Feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret

Although I wanted to show you the ruins of the Augustinian Nunnery on Iona, I will say something about this feast. Anthony was born in Spain in 1807 so he is a 19th century saint I really did not know until I read about him in "Living with Christ", my daily companion for praying and living the Eucharist. Anthony was a weaver but also studied Latin and printing. He entered the seminary at 22, was ordained in 1835 and founded the Religious Library for publishing and the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (the Claretians). He was appointed Archbishop of Santiago in Cuba where he reformed both clergy and laity, but he resigned his see after seven years and returned to Spain to be confessor to Queen Isabella; he also wrote books and oversaw the Claretians. He and the Queen were exiled in the revolution of 1868 and he died in 1870.

Paul tells us today in his Letter to the Ephesians how to live: "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace..."

I love this quote from St. John Chrysostom about Paul: "The most important thing of all for him was that he knew he was loved by Christ. Enjoying this love, he considered himself happier than anyone else." I hope this is true of me, too, and each of my readers!

Iona Trip continued:
Philip Newell in his "Christ of the Celts" wrote: "Here on Iona I find myself wanting more often to pray in the ruins of the nunnery than in the rebuilt abbey church. And I am not alone in this desire. Although all of the attention historically has been focused on the reconstructed Benedictine Abbey, a place of masculine spirituality, rather than on the ruins of the neglected Augustinian Nunnery of the same period, a place of feminine spirituality, we are in the midst of a shift." I had read Newell's book before going to Scotland and so my first stop in the morning was to pray at the Nunnery; it also was my last stop of the day. As I wandered through the ruins and stood in what was their Chapel, I felt the prayer of all those nuns during more than six centuries. It is a place of peace. It is easy to imagine those nuns sitting in their Chapter room or huddled together in the "warming room". Newell says that the Nunnery was a "place of relationship, of intentional community, and devotion to Christ and the cross." I certainly felt a presence there.

St. John of Capistrano

I tried to put on a picture of both St. John of Capistrano and the Iona Abbey with the Celtic Cross by the Chapel door, but could not. So today's curious saint will not have his picture posted. He was the son of a German knight who became a lawyer, married, and became governor of Perugia in 1412 at the age of 22! According to my "Living with Christ", he had a vision of St. Francis of Assisi while he was imprisoned during a civil war. He ended his marriage and joined the Friears in 1415 and was ordained in 1419; there is no mention of what happened to his wife, but he spent the rest of his life preaching missions throughout Europe. He died of the plague at the age of 70.

Paul's Letter to the Ephesians is always worth reflecting on and today's passage has his prayer that all may be "strengthened with the power through his Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." That is a powerful prayer!

Trip to Iona continued:
We arrived at the House of Prayer in time for the 5:00 Communion service that Jean Lawson, RSCJ holds daily for all who wish to come as there is no resident priest on the Isle. Jean is a marvelous cook, makes her own bread, and has the gift of creating a spirit of family among those staying in the House of Prayer. She also conducts a lovely prayer service at 8:00 each morning and serves a hot breakfast afterwards to prepare us for our pilgrimage around the island.

Be Prepared

"Be prepared!" Jesus tells us this in today's Gospel; it is also the motto of the Scouts. Jesus tells us to be prepared because "at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come."
When Peter wants to know if this parable of the thief coming and the need to be prepared is for everyone, Jesus replies by asking, "Who, then, is the faithful and prudent servant whom the master will put in charge of his servants to distribute the food allowance at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master on arrival finds doing so."
We need to live each day as if it were our last day so we are ready when Jesus comes for us.
The pictures are of Iona. It was wonderful to visit the Abbey. Here is some background about it: Iona island is separated from the western tip of the Ross of Mull by a mile or so of sea: it is mostly flat and green, with hills rising to some 330 feet in the north, and - unusually for these parts - has beaches with fine silver sand. Its first religious settlement was founded in the 6th century by St.Columba, an Irish monk who went on to establish a series of similar communities throughout Scotland and northern England. This initially flourished and the famous Book of Kells was probably written here; many crosses and monuments remain from this period. After Viking raids in the late 8th century most of the community returned to Ireland. Some devoted monks and hermits remained, but in the early 13th century the present Benedictine abbey was established under the patronage of the powerful MacDonald clan, the Lords of the Isles. After the Lordship was forfeited in the 15th century, the abbey was caught up in the religious turmoil of the time and gradually declined; by Victorian times the buildings were ruined and the community had again been dispersed. Tourist travel to the islands reawakened interest: the buildings were restored in the early 20th century, and in 1938 the current Iona Community was founded (an offshoot of the Church of Scotland) who now hold the buildings in trust; the remainder of the island is owned by the Scottish NT. It has a permanent population of about 100.

As you can see from this background, I felt as if I were on a pilgrimage. We drove across Scotland to the west coast, took a ferry to the island of Mull, drove across it on a curvy narrow road just wide enough for one car but with two-way traffic. You sometimes find yourself head on with a bus or truck and one must back up to find a place to pull over and let the other pass. There is much stopping and backing and waving during this hour and a half spectacular drive. At one point we had to wait as the car was surrounded by cows! If you have never seen a highland cow, look one up as they have long hair that allows them to stay outside even in the worst weather.
After crossing this beautiful island and seeing mostly only sheep and cows grazing on the hillsides, we finally reached the smaller ferry that would take us to Iona without the car. Only a few residents are allowed to have a car. I wanted to get to the Abbey today as that is the main attraction of the island, but it will wait until tomorrow. I must add that my vocabulary has been enriched by my trip across Scotland and I now speak of not only lochs, burns, moors, but of wynds, straths, and still wonder exactly how to describe "harled" walls!

Christ is our Peace

Paul tells us today in his letter to the Ephesians that Christ is our peace. "He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him we both have access in our Spirit to the Father."
Then Paul tells us: "So you are no longer strangers and sojourners but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God..." Christ Jesus is the capstone. It is through Christ that we are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Notes from my trip to Scotland:
Sunday morning before leaving Edinburgh I had a visit with one of our former Mother Generals; she is one who still inspires me by her very presence and by her writings. We went to lunch with one of my International Online Certificate Program in Spirituality Studies students, Jenny, who then drove me to Perthshire. The pictures above are from Perthshire and you can find others. Jumping ahead, you could see the house hotel where I had lunch and then tea overlooking the river Tay as this is the website: : www.perthshire-scotland.co.uk/blairgowrie2.htm - but to go back to a more chronological account, Jenny took me to the Garden Cottage where I stayed with a wonderful RSCJ who directs the Spirituality Center there. She gave me a tour of the entire set up as there is a hermitage and then a retreat center and two of our sisters live in a house on the other side of the retreat center. The weather was perfect so we went out to pick apples to take to Iona the next day for the House of Prayer. That evening Jane had a dinner party for me and I had the joy of meeting Jane and her mother after feeling that I have known Jane for years as she not only took the Online Program with me but then helped me to teach it - all from Perth! Jane had sent a warm, wool sweater to Edinburgh to welcome me and she had planned with Jenny all the details of my stay in Rerthshire to make it both enjoyable and enriching. Meeting Jane in person was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Jenny and Jane are great friends and it was Jenny who drove me to Iona, but more about that fascinating trip tomorrow.

Feast of Mater

Today is the Feast of Mater, dear to all Sacred Heart children, old pupils, and many others who have confided in Our Lady under this title of Mother most Admirable. Here is one of my favorite prayers:
Under the pressure of over-activity which at times consumes us,
disturbs us, or scatters our energies in doing what is visible and accidental
let us come to our Mater.

She is the Mother of the Invisible and the Mother of the Essential.
Let us ask her to detach us, to free us from all that is not important,
to lead us on, and to fix our gaze upon the Invisible which her own eyes look upon.

May she give us the right understanding of the Essential and a hunger for it.
One thing alone is necessary: the will of God and the work of God's love.
May Mater give us this singleness of vision so that we, too, may see the Invisible and the Essential in all. Amen.

Reflections of Trip to Scotland and England continued:
I went to Scotland and to England to renew relationships. I was able to do that and also to make many new friends. I think my mother's side of the family accounts for my pull toward Scotland, the Scots, and all things Scottish! She was a McLaughlin and we were told we were Scotch-Irish as the Lightholders were from Ireland. I know that I certainly felt at home in Scotland and loved all the people I met. More on the beauty of Scotland tomorrow.

"I am the Lord, there is no other..."

The coast of Iona in Scotland reminds me of the first reading for this Sunday from Isaiah 45: 1,4-6 - Thus says the Lord..."I have called you by your name, giving you a title, though you knew me not. I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me."
I remember as a novice thinking that since God is all and everything else is nothing, I could just live that truth and not need anything else. God is all, but I keep forgetting that nothing else counts so the first reading reminds us that "I am the Lord, and there is no other, there is no God besides me."

Trip reflections continued: When I reached Scotland, I felt so at home and had the joy of meeting so many lovely people. The RSCJ who met me at the airport was one; she had made a sign with my name on it as we did not yet know each other. She had been in Peru and so had I so we began an instant friendship and talked for hours. She is a wonderful hospitality person for Edinburgh. She gave me a tour of the city and took me to RoseHill, our retirement house where I had two old friends. One is the Superior and was with me in Rome in 1960 when we made final profession together; we went over the list of our group that had been given the name "Courage Apostolique" or Apostolic Courage. The other friend had lived with me while we were studying and is now 92 years old and a saint with a great sense of humor. It was good to see her again and I wish I lived as single-hearted as she does for I think her life has always been lived for God alone. She was a missionary in Africa before I knew her. One last reflection on that day was how happy all the nuns looked. We were there for lunch and tea and had time to pray in their lovely Chapel. I am now quite addicted to tea and scones!

Feast of St. Luke

Today is the feast of St. Luke; tradition has Luke the author of both a Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a physician and companion to Paul. He was well-educated, had literary skill, and was a Gentile writing for Gentile Christians. Paul tells us in the first reading today, "Luke is the only one with me." He wants Timothy to send Mark to him to help in his ministry. Luke shows Jesus as a man of prayer and compassion. If you have not read his Gospel straight through for a long time, I suggest you do so. Acts reads almost like a novel but gives us insight into the beginnings of the Church.

The picture of Janet Erskine Stuart above leads me into a reflection on one of the last days of my trip (I will go back to chronological order after today unless the Spirit moves me to share differently.) I had been thinking about this quote from Reverend Mother Stuart: "Think glorious thoughts of God and serve God with a quiet mind." I feel that this was her gift to me during the days of my trip to Scotland and England. One of the graces of the trip was time to be alone with her in the Sacred Heart chapel where she is buried with Father Varin and Reverend Mother Digby. The rest of our convent at Roehampton was bombed, but this holy site was spared. I even had the joy of a Mass there; I remained afterwards to ponder some of Mother Stuart's poems published in a small book given to me by a dear friend in Scotland. Janet Erskine Stuart's Eternal Thoughts says:
"For Life is slowly broadening on-
The estuary to the sea,
The calm hour to the sinking sun,
Time setting to Eternity.

Those only, those eternal thoughts,
The few, unchangingly the same,
With mystic strength that cannot fail-
They feed the spirit's altar flame.

My marvelous trip allowed me space to reflect on
the thoughts that live, the hopes that fire,
Words that can bear the weight of life,
Troubles that can satisfy desire....


Beyond us ever lies the light,
And upward, upward let us seek
Eternal thought, eternal sight.

Back from Scotland and England, a great experience

Today is the Feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch who was born around the time of the death of Jesus; he became a good bishop to the first Christians in Antioch, one of the centers of early Christianity. Ignatius wrote seven letters on his way to being a martyr in Rome; these are a rich source for us to learn about the early Church; the students in my International Online Program have just been reading these letters so I needed to say something about Ignatius today before sharing my wonderful trip with you.
I have so much to say about the graces of the past three weeks in both Scotland and England that I think it will take days to tell you about it. Those of my readers who only want the day's spiritual reflection need not read the second part of my daily blog that will contain some of my reflection on the trip.

I think I should begin with seven things that I am most grateful for during my weeks of travel - I wrote these in my journal this morning and want to share them with you.
I am most grateful: 1. For finding incredibly holy, happy, God-filled friends who opened their homes and hearts to me and to whom I will ever be grateful for they all revealed the love of God's Heart for me;
2. For the ability to be at home wherever I went and feel the grace of the Society of the Sacred Heart's internationality that welcomed and thrilled me;
3. For the beauty found in this world created by God for us to find Him in this vast and varied beauty of moors, lochs, burns, mountains and valleys, hills and fields;
4. For the sense of history that makes for sacred space and places; the pilgrimage to Iona was one of the highlights of the trip;
5. For deepening relationships and experiencing the importance of dialogue across cultures that was so life-giving;
6. For making new friends and being inspired by their love and kindness drawn from the Heart of Jesus;
7. For learning new ways, new things, new vocabulary, and feeling at home amid the newness and being broadened by it.
Lord, I give thee thanks for every moment of these past weeks and I am especially grateful for your presence with me.

The Spirit comes to our aid

Today's reading from Romans tells us that the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. This is always consoling for who among us is really content with the way we pray? The fact is that we are not the ones who are able to pray, but the Spirit prays in us. And the reading continues to tell us that the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because he intercedes for the holy ones according to God's will.

Margaret Silf, in Inner Compass says that "prayer is the very essence of our being. When we are at prayer, we are most truly who we are...When we pray, we move inward to our God center."

Sometimes I end my morning hour of prayer and wonder if it indeed was prayer! I just know that I need to spend time with God every morning; it is consoling to think that the Spirit prays in me. And, as Romans also tells us: "We know that all things work for good for those who love God."

Inner Compass

In her book, Inner Compass: An Invitation to Ignatian Spirituality, Margaret Silf has us imagine three concentric circles. The outermost ring is the "Where" circle and represents all that I cannot change in my life - my family, genetic make-up, geography, culture, education, up-bringing, etc.

The second circle is the "How" circle. Here I exercise choice. Every choice goes toward making me how I am. Choices turn into habits, and habits become character.
My choices go beyond me and influence all I contact. Silf says that "my choices for the truth make the world more truthful. My betrayals of my own integrity undermine the integrity of all."

Into the third circle, the circle of "Who", only a few really move as this is dangerous ground. This is where I see who I really am --"I will move closer to God who dwells in my heart, and the encounter will challenge me in ways I cannot predict."

Am I willing to take the risk and make this inner journey?

Reflections from "Easter Mysteries"

A friend lent me "The Easter Mysteries" by Beatrice Bruteau. It is now out of print. I have jotted a few things to reflect on today and will share them with you. She says:
"there is no feast of God the Father. Isn't that strange? So perhaps we may regard Holy Saturday, the day of Sacred Nothingness, as commemoration of God the Father..."

She also says that "absolute, transcendental bliss is not dependent on anything but existence itself and consciousness itself. It is the fundamental and unconditional affectivity that rejoices in God's unconditional being and love. It is always here; we ourselves are it. When we hold still enough, are silent enough, keep Sabbath enough, we become aware of it."

How should we spend the Sabbath? Bruteau says that we should spend a significant portion of it doing nothing. "Do it outdoors, if possible. Be in the natural scene... Listen to the quiet. Let the mind fall silent. God's Sabbath is being kept in you." After a while, you will notice three things: 1)a sense of deep satisfaction, contentment; 2) an upsurge of confidence, a bright, warm feeling of sureness and competence. It is an awareness of the power of God as our own life; 3) a feeling of God's potency radiating from us. "It is letting God happen through me."

Humble prayer pierces the clouds

The first reading for the Sunday liturgy today tells us that "the Lord hears the cry of the oppressed." It also tells us that "the prayer of the lowly pierces the clouds; it does not rest until it reaches its goal, nor will it withdraw till the Most High responds, judges justly and affirms the right, and the Lord will not delay."

The response for the Psalm is "The Lord hears the cry of the poor."

The Gospel (Luke 18:9-14) is one of my favorite parables about prayer. Jesus addressed it to those "who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else." Jesus tells us that two people went to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee gave thanks that he was not like the rest of humanity and he boasts in his prayer about the good he does. The tax collector just kept repeating, "O God, be merciful to me a sinner."
Jesus tells us that "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted." It is the tax collector's humble prayer that pierces the clouds.

One of my Jesuit cousins once told me that his prayer was just to repeat, "O GOd, be merciful to me a sinner." I had just made my First Vows and it took years for me to realize what a wonderful prayer that is!

Sacrament of Reconciliation

One of our Sisters lent me a new book. The title is With the Silent Glimmer of God's Spirit: A Postmodern Look at the Sacraments. It is by a Belgian priest, Lambert J. Leijssen, who is a professor of theology at the Catholic University of Leuven.
Each sacrament is considered as having its own grace. A brief history is given and then the current reality is faced with its pastoral implication for our postmodern world. The grace of each sacrament is a gift of the Holy Spirit that lights up our ordinary, daily life "with the silent glimmer of God's Spirit."

There is much to learn from the author's historical approach. For example, when speaking of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he speaks of three periods and each has its own crisis. He asks, "In our postmodern age have we not arrived at the acknowledgment of a crisis in the practice of private confession, so that a renewal is urgently needed that can be designed with the basic pattern of Scripture and tradition as reference point?" He also say that we must not forget that the true meaning of the sacrament is that "God grants forgiveness to the sinner who exhibits contrition and a change of heart."
The fruit of reconciliation is "a new life in peace with God and one another."

The book is worth a read as one only understands the sacraments through the study of the history of each and I do think we are still in transition in finding meaning for our postmodern age so that the Sacraments are a silent glimmer of God's Spirit in our lives.

Gratitude

One thing we learn as we grow older is how much we have to be grateful for each day. I will share this from the website on gratefulness:
"The gifts or blessings of life are always there but if we are not aware of them, they don't do much for us. That is where gratefulness comes in. Gratefulness makes us aware of the gift and makes us happy. As long as we take things for granted they don't make us happy. Gratefulness is the key to happiness."

Find the website on the left side and then light a candle for all the gifts God has given you today!

Something More on Mater

Under the pressure of over-activity which at times consumes us, disturbs us, or scatters our energies in doing what is visible and accidental let us come to our Mater.

She is the Mother of the Invisible and the Mother of the Essential.
Let us ask her to detach us, to free us from all that is not important,
to lead us on, and to fix our gaze upon the Invisible which her own eyes look upon.

May she give us the right understanding of the Essential and a hunger for it.
One thing alone is necessary: the will of God and the work of God's love.
May Mater give us this singleness of vision so that we, too, may see the Invisible and the Essential in all.

There is a problem so that it is not possible to attach an image today, but look back to last Saturday's Feast of Mater and contemplate her image. The above was given us on Saturday without a source, but it is adapted from a Circular Letter to the whole Society of the Sacred Heart written by Reverend Mother de Lescure.

Today's Gospel tells us to "Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks."
In my life, I think the key phrase is "ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks." I am afraid that I am like the Bride in the Song of Songs who is not quick to respond but offers excuses and when she gets up to open the door the Bridegroom is gone. Jesus wants us to be ready for him when he knocks. He knocks often during our days, if we are attentive. Then he says, "Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival."
Is my lamp lit? Faith keeps it bright. Am I vigilant? Above all, am I ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks?
Today I will pray to open the door and find the Lord in each person, event, and circumstance!

Monday Blog

I wrote my blog this morning and forgot to post it and it is at home and I am at the University. That is the way this Monday has gone! I know that I wrote about Jesus saying take care to guard "against all greed, for though one may be rich, one's life does not consist of possessions."
And I have so many possessions! Am I like the rich man in the parable that Jesus told who made more space to store his treasure and thought he would then enjoy time to rest, eat, drink, and be merry, but God said to him, "You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong? Thus will if be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God."

Perseverance in Prayer

I seem to have misplaced my missalette and so am writing without the Scripture in front of me this morning. I know that the Gospel has the widow who persists in imploring the corrupt judge for justice. Jesus tells the story to show that if we persevere in prayer we will be heard. It is a test of our faith to keep counting on God even when it seems that our prayers are not being answered. I think God loves us to trust him as a child trusts - and, although children can be annoying when they keep after us for something, is it not true that we often manage to give them what they want? It is not just to keep them from pestering us; we see how much something means to them and how strong their desire is for something that we know is good and so we also want this for them. I am making a distinction between what will be for our good as God always answers prayer, but sometimes it is what is for our good and not exactly what we were asking for.
Yesterday, we had a beautiful celebration for the Feast of Mater with a group of international alumnae from all over - France, Spain, Cuba, Puerto Rica, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, as well as different schools and colleges of the Sacred Heart in the United States. We had a lovely Mass in the new library at our school here in Miami (about 150 alums) and the junior high choir sang so well. It was a lovely day and I wanted to share it with some of my readers who I know are alums.

Feast of Mater

This is a feast day for the Society of the Sacred Heart and for every old pupil of the Sacred Heart. All over the world alumni of the Sacred Heart gather for Mass and some social time in honor of Mater, the statue of Our Lady that was painted as a fresco in a niche in the corridor at the Trinite dei Monti in Rome by Pauline Pedreau. The original Mater has worked miracles and alumnae from all over the world journey to Rome to climb the Spanish Steps to the convent to visit with Mater. She is depicted as the young Mary in the temple at prayer and in a pink dress. She has an open book and work-basket at her side. Students have loved this version of Mary and a statue or a picture of Mater is venerated in every school of the Sacred Heart throughout the world.

I was startled to find many images of Mater Admirabilis (Mother most Admirable) when I did a Google search. I immediately recognized the statue that still is at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles. We used to put the basketball in her lap before games and our hockey sticks at her feet and many a student has hidden a note asking help in school either in her lap or in the numerous folds of her pink gown. She is a true mother and watches over all her children, even when they have grown old. May she always be loved and honored by her many children!

Feast of the North American Martyrs

Martyrdom, losing one's life for Christ, has been a source of grace for the Church since the very beginning of its existence. Today we celebrate six Jesuit priests and two of their lay companions who were martyred between 1642-1649 by the Juron and Mohawk tribes in territory now known as the United States and Canada.Jean de Brebeuf and Issac Jogues are the most famous. The account of the gruesome martyrdom of Brebeuf and Gabriel Lalemont is found in the "Jesuit Relations." We pray to all of the North American martyrs to continue to "protect this land blessed by the shedding of their blood and renew in these days our Catholic faith which they helped to establish in the new land." (From a Jesuit novena quoted in this month's "Living for Christ".)
Let us remember to thank for the many who have given their lives for Christ; may their example give us the fortitude to hold on to the faith today. I am grateful for all the saints and martyrs who have witnessed to Christ and are with us today in the Communion of Saints. No matter what the difficulty of the day, we have a crowd of people in heaven to call upon for help. Best of all, Christ is with us and can do all things!