The overhead from the Commissioning Mass

a couple of volunteers wanted to see the quote from the overhead. Here it is.

 My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
     and the fact that I think that I am following your will
     does not mean that I am actually doing so.
 
But, I believe that the desire to please you
      does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart for that desire.
And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road,
      though I may know nothing about it.
 
Therefore will I trust you always,
      though I may seem to be lost in the shadow of death
I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
      and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Thomas Merton

Check out the new fall bible study!

The bible study page has been updated to cover the new fall session. Brother David will be exploring the Book of Genesis, and the bible study page includes a full schedule of which chapters will be covered, and when.

Coming soon: look for podcast recordings of each week's session!

Update: the podcasts are here. If you missed bible study, catch up by listening in.

Maranatha

“On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us” Acts 16:13-15

I wrote a blog a few months ago about King Solomon’s prayer (found in Proverbs) to be granted a listening heart. I’ve been thinking about this petition lately as I’ve thought about a situation that has surprised me with the number of twists and turns it has presented me.

To make a long story short, I’ve found myself assigned to an unexpected (and very interesting) project, I need people with very specific and specialized skills around me to get the project done, and getting the right people has turned into a bit of a roller coaster ride. Consequently, I’ve been praying for a listening heart to try to figure out what I am supposed to do.

Then, this past Sunday, after Fr. Joe’s sermon on jealousy and invitation to tomorrow’s address by Kim Phuc at 7 O’Clock at the Metropolitan Bible Church (2176 Prince of Wales Drive) I went to the foyer of the church to find the details on this address and, to my great surprise, found something of a guide on my quest to be granted a listening heart.

Someone left a one-page (double sided) handout on Christian meditation that sums up the teaching of John Main. Actually, there was a stack of these handouts and I assume they will be available again next Sunday. I urge you to pick up a copy.

Basically, it is a guide on how to meditate. It explains that meditation is a “pilgrimage to your own centre, to your own heart”. The summary also explained that “our aim in Christian prayer is to allow God’s mysterious and silent presence within us to become the reality which gives meaning, shape and purpose to everything we do, to everything we are.”

Without transcribing the summary, it suggests setting aside 20 to 30 minutes, either at the beginning or end of each day (or both) to go sit in a quiet place. I know, for those of us with kids, this may seem like a near impossibility but, when there is a will, there is a way!

Then it explains that quietly, in our mind’s voice, we are to repeat the word “Maranatha” in four, equally stressed syllables like so: “MA – RA – NA – THA”.

Maranatha is a word in the Aramaic language, the language Jesus Christ spoke, that is said to mean “Come, O Lord”, but apparently – my only exposure to this language is through the Bible and Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ – if broken in two (Maran atha) it can also mean “Our Lord has come”.

I tried it once this week, and I must say that the warning in the handout that random thoughts are likely to drift into our minds is certainly true. The suggestion to bat these ideas away (in order to make room to simply be in God’s presence) is to repeat “MA – RA – NA – THA” and I enjoyed varying degrees of success.

This is, however, a discipline I hope to develop further because the end goal promises to be so rewarding.

I find it sad that in popular culture people of the Christian faith are either portrayed as unskeptical dullards or outlandishly stern defenders of seemingly nonsensical dogma and that this popular view seems to have gained traction in cradle of Christendom.

I don’t kid myself. If our current Pope’s life quest is to hope to gain a glimpse of God, I am far from being anywhere near as righteous as him. But I have faith in the Pope’s conviction that God is an omnipresent, loving, and benevolent creator who – while I don’t always understand why I am put to the test or through some tough challenges – does everything for my own good.

A final observation I’d like to share is how my spouse gave me a book by French author Marc Levy a few years ago for my birthday titled Sept jours pour une éternité... (Seven Days for an Eternity) and in it is a depiction of God that made me think that if this were a reasonably valid and accurate portrait of our Creator, then I am glad to knock myself out to try to get to know Him.

Perseverance

“But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance” Luke 8:15

Perseverance. If there is only one lesson I hope and pray my sons learn fully through my words and deeds as their father it is to persevere in the pursuit of a worthy goal. I fly 22,000 kms round trip to Buenos Aires every over other month to give them the greatest gift a parent is able to offer their child: their undivided attention and full presence.

On my latest trip in August, my eldest son (nearly 8 years old) asked what the difference is between God and Jesus. Children have this arresting way of snapping out of their immediate concerns to drop a major question on adults in the most innocent, matter-of-fact kind of way that is one reason why they are such a blessing to us.

I hope I performed well (ie. gave a valid and accurate answer) in replying to his question. I said that I think that there isn’t a difference between God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. I said that they are actually the one and the same God and are sometimes called in their unison the Holy Trinity. This, unsurprisingly, turned out to be pretty abstract stuff for a nearly 8 year old. I told him that even “old” people like me had a hard time grasping this idea and that some Muslim friends of mine at times follow up on this question and I do my best to give my understanding of it.

The Holy Trinity, I told my eldest son (and I think my youngest son who is 4-1/2 might have been paying attention for some of this conversation) was that God is everywhere and eternal and all powerful. Because that’s the way God is and we happen to be just where we are when we are and have little control over anything our experience of God is a bit like this: I told him to imagine being a fish at the bottom of a pond watching as a boy throws a flat rock in a way that makes it skip on the surface of the water a few times.

I asked him if he understood and he said yes but I sense we might be revisiting this conversation on my Thanksgiving trip or subsequent ones. My answer to Olivier’s pop quiz really got the wheels turning inside my head, thinking about Plato’s cave and Descartes’ “cogito ergo sum” (I think therefore I am) and all that abstract stuff.

On page 22 of “God and the World” by Peter Seewald, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) replied in the following way to the German journalist’s question “You once said: If a person believes only what he can see with his own eyes, then really he is blind’.”

The man who is now Pope answered: “Because in that case he is limiting his horizon in such a fashion that the essential things escape him. He cannot after all see his own understanding. Precisely those things that are of real moment are what he does not see with the mere physical eye, and to that extent he cannot properly see if he cannot see beyond his immediate sensory perceptions.”

The author of the Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, put these words in the mouth of the red fox in that famous children’s book: “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly, what is essential is invisible to the eye.”

Problem Solving

"The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but accurate weights are his delight" Proverbs 11:1

We have all, at some point in either our personal or work lives, faced a tough decision forced on us by circumstances. I see these moments as God presenting us with a choice between complacently going along with the ways of this world or taking a stand in spite of the consequences.

Discerning what is right from wrong is relatively easy if a person’s values and ethics are firmly rooted in faith in our Creator, we just have to pray and listen to our hearts. But in a world that presents with varying shades of grey more than black-and-white situations, knowing how best to navigate the ethical minefield is a whole other matter.

In German journalist Peter Seewald’s book, “God and the World”, the Cardinal who would become our current Pope had this guidance to offer on the topic of problem solving (pages 20-21 of the Prologue):

“How could I not have problems? In the first place, I always try to bring my problems into my prayer and to find for myself there a firm interior foothold. And then, I try to do something challenging, really give myself entirely to some task that is demanding and at the same time gives me satisfaction. Finally, through meeting with friends I can to some extent distance myself from everything else. These three elements are important.”

“The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” Proverbs 12:15

How does God guide us?

As usual, I found Fr. Joe’s homily on Sunday to be food for thought, or rather Archbishop Prendergast’s advice to wait and guidance would come.

So how does God guide us? When in doubt, there is a checklist of sorts, from what I learned at a parish I attended before joining Blessed Sacrament.

Firstly, rely on commanding Scripture for guidance.

Then, rely on God’s compelling Spirit. Our Creator has the power to change our will (if we commit our works to God rather than to ourselves, “Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3) and ask yourself whether you are at peace with the decision you’ve made.

Thirdly, among the many blessings we have are all those brains between our ears, so we are expected to use our common sense. “Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.” 2 Timothy 2:7

Fourthly, we can pray for the counsel of the saints. “The way of a fool seems right to him, but a wise man listens to advice” Proverbs 12:15.

And finally, God does give us circumstantial signs. In fact, I was just speaking with my spouse about this the other day and we were in agreement that at times it can be quite unsettling to witness how we are gently funneled into a course of action that did not seem obvious at the outset. “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” Romans 8:28 ‘More Than Conquerors’

One good habit

“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” Proverbs 16:3

I find the books of Proverbs and Psalms to be a great source of solace when I am going through turmoil and transition and am in need of resetting my “compass” to “true north”.

Last month, my spouse gave me “God and the World” (written by Peter Seewald in 2000 based on a series of interviews with Joseph Ratzinger just a few years before he became Pope Benedict XVI) and I started reading in the past week. This 460-page book promises to be quite insightful.

On page 19, the then Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, answers the German journalist’s questions on his daily routine:

“Before I get up, I first say a short prayer,” the Cardinal tells Seewald. “The day looks different if you don’t just stumble straight into it.”

In the past few years I have gotten into the habit of saying a short prayer before getting out of bed and, most days, reading a bit of the Bible after breakfast or as soon as I get to the office, and consequently I am in wholehearted agreement with his assessment.

The current Pope goes on to tell his compatriot that after his breakfast he attends Mass and the breviary (http://www.breviary.net/breviary/brevintro.htm) which lay the foundation for his day.

His fixed prayer times are at noon, when he prays the Angelus (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01486b.htm) , followed by Vespers (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15381a.htm) in the afternoon, and the Compline (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04187a.htm) in the evening. He says that “whenever I feel I need help, I can fit in a quick prayer”.

That’s a lot of praying, and I admit I do not pray that frequently, but, as Romans 12 implores us, I do pray as often as I can and on a multitude of motivations (gratitude, guidance, help, etc.)