Category: Spiritual Life

Leisure is under-rated

Do you like leisure activity? Are ever in the mood to live life differently? When you tell someone you are being leisurely, or that you need some leisure time because “life” is getting burdensome, it is not uncommon to get a weird look, a tart comment or utter dismissal. The Protestant work ethic doesn’t allow for holy leisure to rejuvenate mind, body and soul. The Catholic has a different approach to the subject principally because of the Doctrine of Creation and the Incarnation: savoring the beauty of creation or being engaged with real life but in a humane way taking account of the ways grace is operative. The classic work on the subject is Josef Pieper’s Leisure: The Basis of Culture (recently republished in 1998), which I highly recommend. In the meantime, Trappist Father Michael Casey offers this insight on the place of leisure in life from the monastic perspective which is also applicable to us on the other side of the monastery wall.

Leisure is not idleness or the pursuit of recreational
activities. It is, above all, being attentive to the present moment, open to
all its implications, living it to the full. This implies a certain looseness
in life style that allows heart and mind to drift away from time to time.


Monastic
life is not a matter of shoehorning the maximum number of good works into a
day. It is more important that monks and nuns do a few things well, being
present to the tasks they undertake, leaving room for recuperation and
reflection, and expecting the unexpected.

Leisure allows openness to the
present. It is the opposite of being enslaved by the past or living in some
hazy anticipation of a desirable future. Leisure means being free from anything
that would impede, color, or subvert the perception of reality. Far from being
the headlong pursuit of escapist activities and having fun, authentic leisure
is a very serious matter because it is the product of an attentive and
listening attitude to life.


Strangers to the City
Father Michael Casey, OCSO

At the second earthquake in Haiti…

Out of the depths I cry, Lord,
O Lord, please hear my call!
Let your ears be attentive;
I beg for mercy, Lord.
If you marked our offenses,
O Lord, who then could stand?
But you grant us forgiveness—
Therefore we stand in awe.

My hope is in the Lord’s word
And for the Lord I waid,
More eagerly than watchmen
Yearn for the morning light.
Hope in the Lord, O people,
In his unfailing love.
With him is full redemption;
He will redeem his own.

 

We entrust all to the Lord and to Blessed Virign Mary with the Venerable Servant of God Pierre Toussaint.

I renew the plea for donations to assist the Haitian people. Good organizations are found here.

Disaster in Haiti: where is God in this mess?

We’re all askingthe theodicy question. How could one -even person of solid faith in Providence–not ask why natural evil happens and why God permits it. In a recent interview Zenit asked the head of the Papal Charitable office, Cor Unum, Josef Cardinal Cordes, about the Haitian earthquake. As a first glance at the matter the Cardinal names something important, namely, if you claim to understand God, then your claim has nothing to do with the personal God of Christianity and that the Christian continues to believe God’s goodness in the face of suffering. Hard ideas to grasp. BUT it is a beginning.

ZENIT: How much does people’s faith help them through a catastrophe such as this?

Cardinal Cordes: The faith of the people who have suffered in this disaster will play a critical role in not only
bringing relief to their physical injuries and losses, but also in addressing the spiritual dimension and meaning to be found in such a catastrophe. In visiting disaster areas before and talking with survivors, many express their gratitude to God for sparing their lives and for the generous outpouring of assistance made available to them by family, friends, neighbors, and Churches worldwide. Because of the large Catholic population (80% of Haitians are Catholics), faith and the concrete presence/witness of the Church will have a very important role in the present tragedy.

Our Pontifical Council Cor Unum had already planned that the next meeting of the Populorum Progressio Foundation would take place in Santo Domingo this coming July. The foundation, established by Pope John Paul II, is to help the indigenous peoples of the Latin American and Caribbean countries. In the past, we have given much help to Haiti and we shall continue to do so. Of course, our spiritual closeness is of primary importance. We shall be certain to celebrate the Holy Eucharist on that occasion with bishops coming from different countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Without faith, this tragedy would turn into a complete disaster. That is why it will be essential for our brothers and sisters to pray together; experience Christians worldwide sharing their burdens as members of God’s family; know the compassion of our Holy Father. All these become sources of hope and energy. In His first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est, Pope Benedict invites us to recall “St. Augustine who gives us faith’s answer to our sufferings: ‘Si comprehendis, non est Deus’ — ‘if you understand him, he is not God.'” The Holy Father adds: “Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the ‘goodness and loving kindness of God’ (Titus 3:4)” (No. 38).

ZENIT: Will good come from this tragedy?

Cardinal Cordes: This is a disaster that has caused immense loss of life and suffering. Many years will be needed for the nation to be rebuilt physically and the people to recover in their spirits. For this reason, the Church must remain present even as others move away.

But already we see good rising from the ruins. The eyes of the world are being open to the poorest country in the Western hemisphere, whose long suffering was all but forgotten. This tragedy shows that we depend on each other and must care for our suffering brothers and sisters, just as we did during the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. So we must ensure that the necessary assistance now being shown to Haiti continues in the long-term, for example through setting up better local Caritas structures and links with government development
ministries of wealthier countries and help agencies.

We are witnessing and hearing of many selfless and heroic acts made to save lives and to rescue those in danger.  There are still thousands of others, who, coming from all over the world and without any accolades, are dedicating themselves to helping whoever is in need. People are being moved to give of themselves spiritually and materially to help the poor and suffering. In the coming days and weeks, I am convinced that we shall encounter in the midst of this catastrophe many examples of goodness.

Above all, it is with trustworthy hope in the Crucified and Risen Lord Jesus that Christians face the present. In his encyclical Spe Salvi, Pope Benedict speaks of the sufferings of this moment being borne through hope in the future. It is not that Christians know the details of what awaits them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness: “Only when the future is certain as a positive reality does it become possible to live the present as well” (Spe Salvi, 2).

Raising up saints and intercessors: witnesses to Christ urgently needed

A Church that
no longer raises up holy men and women among her priests, laypeople and
religious is a sterile mother. In fact, what matters the most is not the
construction of huge buildings or realizing great projects. What the Church needs
most is the witness of saints. Holiness is the sign of the Church’s
credibility. They are her letters of reference.


His Beatitude Fouad Twal
the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
Beatification of Mother Maria Alfonsina Danil
Ghattas
November 22, 2009

The search for God of all people, believers and non-believers concerns us, Pope said

The Holy Father’s annual address to the Roman Curia -the
Cardinals and bishops resident in Rome and other officials of the Roman Curia who assist him in
his governance of the Universal Church– took place yesterday. In it the Pope points to some notable concerns that he thinks that ought to be the concern of all
of us who believe faith is central our lives. Namely, belief and unbelief,
doubt and certainty and freedom with regard to God and humanity’s search for God. In my humble opinion, this papal address should be an essential point in any diocesan, parish or ecclesial movement’s pastoral plan in 2010 and beyond. In part the Holy Father said,


Even the
people who describe themselves as agnostics or atheists must be very important
to us as believers. When we talk about a new evangelization, these people may
become afraid. They do not want to see themselves as an object of mission, nor
do they want to renounce their freedom of thought or of will. But the question
about God nonetheless remains present for them as well, even if they cannot
believe in the concrete nature of his attention to us. 


Benedict addresses Roman Curia 2009.jpg

In Paris, I talked
about the search for God as the fundamental motive from which Western
monasticism was born, and with it, Western culture. As the first step in
evangelization, we must try to keep this search alive; we must take pains that
man not set aside the question of God as an essential question of his
existence. Take pains that he accept this question and the longing concealed
within it.


Here I am reminded of the words that Jesus quoted from the prophet
Isaiah, that the temple should be a house of prayer for all peoples (cf. Isaiah
56:7; Mark 11:17). He was thinking about what was called the court of the
gentiles, which he cleansed of extraneous business so that it could be the
space available for the gentiles who wanted to pray to the one God there, even
if they could not take part in the mystery, for service of which the interior
of the temple was reserved.


A place of prayer for all peoples: by this was
meant the people who know God, so to speak, only from afar; who are
dissatisfied with their gods, rites, myths; who desire the Pure and the Great,
even if God remains for them the “unknown God” (cf. Acts 17:23). They
needed to be able to pray to the unknown God, and so be in relation with the
true God, although in the midst of obscurities of various kinds.


I think that
the Church should also open today a sort of “court of the gentiles”
where men can in some manner cling to God, without knowing him and before they
have found the entryway to his mystery, which the interior life of the Church
serves. To the dialogue with the religions it must above all add today a
dialogue with those for whom religion is something foreign, to whom God is
unknown, and who nonetheless would not like simply to remain without God, but
at least to approach him as the Unknown.

How do you define faith?

Faith, whether by word or by sign, opens the eyes and
ears of the heart. Those who believe are said to see and to hear because faith
is a light and a word.


It is a light, in accordance with what the apostle says:
God, who told the light to shine out of the darkness, has shone in our hearts
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ (2 Cor 4:6).


The time that God told the light to shine out of darkness
was when he called us from darkness to his own wonderful light (I Peter 2:9),
when he dispersed the darkness of ignorance and said: let there by light, and
there was light (Gen 1:3).

Faith is a word, in accordance with what the apostle
James says: Receive the inborn word with meekness. (James 1:21). The word inborn
because when God speaks within, it is implanted in our heart. The apostle
speaks of this when he says: But what does the scripture say? The word is near
you, in your mouth and in your heart (Rom 10-8; Deut 30:14).


The Commendation of
Faith
Baldwin of Forde, a 12th century Cistercian Abbot

Prayer for Those Who Suffer with HIV, AIDS


World AIDS Day.jpg

God of our
weary years, God of our silent tears, O Good and gracious God, you are the God
of health and wholeness.

In the plan of your creation, you call us to struggle
in our sickness and to cling always to the cross of your Son. Father, we are
your servants. Many of us are now suffering with HIV or AIDS.

We come before
you, and ask you, if it is your holy will, to take away this suffering from us,
to restore us to health and to lead us to know you and your powerful healing,
love of body and spirit.

We ask you also to be with those of us who nurse your
sick ones. We are the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, children, and friends
of your suffering people. It is so hard for us to see those whom we love
suffer. You know what it is to suffer. Help us to minister in loving care, support,
and patience to your people who suffer with HIV and AIDS.

Lead us to do
whatever it will take to eradicate this illness from the lives of those who are
touched by it, both directly and indirectly. Trusting in you and the strength
of your Spirit, we pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.

God gives us a role in what happens in life

“Freedom is to acknowledge that God is all…. It is complete self-fulfillment … the possibility to reach and confront one’s destiny” (Giussani). Pope John Paul II reminded us that “communion with the crucified and risen Lord is the never-ending source from which the Church draws unceasingly in order to live in freedom.” Freedom means adhering to the risen Lord with the full force of our full-blown faith. As Cardinal Christoph Schönborn writes, “To allow oneself to be led by God, to abandon oneself to his direction, is the highest expression of our freedom.” For “God willed that man should be left in the hand of his own counsel so that he might…freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him” (CCC 1730).


Fr Peter J. Cameron, OP
Magnificat April 2002

Not Squandering illness: Terminally ill priest meets with Pope, offers sufferings for the Church


Father Luigi Squarcia.jpg

The Catholic News Agency ran this brief article yesterday (11/19/2009).
It captured my mind and heart, like it did for others, because I know two
people with Lou Gehrig’s disease (and one is also a priest) and another priest
who’s living with MS. The courage, love and patience these men have witnessed
is incredible. At least I think so.


Father Luigi
Squarcia, a pastor in the Italian town of Acquapendente who has suffered from
Lou Gehrig’s disease for the last four years, met with Pope Benedict XVI on
Wednesday and offered his “sufferings for the good of the Church.”

After the
meeting with the Holy Father in Paul VI Hall, Father Squarcia said, “I came to offer
the Pope my sufferings for the good of the Church. I am here, for the
first time, after years of working with the parishioners and the children at
our school.”

Now, he told L’Osservatore Romano, “I can no longer move my arms
or legs and I know I will lose my speech and later maybe the ability to
breathe.”  He noted that more people than ever are coming to him for the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Lou Gehrig’s disease is a serious neuromuscular
disorder that causes muscle weakness, disability and eventually death.

*Father Luigi in a 2004 photo.

If you
want a keener sense of what Father Luigi is speaking of when he says I am came
offer my sufferings for the Church, then I would suggest you read Pope John Paul II’s 1984 encyclical, Salvifici
Doloris, where he deals with notions of suffering and how it can be redemptive. That is, how suffering can be useful for the salvation of the work if we unite
our suffering to that of Christ’s. Putting suffering to good use otherwise it will eat you alive and deaden you affectively and spiritually. If not redemptive then it’s all-consuming and verging on nihilistic.