Feast of the Transfiguration

 The Gospel is from Mark:2-10: "Jesus took Peter, James, and his brother John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them alon with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus...."

What a moment to contemplate! Then they hear a voice from a cloud saying: "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."

We are all called to listen to Jesus.

Today is also the First Friday of August and so we spend time listening to the Heart of Jesus who so loves us and our world and who wants us to love Him in return.

The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

 Two Entrance Antiphons are given for today's feast which is so unusual that I am copying both here:

"A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothes with the sun, and the moon beneath her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." or

"Let us all rejoice in the Lord, as we celebrate the feast day in honor of the Virgin Mary, at whose Assumption the Angels rejoice and praise the Son of God."

In the Collect we ask that we may always be attentive to the things that are above, and that we may merit to share in Mary's glory.

This is the last day of my retreat so I am happy to have it end on Our Lady's Feast. I will come out tomorrow morning and be home to share some of my retreat beginning August 17 to post my blog.

This got published the day I wrote it and cannot be changed to August 15 - sorry about that.

Contemplating calm water

 When we calm our souls so they reflect God as this lake reflects the trees, we enter into a deep mystery and allow God to love us.

My posts are going to be brief, I think, for the first half of this month when many are still on vacation. I leave next Monday for a week of retreat with God at Villa Maria del Mar. Please pray for those precious days that I may be attentive to the Spirit and just spend the week with God.

Feast of St. John Vianney

 "Prayer is to our soul what rain is to the soil. Fertilize the soil ever so richly, it will remain barren unless fed by frequent rains."

Each person is a mission

 Today I am sharing a quote that someone gave me from Pope Frances that intrigues me. 

"Each person is a mission, planned by the Father to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel."

I do not know who gave it to me or where the original quotation was taken from, but I am wondering what aspect of the Gospel I am reflecting and embodying at this moment in my history. I know that I find myself sailing on a calm sea with Jesus and I am grateful that we are together and that He knows where He is taking me. I find that the solitude we have had because of  regulations for retirement communities to keep us safe, has given all of us here more time for prayer and reflection. I am so grateful that we have been spared and pray that we continue to be safe.

I will close with this quote that is so full of wisdom: "God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...the courage to change the things I can....and the wisdom to know the difference."

Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary time

 Jesus tells us in today's Gospel (Jn 6:24-35): "I am the Bread of Life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

Jesus is promising us the true bread which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. We need to pray for those who have not yet found Jesus, but we need to also pray for all those who are suffering from real hunger and those who are hungry for justice, for a place to live, for safety for their children, etc. Let us pray with faith that Jesus will be "the bread of life" for all and may our prayer today help make the world a better place.

Feast Of St. Ignatius of Loyola

 

St. Ignatius told us that love consists in sharing what one has and what one is and that love ought to show itself in deeds more than words. 

He also wanted us to ask the Father to give us an intimate knowledge of the many gifts we have received so that filled with gratitude for all, I may love and serve God.

I think Ignatius is a saint that is still very concerned with helping us to love God. Let us ask him for the grace to be able to stay in the presence of God, to discern what God wants from each of us, and, above all, let us surrender all so that we may experience the love of God so that this love may flow out to others.

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Ignatius or Loyola

 

I have been reading Walking with Ignatius by Arturo Sosa, S.J., the Superior General of the Jesuits in conversation with Dario Menor. I have found it very helpful not only to see how the Jesuits are now adapting to fewer vocations, but how they are prioritising their Apostolic Preferences and how they are seeing how they can partner in mission with others. I think that it has given me new insights into what we are contemplating in our own Society as we move forward listening to the needs of the world.

I find that Ignatius gave us a great gift in giving us the rules for discernment. My own life is certainly influenced by the Spiritual Exercises, the daily examen, and the practice of discernment. I have had the grace of making the thirty-day retreat in Spain in the Jesuit retreathouse built over the little cave where Ignatius began writing what would become the guidelines for all Ignatian retreats. I even spent an all night vigil in that cave and had the grace of going back just three years later to give the thirty-day retreat to four Religious from different countries. Two were priests from Malaysia and India; a Brother from the Philippines, and a Sister from a monastery in the United States. Spending time in that cave made me feel close to Ignatius. I also have had three Jesuit cousins, have my doctorate from a Jesuit University, have made many directed retreats with Jesuits, and have given many directed retreats in Chile so Ignatius is a special friend.

Listen to the Word of God

 God speaks to us in so many ways and He speaks to us daily! Are we listening? Of course, we know the Bible is the Word of God, but God is not limited to His Biblical word; He speaks to us each morning as the sun rises and He is still speaking with us at sunset. We need to cultivate seeing His Presence in each person, event, and circumstance in our day. It is a gift to be able to recognize how God is communicating with us at every moment. Let is ask for this gift today.

Time to get going again

 This picture seems to sum up the way many of us have been feeling during this long time of hoping that the boat will be safe and we will reach a new destination after so many months of uncertainty. Of course, the virus caused us to feel that we were at sea in a tiny boat, but we also have so many other currents that are shaking our boat: the crisis of lack of care for our earth, our oceans, etc.; the crisis of homelessness, the plight of the refugees, racism, etc. Now, we need to get out of the boat wherever we can land and do something!

I am beginning to write my blog again because I see that many are waiting for it to appear. I am with new energy; my infected let is healing and I am grateful for that! We all have much to be grateful for and I hope each of my readers will keep a gratitude journal during these next months. If you do not like to write, just spend a few moments each day thinking of all the things you feel grateful for and so often take for granted. God likes to be thanked and He is contantly watching over all of us and providing what we need. Let us be grateful and let our gratitude overflow so we are joyful persons.

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Today's Collect asks the Lord to increase the gifts of grace so that made fervent in hope, faith, and charity, we may be ever watchful in keeping the Lord's commands.

The first reading is from Jeremiah 23:1-6 and talks about the shepherds who do not take good care of the sheep. The Lord says, "I mself will gather the remnant of my floce from all the lands to which I have driven them and bring them back to their meadow; there they shall increase and multipl. I will appoint shepherds for them who will shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and now shall be missing, says the Lord." There is still more but I will stop there.

The Responsorial Psalm is: "The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want." 

I love Psalm 23 and love the idea that the Lord leads us besides restful waters....

The second reading is from the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 2:13-18

Paul tells us that Christ is our peace and that He came to preach peace to all.

The Gospel is Mark 6:30-34 

The apostles gathered with Jesus and reported all that they had done and taught. Then Jesus said to them: "Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while." They went off in the boat by themselves to a deserted place. However, people saw them leaving and hastened there even before them so that when they disembarked there was a vast crowd. The Gospel tells us that Jesus was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd and he began to teach them many things.

I love thinking of Jesus as my Good Shepherd who seeks me out and leads me to restful waters.

I have thought of July as a vacation month at least in the sense that I am not writing my blog daily. I still feel the need to write less during this time. It gives me more time to read. 

Fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 We really celebrate the 4th of July tomorrow, but I am writing today and want to tell you that the readings for this Sunday are excellent and I hope you will pray with them. They are Ezekiel 2: 2-5; 2 Cor 12:7-10; and Mark 6:1-6.

I want to share the reflection from Give Us This Day that is taken from Saint Oscar Romero

"God comes, and his ways are near to us. God saves in history. Each person's life, each one's history, is the meeting place God comes to. How satisfying to know that one need not go to the desert to meet him, need not go to some particular spot in the world. God is in your own heart.

Who will put a prophet's eloquence into my words to shake from their inertia all those who kneel before the riches of the earth-- who would like gold, money, lands, power, political life to be their everlasting gods! All that is going to end. There will remain only the satisfaction of having been, in regard to money or political life, a person faith ful to God's will. 

One must learn to manage the relative and transitory things of erth, according to his will, not make them absolutes. There is only one absolute: he who awaits us in the heaven that will not pass away."

Happy Canada Day as well as Happy Fourth of July - please remember that I am on vacation for the first two weeks of July. I am here at Oakwood, but will be very busy with the MIssion Forum for the Province that ends only on the 11th so I think I will not be writing my daily blog until after that.