St. Jane Frances de Chantal

Jane was born in 1572 in Dijon, France. She married Baron de Chantal and had six children. She was only 29 when her husband died in an accident. St. Frances de Sales became her spiritual director and, with him, she founded the Visitation Order for women who wished to lead a religious life that was not as austere as some of the other orders; they were to visit the sick and care for the poor. Because of the spread of her Order to France, her nuns were forced to live a more cloistered life. Some convents taught girls; others became contemplative convents.

In Matthew's Gospel we have the consoling words of Jesus: "Amen, I say to you, if two agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

Feast of St. clare

Clare had to leave her home in Assisi secretly to join Francis and become a Franciscan; she was the first woman to be given the Franciscan habit. Soon others joined her including her mother and two of her sisters. Clare was made abbess in 1215 and her nuns were called "Poor Clares" as they practiced radical poverty. Clare died in 1253 and was canonized two years after her death.

Today's Gospel has Jesus first telling his disciples when they asked him who was greatest in the Kingdom of heaven, "whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."
Jesus then asks his disciples about a shepherd who "had a hundred sheep and one goes astray, will he leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if he finds it, amen I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not stray."
We know that Jesus is our Good Shepherd and always seeks us whenever we stray!

God loves a cheerful giver

St. Paul tells us that "Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each must do as already determined, without sadness or compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

We know this but how often we forget? I may find myself doing something as small as emptying the dishwasher. Do I do it with joy? I hope so for I need to seize these small opportunities to be a cheerful giver. Of course, I know that God loves me anyway but it pleases God to see us cheerful. He wants us to enjoy life!
In the Gospel, Jesus reminds us that "unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit." I want to produce fruit so need to practice dying to self. Jesus also said, "I have chosen you to bear fruit..."

I am the Bread of Life...the living bread

This is a picture of a broom tree.
This Sunday's first reading from 1 Kings 19:4-8 is always a favorite of mine. We see Elijah weary after a day's journey into the desert; he is sitting beneath a broom tree and praying to die. "This is enough, O Lord! Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers." How often do I want to cry out to the Lord that "this is enough!" and then, like Elijah, I just go to sleep.
An angel comes to Elijah and wakes him ordering him to get up and eat. And there was a hearth cake and a jug of water next to him. He ate and drank, but then lay down again. However, the angel of the Lord came back and tole him again to "Get up and eat, else the journey will be too long for you!" So he did and had the strength to then walk forty days and nights to the mountain of God.

There is a great deal to reflect on in this passage. Elijah wants to give up, but the Lord sends him help and the command to get up, eat, and begin his journey again. He is going to meet God, but it is not easy. God has strengthened him as he still does each of us, if we allow ourselves to be touched by an angel and obey the command to get up and then set out.

When taken with the Gospel for this Sunday, we see that the Eucharist is the source of life and strength and is given us for our journey. Jesus tells us that "whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

"Do not grieve the Holy Spirit..."

The picture helps me to enter into prayer and the title today is taken from the first words of the Second Reading for Sunday from Ephesians 4:30-5:2: "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were sealed for the day of redemption. All bitterness, fury, anger, shouting, and reviling must be removed from you, along with all malice. And be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ."
If we were all were really "kind to each other and compassionate" the world would be a happier place!
We are called to be "imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and handed himself over for us..."
What is Christ calling me to today?

St. John Vianney, the Cure d'Ars

We celebrated the feast of St. John Vianney earlier this week but I wanted to go back to share with you something he wrote on prayer. Also, this year was declared by pope Benedict XVI to be the "Year of Priests" and the beloved Cure d'Ars is the universal patron of priests. Our minor seminary in Miami is named after him. He almost did not get ordained himself because he had such trouble with his seminary studies which were all in Latin. However, once ordained he attracted great crowds both for his ability to aid people in the confessional and for his short homilies. Here is one he gave on prayer:
"The more we pray, the more we wish to pray. Like a fish which at first swims on the surface of the water, and afterwards plunges down, and is always going deeper, the soul plunges, dives, and loses itself in the sweetness of conversing with God. Time never seems long in prayer.
The fish swimming in a little rivulet is well off, because it is in its element; but it is still better in the sea. When we pray, we should open our heart to God, like a fish when it sees the wave coming.
The good God has no need of us. God commands us to pray only because God wills our happiness, and our happiness can be found only in prayer." (Quoted in Living with Christ).

Transfiguration and Joy

Sometimes I see an image and need to keep looking at it as I know it has some inner meaning for me. Last night I made a taco salad without meat for dinner as it is quite hot in Miami; we are all tired from the trip home and trying to get caught up. I think I went to bed before 8:30 but then was awake at four this morning.

I have several new books that I will be sharing with you as all of them will give us a richness of spiritual reading for the rest of the year. I think we need to be very disciplined about making time for spiritual reading and I am afraid that I often do less than I would like so the books pile up. Fortunately, since I am still teaching Contemporary Spirituality, I do make time to keep up; one reads to nourish the soul.

These are just thoughts that come into my head as I sit here this morning with a long "to do" list. I want to do all with joy today. I think that when we act without joy, it helps no one. Sometimes I am doing things because I think I should do them; the Lord does not want that - I am happy to have the opportunity to help and want to serve with joy. By doing all with love I find joy and I am also so grateful that I can choose to be a joyful person. I think this is where I am today.

You may notice that my reflections are quite personal since I have returned. I am just writing whatever comes, but hope soon to be able to again prepare my reflections and hope that they continue to help others. The Feast of the Transfiguration is one of joy.

"To comfort, you must love.."

This is a picture of the new library at Loyola where we had all of our prayer sessions and Liturgies. I sat facing an entire wall of glass overlooking Lake Michigan. This new building is fantastic, but I am glad we had the large room in a closer building to our dorm and cafeteria; we had round tables and sat eight to a table. We were quite a mix so I was with someone from Redwood City, California, Australia, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, New York, Washington D.C., Atherton, California, Boston, and I was from Miami so we had East Coast, West Coast, southern middle and then Australia which is pretty far away. I loved the table conversations and the exchange of ideas as we also were from over 80 down to one still in her thirties. On the last morning we had generation groups, but no time to really talk at the table as we were "passing" some things we had discussed for our next action steps.

I kept going back in prayer to a quote from Monsignor Romano Guardini that I found in Magnificat for the Feast of St. Martha, June 29. I will just give a short excerpt here as I like it so much. He is speaking about God and says that he "is nearer to us than ever a lover was to his dearest one; he bears in heart our deepest concerns and bestows on us his watchful care...God is real!...God is the Comforter...To comfort, you must love. You must be open and enter into the other's heart. You must be observant; you must have the free and sensitive heart that finds the paths of life with quiet assurance ...."

Home Again!

I am back and ready to share with all my readers some of the highlights of my week of meetings in Chicago at Loyola University. The first days were with a group of about thirty-two Religious of the Sacred Heart who are engaged in Higher Education. It was a wonderful time to share our common mission as most of us work alone in different Universities although there are a good group of RSCJs at the University of San Diego and a couple at CTU in Chicago. We had time to pray together, to share, and to work on common goals and criteria that would apply to whatever work we are doing in Higher Education.
The Higher Education meeting ended shortly after noon to give us time to prepare to help with the registration for the 220 RSCJs ( including some international guests and some Provincial staff) arriving for the United States Provincial Assembly/Chapter that same afternoon. We began officially with a lovely ceremony where each area blessed the water brought from the area's most identifying body of water(Mississippi river, Biscayne Bay for Miami, Lake Michigan, etc.) I was the representative for the Miami area who came forward and poured the water into one bowel so that all the areas were mingled. This was so symbolic of all that followed! When RSCJs get together it is a real "Cor Unum" - we love seeing each other, sharing, and praying together.
The committees that planned the Assembly and the great prayer services and Liturgies did a fabulous job. We met at 8:30 each morning for prayer and then worked all day with a Liturgy at 5:00 on two of the days and I wonderful closing Liturgy on Sunday morning. All this may not be of interest to my readers, but I will need to process still all that we did during the assembly. I am just grateful to be able to belong to the Society of the Sacred Heart and one of the graces of the week was being with RSCJs from other countries! Our Mother General was present with one of the Central Team; our former Mother General was there, too. There were also RSCJS from Australia, Canada, Scotland, Poland, Africa, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Colombia, England,etc. It is always thrilling to hear all the great work we are doing in all parts of the world.
One of our young nuns is going to Chile from September to June for an international experience so I met with her to share some of my love for that country and the people. It was just a great week, but very tiring. More tomorrow about the content! You will get much from looking at the website, rscj.org listed on the right.

Letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality

Here is the last of the wonderful contributions from Jean in Maryland. I will be home and back writing a daily blog as of tomorrow. In the meantime, for your prayer and reflection:

Pedro Arrupe, S.J. was a former Superior General of the Society of Jesus. He has been called “the second Ignatius” being a Basque like him and because of his leadership during an extensive renewal of the Society. He was present during the bombing of Hiroshima and ministered to the victims. Here are 3 of his prayers written over the course of his life.


“Falling in Love with God”

“Nothing is more practical
than finding God,
that is,
falling in love
in a quite, absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination,
will effect everything.

It will decide
what will get you out of bed
in the morning,
what you will do
with your evenings,
how you spend you weekends,
what you will read,
who you know, what breaks your heart,
what amazes you with
joy and gratitude.

Fall in love,
Stay in love,
And it will decide everything.”


“Personal Prayer of Pedro Arrupe”

“Grant me, O Lord, to see everything now with new eyes,
to discern and test the spirits
that help me read the signs of the times,
to relish the things that are yours, and to
communicate them to others.

Give me the clarity of understanding that you gave
Ignatius.”


The third prayer of Pedro Arrupe was written while living with the after effects of a stroke that left him severely debilitated.

“In the Hands of God”

More than ever I find myself in the hands of God.
This is what I have wanted all my life from my
youth.

But now there is a difference;
the initiative is entirely with God.

It is indeed a profound spiritual experience
to know and feel myself so totally in God’s hands.”

Letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality

The picture is the pond on campus at St. Thomas University; it is peaceful even when there are students sitting around working with their laptops.
Now, let us continue with our letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality:

#8 LETTERS FROM MARYLAND ON IGNATIAN SPIRITUALITY

“Ignatian Prayers”

A great way to close these letters from Maryland is to turn to the poetry of prayers, some written by Ignatius and some by fellow Jesuits. They occur in various places including the Exercises themselves but a wonderful source book for this material and many other Jesuit prayers is the book, Hearts on Fire: Praying with Jesuits.

It is fitting to use two written by Ignatius today: his prayer for generosity and the Suscipe which is said in repetitions as part of the “Contemplation to Attain the Love of God” used during the fourth week of the Exercises. Here they are:


“Prayer for Generosity”

Lord, teach me to be generous.
Teach me to serve you as you deserve;
To give and not to count the cost,
To fight and not to heed the wounds,
To toil and not to seek for rest,
To labor and not to ask for reward,
Save that of knowing that I do your will.



“Suscipe”

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding
and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace.
That is enough for me.”

Letters from Maryland on Ignatian Spirituality

Here is the second part of Jean's letter talking about Margaret Silf and Ignatian Spirituality. I just want to add that we have been using Margaret's book, Inner Compass in my reflection group all year.
If I were to pick my favorite author on Ignatian spirituality it would be Bill Barry, S.J. who has some wonderful books. Maybe I will get Jean to dialogue with me about some of them.

The Exercises are riches that have come down to us from Ignatius and a small group of friends and involve the ministry of companionship. The Exercises are not an end but a beginning.
Margaret Silf also gives concrete suggestions for dealing with consolation and desolation. She points out that to use the tool called discernment we must come to stillness and in the silence of our hearts wait patiently for the compass needle to steady so we can move forward again.
Some concrete steps to take in desolation:
Tell God how you feel and ask for help
Seek out companionship
Don’t go back on decisions you made in Consolation
Stand still
Recall a time of consolation and go back to it in imagination
Look for someone who needs your help and turn your attention to them
Go back to # 1.
In Consolation:
Tell God how you feel and thank him
Store this moment in your memory to return to when things get tough
Use the energy you feel to further your deepest desires
Let the surplus energy fuel the things you don’t like doing and do them
Go back to #1.

Any of her books you can find will be invaluable aids in both understanding and practicing Ignatian spirituality.