The Divine Mercy

Since Jesus Himself asked for this universal feast, I am paying more attention to His request and to the picture of Divine Mercy that he asked Sister, now Saint, Faustina Kowalska, to have the image venerated publicly. He told her that He desired the Feast of Mercy to "be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners...."

Jesus continued to say: "The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is my desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy."

Several years ago, my sister tried to get me interested in reading Sister Faustina's Diary where she has recorded her conversations with Jesus. I am afraid I was not interested and even after Faustina was canonized in 2000, I did not really pay much attention to the Image of Jesus as Divine Mercy and none at all to the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Now I am actually reading all about this devotion in the Appendix 2 in Michael E. Gaitley, MIC's Consoling the Heart of Jesus: A  Do-It-Yourself Retreat Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

I am trying to keep an open mind and see how this Devotion is a form of Devotion to the Heart of Christ which is central to my own spirituality. I did feel that I should have said more about Divine Mercy Sunday so now I have.
An added note is that Jesus said that the two rays "denote Blood and Water... These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the cross...Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter."

The Joy of Remembering

As one becomes older, one of the joys of life is all the very good memories we have and can recall. I seem to find joy in the people I have lived with - many from other countries and cultures but all have given me so many beautiful memories. This picture reminds me of weekly visits to the beach in Renaca, Chile, with one of my community to pray and share our week. We were trying to develop a contemplative outlook on whatever was happening in our lives.

Perhaps Jesus, during this time after Easter, relived some of the good memories of His life with Mary and Joseph, with His closest friends, the times He could relax and enjoy a good meal with others, etc.

There is a prayer of memories and it is useful. Perhaps my gratitude journal is also recalling some of the best moments of my life and giving me renewed joy as well as gratitude.

Books and More Books

It has been some time since I put out a list of good spiritual books; I have been promising to do it, but finally am doing it, although some I have not had time to read, but they are all good books are I would not add them to the list on the right side. The original list became so long that I have now one that says "Recent Spiritual Books." (I intend to update but not today)
I am beginning with one that I am now reading: Sandra Schneiders, Jesus Risen in Our Midst: Essays on the Resurrection of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel. This is a book for those who are interested in a solid theological look at the Resurrection as it is presented in the Gospel of John. The book is really a collection of essays and most of the essays were published earlier in academic journals. I find it excellent but deep.

Journey to the Heart: Christian Contemplation Through the Centuries, is a great look at the contemplation of mystics through the ages.

Michael Hansen, SJ. has a book, The First Spiritual Exercises: Four Guided Retreats. I have really not used this book yet, but am looking forward to doing so soon.

Gaitley, Michael E., MIC Consoling the Heart of Jesus" A Do-It-Yourself Retreat Inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius is a book I bought on the recommendation of another friend and I actually used some of it during Holy Week; I think I like the title more than some of the piety I found in the book. However, it certainly rekindled my desire to console the Heart of Jesus.

Sara Young has written a book that my brother-in-law gave me, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence. This is not a new book but has a daily brief message from Jesus as Sara learned to listen to Jesus in prayer with a pencil in her hand. The book has helped me to remember that I am supposed to be listening to Jesus in prayer; I was trying to read  the message for each day and I know my sister even takes the time to look at the Scripture passages that are listed after the message from Jesus, but I guess it is mostly sitting on my bookshelf. I think this is a book that could be helpful for those who are looking for some help with their prayer-life.

If you are reading this blog, you know how much I love the books by Ilia Delio. She has edited a new book, From Teilhard to Omega: Co-creating an Unfinished Universe.  I have only dipped into this book but really look forward to reading it. I suspect it is not an easy read but one that will be very worthwhile.

That is all for today; I have another half dozen books to add soon, but time is up now. I must just add James Martin, S.J.'s latest: Jesus: A Pilgrimage. It is easy to read and interesting but if you can only read one book about Jesus be sure it is Jose Pagola's Jesus:An Historical Approximation.

Divine Mercy Sunday

This is the day the Lord came to Thomas and told him to put his finger into the wounds of his hands and his hand into the wound in his side and believe - Thomas immediately exclaims, "My Lord and My God!"  How many of us repeat this same profession of faith at each Eucharist? The Gospel begins with Jesus appearing on the first Easter Sunday evening to the Apostles without Thomas. Jesus breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit" and then tells them that the sins they forgive are  forgiven and the sins they retain are retained. It is fitting that Pope John Paul II named this day, a week after Easter, as Mercy Sunday. We see Jesus coming back to Thomas, now with the other disciples. Jesus had forgiven all for abandoning Him and now he comes to Thomas who was not with the others on Easter Sunday and no doubt had a bad week because of it. Now we also can rejoice as Jesus said that we are blessed because we believe without seeing.
This is also the Sunday that Pope Francis is canonizing two wonderful former Popes: John XXIII and John Paul II so Rome is full of people celebrating and all of us are full of Easter hope and joy.
Here in my community, we are having the area for a party to say good-by to two of our community: Shelley returns to Canada after her sabbatical with us and Ellen returns to Rome after only three months with us this time but she is doing a great work on the Formation Team for our young sisters preparing for final vows. The next group does not come until September but she will also be doing other things in Rome and Europe.

Trust and Joy

"Trust must be safeguarded, together with joy which is the fruit of the contemplation of what the Lord has done for each one. When your flaws disturb you, place yourself humbly before him and before others and continue your way with that courage that comes from the knowledge that it is he who has called you." This is a quotation from St. Madeleine Sophie and I am using it today as we are all called to live in trust and joy.

We know that all things work together for our good so we should be joyful and just trust the Heart of Jesus and all will be well. I think these forty days after Easter are meant to be lived in trust and joy with the Risen Jesus who is going about and dropping in on us at unexpected moments to make our hearts burn within us.

How can I increase my trust and joy today?

Stay with us, Lord

Although the disciples would say that their hearts were burning within them while they walked with Jesus, they do not recognize Him until He breaks bread with them that Easter Sunday evening. Actually, Jesus had acted as if He would continue on when they reached Emmaus. They begged Him: "Stay with us, Lord, for the day is for spent." They invite Him to share their simple Sunday night supper. While they were at table, Jesus took the bread and blessed it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, but Jesus disappears. The two disciples are filled with joy and new energy and rush back to Jerusalem to tell the other disciples that Jesus is truly risen and they have seen Him

I love this scene and think it is a great prayer to just say to Jesus, "Stay with me." He is always present but waits to be invited, I think, to make His presence known in a very real way.

Jesus walks with us

One of my favorite apparitions is that of the two disciples who have left Jerusalem discouraged and disappointed because they had believed that Jesus would save them and instead they had to accept the fact that Jesus was dead, crucified and buried. They leave for home but are talking about the sadness in their hearts when someone (they do not know it is Jesus), joins them on the road and asks them what they are talking about as they walk. They tell him how they are feeling so low and disheartened because of the death of Jesus. They do not know that Jesus has risen and is even now walking with them. They are just really down and depressed!

I go back to this apparition often because I believe that we are so insensitive to the Presence of Jesus in our own lives. We do not recognize Him and we certainly give in to discouragement too easily. Jesus comes to us disguised; He is in the person who smiles at you as they wait for a parking place, or the person who brings us our mail with such care and concern, or the grocery clerk who helps you bag the food, etc. Let Him walk with us. More on this tomorrow!

Mother Stuart on the Easter Apparitions

Today I thought I would share something from Reverend Mother Stuart on the Easter Apparitions. It is from a little book of her poems that was given to me in Scotland. The title is "Poems" and
the editor is Maud Monahan. It was printed in 1924 and I had the joy of sitting in the little Chapel where Mother Stuart is buried in England, and reading these poems aloud to and with her as she really made her presence felt in that time alone with her. I also had the joy of Mass at noon two days in the Chapel with only two or three present.

"They say that earth has little joy,
That, through the lapse of many years,
Beneath a heavy-laden sky,
We wander down a vale of tears.

And yet, to those who hold the key
Of faith and knowledge heaven-born,
At times the vale of human tears
Is sunlit as the Easter morn.

There is a joy--it may not last--
But for the moment it is ours,
When all the sounds of earth are hushed,
And from the height of Sion's towers

The chimes are wafted, with the song
Melodious to the inward ear,
And, through the mists, Jerusalem
Orbs itself to a vision clear,

As Jesus risen walked the earth,
Appeared, and then was seen no more,
And yet again returned, and stood
With His Apostles as before,

And bade them clasp His Hands, and one,
Reluctant, with a loving shame,
To sound the sacred, wounded Side
And own He was the very same.

As sent from Heaven, the Paraclete
Who should the Apostles' words inspire
On each upturned, expectant brow
Lighted in tongues of lambent fire.

And breathing ever where He will,
Though none can tell from whence He came,
Nor wither goes the Sacred Breath,
Nor where He carries Jesus' Name.

Still through the Church's courts and far
Through desert regions sounds His voice,
Life-giving, full, omnipotent,
Making the wilderness rejoice.

So Jesus yet, though all unseen,
To quickened minds and hearts appears,
And still the Paraclete from Heaven
Is present unto wistful tears.

Though but a moment as they pass,
Such priceless joy they leave behind,
Nor years nor sorrows can efface
That golden glory from the mind."

He is Risen!

What a wonderful belief we have! Jesus rose from the dead and is with us forever with His glorified body showing His wounds as proof of His love for each of us. Because I believe that Jesus is risen, I also believe that one day I will be with Him forever in heaven. He is our Savior and all of us are called to further the reign of God on earth and to be with Him forever in eternal joy!

Now, I am to be the hands and feet and heart of Jesus on earth. He looks to us to reach out to others who need us. We have His Love and grace and we feel that nothing is impossible because the Risen Jesus is with each of us. Let us go forth and spread the Good News and give His Love to each one we contact today!

 

 

We are Easter people! Let us rejoice!!! Alleluia, Alleluia!

Easter Sunday

He is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! "This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it!"

I am sure that Jesus went to see His Mother before He appeared to anyone else. What that meeting must have been like is best left to our imaginations, but it gives me joy to see them together.

The women who had been such faithful followers of Jesus were the first to go to the tomb and the first to encounter Jesus. Mary Magdalene weeps when she sees the empty tomb, but Jesus comes to console her and to send her to give the good news to the others. They are not about to believe a woman so Peter and John rush to the tomb. It was  difficult for them to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead after dying on the Cross. Jesus does appear to Peter and then to the others that first Easter night. He comes so that they may share His joy and He says not one word of reproof to them for having abandoned Him. Instead, He gives them the Holy Spirit! He also gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we may also have the joy of being forgiven!

Let us rejoice with Jesus and thank Him.
                        

Holy Saturday

We spend this day waiting and pondering with Mary what these last days have been for her and for us. I keep thinking of what the Holy Father asked of us: Who am I? Where is my heart? What do I want to say to Jesus at this moment in my life?

What would the world be like if I did not believe in the Resurrection? I find this day of waiting for the Easter vigil to be a time of deep silence as well as some deep thinking. I so often take things for granted!

I must say that my gratitude Journal has had full pages. I am so grateful for my life, the world I live in, my vocation to the Society of the Sacred Heart, my family, education, health, missionary years in Chile, etc. Each day I have some special marks of His Love to thank for and I do think that when we are grateful we are also joyful. I wish you the joy of the Risen Jesus!

Who am I?

Today I want to quote from the Pope's honily during Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square where 100,000 had gathered. Pope Francis said that during this week:

"We would do well to ask just one question: Who am I? Who am I , before my Lord?" The Holy Father recalled the names of those appearing in the Gospel reading and asked, "Is my life asleep like that of the disciples who slept while the Lord suffered? Am I like Judas, who pretended to love, and kissed the Master to give him over, to betray him? Am I a traitor?"

Today is Spy Wednesday; it is so named because it is the day Judas arranged to betray Jesus.

The Pope also asked if we were like one of these: Pilate, who washed his hands of his responsibility; the crowds who chose the criminal Barabbas over Jesus; the soldiers who struck Jesus and mocked him; the passersby who mocked Jesus as he hung on the Cross.

The Pope also named those who showed fidelity and then concluded with this question that should accompany us through Holy Week: "Where is my heart: To which of these people am I most alike?"

"The holiest week of the Liturgical Year"

If you go to the RSCJ Province website to find my blog (link on the right side of the page), perhaps you have read Barb Quinn's Lenten Reflection. I was so struck by it, that I am copying a bit from it here, plan to use it with the Spirituality Group that comes on Wednesday night, and hope to urge many to read it.
 She writes on Palm Sunday and begins by saying that we are on the threshold of the holiest week in the liturgical year. That made me stop and reflect. She describes it as "a week that unfolds the stories of profound darkness and death and the promise of light and the life unimagined!"
 
 I will stop there in the hope that each will have time to read the entire reflection.

Facing the Fact

I read in the Little Black Book for Lent that contains six-minute meditations on the Passion in Matthew, that none of the Gospel writers describe the crucifixion. It was such a shameful and painful form of execution that they do not describe it. Matthew, "looks the other way and then says: '...After they had crucified him...'  That's it. Five words. Nothing about throwing Jesus on the ground, stretching his arms on the cross-beam and holding him down as they drive in the nails. Nothing about hoisting the cross beam to the stake already fixed in the ground, his body writhing as they did it. Nothing about wrestling his feet in place and then nailing them to the bottom of the stake. Nothing about the screams of pain. It was too awful to tell, which is why not one of the four evangelists tells it."
 We even get used to looking at the Crucifix and thinking only of God's love for us and forgetting the terrible suffering.
Now, am I with Jesus in His suffering as we live through another Holy Week? Am I even aware of all the suffering in the world? This week is not an easy week and we need to face what is going on in so many places right now where people are being treated inhumanly; the injustice and cruelty that causes so much anguish is everywhere. But, Jesus has come and died for us.  Easter is coming! But how am I going to stay with Jesus this week to live more fully the Paschal Mystery?

Palm Sunday

Today we just want to be with Jesus. We want to ask for the strength, the courage, the steadfast love, that will allow us to accompany Him through this week when He will be betrayed, denied, abandoned by his closest, chosen friends. He goes to His death on the Cross for love of us. Let us ask the grace to be with Him and to open our hearts to the suffering so many endure today so we can at least carry them in our prayer,
I would remind you to look at the Preface for the first days of Holy Week. Holy Thursday will have its own Preface and then, of course, we have the Preface for Easter.

What is Jesus asking of me today?

Preparing for Palm Sunday and Holy Week

Jesus and the Pope call us to go out to others and proclaim the Good News. I think that Palm Sunday has an aspect of joy as well as sorrow. Jesus is proclaimed and celebrated as he enters into the city of Jerusalem, It is a joyful crowd and these are people who want to welcome Jesus. The problem is that so many of them are like many of us. We welcome Jesus until we are asked to be with Him in His Passion and Death. The fact is that the Resurrection comes after Jesus has suffered and died for us and we need to be with Him all the way. The disciples left Him and fled, but the women found their way to be near Him to the end and were also the first to know the joy of the Risen Jesus.
One of our Sisters in California does a Way of the Cross each year linking all the suffering in this world of ours. It is really impressive and I will be praying over it in Holy Week.
May all have a Blessed Palm Sunday and enter into Holy Week with great love and compassion for those who are suffering in all parts of our world.

Holy Thursday

The Preface for this most holy day tells us that "we are made strong" and that we are "washed clean" when we participate in the Eucharist. I am copying it here for your prayer and reflection:

"It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord.

For he is the true and eternal Priest,
who instituted the pattern of an everlasting sacrifice
and was the first to offer himself as the saving Victim,
commanding us to make this offering as his memorial.
As we eat his flesh that was sacrificed for us,
we are washed clean."

Approaching Holy Week

The Pope has begun speaking about the Holy Spirit and the seven gifts of the Spirit in his Wednesday audience talks. He begins with the gift of wisdom and, although I do not have those words in front of me, I was impressed by the idea that we must ask to be "wise" - to see at God sees, to hear as God hears, and to feel as God feels.

He suggests that we ask the Holy Spirit to be with us as we enter into Holy Week. This Sunday is Palm Sunday; we often have a procession to enter the church after the blessing of the palms. This  is to remind us of how Jesus entered Jerusalem just a few days before his death. The people were happy to see Him but some may have also been in the crowd that called out "Crucify him!" on Good Friday. On Wednesday, Judas will betray Jesus; on Holy Thursday, we have Jesus washing the feet of his disciples before giving them Himself in the Eucharist. Then Jesus prays to His Father before going out to the Garden where He goes through a very human struggle to accept the suffering and death that awaits Him, but His prayer is always "Thy Will be done." I find the prayer in the garden 
the place where I stay often during Holy Week. Jesus felt alone; his 
disciples slept while He prayed. Then, after the really difficult prayer, Jesus is at peace and we do not see that same anguish as He goes forth to be mocked, scourged, and crucified. Now His thoughts turn to others - He forgives the very ones who are nailing Him to the cross!

Trust Me in every detail of your life...

Jesus always asks us to trust Him in every detail of our lives. Why do we think we can handle things when we have one who loves us and is all powerful with us and who waits for us to turn to Him? Jesus says in the daily reflection from Jesus Calling: "focus your energy on trusting me and thanking me at all times."

Lord, help me to trust You, to turn to You, to thank You today for your presence in my life! I need You, I desire You, I seek You and know that You are with me and can handle all the situations of this day!

Enjoying Peace in His Presence

I mentioned in an earlier blog the little book, Jesus Calling: Enjoying Peace in His Presence by  Sarah Young who learned to sit in the presence of Jesus and listen to Him with pen in hand. I want to share a few of the thoughts that struck me from today's reflection:

"You are mine for all time: nothing can separate you from my Love...Many problems vanish instantly in the light of my Love because you realize that you are never alone. Other problems may remain, but they become secondary to knowing Me and rejoicing in the relationship I so freely offer you. Each moment you can choose to practice My presence or to practice the presence of problems."

There are always a couple of scripture passages given at the end of each reflection. Today's are Romans 8:38-39; Exodus 33:14

What a joy and a gift to know that nothing can separate us from the love of Jesus! I am trying to just sit and listen to Jesus and He tells me that He likes me to be quiet in His Presence so I can hear Him!!
Easier said than done! But let us keep trying to just be with Him who loves us so much!