Veni, Domine Jesu

Again from Spence's mom, via e mail, I received this beautiful message:

"Let us take our place, dear brothers and sisters,
at the school of the saints,
who are the great interpreters of true Eucharistic piety.
In them the theology of the Eucharist takes on
all the splendour of a lived reality;
it becomes 'contagious' and,
in a manner of speaking, it 'warms our hearts.'

Above all, let us listen to Mary Most Holy,
in whom the mystery of the Eucharist appears,
more than in anyone else, as a mystery of light.

Gazing upon Mary, we come to know
the transforming power present in the Eucharist.
In her we see the world renewed in love.

Contemplating her, assumed body and soul into heaven,
we see opening up before us those 'new heavens' and that 'new earth' which will appear at the second coming of Christ.

Here below, the Eucharist represents their pledge,
and in a certain way, their anticipation: 'Veni, Domine Iesu!' (Rev 22:20).

Pope John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia, 62

Go to the Heart of Things

“If we visit our Eucharistic God
and seek His counsel in all our problems,
if we let ourselves be purified
by the sanctifying power that flows from the altar,

if we offer ourselves to the Lord in this sacrifice
and receive Him into our souls in Holy Communion,
then we cannot but be drawn ever more deeply
into the current of the divine life.”

St. Teresa Benedicta (Edith Stein)

Carmelite Nun & Martyr,Germany (1891-1942)
FEAST DAY - Aug 9

"O my God, fill my soul with holy joy, courage and strength
to serve You. Enkindle Your love in me and then walk with me
along the next stretch of road before me.
I do not see very far ahead,
but when I have arrived where the horizon now closes down,
a new prospect will open before me,
and I shall meet it with peace."
St Teresa Benedicta

St Teresa Benedicta, pray for us!

In his homily at the canonization Mass, Pope John Paul II said: “Because she was Jewish, Edith Stein was taken with her sister Rosa and many other Catholics and Jews from the Netherlands to the concentration camp in Auschwitz, where she died with them in the gas chambers. Today we remember them all with deep respect. A few days before her deportation, the woman religious had dismissed the question about a possible rescue: ‘Do not do it! Why should I be spared? Is it not right that I should gain no advantage from my Baptism? If I cannot share the lot of my brothers and sisters, my life, in a certain sense, is destroyed.’”

Addressing himself to the young people gathered for the canonization, the pope said:
“Your life is not an endless series of open doors! Listen to your heart! Do not stay on the surface but go to the heart of things! And when the time is right, have the courage to decide! The Lord is waiting for you to put your freedom in his good hands.”

Peace awaits its builders

Today's gospel sends some mixed messages.... peace and then the final blast of hot judgement a la Sodom and Gomorrah. The mixed bag of this reading reminds us that there is always conflict even among the people of peace.

Mt 10,7-15.

As you go, make this proclamation: 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without
cost you have received; without cost you are to give.
Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts;
no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick.
The laborer deserves his keep.
Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and
stay there until you leave.
As you enter a house, wish it peace.
If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace
return to you.
Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words--go outside that house
or town and shake the dust from your feet.
Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and
Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.


Pope John Paul II reminded us of the importance of peace during his speech to the Representatives of the Christian Churches and Ecclesial Communities and of the World Religions in Assisi, October 27, 1986

"This Day at Assisi has helped us become more aware of our religious
commitments. But is has also made the world, looking at us through the
media, more aware of the responsibility of each religion regarding problems
of war and peace. More perhaps than ever before in history, the intrinsic
link between an authentic religious attitude and the great good of peace
has become evident to all. What a tremendous weight for human shoulders to
carry!

But at the same time, what a marvellous, exhilarating call to
follow! Although prayer is in itself action, this does not excuse us from
working for peace. Here we are acting as the heralds of the moral awareness
of humanity as such, humanity that wants peace, needs peace.

There is no peace without a passionate love for peace. There is no peace without a
relentless determination to achieve peace. Peace awaits its prophets.
Together we have filled our eyes with visions of peace: they release
energies for a new language of peace, for new gestures of peace, gestures
which will shatter the fatal chains of divisions inherited from history or
spawned by modern ideologies.

Peace awaits its builders. Let us stretch our hands towards our brothers and sisters, to encourage them to build peace upon the four pillars of truth, justice, love and freedom. Peace is a workshop, open to all and not just to specialists, savants and strategists.

Peace is a universal responsibility: it comes about through a thousand
little acts in daily life. By their daily way of living with others, people
choose for or against peace… What we have done today at Assisi,
praying and witnessing to our commitment to peace, we must continue to do
every day of our life. For what we have done today’s is vital for the
world. If the world is going to continue, and men and women are to survive
in it, the world cannot do without prayer."

Saints Peter and Paul, Pray for Us

June 29th.

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul . ... a feast celebrated by both Eastern and Western Christians to honor the two Apostles who were martyred at Rome.

Today's feast is the benchmark for any experience of conversion. These two men gave up their lives, lived to their deaths, for what they believed. Any faith worth living for is also worth dying for. The Roman Catholic faith IS just such a faith.

On this very feast day fifteen years ago in 1992 I was sitting in the choir stalls of St John's Abbey, Collegeville Minnesota. As a Lutheran Pastor I was attending a continuing education class at the School of Theology. As a personal devotional exercise I was also participating in Daily Prayer with the monks of the Abby.

I remember very clearly the moment during prayer when I looked up across the altar at the nave of the darkened concrete bunker-like Abbey Church. I recall very vividly the impression I received at that moment that I would be serving God somehow someday in the Catholic Church.
At first I was frightened. Then over time I began to explore what exactly it would mean to become Catholic. I had long been in love with the Catholic Church, its trappings of liturgy and some of its teachings. But with this bit of self knowledge the long, hard work began.

It was a lengthy journey. It took six full years before I was received into the Church. But the wait and the work were well worth it.

To anyone who is thinking about becoming part of the Roman Catholic Church, I'd say to you today "yo-ho, it's worth all the trouble." As the Servant of God John Paul II said "Be not afraid."

From St Augustine....

"Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed.

And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles' blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labors, their sufferings, their preaching and their confession of faith."