Never be satisfied with the first answer or with the easy one...

"Never be satisfied with the first answer or with the easy one. The moment I think I have it s often the moment I most need to keep digging. Answers, it seems to me, are always provisional. It is the questions that keep moving me forward in the unknown--which is where the good stuff is to be found."
Peter Clothier

Now, my first question today is what do you think of this quote? I guess I like the idea that the questions keep moving us forward; I think this is true. I am not sure about the first part of the quote as sometimes the first answer may be the right answer. After all, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us. I guess, though, that the difficult questions need to be pondered and seldom have an easy answer.

The Scripture quote is from Jeremiah: 6:16
"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls."

I leave this for your reflection as I am off to the gym. We had a great reflection group last night, mostly on the fourth week of the Spiritual Exercises but also on our own experience of God and how Jesus appears in our own lives!!

Jesus asks good questions

One of the most interesting studies I did for myself once was to go through the Gospels and study all the questions that Jesus asks. You will find over a hundred and then think about the circumstances, the place and the people, when praying over the question. Perhaps that little project made me aware of how often Jesus is asking me a question right now! And Jesus waits for me to answer.
Yesterday I was struck by the conversation Jesus has with the two disciples on the road and how he begins by asking them a couple of questions and then they pour out all that is in their hearts. I think that happens to us in prayer, too. Then, sometimes Jesus and I just sit there in silence, but sometimes I feel not only loved and understood, but Jesus seems to be talking to me.
I am off to the University but ask you all to pray for my Provincial whose mother died on Easter Tuesday. Her name was Martha and she had a large family with many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The funeral is tomorrow. My father died many years ago on Easter Monday so this is also a time of remembering for me.

Jesus asks good questions; he also is willing to listen to us when we answer!

The picture is of a calm moment on Vero Beach; I just answered an e-mail from a friend in Vero so thought of putting this picture in the blog. I do think a picture to look at helps as much as anything I suggest for reflection.

Here is the quote for today from "Live the Questions Now":

"Asking the proper questions is the central action of transformation. Questions are the key that causes the secret doors of the psyche to swing open."--Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The Scripture quote is from Matthew 13:51:
"Have you understood all these things? Jesus asked.

I think the quote from Clarissa (an author not known to me) is rather thought provoking. The reflection on this in the booklet says that "Questions play a key role in our growth. We learn who we are by asking questions; we learn our stance, our values, and our philosophy of life....

Here is a line from one of Susan Boyle's songs to think about:
"Though I may not know the answer I can finally say I'm free and if the question led me here then I am who I was born to be."

Live the Questions Now

There is a new booklet published by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious called Live the Questions Now that has a reflection for each day beginning on my birthday, May 31, which is also the Feast of the Visitation. The reflections are written by different women religious in leadership today. What I want to share with you are some of the quotations as each reflection has a quote from a well-known writer and then a very short, often one line from Scripture. I think the quotes are worth sharing with you so here is the first from Rainer Maria Rilke:

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves...Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given to you because you will not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now."

The scripture line is from 1 Corinthians 13:4
Love is patient.

This is the week we are singing double alleluias and the miracle of my hearing the homily happened again on Easter Monday. It was the same Pastor and he gave a very short and to the point homily, the kind I can remember. He told us that we are people of the Resurrection; we know we are loved by God and we go forth to give the Good News with joy!

I am caught up in the idea of the Cosmic Christ in whom we "live and move and have our being." I love the idea that everything I do is helping to build up the body of Christ and raise the level of love in the world - at least if I am acting out of love. Anyway, let us live the questions and know that theology today is based a great deal on our experience of God as well as Scripture and Tradition.

Chilean Sunrise

Today, Easter Monday, I am filled with joy because Jesus is risen and continues to go around giving consolation to each of us during these forty days as he did when on earth. The homily yesterday stressed how much we are loved and loved in a unique way as each of us is different and unique. However, we are all daughters and sons of God, created in his image and likeness to receive his love and to give it. I am especially grateful for the twenty years in Chile where I experienced in so many different ways the immense love of God.

Chile now has an international novitiate and we must pray for the novices and for all those who are helping to form them. I also am praying for all our young nuns in Rome who are preparing for their final profession.

I am grateful for the years I worked in formation in Chile, the years on the Mission Team there, the many directed retreats I was able to give to our Religious and to the tremendous experience of being able to help so many realize how much we are loved by God at every moment.

It is a day to rejoice and to look back and thank for the many graces we have each received.

Happy Easter!

Jesus is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad!

May we all enter into His joy today!! Christ is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Here is the end of Pope Benedict XVI's homily for the Easter vigil:

Dear friends, as I conclude, I would like to add one more thought about light and illumination. On Easter night, the night of the new creation, the Church presents the mystery of light using a unique and very humble symbol: the Paschal candle. This is a light that lives from sacrifice. The candle shines inasmuch as it is burnt up. It gives light, inasmuch as it gives itself. Thus the Church presents most beautifully the paschal mystery of Christ, who gives himself and so bestows the great light. Secondly, we should remember that the light of the candle is a fire. Fire is the power that shapes the world, the force of transformation. And fire gives warmth. Here too the mystery of Christ is made newly visible. Christ, the light, is fire, flame, burning up evil and so reshaping both the world and ourselves. “Whoever is close to me is close to the fire,” as Jesus is reported by Origen to have said. And this fire is both heat and light: not a cold light, but one through which God’s warmth and goodness reach down to us.

The great hymn of the Exsultet, which the deacon sings at the beginning of the Easter liturgy, points us quite gently towards a further aspect. It reminds us that this object, the candle, has its origin in the work of bees. So the whole of creation plays its part. In the candle, creation becomes a bearer of light. But in the mind of the Fathers, the candle also in some sense contains a silent reference to the Church. The cooperation of the living community of believers in the Church in some way resembles the activity of bees. It builds up the community of light. So the candle serves as a summons to us to become involved in the community of the Church, whose raison d’être is to let the light of Christ shine upon the world.

Let us pray to the Lord at this time that he may grant us to experience the joy of his light; let us pray that we ourselves may become bearers of his light, and that through the Church, Christ’s radiant face may enter our world (cf. LG 1). Amen

Good Friday

No words necessary; His love is shown in giving His life for us!

Here is a link to a silent Way of the Cross that can also be used tomorrow!

way of the cross - trafficking.pptx

Holy Thursday

I am doing the community prayer this evening before dinner and thought I might share it with you - I am using excerpts on the Eucharist from the Constitutions of the Sacred Heart as you know we are praying and deepening our reflection on them as this is the 25th anniversary of their approval by the Vatican after all Religious Orders were asked to revise and update their Constitutions. Having said all this, I cannot find the prayer for Holy Thursday in my files! I guess the Lord really wants me to keep silence and not spend time at the computer during these Holy Days so I will just be united in prayer and back blogging on Easter Sunday!

Holy Week silence

I am going to be silent on this blog for a few days; Holy Week is too full for me to add anything to what each is reflecting on during these days. I also have put on this blog excellent resources both under the prayer resources and under my chosen blogs - sometimes I just need to take the time to be and not write. I am sure you will understand and I shall be back by Easter. I wish you all a holy Holy Week and a very Happy Easter filled with His Joy!!

Playful Dolphins

I love to watch dophins jumping around and they seem to enjoy life and also want to look out for each other. People pay money here in Florida to go swim with the dolphins and they say they are very touching, gentle, and caring, especially when it is someone expecting a baby. How do they know? They seem to have certain instincts that just tell them when someone needs more love and attention; I guess that is something we all need to develop!

To continue with the spirituality found in reflecting on some parts of the Constitutions of the Society of the Sacred Heart- from Our Service in the Church: We had reflected on: We are sent by the Church
to communicate the love of the Heart of Jesus.
In Him all find their true growth as persons and now we realize this in our service of education:


11.
Saint Madeleine Sophie chose to express this conviction
through the service of education, especially of the young.
Faithful to her inspiration, and, like her, open to new situations,
we make her desire our own:

- that people become ever more aware of truth, of love
and of freedom
- that they discover the significance of their lives, and devote themselves to others
- that they take part creatively in the common effort to
transform the world
- that they be enabled to encounter the love of Jesus
- that they let their lives be shaped by an active faith.


I guess the important thing is to live this myself, if I am to help others. I think that this has influenced my teaching ministry especially at the University where I have spent the last 25 years of my life.

Excerpt from Pope Benedict XVI on Palm Sunday

I thought this last paragraph worth copying here in my blog for us as we enter into Holy Week: I guess I seem to have copied the whole but you could skip to the last part. Unless you have time for all, just go to the bold part.

Sunday, April 01, 2012
"Who Is Jesus For Us?"
HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI
PALM SUNDAY OF THE LORD'S PASSION
ST PETER'S SQUARE
1 APRIL 2012

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Palm Sunday is the great doorway leading into Holy Week, the week when the Lord Jesus makes his way towards the culmination of his earthly existence. He goes up to Jerusalem in order to fulfil the Scriptures and to be nailed to the wood of the Cross, the throne from which he will reign for ever, drawing to himself humanity of every age and offering to all the gift of redemption. We know from the Gospels that Jesus had set out towards Jerusalem in company with the Twelve, and that little by little a growing crowd of pilgrims had joined them. Saint Mark tells us that as they were leaving Jericho, there was a "great multitude" following Jesus (cf. 10:46).

On the final stage of the journey, a particular event stands out, one which heightens the sense of expectation of what is about to unfold and focuses attention even more sharply upon Jesus. Along the way, as they were leaving Jericho, a blind man was sitting begging, Bartimaeus by name. As soon as he heard that Jesus of Nazareth was passing, he began to cry out: "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Mk 10:47). People tried to silence him, but to no avail; until Jesus had them call him over and invited him to approach. "What do you want me to do for you?", he asked. And the reply: "Master, let me receive my sight" (v. 51). Jesus said: "Go your way, your faith has made you well." Bartimaeus regained his sight and began to follow Jesus along the way (cf. v. 52). And so it was that, after this miraculous sign, accompanied by the cry "Son of David", a tremor of Messianic hope spread through the crowd, causing many of them to ask: this Jesus, going ahead of us towards Jerusalem, could he be the Messiah, the new David? And as he was about to enter the Holy City, had the moment come when God would finally restore the Davidic kingdom?

The preparations made by Jesus, with the help of his disciples, serve to increase this hope. As we heard in today’s Gospel (cf. Mk 11:1-10), Jesus arrives in Jerusalem from Bethphage and the Mount of Olives, that is, the route by which the Messiah was supposed to come. From there, he sent two disciples ahead of him, telling them to bring him a young donkey that they would find along the way. They did indeed find the donkey, they untied it and brought it to Jesus. At this point, the spirits of the disciples and of the other pilgrims were swept up with excitement: they took their coats and placed them on the colt; others spread them out on the street in Jesus’ path as he approached, riding on the donkey. Then they cut branches from the trees and began to shout phrases from Psalm 118, ancient pilgrim blessings, which in that setting took on the character of messianic proclamation: "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!" (v. 9-10). This festive acclamation, reported by all four evangelists, is a cry of blessing, a hymn of exultation: it expresses the unanimous conviction that, in Jesus, God has visited his people and the longed-for Messiah has finally come. And everyone is there, growing in expectation of the work that Christ will accomplish once he has entered the city.

But what is the content, the inner resonance of this cry of jubilation? The answer is found throughout the Scripture, which reminds us that the Messiah fulfills the promise of God’s blessing, God’s original promise to Abraham, father of all believers: "I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you ... and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves" (Gen 12:2-3). It is the promise that Israel had always kept alive in prayer, especially the prayer of the Psalms. Hence he whom the crowd acclaims as the blessed one is also he in whom the whole of humanity will be blessed. Thus, in the light of Christ, humanity sees itself profoundly united and, as it were, enfolded within the cloak of divine blessing, a blessing that permeates, sustains, redeems and sanctifies all things.

Here we find the first great message that today’s feast brings us: the invitation to adopt a proper outlook upon all humanity, on the peoples who make up the world, on its different cultures and civilizations. The look that the believer receives from Christ is a look of blessing: a wise and loving look, capable of grasping the world’s beauty and having compassion on its fragility. Shining through this look is God’s own look upon those he loves and upon Creation, the work of his hands. We read in the Book of Wisdom: "But thou art merciful to all, for thou canst do all things, and thou dost overlook men’s sins, that they may repent. For thou lovest all things that exist and hast loathing for none of the things which thou hast made ... thou sparest all things, for they are thine, O Lord who lovest the living" (11:23-24, 26).

Let us return to today’s Gospel passage and ask ourselves: what is really happening in the hearts of those who acclaim Christ as King of Israel? Clearly, they had their own idea of the Messiah, an idea of how the long-awaited King promised by the prophets should act. Not by chance, a few days later, instead of acclaiming Jesus, the Jerusalem crowd will cry out to Pilate: "Crucify him!", while the disciples, together with others who had seen him and listened to him, will be struck dumb and will disperse. The majority, in fact, was disappointed by the way Jesus chose to present himself as Messiah and King of Israel. This is the heart of today’s feast, for us too. Who is Jesus of Nazareth for us? What idea do we have of the Messiah, what idea do we have of God? It is a crucial question, one we cannot avoid, not least because during this very week we are called to follow our King who chooses the Cross as his throne. We are called to follow a Messiah who promises us, not a facile earthly happiness, but the happiness of heaven, divine beatitude. So we must ask ourselves: what are our true expectations? What are our deepest desires, with which we have come here today to celebrate Palm Sunday and to begin our celebration of Holy Week?

Dear young people, present here today, this, in a particular way, is your Day, wherever the Church is present throughout the world. So I greet you with great affection! May Palm Sunday be a day of decision for you, the decision to say yes to the Lord and to follow him all the way, the decision to make his Passover, his death and resurrection, the very focus of your Christian lives. It is the decision that leads to true joy, as I reminded you in this year’s World Youth Day Message – "Rejoice in the Lord always" (Phil 4:4). So it was for Saint Clare of Assisi when, on Palm Sunday 800 years ago, inspired by the example of Saint Francis and his first companions, she left her father’s house to consecrate herself totally to the Lord. She was eighteen years old and she had the courage of faith and love to decide for Christ, finding in him true joy and peace.

Dear brothers and sisters, may these days call forth two sentiments in particular: praise, after the example of those who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem with their "Hosanna!", and thanksgiving, because in this Holy Week the Lord Jesus will renew the greatest gift we could possibly imagine: he will give us his life, his body and his blood, his love. But we must respond worthily to so great a gift, that is to say, with the gift of ourselves, our time, our prayer, our entering into a profound communion of love with Christ who suffered, died and rose for us. The early Church Fathers saw a symbol of all this in the gesture of the people who followed Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem, the gesture of spreading out their coats before the Lord. Before Christ – the Fathers said – we must spread out our lives, ourselves, in an attitude of gratitude and adoration. As we conclude, let us listen once again to the words of one of these early Fathers, Saint Andrew, Bishop of Crete: "So it is ourselves that we must spread under Christ’s feet, not coats or lifeless branches or shoots of trees, matter which wastes away and delights the eye only for a few brief hours. But we have clothed ourselves with Christ’s grace, or with the whole Christ ... so let us spread ourselves like coats under his feet ... let us offer not palm branches but the prizes of victory to the conqueror of death. Today let us too give voice with the children to that sacred chant, as we wave the spiritual branches of our soul: ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, the King of Israel’" (PG 97, 994). Amen!

Palm Sunday

Today we celebrate the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem with the people all welcoming and praising Jesus. Soon some of this same crowd will be stirred up to call out "Crucify him!" They will choose a criminal to be released instead of Jesus who was innocent of crime. It is a day to reflect on our own faith and fortitude as well as a day to enter into the feelings of Jesus as He begins this week that we now call "Holy"!