BLESSED SACRAMENT PARISH
CHRISTMAS SCHEDULE 2009
Reconciliation Service: Monday, December 21st at 7:00 p.m.
Christmas Eve: Thursday, December 24th
* 2:00 p.m. Children’s Pageant
* 3:30 p.m. Children’s Pageant
* 5:00 p.m. Children’s Pageant
* 6:30 p.m. Family Mass
* 8:00 p.m. Family Mass – Celebration of the Nativity
10:00 p.m. Family Mass
Midnight Traditional Solemn Celebration
* Tickets are required (for crowd control only)
Christmas Day: Friday, December 25th
9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m.
Saturday, December 26: 4:30 p.m.
Sunday, December 27: 8:15 a.m.; 9:30 a.m.; 11:00 a.m. ; 8:00 p.m.
New Year’s Eve: Thursday, December 31: 6:00 p.m. Mass
New Year’s Day: Friday, January 1: 11:00 a.m. Mass
Parking regulations for the City of Ottawa DOES NOT PERMIT parking on both sides of the street any time. Please do not block driveways or fire hydrants.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Monday, November 16, 2009
We're a little behind on the podcasts
Due to some computer troubles we've been having, we're a little behind on the Bible Study podcasts with Father David Bellusci. But today, the new podcasts will be going up. The session from October 27 (Genesis 9-12) has just gone up, and the others will go up later this evening.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Confirmation
Starting this year in our diocese, children in Grade 6 or older, who have not yet been confirmed will receive the sacrament of Confirmation. Children in Grades 3 through 5 who have not yet been confirmed must wait until their Grade 6 year. Please contact Ermine Wright before November 15th if your child is eligible to receive Confirmation this year. 692-7605 or sacraments @live.ca
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Bullet holes bring sleepless nights
This article was first published in the BC Catholic newspaper in July, 2009.
After ordination, Vancouver's Father Bellusci jets off to Rwanda to work with the needy
Father David Bellusci, OP, ordained on the sixth of last month in Vancouver, left for Rwanda only days later to work in a Dominican mission. Father Bellusci, who holds a PhD in philosophy and is doing graduate studies in theology at the Dominican University College in Ottawa, is writing two articles about his time there for The B.C. Catholic. This is the first.
I arrived in Kigali International Airport at 2 a.m. on a Sunday morning, remembering my first visit to Rwanda in the summer of 1992. Rwanda was politically very tense in the early '90s. I also remembered hearing the BBC announcement in April 1994, when I was living in Cape Town, that the plane carrying the presidents of Rwanda and Burundi had exploded as it approached Kigali International Airport.
The explosion left two politically and socially fragile countries without their presidents. In the case of Rwanda, the planned genocide of the country's Tutsi minority immediately followed the assassination of their president. Visiting Rwanda 15 years after the genocide led me to ask many questions about human nature.
Rwandans are wonderfully joyful, religious, and family-oriented people. Their values are superb. On the day I arrived I went to the St. Dominic Centre that is operated by Canadian and Rwandan Dominicans. They had festive activities for orphans and homeless children, including some local Rwandan dances performed by the children, followed by a very wholesome dinner.
The Kigali Orphans Project is supported wholly by the Dominican Missions. At this event I learned my first Kinyarwanda word, urukundo, which means love. What a beautiful word to learn on my first day in Kigali! A few days later I was invited to visit a community of Spanish Sisters running a pre-school in Kigali. As I approached the school, the little children noticed me and slowly approached me. Each one embraced me as though I was their best friend. Before I knew it, at least 50 children were running to me to give me hugs and taking my hand as I walked through the school. Their affection seemed like urukundo.
It was hard to believe these children had come from families who had suffered unimaginable violence and cruelty. Their family members were killed by machetes, hacked to death by axes, or machined-gunned in massacres. Women were raped in front of their families; children were not spared being cut up.
The victims were both Tutsis and moderate Hutus. Hutu extremists had orchestrated the genocide with the help of the youth wing, the Interahamwe. Over three months in 1994, from April to June, about 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed.
I could not sleep the night after visiting the memorial museum in Kigali. When I closed my eyes, all I could see were the skulls displayed in the museum, which contained visible bullet holes and machete cracks. Everyday T-shirts, dresses, and pants were displayed; the garments the victims had worn before their death. They were ordinary villagers and city-folk who had been branded Tutsi or Tutsi sympathizers.
The tragedy of this genocide was not just the hundreds of thousands of people slaughtered, but the betrayals that took place: neighbours denouncing neighbours and friends killing friends simply because of their ethnicity. Are people fundamentally evil with a disposition to do good, or are people fundamentally good with a disposition to do evil? Genocide would make us inclined to believe in the former: people are fundamentally evil. However, I believe that people are fundamentally good. God created us good, in His divine image. Original sin has inclined us towards evil. Only God's grace, the grace we receive at baptism, can correct this inclination. Rwandans are predominantly Catholic, so what happened? At a conference in Montreal, I heard a psychologist say. "In cases of extreme anxiety, a person is capable of doing anything."
One of the crucial aspects of genocide is the use of propaganda. Newspapers and radio stations in Rwanda delivered, daily, the danger of the Tutsi threat. Readers and listeners slowly began to believe that Tutsi "cockroaches" would wipe out the Hutu if the latter group did not act swiftly. When there is poverty and scarcity of land. and when the majority of the population lives in critical conditions, an extreme solution appears the best solution. Rwandans were given such powerful and regular doses of anti- Tutsi propaganda that the killing of Tutsis did not seem evil.
The propaganda produced something like a diabolical hypnotic spell, and then a wild frenzy; thousands of good Rwandans were transformed into butchers and murderers, a human kil1ing machine. To act morally we need to have enlightened consciences, but when we act out of anxiety with fear pumped up by propaganda, and when our instinct of self-preservation takes control, our capacity to reason diminishes and anything is possible.
Responsibility weighs heavily on those outside Rwanda, on those who could still reason and remain objective, thinking with lucidity. The role of the international community needs to be questioned in this regard. Why did so many western countries, which had ties with Rwanda before the genocide, fail to intervene? Romeo Dallaire, the Canadian Lieutenant-General who led the UN peace-keeping mission, had asked for assistance, but it had been flatly refused by the UN.
The memorial museum had a torch burning when I visited the site in June. The months of April, May. and June were the three months of genocide, three months the world watched and did nothing. If you wish to assist homeless children, or land cultivation, two projects can be supported: for homeless children there is Kigali Orphans, Martin Lavoie, OP, Missions dominicaines, 2715 chemin de la Cite Sainte Catherine, Montreal, Que., H3T IB6; for land cultivation there is Kigali Land Cultivation, Umushumba Mwiza, Account: 0010006-02-31, Banque Commerciale du Rwanda.
Father Bellusci has published a novel based on his previous experience in Zimbabwe: Beating the Drums (Mambo Press).
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Why do you give?
Why do you give?
Do you give in hope of getting in return? While there is certainly nothing wrong with that, it is not the kind of exceptional giving we are called to. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew), "If you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the heathens do the same?"
Do you give in hope of gaining recognition for your gift? There's nothing wrong with claiming a tax deduction on a financial contribution, but if the point of a gift is a tax write-off than you have given nothing. If you are donating your efforts to a cause because you wish to be seen donating your efforts to a cause, then you are also giving nothing. In the very same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
As the Pope wrote in his first encyclical:
Do you give in hope of getting in return? While there is certainly nothing wrong with that, it is not the kind of exceptional giving we are called to. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew), "If you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the heathens do the same?"
Do you give in hope of gaining recognition for your gift? There's nothing wrong with claiming a tax deduction on a financial contribution, but if the point of a gift is a tax write-off than you have given nothing. If you are donating your efforts to a cause because you wish to be seen donating your efforts to a cause, then you are also giving nothing. In the very same Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
"But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right is doing, so that your almsgiving may be secret. And your Father who sees in secret will repay you. When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners so that others may see them. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward."No, there is really only one reason to give, and it is the same reason Jesus had for giving us back our lives on the cross: love. A gift is like a sacrifice in that it is a selfless donation of yourself without thought for what comes back to you, even if giving sometimes repays like no other dividend.
As the Pope wrote in his first encyclical:
Love embraces the whole of existence in each of its dimensions, including the dimension of time. It could hardly be otherwise, since its promise looks towards its definitive goal: love looks to the eternal. Love is indeed “ecstasy”, not in the sense of a moment of intoxication, but rather as a journey, an ongoing exodus out of the closed inward-looking self towards its liberation through self-giving, and thus towards authentic self-discovery and indeed the discovery of God: “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it” (Lk 17:33), as Jesus says throughout the Gospels (cf. Mt 10:39; 16:25; Mk 8:35; Lk 9:24; Jn 12:25)So give – give from the place inside you that is love. Give until it hurts. Nobody ever failed to get into Heaven due to excessive generosity.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Sunday, October 4, 2009
New bible study podcast
From the September 30 session on Genesis Chapter 1, by Fr. David Berlucci, O.P.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
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.
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
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
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.
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.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
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.
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.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
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.”
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.”
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
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
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
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
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’
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’
Thursday, September 3, 2009
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.)
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.)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Patience
Sometimes, when things do not happen within my preferred timelines, I feel disappointed or frustrated.
It’s at times like these that I find myself reminded to go back to the premise that life is not chance, but rather a series of events that put our faith to the test so that we can grow our five senses (smell, touch, sight, listening, taste) to develop our spiritual sense.
A Time for Everything
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
I have often found that, although it’s sometimes difficult to accept that things happen (or not right away) for a reason, if I can bring myself to trust that there is a good reason to patiently wait for the outcome I’ve prayed for, it ends up sometimes surprising me and certainly exceeding my hopes.
It’s at times like these that I find myself reminded to go back to the premise that life is not chance, but rather a series of events that put our faith to the test so that we can grow our five senses (smell, touch, sight, listening, taste) to develop our spiritual sense.
A Time for Everything
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
I have often found that, although it’s sometimes difficult to accept that things happen (or not right away) for a reason, if I can bring myself to trust that there is a good reason to patiently wait for the outcome I’ve prayed for, it ends up sometimes surprising me and certainly exceeding my hopes.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Sympathy
Since early July I have been blogging about virtues.
Prudence, Justice, Restraint, and Courage. These are the four Cardinal virtues, the virtues upon which our actions, thoughts, and intentions hinge. Faith, Hope, and Love. These are the three Theological virtues, or the guiding principles by which we set the course of our lives.
Some readers have written to say they have enjoyed reading this series of blogs.
If there is interest in a further exploration of additional virtues, either in a continuous series or intermittently, please let me know.
For now, I thought I would explore another virtue: sympathy.
The dictionary defines sympathy as “the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, especially in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration”.
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” 1 Peter 3:8-9
As I’ve noticed so many times throughout Scripture, in this citation we are given a guiding principle which is immediately followed by a real-world challenge: be compassionate … even to those who are not compassionate to you.
It’s little surprise that sympathy is a synonym of empathy, which the dictionary defines as “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another”.
So how can we be more empathetic? How can we, as Fr. Joe implores us at the end of each Mass, have a “good” week by loving and respecting one another?
One way to do that, I think, is to be better listeners – myself included.
Some people call this virtue a habit, and they call it active listening.
I came across an interesting website (http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm ) and I’d like to share some of its observations on active listening:
“Depending on the study being quoted, we remember a dismal 25-50% of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they only really hear 2½-5 minutes of the conversation.
There are five key elements of active listening. They all help you ensure that you hear the other person, and that the other person knows you are hearing what they are saying.
1. Pay attention.
Give the speaker your undivided attention and acknowledge the message.
Recognize that what is not said also speaks loudly.
Look at the speaker directly.
Put aside distracting thoughts.
Don’t mentally prepare a rebuttal!
Avoid being distracted by environmental factors.
“Listen” to the speaker’s body language.
Refrain from side conversations when listening in a group setting.
2. Show that you are listening.
Use your own body language and gestures to convey your attention.
Nod occasionally.
Smile and use other facial expressions.
Note your posture and make sure it is open and inviting.
Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes, and uh huh.
3. Provide feedback.
Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear.
As a listener, your role is to understand what is being said.
This may require you to reflect what is being said and ask questions.
Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “What I’m hearing is…” and “Sounds like you are saying…” are great ways to reflect back.
Ask questions to clarify certain points. “What do you mean when you say…” “Is this what you mean?”
Summarize the speaker’s comments periodically.
4. Defer judgment.
Interrupting is a waste of time.
It frustrates the speaker and limits full understanding of the message.
Allow the speaker to finish.
Don’t interrupt with counter-arguments.
5. Respond Appropriately.
Active listening is a model for respect and understanding.
You are gaining information and perspective.
You add nothing by attacking the speaker or otherwise putting him or her down.
Be candid, open, and honest in your response.
Assert your opinions respectfully.
Treat the other person as he or she would want to be treated.
--
Does that last point sound familiar?
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
Prudence, Justice, Restraint, and Courage. These are the four Cardinal virtues, the virtues upon which our actions, thoughts, and intentions hinge. Faith, Hope, and Love. These are the three Theological virtues, or the guiding principles by which we set the course of our lives.
Some readers have written to say they have enjoyed reading this series of blogs.
If there is interest in a further exploration of additional virtues, either in a continuous series or intermittently, please let me know.
For now, I thought I would explore another virtue: sympathy.
The dictionary defines sympathy as “the fact or power of sharing the feelings of another, especially in sorrow or trouble; fellow feeling, compassion, or commiseration”.
“Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing” 1 Peter 3:8-9
As I’ve noticed so many times throughout Scripture, in this citation we are given a guiding principle which is immediately followed by a real-world challenge: be compassionate … even to those who are not compassionate to you.
It’s little surprise that sympathy is a synonym of empathy, which the dictionary defines as “the intellectual identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another”.
So how can we be more empathetic? How can we, as Fr. Joe implores us at the end of each Mass, have a “good” week by loving and respecting one another?
One way to do that, I think, is to be better listeners – myself included.
Some people call this virtue a habit, and they call it active listening.
I came across an interesting website (http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/ActiveListening.htm ) and I’d like to share some of its observations on active listening:
“Depending on the study being quoted, we remember a dismal 25-50% of what we hear. That means that when you talk to your boss, colleagues, customers or spouse for 10 minutes, they only really hear 2½-5 minutes of the conversation.
There are five key elements of active listening. They all help you ensure that you hear the other person, and that the other person knows you are hearing what they are saying.
1. Pay attention.
Give the speaker your undivided attention and acknowledge the message.
Recognize that what is not said also speaks loudly.
Look at the speaker directly.
Put aside distracting thoughts.
Don’t mentally prepare a rebuttal!
Avoid being distracted by environmental factors.
“Listen” to the speaker’s body language.
Refrain from side conversations when listening in a group setting.
2. Show that you are listening.
Use your own body language and gestures to convey your attention.
Nod occasionally.
Smile and use other facial expressions.
Note your posture and make sure it is open and inviting.
Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like yes, and uh huh.
3. Provide feedback.
Our personal filters, assumptions, judgments, and beliefs can distort what we hear.
As a listener, your role is to understand what is being said.
This may require you to reflect what is being said and ask questions.
Reflect what has been said by paraphrasing. “What I’m hearing is…” and “Sounds like you are saying…” are great ways to reflect back.
Ask questions to clarify certain points. “What do you mean when you say…” “Is this what you mean?”
Summarize the speaker’s comments periodically.
4. Defer judgment.
Interrupting is a waste of time.
It frustrates the speaker and limits full understanding of the message.
Allow the speaker to finish.
Don’t interrupt with counter-arguments.
5. Respond Appropriately.
Active listening is a model for respect and understanding.
You are gaining information and perspective.
You add nothing by attacking the speaker or otherwise putting him or her down.
Be candid, open, and honest in your response.
Assert your opinions respectfully.
Treat the other person as he or she would want to be treated.
--
Does that last point sound familiar?
"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 7:12
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Love
“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 1 John 4:9-10
My understanding of this verse is that God loves us, even though we fall short many times of loving God in return by loving and respecting all that God created.
I had this point driven home to me in a most vivid way today. I went to see a friend I’ve know since I was six years old yesterday and we talked until 4 a.m. about the difficult time he is going through and he seemed to be feeling better after our talk.
On my bus ride home today, however, one of the 50 or so people on the bus was full of bluster and fury about how a policewoman had seized his car and fined him a few hundred dollars for being disrespectful to her. He went on and on swearing, vowing to rape her as punishment for her doing what presumably was her job and dismissing the court summons as a trivial detail. Needless to say, the families with young children on the bus were speechless.
This very angry young man kept escalating his offensive rhetoric and berated other passengers for not getting off the bus faster. I bit my tongue instead of rebuking him and wondered about this bizarre episode during my walk home.
“A scoundrel plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.” Proverbs 16:27
Well, this verse certainly would seem to apply in describing this incident. But I couldn’t help but wonder what had filled this 20-something “adult” with so much venom and hatred (and a desire to so publicly make a fool and nuisance of himself).
Then I felt pity for him. I mean, how many friends can someone with this kind of outlook be able to turn to? The friend I had just spent 22 hours with in conversation had confided how isolated and lonely he’d felt during the depths of his troubles. This reminded me of one of Fr. Joe’s sermons in July, when he quoted Pope Benedict XVI defining humanity’s most wretched state as loneliness – that feeling of abandonment and of being unworthy of love.
The young man on the bus certainly didn’t make me feel like getting up and hugging him, to be perfectly frank, but maybe that’s just what he really needed. I have no doubt he will be appearing in court soon and if he makes good on his boast of telling the judge he’ll get his revenge on the policewoman by stalking her and raping her, I have a pretty good idea where he’ll be spending the next few years of his life: in a federal prison where you and I will be paying $125,000 every year for him to be fed, clothed, guarded and – perhaps – rehabilitated.
It’s interesting that earlier this decade Canada’s federal penitentiary system was headed by a revolutionary, and of course controversial, reformer from Denmark named Ole Ingstrup.
Ingstrup reduced the likelihood of Canadian inmates returning to a life of crime to 1 in 4 from 1 in 2 on the premise that men are in jail because they lack respect for people and society in general. (This seems to fit the description of my fellow passenger on the bus.) Ingstrup also started from the idea that women are in prison because of low self-esteem, or lack of respect for themselves.
The chaplain’s office in one prison for women in Ontario reportedly organized a day of manicures and pedicures a few years ago, prompting Toronto’s chief of police at the time, Julian Fantino, to make the following argument to reporters:
“As a society, how can we possibly convince victims and their families that we take their plight seriously when those who have committed truly wicked crimes are given rewards beyond the reach of many Canadians?"
Fantino had a point, but it skirted the basic issue. The question is whether we as a society are best served by a criminal justice system focused exclusively on retribution and punishment or trying to address the root causes of destructive criminal attitudes and attempting to rehabilitate them.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42
Loving your family and friend is easier than loving the guy who sat near me on the bus today.
My understanding of this verse is that God loves us, even though we fall short many times of loving God in return by loving and respecting all that God created.
I had this point driven home to me in a most vivid way today. I went to see a friend I’ve know since I was six years old yesterday and we talked until 4 a.m. about the difficult time he is going through and he seemed to be feeling better after our talk.
On my bus ride home today, however, one of the 50 or so people on the bus was full of bluster and fury about how a policewoman had seized his car and fined him a few hundred dollars for being disrespectful to her. He went on and on swearing, vowing to rape her as punishment for her doing what presumably was her job and dismissing the court summons as a trivial detail. Needless to say, the families with young children on the bus were speechless.
This very angry young man kept escalating his offensive rhetoric and berated other passengers for not getting off the bus faster. I bit my tongue instead of rebuking him and wondered about this bizarre episode during my walk home.
“A scoundrel plots evil, and his speech is like a scorching fire.” Proverbs 16:27
Well, this verse certainly would seem to apply in describing this incident. But I couldn’t help but wonder what had filled this 20-something “adult” with so much venom and hatred (and a desire to so publicly make a fool and nuisance of himself).
Then I felt pity for him. I mean, how many friends can someone with this kind of outlook be able to turn to? The friend I had just spent 22 hours with in conversation had confided how isolated and lonely he’d felt during the depths of his troubles. This reminded me of one of Fr. Joe’s sermons in July, when he quoted Pope Benedict XVI defining humanity’s most wretched state as loneliness – that feeling of abandonment and of being unworthy of love.
The young man on the bus certainly didn’t make me feel like getting up and hugging him, to be perfectly frank, but maybe that’s just what he really needed. I have no doubt he will be appearing in court soon and if he makes good on his boast of telling the judge he’ll get his revenge on the policewoman by stalking her and raping her, I have a pretty good idea where he’ll be spending the next few years of his life: in a federal prison where you and I will be paying $125,000 every year for him to be fed, clothed, guarded and – perhaps – rehabilitated.
It’s interesting that earlier this decade Canada’s federal penitentiary system was headed by a revolutionary, and of course controversial, reformer from Denmark named Ole Ingstrup.
Ingstrup reduced the likelihood of Canadian inmates returning to a life of crime to 1 in 4 from 1 in 2 on the premise that men are in jail because they lack respect for people and society in general. (This seems to fit the description of my fellow passenger on the bus.) Ingstrup also started from the idea that women are in prison because of low self-esteem, or lack of respect for themselves.
The chaplain’s office in one prison for women in Ontario reportedly organized a day of manicures and pedicures a few years ago, prompting Toronto’s chief of police at the time, Julian Fantino, to make the following argument to reporters:
“As a society, how can we possibly convince victims and their families that we take their plight seriously when those who have committed truly wicked crimes are given rewards beyond the reach of many Canadians?"
Fantino had a point, but it skirted the basic issue. The question is whether we as a society are best served by a criminal justice system focused exclusively on retribution and punishment or trying to address the root causes of destructive criminal attitudes and attempting to rehabilitate them.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” Matthew 5:38-42
Loving your family and friend is easier than loving the guy who sat near me on the bus today.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Hope
Hope, as a verb, is often defined as to believe, desire, or trust, which is probably why people using this term sometimes dialogue at cross purposes. Whose desire are we talking about? In whom or what do you trust? What exactly do you believe?
Just like with faith, hope is a form of trust. I reckon most people would agree that it is only human to require proof to sustain this other form of trust. I'd like to offer some proof.
This week I’ve read the story of a man in
In both instances I was struck by the journalists’ accounts of these individuals’ apparent serenity after the tumultuous years of soul search and emotional roller coaster caused by their physical circumstances.
This beautiful young woman and this dynamic father are alive and well in spirit.
They never gave up hope. The accounts of their life stories talk of ebbs and flows in their hope, but through pain, patience, and perseverance they have come to see better days.
In his book “Jesus of Nazareth”, Pope Benedict XVI sheds some very insightful light on the Transfiguration (pages 306-307) when he explains:
“…the great events of Jesus’ life are inwardly connected with the Jewish festival calendar. They are, as it were, liturgical events in which the liturgy, with its remembrance and expectation, becomes reality…Our analysis of the connections between the Transfiguration story and the Feast of Tabernacles illustrates once again the fact that all Jewish feasts contain three dimensions. They originate from celebrations of nature religion and thus tell of Creator and creation; they then become remembrances of God’s actions in history; finally, they go on from there to become feasts of hope, which strain forward to meet the Lord who is coming, the Lord in whom God’s saving action in history is fulfilled, thereby reconciling the whole of creation.”
Perhaps skeptics and cynics might read this analysis and dismiss it as the scribbling of an old man blinded by anachronistic thinking. (Anachronism meaning a thing or person that is incongruous, or out of step with, the present time) I write this because just the other day I saw a bumper sticker on a car with the symbols of the world’s three great monotheistic religions with the caption underneath it stating: “Free Your Mind”.
I suppose that if you are convinced that despite the scientifically and statistically near-impossible odds of complex life existing on this planet that we are here by some cosmic fluke, then it would make sense to “free your mind” to believe pretty much anything that suits you. Our omnipotent and loving God gives us the freedom to choose between His desires or our desires. He does not impose Himself on us. He invites us.
Isn’t it interesting that the first of the three temptations Jesus had to face when he began his ministry was to fast in the desert for 40 days and 40 nights at the end of which the devil challenged him to use his omnipotence to convert stones to loaves so he could feed himself. Jesus refused, but as we were reminded on the first Sunday in August, he did multiply the loaves for the masses that gathered to listen to his Word.
I’d like to repeat a quotation I shared in last week's blog on Faith:
“Jesus did not come to make life easy, but to make men great”
I am inspired by the patience and perseverance of the two physically afflicted people I read about this week. They may have come very close to losing hope many times, but they always clung to it.
For what it is worth, when the mother of my children went to her native
I read the Book of Job over, and over, and over again. I read the Psalms. I read the New Testament, the Old Testament, books by C.S. Lewis and others on their spiritual quests to feed my hope of better days. At first there were days where I could not even take things one day at a time, it was one hour at a time.
What got me through this were Faith, Family, and Friends. Thank God for those blessings.
I still have a long row to hoe, but four years after this tragedy, I am still able to fly down to
In that time, I had almost everything that was dear to me stripped away except my hope that God would not forsake me. And in that time my faith grew stronger and stronger to the point where God’s desire for what I am to do with the gifts He has bestowed upon me have become revealed, and they surpass my wildest hopes.
Happy Dia del Nino (Argentinian Children’s Day)
Monday, August 3, 2009
Faith
Faith, this lifelong theme for believers in God is rooted in a word with origins in Latin whose synonym is trust.
Many of us have grown wary in a world that, in many ways, is misleading and so adult trust is much more difficult for anyone to earn than the trust of an innocent child.
Yet, we profess belief in God who frames our relationship with Him, through his Son, as how children ought to relate to their father: by following his good example.
And here is where the obstacle lies: in order to trust, it is only human to require proof.
Humans rely on their five senses – smell, sight, hearing, touch, and taste – to convince ourselves of what is real, a bit like we did six centuries ago when relying on our sight we decided the western horizon of the Atlantic was the outer edge of the flat world from which the ocean cascaded into oblivion. (I am a fan of Owen Barfield' s "Saving the Appearances" - great read.)
But as Fr. Joe summed it up so simply and eloquently at Canadian Press photographer Tom Hanson’s funeral in March, the whole point of human life in this world is to tune our five human senses to develop our spiritual sense.
So, how exactly does one go about developing this sixth sense, the spiritual sense?
I’ve puzzled about this quite a bit and I’ve come up with a starting point that, so far, seems to me to be sound.
I start from the premise that things happen for a reason, that there are no flukes or accidents.
I am not advocating “Intelligent Design” as is espoused so enthusiastically by some evangelical Protestants in the
I personally believe we were created by an omnipotent and loving God who grants us and respects our freedom to choose to either trust in His concept of a good life or our own concept of a good life.
Trusting in God means setting aside our priorities to make place for His.
That is truly a leap of Faith!
But an omnipotent and loving God would not allow us to suffer in vain.
The problem of pain is the subject of another blog, but let me share an insightful quotation I read not so long ago to put human suffering in perspective:
“Jesus did not come to make life easy, but to make men great”
Sounds a lot like Mark 8:34, which says:
“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me’.”
Doing exactly that is what I call an act of Faith.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Four Cardinal virtues
Prudence, Justice, Restraint, and Courage.
These are known as the Cardinal virtues.
"Cardinal" is derived from Latin "cardo" which means 'hinge' because moral life hinges on our exercise of prudence, justice, restraint, and courage.
When I first joined Blessed Sacrament I was struck at how Fr. Joe would end each Mass by wishing us a good week and urging us to love and respect one another.
Implicit in that petition would be the call to respect ourselves also, I presume, and doing so would to my mind mean doing our best to live our lives with these four Cardinal virtues in mind, and in practice.
The remaining three virtues of the seven we are taught are Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity.
I had been wondering how I would bridge the blogs on the four Cardinal virtues to the blogs on the three Theological virtues I just cited.
The past few weeks have been hectic ones for me, so I've been quite tired at the end of most days so this evening I decided to take a long walk in no particular direction.
This walk lead me to the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park.
During its construction I remembered thinking how some of the sculptures were not to my aesthetic tastes and how unlikely I would be to set foot in that park to relax and reflect so I was surprised to find myself meandering to this patch of green space in a semi-residential, semi-industrial zone.
I thought of how my step-mother was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago now and how her indomnitable spirit -- and patience waiting nearly eight months for radiation treatment -- has seen her to the successful treatment of her cancer.
So, I figure, why not give the park a chance? I just won't look at the sculptures I don't like.
I'm glad I did give the park a chance and when my step-mother and father come to visit this fall I will suggest we walk through it.
There are stations throughout the with pithy comments and advice from cancer survivors.
If I were to try to sum up the messages in a handful of words, they would be these: rest on your faith, never lose hope, make every moment count (love and charity would be the means to doing that if you ask me).
This was a walk well worth taking.
These are known as the Cardinal virtues.
"Cardinal" is derived from Latin "cardo" which means 'hinge' because moral life hinges on our exercise of prudence, justice, restraint, and courage.
When I first joined Blessed Sacrament I was struck at how Fr. Joe would end each Mass by wishing us a good week and urging us to love and respect one another.
Implicit in that petition would be the call to respect ourselves also, I presume, and doing so would to my mind mean doing our best to live our lives with these four Cardinal virtues in mind, and in practice.
The remaining three virtues of the seven we are taught are Faith, Hope, and Love or Charity.
I had been wondering how I would bridge the blogs on the four Cardinal virtues to the blogs on the three Theological virtues I just cited.
The past few weeks have been hectic ones for me, so I've been quite tired at the end of most days so this evening I decided to take a long walk in no particular direction.
This walk lead me to the Richard and Annette Bloch Cancer Survivors Park.
During its construction I remembered thinking how some of the sculptures were not to my aesthetic tastes and how unlikely I would be to set foot in that park to relax and reflect so I was surprised to find myself meandering to this patch of green space in a semi-residential, semi-industrial zone.
I thought of how my step-mother was diagnosed with breast cancer about a year ago now and how her indomnitable spirit -- and patience waiting nearly eight months for radiation treatment -- has seen her to the successful treatment of her cancer.
So, I figure, why not give the park a chance? I just won't look at the sculptures I don't like.
I'm glad I did give the park a chance and when my step-mother and father come to visit this fall I will suggest we walk through it.
There are stations throughout the with pithy comments and advice from cancer survivors.
If I were to try to sum up the messages in a handful of words, they would be these: rest on your faith, never lose hope, make every moment count (love and charity would be the means to doing that if you ask me).
This was a walk well worth taking.
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