Our Hands

He broke the bread and gave it to His disciples saying, “Take this, all of you, and eat it; this is My Body which will be given up for you.”  They accepted it from Him with human hands and ate.

He humbles Himself to enter our mouths, to be chewed by some, melted in saliva by others, to proceed down our alimentary canals and goodness knows how much further, surrounded by God-only-knows how many germs and bacteria.

He rubbed blind men’s eyes with mud and spittle; He touched and was touched by lepers.  He kissed and He hugged.  He never shied away from anyone’s body.  He washed people’s feet.

And yet there are some who believe He abhors being gently cupped in our loving hand and cradled momentarily before we receive Him.  Have they truly asked Him about this, I wonder.

St. Faustina’s Diary, Notebook I, excerpt from # 160:

When I was about to receive Holy Communion, a second Host fell onto the priest’s sleeve, and I did not know which host I was to receive.  After I had hesitated for a moment, the priest made an impatient gesture with his hand to tell me I should receive the Host.  When I took the Host he gave me, the other one fell onto my hands.  The priest went along the altar rail to distribute Communion, and I held the Lord Jesus in my hands all that time.  When the priest approached me again, I raised the Host for him to put it back into the chalice, because when I had first received Jesus I could not speak before consuming the Host, and so could not tell him that the other had fallen.  But while I was holding the Host in my hand, I felt such a power of love that for the rest of the day I could neither eat nor come to my senses.  I heard these words from the Host:  I desired to rest in your hands, not only in your heart.  And at that moment I saw the little Jesus.  But when the priest approached, I saw once again only the Host.

Listening To My Life

“The way of loving him is so very simple: the diapers, the baking, the laundry; sitting quietly, telling stories to the children, holding the hand of one’s spouse. All are little acts of love, directed not only to one’s family but to God. This is what he wants.

The farmer plowing his field, the plumber doing repairs, the husband spending time with his wife and children, all realize this is what God asks. The stenographer who is in love with God knows that documents done perfectly are acts of love. The nurse, the taxidriver – everyone, everywhere! – can absorb this fourth paragraph of the Little Mandate. [note: Catherine Doherty, The Little Mandate, paragraph four is: "Do little things exceedingly well for love of Me."] It’s so simple. It’s a song of love.

Listen to the dishes. Listen to the laundry. Listen to the work of the gardener or the farmer. A great and beautiful chorus is rising up from the hearts of men and women who believe. And the love of Jesus Christ responds to that chorus of love, because that is the way he worked for many years, writing us love letters.”

[Catherine Doherty: Sobornost. Experiencing Unity of Mind, Heart and Soul, pgs. 84-85]

Trinity Sunday

Our love should be a repentant love, a love that expiates infidelities past and present; a grateful love that renders thanks to our great Benefactor, the devoted Co-worker who labors without stint and without rest…

Such love will lead us to imitate the Most Adorable Trinity in the measure in which this is compatible with human weakness…

Temples wherein the thrice Holy One resides can never be too rich in beauty, too glorious in sanctity. It is remarkable that when our Lord wished to propose to us an ideal, a model of perfection, He pointed to God Himself: “Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” At first sight this ideal does seem too high. But when we recall that we are the adopted children of God and that He lives in us in order to impress upon us His image and to collaborate in our salvation, then we realize that a high rank imposes obligations, noblesse oblige, and that it is no more than our plain duty to approach ever nearer the divine perfections. It is chiefly in view of the fulfilment of the precept of fraternal charity, the love of our fellows, that Jesus Christ demands of us to keep before our eyes this perfect model, the indivisible oneness of the Three Divine Persons: “That they all may be one, as thou, Father in me and I in thee; that they also be one in us.” What a tender prayer! St. Paul echoes it later on begging his dear disciples not to forget that since they are but one body and but one spirit, and since they have but one Father who lives in all just souls, they should preserve the unity of spirit in the bond of peace.

[Excerpt from: The Spiritual Life. A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, by the Very Reverend Adolphe Tanquerey, S.S., D.D., pgs. 53-54]

Father Thomas Dubay – Deep Conversion

Here is something that I think you will find helpful in terms of our understanding of degrees or stages along the path of holiness.  Father Thomas Dubay is the guest on a half-hour program called, “The Choices We Face” (a production of Renewal Ministries), with an excellent interviewer, Peter Herbeck.  The video is on Tangle (formerly Godtube).  Here is the link:  Father Thomas Dubay on “Deep Conversion”.  As always, Father Dubay is very down-to-earth and straightforward about all of us growing in holiness.

Some highlights:

• conversion in this sense is referring to moral conversion, from bad to good, from good to better, from better to best
• degrees or stages of conversion:  1) coming out of alienation from God  (i.e., coming out of mortal sin into a state of grace); 2) giving up venial sin; 3) heroic virtue (i.e., perfection as far as it is possible on earth – no limit to one’s love)
• everyone is called to heroic virtue
• growing in holiness means becoming perfected in Christ, with a discussion of how this is not a legalistic perfectionism
• our intention should be to “go all the way with God”, i.e., to desire to become a saint
• refers to a locution from God to Angela of Foligno, concerning her desire to be holy:  “Make yourself a capacity, and I will make Myself a torrent”.

Enjoy!

Child of the Poor

From St. Faustina’s Diary, Divine Mercy in My Soul:

532     After Holy Communion, I saw the Lord Jesus, who said these words to me:  Today, penetrate into the spirit of My poverty and arrange everything in such a way that the most destitute will have no reason to envy you.  I find pleasure, not in large buildings and magnificent structures, but in a pure and humble heart.

533     When I was by myself, I began to reflect on the spirit of poverty.  I clearly saw that Jesus, although He is Lord of all things, possessed nothing.  From a borrowed manger He went through life doing good to all, but Himself having no place to lay His head.  And on the Cross, I see the summit of His poverty, for He does not even have a garment on Himself.

Child of the Poor / What Child is This?

Direct to YouTube for this video is here.

 

Sacred Silence

Sometimes just being there is enough
When words would be an encumbrance upon sacred silence
That lends itself so well to contemplation.

Sometimes just being there is enough
Presenting oneself, body, mind and spirit
In an act of trust
When Love pours itself out of a ruby-rimmed cup
And all of me fills with longing.

[Taken from:
The Blueness Above, by Ann Murray]

Please visit Ann at her Poetry, Prayer, and Praise blog for some excellent news.

Exhausted Holy Fools

A friend, who returns home time and time again exhausted in spirit and body from her work in the soup kitchen, writes:  “I’m happy.  In a very sad kind of way.  I am happy with the poor-exhausted.  It makes no sense.  Like all of His paradoxes, it only makes love, not sense.”

Who are they who choose love over what makes sense?  To whom does this kind of sacrifice, to the point of complete spiritual, emotional and physical exhaustion, bring profound joy?  To the Holy Fools.  We all know them in our own lives.  We know them also from history – St. Francis, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, and our beloved Catherine Doherty, to name but a few.  My friend would deny being in the same category as these, yet even if the scope of the work is not as broad, the calling is the same; the kenosis is the same; the exhaustion is the same.  Catherine Doherty writes:

Sitting at the very edge of the pine forest in the eventide, I look down.  Suddenly I am not there at all!  I am where my heart has always been; I am with the poor.  A love, a joy, a simple, childlike joy fills my heart and I tell myself, “I am descending the holy mountain to go to the poor.”

I was tired beyond my own understanding, and, I think, beyond the understanding of many.  I knew that the people chosen by God to bring his message to the world were always tired.  But I did not know how tired.  Did you ever feel this numbing, crushing tiredness that takes hold of you and seems to crush you into powder?  There you are, lying on the road, a little handful of powder.

Don’t you understand, don’t we all understand, that we must begin to share?  We must!  It is not a question of tithing.  It is a question of sharing, because unless we share, we will become atomic dust.

And from the winds came the familiar voice, “Now you know how tired I was when I hung on the Cross.  But love overcomes tiredness.  Mine did.”

From:  “Urodivoi.  Holy Fools.  The Prophetic Call of a Modern Fool for Christ”, by Catherine Doherty.

I Thirst

“When can I see the face of my God?”  “Why are you downcast, my soul?”  “Why do you groan within me?”

* * * * * * * * * * * *

This is a soulful rendition of Psalm 42 sung by John Michael Talbot, and a very beautiful video as well.  For everyone whose soul is groaning. Towards the last minute, candles are lit, the flame passing from each to the other, and in my mind those hands belong to all of us here.  

Direct to YouTube for this video is HERE.