Archive for May, 2010
Prayer
Monday, May 31st, 2010The setting of the Magnificat is the meeting of the two mothers – Mary and Elizabeth.
They act and speak in accordance with the mission of their sons. It was in the intimacy of Nazareth that the Word became flesh. In the Magnificat Mary praises, exults and proclaims the mystery within her. She is also the voice of her people – the humble, the people of the Covenant. The Magnificat endows the Church with an expression of what the Mother of Jesus thought and felt. As in all Gospel texts, it will flower in new and differing ways in each person who opens his/her soul to it.
Elizabeth blesses Mary because of her faith, “Blessed is she who believed.” Mary’s own Son, Jesus, would bless his Mother in a similar way: “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
Mary’s Magnificat is the hymn of the poor, the ‘everyday song’ for the Church. It is the voice of Mary, singing in the heart of the Church for ever, the spiritual song of salvation. (The Magnificat is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 1: 46- 56. Why not use Mary’s prayer and make it your own?)
Trinity Sunday
Sunday, May 30th, 2010The Association of the Holy Family was founded in Bordeaux on Trinity Sunday, 1820, by a young priest, Pierre Bienvenu Noailles. It is appropriate that the ‘launch’ day for the revised version of our website is Trinity Sunday – an opportune time to re-visit the story of our beginnings. Crossing another threshold to tell our story once again in the context of a new moment in the history of our Holy Family Association can be a challenging moment.
The Founder loved to contemplate the three members of the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as the ‘gentle image of the Trinity’. The Trinity, too, is the powerful symbol and expression of communion. Following the example of the early Christians who ‘had but one heart and one soul’, Fr. Noailles stressed the importance of ‘communion’ among all the members.
We live in a world created by God the Father, redeemed by the love of the Son, vivified by the love of the Spirit. At the beginning of every celebration of the Eucharist we are greeted in the name of the Trinity: “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” All the great prayers of the Mass are prayed to the Father in the Spirit, through Christ…
The life of the Trinity is freely offered to all the baptised. All Christians are baptised ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. We all need to rediscover Baptism, the foundation of the Christian life in Christ, communion with the Father through Christ in the Spirit. Baptism begins a lifetime journey of communion and discipleship. On the day of our Baptism we got everything we’re ever going to get – it’s the gateway to all the treasures God wants to give us through Jesus Christ, in the Church.
Prayer No. 150b
Sunday, May 30th, 2010The Beloved Disciple
John bears witness to Jesus, who is not only the obedient Son and the risen Lord, but the Incarnate Word, the one by whom the universe was created. No human language can portray the amount of Jesus” words and deeds. No story can communicate fully his infinite riches. The mystery of the Word made flesh simply cannot be put into words. Believers may have difficulty expressing their words and their experience, but they will forever treasure it in their hearts and minds. We remember that Mary herself keeps the mysteries of her Son”s life, and reflects on them in her heart.
Holy Trinity
Saturday, May 29th, 2010The Association of the Holy Family was founded in Bordeaux on Trinity Sunday, 1820, by a young priest, Pierre Bienvenu Noailles. It is appropriate that the ‘launch’ day for the revised version of our website is Trinity Sunday – an opportune time to re-visit the story of our beginnings. Crossing another threshold to tell our story once again in the context of a new moment in the history of our Holy Family Association can be a challenging moment.
The Founder loved to contemplate the three members of the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as the ‘gentle image of the Trinity’. The Trinity, too, is the powerful symbol and expression of communion. Following the example of the early Christians who ‘had but one heart and one soul’, Fr. Noailles stressed the importance of ‘communion’ among all the members.
We live in a world created by God the Father, redeemed by the love of the Son, vivified by the love of the Spirit. At the beginning of every celebration of the Eucharist we are greeted in the name of the Trinity: “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” All the great prayers of the Mass are prayed to the Father in the Spirit, through Christ…
The life of the Trinity is freely offered to all the baptised. All Christians are baptised ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. We all need to rediscover Baptism, the foundation of the Christian life in Christ, communion with the Father through Christ in the Spirit. Baptism begins a lifetime journey of communion and discipleship. On the day of our Baptism we got everything we’re ever going to get – it’s the gateway to all the treasures God wants to give us through Jesus Christ, in the Church.
Saturday – 29th May
Saturday, May 29th, 2010Jesus was clearly a serious threat to the religious leaders of Israel. They felt he was undermining their authority about which they were very possessive. They wanted to ignore him, but how do you ignore someone who heals the sick, the blind and the lame, raises people from the dead, clears the temple of traders. You almost get the impression that Jesus is secretly enjoying turning their world upside down!! They question his authority, his lack of pedigree and credentials, a poor man from Nazareth. His way to answer their question was to ask them another which baffled them all the more. So they replied “We do not know, to which Jesus replies; Nor will I tell you my authority for acting like this.” He knew they did not really want to hear the answer, they only wanted to erode his authority.
Jesus’ whole concept of authority was one of service, very different to that of the religious leaders. We too learn from this model of Jesus’ sense of service to others; how am I with those over whom I have some control at some time or other? Do I try to dominate, manipulate, even bully, especially those I consider are weaker than me in some way??
Lord, let me not seek to be served but to serve, following Jesus’ example.
Holy Trinity
Friday, May 28th, 2010The Association of the Holy Family was founded in Bordeaux on Trinity Sunday, 1820, by a young priest, Pierre Bienvenu Noailles. It is appropriate that the ‘launch’ day for the revised version of our website is Trinity Sunday – an opportune time to re-visit the story of our beginnings. Crossing another threshold to tell our story once again in the context of a new moment in the history of our Holy Family Association can be a challenging moment.
The Founder loved to contemplate the three members of the Holy Family – Jesus, Mary and Joseph – as the ‘gentle image of the Trinity’. The Trinity, too, is the powerful symbol and expression of communion. Following the example of the early Christians who ‘had but one heart and one soul’, Fr. Noailles stressed the importance of ‘communion’ among all the members.
We live in a world created by God the Father, redeemed by the love of the Son, vivified by the love of the Spirit. At the beginning of every celebration of the Eucharist we are greeted in the name of the Trinity: “The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.” All the great prayers of the Mass are prayed to the Father in the Spirit, through Christ…
The life of the Trinity is freely offered to all the baptised. All Christians are baptised ‘in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. We all need to rediscover Baptism, the foundation of the Christian life in Christ, communion with the Father through Christ in the Spirit. Baptism begins a lifetime journey of communion and discipleship. On the day of our Baptism we got everything we’re ever going to get – it’s the gateway to all the treasures God wants to give us through Jesus Christ, in the Church.
Friday – 28th May
Friday, May 28th, 2010Today’s passage from Mark strike us as a very extraordinary story of Jesus’ behaviour, he cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit. It appears irrational and destructive. To get behind the meaning of this, I quote from Bible Alive (May 2010) “In the Old testament, the fig tree was an accepted symbol for Israel. In Jerusalem, fig trees produce their leaves in March and fruit in June. It was therefore not the season for figs when Jesus approached the tree in leaf but found it fruitless. He was hungry for and expecting spiritual fruit from Israel, but found none”.
As we continue to read the same passage, we find that Jesus is angry when he enters the temple to find the people buying, selling and trading; profaning his Father’s house, rejecting him and his teaching. This gives us a vivid example of how seriously Jesus viewed how people accepted or rejected his gospel. This still applies to us today; how do we accept Jesus’ teaching; is Jesus happy with our listening to and living out the gospel in our daily lives ??
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief
Suffering
Thursday, May 27th, 2010A renowned theologian, Stanley Hauerwas, remarked that our inability to suffer would diminish our humanness, and asks, “Why should we assume that existence is only valuable when it is free from suffering?”
Yet, while we accept that suffering is part and parcel of what it means to be human, it still remains a mystery. People constantly ask questions like, Why me? Why do innocent people suffer? Why does a loving God permit evil? These same or similar questions have plagued humankind through the ages. In the Old Testament we read the story of Job who struggled to understand why innocent people suffer. His so-called ‘comforters’ try to convince him that his suffering is the result of his sin. Being an upright man, Job knows he has not sinned. Job has left us with one important insight: he separated guilt from suffering. This notion of retribution continued into New Testament times. In John’s Gospel we have an account of the healing of the man who was blind from birth. The disciples of Jesus ask him: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned…” (Jn 9: 2-3).
Suffering, both physical and mental, manifests itself in many different forms – ill-health, bereavement, loneliness, poverty, tragedy, failure, misunderstanding, feelings of rejection or exclusion, injustice – the list is endless.
In Jesus Christ, put to death on Calvary, God personally entered our human story. He witnessed and experienced the magnitude of human pain. Jesus’ death has not ended. He continues to suffer and die before our eyes in those who are victims of injustice today. In the word of Kahlil Gibran,
“Your cup of suffering has been fashioned of the clay
which the Potter has moistened with His own sacred tears.” (from ‘The Prophet’)
In your own pain and brokenness you are very close to the mystery at the heart of the Church, the dying and rising of Christ. The cry of Jesus on the Cross is re-echoed today and has been taken up by the millions who have suffered unjustly down through the ages and by those who feel abandoned in our own time:
“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
His final words, however - “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” - are an expression of complete trust as he abandons himself into the hands of a loving Father waiting to receive him.
Pope John XXIII found meaning for his suffering in contemplating the crucifix. Shortly before he died, he said to one of the attendants at his bedside: “The secret of my ministry is in that Crucifix you see opposite my bed. It’s there so that I can see it in my first waking moment and before going to sleep. Look at it. See it as I see it. Those open arms have been the programme of my Pontificate. Those arms say that Christ died for all, for all. No one is excluded from his love, from his forgiveness.”
When we suffer we are in solidarity with the powerless Jesus. One of Patrick Kavanagh’s poems expresses this very poignantly:
“We are not alone in our loneliness,
others have been here and known
griefs we thought our special own.” (from ‘Thank you, Thank you’).
We cannot rationalise when we come face to face with the mystery of suffering: we can only ponder, contemplate and, dare we say, praise? Job did not solve the mystery of suffering; he simply kept believing:
“God gives; God takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”
In weeping over Jerusalem, symbolic of the whole world, Jesus wept for the pain and suffering of all. The people nailed to the cross today include the victims of war, the starving, the destitute, prisoners of conscience, rejects and outcasts of society.
All of us have been enriched by the courage, dignity and faith of people in their hours of darkness. Our suffering too will bear fruit not only in our own lives but in the lives of all those whom we may never meet. In her book, ‘Sharing the Darkness’, Sheila Cassidy quotes some lines from a poem by Sydney Carter:
“The blood,
shed in Salvador,
will irrigate the heart
of some financier
a million miles away.”
*Deora Dé: This Irish word for fuchsia translates as God’s tears.
Prayer
Thursday, May 27th, 2010God shapes the world by prayer. St Teresa of Avila describes prayer as “being present to the One who is present to us in love.” Prayer, too, has power over the heart of God. Tennyson says: “….more things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of…” (Morte d’Arthur).
In prayer we can reach beyond the material universe and meet God in our heart. Jesus, instructing his disciples on how to pray, says:
“When you pray, go into your inner room,
close the door, and pray to your Father in secret.” (Mt 5:6).
The following excerpt from the writings of the Roman Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, could well serve as a commentary on this scripture text:
“It is within your power whenever you choose, to retire into yourself. For nowhere, either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble does a man (sic) retire than into his own soul.”
St Paul tells us that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God who searches the heart knows what is in the mind of the Spirit” (Rom 8:27). Over four hundred years later, St Patrick describes his experience at prayer: “I saw the Spirit praying within me…” (Confession).
In the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ we read,
“They persevered in prayer with one accord.” (Acts 1: 12-14).
To pray always, as Jesus says, implies that we contemplate God’s presence and God’s providence everywhere – in daily events, in the Eucharist, above all in the people we meet – the stirrings of grace in our own soul. The psalmist says, “Even at night, my heart keeps watch.”
Job says, “Speak to the earth and it will teach you.” Earth is a sacrament, a sacred place. To the contemplative spirit, the vivifying power of God flashes out from the simplest natural phenomenon, the smallest seed:
“From the greatness and beauty of created things
comes a corresponding perception of their Creator” (Wisdom 13:5).
We are the prayer of the universe and the voice of Mother Earth. If we don’t pray through creation nobody will. Jesus moved into his heritage – God’s creation – with respect, care and love. He contemplated his Father at work in the countryside around him – in the wild flowers of the field, the birds of the air, the sparrow falling to the ground. He invited his disciples to “Consider the lilies – how they grow – not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these” (Mt 6: 28-29). The Biblical bush still burns and we take off our shoes.
“God,” said Patrick Kananagh “is found in the bits and pieces of every day.” Bits and pieces are broken things, and God is really found in our brokenness and in the brokenness of our world. In prayer we find the strength and hope to sustain us on our pilgrim journey.
“Prayers are deathless: they outlive the lives of those who utter them.” (E.M. Bounds – quoted in ‘The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson). C.S. Lewis, in the play ‘Shadowlands’ by William Nicholson, says, “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” Kahlil Gibran goes further when he says:
“You pray in your distress and in your need: would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance…”
Prayer is gift. St Augustine says that in prayer we open our hearts to receiving what God intends to give. Matt Talbot prayed for the gift of prayer and he tells us that it was given to him “in abundance.”
In prayer we bring together the whole of Creation, so that in the words of St Paul,“all things may be united in Christ – things in heaven and things on earth.” (Eph 1:10)
“For so the whole round earth is every way
bound by gold chains about the feet of God.” (Tennyson: Morte d’Arthur)
Mahatma Gandhi admitted his need to pray:
“I am neither a man of letters nor of science, but I humbly claim to be a man of prayer… Prayer is the key to each morning, and the lock to each evening.”
Henri Nouwen says that “compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human beings”. When we are separated we can find each other in prayer. Pierre Bienvenu Noailles, Founder of the Association of the Holy Family, said that “no matter how far apart we are we can always meet in the heart of Jesus.”