Thoughts on surrendering to God

 

Sweet Surrender

We have been graced for a truly sweet surrender, if we can radically accept being radically accepted—for nothing! “Or grace would not be grace at all” (Romans 11:6)! As my father Francis put it, when the heart is pure, love responds to Love alone and has little to do with duty, obligation, requirement, or heroic anything. It is easy to surrender when we know that nothing but Love and Mercy are on the other side.

—from the book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
by Richard Rohr

Thoughts on following Jesus

 To Follow Jesus

Jesus said to them (Simon and Andrew), "Follow me and I will make you fishers of men." What does it mean to follow Jesus? to just walk after him following in his footsteps? For Ignatius it involves the whole person; it means to see him, to listen to his voice and words, to watch what he does and how he does it. We try to imagine his face though that's difficult for many of us. It's important that we try and not worry about succeeding. Can we see the love, the concern, the hope and joy on his face? the sparkle in his eye? At his baptism God said, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him." Can I hear his voice and accept his words even when I don't understand or maybe even want to argue? Can I hear the authority and invitation in his voice? Watch him heal the lepers by touching them, hugging the children and smiling at their parents, praying in the quiet of pre-dawn, struggling in the garden. It took three years and many miles but the apostles became great fishers of people by following Jesus.



We ask for the grace to follow and let him make us into the persons he wants us to be.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.

Thoughts on sin

 

God Wants to Heal Us

It is helpful to see sin, like addiction, as a disease, a very destructive disease, instead of merely something that was culpable, punishable, or made God “unhappy.” If sin indeed made God unhappy, it was because God desires nothing more than our happiness and wills the healing of our disease. The healing ministry of Jesus should have made that crystal clear. Healing was just about all that he did, with much of his teaching illustrating the healings—and vice versa.

—from the book Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps
by Richard Rohr

Thoughts on the Epiphany

 Epiphany

The Church concludes the celebration of the Christmas season with the feast of the Epiphany, Matthew's legendary story of the Magi, the three wise men from different countries who followed the star to find the Lord. Epiphany is a Greek word that refers to a god appearing among humans and for us it is the Son of God coming into our reality as fully human. We celebrate God's revelation of Himself not only to the Jews but to the whole human family. He blesses and invites all to be His brothers and sisters through faith and love. The Magi came looking for a human king and found an infant who invites them into a kingdom of love, peace and justice for all. Let us ask for the grace to keep searching for and following the stars in our own lives and to be the star for others in reflecting the light of Christ.

Fr. Ralph Huse, S.J.

Thoughts on Mary

 

Mary, Mother of God

Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart!” (Luke 2:19). In these words, Luke describes the attitude with which Mary took in all that they had experienced in those days. Far from trying to understand or master the situation, Mary is the woman who can treasure, that is to say, protect and guard in her heart, the passage of God in the life of his people. Deep within, she had learned to listen to the heartbeat of her Son, and that in turn taught her, throughout her life, to discover God’s heartbeat in history. She learned how to be a mother, and in that learning process she gave Jesus the beautiful experience of knowing what it is to be a Son. In Mary, the eternal Word not only became flesh, but also learned to recognize the maternal tenderness of God. With Mary, the God-Child learned to listen to the yearnings, the troubles, the joys and the hopes of the people of the promise. With Mary, he discovered himself a Son of God’s faithful people.

— from the book The Peace of Christmas: Quiet Reflections with Pope Francis
by Diane M. Houdek

Thoughts on the End of the Year

 

Another Year Ends

As another year draws to an end, let us pause before the manger and express our gratitude to God for all the signs of his generosity in our life and our history, seen in countless ways through the witness of those people who quietly took a risk. A gratitude that is no sterile nostalgia or empty recollection of an idealized and disembodied past, but a living memory, one that helps to generate personal and communal creativity because we know that God is with us. God is with us. Today the Word of God introduces us in a special way, to the meaning of time, to understand that time is not a reality extrinsic to God, simply because he chose to reveal himself and to save us in history. The meaning of time, temporality, is the atmosphere of God’s epiphany, namely, of the manifestation of God’s mystery and of his concrete love.

—from the book The Peace of Christmas: Quiet Reflections from Pope Francis
by Diane M. Houdek

Thoughts on Boxing Day

This is an edited blog post that was originally written in 2008 and highlighted each year:

Boxing Day

Today is the day after Christmas. It is a day when kids play with their Christmas presents and parents sleep in and relax, if they are lucky enough to not have to go to work. It's also a day when lots of people return Christmas presents to the stores and exchange them for something else. For still others it has become a day to shop for super discounted items as stores continue to make deals to get rid of their Christmas supplies and overstocked items. For this reason, it is now being called Black Friday #2. But on my calendar it says Boxing Day (Canada). Boxing Day? What is Boxing Day and why is it on my calendar? It also says Kwanzaa on my calendar today, but that is a topic for another day. I did a little research and found out that Boxing Day is celebrated in Great Britain (England), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It has it's roots going back to the Middle Ages in England and spread to the previously named countries over time. The name derives from the fact that in the early days, servants were required to work on Christmas Day, but were given the next day off. Their employers would give them gift "boxes" on that day (hence, Boxing Day), to thank them for their services. As time went on, people expanded the tradition to include other service people, like doormen, porters, mail carriers, and the like. I think this is possibly where the tradition of giving someone a tip comes from. Tipping is a good idea for a future blog also. Anyway, for whatever reason Boxing Day has continued on as a holiday in these other Anglo-Saxon countries besides ours. I'm not sure why this tradition did not make it to America (although tipping sure did). So that begs the question. Why is it on my calendar? Is it because all calendars sold in America are also sold in Canada where they celebrate Boxing Day? Or is it because there are plenty of Canadians who now reside in the United States? I'm not sure. Hey wait a minute...some calendars also say St. Stephen. What's that? Now this is really getting confusing. St. Stephen's Day is also an English holiday, and a Catholic Feast Day, marking the day that Saint Stephen was martyred by being stoned to death in Jerusalem in 34 or 35 A.D. This is where we get the line "on the feast of Stephen" from the Christmas carol, Good King Wenceslas. If fact, many websites on this topic suggest that St. Stephen's Day was the name of the holiday before it became known as Boxing Day. So there you have it. A history lesson and my thoughts on Boxing Day.

Scott