Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

In 1858 the Mother of Jesus began to appear to Bernadette in a grotto near Lourdes in France. Mary is honored there under the title, Immaculate Conception, an unique gift of God fitting for one who was to be the Mother of Jesus. Many go there to pray and their faith has healed many who believe that God uses the waters of the grotto's spring to heal.
I was in Lourdes for Pentecost Sunday one year and found the faith of the thousands who took part in the Liturgy and the candlelight procession on the eve. People come from all over the world to pray to Mary.

Tomorrow I will tell you a bit about the gathering of the last few days here in Miami of 24 RSCJs who prayed, shared, and played together for three nights. Everyone was moved by the depth of sharing and the union that was felt among us from the first night.

Holy Saturday

Jesus was taken down from the Cross and laid in a tomb yesterday and today we wait. It is a long day waiting for the Easter vigil.


The vigil begins with the blessing of the new fire and then the Easter candle is prepared. The celebrant cuts a cross and traces the Greek letters for Alpha and Omega and 2007 while praying:
"Christ yesterday and today, the beginning and the end,
Alpha and Omega; all time belongs to him and all the ages;
to him be glory and power through every age and for ever." Amen

Then the five grains of incense are inserted saying, "By his holy and glorious wounds may Christ our Lord guard us and keep us." Amen
The candle is lit from the new fire:

May the Light of Christ,

rising in glory,

dispel the darkness

of our hearts and minds.

Three times on the way to the altar the candle is held up high and the priest sings, "Christ our Light" and we respond, "Thanks be to God."

Then the beautiful Exsultet is sung.Our waiting is over. Christ, our Light has overcome the darkness. Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia!!

Good Friday

I feel that there are no words for me to say today. Let us try to stay with Jesus at the foot of the Cross, with Mary. Let me just be there in silent adoration.

Jesus did speak seven times on the Cross according to the Gospels:

"Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

To the good thief: "Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

To His Mother and to John standing at the foot of the Cross: "Woman, behold, your son." "

"Behold, your mother."

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (the first line of Psalm 22)

"I thirst"

"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."

"It is finished."

Holy Thursday

As we approach Holy Thursday' Liturgy we are really going back to the last supper that Jesus had with his disciples. John tells us how Jesus began by washing the feet of his disciples. And then, the other evangelists give us an account of how Jesus gave us Himself. "This is my body given up for you. What a tremendous gift to know that Jesus is present to us and even asks us to take and eat; he wants to stay with us, to nourish us, and he wants us to remember this gift of Himself.

Teresa of Avila wrote: "After having received the Lord, since you have the Person Himself present, strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart."

She also said: "Be with Him willingly; don't lose so good an occasion for conversing with Him as is the time after having received Communion.

On another occasion she said: "If we were to approach the most Blessed Sacrament with great faith and love, once would be enough to leave us rich."

Holy Thursday is a good day to examine how I receive the Lord in Holy Communion and to thank Him again for this great gift.

Wednesday of Holy Week

April 4, 2007

Psalm 69 in today's Liturgy says:

Insult has broken my heart,

and I am weak,

I looked for sympathy,

but there was none;

for consolers, not one

could I find.

Lord, I want to be with you, to console you by my love.

There seems nothing more than I can say,

but ask the grace to stay with you today.

Last year I was in Chile and had the grace of a four-day retreat from Holy Thursday to Easter Monday. One of my RSCJ cousins died on Holy Thursday and the Provincial of Chile called to tell me before the evening liturgy. It was cold on the shore of the Pacific but I spent hours just looking at the ocean and contemplating God's great love for each of us and feeling grief.

Tuesday of Holy Week

John's Gospel today tells us: "Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, 'Amen, amen I say to you, one of you will betray me'."

Jesus does not stop Judas from betraying him. He has made us free. Peter will deny him three times the same night. And I? How many times have I betrayed Jesus?

These words of Teresa of Avila echo in my heart as they resonate with my own experience: "Although I have often abandoned you, O Lord, you have never abandoned me. Your hand of love is always outstretched towards me, even when I stubbornly look the other way. And your gentle voice constantly calls me, even when I obstinately refuse to listen."

Jesus told Sister Josefa that it was his chosen ones who wound his Heart!

Monday of Holy Week

During Holy Week, the last week of Lent, we follow Jesus through his Passion and Death to be with him as he gives his life for us. Then we, who enter into his suffering, are able to rejoice with him on Easter Sunday.

Suffering is everywhere; the Heart of Jesus is full of compassion. He knows what wars are doing to this world of ours. He knows about those who are dying of hunger, the homeless, the sick, and he knows the evil that exists in our world. He is with us in all our sufferings.

We have this week to remember what he went through to show us how he loved us and to redeem us. He laid down his life so that we may have life - eternal life.

Palm Sunday

Every reading in today's Palm Sunday liturgy speaks powerfully to me.
Today, the people shout, "Blessed in the king who comes in the name of the Lord."
Five days later the people will shout, "Crucify him, crucify him."

The first reading is one of the Suffering Servant passages from Isaiah 53:

Morning after morning

he opened my ear

and I have not rebelled,

have not turned back.

The refrain for the responsorial psalm is "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

Paul's letter to the Philippians tells us how Jesus "humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Luke's Gospel gives a full account of the Passion. Jesus is betrayed by Judas; Peter denies three times that he even knew Jesus; the crowd prefer Barabbas, a murderer to Jesus. Yet, Jesus can pray for those nailing him to the cross: "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do."

The Heart of Jesus will be pierced with a lance, but he is already pierced by our betrayals, denials, lack of love. Love is not loved!

"Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him in pain."

As I see Jesus alone and praying in his struggle to accept his Father's will, I am drawn to be with him. "The solitude of his heart is a crushing reality." I am called to descend deep into his heart in prayer just to be with him. He asked his three closest friends to stay awake and pray, but their eyes were heavy with sleep and they left him alone to face his struggle. I am called to be with him in the solitude of his heart.
"Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
We like sheep have gone astray,
we have turned to our own way.
And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all." (Is 53)

One Thursday a month we have a Reflection Group that meets in my community for supper, prayer, and reflection. We usually have a chosen book and share from our own experience. On other Thursdays I meet with a smaller group for prayer and reflection. It just happens that both groups are using different booklets from the new series "Bridges to Contemplative Living." Each session has an opening prayer or reflection, then a reading from Thomas Merton and then another author on the same theme. Yesterday's opening reflection from "Living your deepest desires" was from Psalm 119:

My part, I have resolved, O Lord,

is to obey your word.

With all my heart I implore your favor;

show the mercy of your promise.

I have pondered over my ways

and returned to your will."

For me, this connects with my meditation on the prayer of Jesus in the garden. "Not my will but your will be done." No matter what the cost, our desire to do God's will comes first. Jesus surrenders his whole being to the Father.

Jesus begins His Passion

Thursday, March 29, 2007

"Could you not watch one hour with me?"

Jesus is fully human; he is feeling dread as he knows what he is going to suffer and knows how he is to die on the cross having fortold details to the disciples earlier. Now his whole being is struggling. Luke tells us that he was "in such agony and he prayed so fervently that his sweat became like drops of blood falling on the ground." Mark tells us that he was praying that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. He said, "Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me, yet not what I want, but what your want."

Then he came and found them sleeping; he said to Peter, "Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? Keep awake and pray that you may not come into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak."
And again he went away and prayed saying the same words. And once more came and found them sleeping... Lord, let me stay and watch and pray with you.

Agony in the Garden

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

It is time now to be with Jesus in his suffering. For me, the agony in the garden is one of the most powerful scenes in the Gospels and we are called to be with Jesus as he prays to his Father in anguish.

Jesus goes out, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples follow him. Luke tells us that, after telling his disciples to pray, Jesus withdraws about a stone's throw from them and kneeling, he prayer, saying, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still, not my will but yours be done." Jesus faces his passion and death alone.

Matthew and Mark both tell us that when Jesus reached a place called Gethsemane, he said to his disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." He took with him Peter and James and John and began "to feel sorrow and distress." And he said to them, "My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me."

Let us ask for the grace to stay with Jesus in his agony.

"I always do what is pleasing to Him"

Jesus said: "The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what is pleasing to Him." (Jn 8)

These lines from today's Gospel have had a special meaning for me for over thirty years. I was praying in Chile before a meeting where I was to speak to our younger religious about their own spiritual formation. Suddenly, I heard interiorly but clearly these words spoken to me by Jesus: I will not leave you alone but I want you to choose always what is pleasing to me."
Those words are a continual call to me to lead a discerning life. I do not always choose what is pleasing to Jesus, but that call makes me aware of the fact that all day long I can choose what pleases Jesus or turn away. Joy comes from choosing what pleases Jesus and this pleases me - and, of course, the Father.

Feast of the Annunciation

"Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will."

The entrance antiphon is from the 2nd Reading(Hebrews 10):

"As Christ came into the world, he said: Behold! I have come to do your will, O God."

The responsorial psalm is "Here am I, Lord; I come to do thy will."
Obviously the Feast of the Annunciation is calling us to both remember that Jesus came to do the will of his Father and to also live this simple focus: to do the will of the Father.
The Gospel show us how. Mary is troubled and cannot understand even though the Angel Gabriel has told her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God." At the end, Mary surrenders her will to God's. "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."
This is the attitude God asks of me: "Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will."
Because of Mary's response, this is a great feast of Mary and reason for joy in the midst of Lent.

"Go and sin no more"

Today's Gospel tells us how Jesus was teaching in the Temple and the Scribes and Pharisees bring in a woman caught in adultery. They do not care about the woman, but are using her to try to find something to charge Jesus with, if he does not keep the law of Moses which says that she should be stoned.

Jesus does not bother to answer them. He silently writes on the ground. When they persist, he says simply, "Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." He continues to write on the ground while they slink away, one by one. Now Jesus asks the woman, "Where are they? Has no one condemned you? She replies, "No one, sir." Jesus says, "Neither do I. Go and from now on sin no more."
Three points for reflection on this Sunday's Gospel:
1. - How Jesus must have felt when they try to trap him
2.- How Jesus responds
3.- How Jesus treats the woman when he is alone with her.

Jesus still tells us the same: "Go and from now on sin no more."

"Never before has anyone spoken as this man."

When the temple guards did not arrest Jesus, the chief priests and the Pharisees asked them why they had not done so. The guards answered, "Never before has anyone spoken as this man."

Jesus had the gift for teaching and preaching. He attracted crowds and therefore was a threat to those who would control the people.
I have the opportunity each day to listen to Jesus in prayer. How do I listen? He speaks when I am silent. One of the words that I hear often this Lent is, "Trust me; do not be afraid for I am with you."
Another word from Jesus this Lent is "Learn of Me that I am gentle and humble of heart." May these words of Jesus transform me so that I may live in union with the Heart of Jesus.

St. Toribio

This 16th Spanish sain shows us how God chooses some surprising people to be saints. It seems strange in our eyes to find that this chief judge of the dreaded Inquisition of Granada is a canonized saint! As a layman he was appointed to Archbishop of Lima, Peru in 1580. When he protested about this unusual step, Pope Pius V dispensed him from the usual process and he was ordained and consecrated a bishop! In Lima he worked hard to correct abuses, learned the native language, and was much loved. He was canonized in 1726, 120 years after his death and is the patron saint of the Latin-American bishops as well as of Peru. I did not even know that the Latin-American bishops had a patron saint. I hope the North American bishops have one, too. They need a powerful one.

I am relecting on the passages of Scripture that have called me this Lent to change my life and which words of Jesus have been most powerful for me during these forty days. Look for more on this later.

Jesus is Life

Jesus says in today's Gospel, "you do not want to come to me to have life."
Is Jesus still saying this to me today? He is the Way, the Truth, the Life. Where would I go to have life apart from Jesus?
He has come that we may have life and have it abundantly. Yet his reproach to the Jews is true. At times we act as if we do not want to come to Jesus to have life. We look for life in our world of consumerism; we seek instant gratification; we forget that Jesus calls us to choose life.
"Come to Me all you who labor and are weary, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart and you will find rest for your souls."
Lord, You are my Life. Let me come to You.

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, grant that we may never stray from you who are the Way, nor distrust you who are the Truth, nor rest in any thing other than you, who are the Life. Teach us by your Holy Spirit what to believe, what to do, and wherein to take our rest. For your own name's sake we ask it, O Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
Prayer of Desiderius Erasmus (c.1466-1536)

Learn of Me

"The Lord is gracious and merciful,

slow to anger and of great kindness.

The Lord is good to all and compassionate.

The Lord is fruitful in all his words

and holy in all his works.

The Lord is near to all

who call upon him in truth.

(Ps 145)

The Society of the Sacred Heart in the United States has just had the grace of a visit from the Mother General, Clare Pratt, the first American to hold this office. She has spent more than a month with us visiting different areas with one of the Central Team, Jane Maltby.

At the beginning of Lent, Clare suggested that we take on of the few direct Gospel quotes in our Constitutions as "an invitation to which all of us, no matter what our age or situation can respond." Jesus still says to each of us: "Learn of Me, because I am gentle and humble of heart."

Am I living each day with an attitude of gentleness and humility? Am I learning from Jesus how to accept all with a gentle and humble heart? Let us pray for one another to be gentle and humble and change our world from war to peace.

The power of water

Today's liturgy is full of the power of water. Water cleanses, water gives life. The entrance antiphon calls us to "Come to the waters, all who thirst; though you have no money, come and drink with joy."
The reading from Ezechiel 47 has water flowing from the temple and getting deeper until it becomes a river and "Wherever the river flows, every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live...along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow, their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail. Every month they shall bear fresh fruit for they shall be watered from the sanctuary."
In the Gospel we have waters that cure. Jesus asks the man by the pool, "Do you want to get well?" Jesus cures him who had no one to put him into the water.
Jesus just told him, "Rise, take up your mat, and walk." He had been ill for 38 years so it must have been a shock! Later Jesus finds him and says, "do not sin any more." So simple as water is such a common image but one of grace that flows, cleanses, makes fruitful.