I remember being about four years old when my grandmother would make these wonderful cookies that had a chocolate kiss right in the center (it was and still is my favorite cookie). She would make me one special one... larger than all the rest! I would go out into the front yard and take my time eating this special cookie. It could last up to an hour. I would take a small bite and look up at the Oklahoma sky. I would run my bare feet through the freshly cut grass and watch the big white clouds drift by and I would nibble a little more. I just enjoyed being there, the sky, the grass, the flowers all around and my cookie.
I was able to do that because I did not have much to worry about. I did not think of the future, I did not regret the past. I was entirely in the present moment, my cookie, my yard, my flowers and well everything was right.
It is possible to eat our meals as slowly and as joyfully as I ate that cookie of my childhood. Maybe you have the impression that you have lost the cookie of your childhood, but I am sure it is still there, somewhere in your heart. Everything is still there, and if you really want it, you can find it. Eating mindfully one of the most valuable practices of Christian living. We can eat in a way that we restore the cookie of our childhood. The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it again.
Now I am hungry, I've got to go get a cookie!
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Prayer is LIFE!
"The man who prays will accomplish more in a year than another in a lifetime." (Louis Lallemant)
If i have any effectiveness in my personal presence or in ministry it is anchored in prayer and Eucharist. Over the past two decades I have come to realize I am able to comfort and connect others only when I am comforted and connected to my inner self. This demands a certain disengagement from this world and giving of myself to the Lord. I am empowered to listen more attentively, love more selflessly, speak more passionately, play more enthusiastically, and laugh more sincerely.
Pray, which begins and ends with listening, silence is very precious in my life. It is silence that makes speech personal. I have come to recognize the value of mere being with God, as the Beloved, without doing anything. As Augustine said, "I am restless until I rest in thee."
My life is a love story. I know today that Christianity is an "affair" of the heart." The real treasures of my faith are those precious souvenirs of silence, those moments of loving encounters with the Bridegroom to whom I belong.
If i have any effectiveness in my personal presence or in ministry it is anchored in prayer and Eucharist. Over the past two decades I have come to realize I am able to comfort and connect others only when I am comforted and connected to my inner self. This demands a certain disengagement from this world and giving of myself to the Lord. I am empowered to listen more attentively, love more selflessly, speak more passionately, play more enthusiastically, and laugh more sincerely.
Pray, which begins and ends with listening, silence is very precious in my life. It is silence that makes speech personal. I have come to recognize the value of mere being with God, as the Beloved, without doing anything. As Augustine said, "I am restless until I rest in thee."
My life is a love story. I know today that Christianity is an "affair" of the heart." The real treasures of my faith are those precious souvenirs of silence, those moments of loving encounters with the Bridegroom to whom I belong.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Fully Alive
Man is fully alive only when he has dedicated himself entirely to the real purpose of his own personal existence. Man is not alive just because he acts or feels or responds to the stimulus of the world in which he lives. The purpose of life in the fullest sense of the word--not mere individual, self-centered, egotistical life which is doomed, but a life that transcends the limitations and the needs of the individual self into the very Christ that is in us.
The Christ, the fullness of life is only realized in our communion not only with "Him" but in communion with each other. I've met very few Christians who would break communion with "HIM." However, there are very few Christians who understand that their communion with each other is "necessary" for the fullness of their life to be realized.
I heard someone say that they, "wanted to experience God outside of the community of faith." I wonder if my kidney can know life apart from the body?
Full life is actualized within the unity and the cohesive nature of the whole working as one. Thus, the real purpose of life is not merely an individual but rather a community purpose.
God united to man! Creator and creation united as one! The Incarnation, Jesus, the "body of Christ, the church" this family or community that is my purpose... ! This is life!
The Christ, the fullness of life is only realized in our communion not only with "Him" but in communion with each other. I've met very few Christians who would break communion with "HIM." However, there are very few Christians who understand that their communion with each other is "necessary" for the fullness of their life to be realized.
I heard someone say that they, "wanted to experience God outside of the community of faith." I wonder if my kidney can know life apart from the body?
Full life is actualized within the unity and the cohesive nature of the whole working as one. Thus, the real purpose of life is not merely an individual but rather a community purpose.
God united to man! Creator and creation united as one! The Incarnation, Jesus, the "body of Christ, the church" this family or community that is my purpose... ! This is life!
Monday, May 3, 2010
The Word
The Word….by whom all things were made, in the fullness of time, to recapitulate and contain all things became man in order to destroy death, to manifest life, and to restore the union between God and man. ( Irenaeus )
Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col. 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col. 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col. 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
Christ , The Word, existed before Adam, before creation, before the foundation of the world. Creation is then not a pre-established reality into which Christ did His best to fit into. He came to reveal to the world that all things were created by Him and are sustained by Him. He has and always will be the very center of life and the meaning of all things.
In his natural life every man is created in the image of God , thus every man is made by and sustained by the Word. In every human being there is the potentiality of the very “image of God.” In some way every human being is united too God by his very created order.
However, there exists the possibility for a supernatural union with God. Through the very work of the Grace and Love of Christ man is able to respond to His Love and become aware of the Presence of the One from whom he has come and to Whom he is being transformed to reveal.
All of the gifts and graces of this supernatural life are the ways and means by which the “new creation” is connected and “re-membered” to this resurrected “body of Christ.” Just as every natural human being is a part of the human race. Every “new creation,” those who are born from above are to be united with this new “race” of human beings who are filled with the fullness of Christ.
Having therefore received redemption, the divine Image not only dwells in us as our Creator, but He sends forth His Holy Spirit into our own spirit which becomes “one spirit” with Him. This supernatural and spiritual organism of men who are one in the love and faith of Jesus Christ is the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. (Merton – new man, p146.)
The whole life of the Kingdom of God consists then in the gradual extension of the spiritual effects of the death and resurrection of Jesus to one soul after another until Christ lives perfectly in all whom He has called to Himself.
This is the great work of uniting souls of the elect with their Head in one Mystical Body is the true task of the New Adam. (p 96).
We are in the world as those who are “Christ-bearers.” We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are being built into the house-hold of God.
And yet today the church remains divided by the rational, emotional, judgmental nuances of the first Adam. Unable to die, to self, the first Adam struggles against the Second Adam and resists the transformation of his soul. This individual struggle continues to be the greatest resistance to the revelation of the Christ.
Christians, those who know of the love and grace of God and yet resist “union,” actually become barriers to the fulfillment of the Father’s will.
Each one of us has his or her part in this plan for humanity. We cannot allow ourselves to forget this active and dynamic view of the Kingdom of Christ. For if we are all “one man in Him,” that does not mean that we float into heaven on the tide of His merits alone. On the contrary, we are called to join Him in His “agony” (struggle) to unite His members in one Body so that the New Adam, New Creation, might be realized. If Christ is the Head then there must be members of that body for it to be complete.
We are united to God in our natural life because we are created in His image. We are supernaturally united to God through the grace, mercy and love of the Christ who came into our humanity to redeem us and to re-orientated us Himself. And finally we are united mystically to God, to one another in and through the “Body of Christ, the Church.”
My heart longs for the very revealing of My Lord and My Christ!!!! I so long to see the first Adam give way to the Second. To see the manifestation of the Christ through His “body.”
To see every Christian not merely receive the love and grace of the Father in vain and wait for their individual entrance into heaven; but to join with one another in love. To use their gifts and graces to unite all those who are called into the Family. This is the work of Christ. It is the work of every Christian. It is your work, your meaning, your very life!
Col. 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col. 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col. 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col. 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead;
Christ , The Word, existed before Adam, before creation, before the foundation of the world. Creation is then not a pre-established reality into which Christ did His best to fit into. He came to reveal to the world that all things were created by Him and are sustained by Him. He has and always will be the very center of life and the meaning of all things.
In his natural life every man is created in the image of God , thus every man is made by and sustained by the Word. In every human being there is the potentiality of the very “image of God.” In some way every human being is united too God by his very created order.
However, there exists the possibility for a supernatural union with God. Through the very work of the Grace and Love of Christ man is able to respond to His Love and become aware of the Presence of the One from whom he has come and to Whom he is being transformed to reveal.
All of the gifts and graces of this supernatural life are the ways and means by which the “new creation” is connected and “re-membered” to this resurrected “body of Christ.” Just as every natural human being is a part of the human race. Every “new creation,” those who are born from above are to be united with this new “race” of human beings who are filled with the fullness of Christ.
Having therefore received redemption, the divine Image not only dwells in us as our Creator, but He sends forth His Holy Spirit into our own spirit which becomes “one spirit” with Him. This supernatural and spiritual organism of men who are one in the love and faith of Jesus Christ is the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. (Merton – new man, p146.)
The whole life of the Kingdom of God consists then in the gradual extension of the spiritual effects of the death and resurrection of Jesus to one soul after another until Christ lives perfectly in all whom He has called to Himself.
This is the great work of uniting souls of the elect with their Head in one Mystical Body is the true task of the New Adam. (p 96).
We are in the world as those who are “Christ-bearers.” We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are being built into the house-hold of God.
And yet today the church remains divided by the rational, emotional, judgmental nuances of the first Adam. Unable to die, to self, the first Adam struggles against the Second Adam and resists the transformation of his soul. This individual struggle continues to be the greatest resistance to the revelation of the Christ.
Christians, those who know of the love and grace of God and yet resist “union,” actually become barriers to the fulfillment of the Father’s will.
Each one of us has his or her part in this plan for humanity. We cannot allow ourselves to forget this active and dynamic view of the Kingdom of Christ. For if we are all “one man in Him,” that does not mean that we float into heaven on the tide of His merits alone. On the contrary, we are called to join Him in His “agony” (struggle) to unite His members in one Body so that the New Adam, New Creation, might be realized. If Christ is the Head then there must be members of that body for it to be complete.
We are united to God in our natural life because we are created in His image. We are supernaturally united to God through the grace, mercy and love of the Christ who came into our humanity to redeem us and to re-orientated us Himself. And finally we are united mystically to God, to one another in and through the “Body of Christ, the Church.”
My heart longs for the very revealing of My Lord and My Christ!!!! I so long to see the first Adam give way to the Second. To see the manifestation of the Christ through His “body.”
To see every Christian not merely receive the love and grace of the Father in vain and wait for their individual entrance into heaven; but to join with one another in love. To use their gifts and graces to unite all those who are called into the Family. This is the work of Christ. It is the work of every Christian. It is your work, your meaning, your very life!
Monday, March 22, 2010
LOVE THAT MOVES THE SUN AND STARS
Dante said that man has lost a vision of that "love which moves the sun and stars." He continues to say that due to that man as also lost the power to find meaning for his life. Man has found the ability to do nearly or almost anything and yet the very meaning of his existence continues to elude him. Humanity has plunged into a collective delusion which promises happiness in the future, if he can somehow learn to manipulate the world around him to give him the success (desires) that he has subjectively determined he needs. In short the world exists for his pleasure! Thus the meaning of life is the fulfillment of his own desires.
When the truth is that man's greatest meaning is found in his capacity to love. This ability that is unique to the human soul is the essence of God's image that is stamped into the very DNA of every human being. We were created and called to be the very sons of God. Therefore our vocations as sons of God means that our greatest meaning and highest fulfillment it to love as God Himself loves. He is Love, and it is as loving as He loves that we enter into the the ecstasy of our own existence and find the true meaning of our lives.
To understand and grasp the reality of our being will reorientate us towards our original calling to govern and to cultivate the world that God created and gave to us. Through loving, not using creation for our own means, we will discover that love is not merely our salvation, but also the very key to our existence. The truth is that our entire life is a part of the cosmic, divine process of "the love which moves the sun and stars."
When the truth is that man's greatest meaning is found in his capacity to love. This ability that is unique to the human soul is the essence of God's image that is stamped into the very DNA of every human being. We were created and called to be the very sons of God. Therefore our vocations as sons of God means that our greatest meaning and highest fulfillment it to love as God Himself loves. He is Love, and it is as loving as He loves that we enter into the the ecstasy of our own existence and find the true meaning of our lives.
To understand and grasp the reality of our being will reorientate us towards our original calling to govern and to cultivate the world that God created and gave to us. Through loving, not using creation for our own means, we will discover that love is not merely our salvation, but also the very key to our existence. The truth is that our entire life is a part of the cosmic, divine process of "the love which moves the sun and stars."
Friday, February 26, 2010
Intoxicated by His Life!
The most paradoxical and most unique characteristic of Christianity is that of the resurrection of Christ. In fact, Christianity without this claim is only a moral system without too much spiritual consistency. Unless ALL of Christianity is centered in the victorious, life, and ever present reality of Jesus Christ, the Man-God who conqueror of death, it loses it's distinction.
Thus, Christianity proclaims to us that in order to find life we must die to life as we know it. To discover the meaning of human existence we must find not the meaning that we expect but the meaning that is revealed to us by the Father through Christ. Meaning is not something that we can find within ourselves, for we are so insufficient. True life and it's meaning must be revealed or in other words received as a "gift." The very fact that life is a gift makes is valuable; for life itself is, in the end only valuable in so far as it is given.
Christian life, the God-kind of life, in the fullest sense of the word -- is not mere individual, self-centered, egotistical life which ends in death, but real life transcending individual limitations and needs, because it comes from beyond "the self," and exists due to the existence of "another."
In the resurrection we see that life was given through the death of self. That life is received into our lives. This life revealed in death brings about both our death and our birth into a life that is eternal, abundant and thus beyond our own individuality. A life that is because it is no longer concerned with self.
Real life, is not merely a subsistence in one's own self, nor self-assertion or self-gratification. Real life is freedom that transcends the self and exists in "the other" by love. A love that is the result of having receive "the gift" of life. This is "freedom," a freedom that comes only from "losing its life in order to find it." The perfection of this life is love. A Christian believes that this love has the power to overcome death.
As we move towards "Easter," my spirit is drawn once again into the vastness of this love. This love brings about a darkness that covers and hides all else but the "One" who loves me. In some ways I am intoxicated with the essence of His Presence. The world loses it's hold and the Holy Spirit lifts me out of the grip of this world into the embrace of the "other."
Lent, then is more about "receiving" that giving up. Rather than focus on what one might surrender I sense with every breath that I am receiving far more than I have ever given.
Thus, Christianity proclaims to us that in order to find life we must die to life as we know it. To discover the meaning of human existence we must find not the meaning that we expect but the meaning that is revealed to us by the Father through Christ. Meaning is not something that we can find within ourselves, for we are so insufficient. True life and it's meaning must be revealed or in other words received as a "gift." The very fact that life is a gift makes is valuable; for life itself is, in the end only valuable in so far as it is given.
Christian life, the God-kind of life, in the fullest sense of the word -- is not mere individual, self-centered, egotistical life which ends in death, but real life transcending individual limitations and needs, because it comes from beyond "the self," and exists due to the existence of "another."
In the resurrection we see that life was given through the death of self. That life is received into our lives. This life revealed in death brings about both our death and our birth into a life that is eternal, abundant and thus beyond our own individuality. A life that is because it is no longer concerned with self.
Real life, is not merely a subsistence in one's own self, nor self-assertion or self-gratification. Real life is freedom that transcends the self and exists in "the other" by love. A love that is the result of having receive "the gift" of life. This is "freedom," a freedom that comes only from "losing its life in order to find it." The perfection of this life is love. A Christian believes that this love has the power to overcome death.
As we move towards "Easter," my spirit is drawn once again into the vastness of this love. This love brings about a darkness that covers and hides all else but the "One" who loves me. In some ways I am intoxicated with the essence of His Presence. The world loses it's hold and the Holy Spirit lifts me out of the grip of this world into the embrace of the "other."
Lent, then is more about "receiving" that giving up. Rather than focus on what one might surrender I sense with every breath that I am receiving far more than I have ever given.
Saturday, February 6, 2010
God's Acceptance
One day I realized that I had been trying for a very long time to be the kind of person that I thought God wanted me to be, but I had failed, over and over, to be that person. I was sure that God was ashamed of me, of my faults and of my weaknesses. I knew that I was ashamed of myself.
The person that I saw in the reflection was flawed, imperfect, and had fallen short of God's expectation as well as my own. So I stayed away from prayer, silence and solitude, instead I kept myself busy, hoping to overcome my feelings of failure through doing good works.
How, did I get to this place? Well, it was the result of being exposed to messages of condemnation and guilt. It was that underlying sense that one had to become something in order to maintain God's relationship. No one had really ever fully explained the message, the story really of God's love for us, how He longs and searches after us and longs for us to be united with Him in His Love. I had heard little pieces but it was never enough to flood my heart.
Like many of you I lived within the belief that God really didn't like me! Somehow, he tolerated me, hoping that I would improve somehow. I developed this unhealthy idea of God. This idea that God was disappointed with me, even angry.
But that day, somewhere from deep within, something shattered.... I had come helplessly, and hopelessly to the end of all my attempts to please. I will never forget I was looking in the mirror that morning.... and He smiled. That's right, God smiled... at me! He was not frowning, but smiling!
Num. 6:25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
His face, is the face of Love! Unconditional, absolute, never ending, first love... I can live, I do live, in the face of that Love.
I still fall short of being all that I want to be for "Abba," but when I look in His face He is still my "Abba, Father." He still loves, accepts, forgives and cares for me, His child.
That day, changed and continues to change my life..... Look to Him!
The person that I saw in the reflection was flawed, imperfect, and had fallen short of God's expectation as well as my own. So I stayed away from prayer, silence and solitude, instead I kept myself busy, hoping to overcome my feelings of failure through doing good works.
How, did I get to this place? Well, it was the result of being exposed to messages of condemnation and guilt. It was that underlying sense that one had to become something in order to maintain God's relationship. No one had really ever fully explained the message, the story really of God's love for us, how He longs and searches after us and longs for us to be united with Him in His Love. I had heard little pieces but it was never enough to flood my heart.
Like many of you I lived within the belief that God really didn't like me! Somehow, he tolerated me, hoping that I would improve somehow. I developed this unhealthy idea of God. This idea that God was disappointed with me, even angry.
But that day, somewhere from deep within, something shattered.... I had come helplessly, and hopelessly to the end of all my attempts to please. I will never forget I was looking in the mirror that morning.... and He smiled. That's right, God smiled... at me! He was not frowning, but smiling!
Num. 6:25 The LORD make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26 The LORD lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
His face, is the face of Love! Unconditional, absolute, never ending, first love... I can live, I do live, in the face of that Love.
I still fall short of being all that I want to be for "Abba," but when I look in His face He is still my "Abba, Father." He still loves, accepts, forgives and cares for me, His child.
That day, changed and continues to change my life..... Look to Him!
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