Let the Holy Spirit pray in us...

I believe that the Holy Spirit nudged me to pick up again The Impact of God  by Iain Matthew. Here is another quote to share with you today: "Once we are with the gospel Christ, the gaze of faith, the mutual presence in love, mantains a loving contact. It puts us in place before the radiating gaze of the living God. We are asked to be awake there. We can rest there, till we find we need to strengthen the gospel framework again. In that contact God is building up his life in us, communicating himself to us; the tough of two vitalities which cannot but leave the inmost person changed."

We can and should relax in prayer as it is God who is active and just wants to love us. We need to be open, surrendered, and let the Holy Spirit free to act in us. Indeed, the entire Trinity is present when we open ourselves in prayer to be aware of this Divine Presence in us.

Ascension celebrated on Sunday

I wonder how the Ascension really was. Luke tells us that, after telling his disciples to "stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high", Jesus led them out as far as Bethany, raised his hands, and blessed them. As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken to up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God." (Luke 24:48-53}

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke tells us: "I dealt with all Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the Kingdom of God. While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for 'the promise of the Father about which you have heard me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." 
Then Luke goes on to tell us how Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight.
There is some message there about waiting; there is a value in that time of waiting for the Holy Spirit to empower them. Perhaps we are now waiting between Ascension and Pentecost and should intensify our prayer and praise in order to prepare for the Holy Spirit.

Feast of the Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension was celebrated forty days after Easter and was one of the universal feasts from the beginning of the liturgical year, along with Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost. Luke tells us: "

"And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.'"

 Jesus had told the Apostles that it was good for him to go as he would send the Holy Spirit and so, Ascension is forty days after Easter (now moved to Sunday in some places) and Pentecost is fifty days after Easter and always celebrated on Sunday. 

The Impact of God

Perhaps it is years now since I discovered Iain Matthew's book, The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross. It was out of print at the time and one of our Religious lent me her copy to keep as long as I wanted. Before I returned it, I found that Amazon had it as it had been newly published; I bought three copies so I could return hers with a new one for Oakwood plus a gift and one for myself. This week I felt the urge to pick it up off of my bookshelf and I opened to Chapter 20. I will be quoting a bit from this great spiritual book as it is again speaking to me and I find it confirming my prayer at this stage of my life. Here is a quote:

"The Apostles's primary call is 'to be with him' (Mark 3:14). In John's gospel, this is the fruit of Jesus's resurrection: 'abide in my love' -  remain, stay with, be with(John 15,9)….
"If God is indeed giving himself, our task is to be in place to receive. The gaze of faith keeps us in place. We are not told to keep extracting his love; we are told to abide in it."

Jesus is sleeping in the boat

What I like about this picture is the fact that Jesus is so relaxed that he can just go to sleep in the boat in spite of the movement and noise and then the wind and the waves. Those of the Apostles who knew how dangerous the sudden storms at sea could be, were terrified. They woke Jesus and Jesus immediately calmed the sea so they felt safe, but he also rebuked them for their lack of faith. I think I have often meditated on this scene and it has given me the gift of peace. 
As we begin this month of June, let us prepare for the Feast of Pentecost on the 9th and the Feast of the Sacred Heart on the 28th.
We will also be in retreat from Sunday evening, June 16 to June 23; it is only six days so I will be having a few semi-retreat days with one of our Religious in a condo near the ocean lent to us by the Sisters of Mercy. We will be there June 9-14 and I will not be on my computer so think it might be good for me to take a vacation from this blog (and give my readers one, too!) from June 9-to after the retreat. I will be writing my blog up until Pentecost and then off until the week of the Feast of the Sacred Heart.

Feast of the Visitation

Mary was the first missionary as she carried Jesus in her womb to visit Elizabeth and Jesus must have communicated with the infamt in the womb of Elizabeth as she said the unborn babe leapt for joy at the greeting of Mary. This Gospel scene gives us the wonderful prayer of praise, the Magnificat. I love the first lines where Mary says that her whole being magnifies the Lord and she rejoices in God...

I seem to have a message from God for my 88th birthday and I will try to put it into words. The Lord is telling me that from my birth He has surrounded me with love and has made me to be joyful; my mission now is to give joy to Jesus by giving joy to others and trying to love as Jesus loves. As Jesus is in me, so I am called to give His love to others and that makes for joy. I consider this a great birthday gift and I am grateful. I also urge all to go back over your life to see the love and joy given to you.

Remembering with gratitude

This is the statue of St. Philippine Duchesne found now at the corner of the Academy and commissioned by the city of St. Charles. I am spending my birthday with her this year and asking for the grace of union with the Heart of Jesus. Actually, we are all united to His Heart so I guess I am asking to be more conscious of this and to love others with His Love. It is a good grace to ask for on my 88th birthday. I never expected to live this long, but I am so grateful that I am still able to do for myself, walk without a cane or walker ( one of the few here able to do that). The good thing about old age is that one can pass on the wisdom acquired and have many good memories to share.

One year I made a summer program with one of our Religious from Australia. She asked us to think about the best year of our life, to go back and relive that year in memory. I remember at the time that I felt I had so many wonderful years that it was hard to pick one, but finally chose my sophomore year at Maryville college as so many good things happened to me that year and in June I entered the Society of the Sacred Heart.

can you go back in memory and find the best year of your life? It makes you grateful for we all have so many good years to choose from that it is hard to decide which was the best year.

Reviewing one's life is a grace

As I continue the review of my life, Philippine is very present. She went through so much, but because of her I was able to be a boarder at the Academy of the Sacred Heart in St. Charles for my four years of high school. I remember each of our annual retreats given by Jesuits. We would go into retreat on Monday evening and keep perfect silence until Friday morning. That was quite a feat for teenagers, but I loved those days and always had the life of a Religious of the Sacred Heart to read. God works in strange ways but I knew I had to go try religious life. The example of the Religious who taught me was powerful.

I had my faith from my parents who taught me to pray, but I also had six wonderful years at the Academy of the Visitation and had devotion to the Heart of Jesus from the time I made my First Communion. 

I am finding time taken to review my life with Jesus is very fruitful and I urge you to do the same. You do not need to wait for a birthday to do this!

Gratitude as we age

After my pilgrimage to St. Charles during my visit to St. Louis, I have been thinking more about Philippine during her last ten years. She spent these in a little room at St. Charles; I think she still must  have been able to manage steps as the community room was on the second floor and the dining room in the basement. I know she taught catechism to some French children under the porch on the basement level. She also still did quite a bit of sewing. Besides mending the clothes of the children, she still was able to make vestments for the priests in different churches, but she was not able to thread her needle and the children loved to do that for her.

I guess I am preparing for my 88th birthday next Friday by going back to thank for all the people in my life who have been so kind and loving and important to me. I was going to think of just 88, but found that I had 88 important and cherished people in my life before I made final profession in 1960. I guess I will easily have another 88 special friends from the next 20 years in Chile and still more in the 39 years since I have returned to the United States. I have much to be grateful for and relationships are so important!

We have so many brave people to remember

One of my aunts was married to one of my favorite people. When the Second World War began, Bob was really too old to be drafted, but he had gone to a military school and wanted to join up and was sent to Officers/ Training and then went on to become finally a Lieutenant Colonel and at one point was stationed on a small island in the South Pacific and my aunt joined him there, one of three women on the island whose husbands were officers and wives were allowed. They lived in a Quonset hut and there was nothing to do. They became great bridge players! A General visited and my aunt only had hot dogs to serve him, but he decided that every time a supply boat was going back and forth from Japan, the officers should take their wives! Now this was, of course, after peace had been restored. Bob ended up in Europe where he was in charge of all the army PXes so had to travel to check on them. His life was interesting, but the normal soldier does not have an easy life. We should be grateful that our armed forces find willing recruits and we do not need to draft young people. Still, I wish we could stop fighting in so many places in our world today. We need to pray for peace!

Memorial Day

It is good to remember and honor all those who have fought to keep us free. I think we need long week ends, too, for some who work such long days. A three-day week end is a real holiday for many. Here, we have a picnic and hopefully will see all the RSCJs in the area including those in San Francisco and Alameda. 

I have been using Joyce Rupp's Boundless Compassion: Creating a Way of Life again. I think I did not finish it before going back to other favorite books, but now I am finding passages that are very helpful. I will be sharing a few with you this week, unless the Holy Spirit dictates something different. Joyce says, "Some experts refer to compassion as 'the quivering of the heart.' I hesitate to use this definition because the heart does not always 'quiver' in response to suffering. We do not always feel like being compassionate. Sometimes it takes sheer will power to be there for someone with an illness or a difficulty that requires our time and attentive presence."

I think this is true, but I also believe that we have the grace to make the loving commitment. Or, at least we can pray for the grace to be compassionate no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Sixth Sunday of Easter

Because most dioceses celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus on next Sunday, the reading for today may be from the seventh Sunday after Easter. My calendar has Ascension Thursday in red so I know I will be thinking of Jesus going to His Father on that day even if we celebrate it on Sunday now. It used to be a holy day when Catholics were obliged to attend Mass. This was not easy for many so it was a good idea to transfer the feast to Sunday.

This Sunday then will no doubt have the reading of the 7th Sunday.
What I think is important to remember is that Jesus was always preparing his friends for his departure. He did promise to remain always with them, but it would now be a different sort of presence. He also promised to send the Holy Spirit to them. These days after Easter have made the presence of Jesus very real to both his disciples and to us. Now, we find Jesus in a special way in the Eucharist. 
When I was visiting my brother, one of the things I missed most was my hour of prayer in front of the Eucharist ever afterhoon in our Chapel. I also missed our daily Mass and Communion. Let us thank Jesus again for his presence in the Eucharist and for the gift of the Holy Spirit.