Two Updates

1)  Many of you know Cathy Keller (aka GrandmaK) from her blog, A Bit of the Blarney.  At the beginning of Lent I intended to do a post about Cathy’s other site, Provident God.  I feel badly that I didn’t get that done, but on the other hand, the reflections she shares are wonderful reading at any time of the year.

Cathy has been using “Lent and Easter.  Wisdom from Thomas Merton” as a guide for reflection and a devotional throughout Lent this year and sharing some on her blog, which is very beautiful and soothing for the eyes as well. 

What I really appreciate about Cathy’s personal reflections is the honesty in her self-examination, and the quiet insights she comes to.  It’s not like bombshells or fireworks of epiphanies, but like little caps going off every morning; self-reflection as it is meant to be, I think – - - ending up in a call to action of how she will move forward with her day, and setting off a few caps under her readers as well…  So, thank you, Cathy; blessings to you as you move steadily on towards Easter.

2)  Many of you also know Father Joseph Homick from his original blog Word Incarnate and more recently, Making All Things New.  But now there is another to add to your reading pleasure, learning and faith-building:  Father Joseph’s newest site, Two Pillars:  Holy Eucharist and Our Lady. 

With Father’s reflections on his main page, and ten separate pages (to date) on subjects such as consecration to Mary, reparation, Eucharistic locutions, Adrienne von Speyr and much more, this is truly a blog after my own mystical heart, and yours.  I can’t wait to really dig in.  Thank you, Father J!

Lenten Fail

At the beginning of Lent our priest ended one of his homilies by saying, “Let us try to give up anxiety for Lent”, and not long afterwards one of our deacons spoke of much the same thing in his homily.  I intended to be here all through Lent to try to help others do this very thing, but I succumbed to the anxiety and overwhelm beast myself.  With some part-time work I found, my studies, family, and doing all the tax returns I was overwhelmed time-wise, and after Japan I sunk into anxiety, despite much prayer, and have only felt myself emerging recently.

Even to come to my website here, enter my password, and try to type something has seemed too much, but I’m trying to get back on my feet and back to my old self.

I have links to put in and peoples’ work to talk about…  this is just to get me over the initial anxiety of typing something here.  Can you believe we are about to enter Holy Week?

Lenten Love and Grace

We sang this beautiful song (These Alone are Enough, by Dan Schutte) at Ash Wednesday Mass this evening.  Perhaps you recognize it from your own parish as well.  I’ve always loved it, so I thought of posting it tonight if I could locate it online.  It is based on a prayer by St. Ignatius of Loyola from the end of his Spiritual Exercises:

Take, Lord, and Receive

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory,
 my understanding, and my entire will.
All I have and call my own.
Whatever I have or hold, you have given me.
I return it all to you and surrender it wholly
to be governed by your will.
Give me only your love and your grace
 and I am rich enough and ask for nothing more.

As I continued my search, I found that this little prayer of St. Ignatius had been turned into a song called Take and Receive, but that wasn’t the one I was looking for.  Finally I found Dan Schutte’s song, and then I found Dan Schutte himself!  Sure enough, Ignatian prayer is not only central to Dan Schutte’s prayerlife but to his music as well, and very recently, to his newly-published book, Walking the Sacred Path. 

May I take this moment to wish you all a blessed Lent.  I’ll be back soon (maybe tomorrow) with some Lenten thoughts and plans (for more love and grace).

One Thing Leads To Another…

When we look up joy in the Catholic Catechism it says “see also: Happiness”, and the two combined give us seven entries. As I was reading through them, I reflected once more on how intertwined and inter-related everything is.

One of the entries listed for joy (Paragraph 1829) says:

The fruits of charity are joy, peace, and mercy;

In actuality, the first three of the twelve Fruits of the Holy Spirit are charity, joy and peace, so, if joy and peace are not only Fruits of the Holy Spirit but fruit of the first fruit of charity (which is a Fruit of the Holy Spirit) [ have I lost you yet?] we can see how one things builds on another, or leads to another, or blossoms out of another.

One of the entries for happiness (Paragraph 1818) says:

The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man;

Now, the entry I quoted for joy is actually found under the larger heading of the Theological Virtue of Charity, and the entry I quoted for happiness is actually found under the larger heading of the Theological Virtue of Hope. So while I am not referring in this post specifically to the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit, we can see that everything is a gift – the theological virtues, the gifts and the fruits – and how we respond to these gifts or nurture the seeds of these gifts will be the telling factor in whether or not our garden grows – whether or not cross-pollination will take place and one blossom will produce another, then another, then another…

To me, pollination is a metaphor for practice, for acting upon the gifts received.  The Holy Spirit distributes virtues, gifts and fruits as He will, but it is our practice that will lead to growth and to His pouring out of more and more as He witnesses our receptivity and actions.  The theological virtues must be practiced; the fruits of the Holy Spirit must be used. 

There are so many practices we can put into place to pollinate our garden, but one that I would like to mention here is the practice of gratitude.  Expressing our gratitude to God every day is a powerful means of bringing joy and other fruits into our lives, despite whatever obstacles and challenges we may be facing physically, financially, emotionally, etc.  If we wake up and give thanks to God every morning and throughout the day, mentally review five things we are grateful for every night before we fall asleep, or list five to ten things every day in a Gratitude Journal, we will see a remarkable flowering take place.

Not too long ago my friend JT sent me a link to this video in which Brother David Steindl-Rast gives a beautiful reflection on gratitude as a spiritual practice and its relationship to joy.  Thank you, JT!  I had not seen this particular video before, but I had been introduced to Brother David a few years ago at the site Gratefulness.org. It’s a wonderful site, and if you take a peek in its left sidebar, you’ll also see a link to something I think many of you may love – the Hours with “angelic company” and beautiful Gregorian chants.

Try To Remember

Of course I cannot find the relevant post at the moment, but not too long ago Lightborrower of Less Darkness, More Candle reflected on the fact that she couldn’t help but think/hope that somehow, some way, we were with the angel in the Garden of Olives, helping that beautiful being of light to comfort our Jesus.  This is not a new reflection for Lightborrower, but one that she has written of several times over the years, in various blog incarnations…and always, I felt deep within myself, that she was correct.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you. [Jeremiah 1:5]

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world… [Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 1:3-4]

In Volume I of The Messages, Anne the lay apostle writes:

…there were good and holy souls who accompanied Him. He [Jesus] told me that my soul, along with countless other little souls, accompanied Him to Calvary. He drew strength from us and from our presence in His Passion. We consoled Him. It’s some sort of backwards in time sort of thing and we cannot understand it from our position on earth. At least I am struggling with it in a logistical sense. We were with Him. We flocked around Him in a great multitude and stayed with Him until the end. He said, “Can you see why I persevered? The love that surrounded me? This love surrounds you and all just souls.” [Vol. 1, pgs. 71-71]

Does this not bring us great comfort and joy, even in our own pain united to Christ’s, to know that somehow, some way, we were there with Him, supporting Him, consoling Him. So the next time you hear this hymn, or sit weeping through it on Good Friday, weep with joy, for you can answer clearly and with profound gratitude, “Yes, I was there.”

Lenten Joy

The experience of joy throughout Lent is something that has been my reality for a few years now, so I thought it might be worthwhile to explore that theme this year.

In the following video, Father Mike Manning sets the stage for us [the audio in this one is a bit muffled, but not really a problem].

As we can see from Father Manning’s talk, our perception of a thing makes all the difference between a negative or a positive response/reaction.

This Lent, I wish every one of you the deep joy and exhilarating freedom of releasing any attachments in your lives that you feel are holding you back on your path of holiness. I wish you also the profound joy of intimacy with Our Lord as you unite yourself to Him throughout the day in your spiritual communions and your prayertime, and as you accompany Him in His Passion. I wish you the humble delight of emulating our Creator through generosity of spirit, whether in almsgiving or by helping your neighbour in any of a multitude of secret ways.

“Pardon my Lenten smile” too, as Father Manning says.  I just can’t help it. 

Prayer and Studies

In my recent wanderings I noticed that the Spirituality & Practice website is offering an e-course which may be of interest to some for this upcoming Lent.  The course is entitled, “Practicing Spirituality with Edward Hays”.

I was not familiar with Father Edward Hays, but you can read a brief bio of him in the description of the e-course to which I’ve linked above.  A little something that caught my eye:

Over his long and illustrious career, Hays has been a pioneer manifesting a daring mystical sensibility and an unbridled imagination that makes his vision consistently fresh and invigorating.

Father Hays has authored more than thirty “best-selling books on contemporary spirituality”, titles of which you can see here at Ave Maria Press (just click on “Titles by this Author”), so even if you are not able to take the e-course you may be interested to see if you can locate any of his books at your library.

Among other assignments/responsibilities throughout his years as a priest, Father Hays was the director of Shantivanam House of Prayer, of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, U.S.A. If you click on the “About” section in the menu and read the history of Shantivanam, you will see how Father Hays established this House of Prayer in the early seventies for his archdiocese. On the Shantivanam homepage to which I’ve linked, scroll down and take the “visual exploration” of this beautiful House of Prayer and retreat facility – your spirit will thank you. Well, I never imagined myself saying these exact words, but how I’d love to meet you, my friends, this summer in Kansas!

Father Corapi on Lent

I was so happy today to read the article entitled, I Want To Wish You A Most Blessed And Holy Season Of Lent, by Father John Corapi, on his website.  (Just scoot down his page a bit; I was not able to link to it directly).  Father Corapi confirms what I have always believed, but have not generally encountered amongst fellow Catholics.  He writes: 

My dear friends, Lent is not a “somber and dark period.” I think at times, even among Catholics and other Christians, that notion has drifted about. Lent is the most hope-filled time we have, culminating in the blaze of glory that is Easter….

I hope you will read the whole article – it’s not very long.  And, “go to confession!”