Feast of the Annunciation

It is difficult to find an image that resembles my own picture of the Angel Gabriel appearing to Mary to ask her to be the Mother of Jesus.This one will have to do.
The feast was changed this year because of Easter week, but it is such a special feast as this is the moment that, as my "Living with Christ" says, "binds God to humanity forever." God becomes man! Mary is the chosen one; her generous and trusting response is an example for us. May we be able always to say, "Be it done to me according to your word."
To reflect upon today is a quote from St. Bede:
"A soul that has believed has both conceived and bears the Word of God and declares God's works. Let the spirit of Mary be in each of you, so that your soul rejoices in God." That is what we want to do today: rejoice in God!

Blessed are those who have not seen and who believe

This Sunday's Gospel takes in both the Easter Sunday evening appearance of Jesus to his apostles when he enters through the locked doors and tells them, "Peace be with you" and the next Sunday's appearance. On Easter Sunday, he shows them his hands and his side and they "rejoiced when they saw the Lord."
Then Jesus, without a word of reproof to them for having abandoned him, says again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained."
This gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation was given on the very day that Jesus rose from the dead, but Thomas was not with the fearful disciples locked in the room. When the others told him that they had seen Jesus, he said that unless he saw the mark of the nails in his hands and put his finger into the nailmarks and put his hand into his side, he would not believe. So, a week later, Thomas now with the disciples, Jesus again comes, although the doors were still locked! Again, Jesus greets them with, "Peace be with you." Then he speaks to Thomas and says, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe." And Thomas makes his magnificent profession of faith: "My Lord and my God!"
Thomas believes and because of Thomas we also know that Jesus said, "Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
What a grace for us! We all have moments of doubt in our lives, but we do not see and still believe and that makes us blessed! The Gospel ends with John telling us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written, "But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through this belief you may have life in his name."
Divine Mercy Sunday is a time to go before the Lord with thanksgiving; we have been forgiven, we are given the peace of Christ, we have faith to say "My Lord and my God!" Let us put our trust in the Heart of Jesus and go forth to proclaim his love!

Sunday is the Feast of the Divine Mercy

The second Sunday after Easter is now the Feast of the Divine Mercy. I thought that we should know about this Feast that has so much in common with the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
During the course of Jesus' revelations to Saint Faustina on the Divine Mercy He asked on numerous occasions that a feast day be dedicated to the Divine Mercy and that this feast be celebrated on the Sunday after Easter. The liturgical texts of that day, the 2nd Sunday of Easter, concern the institution of the Sacrament of Penance, the Tribunal of the Divine Mercy, and are thus already suited to the request of Our Lord. This Feast, which had already been granted to the nation of Poland and been celebrated within Vatican City, was granted to the Universal Church by Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the canonization of Sr. Faustina on 30 April 2000. In a decree dated 23 May 2000, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments stated that "throughout the world the Second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday, a perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that mankind will experience in the years to come."
Concerning the Feast of Mercy Jesus said:
Whoever approaches the Fountain of Life on this day will be granted complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. (Diary 300)
You can find this and more on the Internet. I am struck by the fact that Jesus asked for this feast. He wants us to realize his Divine Mercy. Our world needs it.

Jesus at Dawn on the Shore of the Sea of Tiberias

Simon Peter has decided to go fishing and so James and John, Nathanael, Thomas and two other disciples went out in the boat with him and fished all night and caught nothing! The seven must have been tired and discouraged when dawn came, but Jesus was standing on the shore. They did not yet realize who was there, but when he told them to cast their net to the right side of the boat, they obeyed and were not able to pull the net in as there were so many fish. Since John is telling the story later he says, "The disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord." Peter then jumps into the sea. The others come in the boat dragging the overflowing net with the fish. When they arrive they see a charcoal fire with fish on it and bread. Jesus tells them to bring some of the fish they have just caught (there were 153 large fish!) and then Jesus invites them to have breakfast. He took the bread and gave it to them and in like manner the fish. Imagine having Jesus waiting on the shore to serve us breakfast!
I think that Jesus still waits for us at dawn. He fills our nets with what we need to do his work during the day. He invites us first to breakfast with him and he waits for us to tell him all that has happened since the previous dawn. Our morning prayer is a great gift and we have the intimacy of being with Jesus and having all his attention. He cares for us and waits for us each dawn. Let us not keep him waiting!

Surprise Visits

Jesus continues to visit us and loves to surprise us with unexpected visits. Sometimes he is waiting on the shore; sometimes he comes to us through the visit of a friend, a phone call, even an e-mail. He now uses others to touch us with his love in ordinary moments of the day. If we are attentive, we find Jesus driving with us in the car, going into the office and sitting with us as we tackle our overflowing desk, or walking with us to meetings and wanting us to acknowledge his presence and consult him. We feel his presence in the peace and joy that surround us even in the midst of some very long and tedious tasks. He is our consolation and never leaves us alone. He came to the disciples as they walked away from Jerusalem, bewildered and downcast. He appeared again to all in the Upper Room saying "Peace be with you." He still comes and tells us the same. Jesus wants us to share his joy. What is keeping me from rejoicing with Jesus today?

Easter Joy

Joy is the song of the spirit under the pressure of happiness, according to Mother Stuart. I like that definition and have always thought that Jesus must have been so full of joy that others flocked after him just because of his joy. I have a picture that someone gave me of a "laughing Jesus" and I think that in these days after his resurrection he must have done a lot of laughing.
Little children find joy in everything; the discovery of something new, the sight of a butterfly, a puddle of water, all can cause immediate joy and reaction. Jesus wants us to be childlike and I think that having a sense of joy and wonder as we go through life is one of his gifts to us. Let us discover this joy and wonder in all we contemplate today.

Forty Days after Easter

Jesus is risen, alleluia! Jesus spends the forty days after Easter going around and consoling his friends; he appears to them, gives them the gift of his presence until he is finally leaving them and ascending into heaven.
I was reflecting this morning that the Church year has made a special season of forty days of Lent to prepare for the Easter and then gives us these forty days with Jesus. I may not have had the kind of Lent that I envisioned on Ash Wednesday, but now I begin again with the risen Jesus to rejoice with Him, to stay with Him, to learn from the different apparitions what Jesus is still trying to teach me. Each day he comes and says some of the same things to us. He calls us by name so that we will recognize him; he walks with us and reveals Himself in the breaking of the bread. Let us thank for the opportunity to spend these forty days with Jesus. May we learn from Him how to console others.

Easter Sunday

He is risen! Let us rejoice and be glad! Alleluia, Alleluia!

This is the reason for our faith. Jesus has conquered sin and death and is risen and glorified. He is with us until the end of time, but in a new way. He still is both human and divine and still asks us to follow Him, to love others as He loves us, to let Him love us. He wants us to be with him, to be happy; he spends time going around and consoling those he loves. He continues to do this. Have we not felt his presence?
Therefore, let us rejoice and be glad. Alleluia, Alleluia!

Holy Saturday

These special days of Holy Week are a time of silence and prayer. We follow Jesus in the last days of his earthly life and then wait with Mary for the Resurrection.

If you have missed my blog, it is because I was laid low with the flu and stayed away from the computer so I would not give it to my community. It has been a different sort of Holy Week and one with silence and solitude.

Spy Wednesday

Jesus was executed. He did not simply die, the authorities killed him. But first he was betrayed by one of his own.
Today is called "Spy Wednesday" because Judas, on this day, according to Matthew's Gospel, "went to the chief priests and said, 'What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?' They gave him thirty pieces of silver." Matthew tells us that "from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over."
This is not a spur-of-the-moment betrayal; Judas plotted to have Jesus arrested, to hand him over. Jesus knew it and gave Judas the opportunity to repent at the beginning of the Passover meal. But Judas hardened his heart.
How often have I betrayed Jesus?

This verse from Psalm 69 in today's Liturgy always moves me:
"Insult has broken my heart, and I am weak,
I looked for sympathy, but there was none;
for consolers, not one could I find."

May we be with Jesus to console him by our love and ask forgiveness for the times we have betrayed him, for the times we have left him alone, for the times we have failed to console him.

Tuesday in Holy Week

Sometimes we know a storm is coming; we sit and wait for it and know that it is coming, getting stronger, and there is nothing we can do to control it. I think that may have been how Jesus felt as his passion and death approached. He prayed in agony in the garden; then he accepted all with a remarkable peace, a genuine surrender to his Father's will, and a complete forgiveness of the very ones who were nailing him to the cross. In John's Gospel after the death of Jesus on the cross, "one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out."
Earlier in John's Gospel Jesus had stood up and exclaimed: "Let anyone who thirsts come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as scripture says, 'Rivers of living water will flow from within him.'"
Now that Jesus has been lifted up on the cross and given over his life, the hour of his glorification has come. The blood is a sign of his dying and the water is a sign of his Spirit which he promised to give.
"Let anyone who thirsts come to me."
May we stay with Jesus on his way of the cross. He alone can slake our thirst!

Yesterday I received Bill Barry's latest book which I will add to the list of books on the right as I know it is one that will help others. I have enjoyed reading and been helped by all his books. This one is A Friendship Like No Other: Experiencing God's Amazing Embrace published by Loyola, 2008. It is divided into three sections: Experiencing God's Desire for Friendship, Understanding Ourselves and God, and Experiencing God. Father Barry gives exercises and meditations to help us; we profit from this Jesuit's years of experience as both a spiritual director and an excellent director of the Ignatian Exercises.

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! The Irish need to celebrate even if it is the first day of Holy Week! Here is an old Irish blessing:

"May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields,
And, until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand."