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Medjugorje
Message: February 25, 2014 Dear children! You see, hear and feel that in the hearts of
many people there is no God. They do not want Him, because they are far from prayer
and do not have peace. You, little children, pray—live God’s commandments.
You be prayer, you who from the very beginning said ‘yes’ to my call. Witness
God and my presence and do not forget, little children: I am with you and I
love you. From day to day I present you all to my Son Jesus. Thank you for
having responded to my call. |
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Published
by the Marian Center of San Antonio / A Catholic Evangelization Ministry This month Our Lady challenges us to be witnesses of the Divine Indwelling Presence of God in the human heart.
This is the core truth of our faith and of all the great religious traditions of the world, in their
mystical center or contemplative dimension: that God dwells within the
human person as well as everywhere else; that God or Ultimate Reality is in
us and we are
in the Ultimate Reality that is
God. For Christians this Reality is described as “LIFE,” as “LIGHT,” and as “LOVE.”
If for one
nanosecond this God did not dwell within us, we would cease to exist. However, as Our Lady teaches, for many people on earth, there is no
“conscious contact” with this reality of the Divine Indwelling Presence. She
says, “You
see, hear and feel that in the hearts of many people there is no God.” But our senses and emotional feelings deceive us. Thus when we make
a judgment or determination that “in the hearts of many people there is no God,” based on what we “see,
hear and feel” from their presence, we might
be led to behave in critical, aloof, or unloving ways toward these
fellow-humans whom we deem (and silently label) “the godless.” The
reason for our misperception and critical judgment of them is understandable,
though, since Our Lady acknowledges that “They do not want Him, because
they are far from prayer and do not have peace.” Notice
that Our Lady does not say these people “do not want God” because of their malice
or deliberate rejection or hatred of Him; rather it is “because they are far from prayer and do not have peace.” Often people who are unprayerful
and without peace present to our senses an unpleasant image: a harsh
demeanor, an irritable or sarcastic tone, an impatient or unkind aspect that
“turns us off.” What we “see,
hear and feel” of them gives us an impression
that “there is
no God” in their hearts. This is a misperception. What we are really seeing is a human being like ourselves who is living in a sleepwalking state of
unconsciousness and unawareness of the
Divine Indwelling Presence of God. Without prayer in their life—i.e. a spiritual practice that creates a conscious
contact and living link with the Divine Higher Power at one’s innermost core—these
people whom we “see,
hear and feel” as “godless” are actually simply
living at the merely human/animal level of mechanical functioning that is conditioned by external
forces: the dominant culture with
its trends and cults, the false-self/egoic needs
for security, safety, affection, esteem, power, control, and pleasure;
and whatever “group membership” with which the person identifies
(family, nation, ethnicity, gender, political party, ideology, etc.). Such a
life is devoid
of inner freedom and inner peace,
constantly “pushed around” by both the unconscious internal drives of emotional programs for happiness and the external
influences of situations and
circumstances that determine one’s reactionary activity from moment to
moment. These unfortunate persons we meet are unable to “want Him” (God), for to desire something requires awareness of it, consciousness of it as a Good, a Value. Living
in a state of deep
sleep and mechanical automatism—without God-consciousness or
the still, silent peace that’s needed to catch a whiff, a taste, a glimpse of the Divine Indwelling Presence within—it is sadly true that,
indeed, many people “do
not want Him.” These are the unbelievers
for whom Our Lady asks us to pray—those, she says, “who have not yet experienced the
love of God.” They are NOT “without God” (for
that is impossible!), but simply persons for whom God’s
presence is not a conscious reality or a lived experience. Though it seems that God is “absent” to them, in reality, it is they
who are “absent” to God through their own state of (un)consciousness that
results from the anxious tension of a closed mind and heart. Our Lady
has taught us repeatedly that an “open heart” is essential for prayer and peace. How are we to respond? Our Lady begs us to: pray
for these “many people,” love them, refrain from judging them, and most importantly, “witness God’s presence” to them by our living example more than by our words. She
tells us, “You,
little children, pray—live God’s
commandments. You be prayer,
you who from the very beginning said ‘yes’ to my call. Witness God and my presence and do not forget, little children: I
am with you and I love you.” Until these unbelievers whom
we encounter in our daily life begin to open up and find prayer and peace on
their own (through which they will be able to “say yes” and experience the Divine Indwelling God), it is UP TO US to “be” that living witness to the Truth of this interior Presence whenever
we are in their midst. They will see that we naturally “live God’s commandments”—not out of dogmatic legalism, but because they are written on our hearts by the Divine
Indwelling Spirit of Christ. During the holy season of
Lent, the Church gives us great support and encouragement toward living
our life in an exemplary way as
witnesses of God’s love for
all. This is only possible, however, to the extent that we “suit up and show
up” in each present moment of our own life— awake, aware, and conscious—showing by our own quality of
Being that we are “present to Presence.” March
Musings: LENT—the Greening of
our Souls in the Paschal Mystery The force that through the green fuse drives the flower Drives my green age; that blasts the roots of trees Is my destroyer. And I am dumb to tell the crooked rose My youth is bent by the same wintry fever. The force that drives the water through the rocks Drives my red blood; that dries the mouthing streams Turns mine to wax. And I am dumb to mouth unto my veins How at the mountain spring the same mouth sucks. The hand that whirls the water in the pool Stirs the quicksand; that ropes the blowing wind Hauls my shroud sail. And I am dumb to tell the hanging man How of my clay is made the hangman’s lime. The lips of time leech to the fountain head; Love drips and gathers, but the fallen blood Shall calm her sores. And I am dumb to tell a weather’s wind How time has ticked a heaven round the stars. And I am dumb to tell the lover’s tomb How at my sheet goes the same crooked worm. -- Dylan Thomas + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ +
+ + +
+ + The world is charged with the grandeur of God. It will flame out,
like shining from shook foil; It gathers to a
greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed. Why do men
then now not reck his rod? Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; And all is seared
with trade; bleared, smeared with toil; And wears man’s
smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. And for all this, nature is never spent; There
lives the dearest freshness deep down things; And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the
brown brink eastward, springs— Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with
warm breast and with ah! bright wings. -- Gerard Manley Hopkins + + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
What Our Lord asks,
what he realized was so bitterly hard for the human heart, was “conversion”: that accepting to turn right round, to
be uncoiled from the self-possession, self-centeredness, and self-orientation
that is our native condition, to become God-possessed, God-centered,
God-directed. It is what he means by becoming a child, who alone is
capable of receiving the kingdom, of knowing the mysteries of the kingdom. This
re-making is God’s exclusive work. But we must accept his work, we must allow
his divine hand to take hold of us and wrench us into true shape. And we
resist with all our might. He knows that only when we are thus re-shaped can
we be truly happy. Our misery springs from our
self-centeredness. Joy and freedom are in God’s possession. Let us
then open our hearts to God that his Spirit may take possession of us and the
dream of God become a reality in our lives—the dream of our vocation—God
alone. – Sr. Ruth Burrows, OCD + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ Practical
Spiritual Tasks for the Lenten Season: Developing
Mature Discipleship 1) Be willing to carry
more and more of life’s complexities with empathy: Few things in life, including our own
hearts and motives, are black and white, either-or, simply good or simply
bad. Maturity invites us to see, understand, and accept this complexity
with empathy so that, like Jesus, we cry tears of understanding over our own troubled cities and our own complex
hearts. 2) Transform jealousy, anger, bitterness, and hatred
rather than give them back in kind: Any pain or tension that we do not
transform we will transmit. In the face of jealousy, anger,
bitterness, and hatred we must be like water purifiers, holding the poisons
and toxins inside of us and giving back just the pure water, rather than
being like electrical cords that simply pass on the energy that flows through
them. 3) Let suffering soften rather than harden
our souls: Suffering and humiliation find us all, in full measure, but how we respond to them—with
forgiveness or bitterness —will determine the level of our maturity and the
color of our character. This is perhaps our ultimate moral test: Will
my humiliations soften or harden my soul? 4) Forgive: In the end there is only one condition for
entering heaven (and living inside human community)—namely, forgiveness. Perhaps the greatest
struggle we have in the second-half of our lives is to forgive: forgive those
who have hurt us, forgive ourselves for our own shortcomings, and forgive God
for seemingly hanging us out unfairly to dry in this world. The greatest
moral imperative of all is not to die with a bitter, unforgiving heart. 5) Live in gratitude: To be a saint is to be fueled by gratitude—nothing more and nothing
less. Let no one deceive you with the notion that a passion for truth, for
church, or even for God can trump or bracket the non-negotiable imperative to
be gracious always. Holiness is
gratitude. Outside of gratitude we find ourselves doing many of the right
things for the wrong reasons. 6) Bless more and curse less: We are mature when we define ourselves by what
we are for rather than by what we are against, and especially
when, like Jesus, we are looking out at others and seeing them as blessed (“Blessed are you!”) rather than as
cursed (“Who do you think you are!”). The capacity to praise more than to
criticize defines maturity. 7) Live in an
ever-greater transparency and honesty: We are as sick as our
sickest secret, but we are also as healthy as we are honest. We need, as
Martin Luther once put it, “to sin
bravely and honestly.” Maturity does not mean that we are perfect or
faultless, but that we are honest. 8) Pray both
affectively and liturgically: The fuel we need to resource ourselves for
gratitude and forgiveness does not lie in the strength of our own willpower,
but in grace and community.
We access that through prayer. We are mature to the
degree that we open our own helplessness and invite in God’s strength and to
the degree that we pray with others that the whole world will do the same thing. 9) Become ever-wider
in your embrace: We grow in maturity to the degree that we define
family (Who is my brother or sister?)
in a way that is ever-more ecumenical, interfaith, post-ideological, and
non-discriminatory. We are mature only when we are compassionate as God
is compassionate—namely, when our sun, too, shines upon those we like and
those we do not. There comes a time to turn in our cherished moral placards
for a basin and towel. 10) Stand where you stand
and let God protect you: In the end,
we are all vulnerable, contingent, and helpless both to protect our loved
ones and ourselves. We cannot guarantee life, safety, salvation, or
forgiveness for ourselves or for those we love. Maturity depends upon accepting
this with trust rather than anxiety. We can only do our best,
whatever our place in life, wherever we stand, whatever our limits, whatever
our shortcomings, and trust that this is enough—that if we die honest,
doing our duty, God will do the rest. -- Fr. Ron Rolheiser,
OMI (President, Oblate School of
Theology) + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + + Lent: Laying Aside the
False Self to Simply Be Present to “What IS”:
GOD Introductions Let’s not say our names or what we
do for a living. If we are married and how many
times. Single, gay, or vegan. Let’s not mention how far we
got in school. Who we know, what we’re good at, or no good
at, at all. Let’s not hint at how much money we have or how
little. Where we go to church or that we
don’t. What our Sun Sign is our Enneagram number our personality type according to Jung or whether we’ve ever been Rolfed, arrested, psychoanalyzed, or
artificially suntanned. Let’s refrain, too, from stating any ills. What meds we’re on including probiotics. How many surgeries we’ve survived or our
children’s children’s problems. And, please— let’s not mention who we voted for in the
last election. Let’s do this instead: Let’s start by telling just one small thing that costs us nothing but our
attention. Something simple that nourishes the soul of
our bones. How it was this morning stooping to pet the sleeping dog’s muzzle before going off to work. Or yesterday, walking in the woods spotting that fungus on the stump of a maple so astonishingly orange it glowed
like a lamp. Or just now, the sound of your own breath rising or sinking at the end of this sentence. -- Susan Glassmeyer + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + + + +
+ When God inspires
someone to pray, the desire to pray is itself due to God. But in prayer God
works more extensively and profoundly. What led him to pray was something
external, a shell; now comes the inner content, the reality, which is the
transformation
of the one praying into the person God desires. Initially God takes
him just as he is: with his ignorance, hesitation, doubts, with what he
offers and what he withholds. Then gradually, in a timescale which man
cannot calculate, God begins to fill and complete him. The man tries to
separate himself from whatever prevents his coming to God, and God
takes over every empty space thus made available, filling it with his grace
and will. The more a person is
to be filled by God, the more he needs to have emptied himself and to have
died to all that is not of God, so that the life of God can pour forth and
take the place of his dying. God’s fullness can express itself in such a way that the
person never again lapses from the attitude of prayer. He remains constantly
attentive to God, endeavoring to do his will, remaining within God’s
purposes, trying to perform in a spirit of surrender whatever God shows him
and asks of him….When God takes things away he does not leave a
wasteland behind….A man can see in detail how God replaces what he
sacrifices to him with something better, something divine…an experience
that contains the germ of true humility: he sees that he can
do nothing of himself and that God does everything. –
Adrienne von Speyr + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
Crosses are the great means
which God employs to destroy self-love in us and to
increase and purify his love within us. We, on our side, labor for
these two ends by the means which he has placed at our disposal. The
crosses finish the work; without them it would be imperfect. Self
cannot kill itself; the blow must be struck from elsewhere, and self must
rest passive in receiving it. As long as I act I live; I shall mortify
myself in vain, I shall not succeed in dying spiritually by my own efforts. God
must do this for me. He must act within me, and the fire of his love must
consume the victim. There are many
different kinds of crosses….They change according to different characters,
circumstances, degrees. Some are simply painful, some are humiliating, others unite humiliation to pain. Some assail a man in his
worldly possessions, in those who are dear to him, in his health, in his
honor, even in his life. Others assail him in his spiritual interests, his conscience,
in what concerns his eternal salvation, and these are the most frequent,
destructive, and difficult to bear. All have an effect upon us which
inward mortification is unable to produce, and without them we cannot
expect to attain…holiness. – Fr. Jean-Nicolas Grou,
SJ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ Whoever has received
the gift of divine love, obtains from it more freedom from base
natural tendencies than by practicing all possible penances and austerities.
He can most sweetly endure all misfortunes that happen to him or threaten to
overwhelm him; he most readily forgives all the injuries that can be
inflicted on him. Nothing brings you nearer to God than the sweet bond of love.
Whoever has found this way never seeks any other….Everything that is himself becomes God’s own. Therefore, if you would
conquer these enemies—corrupt natural tendencies—and render them harmless, love is your best weapon. When the
soul loves, then whatever is not God or
godlike, it suffers not for an instant. Whoever is enlisted in this
warfare and treads this path—what he does or what he does not do in active
good works, or what he is not able to do, makes no difference. Whether
something or nothing, all is for love. The work of perfect love
is more fruitful to a man’s soul and to the souls of all with whom he deals,
and it brings more glory to God, than all other works. – Fr.
John Tauler, OP + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ +
+ Focus on the True Self and its expression in the
world around us. We discover that it is through spiritual non-possessiveness,
surrender, and self-emptying that our essence becomes connected to
the flow of Being Itself. This path is not about self-expression and
acquisition or storing up more calm, stability, or inner presence. As self-emptying
becomes the whole path, we find that there is no need to worry about being
depleted. The process of relinquishing our will, our identity, and our
vitality leads us to the dark night of the spirit. And it is through this
passageway that we discover that we are not the source of our own energy. – Rev.
Cynthia Bourgeault + + +
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Mark Your Calendar!
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March 1 |
Portraits of World
Mysticism Class: The Wound of Love:
Love Mysticism in the Christian & Sufi Traditions with Cliff Knighten; 9 am-12 pm; Oblate School of Theology Whitley
Theological Center, 285 Oblate Dr.; $40; call (210) 341-1366 x 212 |
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3-5 |
Bilingual Silent Women’s
Retreat: Lent—Our Inner & Outer
Journey; Oblate Renewal Center, 5700 Blanco Rd; $185 includes lodging and
meals; call Sr. Susan: (210) 349-4173 x 502 |
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3,
10, 17 |
3 Lenten Talks: Living the Ups and Downs of Our Faith—Dark
Nights & Doubt, a Failure of Faith or a Failure of Imagination? with
Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI; 7-9 pm, Oblate School of
Theology Whitley Theological Center, 285 Oblate Dr., $40; call (210) 341-1366
or www.ost.edu
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5 |
ASH
WEDNESDAY |
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7-8 |
9th Annual
Catholic Men’s Conference, St. Matthew Catholic Church McDonald Family
Center; 10703 Wurzbach Rd; call Pilgrim Center of
Hope: 210-521-3377 or go to www.CMCSanAntonio.com |
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8 |
Sankofa Women’s Conference: There is a Balm in Gilead—Spirituality
& Healing with numerous panel speakers & breakout sessions; 8:30
am-5 pm, Oblate School of Theology Whitley Theological Center, 285 Oblate;
$75 includes lunch & snacks; call (210) 341-1366 x 212 |
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9 |
First Sunday of LENT |
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9-16 |
Virgin of San Juan de Los
Lagos pilgrim statue from Jalisco, MX at St. Cecilia parish, 125 W. Whittier;
for more info call (210) 533-7109 |
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11 |
Workshop: Critical Ministerial Issues: The Challenge
of Change in Ministry Today (for pastors & lay ministers) with Nancy
Kluge, Ph.D. & Fr. Bryan Silva, OMI; 8:30 am-3:30 pm, Oblate School of
Theology Whitley Theological Center, 285 Oblate Dr,
$65 includes lunch ($50 per person for parish group of 4 or more); call (210)
341-1366 x 212 |
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15 |
Lenten Retreat: Walking with Our Lady in the Lenten Desert
with Fr. James Marshall, SJ; 8 am, Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish Hall, 1321 El
Paso St; (210) 494-9465 |
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16 |
Second Sunday of LENT |
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17 |
St. Patrick |
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17
& 21 |
Two Mondays Course: Eve and the Virgin Mary—Two of the Most
Famous & Controversial Women of the Bible with Nora Lozano, Ph.D.;
6:30-8:30 pm, SoL Center, 300 Bushnell Ave, $25,
call (210)732-9927 |
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18 |
6th Annual Frank
Montalbano Lecture: Paul the Apostle—Oppressor or Liberator? with Dr. Luke Timothy
Johnson; 7 pm, Oblate School of Theology Whitley Theological Center, 285
Oblate; FREE public lecture |
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19 |
St. Joseph, Spouse of the
Blessed Virgin Mary |
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21-22 |
Charismatic Conference: Exercising the Gifts of the Spirit—Live
it, Love it, Do it! with speaker Jesse Romero & others + Mass with
Archbishop Gustavo; St. Mary Magdalen Church, 1710 Clower;
call (210) 226-7545 |
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23 |
Third Sunday of LENT |
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25 |
Annunciation of the
Lord (1st Joyful Mystery of
the Rosary) |
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29 |
PEACE
MASS: 12 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; Rosary at 11:30 am |
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29 |
Fiesta
Franciscana Music & Art Event, 12 noon-3:30 pm, Mission Espada, 10040 Espada Rd.; Free
& open to the public! (210) 627-2064 |
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30 |
Fourth Sunday of LENT
Rosary-making: 2:00-5:30 pm, St. Mary’s Church, 202 N. St. Mary’s; free
parking & materials
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30-Apr
3 |
Contemplative Retreat with
Lecture Series: People of Pilgrimage:
Ubuntu—Practicing Compassion with Very Rev. Michael Battle, Ph.D.; Oblate
School of Theology Whitley Theological Center; $60 for 3 evening lectures/
$395 for Retreat (with meals); call (210)341-1366 x212 |
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I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from
the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind. I should not be ungrateful to
those teachers. -- Kahlil Gibran |
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Copyright, Marian Center of San Antonio. All
rights reserved. No part of this newsletter may be reproduced without
permission. |