Suffering With Joy

Sunday Snippets – A Catholic Carnival

May 1, 2011

Time for our Sunday get-together at RAnn’s This That and the Other Thing where Catholic bloggers share posts for the week.  Please join us, even if you don’t have a blog.  All are welcome and we all appreciate comments.

St. Thomas Aquinas wrote on the Symbolism of the Washing of the Feet which is my only post from Holy Week.  You might enjoy what he says.
Spring on El Tiede is a short video that includes seeing the Milky Way through a sandstorm.

Christ is Risen in Lebanon is a flash mob singing about Jesus rising.  It is truly joyful.

My Perspective on the Beatification of Pope John Paul II.

Sabbath Moments shows what our red clematis “Niobe” will look at when it flourishes.

Happy Divine Mercy Sunday.  Plead the Divine Mercy on our country.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Tags: Catholic Church, Divine Mercy

A Clean Heart Create in Me, O God…

March 30, 2011

Immaculate and Sorrowful Heart of Mary

Every now and then, a scripture passage grabs ahold of me and won’t let go.  All during Lent the Magnificat antiphon for weekdays, absent a particular feast, haunts my mind.  I find myself contemplating it at odd times and places.  It seems a perfect fit to introduce Mary’s beautiful prayer at Vespers – she was the most clean of heart of all God’s creatures.

A clean heart create in me, O God, and a steadfast spirit renew within me.

Found in Psalm 51:10, these words summarize what we are doing in Lent – repenting, letting God clean up our hearts, and resolving to remain on the upright path of the Lord.

Random thoughts on the first part:

• A clean heart is a pure heart.
• The pure of heart shall see God (Matt. 5: 8).
• The pure heart is undivided.  It is focused on God and godly pursuits.
• The pure heart is detached from the things of this world, using them only in service of the greater work of getting to heaven.
• The pure heart rejoices in doing the will of God.
• The pure heart is full of charity which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things (1 Cor. 13: 7).
• The pure heart reflects the face of Christ to all.
• When we ask God to create a clean heart in us, we admit we cannot do it of our own volition.  Only He can give us the grace to be so.
• To ask for a clean heart implies that we know we have sinned.  God gave us the grace to see our sinfulness and to ask Him for forgiveness.  Compunction accompanies purity of heart.
• God creating a clean heart in us is a sign of His divine mercy, compassion, and love.

Simon of Cyrene Helps Jesus Carry the Cross, c. 1565, Titian (Tiziano) (b. 1490, Pieve di Cadore, d. 1576, Venezia), Oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid

Random thoughts on the second part:

• A steadfast spirit is an upright spirit that holds to God’s will.  It cannot be swayed by power or wealth or promise of any earthly reward.
• To ask God to renew a steadfast spirit in us implies that we have given in to temptation, waffling where we should have planted our feet firmly and refused to budge from “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14: 6).
• God renews a steadfast spirit within us by grace.  Again, we must ask for it.  In asking, we admit our helplessness to do it on our own.
• A steadfast spirit is upheld by the power of God and cannot be torn down regardless of the persecution it faces.
• The steadfast spirit walks the Way of the Cross with Jesus, imitating Him in faithfulness to the Father.
• The steadfast spirit is yoked to Christ, Who makes the burden light (Matt. 11: 30).
• The steadfast spirit bears the burden of souls with Christ, praying for deliverance and salvation of sinners.
• The steadfast spirit shines with the light of Christ (John 8: 12; Matt. 5: 14).
• The steadfast spirit combined with a pure heart bestows moral authority on our actions.

I walk the Way of the Cross in Mary’s company whose clean heart and steadfast spirit loved without reserve.  May I be granted a similar faithfulness and attachment to the will of God.

Want to subscribe to posts by email? Visit the third box in the sidebar.

V.  Praised be Jesus Christ!

R.  Now and forever.  Amen.

(Click on the link above to read why I am ending my posts with this.)

Tags: Christ, Divine Mercy, Divine Office, moral authority, psalms

Praying the Psalms – Psalm 23

June 19, 2010

Jenny at Just a Minute hosts a Saturday meme called “Praying the Psalms”.  Visit her this week to find other Catholic comments on Psalm 23.

We often hear Psalm 23 quoted in movies dramatizing burial services because it mentions the “midst (or valley) of the shadow of death”. I use the Douay-Rheims Bible often and the translation sometimes differs from the more familiar RSV, giving additional opportunities to delve into the mysteries of God’s Word.  What struck me today about Psalm 23 is that it mentions three of the seven sacraments in our life with God.

1 The Lord ruleth me: and I shall want nothing. [In Hebrew, is my shepherd, viz. to feed, guide, and govern me.]

2 He hath set me in a place of pasture. [God puts us where He wants us to be and provides for all our needs.] He hath brought me up, on the water of refreshment: [Baptism, when we begin our life in God]

3 He hath converted my soul. [By God's power we are converted from the darkness of Original Sin to the Light of Christ.] He hath led me on the paths of justice, for His own name’s sake. [For the sake of His beloved Son who died for each of us, the Father gives us the road map to heaven.]

4 For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for Thou art with me. [Sin, death, chaos and confusion are all around us.  We walk daily in the midst of the shadow of death (sin) but God is always with us and willing to give us grace to vanquish evil.  We need only to cling to Him and not try to do battle by ourselves.]  Thy rod and Thy staff, they have comforted me. [We are comforted and secure when we follow the laws of God and the Two Great Commandments].

5 Thou hast prepared a table before me against them that afflict me. [The Holy Eucharist, our strength in the valley of the shadow of death.] Thou hast anointed my head with oil; [Baptism - we have been claimed by God as His own with the anointing at Baptism] and my chalice which inebriateth me, how goodly is it! [The Holy Eucharist fills us with grace, peace, light, and strength so powerful our souls are drunk with the goodness of God.]

6 And Thy mercy will follow me all the days of my life.  And that I may dwell in the house of the Lord unto length of days.  [The sacrament of Penance (mercy) and the spirit of conversion makes it possible for us to dwell in the house of the Lord for eternity.]

How great God is to have done these things for us.  To be good sheep we only need to stay close to Jesus and feed on the pasture He gives us.  But should we wander into sin, He will call us back with his staff and show us mercy because He delights in us and desires that we delight in Him.

Tags: Divine Mercy

Fences: Sitting, Straddling, or Using the Gate

April 29, 2010

Last week Roger and I drove to the North Texas area for the kick-off of my friend Lynn Baber’s book, Amazing Grays, Amazing Grace which is available on Amazon.  It was the official inauguration of Lynn’s Amazing Grays ministry, which is to call all members of the equine community to faithfulness to Jesus.  Lynn uses her experience as a horse trainer to point out relationship lessons we humans have with God.

It was a good week weather-wize, and Roger and I were able to take pictures outdoors in the bright sun.  The sky was a cloudless blue, the vegetation fresh green, and we caught the tail end of the Indian paintbrush’s fiery dance along the pasture edges.  We were a week too late for the bluebonnets, though.  Some were still left by the roadside, but we didn’t have a place to pull off and snap pictures, so that will have to wait for another time.  Lynn reminded us that it was Lady Bird Johnson who started the “Beautify America” campaign to sow wildflower seeds along the highways.  In the 45+ years since then it seems that more work is still to be done with all the new road construction and no wildflowers along some waysides we passed in Oklahoma and Missouri.  Nevertheless, it was a good time to go south before Texas heats up.

One of my favorite photos from the trip is this one taken in the Baber pastures.  As I was focusing with my long lens I thought about the fence between the black horse on one side and the donkey and horse on the other.  We can’t sit on the fence where our Faith is concerned.  We have to be either hot or cold.  If we are lukewarm, Jesus will vomit us out of His mouth. This is a really unappealing image for me and a big motivation to stay on the hot side.

Hot and cold are two sides of the same coin. Each means we have taken a firm stand for or against Jesus and we are fully engaged one way or the other.  But if we straddle the fence trying to appeal to each side, we are not focused on Jesus and not open to His love and what that brings. With our attention divided, sooner or later something big will come along and bump us off the fence and into the dust where we will most likely find we’ve ended up on the wrong side.  Think of the “jelly side down” rule – the peanut butter and jelly bread always falls jelly side down.

Fences have a good purpose – to keep things separate for a reason.  It’s a way of creating order out of what could become confusion or danger.  They are not built for sitting or straddling.

Another good thing about all fences is that they have gates, but we can’t walk through the gate from the cold side to the hot side if we don’t have our feet on the ground in the first place. These gates, in God’s divine mercy, are never locked.  Until we die we always have the opportunity to choose to walk through them from cold to hot if we discover ourselves on the wrong side of the fence.  To wait until the last minute, however, would be presumption.

Questions I ask myself considering this fence analogy are, in what ways am I sitting on the fence in relationship to God? If I am, what am I going to do about it?

Tags: Divine Mercy

What the Hubble Telescope Tells of the Universe

Kathleen at So Much to Say, So Little Time blog posted a truly humbling YouTube video.  When I saw it I thought about the Psalm verse,  “The fool says in his heart, ‘there is no God’.”  (Ps. 14: 1)  Thank you, Kathleen.

What happened when the Hubble Telescope was pointed at blank space.

I looked at this and found myself praising and thanking God.  He sent His Son to die for us, truly infinitesimal beings in the scope of the universe, because of His ineffable love.  It makes even the smallest sin seem indescribably awful.  How we must trust in God and His Divine Mercy!

If you want to see gorgeous images of galaxies, stars, the sky and related pictures taken by the Hubble and other telescopes, go to Astronomy Picture of the Day.  I like them so much I have saved many to my computer.  NASA always has a commentary on the image so you can learn more.  Here is a recent picture:

Our God is truly an awesome God.

Psalm 139: 13-18, 23-24

Truly you have formed my inmost being; you knit me in my mother’s womb.

I give you thanks that I am fearfully, wonderfully made; wonderful are Your works.

My soul also you knew full well; nor was my frame unknown to you when I was made in secret, when I was fashioned in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes have seen my actions; in your book they are all written; my days were limited before one of them existed.

How weighty are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them!  Were I to recount them, they would outnumber the sands; did I reach the end of them, I should still be with You.

Probe me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; see if my way is crooked, and lead me in the way of old.

Tags: Divine Mercy, trust in God

Christendom Awake by Father Aidan Nichols, O.P.

December 31, 2009

Today I got hooked on Chapter 14 of this book, Christendom Awake: On Re-Energizing the Church in Culture while I was researching an article I was writing for the monthly newsletter I publish.  Father Nichols is a preeminent British theologian who writes in a way that the ordinary person can understand.   I first got acquainted with Father Nichols when I read his excellent book Looking at the Liturgy: A Critical View of Its Contemporary Form.

Chapter 14 is titled “Resituating Modern Spirituality”.  In it, Father Nichols discusses the change in Catholic spirituality that began in 1886 and how it is exemplified by St. Therese of Lisieux, St. Edith Stein (Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) and others.  Childlike trust in God was the basis of their spirituality and directly contrapuntal to the New Age spirituality which says, like John Denver, “One day I will be God.” (Unfortunately he ended up in little pieces at the bottom of Half Moon Bay, never having become God.)

Vilnius Divine Mercy Image

Today we face a hoard of challenges to our Catholic Faith from both inside and outside the Church.  Our Judeo-Christian traditions are under attack as never before in the history of the world, yet, for me, John 14:1-3 is a source of hope:

Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you.  And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be.

Whatever 2010 brings to us, now is the time to practice trust in Jesus.  Think of the Divine Mercy chaplet and image.  Jesus had a reason to give it to St. Faustina in the 20th century and tell her to spread the devotion.  Happy New Year  and peace and joy to all.

Tags: Aidan Nichols, Divine Mercy, peace and joy, trust in God