May
23
2007
0
By Anonymous (not verified)
Have Mercy, Baby - One of the biggest events on the horizon for Divine Mercy will clearly be the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, slated to begin in Rome next April 2-6. The Marians of the Immaculate Conception, playing a crucial leadership role and an agenda-setting function for the Congress, have been heavily involved in the massive pre-planning involved in this global event. Just returned from Rome, Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, the world's greatest living authority on Divine Mercy, and Fr. Kazimierz Chwalek, MIC, Director of Evangelization and Development for the Marians, report that the Congress agenda is rapidly taking shape, with major announcements to be made in the near future.
In Rome, the Executive Committee for the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy met in a series of comprehensive planning sessions. The committee discussed speakers, outlined a program, established protocols, and worked on a myriad of logistical issues. Nonetheless, even in its planning mode, the Congress elicited a strong pastoral and ministerial response.
'A Deeper Healing for Mankind' - "To see the representatives from all over the world gather and plan with enthusiasm and joy was inspiring for all who witnessed it," says Fr. Kaz. "The sessions were conducted full of the hope that the Congress will bring the message of God's boundless mercy into our world and allow for a deeper healing of mankind."
To reference "mankind" is not at all an exaggeration or in the minutest sense off the mark. Those are the stakes as the world fast approaches a moment of truth. We get to choose, both collectively and one-by-one, between two post-Congressional scenarios: one in which we discover the healing balm of God's Divine Mercy, and one where that Mercy is, for whatever reason, not accepted.
The Congress has the enthusiastic backing of Pope Benedict XVI. This is just a hunch, but if it happens, you got it here first. Don't be surprised if Benny somehow gets involved in next April's milestone event.
7 on the Pass Line - Yesterday's pop quiz asked you to name the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Relying completely on the honor system, the professor asks: How did you make out? Here are the correct answers:
* The Spirit of Wisdom: Don't be attached to the perishable things of the world. Instead, with all your energy and being, go after the things that are eternal.
* The Spirit of Understanding: Seek to enlighten your mind with the light of divine truth.
* The Spirit of Knowledge: Try to know God, for that's how you come to know yourself. Try to learn from the example of the saints.
* The Spirit of Counsel: In any decision or action, always choose what you judge to be the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven. With that as your goal, discernment comes more readily.
* The Spirit of Fortitude: We will face many trials and difficulties in life. When they come, bear those crosses in union with Jesus. This is how we endure suffering and overcome anything that may oppose our salvation. Seek your own salvations diligently. The dying Buddha said that to his disciples after they asked him for some last words. He was tapping the Holy Spirit.
* The Spirit of Piety: Serving God is sweet and amiable. It is never a task. Find the service of God in all you do, whether you like your tasks or not, whether they are big or little. In fact, isn't part of The Little Way doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way? Next time you have to mow the lawn, ask yourself: "How would a saint mow the lawn?" Same with ironing or putting up that picture in the bathroom that has sat around for over a year. There's a saintly way to do anything.
* The Spirit of Fear: Much misunderstood, because of that four-letter "F" word, "fear." All it means if a reverent love of God and a desire to avoid anything that may displease Him.
In Any Language - The Church Mouse reports that the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy has become an international beacon here in the U.S. for the message of Divine Mercy. Case in point: This past weekend (May 19-20) a large group came to the Shrine to celebrate Mass in their own language, Chinese.
The CM reports: "The melodies of the hymns were the same, but the words were different. The gestures and practices of the celebrant and servers were familiar as they moved reverently along the altar, but again, the words were different. They brought beautiful flowers to place upon the altar, but not a fortune cookie in sight!" That's OK, since I know the CM would have preferred cheese.
No sooner had the Chinese Mass (what d'ya know, another "CM"!) ended when an overheard conversation stopped the Church Mouse in his tiny little tracks:
"Please lady," the little girl with the big, dark eyes whispered. Her chin rested on her chest and her huge dark eyes looked up pleadingly at the Shrine volunteer. "Can the Divine Mercy priests say a Mass on Wednesday for my mommy? Her name is Lin."
"Is your mommy sick?" asked the volunteer. "No, she's with the judge and she has to have the right answers to some questions on Wednesday. If mommy has the right answers, then I can be with her again and my Auntie says the Divine Mercy priests have good prayers."
"We all will pray for your mommy," the volunteer assured the little girl, "and I will ask the Divine Mercy priests to pray a Mass for both of you." The little girl left the chapel with a fist full of prayer cards and a heart filled with hope.
The little Church Mouse, having heard this from his hiding place under a pew, found his heart breaking. So did I when the CM shared this story. I must see that this good little fellow gets an extra portion of cheese tonight.
Lifeguards - Saints are the lifeguards who stand watch when we venture into water that may be over our heads before we fully learn to swim. This is why we must not be afraid to risk in the name of faith. The saints won't let us down, nor will they let us drown.
This in Terms of That - God is light, the Scriptures say. This is an analogy, a "this in terms of that," for what is analogy but a special form of comparison that tries to explain the unknown (God, in this case) in terms of the known (light). Any writer who deals regularly with God as a subject (though never, I hope, as an object) understands how vital it is to have analogy in his "toolbox." Trying to write about God without analogy is like a plumber going to work on your pipes without his wrenches (another analogy!).
So God is light, and we are moths drawn to that light. The odd thing about this divine light is that when we first come into the illumination, we can be more troubled than comforted. The moment we come into this ethereal light we turn from moths to a released prisoner walking into the sun after months of solitary confinement. It hurts.
The second odd thing about divine light is its "darkness." I put this in quotes, of course, because it is not darkness at all but only our imperfect perception of a light to which we are not accustomed, since it is too pure for us to at first accommodate. It blinds us. We are tempted to give up, to run away, and recede back into the dim corners. Many do. Many prefer to stay in the lukewarm comfort zone faith that gives religion, and Catholicism, a bad name. I can see why Jesus, in instructing St. Faustina on the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy, wanted her to bring lukewarm souls into the loving crosshairs.
The third odd thing is that once we become used to being in this light, we see the blemishes that would have remained obscure outside of God's lucent influence. At this stage, the desire to give up is at its strongest. But if we persist and continue to bathe in the candlepower of God, our great, painful discovery matures into something else. It is a maturation of insight whereby realizing that we are flawed (which His light reveals) creates a movement toward flawlessness. We seek a condition that apparently is beyond our reach but within God's gentle grasp. Our reach becomes insignificant. It's not that we devalue ourselves or put ourselves down. On the contrary, we begin to value God more and elevate Him in our life. This is the truest form of self love and the only wise manifestation of self-ish-ness.
Pure Goodness - More than anything else I know, I believe that at our deepest core, we are all blessed with an unqualified Pure Goodness, which the Bible expresses as being made "in the image and likeness of God" (aside: I find myself lately being curiously fascinated by this phrase). Then comes the kicker. Being seriously drawn into a personal discovery of our analogies of what God is like means at some advanced point that we abandon those analogies and the words that attempt to describe them. Then comes the intimidating next step.
When one climbs the Holy Mountain, it is for oneself. Words are useless. When one comes back down, it is for others. Words then become all we have to attempt to transmit what we have found. I know first hand the immense frustrations of all this. When I came back down, I felt forced into using words to replace my previous silence. I was happy, though, to do so. The words may not quite do the job of convincing you that God is alive and involved in our daily lives, but I'm doing my best.
The Day I Found NOTHING - That climb up the Holy Mountain wasn't something I wanted to do, but God led me there, breaking me down along the way. When I got to the peak, I didn't find a wise man sitting in cave. There was no burning bush. I couldn't find the stone tablets on which God chiseled directions for my life. You know what I found?
I found NOTHING.
I lost Everything, until, adrift in a wasteland, and via the flying-carpet grace of many mighty prayers being said on my behalf, I found the only words I could take without throwing them back up: "Jesus I trust in you."
I knew it was time to come back down the mountain. When I did, everything had changed. The rest has been a pleasant sail.
I fooled around with some poetry to try to convey some of this, and it's here where I let you into a page from my private notebook. The poem is not finished. It's raw, and I may leave it like that.
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
I
Past places dark with the silence
Of locked churches, I step into a homily
Past recall, of a childhood spent in its pews,
Seeing The Man I later learned to lose.
II
But losing became finding atop a Hill
Through the love expressed by words
And steps of a journey leading me up,
Diligent but dumb, along The Way of the Cross:
III
The hurt of aloneness, where I am not heard -
The happiness of coming back down
And seeing the Light within, without, unblurred.
QUIET!!! SHARRUP, ALREADY!! - From "Praying for silence: Cell phones disturb the peace at sacred sites," an article in the Boston Herald on May 20, 2007, by Jessica Heslam, the Herald's media reporter:
"At a family First Communion I attended a few weeks ago, a little boy, dressed in his Sunday best, sat in a nearby church pew playing a portable video game. His head was bent and his focus was fiercely on the game as he sat beside his perfectly coifed mother, who was unfazed - as if the pair were at home on the living room couch.
"On Mother's Day, as my husband planted flowers around his mother's Brockton grave, his mourning was interrupted by a boisterous cemetery visitor gabbing on his cell phone as he made plans with his pals to play ball.
"One Beacon Hill church has had to post this warning on its web site: 'Please note: Cellphones, Blackberries, and other electronic devices are strictly forbidden in the church during services.' Isn't that a no-brainer?"
The article goes on, but you get the idea. I submit this inanity without comment on the notion that certain people are so stupid, selfish, and insensitive that satire becomes redundant. They become their own living, breathing indictments. Thanks, Jessica, for bringing this up and rapping a few knuckles.
Two Doves and a Cardinal - That's enough for one morning, my good friends, and returning to the day, I think of the two doves that alone had the feeder to themselves this morning before a cardinal joined them. It's wonderful to be alive. Adios.
Happy B'Day, Brother Fred! - Intelligence gathered from the front informs us that today, Br. Fred Wells, MIC, celebrates his 80th birthday. Please join all of us on Eden Hill in wishing Br. Fred a great day today. If I was filming his life as a Marian, I would call it: "Trust is an Active Response."
Brother Fred is a man of many gifts (see above, the 7 Gifts). He also just happens to make the meanest nacho dip this side of the Pecos. It's a layered dip that has beans, guacamole, salsa, olives, sour cream, and a host of other secret ingredients and mystery spices. If you offered me a choice of one of the three:
* Col. Sanders recipe of "secret herbs and spices" for his fried chicken,
* The formula and ownership of Classic Coke, or
* Brother Fred's Delicious, Mystery Dip and Appetizer
I'd go dipping.
In Rome, the Executive Committee for the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy met in a series of comprehensive planning sessions. The committee discussed speakers, outlined a program, established protocols, and worked on a myriad of logistical issues. Nonetheless, even in its planning mode, the Congress elicited a strong pastoral and ministerial response.
'A Deeper Healing for Mankind' - "To see the representatives from all over the world gather and plan with enthusiasm and joy was inspiring for all who witnessed it," says Fr. Kaz. "The sessions were conducted full of the hope that the Congress will bring the message of God's boundless mercy into our world and allow for a deeper healing of mankind."
To reference "mankind" is not at all an exaggeration or in the minutest sense off the mark. Those are the stakes as the world fast approaches a moment of truth. We get to choose, both collectively and one-by-one, between two post-Congressional scenarios: one in which we discover the healing balm of God's Divine Mercy, and one where that Mercy is, for whatever reason, not accepted.
The Congress has the enthusiastic backing of Pope Benedict XVI. This is just a hunch, but if it happens, you got it here first. Don't be surprised if Benny somehow gets involved in next April's milestone event.
7 on the Pass Line - Yesterday's pop quiz asked you to name the seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit. Relying completely on the honor system, the professor asks: How did you make out? Here are the correct answers:
* The Spirit of Wisdom: Don't be attached to the perishable things of the world. Instead, with all your energy and being, go after the things that are eternal.
* The Spirit of Understanding: Seek to enlighten your mind with the light of divine truth.
* The Spirit of Knowledge: Try to know God, for that's how you come to know yourself. Try to learn from the example of the saints.
* The Spirit of Counsel: In any decision or action, always choose what you judge to be the surest way of pleasing God and gaining heaven. With that as your goal, discernment comes more readily.
* The Spirit of Fortitude: We will face many trials and difficulties in life. When they come, bear those crosses in union with Jesus. This is how we endure suffering and overcome anything that may oppose our salvation. Seek your own salvations diligently. The dying Buddha said that to his disciples after they asked him for some last words. He was tapping the Holy Spirit.
* The Spirit of Piety: Serving God is sweet and amiable. It is never a task. Find the service of God in all you do, whether you like your tasks or not, whether they are big or little. In fact, isn't part of The Little Way doing ordinary things in an extraordinary way? Next time you have to mow the lawn, ask yourself: "How would a saint mow the lawn?" Same with ironing or putting up that picture in the bathroom that has sat around for over a year. There's a saintly way to do anything.
* The Spirit of Fear: Much misunderstood, because of that four-letter "F" word, "fear." All it means if a reverent love of God and a desire to avoid anything that may displease Him.
In Any Language - The Church Mouse reports that the National Shrine of The Divine Mercy has become an international beacon here in the U.S. for the message of Divine Mercy. Case in point: This past weekend (May 19-20) a large group came to the Shrine to celebrate Mass in their own language, Chinese.
The CM reports: "The melodies of the hymns were the same, but the words were different. The gestures and practices of the celebrant and servers were familiar as they moved reverently along the altar, but again, the words were different. They brought beautiful flowers to place upon the altar, but not a fortune cookie in sight!" That's OK, since I know the CM would have preferred cheese.
No sooner had the Chinese Mass (what d'ya know, another "CM"!) ended when an overheard conversation stopped the Church Mouse in his tiny little tracks:
"Please lady," the little girl with the big, dark eyes whispered. Her chin rested on her chest and her huge dark eyes looked up pleadingly at the Shrine volunteer. "Can the Divine Mercy priests say a Mass on Wednesday for my mommy? Her name is Lin."
"Is your mommy sick?" asked the volunteer. "No, she's with the judge and she has to have the right answers to some questions on Wednesday. If mommy has the right answers, then I can be with her again and my Auntie says the Divine Mercy priests have good prayers."
"We all will pray for your mommy," the volunteer assured the little girl, "and I will ask the Divine Mercy priests to pray a Mass for both of you." The little girl left the chapel with a fist full of prayer cards and a heart filled with hope.
The little Church Mouse, having heard this from his hiding place under a pew, found his heart breaking. So did I when the CM shared this story. I must see that this good little fellow gets an extra portion of cheese tonight.
Lifeguards - Saints are the lifeguards who stand watch when we venture into water that may be over our heads before we fully learn to swim. This is why we must not be afraid to risk in the name of faith. The saints won't let us down, nor will they let us drown.
This in Terms of That - God is light, the Scriptures say. This is an analogy, a "this in terms of that," for what is analogy but a special form of comparison that tries to explain the unknown (God, in this case) in terms of the known (light). Any writer who deals regularly with God as a subject (though never, I hope, as an object) understands how vital it is to have analogy in his "toolbox." Trying to write about God without analogy is like a plumber going to work on your pipes without his wrenches (another analogy!).
So God is light, and we are moths drawn to that light. The odd thing about this divine light is that when we first come into the illumination, we can be more troubled than comforted. The moment we come into this ethereal light we turn from moths to a released prisoner walking into the sun after months of solitary confinement. It hurts.
The second odd thing about divine light is its "darkness." I put this in quotes, of course, because it is not darkness at all but only our imperfect perception of a light to which we are not accustomed, since it is too pure for us to at first accommodate. It blinds us. We are tempted to give up, to run away, and recede back into the dim corners. Many do. Many prefer to stay in the lukewarm comfort zone faith that gives religion, and Catholicism, a bad name. I can see why Jesus, in instructing St. Faustina on the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy, wanted her to bring lukewarm souls into the loving crosshairs.
The third odd thing is that once we become used to being in this light, we see the blemishes that would have remained obscure outside of God's lucent influence. At this stage, the desire to give up is at its strongest. But if we persist and continue to bathe in the candlepower of God, our great, painful discovery matures into something else. It is a maturation of insight whereby realizing that we are flawed (which His light reveals) creates a movement toward flawlessness. We seek a condition that apparently is beyond our reach but within God's gentle grasp. Our reach becomes insignificant. It's not that we devalue ourselves or put ourselves down. On the contrary, we begin to value God more and elevate Him in our life. This is the truest form of self love and the only wise manifestation of self-ish-ness.
Pure Goodness - More than anything else I know, I believe that at our deepest core, we are all blessed with an unqualified Pure Goodness, which the Bible expresses as being made "in the image and likeness of God" (aside: I find myself lately being curiously fascinated by this phrase). Then comes the kicker. Being seriously drawn into a personal discovery of our analogies of what God is like means at some advanced point that we abandon those analogies and the words that attempt to describe them. Then comes the intimidating next step.
When one climbs the Holy Mountain, it is for oneself. Words are useless. When one comes back down, it is for others. Words then become all we have to attempt to transmit what we have found. I know first hand the immense frustrations of all this. When I came back down, I felt forced into using words to replace my previous silence. I was happy, though, to do so. The words may not quite do the job of convincing you that God is alive and involved in our daily lives, but I'm doing my best.
The Day I Found NOTHING - That climb up the Holy Mountain wasn't something I wanted to do, but God led me there, breaking me down along the way. When I got to the peak, I didn't find a wise man sitting in cave. There was no burning bush. I couldn't find the stone tablets on which God chiseled directions for my life. You know what I found?
I found NOTHING.
I lost Everything, until, adrift in a wasteland, and via the flying-carpet grace of many mighty prayers being said on my behalf, I found the only words I could take without throwing them back up: "Jesus I trust in you."
I knew it was time to come back down the mountain. When I did, everything had changed. The rest has been a pleasant sail.
I fooled around with some poetry to try to convey some of this, and it's here where I let you into a page from my private notebook. The poem is not finished. It's raw, and I may leave it like that.
THE WAY OF THE CROSS
I
Past places dark with the silence
Of locked churches, I step into a homily
Past recall, of a childhood spent in its pews,
Seeing The Man I later learned to lose.
II
But losing became finding atop a Hill
Through the love expressed by words
And steps of a journey leading me up,
Diligent but dumb, along The Way of the Cross:
III
The hurt of aloneness, where I am not heard -
The happiness of coming back down
And seeing the Light within, without, unblurred.
QUIET!!! SHARRUP, ALREADY!! - From "Praying for silence: Cell phones disturb the peace at sacred sites," an article in the Boston Herald on May 20, 2007, by Jessica Heslam, the Herald's media reporter:
"At a family First Communion I attended a few weeks ago, a little boy, dressed in his Sunday best, sat in a nearby church pew playing a portable video game. His head was bent and his focus was fiercely on the game as he sat beside his perfectly coifed mother, who was unfazed - as if the pair were at home on the living room couch.
"On Mother's Day, as my husband planted flowers around his mother's Brockton grave, his mourning was interrupted by a boisterous cemetery visitor gabbing on his cell phone as he made plans with his pals to play ball.
"One Beacon Hill church has had to post this warning on its web site: 'Please note: Cellphones, Blackberries, and other electronic devices are strictly forbidden in the church during services.' Isn't that a no-brainer?"
The article goes on, but you get the idea. I submit this inanity without comment on the notion that certain people are so stupid, selfish, and insensitive that satire becomes redundant. They become their own living, breathing indictments. Thanks, Jessica, for bringing this up and rapping a few knuckles.
Two Doves and a Cardinal - That's enough for one morning, my good friends, and returning to the day, I think of the two doves that alone had the feeder to themselves this morning before a cardinal joined them. It's wonderful to be alive. Adios.
Happy B'Day, Brother Fred! - Intelligence gathered from the front informs us that today, Br. Fred Wells, MIC, celebrates his 80th birthday. Please join all of us on Eden Hill in wishing Br. Fred a great day today. If I was filming his life as a Marian, I would call it: "Trust is an Active Response."
Brother Fred is a man of many gifts (see above, the 7 Gifts). He also just happens to make the meanest nacho dip this side of the Pecos. It's a layered dip that has beans, guacamole, salsa, olives, sour cream, and a host of other secret ingredients and mystery spices. If you offered me a choice of one of the three:
* Col. Sanders recipe of "secret herbs and spices" for his fried chicken,
* The formula and ownership of Classic Coke, or
* Brother Fred's Delicious, Mystery Dip and Appetizer
I'd go dipping.
