Let the Children Come

Today's gospel contains some valuable advice on how to deal with kids. Bring them to Jesus.

Here's a very practical exposition of that advice from Benedict XVI's address on occasion of the Fifth World Meeting of Families to Valencia (Spain), 8 July 2006:

"The disciples rebuked them, but Jesus said, 'Let the children come to me'

"Father and mother have said a complete "yes" in the sight of God, which constitutes the basis of the sacrament which joins them together. Likewise, for the inner relationship of the family to be complete, they also need to say a "yes" of acceptance to the children whom they have given birth to or adopted, and each of which has his or her own personality and character.

In this way, children will grow up in a climate of acceptance and love, and upon reaching sufficient maturity, will then want to say "yes" in turn to those who gave them life… Christ has shown us what is always be the supreme source of our life and thus of the lives of families: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one had greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends" (Jn 15:12-13).

The love of God himself has been poured out upon us in Baptism. Consequently, families are called to experience this same kind of love, for the Lord makes it possible for us, through our human love, to be sensitive, loving and merciful like Christ. Together with passing on the faith and the love of God, one of the greatest responsibilities of families is that of training free and responsible persons.

For this reason the parents need gradually to give their children greater freedom, while remaining for some time the guardians of that freedom. If children see that their parents - and, more generally, all the adults around them - live life with joy and enthusiasm, despite all difficulties, they will themselves develop that profound "joy of life" which can help them to overcome wisely the inevitable obstacles and problems which are part of life.

Furthermore, when families are not closed in on themselves, children come to learn that every person is worthy of love, and that there is a basic, universal brotherhood which embraces every human being."

Ok... so JustMe suggested I ask a question once in a while to see if I can up the level of commentary on the blog.

Here's your question:

How do YOU bring your children to Jesus, especially when sometimes it feels more like "dragging them kicking and screaming to Jesus"?

SJV on Eucharist, Love and Prayer

Some good quotes, courtesy of Spence's mom:
"Every consecrated Host is made to burn Itself up with love in a human heart."
-St John Vianney

And another thought about fires....
Recommending liturgical prayer, St John Vianney would say,

“Private prayer is like straw

scattered here and there:
If you set it on fire

it makes a lot of little flames.
But gather these straws into a bundle

and light them,
and you get a mighty fire,

rising like a column into the sky;
public prayer is like that."

Love is a righteous turning

What turns your spirit toward love and toward God?

Here are some sage words from Richard Rolle, (+1349), hermit, mystic, writer of devotional works and translator of the Bible.

Love is a righteous turning
from earthly things,
and is joined to God, without departing,
and kindled with the fire of the Holy spirit:
far from defiling,
far from corruption,
bound to no vice of this life.
High above all fleshly lusts,
aye ready and greedy
for the contemplation of God.

In all things not overcome.
The sum of all good affections.
Health of good manners;
goal of the commandments of God;
death of sins; life of virtues.
Virtue whilst fighting lasts,
crown of overcomers.
Mirth to holy thoughts.
Without that, no man may please God;
with that, no man sins.

For if we love God with all our heart,
there is nothing in us through which we serve sin.
Very love cleanses the soul,
and delivers it from the pain of hell,
and from the foul service of sin,
and from the ugly fellowship of the devils;
and out of the fiend's son, makes God's son,
and partner of the heritage of heaven.

We shall force ourselves to clothe us in love,
as iron or coal does in the fire,
as the sir does in the sun,
as the wool does in the dye.
The coal so clothes itself in fire that it is fire.
The air so clothes itself in the sun that it is light.

And the wool so subnstantially takes the dye that it is like it.
In this manner shall a true lover of Jesus Christ do:
his heart shall so burn in love,
that it shall be turned into the fire of love,
and be as it were all fire;
and he shall so shine in virtues
that no part of him shall be murky in vices.

Love: Soul of the Church's Mission

Today's gospel reading recounts the first mission of the Church: the sending out of the seventy to the villages of Palestine (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20). We are the inheritors of that mission, into all the world.

Pope Benedict XVI Message for the World Mission Day 2006

"Charity: soul of the mission"

"Unless the mission is oriented by charity, that is, unless it springs from a profound act of divine love, it risks being reduced to mere philanthropic and social activity.

In fact, God's love for every person constitutes the heart of the experience and proclamation of the Gospel, and those who welcome it in turn become its witnesses. God's love, which gives life to the world, is the love that was given to us in Jesus, the Word of salvation, perfect icon of the Heavenly Father's mercy.

The saving message can be summed up well, therefore, in the words of John the Evangelist: "In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him" (I Jn 4: 9).

It was after his Resurrection that Jesus gave the Apostles the mandate to proclaim the news of this love, and the Apostles, inwardly transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, began to bear witness to the Lord who had died and was risen. Ever since, the Church has continued this same mission, which is an indispensable and ongoing commitment for all believers."

Love pushed Him

Playing a bit with today's Gospel reading, the account of Jesus and the Pharisees discussing the "image" of Caesar on the Roman coin (Mk12:13-17),.....

....here is a snippet of prayer from Saint Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), Dominican tertiary, Doctor of the Church, Co-patroness of Europe

From Dialogues, chapter 13

"In becoming man, God restored in us the image of the Trinity,... Eternal Love…

I ask this grace of you: have mercy on your people in the name of the eternal love, which pushed you to create the human being in your image and likeness (Gen 1:26)…

You only did that, O eternal Trinity, because you yourself wanted to let the human being participate in everything. That is why you gave him memory, so that he might remember your kindnesses and thus participate in your power, O eternal Father.

That is why you gave him intelligence, so that he might understand your goodness and thus participate in the wisdom of your only Son. That is why you gave him will, so that he might love what he sees and know your truth, and thus participate in the love of your Holy Spirit.

Who pushed you to give such dignity to the human being? The inexhaustible love with which you looked at your creature in yourself… [But] because of sin, your creature lost this dignity…

Pushed by that same fire with which you had created us, you then… gave us the Word, your only Son… He fulfilled your will, eternal Father, when you clothed him with our humanity, in the image and likeness of our nature.

O abyss of love! Which heart could defend itself for not giving in to your love when seeing the Most High joining the lowliness of our humanity? We are your image and you are ours through the union that you consummated in man by covering your divinity with Adam’s clay (Gen 2:7)…


What pushed you to do that? Love! You, God, became man, and man became God. By that unspeakable love I beg you, have mercy on your creatures."

Basil, the Bear and Casting Out Fear

In his most excellent novel Russka, Edward Rutherford traces the history of Russia from earliest historical time to the post-Communist present. In the Epilogue, a distant American ancestor of a monastery's noble founder returns to Russia after the 1991 coup, just in time to observe the reburial of holy man Basil's remains in the newly reconstituted Monastery.

The homily delivered by the Archimandrite Leonid over the bones of Basil tells us how holy men and women are made, and a lot about how we face our fears:

For many years the Elder Basil dwelt in his hermitage praying and giving spiritual guidance; to him also are ascribed a number of miracles. But today, as we have his blessed remains before us, it is to the very start of his life as a hermit that I wish to turn.

It was always said that the Elder Basil had a gift with animals. It was remarked that a large bear would often appear, and that he would find this bear and talk to it like a kindly father to a child; and people therefore decided that he had a gift.

In fact, the opposite was the case. The elder, at the start of his seclusion, was very much afraid when the bear appeared,. so much so that, the first time, he cowered in his little hut all night and almost returned to the monastery the next day. The second night, the same thing happened.

Only on the third night did the elder Basil understand what he must do.

For on the third night, Basil remained outside his hut, seated quietly on the ground. and he said the Jesus prayer:

"Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

Not because he asked any longer that his body be saved; but rather that, he considered- "What can this bear do to me, who by God's grace has eternal life?"

And thus his fear of the bear disappeared.

And so my children, we are here not without feart. We know what has passed in former decades in the russian land. But in rebulding this monastery, and in remembering the example of the elder Basil, we know that we must not fear the bear.

We must love the bear. For perfect love casteth out fear.

Loving Others in the Church

I spoke at Serra Club, St Paul Chapter this morning and had a great time with the fine folk in our East Metro. They support vocations in every way possible.

One issue I mentioned in my talk is that being employed in the Church or being a lay leader we see a different, and sometimes even more brutal reality of Church life than others might, i.e. outsiders or run-of-the-mill parish pew-sitters.

Some might even get disenchanted, thinking that "gee, if this is what the Church is REALLY like, then why should I bother to be a part of it?" A wise friend once said "it's like seeing sausage being made... once you see it, you never want to eat sausage again."

He's got a point there. Sometimes it can get discouraging for those of us "in the trenches," lay leaders, priests, religious, all alike.

Things happen. People get alienated, discouraged, combative, disgusted.

Then along comes one of my favorite guys, Clement of Rome. He was Bishop of Rome (one could say anachronistically, Pope) at the end of the first century A.D. He must've experienced what it was like to be fully "in the fray." The 90's was time of great upheaval and change in the Church and in Roman society.

Clement has some wise words for us today. And they fit quite well with what our Lord reminds us in today's gospel, 'love one another." That also sounds a lot like our current Holy Father Benedict XVI.

I guess it takes us weak humans 2000 years to get it right.

Saint Clement of Rome, First Letter to the Corinthians, 49.

"May the person who has the love of Christ carry out Christ’s commandments.
Who can tell of this “bond of God’s love” (Col 3:14)?
Who can express its supreme beauty?
The height to which love takes us is ineffable.
Love unites us with God; love “covers a multitude of sins;” (1 Pet 4:8).
Love endures everything, bears with everything (1 Cor 13:7). "

There is nothing base in love, nothing puffed up.
Love does not divide, love does not push towards a rupture,
love does everything in peace.

Love leads all God’s chosen to perfection, and without it, nothing pleases God.
Through love, the Master drew us to himself.
Because of his love for us, Jesus Christ our Lord shed his blood for us,
according to God’s will, offering his flesh for our flesh, his life for our lives."

Sweet Boundless Fire of Love

On this "Love Sunday" we again heard the words "love one another" from our Lord in the gospel ( John 13:34-35). I was reminded of similar words from our Archbishop Harry Flynn, spoken to the gathered crowd after the funeral Mass for Monsignor Schuler several weeks ago: Jesus' parting demand of his disciples, "remain in My love, remain in My love, remain in My love."

Love demands that we speak the truth to each other, whatever the cost. However, it seems that in the last few years our society has become less able to dialogue rationally with each other. In society at large, and even sometimes within the Church, discussion and civility have given way to Jerry Springer-like exchanges: yelling and inuendo, mixed with large doses of unfriendly, objectifying antagonism.

Here are some words of encouragement to love from St Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church, Dominican nun, stigmatist and counsellor to popes.

Oh sweet boundless fire of love,
how clearly you show your creature's magnificence!
For you have created everything to serve us,
and us you have made to serve you.

Let our hearts and our souls burst with love!
Let them be quick to serve
and stand in awe of the good gentle Jesus!

A Question of Love!

This past weekend the Bishop of Rome visited the resting place of the remains of St Augustine if Hippo, St Peter's of the Golden Sky in Pavia, Italy. He reiterated the theme of love, truly lived. B-16 never tires of saying it, and I never tire of repeating it.

Love for God and others is essential.

"Before the tomb of Augustine," Benedict XVI said, "I wish to again spiritually offer to the Church and to the world my first encyclical, which contains precisely this central message of the Gospel: 'Deus caritas est,' God is love."This is "the message that St. Augustine continues repeating to the entire Church," the Pope added. "Love is the soul of the life of the Church and its pastoral action."Only one who lives the personal experience of love for the Lord is capable of carrying out the task of guiding and accompanying others in the path of following Christ.

"I repeat this truth to you as the Bishop of Rome; meanwhile, with an ever renewed joy, I accept this truth along with you as a Christian." The Holy Father underlined: "To serve Christ is, above all, a question of love. The Church is not a mere organization of mutual encounters, nor is it, on the other hand, the sum of individuals who live a private religion.

"The Church is a community of persons that believe in the God of Jesus Christ and commit themselves to live in the world the commandment of love which he left us."It is, therefore, a community in which one is educated in love, and this education comes not despite but rather through the events of life."

Virginia Tech and the Mystery of Suffering

What is the positive value of suffering? How can it add meaning to our lives?

From today's First Reading (Acts 5:34-42):

"After recalling the apostles [the Sanhedrin] had them flogged, ordered them to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, and dismissed them. So they left the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the Name."

During his homily this morning Father John Gallas mentioned a quote from St. Faustina Kowalska: "If the angels could envy, they would envy humans for two things. First, we receive Communion, and second, we suffer."

Taken together and by themselves these two quotes might lead one to believe that Christians practice some kind of self imposed masochism. Think self-flagellation, ....exaggerated penances,... "offering it up to Jesus.".

However, there is great value in recognizing some meaning in the midst of our personal trials and tribulations.

Psychoanalyst Viktor Frankl noted the secular psychological value of meaning. He observed that those who survived the WW II concentration camps were usually the ones who found meaning in their suffering. Frankl went on to build an entire school of psycho-analytical practice on this foundational truth: people need to find meaning amid the random chaotic events of our lives. The baseline of our lives is not the will to sex or to have power; it is the will to find meaning.

Nowhere is that need more apparent than in this week's renewed sense of tragedy over the lost lives at Virginia Tech.

The great stain on the Twentieth Century was WWII and its aftermath. Viktor Frankl mined that hell pit for the good of all. Among the newest "causes terrible" of our own century are the War on Terrorism and the personal violence in our own society. In the face of these disparate but related violences we confront the mystery of suffering. This mystery not only lends meaning to suffering, it also renders suffering redemptive.

Some suffering, Catholic Christians would say all suffering, can be made useful for our salvation by being offered up to God for others through love. Parents know this instinctively. I would do anything, anything, for my sons. There is no heartache of theirs which is not automatically and irreversibly my own.

That is the mystery of suffering.... love makes all things possible, or at least bearable. Love for another baptizes whatever we all undergo and makes even the most terrible of events a place of refreshing, if not for ourselves, then for some poor, anonymous soul who has an overdraft notice in the Treasury of Merit.

That bank's vault stands on Golgotha. Its primary account was opened there. But the largesse of our Savior is spread abroad wherever there is a deficit of Love and a surplus of sin.

Each of us must stake our own claim to a share of that Love, both for ourselves and for others. When we ARE able to claim it we are changed and, although it may not be readily apparent, so is the world.

That truth is what I am hanging onto during this very long week.

Free Love

What enables us to love?

What hinders us from loving others?

Love is the freedom to give of yourself to others. So, the inability to give freely really constitutes lack of love.

And it starts with God. God is where love begins, as He freely offers himself to us in His Son.

Today's gospel reading contains the gospel gem (John 3:16) known especially to Protestants as the "gospel in a nut shell":

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that whosoever believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life."

The phrase is extremely popular for obvious reasons: instantly accessible, succinct, winsome.

And it leads us where we need to go,
to the heart of a freely loving, giving relationship with God and with others.

But sometimes we need some help getting there.

We need to be set free from ourselves,

in order that we might love more fully,

as we are fully loved.

Father Maurice Zundel, Swiss mystic, poet philosopher, liturgist and author, wrote very movingly of that freedom to love:

"Freedom implies an inner liberation, one that will radically transform us by opening up within ourselves an unlimited space; in it our instinctual ego ... will no longer limit our horizon.

This liberation can only be the work of boundless love, the result of discovering, in the depths of our beings, a Presence that will elicit our offering by offering itself to us..... and it is because this Presence is infinite that the love it awakens embraces the whole universe.

God is at the heart of our freedom.... Man is born from this silent dialogue with the mysterious Host who sets him free from his own self, by making the given that subjects him to the giving that fulfills him."

That last sentence is thick, but profound.

Mercy and Love, "Cover the Earth"

A certain paint company has a logo which came to mind today when I was listening to the Holy Week Gospel account of the Anointing of Jesus at Bethany (John 12:1-8).

I thought of the costly ointment dripping from the broken vial over Jesus feet , of Mary wiping the oil up with her hair. I thought of the extravagance of that act, the over-flowing-ness of it into our broken world,

Then I read the following from Benedict XVI:

"There is only one anointing that is strong enough to meet death and that is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the love of God.

There is, then, something that is both exemplary and lasting in Mary's anointing of Jesus at Bethany. It was above all a concern to keep Christ alive in this world and to oppose the powers that aimed to silence and kill him.

It was an act of faith and love. Every such act can have the same effect."

Our world needs this overflowing anointing,

now more than ever,

to cure our broken-ness, to bring us peace,

to restore us to love.

Common Grave, Common Penance, Extraordinary Love

In my home parish we have a crucifix which is used every year during the Lenten season. It is quite graphic in its portrayal of the death of our Lord, and one salient feature is the human skull at its base. It is sometimes described in art as "Adam's skull." The Blood of Christ, the New Adam, redeems man, as symbolized by the skull of the First Adam. I Corinthians 15:22, 45: "And as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive...The first man Adam was made into a living soul; the last Adam into a quickening spirit."

The skull is a stark reminder of our common humanity, with its legacy of common punishment and common grace. I was reminded of how difficult this common humanity is to accept by a passage from Hans Urs von Balthasar, in his book, The Christian State of Life (p. 127).

"The hardest lesson to be learned there [in the fires of purification], the lesson that those who have preoccupied with right and justice in this world will have to struggle to accept, is that there is no distinction of mine and thine even in matters of guilt; that they must see in every sin, by whomsoever it has been commited an offense against the eternal love of God; that they must be disposed, therfore, to do penance, as long as may be deemed necessary by God, for every sin no matter who its perpetrator.

For it is impossible to enter heaven with a love less perfect than that of St. Paul, who, for the sake of his kinsmen, would gladly have borne their lot of being anathema from Christ (Rom. 7:3), thus imitating the disposition of the Lord, who redeemed the world and established Christian love by a suffering that asked, not about the justice of the punishment, but about the grace that allowed him to suffer."

Wow. That is real penance, real love. Can we aspire to that?

Lent: Change without noise

Benedict XVI spoke this past week concerning the power of love to change this violent world. This power is akin to the power of Lenten observance itself: quiet, unobserved change in our own practice which bring our lives into closer alignment with God's love. It's a quiet, but radical revolution.

The "Christian revolution" of love is able to uproot evil and sow goodness in the world, says Benedict XVI. The Pope made that statement when addressing the thousands of people in St. Peter's Square who defied the inclement weather to attend the recitation of the Angelus.

In his address, the Holy Father reflected on Jesus' mandate: "Love your enemies," read in this Sunday's liturgy. "Christ's proposal is realistic, because it takes into account that in the world there is too much violence, too much injustice, and that this situation cannot be overcome without positing more love, more kindness," Benedict XVI said.

"This 'more' comes from God. It is the mercy of God "that has become flesh in Jesus and that alone can redress the balance of the world from evil to good, beginning from that small and decisive 'world' which is man's heart," the Pontiff added.

The Pope clarified that Christian nonviolence is not equivalent to surrendering to evil, which is a false interpretation of "turning the other cheek." "Christian nonviolence" is about "responding to evil with good, thus breaking the chain of injustice," he explained.

This is the novel "Christian revolution," a love that is not supported by "human resources but that is a gift of God," the Holy Father said. "[It] is obtained by trusting unconditionally in his merciful goodness alone."Love of one's enemy, the "core of the 'Christian revolution,'" is not based "on strategies of economic, political or media power," the Pope explained.

For Christians, nonviolence "is not mere tactical behavior but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is convinced of God's love and power, who is not afraid to confront evil with the weapons of love and truth alone."

Benedict XVI continued: "Herein lies the novelty of the Gospel, which changes the world without making noise. Herein lies the heroism of the 'little ones,' who believe in the love of God and spread it even at the cost of life."

The Holy Father concluded his address by calling for an ever more profound conversion "to the love of Christ" and allowing oneself "to be conquered without reservations by that love, to learn to love as he loved us, to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful." He said: "I hope that Lent, which begins next Wednesday, will be a propitious period to witness to the Gospel of love."

as reported on Zenit.

The Ups and Downs of Love in the 21st Century

Happy Valentine's Day!

How can we who are Catholic properly celebrate the bodily dimension of love, so obviously given to us from a God who loves us?

For this special day, the following item comes from a weekly Catholic e-newsletter sent out in the Twin Cities, called "Got Culture?"

It's a really great summary of B-16's thoughts on the relationship between divine and human love as expressed in December 2005 in his first letter to the faithful, entitled "God is Love."

The ups and downs of love

And [Jacob] dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!---Genesis 28:12

Pope Benedict XVI’s first encyclical, Deus caritas est, is on Christian love. In this excerpt, he illustrates the difference between ascending love (eros) and descending love (agape) as well as their connection.

Questioning the essence of love:

Are ascending loving and descending love connected?
Are Christian love and mere human love connected?

7. …We began by asking whether the different, or even opposed, meanings of the word “love” point to some profound underlying unity, or whether on the contrary they must remain unconnected, one alongside the other. More significantly, though, we questioned whether the message of love proclaimed to us by the Bible and the Church’s Tradition has some points of contact with the common human experience of love, or whether it is opposed to that experience.


Describing the two dimensions of love:

1) Eros—ascending, worldly, receiving, possessive, concupiscent, covetous, for self
2) Agape—descending, faith-based, giving, oblative, benevolent, charitable, for others

This in turn led us to consider two fundamental words: eros, as a term to indicate “worldly” love and agape, referring to love grounded in and shaped by faith. The two notions are often contrasted as “ascending” love and “descending” love. There are other, similar classifications, such as the distinction between possessive love and oblative [self-giving] love (amor concupiscentiae — amor benevolentiae), to which is sometimes also added love that seeks its own advantage.

Ascending and descending love cannot be separated:

In philosophical and theological debate, these distinctions have often been radicalized to the point of establishing a clear antithesis between them: descending, oblative love—agape—would be typically Christian, while on the other hand ascending, possessive or covetous love —eros—would be typical of non-Christian, and particularly Greek culture. Were this antithesis to be taken to extremes, the essence of Christianity would be detached from the vital relations fundamental to human existence, and would become a world apart, admirable perhaps, but decisively cut off from the complex fabric of human life. Yet eros and agape—ascending love and descending love—can never be completely separated. The more the two, in their different aspects, find a proper unity in the one reality of love, the more the true nature of love in general is realized.

Ascending love, upon approaching the beloved, turns into descending love, or it ceases to be love. Even if eros [ascending love] is at first mainly covetous and ascending, a fascination for the great promise of happiness, in drawing near to the other, it is less and less concerned with itself, increasingly seeks the happiness of the other, is concerned more and more with the beloved, bestows itself and wants to “be there for” the other. The element of agape [descending love] thus enters into this love, for otherwise eros is impoverished and even loses its own nature.

Man cannot live by descending love alone:

On the other hand, man cannot live by oblative [giving], descending love alone. He cannot always give, he must also receive. Anyone who wishes to give love must also receive love as a gift. Certainly, as the Lord tells us, one can become a source from which rivers of living water flow (cf. John 7:37-38). Yet to become such a source, one must constantly drink anew from the original source, which is Jesus Christ, from whose pierced heart flows the love of God (cf. John 19:34).

Jacob’s ladder, ascending and descending angelsIn the account of Jacob’s ladder, the Fathers of the Church saw this inseparable connection between ascending and descending love, between eros [ascending love] which seeks God and agape [descending love] which passes on the gift received, symbolized in various ways. In that biblical passage we read how the Patriarch Jacob saw in a dream, above the stone which was his pillow, a ladder reaching up to heaven, on which the angels of God were ascending and descending (cf. Genesis 28:12; John 1:51).

St. Paul:

The heights of contemplation (ascending love)joined to the depths of compassion (descending love)A particularly striking interpretation of this vision is presented by Pope Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Rule. He tells us that the good pastor must be rooted in contemplation. Only in this way will he be able to take upon himself the needs of others and make them his own: “per pietatis viscera in se infirmitatem caeterorum transferat” ([by the depths of compassion he takes upon himself the weaknesses of others (my translation)] Book of Pastoral Rule, part 2, chap. 5 [audio files]). Saint Gregory speaks in this context of Saint Paul, who was borne aloft to the most exalted mysteries of God, and hence, having descended once more, he was able to become all things to all men (cf. 2 Cor 12:2-4; 1 Cor 9:22).


Moses:

Rapt in contemplation inside, set on service outsideHe also points to the example of Moses, who entered the tabernacle time and again, remaining in dialogue with God, so that when he emerged he could be at the service of his people. “Within [the tent] he is borne aloft through contemplation, while without he is completely engaged in helping those who suffer: intus in contemplationem rapitur, foris infirmantium negotiis urgetur” (Book of Pastoral Rule, part 2, chap. 5).

Love-one reality, two necessary dimensions:

8. We have thus come to an initial, albeit still somewhat generic response to the two questions raised earlier. Fundamentally, “love” is a single reality, but with different dimensions; at different times, one or other dimension may emerge more clearly. Yet when the two dimensions are totally cut off from one another, the result is a caricature or at least an impoverished form of love.

Grace builds on nature:

The Christian faith accepts human love, purifies it, and reveals new dimensions of itAnd we have also seen, synthetically, that biblical faith does not set up a parallel universe, or one opposed to that primordial human phenomenon which is love, but rather accepts the whole man; it intervenes in his search for love in order to purify it and to reveal new dimensions of it. This newness of biblical faith is shown chiefly in two elements which deserve to be highlighted: the image of God and the image of man.


---Pope Benedict XVI, Encyclical letter Deus caritas est on Christian love, December 25, 2005 (also PDF and FlashPaper formats).

The Twin Sister Who Cried, and God listened

Today is the Feast of St Scholastica, twin sister of our Holy Father Saint Benedict, and Virgin, as well the first Benedictine Abbess. I especially love the tale told by Pope St Gregory the Great of the last hours brother and sister spent together.

This pious legend speaks more eloquently than many theological volumes about the power of Love and Prayer. The story shows once again how God's Love works in the midst of and (dare we say it?) sometimes even against the religious institutions proposed by us humans.

"Scholastica, the sister of Saint Benedict, had been consecrated to God from her earliest years. She was accustomed to visiting her brother once a year. He would come down to meet her at a place on the monastery property, not far outside the gate.

One day she came as usual and her saintly brother went with some of his disciples; they spent the whole day praising God and talking of sacred things. As night fell they had supper together. Their spiritual conversation went on and the hour grew late. The holy nun said to her brother, "Please do not leave me tonight; let us go on until morning talking about the delights of the spiritual life." "Sister," he replied, "What are you saying? I simply cannot stay outside my cell."

When she heard her brother refuse her request, the holy woman joined her hands on the table, laid her head on them and began to pray. As she raised her head from the table, there were such brilliant flashes of lightning, such great peals of thunder and such a heavy downpour of rain that neither Benedict nor his brethren could stir across the threshold of the place where they had been seated. Sadly, he began to complain. "May God forgive you, sister. What have you done?"

"Well, she answered, "I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen. So now go off, if you can, leave me and return to your monastery." So it came about that they stayed awake the whole night, engrossed in their conversation about the spiritual life.

Three days later, Benedict was in his cell. Looking up to the sky, he saw his sister's soul leave her body in the form of a dove, and fly up to the secret places of heaven. Rejoicing in her great glory, he thanked almighty God with hymns and words of praise. He then sent his brethren to bring her body to the monastery and lay it in the tomb he had prepared for himself. "

from Dialogues by Pope Saint Gregory the Great

More on Love...

.... from Hans Urs Von Balthasar, The Christian State of Life

"All beings are, in the last analysis, interpreted according to their goal and calling, which, in man's case, is always love. All else is but means to an end; love alone is the goal. But because man himself is not love, because the calling to love is a grace given to him by God to draw his whole nature, like a magnet, above itself to its final goal, for this reason the calling to love has for man the form of service.

He has the privilege of serving, and there is no service that enobles the servant as this one does. He is free to serve, for nothing frees so deeply as love. But he can never regard himself in his human nature as identical with his calling; therefore, his love will always be a service."

A Message to Young People on Love

I ran across this today on Zenit- it is B-16's message to youth in preparation for World Youth Day local celebrations. I was struck once again by the clarity of thought concerning our vocation, which, as Therese of the Child Jesus said, is love!

I am far too old to attend a Youth Day, but this message fills me with hope for all those who will hear and follow the call of Love, whatever our ages.

My dear young friends,

On the occasion of the 22nd World Youth Day that will be celebrated in the dioceses on Palm Sunday, I would like to propose for your meditation the words of Jesus: "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another" (Jn 13:34).Is it possible to love?Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you -- you who are the future and hope of humanity --, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a "discovery" of love.

God, the source of love

The first stage concerns the source of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. Saint John makes this clear when he declares that "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8,16). He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is a person; it is the Holy Spirit.The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love of GodHow is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached the second stage of our journey. Even though the signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, the full revelation of the intimate mystery of God came to us through the Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in the Encyclical Deus caritas est, "the real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts -- an unprecedented realism" (n. 12). The manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by Saint Paul, "God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us" (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each one of us can truly say: "Christ loved me and gave himself up for me" (cf Eph 5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits. The Cross, -- for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal --, is in fact the "wisdom of God" for those who allow themselves to be touched right to the innermost depths of their being, "for God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength" (1 Cor 1:25). Moreover, the Crucifix, which after the Resurrection would carry forever the marks of his passion, exposes the "distortions" and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true "revolution" that He brings about: love.

Loving our neighbor as Christ loves us

Now we have arrived at the third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross: "I am thirsty" (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realize the need and urgency to love him as He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in the Old Testament: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Lev 19:18), but the innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, "to the end" (cf Jn 13:1).Witnesses to the love of ChristI would like to linger for a moment on three areas of daily life where you, my dear young friends, are particularly called to demonstrate the love of God.

The first area is the Church, our spiritual family, made up of all the disciples of Christ. Mindful of his words: "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:35), you should stimulate, with your enthusiasm and charity, the activities of the parishes, the communities, the ecclesial movements and the youth groups to which you belong. Be attentive in your concern for the welfare of others, faithful to the commitments you have made. Do not hesitate to joyfully abstain from some of your entertainments; cheerfully accept the necessary sacrifices; testify to your faithful love for Jesus by proclaiming his Gospel, especially among young people of your age.

Preparing for the future

The second area, where you are called to express your love and grow in it, is your preparation for the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek in their reciprocal love. The love of a man and woman is at the origin of the human family and the couple formed by a man and a woman has its foundation in God's original plan (cf Gen 2:18-25). Learning to love each other as a couple is a wonderful journey, yet it requires a demanding "apprenticeship". The period of engagement, very necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love, in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practice self-control and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare. In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to purify it of all selfishness. Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord's call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise, dear young men and women, be ready to say "yes" if God should call you to follow the path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness.Growing in love each day

The third area of commitment that comes with love is that of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family, studies, work and free time. Dear young friends, cultivate your talents, not only to obtain a social position, but also to help others to "grow". Develop your capacities, not only in order to become more "competitive" and "productive", but to be "witnesses of charity". In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world. May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the "civilization of love". The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!"Dare to love" by following the example of the saintsMy dear young friends, I want to invite you to "dare to love".

Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love (cf Rev 5:13). Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilizations. This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel and reflect this very first love. Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did.

I shall just mention Mother Teresa. In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, "I thirst", a cry that had touched her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognizing his disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor. Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: "Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me" (Mt 25:40). The message of this humble witness of divine love has spread around the whole world.

The secret of love

Each one of us, my dear friends, has been given the possibility of reaching this same level of love, but only by having recourse to the indispensable support of divine Grace. Only the Lord's help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken. It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Contact with the Lord in prayer grounds us in humility and reminds us that we are "unworthy servants" (cf Lk 17:10). Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love. When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf Eph 3:17-18). By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render "in haste" the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters.

Towards the encounter in Sydney

On this subject, the recommendation of the apostle John is illuminating: "Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth" (1 Jn 3:18-19). Dear young people, it is in this spirit that I invite you to experience the next World Youth Day together with your bishops in your respective dioceses. This will be an important stage on the way to the meeting in Sydney where the theme will be: "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses" (Acts 1:8). May Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, help you to let that cry ring out everywhere, the cry that has changed the world: "God is love!" I am together with you all in prayer and extend to you my heartfelt blessing.

From the Vatican, 27 January 2007

Kids, Caritas and Cardinal Martino

My sons and I are studying the virtues together on the weekends they are with me. We are using the book Boys to Men: the Transforming Power of Virtue by Tim Gray and Curtis Martin (Stuebenville, OH: Emmaus Road, 2001). Although it is written specifically for adult men and fathers, I have found it very helpful in teaching my sons. After all, they are MY sons, and they are far advanced in wisdom beyond their years. So it's no surprise to me that they can handle such advanced material. :-) However, I heartily recommend the book for any man who is interested in beefing up his ability to respond to God's grace in accord with his own vocation in life.

I myself am learning a lot of very basic things about the Christian life from our study together. Here are a few gems.

Did you know that the definition of virtue is the power or ability to live life according to God's will? I had never thought of virtue in that way before. To me, virtues were always specific activities which I did , not grace-given abilities to follow God's law. That tiny shift in emphasis can make a huge and positive difference in how we approach living the moral life.

This past weekend we also learned that the virtue Justice is giving to others what is theirs. Charity on the other hand, consists in giving to others what belongs to me. As I think and pray over these definitions I realize that I have lived most of my moral life inside of a false dichotomy.

Is life and our relationship with God really a choice between two alternatives, justice (and consequentially God's condemnation) and mercy/ charity? I learned this past weekend that the law of charity, that is, the law of Christ, doesn't abrogate or replace justice. Instead Christ in charity calls us to a higher standard than justice requires. Christ's love fulfills, encompasses and makes complete the justice of God. He does all this through love which, for Christ, represents the summation and pinnacle of the just Law.

My task this week is to continue mediitating on these insights in light of His Holiness Benedict XVI's encyclical letter "Deus Caritas Est."

I was privileged to hear about these words tonight from the lips of Cardinal Renato Martino, who was in St Paul to address the topic "The Relationship Between Justive and Love" at the University of St. Thomas. As President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as well as the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, he was well qualified to address the topic.

Martino, 73, is a native of Italy. During 16 years at the United Nations as papal observer of the Holy See, from 1987 to 2002, he participated in conferences on a range of topics: disarmament, development, poverty, the rights of minors, the rights of Palestine refugees and religious liberty.

He became head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace in fall 2002, and also was named head of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People in spring 2006.

Here are the words of the Pope's encyclical with which Cardinal Martino closed his talk.
Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the
virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent
failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and
trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son
for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God
is love!

It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope
that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the
end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately
triumphs in glory. Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced
heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light—and in the
end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the
courage needed to keep living and working.

Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the
invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical.

Amen.

Perfected in service

This weekend we took down two very tall trees on our property in preparation for constructing an addition to our home. It was hard work for all. But there was something very fulfilling in the commitment to seeing the job through to completion and the fun tonight of having the first campfire to begin burning the brush and branches. I'll smell like smoke all week long.

At Mass on Sunday we heard how Jesus calls us all to service to others.... Those who want to be great are to be servants of all. The word in Greek is really "slave," but that sounds so awkward in our ears. However, there is a part of that concept which I think is very meaningful for me. The fact is, we Christians are called to be people for others. Following our Lord's example we think of others' needs and design our lives around fulfilling them.

Mother Teresa had it right.

”We all want nothing other than to be happy and at peace. We were created for that, and we can only find happiness and peace by loving God. Loving him brings us joy and happiness.

Many, especially in the West, think that living comfortably makes a person happy. I think it is more difficult to be happy when one is rich, because the concerns about earning money and keeping it hide God from us. However, if God has entrusted you with wealth, use it to serve his works: help others, help the poor, create jobs, give work to others. Don’t waste your fortune on vain things. Having a house, honors, freedom, good health, all that has been entrusted to us by God so that we can use it to serve those who are less fortunate than we are.

Jesus said: “As often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me.” (Mt 25:40) Consequently, the only thing that can make me sad is to offend our Lord through selfishness or through lack of love for others, or to wrong someone. By wounding the poor, by wounding one another, we wound God. It belongs to God to give and to take back (Job 1:21); so share what you have received, including your own life."