Thoughts on love

 

Love is Stronger than Death

God is Spirit and the Source of all love. Our spiritual journey calls us to seek and find this living God of love in prayer, worship, spiritual reading, spiritual mentoring, compassionate service to the poor, and good friends. Let us claim the truth that we are loved and open our hearts to receive God’s overflowing love poured out for us. And living fully each day let us share that love in all our wonderful and difficult relationships, responsibilities, and passages. The seeds of death are at work in us, but love is stronger than death. Your death and mine are our final passage, our exodus to the full realization of our identity as God’s beloved children and to full communion with the God of Love. Jesus walked the path ahead of us and invites us to choose the same path during our lifetime. He calls to us, “Follow me.” He assures us, “Do not be afraid.” This is our faith. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on the Holy Family

 You and I are meant for love. We bask in it. We flourish in it. The Holy Family is a model of exactly that. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus regularly soak up Divine Love and then love each other with that same infinite Love. 

Because God is all Love, he can heal the wounds in our hearts caused by the lacks of love we've experienced in our own family of origin. He is the Divine Healer after all. As we experience his healing, we more easily pour ourselves out in love towards God, others, and ourselves. 

A renewal of family love in this life can only be the result of deep healing encounter with Jesus! He gives us the opportunity to start anew, to find love, to flourish in love, and to bestow ourselves generously in love. 

Let us open ourselves up in a Marian way (as she taught Saint Joseph to do!) so as to receive more love and thus pour it out on those around us. 

God wants to remake the Holy Family at least a million times over in the world. Be one of the million.



-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on Christmas Eve

We read from our Gospel on this joyous Christmas Eve in anticipation of Jesus’ birth. In this faithful passage, we learn from Mary how she embraced the angel Gabriel’s message. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” Mary, troubled but engaged by Gabriel’s words, fully opens her heart to faith. “Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’” We embrace this Gospel and this special day as an opportunity to reflect on our faith, our trust in the path we are on, and embrace our loved ones with holiday cheer. We hope you feel some of this cheer in our digital Christmas card, available to share friends and family here. 

We wish you a very Merry Christmas. 

In grace and peace!

About CMMB

4th Sunday of Advent

Advent is often marked by the lighting of candles with the fourth candle symbolizing LOVE.

"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." - 1 John 4: 18

“Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, “Prove you are a good person.” Another voice says, “You’d better be ashamed of yourself.” There is also a voice that says, “Nobody really cares about you,” and one that says, “Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful.” But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, “You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you.” That’s the voice we need most of all to hear.

To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence,

and a strong determination to listen. That’s what prayer is.

It is listening to the voice that calls us “my Beloved.”

– Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

Thoughts on the Incarnation

 All of human history finds its center in the singular event of the Incarnation. God prepared it from all eternity. It seems the Trinitarian decision was that Jesus be sent to show us the way to the Father, as well as how to live perfect virtue, whether Adam and Eve had sinned or not!

And what a humble way in which he comes to us! Let us be overwhelmed in gratitude this Christmas for the simplicity and poverty that our God chooses, our God who makes himself needy in our regard, enabling us to tap into our deeper, more loving instincts. 

Can we succor the needs of this infant Child? Absolutely we can. This Christmas, let us look "down" instead of "up." Let us look for the particularly simple and loving ways in which we can serve God and serve those around us, inspired by God's supremely humble example. 



Jesus is here...

-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Thoughts on God's love

 

Choose God’s Love

You must believe in the yes that comes back when you ask, “Do you love me?” You must choose this yes even though you do not experience it.  You feel overwhelmed by distractions, fantasies, the disturbing desire to throw yourself into the world of pleasure. But you know already that you will not find there an answer to your deepest question. Nor does the answer lie in rehashing old events, or in guilt or shame. All of that makes you dissipate yourself and leave the rock on which your house is built. You have to trust the place that is solid, the place where you can say yes to God’s love even when you do not feel it. . . . Keep saying, “God loves me, and God’s love is enough.” You have to choose the solid place over and over again and return to it after every failure. Henri Nouwen

3rd Sunday of Advent

 

Advent is often marked by the lighting of candles with the third candle symbolizing JOY.

"And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy

that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David,

a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” - Luke 2: 10 -11 

“At first sight, joy seems to be connected with being different. When you receive

a compliment or win an award, you experience the joy of not being the same as others.

You are faster, smarter, or more beautiful, and it is that difference that brings you joy.

But such joy is very temporary. True joy is hidden where we are the same as other people: fragile and mortal. It is the joy of belonging to the human race. It is the joy of being

with others as a friend, a companion, a fellow-traveler. This is the joy of Jesus,

who is Emmanuel: God-with-us.”

– Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

2nd Sunday of Advent

 

Advent is often marked by the lighting of candles with the second candle symbolizing PEACE.

"You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast,

because they trust in you." - Isaiah 26:3

“Peace is Shalom – well-being of mind, heart, and body, individually and communally.

It can exist in the midst of a war-torn world, even in the midst of unresolved problems

and increasing human conflicts. Jesus made that peace by giving his life for his brothers

and sisters. This is no easy peace, but it is everlasting and comes from God.

Are we willing to give our lives in the service of peace?”

– Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey

Deep thoughts on hope

 

Always Reason to Hope

I am increasingly impressed by the Christian possibility of celebrating not only moments of joy but also moments of pain, thus affirming God’s real presence in the thick of our lives. A true Christian always affirms life, because God is the God of life, a life stronger than death and destruction. In him we find no reason to despair. There is always reason to hope, even when our eyes are filled with tears. Henri Nouwen

Thoughts on the Immaculate Conception

 

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 1:26–38

Friends, today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception—the truth that Mary, through a special grace, was preserved free from original sin from the first moment of her conception. Were this not the case, the angel would not have referred to her at the Annunciation as kecharitomene (full of grace). Why would God do such a thing? And wouldn’t this imply that Mary does not need to be redeemed? The traditional answer is that God wanted to prepare a worthy vessel for the reception of his Word. Just as the Holy of Holies in the temple was kept pure and inviolate, so the true Ark of the Covenant, which is Mary herself, should all the more be untrammeled. Bl. John Duns Scotus explained that Mary is indeed redeemed by the grace of her Son, but since that grace exists outside of time, it can be applied in a way that transcends the ordinary rhythms of time. Therefore, Mary, by a kind of preemptive strike, was delivered by Christ’s grace from original sin. Bishop Robert Barron

1st Sunday of Advent

Advent is often marked by the lighting of candles with the first candle symbolizing HOPE.

"The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;

those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone."

Isaiah 9: 2

Thoughts on Advent

 

“Waiting is essential to the spiritual life. But waiting as a disciple of Jesus is not an empty waiting. It is a waiting with a promise in our hearts that makes already present what we are waiting for. We are always waiting, but it is a waiting in the conviction that we have already seen God’s footsteps. As we wait we remember him for whom we are waiting, and as we remember him we create a community ready to welcome him when he comes.”



– Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey