All Souls

  "The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them." (Wis 3:1)

All Souls day is a time of sweet sorrow. Because we have made and been blessed with good friends, we are grateful, but miss them all the more when they die. We can't talk with, see or depend upon them in the same way we have in the past. In a very real sense, we are like children lost in a mall, turning this way and that hoping to spot our parents. More unnerving still, a certain level of depression is natural and necessary in order to grieve fully. Unless we allow ourselves to feel the hurt and loss of death, we will not be able to find the light for the next part of our journey.

There are no easy answers, but there is a simple response. Danish mystic and former Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjold, writing in his now famous journal, Markings, says it simply and compassionately, "Life only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible - not to have run away."

Today take time to be grateful for all those, now dead, with whom you have walked in life.

Have you learned how not to run away from the dark and difficult times in life?

All Saints

  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Mt 5:2

What makes a saint? Some say the ability to get up after being knocked down. Others insist that humility and acceptance in the face of struggle is the mark of the great saints, and the church often speaks of heroic virtue as the defining characteristic of sainthood. But whatever criteria one uses, today we celebrate all those holy women and men, unknown to most but precious to God and the church, who listened to God's word, embraced it and let it change them.

The saints learned, often at a very young age, that pride, which so often insists that our way and our opinion is right, is the biggest obstacle to authentic transformation. Listening with an open and humble heart is the only way to real freedom. When we allow God to direct our lives for God's purposes. we open ourselves to experience the full sweetness of God's unconditional love and begin to know the delights of a simple Gospel life. The saints teach us a simple truth: only when we learn to live in gratitude for all that is will we know the depth of God's eternal embrace, and celebrate it everyday.

Today, ask God to make you a saint.

What do you think are the marks of sanctity?

Feeling the Loss of God

 "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?" Rom 8:35

When we are very honest with ourselves and others, almost everything separates us from the love of Christ from time to time. Whether it is anguish, distress, anxiety, busyness or confusion, is not the point. Struggling to control our own lives, and too often the lives of others, we forget who we are and "play God." The results are never pretty. Our anxiety spikes, our confusion deepens and before long we are lost in a maze of unanswerable questions.

Whenever we resist God's call and act as if nothing is wrong in our lives or try to be or become someone other than who God has made us to be, we fail, and not only hurt ourselves, we hurt others. Marriages and friendships fall apart and too many people, lost in the confusion of their own pride, rush into new projects or new relationships as a response to the loneliness they feel.

When, however, we let go of our need to control the whole world, we rediscover the humility to ask God to show us the path to peace. Only then do we realize that while we turned away from Christ, he never forgot us. Indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Today, ask Christ to guide you.

What most often separates you from Christ?

Trusting in God's Help

 "What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?" Rom 8:35

When we are very honest with ourselves and others, almost everything separates us from the love of Christ from time to time. Whether it is anguish, distress, anxiety, busyness or confusion, is not the point. Struggling to control our own lives, and too often the lives of others, we forget who we are and "play God." The results are never pretty. Our anxiety spikes, our confusion deepens and before long we are lost in a maze of unanswerable questions.

Whenever we resist God's call and act as if nothing is wrong in our lives or try to be or become someone other than who God has made us to be, we fail, and not only hurt ourselves, we hurt others. Marriages and friendships fall apart and too many people, lost in the confusion of their own pride, rush into new projects or new relationships as a response to the loneliness they feel.

When, however, we let go of our need to control the whole world, we rediscover the humility to ask God to show us the path to peace. Only then do we realize that while we turned away from Christ, he never forgot us. Indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.

Today, ask Christ to guide you.

What most often separates you from Christ?

Learning how to Pray

   "The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings." Rom 8:26

It is the rare adult believer who does not yearn to pray more deeply. As we age and review our life as it has unfolded, we realize that though God has always been present, we have too often taken God for granted. Sadly, changing this pattern is difficult. As St Paul reminds us, we don't know how. Frustrated, we sometimes return to prayers we learned as children, but soon realize these devotions no longer offer us the consolation we once experienced.  Our hearts want more.

The first and perhaps the most important task in learning to pray more naturally as adults is to practice silence. Learning to sit quietly and to let go of the busyness of our everyday lives, while fundamental to the spiritual life, can be unbearably difficult and confusing. For most, as soon as we begin our minds start to clamor and drift. Easily distracted by almost anything, we wonder if we will ever learn the simple skill of being quiet in the presence of God and all creation.

Today, sit quietly for 10 minutes. Try not to worry about what happens.

What are your favorite ways of praying?

Sts Simon and Jude

  "You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God." Eph 2:19

It is always difficult to write about the apostles. In Luke's gospel, Jesus gathers his disciples and, seemingly in a random manner, chooses 12 of them as apostles. Though we know nothing of Jesus' criteria when selecting his closest associates, we can assume, since all of them died tragically and violently, that he saw something in these men that suggested they would be faithful and straightforward, which is always the bottom line in the Christian life. 

Very few of us will have our names inscribed on churches or memorials around the world, but all of us do have a role in the church every bit as significant as the one to which the apostles were called. We must live simply and honestly in Christ as a sign of the Spirit's presence in the world and serve, like Jesus, those most in need. When we accept this challenge, our lives and the lives of those to whom we minister change because of the power of Christ working in and through us.

Today, be an apostle. Announce the Good News with simple gestures.

What keeps you from accepting your important role as proclaimers of the Good News?

Bent Over

 “And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect.” Lk 13:11

At the time of Jesus, most people would have thought the bent over woman was possessed by an evil spirit, but she was not deterred. Like so many others who had heard about Jesus she wanted to be near him, and perhaps healed.

On the other hand, the leader of the synagogue doesn’t seem to care about the bent over woman at all. Rather, he senses an opportunity to discredit Jesus and chastises the crowd saying, “There are six days when work should be done. Come on those days to be cured, not on the Sabbath day.” Lk 13:14

The role reversal is complete. Although the synagogue leader seems to be standing erect, in fact he has become the bent over woman. Unable to look anyone in the eye, seeing only the dark side of life, he tries to parse the law in a way that undermines the compassion of Jesus. That Jesus chose to “save the woman’s life” made perfect sense to everyone except the leader of the synagogue. How sad for him, and us when we fail to look at the sick with God's eyes.

Today, show compassion to someone you normally pass by.

Has someone shown you compassion when you thought you deserved nothing?