Helix Nebula
THE destruction is, what one local resident described to me as of "biblical proportions". I could only agree in stunned silence after seeing the damage of Hurricane Katrina first hand.
The storm occurred seven months ago–only two weeks after our concert in Violet, 15 miles south of New Orleans. It looks like it happened last week.
AT MORNING Mass, the Lord began speaking to me about “detachment”…
Attachment to things, people, or ideas keeps us from being able to soar like an eagle with the Holy Spirit; it muddies our soul, preventing us from perfectly reflecting the Son; it fills our heart with other-ness, rather than with God.
And so the Lord wishes us to be detached from all inordinate desires, not to keep us from pleasure, but to enrole us in the joy of heaven.
I also understood more clearly how the Cross is the only Way for the Christian. There are many consolations in the beginning of the sincere Christian journey–the “honeymoon”, so to speak. But if one is to progress into the deeper life toward union with God, it requires a self-renunciation–an embrace of suffering and self-denial (we all suffer, but what a difference when we permit it to put to death self-will).
Didn’t Christ already say this?
Unless a grain of what falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.–John 12:24
Unless the Christian embraces the crosses of life, he’ll remain an infant. But if he dies to himself, he will produce much fruit. He will grow into the full stature of Christ.
FROM the first night of the St. Gabriel, LA parish mission:
JESUS continues to send me to near empty churches… but there is at least one lost sheep in attendance. This I am sure of.
Which of you men, if you had one hundred sheep, and lost one of them, wouldn't leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one that was lost, until he found it?–Luke 15:4
AT times God seems so far away…
But He is not. Jesus promised to remain with us until the end of the age. Rather, I think there are times when He draws so near in His transfigured brightness, that one’s soul squints until it closes its eyes. Thus, we think we’re in the dark, but we are not. The soul is blinded by Love itself.
There are other times also when the sense of abandonment comes because of adverse trials. This too is a form of Christ’s love, for in permitting this particular cross, He is also preparing for us a tomb from which to rise.
And what is supposed to die? Self-will.
BUT can we really fly to heaven on just the lift of faith (see yesterday’s post)?
No, we must also have wings: charity, which is love in action. Faith and love work together, and normally one without the other leaves us earthbound, chained to the gravity of self-will.
But love is the greatest of these. Wind cannot lift a pebble from the ground, and yet, a jumbo fuselage, with wings, can soar to the heavens.
And what if my faith is weak? If love, expressed in service to one’s neighbour is strong, the Holy Spirit comes as a mighty wind, lifting us when faith cannot.
If I have faith to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.–St. Paul, 1 Cor 13
Consolations, warm feelings, spiritual experiences, visions, etc. are all like fuel to get one down the runway. But that invisible thing called faith is the only force which can lift one toward heaven.
It shall be established for ever as the moon,
and as a faithful witness in heaven. (Psalm 59:57)
LAST night as I looked up at the moon, a thought burst into my mind. The heavenly bodies are analogies of another reality…
Mary is the moon which reflects the Son, Jesus. Though the Son is the source of light, Mary reflects Him back to us. And surrounding her are countless stars–Saints, illuminating history with her.
At times, Jesus seems to "disappear," beyond the horizon of our suffering. But He has not left us: at the moment He seems to vanish, Jesus is already racing toward us on a new horizon. As a sign of His presence and love, He has also left us His Mother. She does not replace the life-giving power of her Son; but like a careful mother, she lights the darkness, reminding us that He is the Light of the World… and to never doubt His mercy, even in our darkest moments.
After I received this "visual word", the following scripture raced by like a shooting star:
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.–Revelations 12:1
I JUST walked into my prayer room, and my third son Ryan, who just turned two, was standing on his tippy-toes trying to kiss the feet of a crucifix. He just turned two… So I lifted him up and held him there for the kiss. He paused, and then turned his head and kissed the wound on Christ’s side.
I began to tremble and was overwhelmed with emotion. I realized that the Holy Spirit was moving deep within my son, who cannot even form a sentence, to comfort Christ, who is looking over a fallen world about to enter its Passion.
Jesus have mercy. We love you.
TWO days ago, I wrote about Noah’s rainbow—a sign of Christ, the Light of the world (see Covenant Sign.) There is a second part to it though, which came to me several years ago when I was at Madonna House in Combermere, Ontario.
This rainbow culminates and becomes a single ray of bright Light lasting 33 years, some 2000 years ago, in the person of Jesus Christ. As it passes through the Cross, the Light splits into a myriad of colors once again. But this time, the rainbow illuminates not the sky, but the hearts of humanity.
AFTER the Divine Liturgy (Ukrainian Mass) during Lent, all of us enter into the aisle beside the pew, while the priest recites a prayer: “Having suffered the passion, Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy us.” Then everyone kneels and bows their face to the ground. This is sung three times–a beautiful act of humility and homage.
This morning, as the priest began to recite the prayer, I heard in my heart what I felt immediately was my guardian angel speaking: “I was there. I saw him suffer.”
I bowed my face, and wept.
GOD leaves, as a sign of his covenant with Noah, a rainbow in the sky.
But why a rainbow?
Jesus is the Light of the world. Light, when fractured, breaks into many colors. God had made a covenant with his people, but before Jesus came, the spiritual order was still fractured—broken—until Christ came and gathered all things into Himself making them "one". You could say the Cross is the prism, the locus of the Light.
When we see a rainbow, we should recognize it as a sign of Christ, the New Covenant: an arc which touches heaven, but also earth… symbolizing the twofold nature of Christ, both divine and human.
In all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will in accord with his favor that he set forth in him as a plan for the fullness of times, to sum up all things in Christ, in heaven and on earth.—Ephesians, 1:8-10
FEELING the drag of my flesh after Communion, I had the image of being on the edge of a very dense and ancient forest….
Barely able to move through the dark thicket, I was entangled in branches and vines. Yet, the occasional ray of Sonlight pierced through the foliage, momentarily bathing my face in its warmth. Instantly, my soul was strengthened, and the desire for freedom was overwhelming.
How I long to reach the open plains, the rugged wild where the heart runs free and skies are limitless!
…then I heard a whisper, seemingly carried on a shaft of Light:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."OFTEN we enter Lent with a sense of trepidation–a fear of the sacrifice of dying to self.
I suppose it is how the grain feels as it is buried beneath the furrow, or the caterpillar as it is entombed by the cocoon, or the trout as it is encased beneath the winter ice.
But how tragic if the seed were to lay on top of the furrow, only to be blown away by the wind! Or the caterpillar to refuse the cocoon and never rise with wings! Or the fish to escape icy waters and suffocate in the snow!
O Soul, embrace this Cross before you. There is Resurrection beyond the tomb!
ALL day, I sensed the Lord wooing me to prayer. But for one reason or another my regular prayer time was bumped until after midnight. “Should I pray or go to bed? …it will be an early morning.” I decided to pray.
My soul was flooded with such joy, such peace. What my heart would have missed had I given way to my pillow!
Jesus is waiting for us, yearning to fill us with indescribable love and blessings. As we carve out time for supper, we must carve out time to pray.
Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.–John 15:5
JESUS said "the truth will set you free."
The first truth which sets us free is the recognition not only of our sin, but of our helplessness. To admit one’s poverty, one’s emptiness, is to create a place in the heart which can then be filled with God’s riches and fullness.
It is actually liberating to admit one is a slave; healing to admit that one is wounded.
We must realise the necessity of accepting our weaknesses and God’s strength, and of showing them to the world. —Catherine Doherty, Staff Letter
THERE were a few times this past week when I was preaching, that I was suddenly overwhelmed. The sense I had was as if I were Noah, shouting from the ramp of the ark: "Come in! Come in! Enter into the Mercy of God!"
Why do I feel this way? I cannot explain it… except that I see storm clouds, pregnant and billowing, moving quickly on the horizon.
FROM today’s talk at the Okotoks Teacher’s Faith Days:
“As I have traveled throughout Canada, it has become clear: what makes a school “Catholic” is not the name bolted to the side of the school; neither is it the religious policy statement of the school district; nor is it the spiritual programs initiated by the school board or principal. What makes schools truly Catholic––truly Christian––is the spirit of Jesus living in the staff and students.”
TIME—is it speeding up? Many believe it is. This came to me while meditating:
An MP3 is a song format in which the music is compressed, and yet the song sounds the same and is still the same length. The more you compress it, however, even though the length remains the same, the quality begins to deteriorate.
So too, it seems, time is being compressed, even though the days are the same length. And the more they are compressed, the more there is a deterioration in morals, nature, and civil order.
Sometimes, one is so poor, weakness is all there is to offer: “O Jesus, this is what I am, nothing but weakness and poverty. This is all I have to give you that’s truly mine. But even this I give you.”
“This is the one whom I approve: the lowly and broken man who trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)
“On high I dwell, and in holiness, and with the crushed and dejected in spirit.” (Isaiah 57:15)
“the Lord listens to the needy and does not spurn his servants in their chains.” (Psalm 69:34)
FAR from “stealing Christ’s thunder”
Mary is the lightning
which illuminates The Way.
FAR from "stealing Christ’s thunder"
A READING from the Divine Liturgy this week has lingered with me:
God patiently waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark. (1 Peter 3:20)
The sense is that we are in that time when the ark is being completed, and soon. What is the ark? When I asked this question, I looked up at the icon of Mary……… the answer seemed that her bosom is the ark, and she is gathering a remnant to herself, for Christ.
And it was Jesus who said he would return “as in the days of Noah” and “as in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:26, 28). Everyone’s looking at the weather, earthquakes, wars, plagues, and violence; but are we forgetting about the “moral” signs of the times Christ is referring to? A reading of Noah’s generation and Lot’s generation–and what their offences were–should look uncomfortably familiar.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. —Winston Churchill
IF only we understood what is lost when we let ourselves become forked by the two pronged skewer of pride.
The one prong is defensive: “I am not wrong, or as bad as you say.” The second prong is despair: “I am useless, a worthless failure.” In both cases (often the second prong follows the first), the person expends great energy hiding a basic human truth: the need for God.
Humility is the crown of the Christian. The adversary does everything in his power to prevent us from coming before God with our genuine sinfulness, failure, and character flaws. Such honesty is rewarded by God, and paradoxically, becomes a vessel of strength.
As long as the devil keeps you on his fork, strength is kept at bay, and your crown is left in the treasury of God.
AT a time when the “religious” in the world are strapping bombs on their bodies and blowing themselves up; when missiles are being launched in the name of biblical land rights; when scriptural quotes are taken out of context to support self-interested rights–Pope Benedict’s encyclical on love stands as an extraordinarily bright beacon in the darkened harbor of the earth.
This is how all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
(John 13:35)
AS I walked the aisle to Communion this morning, I felt as though the cross I was carrying was made of concrete.
As I continued back to the pew, my eye was drawn to an icon of the paralyzed man being lowered in his stretcher to Jesus. Immediately I felt that I was the paralyzed man.
The men who lowered the paralytic through the ceiling into Christ’s presence did so through hard work, faith, and perseverance. But it was only the paralytic–who did nothing but gaze at Jesus in helplessness and hope–to whom Christ said,
“Your sins are forgiven…. rise, pick up your mat, and go home.”
CHRISTIANITY is not an ideology; it is a face.
And the face is Love.
I WAS passing by the TV as my children were watching “Return of the King”—Part III of The Lord of the Rings—when suddenly the words of Gandolf leapt straight from the screen into my heart:
Things are in motion which cannot be undone.
I stopped in my tracks to listen, my spirit burning within me:
…It’s the deep breath before the plunge……This will be the end of Gondar as we know it……We come to it at last, the great battle of our time…
Then a hobbit climbed the watchtower to light the warning fire—the signal to alert the peoples of middle earth to prepare for battle.
God has also sent us “hobbits”—small children to whom his Mother has appeared and charged them to set the fires of truth ablaze, that light may shine in the darkness… Lourdes, Fatima, and more recently, Medjugorje come to mind (the latter awaiting official Church approval).
But one “hobbit” was a child in spirit only, and his life and words have cast a great light across the entire earth, even into the dark shadows:
We are now standing in the face of the greatest historical confrontation humanity has gone through. I do not think that wide circles of the American society or wide circles of the Christian community realize this fully. We are now facing the final confrontation between the Church and the anti-Church, of the Gospel and the anti-Gospel. This confrontation lies within the plans of divine providence. It is a trial which the whole Church . . . must take up. —Cardinal Karol Wotyla who became Pope John Paul II two years later; reprinted November 9, 1978, issue of The Wall Street Journal
PERHAPS it’s just the mild winter, and so everyone’s outside instead of following the news. But there have been some disturbing headlines in the country which have barely ruffled a feather. And yet, they have the ability to influence this nation for generations to come:
A GREAT division is occurring in the world today. People are having to choose sides. It is primarily a division of moral and social values, of Gospel principles versus modern presumptions.
And it is exactly what Christ said would happen to families and nations when confronted with his presence:
Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. From now on a household of five will be divided, three against two and two against three… (Luke 12:51-52)
I feel as though each hour counts now. That I am called to a radical conversion. It is a mysterious thing, and yet incredibly joyful. Christ is preparing us for something… something extraordinary.
Yes, repentance is more than penitence. It is not remorse. It is not just admitting our mistakes. It is not self-condemnation: "What a fool I've been!" Who of us has not recited such a dismal litany? No, repentance is a moral and spiritual revolution. To repent is one of the hardest things in the world, yet it is basic to all spiritual progress. It demands the breaking down of pride, self-assurance, and the innermost citadel of self-will.(Catherine de Hueck Doherty, Kiss of Christ)
AFTER Confession today, the image of a battlefield came to mind.
The enemy fires missiles and bullets at us, bombarding us with deceptions, temptations, and accusations. We often find ourselves wounded, bleeding, and disabled, cowering in the trenches.
But Christ draws us into the Bunker of Confession, and then… lets the bomb of his grace explode in the spiritual realm, destroying the enemy’s gains, reclaiming our terrorities, and re-outfitting us in that spiritual armor which enables us to engage once again those "principalities and powers," through faith and the Holy Spirit.
We are in a war. It is wisdom, not cowardice, to frequent the Bunker.