Silence

The Father uttered 

only one Word

Which was His Son

This Word speaks always 

in eternal silence

And in silence is to be heard 

by the soul.

St. John of the Cross

Today, the feast of St. John of the Cross, was our monthly Day of Adoration at the little chapel near Emmanuel Hermitage.  


We start the Day with an early celebration of the Eucharist which is followed and prolonged by 12 hours of silent prayer before a Host consecrated during mass. People come in and kneel or sit for a few minutes in the silence; most remain for one hour, some for two hours, or even more.  

This prayer time in shared silence is powerful. 

Jesus shows and hides himself to us in the silence of the Host, in a presence so humble and simple that only faith can see Him. 

Each person present in prayerful silence is a witness to their faith, a witness to the Mystery that hosts us in that sacred space, and also a witness to the mystery that we each one are. 

Shared silence is as powerful as it is fragile; it is born when and where there is not only a silent atmosphere but also when everyone present embraces it by giving and receiving simultaneously the gift of prayerful silence in a form of shared intimacy. 

It would take only one person to break the silence of all others present as we see it often happen in our parishes. This is how fragile it is.

Silence has many dimensions and levels, so many that in a way the whole spiritual journey can be considered a journey into deeper and deeper silence.

The first and most obvious level of silence, and the easiest to reach even though not easy, is external silence, which is the absence of words, of music, and of every sound and noise that can be avoided. 

External silence is an avenue that can put us directly in touch with our inner world, which has its own noises and conversations. To bring those inner voices to quiet is the work of a further and much more challenging level of silence that is, actually, as challenging as rewarding because this takes us to the realm of contemplation. 

In the silence of plans, insights, expectations,  concerns, reflections, judgments, guilts, anxieties  ...  we can let go of everything and dwell in Faith, in a wordless, obscure, and paradoxical knowledge that, when we remove the layers that make up our lives, we come face to Face with Mystery in us and around us. And there we know that we don't know, and it's OK.

This encounter with Silence in the sanctuary of our inner silence may seem useless, a waste of life and time (here is again 'judgment' destroying silence) but in Faith we know that it is the most productive idleness if we allow it to be, if we allow Mystery, the Source of everything, to be and pray in us.

We don't create the Silence that dwells in us, but we can create the doorway to it with our inner silence, by letting go of our personal noise. This is the role of some forms of prayer like centering prayer, which is an exercise on befriending silence and quiet in ourselves by not responding to the noises knocking at the door of our inner sanctuary. Centering prayer is not contemplation, but it is a doorway to contemplation. 

Consecrate yourself to the silence of 

Pure Love.

                                    M. Maria Celeste - Dialog IX      

Divine Feeder

Deer have been frequent visitors during our mild Fall season this year, especially at dusk.


A favorite spot for them is the little shrine of Our Lady of Grace on the north side of the Hermitage where, during summer, they feast with the flowers at her feet.

Now that winter has settled spreading a white garment over the landscape, deer have been around again leaving lots of prints in the snow.

In recent days they haven't come anymore to this spot, probably because they have very little to feast on here and they keep moving on searching for food in other places.


A week ago a friend explained to me that deer need salt, and brought a block of salt to be strategically placed by the shrive.









Apparently deer can smell the salt so this blue brick is meant to lure them into the area where a feeder is also waiting for them with nourishing and favorite seeds - all courtesy of the same good friend.

More than a week later the deer have not yet discovered or touched the salt or the feeder.

And yet I've seen deer prints even inside the carport of the Hermitage where they have taken good care of the few seeds fallen from the bird feeder.

This is puzzling because the prints show that they have been as close as three feet from their own feeder without noticing or using it.

This little feeder story makes me reflect on the Divine Feeder that God has set for us as the nourishment for our Journey home.

At the Incarnation, Emmanuel [God-with-us] is put to lie on a manger [feeder] in Bethlehem [House of Bread].

How, when do we come to the Divine manger to feed our deepest hunger?

How do we pray for our daily Bread during this season of Advent when we prepare anew for the Birth of Christ in us and in the world?

The Memorial of Christ death and resurrection, the Eucharist, is made from a piece of ordinary bread.

Christ is always waiting for us as the Bread of Life on the table of the Eucharist.

We can eat Divine Life in holy communion every time we attend mass.

We can feed ourselves through prayer from the Bread gathered in the tabernacle of our churches or exposed for prayer and adoration.

Jesus is there, day and night, waiting for me, for each one of us, calling me by name, expecting and waiting to give His very Self and Life to me.

How come that I am oblivious to the Divine Feeder?

Where do I go to satisfy my hunger? What do I feed myself with?

Rule of Life as a Hermit

Fall season at Emmanuel Hermitage

Another "stand alone page" has been created under the title Rule of Life.

It can be accessed directly in the menu below the heading of this blog.


The post includes the complete text of the initial personal Rule of Life that served this Diocesan Hermit to step into the path of a contemplative solitary, and live it out for five years until first profession of canonical eremitical vows for the Diocese.

There are some comments on specific aspects of the Rule, and the page also touches on the identity as a Redemptoristine Hermitess.

Blessed rather .... those who hear ... and obey

Our Lady of the Southern Cross - Paul Newton

      Today's Gospel reading at Mass was taken from Luke 11:27-28

While Jesus was speaking to the people, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him,

"Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!" 

      As I heard these words proclaimed I could picture Jesus sitting among the group of disciples and touched by the spontaneous words of a loving mother in the crowd, a woman like Mary, His Mother. 

      Those words evoked in Jesus very intimate thoughts of His Mother and everything that she had done and been for Him ....  Blessed indeed!! ... like every mother!

      But immediately His memory brought Him the images of Mary He cherished most and He knew best; images of Mary like no other mother, like no other woman or man - Mary the First Disciple, the faithful little one of YHWH, the daughter of His Father, the Jewish woman who taught Him, with words, but much more so with her own life, what to be the Son of God in a human body was like ...

      And thinking of this most treasured image of Mary, Jesus responded to the woman in the crowd:

"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!"

      This beautiful example of Jesus' love for His Mother speaks also of Jesus priorities so well set in place. The Father is always first. Everything else flows from this first priority and is ordained towards it. Mary lived in this way every day of her life, and this was what Jesus treasured most in her: her faithfulness to the Father, her fidelity to her personal call.

      This is also what Jesus invites and treasures most in everyone of us, our faithfulness and fidelity to our own personal call. We all have a unique role to live out, an irrepeatable image of God to express with our uniqueness. We cannot discern, discover, and live our unique individual call without setting time and dedication in our daily life for prayer and reflection. We need special times and places to get in touch with our own deepest desire, which matches God's Desire for us. We need again prayer and dedication to be able to overcome our busy-ness and distraction, our fears and compulsions, and to respond with our life in action to the stirrings and invitation of Grace towards a fulfilled and genuinely Christian -Christ like- life, the life that can truly make us genuinely joyful and alive even in the midst of difficulties and suffering.


      We can hear the Word of God in the intimacy of our prayer space or, in a privileged way, in the celebration of the Eucharist where we can be fed -daily- with Jesus Himself at the table of the Word and at the Eucharistic table. We may drink sometimes from the prolongation of Jesus' Paschal Sacrifice at the altar of an Adoration Chapel. We can grow in our faith and love for the Word by praying the Rosary at home with our family or while driving to and from some errand or work. We may read the Word from the Book of Nature during a quiet walk among the beauty of the fall season, or from our preferred spiritual author.

      We can always turn to Mary, the model of discipleship that Jesus displays today before us. She is the powerful intercessor and caring mother always ready to help us in our struggles to give birth with deeds and actions those gentle insights that the Spirit of Jesus graces us with when we feel more devoted or even when we are most distracted.

      May she teach us to listen to the Word of God -and to obey it- with the totality of response and commitment that was her joy and Jesus' delight.

     

St. Francis, M. Maria Celeste, and the Inspiration for the Congregations of the Redemptorists

        Mother Maria Celeste received the Inspiration for the foundation of the Order of the Most Holy Savior (a name changed later to the Most Holy Redeemer) on 1729 but she had to wait until 1731 to see it come to life on Pentecost Day, May 13 on that year, when the Sisters started living out the new Rule. On August 6 of the same year 1731, the Feast of the Transfiguration they changed the habit of the Visitation they had been wearing for the new red tunic and blue mantle as revealed to M. Maria Celeste for the new Institute.

         That same eventful year of 1731, M. Maria Celeste received the Inspiration for the foundation of the male branch of the same Institute, that is the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer better known as the Redemptorists. This happened on the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi and under his patronage and example as it was recorded by M. Maria Celeste in her Autobiography:

One day, the vigil of the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the 3rd of October in the year 1731, this Religious who had received the new Rule being in the refectory, her mind was in one moment lifted up to the Lord. Then Jesus showed Himself to her surrounded by the light of glory, accompanied by the seraphic Father Saint Francis and Father Don Alphonso de Liguori. Then the Lord said the her: "This soul [Alphonsus Liguori] is chosen as the head of My Institute. It is he who will be the first superior of the Congregation of men."


The Religious [M.M. Celeste] saw in God this work as if it were already established, and her soul was so filled with joy that she could not take any food. She saw herself surrounded with an interior light, and remained close to the holy Patriarch [St. Francis], who seemed to be transformed into Our Lord Jesus Christ. This lasted all the time of the meal.


       It is worth noticing that M. Maria Celeste pointed out that in her vision Saint Francis "seemed transformed into Our Lord Jesus Christ", which is the specific Grace or charism of the new Institute of the Most Holy Savior/Redeemer she was being called to bring to life. This transformation of herself into Christ was a frequent happening that she repeatedly recorded in her writings, and happened on many occasions but always after receiving Holy Communion, the Sacrament of our Transformation into Jesus Christ.

       But let us continue listening to M. M. Celeste and her connection with St. Francis on his Feast Day involving also (the then future St.) Alphonsus Liguori:

For the moment nothing else was revealed to her, and so this Religious made no accoumt of it, and told no one anything about it.
The next day, the Feast of the holy Patriarch to whom she had a great devotion, she went to Communion much absorbed concerning what had happened to her overnight. Suddenly her soul was illumined by a light of the Lord and she understood that she was to write as the motto of the Institute these words of the Gospel, 

Go and preach to all creatures that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. 

(cfr. Mc 10.16 & Mt 10,7)

Based on these words she should write out the text that the Lord dictated to her in His Name:
The daily and spiritual exercises were the same as those already written in the new Rule [for the Nuns]. Also the habit was to be like that prescribed. 
All the Religious were to live in apostolic poverty like His well-beloved servant whose feast they were keeping that day -who had so closely imitated Him. For this reason, all their worldly goods were to be placed at the feet of the Superior, who would make a common fund of them, called that of the poor, which they would use on missions, and would give alms from it to widows and orphans according to the directions of the Superior.

      It is clear how significant "apostolic poverty" is to the new Institute, both of men -the Missionaries, Brothers and Priests- and women -the Redemptoristine Nuns. This is no surprise given that the Institute is to be rooted in the admirable humiliations of the Word Made Man, with charity and humility as the capstone. A deep spiritual poverty is called forth as well as the visible Franciscan poverty.

      M. Maria Celeste continues explaining this first Inspiration of the Congregation of the Redemptorists:

In their journeys they will go two and two to places not too distant from their dwellings, and they will preach penance.


      And here comes from M M. Celeste's pen something especially close to the heart of this Redemptoristine Diocesan Hermit attesting to how much the call to transforming prayer in solitude is at the heart of our charism for both the Redemptorists and the Redemptoristines:

As to those who are called to the contemplative or eremitical life, they are not to be reproached, for those souls who apply themselves to prayer in solitude convert many more souls than those who are destined to preach.


They will be at least thirteen in each house and they are not to go on mission by their own choice, but by the will and choice of the Superior.


This was the first sketch concerning the Congregation of men that this Religious received from the Lord. She wrote down all that had been said to her and added it to the Rule of the nuns, as it was to form only one with theirs, as will be written in the proper time.
This Religious made a detailed statement to her spiritual father [Don Tomaso Falcoia] of all that had been communicated to her about the new Congregation of men, and of all the other things that had been revealed to her. 


      May the holy Patriarch Saint Francis show his patronage over M. M. Celeste's Double Institute of Women and Men dedicated to bringing the Good News to the poor through the combination of their personal contemplative transformation into Christ as well as through the preaching of the Gospel message to every creature. 


      Saint Francis of Assisi, Pray for us!

Eremitic Life: An Overview

A new "stand alone page" with this title is in the menu under the heading of this blog.

With the help of some pictures I'm publishing a little introduction to the Eremitic Life and the Diocesan Hermit Vocation, which I prepared some time ago as an attempt to present some general aspects of this lifestyle and its connection to a wider tradition.

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross - M. Maria Celeste Feast Day

The Cross is the altar of the sacrifice of Christ who is always present also in our crosses. Through faith we can transcend the negative aspect of the suffering we meet in our way and allow God to make it an avenue of Grace not only for ourselves but for the Church and the world.

        The Cross is the superabundance of God's Love poured out upon this world and the great sign of Christ's saving presence. Love of the Cross is essentially love and imitation of Jesus Christ.  (Rule of Life #30 - Constitutions OSsR, 57)

On this liturgical feast day of the Triumph or Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the Redemptoristine daughters of Mother Maria Celeste -including this hermitess- celebrate also her triumph and passing into Glory as Jesus himself promised her:

Know, My daughter, that in this world, you will not be separated from My Passion, but will have an abundance of troubles and infirmities, because you cannot acquire love without sufferings. Thus, whatever I dispose and ordain for you, it is all love! Therefore, you must have patience and I promise you, on My word, that the moment your soul leaves your body, I will lead it into heaven where it will enjoy Me for all eternity.  Dialogue IX

Mother Maria Celeste, the Holy Prioress of the Monastery of the Most Holy Savior in Foggia, Italy, was nearing her 59th birthday when on September 14, 1755, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross:

.  She had taken communion that morning in the community Mass and the day began as one more day in conventual life.  But, feeling very ill, she had the confessor called, Father Nicholas Lombardi, who administered the viaticum to her and holy unction.  Then, she requested him to read her the Passion according to St. John, and when the confessor arrived at the words “Consummatum est” (‘everything is completed’, Jn. 19:30) Mother Maria Celeste quietly died.  It was at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. (Autobiography, Apendix) 

As we praise and thank God for the great gift of the life and death of M. Maria Celeste, we pray through her intercession for her glorification, and for the future of her legacy, the Order and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. We also pray for the new forms in which her spirituality is lived out in various ways around the world, particularly the Redemptoristine eremitic life. Most especially we pray that her very rich doctrine on the transformation of the human person into Christ, which she herself lived and experienced, may be made accessible through publications in different languages, and that many daughters and sons of her spirit be called to live the Christian vocation to the depth of intimacy with God that she was called to mediate.

Receive, My daughter, the spirit of your Institute so that you may instil it into every soul willing to receive it, and through you, be united to Me in love. (Dialogue IX)

Venerable Mother Maria Celeste, pray for us!

Birthday of Mary, Mother of God

Nine months after the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception -December 8th- today we celebrate the birth of Mary Mother of Jesus and Mother of God, and our Mother.

With joyful gratitude we sing our praises to our Mother and rejoice at the great things that the Lord has done with her.

Happy Birthday, Blessed Mother. Bring us closer to your Son, and teach us to love and trust God as you did. Amen.

Novena to Ven. M. Maria Celeste of the Most Holy Savior

O God, 

who bestowed on Mother Maria Celeste 

the grace of a most intimate communion

in the mystery of your beloved Son's 

death and resurrection, 

we beg you

to glorify your handmaid,

to grant us the request we make to you 

through her intercession,

and to teach us to cooperate, as she did,

in the fulfillment of 

your admirable Plan of Redemption.

Grant this

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

"Glory be to the Father ..." (three times)

"Hail Mary" (once)

Alternate prayer:

O Most Holy Trinity,

I adore You from the depth of my nothingness

and I thank you 

for the gifts and privileges

bestowed on your servant Mother Maria Celeste.

I pray you

to will her glorification even here on earth

and for this, I beg you to grant me,

through her intercession,

that grace which I humbly desire

from your paternal mercy.

Grant this through Christ our Lord.

Amen

"Glory be to the Father ..." (three times)

"Hail Mary" (once)

United to all Redemptoristines throughout the world during these days of preparation for her feast on September 14th, let us pray through the intercession of our Mother Maria Celeste that we may receive a double portion of her spirit in order to become, like her, living portraits of Jesus Christ, our Savior and Redeemer in today's world.

Perpetual Profession and Eremitic Consecration

Altar ready for the Eucharistic celebration of Perpetual Vows
Sacred Heart Cathedral, Prince George, BC
Photo by Rebecca Gilbert - Prince George

A "stand alone" page with this title is now in the menu under the heading of this blog.

The pictures in a photo album provide a display for the outline of the celebration. Some additional information includes the Formula of Profession and the Solemn Prayer of Consecration, as well as a link to a web photo album.

The Assumption of Mary -Body and Soul- into Heaven

Coronation of Mary by Diego Velázquez: Spain 1599-1660

The Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary into Heaven is a glorious feast of the triumph of the Plan of God for humanity.
Mary excels every other human being after her son Jesus the Christ. But her holiness is just the same as the holiness we are called to. It is the holiness of listening to and responding to God's invitation of Grace. It was not easy for her and it is not easy for us. But it is possible with God's grace because "All is possible with God".

Today we rejoice with Mary because in her humility she has become great with the greatness and the holiness of God. But above all we rejoice with her because she is totally one of us, and where she is not only we can be but we are called, urged to be.

I can think of all the Beatitudes of the Gospel welcoming her "home" today, and she herself joining in the praise of God who has done great things in her, Holy is his Name.


In this magnificent feast, with the background of the liturgical texts of Mary's triumph today God granted me the final confirmation of my vocation as a contemplative, as a pray-er and a Diocesan Hermit. My heart sings for joy and rejoices in the Peace of the Lord as well as in the goodness of the local Church community that God has called me to serve with my life of prayer. This is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.

With a grateful heart I delight especially in greeting Mary with my favorite hymn from the Liturgy of the Hours:

Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!
Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;
Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!
Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the Rose Blood-red!
Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;
Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!
Mary the temple, Christ the temple's Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God adored!
Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven's Rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!
Mary the mother, Christ the mother's Son
By all things blest while endless ages run. Amen.

Text: Anon., alt. by the Dominican Sisters of Summit, 1972

Solemnity of the Most Holy Redeemer

Redemptoristine Nuns and Redemptorist Missionaries throughout the world as well as this Hermit of the same spirituality celebrate on the third Sunday in July the solemnity of the Most Holy Redeemer.

Come, let us worship Christ the Lord, 

Redeemer of the world.

The feast of the Title of the Order and the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer "stresses those aspects of Redemption which lie outside the scope of history, namely the love of the Father who gave us his Son, and the love of the Son, giving himself up in our place." (Divine Office - Proper CSsR)


Mother Maria Celeste initially founded the Order of Nuns under the title of The Most Holy Savior. This was also the initial title of the group of Missionaries led by St. Alphonsus following the inspiration of M. M. Celeste when years later during the process of approval by Rome the title was changed from Most Holy Savior to Most Holy Redeemer because the former was already in use by other religious institute.

This picture of Our Savior was originally venerated by M. Maria Celeste of the Most Holy Savior and is cherished by her daughters to this day. It depicts the Savior, God Incarnate, Homo Viator, Jesus the Wayfarer dressed in the traditional colors in which artists have depicted the garments of Jesus and Mary: a red tunic and blue mantle. These are also the colors of the habit of the nuns, called to become living portraits of Jesus, resembling Christ in every aspect, including his garments.

Saint Alphonsus took the Rule originally written by Mother Maria Celeste under divine inspiration for the Nuns and adapted it for his group of Missionaries. But he didn't retain the colors for the habit of the men as intended by M. Maria Celeste. This is no surprise given that the red tunic is used in the Church by Cardinals, that is by the men who are the closest collaborators with the Pope.

Eternal Father, 

To conquer death and bring us back to life

You made your only Son Redeemer of humanity.

May we ever remember your kindness,

Cling to you with unfailing love, 

And so enjoy the benefits of your Redemption.

Grant this through Christ our Lord. AMEN

May our Most Holy Redeemer bless our religious family with abundant fruits of holiness, and grant us many and holy vocations in fire with the mystical love of Venerable M. M. Celeste and the apostolic zeal of St. Alphonsus.

Perpetual Profession as a Diocesan Hermit

Today we are celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, a title of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, with long and wide tradition in the Church. The Carmelite Orders of women and men have her as their Mother and Patroness under this advocation which connects their lifestyle dedicated to prayer and asceticism with the prophet Elijah and other early hermits who inhabited over the centuries the caves of Mount Carmel in Palestine.

As a hermit myself I too cherish this feast and I'm grateful for special blessings received on this day over the years. I'm especially grateful this year as I prepare to celebrate my perpetual profession of vows as a hermit next month.

The adventure into the eremitic life started for me ten years ago with an intense process of discernment after many years living the cenobitic religious life. The last eight years living as a hermit are the culmination of a long journey of faith and soul search. Initially, when the invitation came strong and clear, I was scared and reluctant to try the path of the hermit. With God's Grace and Mary's powerful intercession I was able to take the first steps and thus discover and embrace my deeper vocation in a lifestyle that is made of paradoxes and rich with the simplicity of what is essential in life.

The accompaniment of an exceptional spiritual director has been a key instrument of God's grace and guidance. There have been many others also who made it possible for me to come to this point in the journey. Their help, encouragement and support, and even their challenge have made it possible. I am deeply and prayerfully grateful to them all.

Mary's Role Deeper than that of Peter

We have heard this week the news of the appointment of Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec as Head of the Congregation for Bishops in Rome. As background for the news release there was an interview he gave in 2003 and was published in the Spanish edition of the magazine 30 Giorni. These are the words spoken by the Cardinal I want to focus on:

The role of Mary is deeper than that of Peter or of the Bishops

Cardinal Ouellet made this statement in the context of ecumenism; but it strikes me as much more urgent to bring to the front this truth in the context of the hierarchy in our days when we see the weakness and failure of an exaggerated relevance of the ministerial priesthood in the Church, and of a primacy of right doctrine over right and holy living of gospel values.

The role of Mary is both unique and irrepeatable as Mother of Christ, but also she is the model and example of true Christian discipleship for everyone, clergy as well as lay people. She is the contemplative par excellence always listening to the Spirit, and the Mediatrix with Christ of all graces. The source of her immense and humble power is not from ecclesial ordination but from her sharing in the highest possible way for a human being in the same life and holiness of God.

And here is the amazing thing: that humble and ultimate power of Mary for bringing grace to the Church and to the world is available to each one of us if we too open our hearts and our lives to the transforming and sanctifying power of the Spirit always at work in making us grow into the likeness of Christ -and Mary. Her total acceptance of and response to the Plan of God for her, and through her for the world is the ultimate road to holiness and the goal of each of our lives on earth.

As important and necessary as the role of the ordained priesthood is in the Church, there is sometimes a tendency to emphasize the ritual aspect of the priesthood, and the channel of authority and tradition over and beyond that of personal holiness and relationship with God in the building up of the life of the Church. It is certainly in the service of the Church that by means of the ordination to the priesthood the person has become an instrument of Christ the Priest so literally that we don't need to guess what is the level of his personal holiness in order to be sure that Christ is really acting through him. But as true as this is, if it is overestimated we can also fall into a magical approach in which the priestly ministry is valued mainly by external performance. This is a permanent temptation because we like to judge and evaluate and we can do that with actions but not with the inner promptings and intentions of the person.

In our days loaded with news of scandals and abuse in the part of the clergy we all need to reflect on the urgency of personal transformation and holiness as means of exercising the powerful common priesthood of all baptized Christians in the building up of the Reign of God.

May Mary, Queen of the Apostles, and Mother of Divine Grace guide us in our journey of discipleship and transformation, as we continue praying also for Pope Benedict, for Cardinal Marc Ouellet, and for all our bishops and priests so that they may always strive to grow in holiness as the first means to faithfully perform their challenging and graced filled ministry in the service of the Church and of the whole world.

Immaculate Heart of Mary

After the solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus we celebrate Mary's Immaculate Heart. The gospel for this feast is the episode of Young Jesus remaining in the Temple of Jerusalem without telling anything to his parents, Mary and Joseph (Lk 2:41-51).

Here we have the perfect family of the Son of God Incarnate, and this passage shows us that they had the same difficulties of every family: misunderstandings, stress, anxiety ... and a teenager doing his "thing". By the way, Jesus doesn't hesitate to correct his Mother as to who his real Father is. Doesn't He sound like any family with a teenager on board?

The circumstances were so trying that the gospel concludes:

"Jesus' Mother pondered all these things in her heart."

Mary met here, probably for the first time, a Jesus she didn't know yet: the obedient Jesus who had a mind of his own as to Who he would ultimately obey.

Jesus was already attuned with the Inner Voice but this visit to the magnificent Temple of Jerusalem, a first as a young adult Jew, was a very special experience. He got in touch with his calling and his sense of identity in such a powerful way that everything else dropped off his attention, including his parents. Jesus had to respond to that experience and did so by probing his insights in conversation with the teachers of Israel and breaking with the expectations of behavior of a good son.

But then, as it always happens with authentic experiences of encounter with God, Jesus went down to the ordinary and was obedient to Joseph and Mary. He was free to "disobey" them for a greater obedience, but he was free also to obey them again afterwards in humble alignment with the ordinary.

This is no small lesson on freedom and obedience which, with Mary, we too are invited to ponder in our heart in order to be able to live our lives and make decisions with mature fidelity to God first, and then to our elders, in the different aspects of life. Let us ask Mary for the wisdom she learned from Jesus as she was teaching him to live as a human son of God.

God's Love: Meek and Humble of Heart

Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Lk 23:34

Jesus hardly could speak when he pronounced these words. "They" had nailed him to a cross and were now casting lots on his garments and hurling insults at him. He was dying and very short of breath and yet his concern was on his Father's "pain" in the face of what was happening with him, and with the lack of conscience and consciousness of his executioners. He loved these men as they were, they didn't need to change in order to be loved by Jesus, but his love was the most powerful of invitations to making the choice for love and for the change of behavior.

A few moments later Jesus breathed his last entrusting himself to his Father's hands. That was the end of his living among us but not the end of his giving of himself to us. A soldier pierced his side with a spear and, like in any birthing, messy water and blood came forth together with the new life, the Church. This is the beginning of our birthing into the Christ being in the womb of Love, the Love that we celebrate today on the solemn Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Jesus had said, "Who sees me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Now he was showing us what Love looks like, how God loves, and also what it means for us the invitation "Learn from me because I'm meek and humble of heart".

In St. Paul's Hymn to Love (1Co 13) we learn some beautiful characteristics of Love, but looking now at Jesus we can see that God's Love in a human person is utterly free. Here is where the puzzling mystery of evil and sin become part of the picture as they represent our real choice of saying "no" to Love, to life, and to our existential calling.

What we call the Christian spiritual journey is our life-long gestation of growing into the freedom of this kind of Love, a Love created through God's grace at work with our free choice. It is not an easy journey but knowing the destination may help us get through some of the more trying territories in the way. Because we are to be partakers of God's very being, our transformation is about becoming Love ourselves like Christ and in Christ.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ

Pope Benedict is visiting Cyprus. The event is getting attention from the Media as crowds gather and special celebrations mark the importance of this exceptional visit.

It would make world news if the Pope, the Vicar or representative of Christ and the head of the Church on earth, were to visit my humble Hermitage and grant me a private audience. And yet as significant as that would be, it would not be even close to the privilege I enjoy every day of my life: several hours of private audience with Christ Himself, our Risen Lord and Savior, present in the tabernacle of the Hermitage.

Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, handed over to his apostles a divine invention to allow every human being of every time and place to get in direct contact with Him in that decisive moment and event in human history in which all power on heaven and on earth was given to a human being. (Cf. Mt 28:18)

The power of Jesus of Nazareth risen from the dead is so complete, absolute, total, universal, and perfect as is the power of God. This ultimate power is utterly humble and self effacing, self-giving. It is the power of Love, the power of Humility.

In the mystery of God's Humility, Christ gives his real human-divine person in sacrifice of love for us in this invention called the Sacrament of Thanksgiving, the Eucharist. By uniting through faith our intention and willingness to his power at work in the sacrament, we can be part with Christ in his sacrifice, which happened at a given time and place in human history but belongs in the eternal "now" of God. This is the priestly privilege of our Christian baptism.

But the Eucharist is even more. God's Humility made this sacrament the means to God's becoming food for the insatiable hunger of the human soul. A small piece of bread, a wafer, is at the same time the most ordinary and the most extraordinary -and Divine- of things, it is the Body and Blood, the Soul and Divinity of Christ Himself, of God. As any piece of bread, this Bread too is for us to eat, and as we eat the Body of Christ in the form of bread or drink his Blood  in the form of wine they don't become "us" as it happens with any other food or drink we take, but rather it is us who become Christ, not in a figurative but in a real way. This is, par excellence, the sacrament of our Divine transformation. It is here where the power of God is most available to us in our choice to grow and to mature into the full stature of our nature and our calling. It is up to us to unleash in ourselves and in the world the power of this Gift from potential to operative, from invitation to response, from God's desire to our reality.

God is Love. As a Lover, and as a human (and Divine) Lover, there is still more to the Eucharistic invention. The little piece of Bread is also the place of encounter, of Presence, where Christ is with us [Emmanuel = God-with-us] always, even to the end of the Age (Mt 28:20). The tabernacle of our churches, the Eucharistic celebration and communion, the silent adoration before the Monstrance with the Sacrament of Love is the trysting place where we meet the Beloved and are fed into greater hunger and desire. We don't learn this through readings though; we only get this by direct experience.

Let us respond to this and so much more that God has for us in this Mystery of Presence and Union, and as we drink from the Well let us become what we contemplate, let us be living Eucharist for our brothers and sisters. And let's give God THANKS as we rejoice in the Lord, always.

A Faith as Precious as Ours

The first reading at Mass for the Ninth Week in Ordinary Time presents us with the Second Letter of Peter, which starts with this enthusiastic introduction (2 P 1:1-2):

Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ,

to those who have received a faith 

as precious as ours ...

May Grace and Peace be yours in abundance

through the knowledge of God and Our Lord ...

Many years later the passionate fisherman from Galilee is still in awe at the newness and the marvel he found in Jesus of Nazareth, the Rabi who spoke with words of everlasting life. Peter's experience evolved from curiosity to engagement, to commitment, to discipleship, to a whole new self identity, mission, and life that he could never have dreamed of in his most wild dreams.

The Letter continues in verses 3 and 4:

His divine power has granted us everything that leads to life and devotion through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and power. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature.

This is Peter, the fisherman become first Pope, and what he is saying in a nutshell, what he is offering, what he is inviting others is that which he himself still hardly can fully grasp or find words to speak about. In very few words the Christian faith, the treasure he discovered, is about becoming partakers of the divine nature. Nothing less.

This blog is about our transformation into who we are called to be, partakers of the divine nature, in Christ. I will be reflecting on this core truth of our faith again and again, because it seems to me that somewhere in the twenty centuries of development of Christianity we have -if not lost completely, at least buried the essence of our life under layers of things to do and -too human- goals to achieve.

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

   
       

Holy, Holy, Holy ....

Glory to you, O Trinity, 

one God in three equal Persons, 

as in the beginning, so now and for ever.

Father all-powerful, 

Christ Lord and Savior,

Spirit of Love, 

You reveal yourself in the depths of our being,

drawing us to share in your life and your love.

One God, three Persons,

be near to the people formed in your image, close to the world your love brings to life.

                  The Father is Love, the Son is Grace, the Holy Spirit is 

their bond of fellowship, O Blessed Trinity.

                   The Father utters the Truth, the Son is the Truth he utters, and the Holy Spirit is Truth, O Blessed Trinity

These are some of the beautiful texts of the Liturgy of the Hours for today's solemn feast of the Most Holy Trinity. We don't need to understand in order to savor, and rejoice in the Lord. Always.

The Freedom of the Children of God

With the solemn feast of Pentecost we come to the end of the Easter season which we have been celebrating for 50 days commemorating the Resurrection of Christ. On Monday after Pentecost we have again Old Testament texts at the Office of Readings starting with the beginning of the Book of Job.
The story is familiar, a fictional conversation between God and Satan which turns Job's life upside down and inside out. In one day the rich man looses all his possessions, his herds, his sons and daughters, his servants ... As Job receives one piece of news after another he is broken down in distress and has only one thing to say:

"Naked I came forth from my mother's womb,

and naked shall I go back again.

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;

blessed be the name of the Lord!" Job 1:21

It strikes me the freedom of such statement, the total, complete TRUST of accepting the worst of the worst with peace.

Job was a very wealthy man owning all the riches that a successful man could gather, and enjoyed feasting with his large family. But the riches and the celebrations didn't take in his heart the place of the Absolute. What an incredible freedom!

This deep sense of Job's freedom has remained with me for several days with almost a feeling of envy. At this point of the story Job is not yet in rags, he is the master of many servants, the respected elder, the faithful worshiper of the Almighty. But above all he is used to looking at the Real in the eyes and can surrender from the bottom of his being. This is the freedom of having all without any attachment. This, I think, is a true "blessed" poor in spirit - and a contemplative.

This reminds me of the freedom of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, at the Annunciation, when in an instant, she risked everything in response to the unexpected, to the "intrusion" of Mystery in her life. With her humble Yes she risked being stoned to death. 

Thomas Merton says somewhere that a contemplative is the person with whom God can do whatever God desires. This is the person totally available to God and to God's Plan. 

We live in times where as a society we are trying hard to grow into human maturity and freedom for everyone, we are trying hard to decide what is best and often the louder voices telling us the direction of our blessings and fulfillment are themselves totally out of touch with their own deepest soul values.

It is good and necessary to work for our betterment and development of our skills, that's the purpose of our gifts and abilities! The paradox of it is that we need to reach that place of maturity and independence where we are liberated from abuse, poverty, ignorance etc., and yet this is only half of the journey. Even if/when we get there a whole new and intense journey has still to take place. This is the journey of transformation, the divinization of the Christian spiritual journey. It is an ascension into minority. It is about growing smaller and true, real. It is about discovering our utter dependence on God once we have reached all the goals of human development. When we have all that can be achieved, when we have lived and been productive and successful we can discover that it is not enough and that more of the same will never be enough.

This is the time to respond to life with heart and soul, with the faith of an infant who is carried in her mother's arms, small and free to welcome life as it really is coming from the Womb of our Destiny, even if that destiny brings -as it does for all of us- aging, sickness, and diminishment.
We have a Christian name for this, we call it the Paschal Mystery, a mystery of suffering, death, and burial which culminates in an unforeseen fullness of Life. In God. 

The Work of the Holy Spirit

As we pray for the coming of the Spirit during this time of expectation, the Liturgy of the Hours sets for us the tone. The Office of Readings in particular offers us some pearls of our faith in the words of the Fathers of the Church.


We read from the treatise On the Holy Spirit by Saint Basil the Great: "The Spirit is the source of holiness, a spiritual light, ... The power of the Spirit fills the whole universe ... Simple in himself [or herself], the Spirit is manifold in his mighty works. The whole of his being is present to each individual; the whole of his being is present everywhere ... Like the sunshine, which permeates all the atmosphere, spreading over land and sea, and yet is enjoyed by each person as though it were for him alone, so the Spirit pours forth his grace in full measure, sufficient for all, and yet is present as though exclusively to everyone who can receive him. To all creatures that share in him he gives a delight limited only by their own nature, not by his ability to give. 
The Spirit raises our hearts to heaven, guides the steps of the weak, and brings to perfection those who are making progress."


The Spirit of God is God's very self in action, always "at work" for us, with us, in us. Always available, always present, always inviting, always seducing, and always unique in expression to each person, granting Gifts for the good of all. We call them charisms:
"From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts."


These individual expressions of the Spirit in everyone of us are meant to help us in our journey. But what is the direction, the goal of that movement? Where are we going that we need the Spirit? What is it all about? What is the ultimate seduction of the Spirit? 


St. Basil concludes: "Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations -we become God."


We don't hear this kind of expression in our Sunday homilies and yet this "theosis" or "deification", our transformation through the journey of life, was clearly expressed by the  contemplative theologians, the Fathers and Mothers of the early Church. They wrote from their own experience, which means that this is not just the talk on "the other side" of eternity, this is about here and now, our journey on planet Earth, today.


St. Paul had already experienced and written about this: "Life, to me, is Christ" (Phil 1,21).  "It is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me" (Ga 2,20)


M. Maria Celeste Crostarosa, a Neapolitan mystic of the XVIII century and the instrument of God for the foundation of the religious Institute of the Most Holy Redeemer with St. Alphonsus Liguori -Redemptorist missionaries and Redemptoristine nuns- writes extensively and repeatedly about the transformation of the human person into Christ, this divinization. 
In her Degrees of Prayer  (12th Degree) she describes the transformation of the person in the spiritual journey as a new creation, and makes a parallel with the Creation passage in Genesis. When she comes to the Seventh Day she writes:


"Adam being created, he relaxed and slept. That's when the Lord rested also -on the seventh day. Created-man found rest in the Divinity and the Divinity found it in Adam. Having created man for His own rest and dwelling-place, He delighted in the original model, His Son, and rested. Our soul has God for its delight and rest when she is created all over again in her original innocence.
After all these works of creation are made all over again the soul is given the likeness of the Son of God. She is given an original innocence and divine simplicity -just as man was made in the beginning. Then God rests in the soul and she sleeps and rests in God's delight."


After two more pages describing this condition of the person, M. Maria Celeste continues:
"Here it is fulfilled at last the longing man had when, in the earthly Paradise, the hellish serpent persuaded him to eat the fruit from the tree forbidden by the Lord. [The serpent said that] By eating it he would become like God. 
Just what he longed for has happened. The Lord wanted this longing of man to be fulfilled but, for man's happiness, in a different way from what the enemy had suggested.
That tree of Paradise, forbidden to Adam, was a figure of the Word of God made man, and whoever dared eating from it would die. That is, for those who eat it and die it was indicating the Jews because they would eat His flesh through envy and kill Him. 
But this fruit of life, through His death, should enliven us with eternal life. It should also become for all the chosen souls the fruit and food of life in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar, where -in a real, true, and admirable way- when we ate from it, we would be transformed into the living God. 


This is the work "par excellence" of the Holy Spirit, our transformation into Christ already on this side of eternity. This is the contemplative journey. This is our destiny. 
Our daily life becomes the womb of transformation when we invite and follow the lead of the Spirit as modeled for us by so many brothers and sisters who, through the centuries, have become living memories of Christ on earth.