Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI on Palm Sunday

I thought this last paragraph worth copying here in my blog for us as we enter into Holy Week: I guess I seem to have copied the whole but you could skip to the last part. Unless you have time for all, just go to the bold part.

Sunday, April 01, 2012
"Who Is Jesus For Us?"
HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
ST PETER'S SQUARE
1 APRIL 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes up to Jerusalem in order to fulfil the Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will reign for ever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption. We know from the Gospels that Jesus had set out towards Jerusalem in company with the Twelve, and that little by little a growing crowd of pilgrims had joined them. Saint Mark tells us that as they were leaving Jericho, there was a "great multitude" following Jesus (cf. 10:46).

On the final stage of the journey, a particular event stands out, one which heightens the sense of expectation of what is about to unfold and focuses attention even more sharply upon Jesus. Along the way, as they were leaving Jericho, a blind man was sitting begging, Bartimaeus by name. As soon as he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he began to cry out: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mk 10:47). People tried to silence him, but to no avail; until Jesus had them call him over and invited him to approach. "What do you want me to do for you?", he asked. And the reply: "Master, let me receive my sight" (v. 51). Jesus said: "Go your way, your faith has made you well." Bartimaeus regained his sight and began to follow Jesus along the way (cf. v. 52). And so it was that, after this miraculous sign, accompanied by the cry "Son of David", a tremor of Messianic hope spread through the crowd, causing many of them to ask: this Jesus, going ahead of us towards Jerusalem, could he be the Messiah, the new David? And as he was about to enter the Holy City, had the moment come when God would finally restore the Davidic kingdom?

The preparations made by Jesus, with the help of his disciples, serve to increase this hope. As we heard in today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 11:1-10), Jesus arrives in Jerusalem from Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, that is, the route by which the Messiah was supposed to come. From there, he sent two disciples ahead of him, telling them to bring him a young donkey that they would find along the way. They did indeed find the donkey, they untied it and brought it to Jesus. At this point, the spirits of the disciples and of the other pilgrims were swept up with excitement: they took their coats and placed them on the colt; others spread them out on the street in Jesus’ path as he approached, riding on the donkey. Then they cut branches from the trees and began to shout phrases from Psalm 118, ancient pilgrim blessings, which in that setting took on the character of messianic proclamation: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!" (v. 9-10). This festive acclamation, reported by all four evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the longed-for Messiah has finally come. And everyone is there, growing in expectation of the work that Christ will accomplish once he has entered the city.

But what is the content, the inner resonance of this cry of jubilation? The answer is found throughout the Scripture, which reminds us that the Messiah fulfills the promise of God’s blessing, God’s original promise to Abraham, father of all believers: "I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you ... and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves" (Gen 12:2-3). It is the promise that Israel had always kept alive in prayer, especially the prayer of the Psalms. Hence he whom the crowd acclaims as the blessed one is also he in whom the whole of humanity will be blessed. Thus, in the light of Christ, humanity sees itself profoundly united and, as it were, enfolded within the cloak of divine blessing, a blessing that permeates, sustains, redeems and sanctifies all things.

Here we find the first great message that today’s feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations. The look that the believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing: a wise and loving look, capable of grasping the world’s beauty and having compassion on its fragility. Shining through this look is God’s own look upon those he loves and upon Creation, the work of his hands. We read in the Book of Wisdom: "But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men’s sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest all things that exist and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made ... thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living" (11:23-24, 26).

Let us return to today’s Gospel passage and ask ourselves: what is really happening in the hearts of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel? Clearly, they had their own idea of the Messiah, an idea of how the long-awaited King promised by the prophets should act. Not by chance, a few days later, instead of acclaiming Jesus, the Jerusalem crowd will cry out to Pilate: "Crucify him!", while the disciples, together with others who had seen him and listened to him, will be struck dumb and will disperse. The majority, in fact, was disappointed by the way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. This is the heart of today’s feast, for us too. Who is Jesus of Nazareth for us? What idea do we have of the Messiah, what idea do we have of God? It is a crucial question, one we cannot avoid, not least because during this very week we are called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne. We are called to follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness, but the happiness of heaven, divine beatitude. So we must ask ourselves: what are our true expectations? What are our deepest desires, with which we have come here today to celebrate Palm Sunday and to begin our celebration of Holy Week?

Dear young people, present here today, this, in a particular way, is your Day, wherever the Church is present throughout the world. So I greet you with great affection! May Palm Sunday be a day of decision for you, the decision to say yes to the Lord and to follow him all the way, the decision to make his Passover, his death and resurrection, the very focus of your Christian lives. It is the decision that leads to true joy, as I reminded you in this year’s World Youth Day Message – "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4). So it was for Saint Clare of Assisi when, on Palm Sunday 800 years ago, inspired by the example of Saint Francis and his first companions, she left her father’s house to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. She was eighteen years old and she had the courage of faith and love to decide for Christ, finding in him true joy and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, may these days call forth two sentiments in particular: praise, after the example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with their "Hosanna!", and thanksgiving, because in this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so great a gift, that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer, our entering into a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died and rose for us. The early Church Fathers saw a symbol of all this in the gesture of the people who followed Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem, the gesture of spreading out their coats before the Lord. Before Christ – the Fathers said – we must spread out our lives, ourselves, in an attitude of gratitude and adoration. As we conclude, let us listen once again to the words of one of these early Fathers, Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete: "So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye only for a few brief hours. But we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or with the whole Christ ... so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet ... let us offer not palm branches but the prizes of victory to the conqueror of death. Today let us too give voice with the children to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’" (PG 97, 994). Amen!

Preparing for the Sunday after Easter

I guess families with small children are still peeling colored hard-boiled eggs and eating chocolate bunnies. I am just beginning to get to today's Gospel when Jesus appears again to the Apostles but Thomas is now with them. Jesus always comes to bring peace and greets them with "Peace be with you." He calls Thomas to come and put his finger into the wounds of his hands and to put his hand into the wound in his side. Thomas only needs to see the risen Lord to exclaim, "My Lord and my God." Then Jesus says those words that are so consoling for us: "Blessed are those who have not seen and who believe..."

We are given the gift of faith in Baptism. Let us thank for this gift and trust God.

Sophie's Journal - 2

The circumstances connected with the foundation at Poitiers, the experience of having to combine the roles of local superior, Mistress of Novices and Superior General, all contributed to the growth of Mother Barat's own spirituality as she sought to form others. The shy Sophie, so recently called a "perpetual trembler" by Father Varin, was now training others to trust the Heart of Jesus, to wait, to be silent, and to depend upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Are not we called to trust the Heart of Jesus, to learn to wait for the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and be silent so that we can hear his voice? How am I doing this in my daily life?
Sophie wanted to live her life under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How am I developing a relationship with the Holy Spirit? What can I do today to remember the powerful presence of the Spirit in my life?

St. Madeleine Sophie's Journal - 1

St. Madeleine Sophie Barat 1779-1865

Before I begin sharing about St. Madeleine Sophie, you may want to read what one of our Sisters has recently written about her:

The lifetime of Madeleine Sophie Barat, has much in common with our modern time of conflict and strivings for peace. Born in Joigny, a village in the wine growing country of northern France, her early life spanned the turbulent years of the French Revolution. In 1800 with two companions she made vows in the newly formed Society of the Sacred Heart. By 1804 she was named Superior General, and the years she led the society were years of further revolution in France and throughout Europe.
Living in a period of political upheaval and suffering, Madeleine Sophie envisioned a life of both contemplation and action for the members of the Society of the Sacred Heart. The foundation of their prayer and ministry is dedication to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Devotion to the Sacred Heart places its emphasis on the humanity of Jesus, the relationship of love between Christ and his followers, and provides the impetus for bringing joy and hope to a divided world.
From its beginnings the chief ministry of the Society has remained education and ministry to those suffering poverty and privation. Convinced that the greatest need of her day was the education of women, Madeleine Sophie founded schools both for those who could pay tuition and for those who could not. Her convents were also centers of retreat work. Before she died in Paris in 1865, Madeleine Sophie saw the expansion of the Society of the Sacred Heart into the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, England, and Latin America.
Such is the legacy that Madeleine Sophie’s followers carry forward today in various ministries in 45 countries of the world. As St. Madeleine Sophie said before her death:
"There is a spirit of the Society. Our first movement . . .
is the contemplative life, that is what we must do in prayer. But it is then that Jesus says to us: “Go, tell my sisters and brothers.” Mary becomes an apostle. Why can we not say to the whole universe: “Know His Heart!”?
- Martha Curry, RSCJ


The most improtant document left to the Society of the Sacred Heart by St. Madeleine Sophie before the Constitutions of 1815 was her Journal kept in Poitiers 1806-1808. It gives an account of her trip from Grenoble to Poitiers and the foundation of the first novitiate there. It is the only time the foundress kept a journal, and it reveals the interior as well as the exterior life of this saintly woman who was so simple and straightforward. The journal permits us to follow the development of her spirituality and the formation she gave to others who were also called to live in union and conformity with the Heart of Jesus.
The first time the Journal was made known in its entirety was in 1977 when Marie-Therese Virnot published a critical edition. Madeleine Sophie's original journal was lost at an early date, but Mother Virnot worked with four manuscript copies. After a comparative study it was evident that the most authentic copy was that of Henriette Girard; this copy seems to have been made before 1811. The published critical edition contains 104 pages of which the first eight describe the journey of Madeleine Sophie from Grenoble to Poitiers. The rest is concerned with the foundation at Poitiers and the training of the novices.
I find that there is much to reflect upon in this Journal and will give excerpts from it for the month leading up to Sophie's feast which is May 25. I welcome comments from my readers.

I will sometimes call St. Madeleine Sophie Barat just Sophie; at other times I will call her Mother Barat; and sometimes she will be Madeleine Sophie. She usually signed herself "Barat" but lately we have learned to call her simply Sophie.

Thomas Merton's influence on a spiritual journey

Today I am sharing something that one of my students wrote on Thomas Merton. I think you will like it and it will lead you to reflect on your own prayer. This is from Dahlia Herring and is not in a letter form but could be called a Letter from Albany"

There are three things that I have found at the core of Thomas Merton’s writings that have deeply influenced my own spiritual journey:

First, Tom Merton is probably most famous for introducing the idea that you do not need to join a Trappist monastery in order to become a contemplative. What Merton means by contemplation appears to be two things. It means, of course, that wordless, imageless, silent prayer that many of us now call centering prayer. But “contemplation” also means our direct experience of God, which can happen to us at any time. It can occur during our deepest solitary prayer time, or when we are watching a sunset or when we see a homeless person and realize that we are one with him, because he, and you and I are all part of God and God is all part of us. In many ways, Tom Merton has helped us to democratize the spiritual life. He tells us over and over again, that all of us – monk, nun, housewife, nurse, corporate president - all of us are loved by God and have the same access to God.

Tom’s second great influence in my life is that he has made it OK to learn about, and experience, other faith traditions. Make no mistake - he remained a Catholic, throughout his adult life. However, he was able to see clearly how all of the world’s great faiths – Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism – have, the very same spirit moving through them. Merton’s spiritual life reminds me of a large oak tree. Its roots go both deep and wide – deeply anchored in his Christian faith, while spreading out wide to drink in the differences and the underlying commonalities among all faiths.

And finally, Merton understood that we are called to a life of prayer but also a life of service. Here is a fellow who lived most of his life apart from the world. Yet, he spent many of his later years writing in clear and prophetic language about the issues of his time. So, despite his cloistered life, Merton managed to live right in the middle of all of the world’s messiness. What was most important about Merton’s social activism is that it arises directly from his contemplative life. There is no separation. And even more than any particular writings, it is the way Tom Merton lived his life – with prayer at the root of all service to the world - that has become a living example for me.

Letters from Scotland - 6

The picture today shows the isle of Iona.

Dear Helen,
The textbook for the religion class in my second year of secondary education was called Hart’s Christian Doctrine. Each chapter began with a quote. The first chapter of our new book began with St Augustine’s: "Our hearts are restless till they rest in Thee." Discussing this in essay form was the homework set for one evening. Using all the experience of my thirteen years I put my heart and soul into conjuring up every reason why nothing in this life could satisfy and why we would find heart-rest only in eternity. The essay could easily have been entitled "No rest for the wicked except that humor did not abound in those days. At the end of it the teacher penciled VG...but was it? With that little treatise I think I somehow distanced God from me and constructed an image of God for myself as one who demands restless yearning along with the realization that this life could only be unsatisfying. Only years later would I come to know that our image of God must change and grow and this proved a challenge involving much inner work.
Your re-acquainting me with St Augustine during your course was a source of grace and growth for me. My childish essay came back to me and in one of those sudden moments of insight I realized that resting in God need not be only the end goal of life but we could rest in Him in the here and now. Perhaps for the first time the gift of resting my heart in the Heart of God became a longed for reality and some of that self constructed distance of separation and longing disappeared.
Augustine’s other famous quote "Late Have I Loved Thee" now took over as a prayer of peace in me. Late have I loved Thee, O my Lord. Late have I rested my heart in Thee.
And so with Augustine we came to the end of our first semester. You had guided us through five hundred years of Christian spirituality and I had begun the shortest and yet the longest journey of all - from head to heart.
Your Student, Jane.

Letters from Scotland - 5

Dear Helen,
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I love words – chewing over them and exploring them. When you suggested your students make time to read John Cassian’s tenth conference I realized immediately that here was a man of antiquity who was in love with words too. He could chew them over to perfection. What a joy his sermons must have been.
The life of John Cassian (c360 – c432) took him from his probable birthplace in Dobrudja in Romania to a monastery in Bethlehem from where he gained permission to spend time learning from the monks in the monasteries of the Egyptian desert. Further journeying would lead him to Constantinople, Rome and eventually to Marseilles where he founded a monastery and a nunnery. It was in Gaul that he wrote books to explain the monastic ideal and thus became an invaluable resource for our knowledge of Egyptian Spirituality.
For me, Cassian’s conference on prayer was a delight for there he explores in extraordinary depth and with no little charm how well suited to absolutely every situation in our lives is the prayer: O God, come to my assistance: Lord make haste to help me. It seems it would serve us on every breath, in every hour, every moment. Great emphasis is placed in his work on the mastery of the psalms and conditioning ourselves by ceaseless meditation on Scripture as background to our lives, interspersed with ejaculatory prayers consisting of Scriptural texts. The Psalms we are told are the language of the Holy Spirit and a gift for our converse with God.
As I am getting ready to go on holiday and looking out my Italian phrasebook I began to wonder what John Cassian’s phrasebook would include for the beginner in this language of the Spirit, phrases that would lead to confidence and fluency. Lines from psalms which I have loved and used to lighten my days might find themselves there:
Your word is a light to my feet and a lamp for my path...
For you my soul is thirsting for You like a dry weary land without water...
When can I enter and see the face of God...
Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death you are there with your rod and staff to comfort me...
It is your face that I seek, O Lord, hide not your face...
You open wide your hand, O Lord, and give us our food in due time...
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord...
Ring out your joy to The Lord, serve Him with gladness...

Your student, Jane.

Letters from Scotland -4

Dear Helen,
One of your RSCJ Sisters I’ve known for more than forty years, a missionary like yourself, lives in the North of Ireland. I call her my one-liner friend. She came to mind when you gave your students a whistle-stop tour of the Desert Fathers and Mothers who were part of that great fourth and fifth century movement which we now know as desert spirituality. These Ammas and Abbas were famously sought out for their good counsel. “Give us a word,” the seekers would say. The life giving words that were delivered, like the ones often spoken for me, were short, pithy, insightful, seeing to the heart of situations, clearing confusion, somewhat like sunlight glancing off the still waters of a lake and then reverberating in ripples that enrich our lives, presented always with love that nurtures and leads us to see God in our lives.
Today we find these original desert sayings recorded in accessible and attractive books. Modern day authors, like Thomas Merton, Benedicta Ward and Rowan Williams, have turned to these ancients for inspiration and mined for us, with their reflection and insight, the solid gold of this rich seam of desert spirituality.
Such friends, such Ammas and Abbas, know the desert and its ways; their prayer has made them the people they are; somehow their lives lived have been distilled into wisdom. I hope we all have one-liner-wisdom friends and that when they give us a word to treasure we recognize it for the gift it is and joyfully give thanks. The Holy Spirit truly moves among us.
Your Student, Jane.

Letters from Scotland- 3

Jane is from Perth so the picture is from Perth today. This is her third letter.

Dear Helen,
One of the stories my mother loved to tell about me was of how keen I was to start school and how, to the amusement of friends and family, her five year old would solemnly tell them that now she was at school, she was a knower of things. Chance would have been a fine thing and knower of things a childish exaggeration. I remembered that story when I came to your class those five years ago. I had just got my first computer and it was still very much a mystery to me. I had no broadband connection so things were slow. The Internet seemed an alien land and my typing skills were poor. Now I was about to become – Researcher of Things. Friends and family would have laughed again at my new claim.
Unit three of your course saw a new type of exercise - looking up documents on line; no books this time round. See what you can find out about Perpetua and Felicity and about Polycarp, you said. And so I entered the realm of search engines and what I found opened up a world of excitement, interest and new found knowledge that the five year old knower turned sixty-year-old researcher could only have dreamed of. As a research tool my computer was going to prove its weight in gold.
One of the things I most appreciated about your course was the fact that you never let us be content with stories about important figures in the history of spirituality. You always made us find the primary source so we could be exposed to what the searcher for God actually left behind in writing, so we could hear how the Spirit was speaking through each of them. The Holy Spirit is in those writings, I remember you saying, and Researcher-of-Things was off on her quest. That is how I came to be touched so deeply by two young women and one very old man.
I found the account of the martyrdom of Perpetua written in her own words and completed after her death which she faced in the arena with her fellow Christian, Felicity. These third century young mothers were converts to Christianity with everything to live for and yet faith so steadfast and courage so strong they could not deny Christ. Perpetua’s father had been frantic with worry about her conversion and her persisting on her chosen course and we hear her say, pointing to a water jug, and asking him, “See that pot lying there? Can you call it by any other name than what it is?” Her father answered, “Of course not.” Perpetua responded, “Neither can I call myself by any other name than what I am — a Christian.”
In the martyrdom of Polycarp I would also find words that touched me to the core. Polycarp, disciple of John the Apostle who created him Bishop of Smyrna, was an old man when asked to deny Jesus. "Eighty-six years I have served Christ, and He never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?" With those words of love and trust Polycarp sealed his fate and met his death at the stake in 155 AD.
Oh, the questions and reflections those online documents threw up for your students trying hard to make sense of the spirituality of a bygone time. As for me, I was in awe at the love and faith of these believers and left wondering about my own. These primary sources could move the heart and confirm faith across nearly two thousand years.
Your student Jane, in Scotland.

Letters from Scotland -2

Dear Helen,
Do you remember that first task you set us? It turned out to be one of the saddest but yet one of the gladdest of my life. Eager to make a start, I scanned the question. Looked easy enough – one word answer required, simple task: read straight through the Gospel of Mark and share with the group one word which sums up the person of Jesus portrayed there. I start out. Mark’s story unfolds. I feel inexplicably sad and tired; I realize Jesus is a stranger to me. The tiredness I feel is sharply contrasted with the energy of Jesus. I notice the organizational skills of Jesus, the manager of the apostles and shake my head at myself, realizing how firmly entrenched in my commercial world I am. I choose "tireless" as my word to describe him. I turn to the sharing of the rest of the class and feel challenged by the words offered by others and wonder if these are the ones I could truthfully have chosen. Their words imply relationship and I sadly realize my word is that of an observer, an outsider, not of someone in relationship with Jesus. The words hang there on the screen – loving, compassionate, kind, humble, they have written. Then one catches my eye – happy. The tears well in my eyes.
One of the prayers that I used to make over a long period in the years easily twenty to thirty years before I began the course was “Say but the word and I shall be healed.” Underlying the prayer was the desperate feeling that I was isolated from God, that I would never find him. Sometimes the prayer would take on an almost taunting tone – you could heal me if you really wanted to. One word is all it would take. One word was in fact all it did take!
In that instant when I saw that word – happy – inscribed there in front of me and, just as I was beginning to think that was the last word I would ever choose because my experience of religion did not seem exactly happy, I was suddenly stopped in my tracks and that spine tingling moment of realization was there – an epiphany if you like – I was back hearing myself saying that prayer....say but one word....and there it was right in front of me – one word – happy. God had found someone to speak it for him and I heard in it love, care, peace, joy, an invitation – and happiness. A deeply humbling moment; a heartfelt prayer was answered. I was learning to listen. You were teaching me.
For some reason a prayer of Janet Erskine Stuart’s began to sound in me. Mother Stuart writes her all-affirming prayer at the end of a long poem inspired by words of Julian of Norwich: His appearing shall be sweet.
I know that when the stress has grown too strong
Thou wilt be there
I know that when the waiting is too long
Thou hearest prayer
I know that through the crash of falling worlds
Thou holdest me
I know that life and death and all are Thine
Eternally.
Sweet is His appearing indeed. Like Julian, Mother Stuart captures the homeliness and courtesy of His presence to us – holding, hearing, being there - in life, in death, in all, forever.
From your student, Jane, in Scotland

Letters from Scotland -1

Dear Helen,
Your invitation to be a guest in your blog offers me an opportunity I might not otherwise have had to reflect on the time spent as a student in your International Online Certificate Course in Spirituality Studies. Five years have gone by since I first noticed your web-advertisement class at St Thomas University and since I decided to apply for a place. How well I remember my apprehension over that application. Miami was a long way from Scotland; studying had not featured in my life for over thirty years; my spiritual experience was limited; I worked in a decidedly secular retail environment. On the other hand, deep within myself I was experiencing a longing and huge lack that felt like emptiness; from that feeling of isolation and separation came the uncertain courage to have a try at your course.
At the time of making application, all those years ago, the only feelings I could identify were negative ones – a disappointed feeling of being stuck in a rut, there was not much growth to report in my life, God felt a long way off; my prayer seemed to be: Why have you hidden Your face from me? Only now, looking back with some of the insight your course would bring me, I see I couldn’t have been more wrong about my situation: God was, in fact, as near and as close as He ever is; longing was a real prayer; the Spirit was stirring my soul, my hopes and my desires; the first tentative signs of growth were there and as for that rut – I was about to be shaken out of it big time.
How well I remember the warmth of your welcome and the reassurance that I was going to cope! Soon there were things to look forward to. Fellow students, fellow seekers, were introducing themselves. Books were arriving in the post. The programme was unveiled: how others sought and found God, the theme of the next two years, was a satisfying prospect. Mystics, monks and mendicants would be on the menu; early fathers, the wisdom of desert, and the beginnings of Christianity would bring to life the earliest days of Christianity; Ignatius, Teresa and John, de Sales and Jane Francis would meet us as great teachers; contemporary writers would complete the course. And all this would be experienced through collaborative learning, an exciting new experience for me, where there was no competition, no comparing with others, but only a pooling of learning and discovery. A happy and respectful atmosphere would prove the course a comfortable place to be.
So there I was – conscious of a distance between me and God but excited to be on the road, to have made a beginning, to have joined that vast number of those who had sought and found God through the centuries. The feelings I experienced at that outset make me wonder if they were like those of that other prodigal who had distanced himself from where he belonged. Did he feel isolated, ashamed to have lost contact, to have squandered his inheritance, to have done little to nurture himself, to have cut himself off seemingly irreparably? But did he not also feel that stirring of the Spirit sensed in trust, hope and expectancy, that would let him start afresh on the road, thus becoming one who would leave us with an incomparably poignant picture of a prodigal who sought and found God, a Father of love, forgiveness, fatted calves, new robes, fresh sandals and welcome home parties. As that oh-so- familiar story tells us, But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him....he rushed forward to greet him, embracing him and showering him with love. As the course unfolded that was my experience too; God would be waiting to give Himself – but for the moment I was still a long way off.
Your student in Scotland, Jane

International Online Program in Spirituality Studies

It is time to ask each to think about taking the International Online Certificate Program in Spirituality Studies. Please go to http://www.stu.edu/SpiritualStudiesOnline/tabid/1116/Default.aspx found on the St. Thomas University website under the School of Theology and Ministry for more information. I am going to be actively recruiting for the September course on the Spanish Mystics and Modern Spirituality. Maybe you know someone who is interested? If so, please contact them or e-mail me their e-mail address. Mine is hrosenth@stu.edu and I welcome questions.
This International On-line Certificate Program has four courses covering the History of Christian Spirituality. You will read the great spiritual classics, interact with others from all over, and really understand the different ways that others have sought and found God through the ages.

I know from my former students how much this Program has meant to them and how much they have enjoyed all four courses. I am only looking for six students to join us in September so please decide now to make sure there is a place for you! Contact me at hrosenth@stu.edu

I will begin publishing some "Letters" from Scotland from a former student and hope to have some contributions from present students, too, that I think you will enjoy. I will try to schedule ahead as I will be away from April 21 to May 9.

Reflect today on what you are doing to grow spiritually. The Program will help you immensely to grow in your own inner life.

Letters from Scotland

No, I am not in Scotland but will be leaving tomorrow for the Western part of the United States for a period of almost three weeks. While I am gone, I am going to schedule a few letters from a dear friend and former student in Scotland for your reflection; then, I have something from another student on Thomas Merton to share, and I want to start sharing with you some of the early days of the Society of the Sacred Heart when St. Madeleine Sophie kept a Journal while in Poitiers forming the novices as well as being superior of the house and Mother General. She was only 26 and it is the only Journal we have of hers and therefore very precious for all those connected with the Society of the Sacred Heart.
I want to share some excerpts for you from the fourth chapter of my dissertation which was on the Spirituality of St. Madeleine Sophie. Her Feast is May 25 and so it is fitting that we go back to her written word to prepare for her Feast. I may be putting in a few other things, too, but want you to know that some of these reflections will be a bit different, especially since I need to schedule ahead so you will have them to read while I am away. I think I have written over 700 reflections now and it is time experiment a bit with contributions of others.

Today you might like to reflect on these words of Christ to St. Faustina Kowalska:
"I am Love and Mercy itself. There is no misery that could be a match for my mercy; neither will misery exhaust it, because as it is being granted, it increases. The soul that trusts in my mercy is most fortunate, because I myself take care of it."

Divine Mercy Sunday

Benedict XVI washttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif elected pope on this day in 2005. He wrote, "I prayed to God, 'Please don't do this to me'...Evidently, this time he didn't listen to me."

I am looking at the Little White Book which always tells me something of interest and has wonderful six minutes reflections adapted from the writings of the late Bishop Ken Untener. Today's reflection says that it is curious that Thomas wanted to see the wounds of Jesus. Why didn't he say that he wanted to hear his voice or look into his eyes? Why didn't he say he wanted to see Jesus walk on water?
"In the 11th Chapter of John's Gospel, when Jesus said he was going to Jerusalem and the disciples were afraid, Thomas was the one who stood up and said, "Let us go there and die with him."
Perhaps Thomas felt more than the others how much they had let Jesus down by abandoning him during his passion and death. When the disciples talked about having seen the Lord and having heard the Lord wish them peace and speak of forgiveness, Thomas simply said, "I'll never believe it unless I see those wounds and touch them and have him say those things to me."

Jesus comes back and tells Thomas to put his finger into his wounds and his hand into the wound in his side and believe. Thomas utters that magnificent statement of faith that many Catholics say at the elevation during the Mass, "My Lord and my God!" Then Jesus says for all of us, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."

Jesus comes to us in every Eucharist and helps us to become like him. We need only to believe and receive him with love.

Easter Saturday

Mark's Gospel today (16:9-15) gives a short summary of Jesus' appearances to Mary Magdalene, then to the two disciples on their way to Emmaus. Mark just says that Jesus appeared to "two of them walking along on their way to the country. They returned and told the others, but they did not believe them either." But later, as the Eleven were at table, Jesus "appeared to them and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they had not believed those who saw him after he had been raised. He said to them, 'Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature."

It was hard for the Apostles to accept that Jesus is really alive; he has been raised from the dead. Jesus understands and is patient with them. He will spend time appearing to them before his public ascension into heaven. I like to think that Jesus still spends time with us during these forty days after Easter and he hopes we will recognize him as he appears in our lives. He wants to share his joy!!

Easter Friday

I had a great picture of Jesus on the shore and Peter in the water swimming to him with the other six in the boat with the full net over the side - I saved it but cannot find it again and I have spent too much time looking so no picture today!

The Gospel today is one of my favorites; it is John 21:1-14. Peter decides to go fishing. Six others decide to go with him. They are named by John so we know which of the Apostles are in the boat with Peter as they set out to catch some fish. They toil all night and catch nothing. "When it was already dawn, Jesus was standing on the shore, but the disciples did not recognize that it was Jesus."
Imagine how these men must feel. They are tired, hungry, maybe also cold and irritable or at least a bit disgruntled. But they do cast the net to the right side of the boat when the one on the shore tells them to do so; they cannot pull in the net because of the great number of fish. John says, "It is the Lord." When Peter hears that, it jumps into the sea to be the first to reach Jesus. The others come in the boat and find that Jesus has prepared breakfast for them!

I love the thought of Jesus taking the time to make the fire, procure bread and fish, and then invite his friends to breakfast. Sometimes, when I finish my more formal time of prayer in the morning, I seem to hear Jesus saying to me, too, "Come, have breakfast." Actually, Jesus served the seven. John tells us that "this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to his disciples after being raised from the dead."

I seldom go to a movie but was asked to tell my readers about this one. You can read about it at: http://www.sinnerthemovie.com/ and decide if you want to look for a Catholic review of it. It is about a liberal pastor, his conservative priest assistant, and a prostitute and the theme seems to be forgiveness. I think, if I went to movies, it might be one that would be interesting to see, but I know no more than what I have said.

Easter Thursday

The Gospel today is from Luke 24:35-48. While the two disciples are still talking about their Easter experience on the road to Emmaus and how they finally recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, Jesus came and stood in their midst. He said to them, "Peace be with you." But "they were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost."
I guess that they had not yet taken in the fact that Jesus was really alive. They also knew that they had abandoned him and fled when he was arrested. But now, Jesus offers peace. He said to them, "Why are you troubled? And why do questions arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see I have." Jesus showed them his hands and his feet. Then their fear changed to joy and they are "incredulous for joy and were amazed."

In my own life, there are times when I and you have had a deep experience of the living Jesus. Let us recall those times and relive the joy we felt when Jesus touched us in some way. I think the joy we have felt helps us to enter now into his Easter joy.

Easter Wednesday

Today's Gospel is one of my favorite and I love this picture of Jesus walking with his two disciples on the way to Emmaus. Are they a man and his wife? We do not know but they are sad and discouraged when Jesus joins them. I reflected on this Gospel on Easter Sunday so will concentrate on the feelings of all three. Jesus comes full of joy to console these two who left Jerusalem thinking their hope of having Jesus redeem Israel had been destroyed when they crucified Jesus. They knew that it was the third day and that some women said that the tomb was empty and angels had announced to them that Jesus was alive. However, they did not really believe this and so had started out for Emmaus. Jesus said to them, Oh, how foolish you are! How slow of heart to believe all that the prophets spoke! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?"

Does Jesus say something like this to us? I know he comes to walk with us when we are sad and discouraged. He wants to be recognized, but we need to ask him to stay with us as these disciples did. When they finally recognized him in the breaking of the bread at their simple supper, Jesus vanishes but they have new energy and share the fact that their hearts are burning within them.

They rush back to give the good news and found the Eleven and those with them saying, "The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!"

Easter Tuesday

The Gospel today is John 20:11-18. Mary Magdalene stays near the tomb weeping. When Jesus comes to her, she does not recognize him. He asks her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him." Then Jesus said, "Mary." He called her by her name and she recognized him. He then sends her to tell the disciples.

How often Jesus calls us by our names; I hear him calling, but do I really recognize him and respond as Mary did? Jesus is very near; have I the faith to hear and to see? He is in me, but he is also calling me through others and through events and circumstances in my daily life. Lord, help me to be attentive today!

Easter Monday

We are still contemplating the empty tomb, but Jesus had a busy day that first Easter. He appeared to Mary Magdalene in the garden; he went walking along with the two disciples of Emmaus and explained the Scriptures to them on Easter Sunday afternoon and then went in to have supper with them. He appeared to Peter at some point and, of course, I firmly believe that he appeared to his mother first of all. Then, in the evening he comes to his apostles who are locked in the upper room. Jesus just appears and they are terrified. They had all abandoned him; he does not say a word of reproach. Instead, he gives them the power to forgive sins!

We are beginning the most joyous season in the liturgical year; it lasts 50 days. Jesus will spend 40 days on earth appearing to his disciples and consoling them; then he will ascend to his Father but will send the Holy Spirit to enlighten and strengthen them on Pentecost, fifty days after his resurrection.
"Let us rejoice and be glad for this is the day the Lord has made!" In a sense, every day is the day the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad!! And let us bring His joy to others!