The Father Had Two Sons

How do I see things as they really are? I need only to ask, "How does God see this?"

Today's Gospel (Luke 15:1-3,11-32) has Jesus telling this parable to the Pharisees and scribes. It is a parable we often name "the Prodigal Son" but Jesus emphasizes that the father had two sons. When the younger one asks for his share of the estate, the father divided the property between them. After a few days, the younger son leaves...(we are aware of his wasting his inheritance and finding himself in such dire need that he ends up tending swine and longing to eat the pods fed to the swine.)
Meanwhile, the father is watching each day hoping to see his son return.Finally, he catches sight of him and is "filled with compassion." He runs to his son, embraces him and kisses him. He orders his servants to bring the finest robe for his son, sandals for his feet, and a ring for his finger. He wants to celebrate with a feast because his son was lost and now is found!
The parable also speaks of the relationship of the father with the older son who was angry and refusing to enter the house. His father comes out and pleads with him. "My son, you are here with me always; everything I have is yours. But now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found."

Sometimes I seem to be both sons; the important thing is to know that the Father loves me!

Friday the 13th -Miscellaneous Day

I read in the Little Black Book for Lent (inspired by the late Bishop Ken Untener) that the Catholic Church is credited with popularizing the tradition of fish fries on Lenten Fridays.

Here are a few quotes that fit a miscellaneous day:
"Prayer is simply opening oneself to the presence of God and letting the rest happen."

"Contemplation is simply being in the presence of God and knowing it."

"I should bring to mind some of my enemies. Then I should turn to the Lord and ask, 'How do you relate to these people?' Then the Lord and I need to have a talk.

These are from the Little Black Book but here is a longer meditation that I like:

Taken from an excerpt from Catherine Doherty on Prayer ( March Magnificat, pp. 70-71)

Desire, Prayer, and Love

“This business of desire is very important. Man usually follows his desires. Do you really desire to pray? Do you desire to live the Gospel? If I desire I will usually fulfill my desire. We desire all kinds of things but unfortunately we don’t desire that which we need so much: prayer and loving presence….

“It is our tremendous responsibility to live the Gospel. There are treatises on prayer everywhere, all complicated stuff. But prayer is a simple thing. It is a love affair between God and you, and you don’t have to explain it. If you love God no explanation is needed. You have a boyfriend, you talk to him. You don’t have to write out all that the boyfriend said and all that you said; it’s not necessary. The same thing with prayer. Prayer is a love affair and it is prayer that gives us strength to live the Gospel. But the question is: do we want to? The majority say that it is an impossibility and yet if we lived the Gospel the world would change. Isn’t that funny—your power, you and me, ordinary people, small people—we can do it. We have the power to change the world. But we refuse to live as Christ said we should live.

Prayer is conversation with God. It does not require a thousand books. It requires a simple and tremendous love of God and a total simplicity. I am beloved by God. He created me. This is the first idea. And he wants to be loved by me. We have to get that into our heads. Then we proceed to tell him we love him.”

Thursday of Second Week of Lent/ Preparing for Sunday

Today's Gospel deserves a reflection before we turn to Sunday. Jesus tells the Pharisees about the rich man who dined sumptuously each day; and he tells them about the poor man named Lazarus, who would gladly have eaten the scraps thrown to the dogs. Lazarus dies and is carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died but went to the netherworld and was in torment. He cried out and desired to have Lazarus come to cool his tongue with a drop of water. Abraham told his that he had received what was good during his lifetime and now there was a great chasm to prevent anyone from crossing. Then the rich man wanted his five brothers to be warned. Abraham told him, "If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead." There is a lesson in this story for all of us. Who are those at our door who need our help now?

The Sunday Readings are: Exodus 20:1-17; I Corinthians 1: 22-25; John2:13-25

Let us look at the Gospel for the Third Sunday of Lent. Jesus went up to Jerusalem since the Passover of the Jews was near. He went to the temple and then we have a scene that seems so different from all the others scenes of Jesus: "He found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money changers seated there. He made a whip of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money changers and over-turned their tables,and to those who sold doves he said, 'Take these out of here, and stop making my Father's house a marketplace.' His disciples recalled the words of Scripture, Zeal for your house will consume me. At this the Jews answered and said to him, 'What sign can you show us for doing this?' Jesus answered and said to them, 'Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.'...when he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they came to believe the Scripture and the word Jesus had spoken...." I have not copied all of it as John also tells us how many began to believe in his name, "but Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all..."

Are we comfortable with the image of Jesus in Sunday's Gospel? This is the same compassionate Jesus who has been healing and blessing all; now we see his anger. Jesus is human and like us in all things except sin. He shows very human emotions!

This is a gospel that challenges us to look at what Jesus might want to drive out or overturn in us. Let us invite Jesus to cleanse our lives of anything that needs to be banished from our hearts and lives. Lent is the time to do some serious thinking about what needs to be changed in our own lives!

Wednesday, Second Week of Lent

The entrance antiphon for today's Mass jumped out at me: "Do not abandon me, Lord. My God do not go away from me! Hurry to help me, Lord, my Savior."

Are you feeling like crying out the same? I love the "Hurry to help me" as though God were not more present to me than I am to myself.

In the opening prayer we ask the Father to "teach us to live good lives, encourage us with your support and bring us to eternal life."

The Gospel is from Matthew 20:17-28. Jesus is going up to Jerusalem and again took the Twelve aside by themselves and said to them: "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day." Jesus predicts his Passion and death with accuracy but also announces his resurrection. It is too much for the Apostles and they do not seem to grasp what Jesus is telling them. Instead, the mother of James and John comes to ask if her sons can sit in the places of honor when Jesus comes into his kingdom. Jesus says, "You do not know what you are asking. Can you drink the chalice that I am going to drink?" When they reply in the affirmative, Jesus tells them that they will indeed drink his chalice, but to sit at his right and his left it not for him to decide; it is for those for whom it has been prepared by the Father. The others are now indignant and so Jesus again needs to tell them: "Whoever wishes to be great among you shall be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your slave. Just so, the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Jesus speaks clearly; are we really listening? Do we understand what he is trying to say to us even today?

Be humble

I love this picture. Contemplation is looking with wonder and awe. The Gospel today is from Matthew 23:1-12 and is a call to humility. Jesus tells his disciples to observe all things that the Scribes and Pharisees tell them, but do not follow their example. "For they preach and do not practice." Jesus also says that all their works are performed to be seen...they love places of honor..."

The Gospel ends with Jesus telling us, "The greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; but whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Thomas Merton said, "It takes heroic humility to be yourself and to be nobody but the person that God intended you to be."

One of my very favorite quotations from St. Madeleine Sophie is "Be simple. Be humble and bring joy to others."

Contemplation

Contemplation is also the response to a call: a call from Him who has no voice, and yet who speaks in everything that is, and who, most of all, speaks in the depths of our own being: for we ourselves are words of his. But we are words that are meant to respond to Him, to answer to Him, to echo Him, and even in some way to contain Him and signify Him. Contem­plation is this echo. It is a deep resonance in the inmost center of our spirit in which our very life loses its separate voice and re-sounds with the majesty and the mercy of the Hidden and Living One....

It is awakening, enlightenment, and the amazing intuitive grasp by which love gains certitude of God's creative and dy­namic intervention in our daily life. Hence contemplation does not simply "find" a clear idea of God and confine Him within
the limits of that idea, and hold Him there as a prisoner to Whom it can always return. On the contrary, contemplation is carried away by Him into His own realm, His own mystery, and His own freedom”

I think this is from one of my students in my on-line Program who has been reading the Cloud of Unknowing and may be quoting Thomas Merton. I just thought it would be good to put here since I was on Spring Break and trying to practice contemplation myself. For me, it is allowing God to love me and just trying to be with him in the depths of his Heart.

The Gospel today is from Luke 6: 36-38; Jesus said to his disciples: "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you." That is a powerful Gospel and certainly a call to each of us to be merciful, non-judgmental, and generous.

We are made in the image of God. Think about this as we listen to Jesus say to us, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful...."

Second Sunday of Lent-

Let us look first at the Preface for the Second Sunday of Lent.
"Father, all-powerful and ever-living God, we do well always and everywhere to give you thanks through Jesus Christ our Lord.
On you holy mountain he revealed himself in glory in the presence of his disciples. He had already prepared them for his approaching death. He wanted to teach them through the Law and the Prophets that the promised Christ had first to suffer and so come to the glory of his resurrection.
In our unending joy we echo on earth the song of the angels in heaven as they praise your glory for ever: Holy, holy..."
Here we see suggested the reason that Jesus took Peter, James, and John with him. We are also being prepared for the approaching death of Jesus and the whole Paschal Mystery.

The readings were given on Thursday and we have spoken about the Gospel of the Transfiguration recently. Still, it is a great mystery and worth contemplating again. Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. They followed him. It may have been a beautiful day and they loved being with Jesus and so happily followed him up the mountain; they may also have been tired, hot, dusty and wishing Jesus would stop and let them rest. We do not know what they were feeling, but they were following Jesus up the mountain.

Then Mark tells us, "And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white..." Mark is at a loss to describe how Jesus looked when transfigured, but does tell us about his clothes which became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. The Apostles are astonished for Elijah and Moses appeared to them and they were conversing with Jesus. We do not know what they were talking about, but Peter speaks up and wants to make three tents for them. Then comes the cloud and from the cloud a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." And then they saw no one but Jesus alone with them. It was an experience that they never forgot and Peter will write about it later. For now, Jesus does not want them to tell anyone until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.

Let us go up on the mountain with Jesus and let us listen to him. That is what prayer is all about. We listen to Jesus; we stay with him; we follow him.

Perpetua and Felicity

Both Perpetua and Felicity were martyrs in North Africa. Perpetua kept a diary and we have eye-witnesses providing us with a vivid picture of her death. Perpetua refused to listen to the pleadings of her father and the need of her infant son. Felicity, a slave, was pregnant but gave birth prematurely and so was also executed. Both had been baptized while under arrest; both refused to renounce the faith. After being flogged, the Christians were exposed to wild beasts and then beheaded. May we have some of their courage today.

In today's Gospel, Jesus asks us to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us. He asks, "For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? He tells that our heavenly Father makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. So, we are to love all.
It is easier to say than to do, but Christ showed us how to love one's enemies and gives us the grace to follow his example.

God's Garden

I love this poem found on the back of a memorial card so I am copying it for you:

God's Garden

God looked around His garden and found an empty place.
He looked down upon the earth and saw your tired face.
He put His arms around you and lifted you to rest.
God's garden must be beautiful; He always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering; He knew that you were in pain.
He knew that you would never get well on earth again.
He saw the road was getting rough; and the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids and whispered "Peace be thine".
It broke our hearts to lose you but you didn't go alone for part of us went with you
The day God called you home.

Today is the First Friday of the month and dedicated to the love of the Heart of Jesus. He so loves us, but he also longs for us to love him in return. Let us try to remember today to tell Jesus often how much his love for us means to each of us.

Thursday of First Week of Lent & Preparing Sunday

The Gospel today is the Transfiguration of Jesus from Mark 9:2-10. As we have recently reflected on this scene, perhaps we could look instead at the other readings. The first reading is from Genesis 22 when God tests Abraham by asking him to sacrifice his son.
The second reading is from Paul's Letter to the Romans, 8: 31b-34. Paul asks, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?"

He goes on to ask, "Who will bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who acquits us. Who will condemn? Christ Jesus it is who died-or, rather, was raised-who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us."

That is a consoling reading. If God is for us, who can be against us? We have God on our side and we have Christ who intercedes for us. What more do we want?

The response for Psalm 116 is "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living."

More on Sunday! Remember, please, that I am in retreat these days of Spring Break and keep me in your prayer.

Wednesday of the First Week of Lent

This is another one of my favorite pictures. Water is a special image for me and I love to be near the ocean. I suspect I will have been there yesterday as please remember that I am on Spring Break and on my way to the Cenacle today.

To continue with the attitudes mentioned by our Mother General in her conference, the third one is a transparency before God inspired by that of Sophie who longed to live her life always open to the Spirit.
If you remember, I shared that I wanted to live this year in joy and gratitude and transparency! I was thinking more perhaps of being transparent before God and others, but I see that it means living open to the Spirit. I shall reflect on my efforts at transparency while in Gainesville! Again, be assured that all of you, known and unknown, are in my prayer.

Today is the Feast of St. Casimir, a 15th century Polish prince who chose a life of celibacy and asceticism. He was known for his care for the poor and his sense of justice.
Today's Gospel is Luke 11:29-32 but you can do you own reflection and I shall just copy here this lovely bit from Teresa of Avila: "Let nothing disturb you, nothing
affright you; all things are passing, God never changes. Patience attains all that it strives for; one who possesses God finds nothing lacking: God alone suffices."

Tuesday, First Week of Lent

I love this image and use it for prayer as it is a deep pool with a special cleft in the rock at the bottom that leads me into the Heart of Jesus.

I was praying over a conference that our Mother General gave to our nuns who made their final profession in 2009. She told them that there are some attitudes that we hope will mark the whole of our lives. One is a deep desire to know God, with the longing of the deer who thirst for fresh water; another is an openness which invites God into the whole of you, letting you receive with all your being the loving gaze of God, letting you accept the more vulnerable parts of yourself, letting God shape and mold you.

Those two attitudes give us enough to reflect on today and I shall continue tomorrow!

Today is also the Feast of St. Katharine Drexel who was born to a wealthy Philadelphian family; she grew up with her sisters loving God and those in need. When her parents died, Katharine, at the age of 30, entered the Sisters of Mercy with the intention of founding her own order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which she did in 1891. Her order was to work among African and Native Americans and she used her wealth to establish schools and missions both in the South and on Indian reservations. She had a severe heart attack in 1935 and spent the last twenty years of her life in retirement. She was 97 when she died and she was canonized in 2000, just 45 years after her death.

The Gospel is Matthes 6:7-15 and Jesus tells his disciples that when they pray they are not to babble..."Your Father knows what you need before you ask him." He then teaches them the "Our Father".