Thoughts on Mary: Our model for the Christian life...

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Daily I hear His voice calling out to me.  It is a call for me to love my neighbour; it is an admonition to spend myself on behalf of the poor; it is an invitation to fight injustice and defend the defenceless.

Today I was reading the Epistle of Barnabas and the author, in his discussion of fasting, quoted from Isaiah 58.  It seems as though this passage is one of those that I am given to carry with me - it keeps returning unbidden, but always present.

Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke?  

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you; the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.


And if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness and your gloom will become like midday.

There are passages in Scripture which require little or no exegesis to understand - this is one of those passages.  It speaks for itself.

I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit calling out to me: "enact God's love in the world"... "love thy neighbour".  Why do I not respond?  No, the more appropriate question is, Why am I slow to respond?

As we seek to follow the prompting, the call, of the Holy Spirit... as we seek to build lives directed towards love, we must continually remember the example of Mary.  Tomorrow (March 25th) is the day on which the Christian Church remembers the Annunciation to the virgin Mary.  The angel Gabriel was sent by God to the virgin Mary with a message.  The message was of the very salvation and redemption of humanity and the whole of creation; the message was of the coming of Jesus the Christ, the promised Messiah.  She was young; she was frightened; she was even a little confused (understandably so).  But that response of faith that she gave to the angel over two millenia ago became the model of the Christian faith.  The ideal response to God which we are all to emulate.

And Mary said, "Behold, the maidservant of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word."

When we hear the voice calling to us, when we discern the prompting of God's Holy Spirit in our lives, we the admonition to love reaches our hearts, we are to follow the example of Mary.  We are to respond with "Yes".  I pray that I would learn to do just that: say Yes to God.

Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum

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Thoughts on Contemplation...

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Life can be a busy place, an hectic endeavour.  There is definitely a need for quite time, for peaceful space, for room to breath and to be.

Continual silence, and removal from the noise of the things of this world and forgetfulness of them, lifts up the heart and asks us to think of the things of heaven and sets our hearts upon them. (St. Bernard of Clairvaux)

I would indeed like my heart to be lifted up.  Why do we run towards the noise?  Where is the silence in which we might hear the voice that calls us heavenward, the voice that brings us peace?

I desire that voice; I desire that peace.

Pax tibi

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Into the Desert...

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In the Gospel of St. Matthew we read,

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry.

Lent is indeed the time of the desert.  Like Jesus when he began his earthly ministry we are led by the Holy Spirit into a time of fasting and prayer; like the people of ancient Israel we are led into the great desert to wander for forty long years following the lead of God.

We travel those dry places.  We feel empty, tired, and sometimes defeated.  Through it all we have only our faith to sustain us.  We seek out out our God, who is the divine oasis, who is the eternal fount of life from which we are to drink.  Indeed we become thirsty for that living water.

It's not easy being in the desert.  It's not easy walking that dusty, hot path.  But we know that it is good for our soul to do so.  We know that our guide will not lead us astray if only we are faithful to follow.

Hunger, thirst, fear, fatigue... apathy?  It is these with which we must do battle.  Truly it becomes a battle with the self.  Not an easy battle.  But one that we must fight nonetheless.

Deus tecum.

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Thoughts while doing the dishes...

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All those things that used to seem so very important, quite simply, are not important at all.  So many of those things to which I wouldn't give a second thought, are some of the most important things in life.

I once thought I knew everything; I have since learned how vast my ignorance truly is.  There is indeed a strength, a rich value in this knowledge.  It brings humility.

The world used to be the background in front of which my life took place.  Now it is the very life into which I am drawn.  Life is so much more rich and beautiful than I ever could have imagined.  It is vast and mysterious; it is bright and glorious.  Why could I not see it before?

Gloria Deo!

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Thoughts on Mortality: Ashes and Dust...

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With these words, we are invited into the season of Lent:

We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes,
an ancient sign,
speaking of the frailty and uncertainty of human life,
and marking the penitence of the community as a whole.

I invite you therefore, in the name of the Lord,
to observe a holy Lent,
by self-examination, penitence, prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving,
and by reading and meditating on the word of God.
Let us kneel before our Creator and Redeemer.

On Wednesday Christians around the world began the Lenten season with the imposition of ashes.  It was my third or fourth Ash Wednesday service - every year I am moved by the power and meaning behind the service.  We came together as a community to confess our sins, to begin our penitent journey to Easter, to acknowledge our mortality.

One by one, the sign of the cross was marked on our foreheads; with each person the priest told them:

Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

I heard these words spoken to each person.  I saw each person marked with ashes.  I saw their human frailty exposed and knew that they would each die one day - what day, none of us can say.  I saw my dear wife marked with ashes and knew that she would leave me one day.  One day in the future I would loose her, or she would loose me.  Our children would weep at the loss of their parents.  I would weep at the loss of my love, my wife.  I was almost overcome with the thought of loosing my dear wife. 

It was almost a dark, dark, service.  But it is not.  It is a service were the reality of human existence is spoken clearly and truly - there can be no pretending.  We are to look death in the face.  That is a difficult thing to do.  We are asked, as a community, to walk in the valley of the shadow of death.  But, fortunately, we do not walk alone.  We travel that path with the rest of the Church, throughout all ages.  We walk with the support and prayers of all the heavenly saints and martyrs.  We walk in the footsteps of the crucified Lord, who traveled the path so long ago.  And this is exactly why we can walk it without despair: our shepherd guides us; he knows the way; he will lead us beside still waters and, therefore, we need not fear evil.  Therefore, we have hope because at the end of the road is the newness of the risen life.

As I tasted the offered Eucharist, as I knelt down before the sacrificial feast, I was that publican; it was I who, not able to life my eyes to heaven, cried, "have mercy on me a sinner".  I tasted that mercy.  I was given hope.

Lent is about setting things in order.  It is about preparing to greet the risen Lord on that great Easter celebration.  We wish to greet him with willing and ready hearts.  Thus, we spend forty days re-learning the deeper truths of life.  Christians do not fast because food is bad; we fast because food is good.  It is good and ought not be abused, but appreciated accordingly.  We pray because it is only in the seeking of the Lord that we will find him.  We read the holy Scriptures because it is through the Holy Spirit working through them that our hearts and minds are transformed.  We are penitent because we recognize our need for grace and mercy.  We face the reality of death because it is only through the recognition of our mortality that we can rightly judge what is important in life.  We ask ourselves for those forty days, "In light of our limited time here on earth, and our future glory in heaven... what is it that is important; what is it that is worth living for?"

Yes, we weep because the of the reality of our human condition - but how much more do we love because of that same condition and what it demands of us.

This Lent, let us consider what is truly important...

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Lent Approaches...

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I must say that I'm very excited about Lent.  Partly this is due to the fact that Lent is a preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter, but it is also partly due to the practices of Lent themselves.  Lent is indeed a time of preparation and as such we clean house and get things back on track, so to speak.  I constantly find myself yearning for a more ordered life; I desire discipline.  These are exactly what I find in my Lenten preparations.  I pray more - I eat less.  I focus my thoughts inward and examine myself.  I ask the questions that have been put off for far too long.  I take a serious look at what is wrong that in forty days I might celebrate all that is right.  I face death that I might welcome Life.

Just as I require my weekly cup of grace as I kneel and receive the Eucharist that I might live life to the best, so to do I require my yearly Lenten season as I kneel in prayer and discipline my body and mind that I might live rightly as a part of the Church, the Easter people... people of the Resurrection.

The time of preparation is almost upon us.

Kyrie, eleison

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Reconnecting with an old love...

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I was at the local recreation centre this evening.  It was the usual thing: lift some weights, hit the steam room / pool.  I've been trying to get more comfortable in the water and increase my water-treading time (previously at 2 minutes). 

I remember my mother telling me that back when I was but a wee lad taking swimming lessons people used to comment on how I looked like I was asleep when I was practicing the backfloat.  It's true, I was never a strong swimmer, but oh could I float.

Tonight I gave up on swimming and treading water.  Those activities are for suckers.  I reclined, stretched my hands back behind my head, and let the water carry me.  Yeah, I still got it.

There's nothing quite so peaceful as the gently undulating water as you're free floating on it.  I actually closed my eyes for a bit.  The only way it could have gotten better would be if the ceiling had parted so that I could watch the night sky (probably asking a little too much).  Truly a relaxing time.

Yes, it's good to be alive.

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