realizes that his father's hired workers have more than enough to eat, and he needs to go back and beg to be treated as one of the hired workers. Before he can arrive, his father caught sight of him and is filled with compassion. "He ran to his son and kissed him." Then he gives a feast to celebrate his son's return. The other brother is angry and refuses to go in to rejoice at his brother's return. The father comes out and tells him: "My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."
I love this Gospel for I am sure the God is always waiting for us and wants to love us, if we just let Him.
"Enter into silence, into the Heart of Truth
for herein lies the Great Mystery
where life is ever unfolding....
May the peace of the Spirit bless you and lead you on life's journey.
Be not afraid of the Silence for Wisdom's voice is heard there!
Enter into the Holy Temple of your soul,
converse with the Beloved in sweet communion.
Blessings of the Great Silence be with you
as you help to rebuild the heart of the World with love!"
I did not write yesterday as I have been caught up in the Busy Person's Retreat and having zooms and visits with my three retreatants. It has been a joy to be with each and we finish with a final prayer this afternoon. Here at Oakwood, we will also be having Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament all afternoon to pray for peace.
That is all I had time to write before we were called back to share, but I have many images to think about during this week and even dialogue with some of them, but the silence was impressive!
If any of my readers want to know more about the Busy Person's Retreat, please just ask. We begin with prayer on Monday, individual visits the next three days and then a closing prayer session on Friday. The individual visits are what are most helpful as many have not had a spiritual companion or director. My role is just to listen to my retreatant and also to the Holy Spirit.
Tomorrow I will share my guided imagery experience from last Saturday's zoom, or at least I hope to do this. It is a busy week full of many zooms.
Now, I have a really good story about a fig tree. I went to Coquimbo in the poorest region of Chile with a desert climate. The only tree in the community backyard was a fig tree. It had not yielded any fruit in previous years so the community thought it was miraculous that it suddenly bore fruit abundantly the first year I arrived. Since we were really poor and the five of us were living on the salary of what one workman would earn when I arrived, those figs were a gift from heaven.
To just tell you the readings for this Sunday as some might want to look at them at home, the first reading is from the Book of Exodus 3:1-8, 13-15 and is about the burning bush and God speaking to Moses and telling him that he had come down to rescue the people from the Egyptians. Then God tells Moses that "I am who am."
Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord is kind and merciful."
The second reading is from the first Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12
Gospel is from Luke: 13: 1-9
Sometimes the Gospel is that of the Samaritan woman who met Jesus at the well. John 4: 5-42
Prayer of Pope Francis to St. Joseph
Hail, Guardian of the Redeemer,
Spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
To you God entrusted his only Son;
in you Mary placed her trust;
with you Christ became a man.
Blessed Joseph, to us too,
Show yourself a father
and guide us in the path of life.
Obtain for us grace, mercy, and courage,
and defend us from every evil. Amen.
I am having some good thoughts about the stars ever since I found myself floating around them in a guided imagery. This Saturday, I will be having another guided imagery experience by zoom. It is also the Feast of St. Joseph. I admire Joseph so much and feel that he is very present to us. He is the silent one. I think of my Dad. He was always there for us and worked hard to provide for all of us. He never complained. He would get up early on Sundays to go to Mass and then come home to fix wonderful Sunday breakfasts for the rest of the family. Until my brothers were born, we always went to Mass together, but this was during the war and we were now living a short walk from the Church.
Besides praying for peace and for the plight of the thousands of refugees in all parts of our world, I am praying for the process of the synod. Everyone of us needs to participate and make our voices heard.
Besides preparing for the Synod of Bishops in 2023, we are all caught up in "synodality". Pope Francis said that a synodal Church is a listening Church "know that listening is more than feeling. It is a mutual listening in which everyone has something to learn." Synodality provides opportunities to listen to the Holy Spirit and the People of God in order to discern together how to live our spiritual journey to follow Jesus Christ. I do hope everyone is involved and that the Bishops are listening to the people.
I just found this picture and love it. The lighthouse overlooks Lake Superior and is not active now, but I love lighthouses and my imagination usually invents a story about the keeper of the light, etc.
Now, I know we are all praying for peace. Offering my Lenten resolutions for peace is helping me to keep them. I also found a great bargain watch that not only gives you the time, date, tracks your steps, tell you how many calories you have burned, gives you your temperature, heart rate, blood pressure and oxygen, and is able to do other things, but I really only wanted it to help me exercise. I found it on Amazon for $18.99 with free shipping and so I got it with a Valentine Day gift certificate and love it. One cannot buy lunch out here for that amount of money, so I am happy with my purchase. It is the cheapest fitness tracker but seems to be working perfectly so far. I did take it off last night and had to get out of bed twice and it started flashing and there does not seem to be a way to turn it off or put it to sleep so I just put it in a drawer, and it was fine this morning. I think I need to charge it about once a week.
Sorry I am late posting today. We are decorating for St. Patrick's and will have corn beef, potatoes, and cabbage with carrots for dinner tomorrow. That is very Irish, but we are also having German potato salad! Our chefs are wonderful.
I am praying with the Gospel of last Sunday where Jesus took his three friends up the mountain to pray. I think Jesus is still inviting each of us to go apart and pray with Him. You can just be there with Him in silence or you can also talk to Him about all your concerns. I just like the idea of thinking that Jesus invites me to go up the mountain with Him. We get a brief glimpse of Jesus transfigured and then hear God telling us that this is His chosen Son and telling us to listen to Him. Try praying with this Gospel. Or just go anywhere with Jesus and sit at His feet in silence.
The Gospel for today's liturgy is from Luke: 6:36-38. It is very short, but powerful and so I am copying it for reflection today.
"Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you."
I suspect each of us will find one phrase to ponder and try to make fruitful in our own lives. I find that I am sometimes judging others and will watch that as I do not want to be judged!
The first reading is from the Book of Genesis 15:5-12, 17-18
"The Lord God took Abram outside and said, 'Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so, he added, shall your descendants be."
Responsorial Psalm: "The Lord is my light and my salvation"
Second Reading is from Paul's Letter to the Philippians 3:17-4:1.
The Gospel is from Luke 9: 28-36
Luke tells us how Jesus took Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray. He was transfigured while praying. Then, Moses and Elijah appeared in glory and conversed with Jesus. Then, from a cloud came a voice that said, "This is my chosen Son, listen to Him"
I love this Gospel and often find that Jesus is inviting me to go up the mountain with Him. God the Father also tells me to listen to His chosen Son.
Now, we are all praying for peace and so those prayers are being carried to heaven, but maybe God is waiting for us to show that we are really ready to sacrifice in order to stop this fighting.
I finally have Maureen Chicoine's book to read. She lives here and we did share research when she began writing Grave on the Prairie: Seven Religious of the Sacred Heart and Saint Mary's Mission to the Potawatomi. I know I will love reading it and remembering the work we did in Kansas. I love reading Society history and need to make more time for that, too.
I hope you are still all keeping your Lenten resolutions or at least keep trying to do so. Since I am offering my resolutions for peace in our world, it seems a bit easier to keep them.
We now have a picture of Pope Francis crying in our Chapel to help us unite to his plea for peace. We also have his prayer for peace; we said it together after Mass and will continue to do this some days.
We have a funeral this morning. This is the last one, we hope, for a few months at least. We do come here to prepare for death, but I think we have had 22 deaths in the last three years, none from Covid, but one misses one's friends. I guess they are watching over us from heaven.
I hope you all are persevering with whatever you decided to do for Lent. Do not give up. Remember that if it is the resolution you need, you probably have broken it by now! That proves that it is a good resolution for you to take so keep trying.
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The first reading is from the Book of Deuteronomy 26:4-10
The Responsorial Psalm: "Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble." Verses from Psalm 9
The second reading is from the Letter of Paul to the Romans" 10: 8-13
The Gospel is from Luke 4: 1-10 and is the story of Jesus being tempted in the desert.
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He must have told his disciples about this experience. He spent forty days there and that is why we have forty days of Lent. I do remember a Jesuit telling us when I was only 13 during my first retreat at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles, that forty days was just long enough to really change. He asked us to say the prayer of St. Ignatius that begins, "Lord, teach me to be generous ..." for the forty days after the retreat. I began to think a bit about vocation in that retreat. Since we were boarders, we entered into retreat on Monday night and came out only on Friday morning. We kept perfect silence. That was quite an experience!
Maybe we need to think what the Spirit is asking of us for these forty days. If the Holy Spirit is leading us into this "desert" of Lent, we will have the grace to keep trying to keep whatever resolution we are inspired to take.
Fast from hurting words and say kind words.
Fast from sadness and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from anger and be filled with gratitude.
Fast from pessimism and be filled with hope.
Fast from worries and trust in God.
Fast from complaints and contemplate simplicity.
Fast from pressures and be prayerful.
Fast from bitterness and fill your heart with joy.
Fast from selfishness and be compassionate to others.
Fast from grudges and be reconciled.
Fast from words and be silent so you can listen.
I am trying to keep my Lenten resolutions and doing it for peace.
Let us be constant in striving to keep our resolutions and that effort can be pleasing to God and move the world to desire and take the means to peace. I do not want war, but I fear that we cannot sit back and accept another country to take over territory that does not belong to them.
Perhaps our prayer may reach the hearts of the Russian people who may refuse to send their men and boys into conflict. Let us pray.
We will have a special "Mardi Gras" social at 2:30 in the Gathering Room. It is good to celebrate before Lent and we are very much aware that March 2 is Ash Wednesday this year. It is time to think, pray, and discern what God might be asking of each of us this Lent.
