Off to Scotland and England

These pictures are of Iona and I thought you would like to imagine me there next week. This is the last reflection I shall write until October 17 when I am home again and will be able to share about my trip. It has been very busy this week so I think my reflections have much to do with trust. I was reading Carlos Martini's book on Paul and was struck by Paul's hope and trust even when he was experiencing all kinds of suffering. He seemed to see all the misunderstandings in his own life and the real heart suffering he went through as ways of being united to the sufferings of Christ and a way to bring comfort to others. I am trying to pray the news these days as a way to bring comfort to so many who are suffering in all parts of our world. It is possible to hope and trust even at the darkest moments and Paul never gave up.
I count on all your prayers for my trip to Scotland and England and I look forward to renewing my relationship with old friends and meeting new ones.:)
This trip is all about relationships; Iona is a side trip, a pilgrimage into the past riches of Celtic spirituality. Do come back to read about it all on October 17, feast of St. Margaret Mary.

International Day of Peace

The International Day of Peace was established by a United Nations resolution in 1981 to coincide with the opening of the General Assembly. In 2002, September 21 was designated as the permanent date for this observance. It has become a worldwide movement to create a global ceasefire and a day of peace and nonviolence.

In establishing the International Day of Peace, the United Nations General Assembly decided that it would be appropriate "to devote a specific time to concentrate the efforts of the United Nations and its Member States, as well as of the whole of humankind, to promoting the ideals of peace and to giving positive evidence of their commitment to peace in all viable ways . . . [The International Day of Peace] should be devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideals of peace both within and among all nations and peoples."

My reflection today is on peace and "let it begin with me. One of my "lights" before my final profession over 48 years ago was that only in proportion to my establishing the reign of God in me, can I establish the reign of God in the world." I am convinced that this is true and must work hard to establish peace in myself before I can be a peacemaker.

Celtic Cross

I was reading in Philip Newell's Christ of the Celts: The Healing of Creation today. Philip was a warden of Iona Abbey in the Western Isles of Scotland and conducted the seven-mile weekly pilgrimage. Since I will be going to Iona in ten days, I am interested in knowing more about Celtic spirituality and learned something new this morning: St. Irenaeus of Lyons in the second century is the first teacher of historical significance in the Celtic Christian world. We think of the Celtic territory as being comprised only of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. But Newell points out that in the ancient world, "the Celts spanned the whole of middle Europe, extending from Turkey in the east to the Atlantic coastline of Spain in the west." Irenaeus teaches that Christ expresses the heart of the first work of God, namely, the work of creation, the deepest and most essential energy of the Creator.
Christ is viewed in the Celtic tradition as coming from the very Heart of God and thus revealing God's Heart to us. The high Celtic crosses speak of the twin love of Christ and creation; sometimes, as is the case with the thousand-year old high-standing cross of Saint Martin on Iona, one side is devoted to Scripture imagery and the other to creation imagery. Both are read in Christ and both are important.

On the Way - Over 500 Reflections!

I wrote my blog this morning but it would not save for some reason. I think I have solved the problem, but this will be a short reflection since I lost the last one. I was thinking that this is reflection 501 and I am very much on a journey. I want to walk each day with Jesus but so often forget him. He is always with me, with each of us; why am I so unaware of his presence in my daily life? I guess I want Jesus to be the center of my life but keep pushing him out by concern for the pressing things that seem to crop up. I suspect that they would get done and done better if I paused and asked Jesus to help. I think he waits for me to ask and loves it when I trust him.
Having said this, let us continue on the path as he is the Way.

The Gift of Prayer

I ordered Margaret Silf's The Gift of Prayer: Embracing the Sacred in the Everyday and love the candle flame on the cover. This book was published in 2004, but I had not seen it; the publisher is BlueBridge and it was published in London under the title On Prayer. The page before the Introduction has two powerful quotes that are familiar: "Be still, and know that I am God." (Ps 46) And this one from The Dhammapada: "Better than a thousand useless words is one single word that gives peace."

Today the St. Thomas More Catholic Law Society had "The Red Mass" at St. Thomas University. The purpose of the "Red Mass" is to seek God's blessing on those who are part of the legal profession. Judges and lawyers attend in a body joined by public officials and law faculty members. The Mass in honor of the Holy Spirit is celebrated at the opening of the judicial year. Celebrants are clothed in Red because the red vestments represent the flames of the guiding Holy Spirit.

Here is a prayer of St. Thomas More: "Lord, grant that I may be able in argument, accurate in analysis, strict in study, candid with clients, and honest with adversaries. Sit with me at my desk and listen with me to my client's plaints, read with me in the library, and stand beside me in court, so that today I shall not in order to win a point lose my soul."
Let us pray for all lawyers today.

Open the Door, Lord

It was the antiphon "O Key of David" that started Joyce Rupp thinking about the symbol of the door. I was at the dentist this morning and there is a picture of a little cottage with a blue door that is ajar. There is a wooden folding chair in the sun in front of the cottage with lots of flowers growing in pots in the patio, but the door is what holds my attention. It invites one to come into the inner chamber; there is a closed window in the picture with a white curtain so one knows that the inner room is private, but the door is partly open and one wants to enter. I guess the desire is what counts in our lives.

Now, I want to share this bit of wisdom that came from my great friend, Dr. Alex Tang, in Malaysia. He sends wonderful reflections and you can find his website if you wish to read more. He begins by talking about our disposable society so that we begin to think that even people are "disposable" but this is what struck me today:
"True growth takes time. It is important to recognise this. The man who
takes care of the vineyard understands this, and thus is willing to
stake his reputation with the vineyard owner. In spiritual growth
there is nothing disposable. Everything that takes place is precious
and irreplaceable. We cannot take away anything because everything
that had happened to us, whether positive or negative, makes us who we
are. Spiritual growth is when we redeem all our experiences by washing
it with the blood of Christ. This transformative action takes time."

Let us remember that everything in the spiritual life is important and not to be disposed of but to be used for our growth and gradual transformation and we are called to transform our world!

Busy as a Bee

Sometimes we seem to be going in circles but to get to the center of ourselves, according to Joyce Rupp, we need only to open the door. I seem to be too busy to settle down to even visualize the inner door to my heart. I think I shall take her book with me on my trip next week.
Yes, I will be going away a week from tomorrow for three weeks. I do not like to leave my daily readers, but it is too difficult to write a blog when I am away. If fact, I am so busy this week that I am not sure the quality of my reflections will be very helpful. However, I am very excited about my trip and all the friends I will be meeting - some are old friends that I have not seen in years; others are new friends and I look forward to meeting them.
I leave Wednesday, the 24th for Edinburgh; I change planes in London. I have a few days in Edinburgh and then I will be in Perth and making a pilgrimage to Iona. I suspect that many of you do not know about Iona off the western coast of Scotland. I began learning about it in the Online Program that I was teaching and visited the website and was hooked. There is actually a Religious of the Sacred Heart running a prayer house on the island! More about this later.
The second part of my trip will be in England. I suspect that I will want to tell you about that tomorrow so I can begin work now. I do not like to be as "busy as a bee" but sometimes I need to commit myself to too many things - at least I am learning to limit myself, but this week I found circumstances that have caused me to feel rushed. Rushing around accomplishes nothing so I shall slow down and not say more today. At least I am not going round and round in circles! Or am I?

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

This is a feast with a sequence, the Stabat Mater and I am sorry that I am late in posting something and that I seem to have added an image of Mary that is not what I thought I was choosing. The truth is that I was quite distracted yesterday in trying to name the Seven Sorrows of Mary but I looked them up for my readers:
The Seven Sorrows (or Dolors) are events in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary which are a popular devotion:

The Prophecy of Simeon over the Infant Jesus.(Luke 2:34)
The Flight into Egypt of the Holy Family. (Matthew 2:13)
The Loss of the Child Jesus for Three Days. (Luke 2:43)
The Meeting of Jesus and Mary along the Way of the Cross. (Luke 23:26)
The Crucifixion where Mary stands at the foot of the cross. (John 19:25)
The Descent from the Cross where Mary receives the dead body of Jesus in her arms. (Matthew 27:57)
The Burial of Jesus. (John 19:40)

Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross

Today's feast was established to celebrate the fact that "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him." The Apostles had a hard time with the idea of Jesus crucified; but the early Church had icons that show a glorified cross as they came to realize that the cross had set us free and was a symbol of life.

Listen and act

St. John Chrysostom was born in Antioch in 347. He trained as an orator but wanted to be a hermit. His health did not permit him to live the austere life of a hermit so he returned to Antioch and was ordained and became a great preacher. He was called "golden mouth" or "Chrysostomos". He was made Archbishop of Constantinople and set about to reform the church there. He made enemies who tried to exile him, but he died on the journey. His dying words were, "Glory to God for all things."

Today's Gospel is very appropriate as we see the flood waters in Texas washing away houses as indeed the hurricane surge did in Haiti and Cuba. Jesus tells us that a good tree bears good fruit. A good person out of the store of goodness in his heart produces good...but then Jesus says, "I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, listens to my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when the flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it because it had been well built. But the one who listens and does not act is like a person who built a house on the ground without a foundation."
Let us learn to listen and to do whatever the Lord asks of us. Let us also pray for all those who have lost material homes in this hurricane.

Praise for John Dear

Today I finished reading A Persistent Peace: One Man's Struggle for a Nonviolent World by John Dear, S.J. and I feel that my life needs to be different. One cannot follow Jesus and not be concerned about peace and nonviolence at every level. I am much more conscious of sudden feelings of anger inside me, of the way I avoid conflict rather than try to be active to promote peace. I want to share two quotes from the Epilogue:
"So each day we pray: 'Your reign of peace come. Your will of peace be done.' We don't wait for some far off future...the Reign of God is at hand, right now, in this very moment. We pledge to live with the God of peace, follow the Christ of peace, breathe in the Holy Spirit of peace...."

"And so we walk the narrow path of Gospel nonviolence. We are becoming Beatitude people, Sermon on the Mount people, a new breed of Christians. We go forward filled with hope into the new life of resurrection, the promised land of peace. Each step forward brings blessing upon blessing upon blessing."

John Dear is a Jesuit who lives for peace; he is a prophet for today's world.

Meetings - but "give and igifts will be given to you"...

My image may need to be your reflection today as I am off to a meeting with a group that is very life-giving for me; some of us have been meeting for twenty years to share our lives and help each other with the supervision that all spiritual directors should have.
Tonight we begin our Reflection Group which I started about fifteen years ago; the people change but usually we have around fourteen who come for dinner, prayer, and reflection on a book that we choose each year to help us grow spiritually. This year we are beginning with Margaret Silf's Inner Compass.
I did prepare a reflection this morning on the Gospel, but no time now to share it. I was struck though by "Stop judging and you will not be judged. ...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."