tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24527876689511774562024-03-14T01:43:20.129-04:00Sacred Sharings For The SoulCelestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.comBlogger325125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-47627037270991284102022-01-04T06:40:00.005-05:002022-01-04T09:25:31.078-05:00Lockdown Memories: Mass Through the Glass.<p>These early mornings of January are quite bitter cold. I am reminded of last year's lockdown, when Churches were shuttered and public Masses cancelled. I resolved myself to stand outside a window tucked away and attend Mass daily, I was quiet about this then except to few friends. I was then very pregnant too, wearing my husband's snow pants, not always cheerful by the window , I am human, was pissed off at the state of things. It was though a most humbling experience and even one of surprising reparation. </p><p>At one point the weeks got as cold as -24 with windchill, it was that week that was the most challenging , at one point in praying for the Diocese on way to get to my window I let out a "are you freaking serious Cardinal Collins open the Churches!" and Yes, I realize how ridiculous it was, enough to laugh about it and work to pray with love. </p><p>After my temper tantrums the most amazing thing was that on the coldest of mornings the grace of God met my needs, this was not always by warm and fuzzy sentiments, but humiliations, it instructed me about what God's hidden grace and consolation must be to those who truly suffer deeply, who endure much, how much unknown mercy is sent them? Tho we perceive how they suffer and see the bitter cold of their anguish from outside, we cannot imagine until we faithfully endure suffering ourself the mystery of God's provision and nearness. And though suffering may not be absolved instantly there is an accompaniment assured. </p><p>Mass through the window in silence was also a beautiful thing. To see the Eucharist and be present to it daily was worth the cold. I personally could not digest a "zoomable" Lord, He was worth the cold , and being pregnant, meant no fasting, so this to me was something I could do in it's place. And no I am not a scrupulous freak, but fleshy mortifications are good for the soul and others. I also thought of my nonna at times in my little window watching, she was reduced for a time to window visits with her husband of over 60 years, I cannot imagine that anguish personally, tho he had advanced dimentia, she remembered him and their love. She went faithfully to that window until she couldn't. True presence is important. </p><p>I had time in the cold to contemplate a lot, to reflect even on things long past. But, at first my contemplations were outside of myself and poorly misguided at society around me, it is easy to look at others and declare "they should be here standing" " how dare they line up for new iphones in the cold and leave the Lord unvisited!!" "Costco is full but Mass is a 'super-spreader'" yada yada..... what a blessing it was when the Lord took my whining and reminded me of myself, these cold mornings I started to unravel insights into old sins like an onion, "what have I stood for in my life?" "where have I stood in sacrifice, enduring the elements saying 'it is worth it?' In exploring this I found many answers, many prior "lords" in my life that I chose to worship and adore. A first thing that came to my attention was a soccer pitch, the first "god" I knew. In snow, sleet, cold, heat, all of it, in unbearable elements I showed up and ran, for what? ultimately? I was obedient and disciplined for a game, I sacrificed because I loved, and others did too , I remember my father on the sidelines, sitting with an umbrella in November hail in Cape Breton for Nationals, for a game my coach benched me for! My father took time off work, flew to Cape Breton, endured the elements because of love for me, he wanted to be present.... When I looked in the window at the massive Cross above our parish Altar and at our Lord nailed to it, suddenly outside wasn't that cold anymore. On I went morning after morning, bitter, and the Lord brought to my attention all the night club lines in the thick of winter I stood in faithfully, vested in much much less than snow pants or any pants (forgive me Lord), but not complaining, OUCH, Jesus. </p><p>What is the point of sharing all this? I think the hidden sacrifices we endure out of love for the Lord have immense value beyond our understanding. I think it is easy in our day, and even in the climate of the Church to point fingers at everyone else, to expect more, to declare another should be standing, should be doing more. Maybe we do not want to do the mundane that is ultimately ours, we do not wish to peer deeply at the mess of ourselves, we risk though never encountering the glory of mercy deeply and seeing how loved we are!! This will help us love the Lord and others more fully, this will make the Church radiate with the presence of Christ. Our personal conversion is so layered and a perpetual process. My turn from all that hellish way of living was many years ago, many confessed times ago, but yet our Lord returned it to my mind, to humble me, to continue a work in me, that helped me love Him more, and be able to purify prayer for the Church and my love in the home. </p><p>The Lord can use all things for His glory, even the messiness.</p><p>There is nothing wasted when He is loved, and we cannot discount our part in God's active vineyard , most especially when it seems insignificant or bitter cold. </p><p>what is it you sacrifice for, finding value? What are the lords of your life that you are willing to stand for? </p><p>kneel before God, know yourself loved.</p><p><br /></p>Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-11161835494078028682021-12-11T14:39:00.005-05:002021-12-11T14:51:33.118-05:00<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;">Advent Rambles:</p><p>There is a particular sense of longing spread out throughout the earth at this time of Advent for us as Christians, but also in the secular world globally in having gone through these past two years of restrictions and talk of virus and death.</p><p>We have been readied in many ways to take our gaze that can often be so incessantly on finite things and contemplate deeper realities that in good health, fortune and abundance might seem far from us, or from a need of our focus. </p><p>We learn, if we are attentive, not how to become divisive and angry or to live dangerously, but to live seriously, alive with intention and purpose and to evaluate how we have long forgotten how to do this, how we have misplaced value on superficial things, even placing wayward onus on others to be as our savior, yet live our lives divorced from God.</p><p>This time is a grace for us, a messy grace. If we are to spend Advent well, in my opinion, it's not going to be by screaming and shouting as into a void or by looking obsessively at what is evil, by blaming "misinformation", or "wrong information", because the real travesty of all of this is far too much information and not enough effort made toward healthy spiritual formation and devotion. We are starving for more than the remedy of a vaccine, we are empty of the Love that is here to save us, the Love that is coming to us. </p><p>There is one thing we need to do, like Mary, we need to choose the better part and sit with the Lord, in stillness at the Master's feet, and to be there present like the Blessed Mother Mary as we draw nearer to her, especially in this Advent season. From her we learn how to be open and receptive surrendered to God. In the midst of all of this obscurity and waiting He will give light to us, He will give us His Light to be as His children in the middle of this world that is so very in need. </p><p><br /></p><p>"The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy ." Psalm 126:3</p>Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-60172740315213124462020-08-06T14:42:00.001-04:002020-08-06T14:42:16.453-04:00The Genesee of A Soul<div> Fr. John <strike>Denburger </strike>Bamberger</div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> 3</span><br /></div><div> </div><div>The scent of fresh baked bread embraced me as I entered the lobby of the Abbey Church and it only furthered a sense of home for me. Not only was there immense comfort spiritually and a great feeling of peace in the surroundings alone, it was quite appetizing too. I know it’s said 'we do not live on bread alone', but if you ate this bread it may be a point up for debating!</div><div> </div><div>Despite my feelings of inner comfort and peace, I too felt a bit imposturous. Although I am usually extremely extroverted and one who talks WAY too much, I felt silenced in the face of this place. Even the creaking of the floor made me feel like I was far too loud to be there. The bread store was closed, the porter’s door was too. I took notice of some clip boards on a table, there were two. One was designated for Confession, and the other for Spiritual direction.</div><div> </div><div>The Confession sign-up sheet had the date written with a corresponding time and also listed the priest “on duty” for each day. All of them were strangers to me. I looked at the sheet and decided upon a 2:30 pm time slot on Monday. There was a priest’s name listed there, Fr. John Denburger. The last name had been crossed out and the name Bamberger had replaced it. In my immaturity and private thoughts I couldn’t help but think of hamburgers, and then the scene from The Pink Panther movie, where Steve Martin attempts to pronounce hamburger with his French accent humorously flooded my mind. If you haven’t seen the movie my apologies, but it is quite a funny moment. I was also fasting that day so perhaps my immaturity can be excused and blamed upon a moment of great temptation. Though, unbeknownst to me at that time I was about to confess to the “Big-Mac” of monks!! </div><div>I headed back to Bethlehem house and prepared to go to sleep awaiting my Confession with an anxious and joyful anticipation.</div><div> </div><div> </div><div><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>* * *</div><div> </div><div> </div><div>I was happy to have found a companion at the retreat house, his name was Patrick, and though mindful of our shared need for solitude and silence, our conversation somehow only furthered our experience of solitude and did not veer us from our personal paths sought that week. He agreed to walk with me to the Abbey for my Confession and said he would be in the Abbey Church praying during his time of waiting for me. I assured him that I had a confessed a week ago so this would be a “short one”. Was I ever wrong!</div><div> </div><div>I entered the same lobby embraced by the beautiful scents of home. This time the Bread Store was open and there was more quiet activity around. The porter door was open, though no one was there. I did not know where to go for Confession, here was far different than home. No polished priest with a fresh black pressed shirt and Roman Collar, No red and green light, no line, just a check list and an empty wooden chair.</div><div> </div><div>I caught notice of an elderly man perusing some books. He was disheveled, yet radiant. A little rugged and bearded, wearing tarnished clothes suitable for work. I remember looking at him and saying to myself “Gosh this guy looks like Padre Pio”, not that I have ever seen Padre Pio, but, I mean, based on the photos I have seen this guy could have indeed played him in a film or something.</div><div> </div><div>Anyway, my Confession time had arrived and I had no clue what I was doing and did not want to bother anyone, I took a long shot and interrupted this man and his reading. “Excuse me sir, I’m looking for a Fr. John Bam-ber-ger, or something,” stumbling appropriately on every syllable of this lengthy name. “I signed up for a Confession and I'm not sure where I have to go to meet him."” He became a bit more engaged for a moment looking up from his thoughts with a bit of heightened curiosity saying “Oh, yes, that’s me!”. He shook my hand exchanging some formal yet extremely guarded pleasantry and led me behind the bread store to a small room with a window. The anticipation of a joyful confession was overtaken now by a bit of anxiousness. How could this small, old, working man monk priest make me feel so tiny?</div><div>I compensated for any discomfort by over talking before the Confession began. He was not having any of that. Though he was curious to know briefly about me and my reason for retreating, and what I was looking for, he too was rather quick to get things on track. "Now, now, your Confession." I looked up at him blankly. "Go ahead" he said invitingly.... </div><div> </div><div>At this point I was sweating. Arguably this room was quite hot, but suddenly it felt much smaller than it had when I first got in there. Fr. John gazed reflectively out the window to his left, his face filled with a peaceful intensity and his hands folded restfully. My thoughts raced. "How am I gonna tell this priest, who is like my Nonno's age all the horrible things I've done? Oh my God, he is going to have a heart attack or something when I talk about fornication! Breathe, Catherine, breathe, all of that was long ago, confessed, just give him a general idea of where you've come from, where God has brought you, why you're here, and the current sins and temptations... you can do this God is good" And just like that familiar words flooded my mouth. "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned"....</div><div> </div><div>I began my litany of sins, eyes rather downcast, voice slightly softer than my jovial over talking. Fr. John remained quite stoic and collected. I would look at him from time to time, perhaps for a reaction of some sort, or for a disciplined dialogue, as any good father does.</div><div> Though I did not know this priest before me, I knew I could expect sound penance and well-grounded counsel. My anxiousness lifted throughout the length of litany. I was aware that I needed this honest shedding. Fr was patient with me, he had a way of making everything I said seem important and significant, but he was also collected and stern enough to not allow me to veer off from what really mattered.</div><div>At one point he interjected and said “Why would you ever do such a thing?” Such a simple question, yet it still remains with me. It was a moment that I was able to reflect upon my actions; even those not deemed mortal sins, with a greater sense of accountability. When I attempted to rationalize them to him or offer some sorry excuse, there was none.</div><div> “How many times did you do this, you know it is important to say that too…” I counted using my fingers, a custom I had acquired from my childhood, and clearly not gotten rid of, as if I was releasing each of those moments with the abrupt point of my shaky fingers into the mercy of God. Layer upon layer the onion was being peeled away.</div><div><br /></div><div> “Sorry Father, I can’t remember”. I felt like this was my first Confession, It was very different than any of those I had made before. His counsel to me was direct and precise. Most of it profoundly communicated through the silence of his listening. Though extremely spiritually green and still a stumbling sinner, I was open. I knew I came to the right place where God had wanted me, 250km from home, in the middle of nowhere, spending my March Break with a bunch of praying monks.</div><div>“Make a good retreat now!” he said, and I exited the room, heading to the Abbey Church for my penance and then to find my walking companion.</div><div><br /></div><div>My Confession was obviously much too long. No sign of Patrick and in a way that was important too. I needed to be alone with God, to digest Fr. John’s words. I paused before our Lady of The Genesee before departing the Abbey. It had grown to be my favourite spot on the Abbey grounds. I knelt and said nothing. I gazed up at the statute of Mother Mary engulfed in a feeling of consolation while simultaneously spiritually shaken.</div><div><br /></div><div>I began walking back to Bethlehem through the grassy path. I could not get the Confession out of my mind, and Father’s words continued to linger.</div><div><br /></div><div> I began to realize that the fluffy spa like feelings of a spiritual retreat were not meant to endure. If this was to be the place of reflection for greater clarity and honest discernment, then rightfully so some healing and a wrestling of wills was to be had. </div><div> It was time to be shaken. It was time to face the Cross.</div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div>Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-9884293511029889022020-08-04T16:33:00.002-04:002020-08-04T16:33:24.275-04:00Genesee of A Soul: March Break With Monks by C.C. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Prior to March Break middle school hallways are sheer chaos, this is what it often feels like in anticipation of one week off. Teachers pleasantly passing one another discussing their holiday plans of lavish vacations or just looking forward to quiet days spent with their families. Some friends of mine often gave their time to more work, more students, and more teaching during their break. These were those who were always "on". I admired them but I knew in so many ways it was time for me to log off.<br />
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I selectively shared my March Break plans with some coworkers. Here I was a young woman heading off to a monastery with a bunch of monks for the March Break, how does one ever share this casually in passing? There is no simple way to present it. The length of morning chatter in the narrow hallways not quite long enough to ever communicate the truth of it all, nor is it easy water cooler conversation. Mindful of my position teaching in the Public School Board I also didn’t want to pierce that political line and cause discomfort. There always seems to be a public silence around the sacred; lingering somewhere between timid false ignorant humility and a fear of radical over-zealousness. At this time in my spiritual life I just wasn’t ready for the questions.<br />
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I was so desperate for this time away. I was not running from anything but running toward God. I had undoubtedly given my time off to feed the emptiness of sin before: the parties, the resorts, the lust, all of it now were memories of a life I no longer lived, but one that very much lived in me and served as a reminder of God’s radical love and transforming merciful grace.<br />
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I owed everything to God and I had a lot of time to make reparation for. A one week retreat would only be grazing the surface but I so desperately needed it so that He could dwell deeper within me, or rather, so that I could find Him already there.<br />
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I packed simple for retreat, I mean not as simple as a walking staff, and I did have a couple bags for my journey. I figured I would want to be comfortable, I was also mindful of the fact that I was going to an environment with many holy celibate men. I made sure to bring modest clothing, although conversion is a lengthy process and at this time in my life I admit that while my heart was undergoing some serious transformation, my closet needed its own conversion. I opted for sweats, soccer track pants, and some hoodies.<br />
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I left for Genesee in the afternoon following Mass in the morning and a brief lunch with Carmen. Then I was off, I drove blaring some new Bruce Springsteen music as if hanging on to some sense of noise before the apocalyptic foreign silence of retreat.<br />
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The drive was smooth and liberating. I could not deny the inner peace and excitement that overtook me in anticipation of this retreat, yet there was some fear too. Fear perhaps of the unknown spaces that would open up within me, or of what God was asking of me. Peace was greater than this fear though and that is what kept me willing and open.<br />
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I crossed the border with ease, although the U.S. customs man did look at me like I had three heads when I told him where I was going. I was used to crossing the border for teacher’s college some years prior, but I’m sure seeing a young woman driving a two door Honda Civic, saying she is heading to a monastery for the week seemed rather misplaced. Surely, more women of my caliber were seemingly flooding the border in pursuit of the latest U.S. shopping rates and such, I was in pursuit of God.<br />
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-8520654545903453982020-04-23T18:33:00.000-04:002020-04-23T18:33:55.748-04:00The Genesee of a Soul <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW114016296 BCX0" paraeid="{6000d2be-13b4-43a2-a2d9-177dfdaf6b18}{210}" paraid="1687699902" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">It was a late night in December 2010, I was aboard a Greyhound bus from Toronto to Buffalo, NY to catch a red eye flight to Boston, to then return home for Christmas driving a U-Haul rental truck with a man I had met on YouTube that spring. This may sound like some segue into a romantic comedy and perhaps it is fitting that way. In hindsight everything has a way of appearing more pruned, calm, and collected. There is a certain liberated clarity we can look upon the past with and enter into it not in a spirit of dwelling, but of immense gratitude. It becomes then a classroom for us of a school we have already graduated from yet perpetually an eternal student of. </span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW114016296 BCX0" paraeid="{6000d2be-13b4-43a2-a2d9-177dfdaf6b18}{210}" paraid="1687699902" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The past lives with us; not as a weight, but as a reminder of where we have come from and helps us to define our present purpose. It keeps us humble. Everything with any value tends to work out that way. As a phoenix arises from ashes, we too are invited, by remaining attentive, to arise from our own ash and interior desolation. </span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW114016296 BCX0" paraeid="{6000d2be-13b4-43a2-a2d9-177dfdaf6b18}{210}" paraid="1687699902" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">I did not fully recognize the weight of my own ashes until I was given the grace to see just how much darkness surrounded me. Though this sounds poetically similar to the lyrics of Amazing Grace, I must in fact acknowledge that this is a truth I have lived. Any pattern or likeness to another's journey of being captivated and transformed through faith by the loving embrace of God is reflective of a fundamental truth; of God's tireless pursuit of us all and our human ignorance to flee the authenticity of where and to Whom we most belong. </span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> I don't seek to convert anyone or impose values and beliefs. The last thing I seek to do in this is offend anyone. If it convicts you it is the work of God's grace. If it angers you, what a blessing, and if it moves you, in that I'm pleased. </span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Anyway, Back on the bus.</span></div>
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<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="Paragraph SCXW114016296 BCX0" paraeid="{6000d2be-13b4-43a2-a2d9-177dfdaf6b18}{210}" paraid="1687699902" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; -webkit-user-drag: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext; overflow-wrap: break-word; padding: 0px; user-select: text; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span class="EOP SCXW114016296 BCX0" data-ccp-props="{"335551550":2,"335551620":2,"335559739":200,"335559740":276}" data-wac-het="1" style="font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 20.7px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"> I was a bit apprehensive about riding a Greyhound, I'm not one usually filled with fear but just recently in Canada a man had beheaded someone aboard a Greyhound bus, so my usual gazing out the window and peacefully nodding off was out of the question. I was definitely wide eyed and attentive to everyone and every movement. I wasn't without comfort though. I had a met a young girl and her brother prior to boarding. She asked to sit with me. She was very polite and pleasant. She was extremely modest in her dress and delicate, wearing a skirt that was floor length, but not frumpy. She radiated a beauty I couldn't describe, but was drawn to in curiosity. She spoke with prudent chattiness and I could feel my fear aboard the bus begin to dissipate in the light of my new pleasant companion. We grazed over the formalities of initial conversation before things became far more imbued with great meaning. I peered over toward her brother who was seated across the aisle and just behind us. It was night so most the bus was in darkness, some asleep, and based on the sounds coming from the back of the bus, some were drinking their way through the night. Her brother had the light on above his head and I could see that he was reading. In the dim bus light I noticed he was also wearing a Roman Collar, and peering down to his reading material I could see he was immersed contemplatively in reading the Bible. Peace overcame me at once. I humbly asked the young girl if he was a priest, and she softly shared that he was studying to be one and in the seminary. This intrigued me. She then said that she was also discerning Religious life herself, but was still high school aged so had some time before the community she was feeling called to would be open to her more seriously.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">It is amazing how God works. Sometimes in the most intricate subtle ways and other times He makes Himself very apparent, but He is always at work. God showed up on the Greyhound that night and I was all ears. Four months earlier I had begun an honest stumbling toward the Catholic faith. I was Baptized and Confirmed as Catholic but lived most of my young adolescent and adult life in the shadow of a pre-converted Augustine, (more on that later)... I'm not really one for labels and find the term conversion to be used far too loosely, (and yet not taken seriously enough) but I had in many ways experienced what I can only refer to as the beginning of a radical transformation. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The tone of our conversation became much more relaxed. I asked her where she was going. She told me that her and her brother were heading to a retreat to pray with monks and be in silence. As much as I was converted this idea was alarming, yet made me curious. “Real monks?" I questioned. "Where is this place?" She then rambled on about waking to pray at 2:00am and walking to the Church with a flashlight in the dark of night to join the monks in their Vigils. She assured me she would be walking even in the cold of December, even through the winter snow of Upstate New York (which can be quite unforgiving). </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "calibri" , "calibri_embeddedfont" , "calibri_msfontservice" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Our time together was cutting short. The Buffalo airport was in sight and I was getting ready to depart. She told me she was going to a place called Genesee. She scribbled down her email, and contact information, I did the same, and we prepared to part ways. </span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-89659007106783756382020-02-23T05:43:00.000-05:002020-02-23T05:47:25.363-05:00Merton Conference Memory '13 <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It seems I will be writing about Fr. John Eudes for a bit. It would probably bother him to no end.<br />
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In sorting through some of the memories and things from the past years I came across a piece of writing from a kind gentleman named Max, who I met at the Merton conference in Connecticut.<br />
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Max was a recent convert to Catholicism , he knew of Fr, I never really understood how, but while Fr and I were walking about the grounds of Sacred Heart University many would flock to him and sit with him. I realized that Max had a lot of love for father.<br />
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Anyway , we hung out and prayed a lot, gathered in a small group. And on one particular morning prior to Mass we were gathered together and realized we were nearly late for a Mass Fr was to be presiding! In any event, the rush of it all resulted in me having to help this elderly monk get ready.<br />
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Max , unbeknownst to me sat observing (quite beautifully, I came to learn)<br />
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When I returned home , he had emailed me this description.<br />
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It is sitting with me differently now that Fr. Has passed and I'm grateful for it. The moment itself didn't strike me while in it as this powerful, but it is something amazing to bear witness to how the simplest things communicate something beyond us and have a capacity to be as a grace for another.<br />
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"<span style="color: black; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 22px;">His face browned and creased with time, revealing German and Irish stock that had moved to Kentucky generations ago, He interrupts the conversation: “I need to get to </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Mass.” She helps gather his things. Her midnight hair falls softly</span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">off her shoulder as she reaches to hand the monk his cane.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 22px;">We begin, unsure of the best way to the chapel, past the green lawns, the deep purple blossoms. His steps are careful, but impatient.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 22px;">Entering the side of the chapel, John Eudes hurries into the sacristy. We help with the vestments: he is not a tall man; the alb is too long. She finds a shorter one. </span>The monk slips into the alb, pulling his Trappist hood out fully. The alb is the proper length, but the black scapular makes the collar sit too tight. She unsnaps the top button. We find a cincture to pull sides of the alb together, but it still falls apart at the unsnapped neck.</div>
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<span style="color: black; line-height: 22px;">Catherine is concerned. She fusses over him. There are layers upon layers of tenderness. She chides him for being scruffy and disheveled. Her hazel eyes flash. He laughs, </span>somewhat embarrassed by the attention: “only a woman would pay attention to this kind of detail.” Her gentle fingers straighten the collar, delivering a blessing to the priest. He is her teacher. She is his daughter. But this is not complex: loving kindness.Spiritus Sanctus. His gentleness meets hers. The young woman is radiant; the monk beams. The light shines from within. It fills the room.</div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-75154369316912430302019-11-20T05:22:00.001-05:002019-11-20T05:22:28.150-05:00On suffering by C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I wrote this for a family a while ago going through a tremendous ordeal. It returned to me today again. <br />
May it be of comfort.<br />
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Lord, may what You send to us in this suffering have us know the love of Your Cross and nearness. It's weight upon us is always heaviest in the places we love the most, this instructs us in Your love and teaches us somehow; the suffering in union with You, even in the obscurity of pain that it unfolds with , You promise us Your nearness.</div>
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It is true that You give grace to Your children at their time of suffering that is unknown to us all,until the weight of the Cross is felt upon us.</div>
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You supply our need with comfort and consolation unfathomable.</div>
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Even as we must grieve and appear to grow weary, we are never without Your sustenance , for we remain most Yours, and You, ours.</div>
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Even if our gaze toward Heaven trembles , even if we do not understand, all of Heaven bends to greet us.</div>
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You provide for all Your children, always. Help us always to know these ways, give us the clarity of grace we need so to endure what comes.</div>
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And in this witness of another's Cross we can be stirred to an empathy, to a charity and love that helps us serve You, that helps us become a hand of brief consolation,a humble aid of grace, while ever being mindful of our nothingness and the "Vale of tears" we too walk .</div>
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Keep us ever weighted by Your Cross so to be most exalted in Your love alone,</div>
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And help us Lord to comfort another in their time of sorrow and anguish , that our shared union in love with You may bring them the comfort of Your presence, and help us to grow in the knowledge of Your closeness all of our days.</div>
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Amen.</div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-620891433413942162019-09-23T06:35:00.000-04:002019-09-23T06:35:02.586-04:00Desolation in Edmonton by: C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The aching of Your nearness is the tragedy of feeling You gone.
You live in me uninvited,
Sweet Visitor, I've neglected Your welcome.
Crushed my spirit with Your majesty
Then released it into the shackles of your freedom
Freely bound, lovingly harnessed, an untamed heart deadened and alive
again at your touch
Since You , I roam from tomb to the third day
Painful hope , desert of despair , narrowest of ways ..
burning in worship
Flamed in grace
Consumed by Love .
I remain Yours ,but how You're mine weaves into the places and spaces that I tend to forget this belonging
Shattering every truth I thought of You ,</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">wisdoms born from my empty designs, </span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">life formed from the clay of my own mind
My highest thoughts proved worthless by Your observations in me
You have searched me without warrant
I was long surrendered before you forced entry .
was inevitable I'd let You crush me
Disarm me of myself
I've consented to Your building of me
Yet, you work in darkness
Hidden designs blocks made of materials I can't name
But beg of me to trust the unseen builder
Secured in the work that I am of His
To You I offer this messy glory
This praise I make with screams of silence
The lingering of Your nearness in this absence.</span></span></div>
Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-71533132593921553562019-06-07T05:20:00.000-04:002019-06-07T05:20:20.820-04:00"Feed My Shepherds" by : C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“<i>When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter,“Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”Jesus said,“Feed my lambs.”Again Jesus said,“Simon son of John, do you love me?”He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”Jesus said,“Take care of my sheep.”The third time he said to him,“Simon son of John, do you love me?”Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time,“Do you love me?”He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”Jesus said,“Feed my sheep.”</i> </div>
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Here Jesus approached Peter with this question after he had been fed. Practically speaking everyone is best on a full stomach, but metaphorically Jesus’s presence, and time with Him was complete nourishment, time for Peter to revisit and have greater introspection on Who this Man was that shared his company, his attentiveness, and growing affection. Peter was fed before He was asked about how he loved Christ. To me this is not accidental or even unintended. Only when we are nourished by the Lord’s love, when our priests are fed and nourished deeply before the Lord, can they offer the sheep anything to eat. The abundance they can give comes from the primacy of their undivided love for Christ. It is intended to be the most important. It is emphasized by Christ three times, yes, as reparation for Peter’s denial of Christ, but this repetitive question is the ongoing one that must face the priest daily. </div>
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If we love Christ, and we love the Church then it is to our priests we should offer the most attentiveness of our prayer, of fasting, reverence, and of honest help, even in the spiritual sense, to help keep them fed. The job of the "lay-man" becomes utilizing their gifts and pursuit of sanctity to help the Church thrive by allowing the priest to be a better Christ. </div>
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And in priestly formation and preparing men for the priesthood it becomes most essential too, to help deepen this experience of love of God, to uphold the inward preparation as vital to the life of the Shepherd, for only from this depth can they be fed, and can they feed perpetually. </div>
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The witness of a reverent, holy man of God, who lives the priesthood authentically, the Priesthood of Christ, with integrity, and sacrifice, and holy love, transforms souls, and gathers the scattered in a way like no program, no app, no new series can. The tragedy of what has gone on in some seminaries is exposing a very core problem. While naturally the anger seems to be at the harm that was caused by these men, if we love Christ, and we love the Church, we would see the importance of preserving Christ’s priesthood as it was intended, not seeking to destroy it. Which seems, at moments to be what is happening in response and angst that we are currently facing. The priesthood is Christ's and it remains pure as Christ's to the measure that we keep it His.</div>
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That some live like they are their own, is not the reality of an error in Christ, but the fault of consenting to sin, the reality of superficial love of Christ. Because to one who loves much, then obedience is a sweet burden. </div>
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“Feed My Sheep” has seemed to become the most important and the most primary. Of course, this is essential, people in the pews, people knowing Christ, bills paid, diocese’ thriving. But the sheep and flock are only as good as their Shepherd. And the Shepherd is only as good as his love for Christ. And the Church first and foremost is for salvation, and the food we need to eat is Christ. </div>
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So as the Bishops and priests and the Church at large in North America fumble around trying to make amends for the horror caused by the evil that has seeped through the cracks, there has seemed to be little mention of upholding the priesthood of Christ. The focus is on making reparation for evil, which is undoubtedly necessary, but more emphasis on Christ and keeping the priesthood holy will lead one to help reform the deeper problem much more thoroughly. Because in looking to the priest we will arrive at the sacredness of the Eucharist, the necessity of Christ, there present! We will stare it's absence from the life of the Church in the face, and we will begin to recognize that in being obsessed with "retaining people" we have made a performance out of what is most holy. We have made a "star" out of the priest who no longer, at large, thinks looking to Christ is the deepest need, but rather it is to keep people "happy" and present. It is diluted. Slowly sin trickles in. </div>
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Where there is lack of transforming love for Christ there is disobedience, there is moral apathy, and complete disregard for good. </div>
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There are subtle ways we have begun to starve our priests, with an over-attentiveness to business, failing to walk with them in the early years of their vocation, closely, being sensitive to their spiritual needs and the opportunities that they must have in order to thrive and be fed, This obviously must come from them to some degree, and from their own love of God, but it is not easy, nor is it something that is always the case. The formation years expose young men to a very confined fraternity, companionship, rigor, and routine that aids balance and helps navigate things, even in the spiritual sense. Frequent opportunity for spiritual direction, confession etc. It is laid out for them, it is necessary that this continues to keep them nourished and close to the love of Christ. </div>
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The current climate of the Church at the core exposes the starving Shepherd. We know how to get to the peripheries it seems, but do we know how to preserve the centrality of Christ in the Church? We are called, in my opinion to look deeper here. It is time to look at ongoing formation more deeply and severely. Even when we gather priests, from what I've most heard, it is always centralized on going out, building up the Church, while this is a valid part of the priestly labour, there is evidently more need to focus on the interior, the spiritual life and ordering this in the life of the priest. It is more than numbers in pews. </div>
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Look what the Lord did with His first disciples...thousands of followers followed a few holy men, by their love, their obedience, they gathered. And so it will be with us. Or otherwise what we gather is only another form of scattered and lost sheep, under the guise of holiness with a diluted discipleship, compromising the Truth of Christ’s Church. </div>
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“Do You love me?” </div>
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Nothing more will suffice to live the fullness of life in Christ. Give me a poor Church an empty Church, over a Church filled to the brim empty of God.</div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-75172210907639063612019-03-18T16:13:00.000-04:002019-03-18T16:19:51.431-04:00Glorious Shadows of Your Saving by:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bethany House - Abbey of The Genesee 2018</i></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white;">I taste You in <span class="mark45d98c79c" data-markjs="true" style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; border: 0px; font: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">fragments</span>, the joy of You, the glory of You. </span></div>
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I see You in silhouettes, the dark shadows of Your Cross, the risen joy and glory. </div>
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Here I do not possess all of You, but in the Bread. </div>
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Daily I come mindful of my hunger, to feel something in me of You that will not be fulfilled until my last beginning, </div>
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never to end, </div>
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and that day is Yours completely to determine.</div>
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Have I spent any of it as You wished for me,</div>
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as God willed for me,</div>
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as You called me?</div>
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And so here I must labour and toil accepting these brief passings of You</div>
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these ideas and notions of You</div>
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this faith instructed which You've left us to pursue. </div>
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Still the road is darkened, </div>
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the clarity not mine to possess, </div>
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but if I let You possess me completely, </div>
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how much greater will Your mercy on me be? </div>
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Because I gladly accept this silhouette of You </div>
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this obscure embrace of You,</div>
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this cloudy way of knowing that all of it is true.</div>
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Lord I give myself everyday to be renewed, </div>
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and I come to Your table, this feast , this banquet , and I leave all of myself there </div>
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that You may lead me on and make me whole, </div>
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full of You and nothing more,</div>
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that others might see in me this shadow of You</div>
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this good of you, </div>
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a glimpse of Your goodness,a ray of Your joy,</div>
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as I walk full of Your Light </div>
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into the great unknown by Love. </div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-11344010171331793782018-11-03T06:58:00.001-04:002018-11-03T07:05:58.897-04:00"What the Hell am I here for?" by:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mP4cFm0f_Kw/W915dIDdzYI/AAAAAAAASVM/wz-K6-CNSj0dvkLmmDxvzfJGNb7-ZM62wCLcBGAs/s1600/geneseepath.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mP4cFm0f_Kw/W915dIDdzYI/AAAAAAAASVM/wz-K6-CNSj0dvkLmmDxvzfJGNb7-ZM62wCLcBGAs/s1600/geneseepath.JPG" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">"I am caught between the two. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">I long to depart this life and be with Christ, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">for that is far better. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">And this I know with confidence, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">that I shall remain and continue in the service of all of you </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333;">for your progress and joy in the faith, </span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333;">so that your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound on account of me"(Philippians 1:18-30)</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">St. Paul well knew his mission. With great clarity and reverence he had pierced open the interior life by radical surrender to God's grace and deep desire to partake in His glory. His mission was one of proclaiming Christ in a manner far reaching, a mission for the good of others and the glory of God. He was given immense light to help us see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If we remain in the flesh, aware of the goodness of eternal life, what is our purpose? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We too have a mission to fulfill for the Lord, for the good of God, for others, and truly for the good of our own soul, not yet secured beyond, not yet radiant with the glory of the Saints before us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is presumptuous of us to prematurely yearn to be Home, and not first ardently ask God sincerely, what our purpose is here, which is yet to be actualized.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I remember vividly when heaven became more real to me. Obviously I had faith that it was indeed a reality, but it was a distant one. As the reality of eternal life became more apparent to me I was flooded almost terribly with a sense of sorrow, which to me was totally missing the point. But it was from that moment, sitting in a retreat house in 2013 looking out a window sulking , that I opened my mouth with the most sincere prayer "Then, Lord, what the Hell am I here for?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I recognized in my sentiment a disordered longing for heaven. Because it was motivated at that time with more of a desire to escape the Cross, than for union with God, and this to me was a humble awakening. St.Paul understood and pined for heaven with a deep love for union with God, not for the love of himself or as a means to escape difficulty, but he had the honest desire to be one with God.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Faithful awareness of heaven imbues us with our purpose for toil and loving service below.We do not long for heaven to escape the world and become indifferent while here, but find inspiration to share fruits of being secured in the knowledge of the eternal, by sharing the love of Christ.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This humbling lesson was important. It was this realization that also helped me understand what my vocation was. Prior to this I had wrestled immensely with where God was calling me to serve. Ironically such a simple prayer as "What the Hell am I here for?" opened a well of clarity.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">If we know of heaven, if we believe in God, if we desire union with Him, then from this our love and compassion for others naturally takes root. Loving charity is needed. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We can then see the importance of praying for all of God's children, even those who have seemed to desert themselves from all goodness. We should strive to walk with joy, letting others gently know that it is God's love that most strengthens and fulfills. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is love which they most need. Still, many deny Him and seek tirelessly. Often numbing themselves to the reality of their own emptiness; empty as a result of not knowing God. We deny Him too, in our failure to love. We should pray for others and not judge, for it is Our Lord Who gave us mercy. It is Christ Who dwells within;within the weakness of our humanity so that we are made most strong, by choosing to be receptive to His love for us. In various ways and roles, we are all sent forth by God in charity. With stern instruction by Him we are urged to love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To share fruits of the knowledge of heaven, to share the goodness that is God's alone. </span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-23677714637028384432018-10-31T06:46:00.000-04:002018-10-31T08:31:05.302-04:00Holiness Is Happiest by: C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am being made holy, what use is it to be only happy ? There can be joy beyond measure, joy beyond the temporary feeling of happiness and those circumstances that we frequently deem as necessary in order to be content and happy.<br />
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Happiness and it's lack sends people escaping where their joy is found. Keeps them searching without, avoiding within, avoiding above, where our Lord demands our gaze to make sense in an ordered manner of our call to serve Him, and utilize what we possess presently, so to see the goodness and taste the true <strike>happiness</strike> joy of it at all .<br />
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There is more to living than being merely happy, and nothing of happiness is truly known without the joy of striving toward holiness, and the fulfillment of seeking to be perfected in virtue.<br />
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Sanctity is the happiness we seek, unknown to us while we suffer to find it. I have learned to take my reality, that can often seem plagued with a seeming lack of things, or temporal struggles and disenchantment, completely to God.<br />
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In resting it there with Him in honest prayer, I am met with consolation of accompaniment. The providence of God's love and grace to be able to praise all lack as an abundant good for me on this path toward holiness.<br />
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This pursuit of sanctity is made possible by the humility of recognizing those times where I claim things need to be "remedied" born from my own selfishness, opposed to viewing these challenges themselves as the medicine to great healing of the soul, and a greater union with God, and helping to form an increased love toward others in authentic charity.<br />
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The bigger the thorn it seems, the greater the providence of God when we recall to lean toward Him lovingly (<i>often more in a sense of desperate pining than a loving lean!</i>)<br />
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Sometimes there can be the temptation for me to think of myself as avoiding things that are truly troubling or greater issues that need more practical attention, but I can't deny God's supernatural aid amidst everything, holding all things together and making clearer the way, by blanketing all of it with His love by the simple witness of His profound gift of grace.<br />
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If this were lacking , surely I would suffer greatly, and truly there is suffering also now , but it is a blessing that produces wisdom and only more endurance .<br />
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We should not despise the means we are led to encounter the Cross. It is here we are instructed and opened to receive more love,we become accessible to a love that can give and pour out from all of this apparent toil, a deep empathy and love to others, in the true mindfulness of God's unconditional love for us.<br />
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Most importantly there is the bold assurance of God's undeniable accompaniment in the sacraments and the Divine Assistance available to us in the life of the Church that we so infrequently stir into flame. The sacraments serve to keep us nearer our Joy, and nearest our Living God on this path toward sanctity, while the rest of the world settles for being "happy".<br />
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Today's Gospel reminds us of the narrow gate, we have many wide worldly loves that we need to shed so to enter into union with our Lord. Let us pray to persevere on this path, being witnesses of joy, children of hope, and learn to smile in our search for sanctity.<br />
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-9456452762462110392018-10-30T05:59:00.000-04:002018-10-30T05:59:09.013-04:00Gratitude and Heaven by:C.C<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--zCONnUS_IM/W9gqxTooTkI/AAAAAAAASOI/B1maKG1KF841PgYWB0NUXNdui3zL2JYlgCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20180620_054147557_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--zCONnUS_IM/W9gqxTooTkI/AAAAAAAASOI/B1maKG1KF841PgYWB0NUXNdui3zL2JYlgCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_20180620_054147557_HDR.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Bethany Retreat House Yard-Abbey of The Genesee </i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gratitude blasts open an attentiveness of Heaven, and suddenly an awareness wells open. In that moment God's reality is not just observed with thanks, but participated in. As if the very breath we breathe in knowledge that it's completely God's , breathes out life around us, and we are one with Him in this, and there is nothing that can take it away or make even one little breath insignificant.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am most at peace in this, even amidst life with the two tots and plenty of duties. There remains present a place kept above and beyond it all, when hidden in Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And rather than risking me to become estranged and an "enemy" of my world, this sacred hiding place in Christ, kept above and beyond,helps me to emerge as a lover in the most profound sense. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Gratitude to God is the aching appreciation for eternity, in the humble recognition of glimpses of it's beauty present to us daily.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Simple gratitude must be the dwelling place of one who longs to know eternity. From here we begin scratching the surface of thanks for the immensity of the Eucharistic offering to us, sustaining us to reside, as if hidden in a small part of Heaven, in the midst of the world. </span></div>
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</div>
Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-38104338542295975062018-10-29T06:31:00.000-04:002018-10-29T06:31:27.639-04:00Faith in Suffering & Purification. By:CC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abA_hMxZXfI/W9bgcBVfMhI/AAAAAAAASLM/XNRoz1DsknYsFA-YYoeIQ1PpKWvbZzT9QCLcBGAs/s1600/single-candle-burning-on-dark_batz8s7el_thumbnail-full05.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-abA_hMxZXfI/W9bgcBVfMhI/AAAAAAAASLM/XNRoz1DsknYsFA-YYoeIQ1PpKWvbZzT9QCLcBGAs/s400/single-candle-burning-on-dark_batz8s7el_thumbnail-full05.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">All that is known to us presently is of God's wisdom, here for His glory, and somehow for our good, despite our limited knowing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Even despite our pain in lack of understanding. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To be purified isn't to wrestle overtly with how we're tried, but to desire the Cross in all things . Fastened to it, it's weight upon us, there we're carried to the clarity and knowledge to have some sense of what God's will may be in this time of fire. Suffering endured faithfully is the assurance of Christ's accompaniment. The subtle sense of not being abandoned or alone. A peace that surpasses all reason, and the supply of hope though nothing seen. To stir endurance in trial , lean on the Cross of Christ, by it we're carried.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">If we're to aid by our gifts , or to offer relief to another, we should pray for it to be made known to us. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We should reserve ourselves primarily to trust in God, a deep love of God that can face all suffering, not with sense of abandonment, but with holy participation, assured that the grace of the Cross joins us in our time of want by fulfilling our every need. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We may despise evil, as is natural, but we must also be mindful not to deny God full dominion , or neglect to trust in His sovereignty. Even an over attentiveness to try and solve everything professes only belief and faith in oneself. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">To stir up the grace of our belonging, to persevere amidst the sufferings , to endure the fire of purification, we need to desire holiness , and desperately. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Everything that God has promised and spoken is true,this alone should comfort us, and entrusted to Him faithfully we can succeed in growing in sanctity. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Nearer to Him lovingly so that we may have glimpse of what is yet known, and work to be a humble and faithful servant wherever we are called to serve.(CC)</span></div>
Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-15169472694102165462018-10-18T06:35:00.002-04:002018-10-18T06:35:53.705-04:00Pause And Appreciate The Beauty. By:CC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0TFhL9jE0FU/W8hh6VrXH1I/AAAAAAAAR-A/WyuKx07lA1095rc0fhMgRQn65kTeqZgFwCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_20181010_090200661_BURST001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0TFhL9jE0FU/W8hh6VrXH1I/AAAAAAAAR-A/WyuKx07lA1095rc0fhMgRQn65kTeqZgFwCLcBGAs/s320/IMG_20181010_090200661_BURST001.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<br />
Why does everything , even things most significantly splendid and beautiful seem at times to fade away slowly with familiarity into disenchantment?<br />
The bitter-sweet cross of our belonging to the infinite seems to bring us the grace of knowing what we're made for , but also leaves us pining with more longing in face of all that is made.<br />
All of this resolved perhaps by seeking the infinite moment to moment , God's visitation and resting with the discipline to stay there and gaze at beauty that we know passes us too often.<br />
Even still, how true of love. We look at the other, get to know them and are drawn toward beauty. With familiarity this should only enhance the experience of enchantment , but often the opposite is true. This truth says more of us than the other. For they are no less enthralling. Our appetites bigger than our need , and our love more upon ourselves than born from the depth of Love.<br />
It is not with fresh eyes we must greet the beauty around us , but sober ones, awake to it all, and aware of the tragedy we bring upon ourselves failing to be drawn by love, smothered by self-absorption and disordered lust for beyond. (CC)</div>
Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-15504320290276218482018-10-01T19:31:00.004-04:002018-10-01T19:36:17.022-04:00Never Alone By: C.C. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M0DTrSW112o/W7Kr14QYKLI/AAAAAAAARms/MhazJKMIbS8g_21_QyneaT47lm4AM0LcgCLcBGAs/s1600/never%2Balone.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1086" height="265" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-M0DTrSW112o/W7Kr14QYKLI/AAAAAAAARms/MhazJKMIbS8g_21_QyneaT47lm4AM0LcgCLcBGAs/s320/never%2Balone.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">One</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> thing</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that most humbles me in my walk with Christ and in striving to daily live out my faith, is the encounter with the awareness that others may not sense His nearness, that they should feel alone opposed to discovering that at the most radical point of solitude, if we truly give ourselves over toward faith and toward God , then we find there the most consoling company of all; our nearest Companion, and the truest capacity of communion.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">
The thought of one having to suffer loneliness or fear of being alone in being God's beloved, prompts me to such empathy and simultaneously such responsibility to shout as from a mountaintop that there is never any depth of loneliness too deep, or distance too far where God is not with us.
We may not sense the closeness of peaceful sentiment perhaps at all times, we have no clarity to see beyond what God is presently doing, and we can't fathom or know the joy that lives just around the corner from where we are, or if it shall come.
To reconcile ourselves to accepting the closeness of Christ and the nearness of His company that gives us more than anything we can imagine for ourselves, encourages us to live in the presence of God, and we then can rest in the trust of being God's beloved children. The peace of rest belonging to us most when we sit in trust, as my dear friend, Arleen once said on the comfy "beanbag chair of God" , and accept that we are loved.
The awareness of this can be instructed, it must be learned deeply though by experience, often by the experiences that most wound us and pain us. Those times that unite us most deeply with the Cross are too the moments that confront us most intimately with the opportunity for resurrected joy born there.
To question why some experience this clarity of grace or try and find a reason why people are perhaps disposed to the assurance of God's company is not important to answer.
What is most vital is our need to live out from this place of understanding and depth of experience God's unconditional love toward all, including those we judge poorly as most far from Him.
Our role becomes one of sharing the joy of the risen Lord by accompanying another at the Cross. To remind them that they are never alone , and to encourage there the experience of encountering the nearness of God's love that is "nearer to us than we are to ourselves".
The joy of consenting to carry the Cross daily is encountering all of the unexpected "Simons" that the Lord sends our way to help carry the burden.
Christ accompanies us in ways unknown to us, may we grow always in the awareness that we're never abandoned,never alone,but deeply loved.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-67269373762632936502018-09-26T06:00:00.000-04:002018-09-26T06:00:08.253-04:00Remember God's Mercy to You,So That You May Love: CC<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“<span style="font-size: small;"><i>The
glories of the Lord and his might</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>and
the marvelous deeds he has done.”</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>(Psalm
78)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWH4q_bhSqg/W6tXtrKx--I/AAAAAAAARW4/XyZ1oG8y3pYegvCtEqPNkN-4kq1dV3wrQCLcBGAs/s1600/geneseepath.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aWH4q_bhSqg/W6tXtrKx--I/AAAAAAAARW4/XyZ1oG8y3pYegvCtEqPNkN-4kq1dV3wrQCLcBGAs/s400/geneseepath.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Genesee Path 2013</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everything<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>I<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>was<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>has<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>been<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>absolved<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">by</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">
God's merc</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ful
love. Greater than the love of th</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s
mercy </span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s
the love that wounds </span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">n
recogn</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">z</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng
that even wh</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">le
seem</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ngly
apart from H</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">m, </span></span></span>I<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span>was<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">always
H</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s.
Th</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s
belong</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng
rema</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ned
near to me even as </span></span></span>I<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">rema</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ned
far from H</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">m.
That we are H</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s </span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s
reason for rejo</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">c</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng
and </span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">inspiration
for</span></span></span><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">
ongo</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng
convers</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">on
through the Cross. To know our eternal belong</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng </span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">s
the beg</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">nn</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">ng
of joy on earth and the sustenance to endure unt</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">l
we meet H</span></span></span>i<span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">m
face to face.</span></span></span> </span>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">If
we are attentive to the inner transformation we experience in turning
from sin to a life of striving to embrace and live according to God’s
precepts, we quickly recognize how absolutely difficult this is if
left to our own esteem, and if we have little love for God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">There
is a necessity to return to the remembrance of God’s goodness, to
reside in it so that we are constantly pulled deeper toward His
reality and will for us, rather than to the baseness of our passions
and sinful inclinations. </span>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">To
see ourselves in light of God’s love should inspire our wonder. The
amazing realization that we indeed belong to Him should continue to
motivate our desire to fit the mold of what this belonging implies.
To recall the <i>“marvelous deeds he has done”</i> does not need
to take us solely into Scripture and study, but into our very hearts,
and into reflection of our own life. </span>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">This
remembrance should not inspire a dwelling in the muck of sinful
memories or the lowly places where we may have lurked before, but
motivate an honest account of the loving grace that helped out-root
this way of life, and it should never be forgotten. We should be
cautious as to not become scrupulous in this process, but work
instead toward cultivating a deeper gratitude to God for His mercy,
for His love, to remember His faithfulness and the power of
transformative grace.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It
is when we loosely remember the glory that God personally brought us,
the mercy He so lovingly extended to us, that we forget the need for
obedience to Him presently. When we are weak to remember His goodness
to us, then the good we do for Him and the glory we bring to Him
becomes weak also. To recall God’s goodness encourages our
perseverance in the Christian life, and primarily our endurance in
love of what is truly good, and makes more possible our loving of
another. How often we can quickly judge those we deem “sinners”
neglecting our own, and worse forgetting from where we came and our
shared potential for sin. </span>
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: small;">As
my birthday approaches each year since my conversion and “lightening
bolt” God moment I find myself more reflective than usual about my
past. It is a source of great humility for me, and one of renewing my
understanding and gratitude for God’s unconditional love, and the
power of His mercy.</span></div>
<div align="left" style="font-style: normal; line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div>
<div align="left" style="line-height: 100%; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;">I
live with the thorn of my past in my side. Not in a scrupulous way,
but it reminds me time and time again of God’s goodness and mercy
in my life. It reminds me of the ongoing journey of conversion. I
used to fear encountering those who knew me before I
began practicing my faith. I was worried about their
judgement and truthfully a bit self absorbed in how “they” would
see me, or remember me. Over time I began to recognize the amazing
way God’s transforming grace spoke through in these
encounters and eventually brought great joy. Hearing “there’s
something so different about you” reminded me of the Someone
greater than all of us that knocked me off my horse! The
memories,</span><em style="font-style: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></em><em style="font-style: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"><i>not
so glorious</i></span></em><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">have
been healed by our Lord, but every now and then there is the grace of
a thorn prick to remind me Who God is and who I am not. A prick that
corrects my judgement and allows me to recognize that being perfect
is not important to serve God. The prick of the thorn reminds me to
see others through the lens of my own brokenness and not with
partiality.</span></span> </span>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-variant: normal;"><span style="letter-spacing: normal;">May we always remember God's mercy to us so that we will renew ourselves in love.</span></span></span></span></div>
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shows no partiality (Acts 10:34). He does not take account of
nobility of birth, length of time in his service, or the number of
our good works. What counts with God is a devout soul’s increased
fervor and more ardent love. He does not consider how you once
behaved, but what you have now begun to be.” – St. Bonaventure</i></span></span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-38683166664902586702018-08-10T06:23:00.000-04:002018-08-10T06:33:10.987-04:00There is Mess and Noise in The Building of The Church. By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I could be better focused,and I "should raise my hand before speaking".This is the reminder I was faced with growing up by countless teachers frustrated at my clowning antics and such. If a squirrel ran by the classroom window I'd be the first to yell it out during the taxing lesson of Math or other such items. I did indeed get my fair share of payback when I became a teacher myself! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But there's something immense learned by focusing on the most important, while also value found in knowing that the squirrel resides outside of the window. Not to distract us from what demands our prominent attention, but to have us informed of our surroundings in a healthy way. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There are plenty of squirrels, to put it kindly running around the Church at moment. But the centrality of our attentiveness belongs to Christ alone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Currently our parish is being built and it is a construction zone of noise, filth, chaos, beeping machines, and hard working men. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Sundays they do not work. For those of us attending daily Mass we are greeted by their hammers, the piercing sound of steel being cut, machines backing up with loud beeps. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Still, they do not drown out the bells rung at the Altar. When Christ our Lord is there in our midst the peripherals are silenced. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I knelt down following the Eucharist one day this week I had to almost remind myself that there was clanging outside, it remained unnoticed at the moment of Consecration. There was a presence of Peace untouched by the chaos of machinery. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I couldn't help but think about the current climate of the Church, the noise, mess, and chaos that is haunting it outside and oozing within. The most important of tasks for us as faithful begins at the Altar in silence before our Lord. The centrality of focus on Him is far more worthy than any algebra lesson, I'd say, or feisty squirrel.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is noise and mess in the building of the Church. But we're reminded by faith that we do not build alone , with human hands or limitations. We need embrace the reality of mess to deal with it properly. We need to call it sin, to name the noise of Satan's evil, to conquer it in Christ's name. To begin to clear out what demolishes the building and what preserves Her structure, we must rest primarily in prayer. We must recall daily the promise of our Lord to His Church, entrusting ourselves desperately to Jesus lovingly, to show us the light in this darkness and to lead us accordingly to help build His Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">By faith and love of Christ alone we join the Master Builder to aid the Church, and there is found the clarity to clear out the mess and noise. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Policies and protocols most sufficient take their form from efficient prayer and reverent silence before Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Do we add to the chaos and noise of the building? Or do we help nurture the silence needed to build with our Lord?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">St.Peter, Pray for us.</span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-20792863833455566372018-05-28T06:06:00.002-04:002018-05-28T06:25:16.702-04:00Our Daily Bread, Literally. By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">"Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">At that statement, his face fell,</span><br />
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , "times" , serif; font-size: 13px; text-align: left;">and he went away sad, for he had many possessions."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is only from a place of privilege, it may seem, that these questions can be asked: "How can I choose poverty?" "How can I grow purer in heart to rely on God's provisions?" "How can I use what I have received to serve,and to give Him glory?" More so, to be willing to give even from our sense of poverty is the increase in understanding of where our wealth rests, in God alone. We risk being empty, to discover our soul's poverty and to recognize the way that our Lord fills us and supplies for our needs. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When our sense of want exceeds honest sense of our need is when we have great unrest, this is fertile ground for growing hard of heart. This is the risk of making objects our god. To know God's provision we must declutter from the possessions we have made our gods, and risk being uncomfortable, to recognize that what most holds us together and sustains us is not the latest fad or purchase but an eternal God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I can admit, in comparison to others in society, that I know very little of authentic poverty in regards to basic needs. I sit in a furnished home, with the air condition on for comfort, pantry full of food, this laptop to write on, and other such things that in beginning to list them makes me feel quite uncomfortable. Discomfort from the honest sense of having prompt access to a series of items that I have seemingly unmerited, easily acquired, none of them that I will take with me, none of them define me, or proclaim worth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">How can I choose poverty? This question is one that encouraged me to leave my job (temporarily so) after the birth of our first child. It was a decision that truly shook things up a bit. Including our home at first as my husband looked at me asking his most common question <i>"Catherine, are you nuts?" "Yes, Yes, I am , and God is so good."</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What has flowed from this decision is the humble recognition of how much is needed and how much is truly unnecessary. This has made me appreciate and better understand the way that God provides and the fragility of true wealth , even the eternal riches, woven in the temporal that surround us daily. We cannot perceive them swamped in things of the world, with an appetite solely for material goods. I am not suggesting people to strip down naked and run through the streets, leaving their place of employment and give everything to the poor, but I am suggesting an honest risk of deciding even in minor ways daily to choose to be poor, to fast from a luxury, to sacrifice and go without beyond the time of 40 days in Lent. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On May 5th, just some few weeks ago, I was given a deliberate view into how God often provides quite noticeably so, making Himself apparent and known. It is a moment that still makes me chuckle and fills me with awe. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">When the babies sleep about 12:30 I usually workout at home, if the husband is home then I go for a run in the neighborhood, Anyway before leaving for my run, my husband said <i>"I'll barbecue for lunch today, but we need bread so when you're back can you please go buy some?"</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">While I was on my run the wind was gusty <i>(we had a terrible storm on the 4th</i>) and right before me caught in the grass but not blowing away is a $5.00 bill. No one around. And I'm like "Man, God is so good. Bread money!" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Then I reflected so much on how our Lord is the bread, yes, but by knowing this then we're secured that He truly has our needs fulfilled, an enforced providence to sustain our needs, thank You Jesus! I was more joyous to share this with my husband because now I had a beautiful way of showing God's love to and for us in a tangible way to my husband, who has become the sole "breadwinner" now which poses it's own daunting task and pressures at times. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I ran home excited....and I find my husband and said humorously, but obviously in a profoundly serious way too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Jesus says keep running the good race and He'll always help provide your daily bread, here's 5 bucks, go buy your daily bread" </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The husband was pretty moved <i>"that's amazing."</i> And I reassured him, <i>"You see, I'm not crazy! "</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Anyway the bread that day was $3.49. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our Lord gave a small glimpse to me of His sustaining hand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The next day was Sunday, and though we are monthly Family of Faith tithers at our parish, I was feeling quite moved by the fact that the money on the ground belonged to someone, not to us. I made my daughter put a $5.00 bill into the collection that day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I recognized that when God gives us what is unmerited and not ours, but so incredibly His, we cannot help but feel impelled to give back and serve Him in some small way. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">That God provides is certain, what we make of His providence makes certain our share in the Eternal riches. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">May we all grow to be poor in a society that suffocates us with the need to be materially rich, finding there the opportunity to serve from any wealth received for His glory and the good of others. (CC)</span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-53764834016552038032018-05-22T13:12:00.000-04:002018-05-22T13:20:21.724-04:00Persevering in Vocation: Monks, A Mouse, A Snake, and Embracing The Cross By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Retreat</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> has been on my mind as I am preparing to head back to the Abbey soon. In this reflecting on my upcoming retreat, also returning to my mind are the lessons I took home with me last July, primarily that of persevering in vocations, and a deepening of understanding the necessary purification greeting us along the way. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My most recent insight on the reality of enduring in vocations and fulfilling what God asks of us have brought me to consider the way that we can have a tendency to become enamored with the point where He calls us. That day of His seeming proposal filled with jubilation and love, ignorance of all crosses to come, vowing to embrace their reality, but still too entrenched in the fantasy that it's resonance evades us. Even the crosses within us that we carry in the hidden places of our hearts often remain obscure to us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This is a gift though, we need to taste the depth of this joy to know it exists, it affirms blatantly God's goodness, but in advancing and enduring the blows and marks of time it becomes evident that the point is greater than this. The marking of all vocations is the Cross and only a deep love of God can endure this. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We can delude ourselves in longing for that joy born in ignorance,chasing a sensation over an eternal reality. When we consider loving another for God's sake alone it seems to be the only thing that makes sense. in fact loving only makes complete sense by loving God. For no one possesses enough good to turn us from sin, it is not by another's good, surely not even our own good that we remain strong in ourselves.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">The fleshy inclination will always be to call most good the baseness of some passion, it is a flight of descent. It is by our being truly possessed by good, complete goodness, and the measure that we allow God to possess us that we can persevere in the task of our vocations. In </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">religious life or married life alike. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">To neglect this necessity of personal radical love for God is to neglect knowing the depth of love in the goodness of the other. Even the young seminarian or priest who vows to a life of loving God and serving for love of Him is only ever as good and sustained to the degree He is motivated by a deep love for Him and desire for the Cross. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sustenance is not in the joy of the call, but the point of discovering why we remain. To remember why we remain is the sobering balm. Because if we endure out of love for the Cross then we are sustained. Remember why you remain and for Whom you do. It is only this that can take us out of ourselves long enough to grow in virtue of love of Him and persevere in loving.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">Defeat is in willing lesser loves. The obscurity is in the middle where we can't fully rest yet in the Cross and know the pangs of the lower options. We're won over by consenting to the Cross and to be made strong in the weakness of our will desiring to do opposite. God takes the struggle of our will, if we take it to Christ and brings tremendous richness.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I experienced a mirroring of this lesson in a small capacity over the course of my four days in Genesee last year. It was time much different than the others. Primarily because, it was quickly evident that my peaceful expectations of what my retreats were most recently normally filled with, would be tested greatly by exterior disruptions and presence of my greatest temporal fears.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I am afraid of very little. Mice and snakes are the two things that make me shudder. Thankfully I managed to reach 30 years without having to see a mouse, a living one scurrying at least, and only ever had to see a tiny little snake in my youth. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">However, my first night I was greeted by a mouse, he lingered just long enough to stare me dead in the face before heading off. The kids were already in bed, I alone. Suddenly fear overcame me, embarrassingly, and I realized then how the simplest and even insignificant events can test our sense of interior peace. How could such a small thing cause me such great disturbance? There was much more to learn.</span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The following day, I felt stronger, as if I had conquered my little squeaky friend and could move on, but, while returning home again just to the side of the house there bathing in the sun was a snake. Hanging out in the clear day , and it was then I realized that I was in for a much different stay. I believe at that point I uttered something like "You're funny Lord" before praying a couple Hail Mary's recalling she crushes them, but I truthfully felt less disturbed, at the sight of this frightening reality I somehow had an understanding brewing about detachments. I took a photo of my slithery friend for reference of this day, while my daughter gently said "what's that mama, can I touch it" Pretending to be calm, explaining it was sleeping *and secretly hoping it was. This turned out to be a pleasant encounter though, the snake stayed put completely at peace in the sun. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;">In a sense I had every reason to flee, seeing my two biggest fears however small they may be in comparison to others, it took a lot of remaining focused on the most important to remain there and lovingly so. I had a fantastic time. And perhaps learned the most profound lesson. Here below are my reflections written there the morning after the snake sighting...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I learned more from a mouse and a snake on this retreat than I have learned in any book or spiritual counsel here. Ironically following seeing the snake I had my greatest sleep here and I have remained rested ever since.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I awoke the following day on July 13th at 2:30 a.m. Unable of course to go to vigils having the kids sleeping in the house, I joined in as I often do from home and meditated further upon this lesson. It brought me to think more about the monastic life, about what leads men here, about what can discourage them, and of course Who it is that keeps them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am sure in the beginning of postulancy there is overwhelming consolation from God, an almost addictive attractiveness to the peace that the monastic way of life seems to ooze out of those men who persevere in their vocation amidst the immense seasons of change within the soul. This too is reflection of the joy and eagerness of newlyweds as they approach their wedding.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The grounds alone boast of God's Beauty. The humming of tireless joy-filled birds, imbued with Heavenly hymns can soothe the heart and reflect boldly the Majesty of God. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This beauty is necessary, for this pulls at us and invites us to desire the Creator of all these good and lovely things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">And yet, the vastness and beauty of this isolated setting eventually becomes a great source of necessary desolation and disenchantment. The allure of a hidden life in Christ is purified and tested over the course of time, exposing the weakness of our feeble will, and the true intention of our hearts in coming here.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So too this is in marriage, though an active vocation in the world, we cannot hide from encountering the depths of hidden places within our hearts, disordered longings, and the need to always purify our attachment and understanding of why we too have chosen to come to the Altar and vow to a life of love of another out of love for God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">One is wrong to assume that monastic life will silence the noise in their life, this is true to some degree, as The Rule will prevent partaking fully in worldly communications as before, but there is greater noise that greets the starry eyed postulant, or the fairy tale newlywed, and that is the noise within the soul and the wrestling of wills. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So many people walk around deaf to this noise, afraid of encountering what it says of them and most importantly avoid facing the reality of Whose they are. It is no way to live at all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The more attentive we are to the inner noise and the more earnestly we seek to be a student of silence and obedience, the peace emerges, even if ever so slowly. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This touch of grace is enough for us, it keeps us and affirms us as we cling to our cross, as we cling to Christ our Lord.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You can hide from the world, but you cannot hide from God, nor the truth of yourself before Him. Retreating from the world and all of the freedom that it seems to propose only faces us more deeply and more intensely into the encounter of God. We consent to be held captive by Christ where there is found freedom like no other.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The difficulty experienced with the passing of time and the pruning of our pathetic human weakness serves to aid us in attaining the peace that attracts us initially to this way of life to begin with. We need only consent to always being made new, to strive to be better and to live perpetually captivated by Christ.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is not for everyone, and for such reason Jesus reminds us many times of the difficulty faced if we desire eternal life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Courage is needed, and an unwavering trust and love of God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">No greater love for us could He show to us than by the grace of revealing how so desperately we need His love,revealing it upon the Cross, by inspiring us to seek Him deeply, earnestly, and perpetually so that we can remain with Him as He resides in us. So that we may hope to find ourselves at that moment of final perseverance before his glory, finished the battle, won the race, and surrounded consumed in His love.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The beauty of this retreat was a deepening of detachment and an understanding of persevering through fear and even learning to to appreciate the Cross in a new way. Our Lord was filled with surprises of consolation this day. And it unfolded as a gift for me as I prepared to pack up for home. At 5:30 in the morning, while the kids were sleeping, before heading off to Mass ,I began to load up the van for our departure</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As I stepped back from my van, facing the Abbey, I saw a deer about 100 ft in the distance, the most beautiful delicate deer. I love deer tremendously. And ironically my first retreat to Genesee I saw them each evening, and would just gaze at their beauty. Had I seen the mouse and the snake, I probably would never have come back. it is love that prepares our embrace for the Cross. Just behind the deer was a little fawn.. that is when I began to weep. A mother and child. It was a warming and consoling good bye gift. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">and today as I finished writing this in the morning a dove showed up on my deck :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I know not what will be encounted this time in Genesee, I admit to being taken back for a moment in fear at the thought of seeing my squeaky and slithery friends. But I am more assured this time of God's grace, more aware that all things sent to us are for our good. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Our love in Him alone encourages our perseverance..and all of it must be oriented toward the Cross if it is to endure at all.(CC)</span><br />
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-50699977341690568322018-05-19T22:06:00.003-04:002018-05-19T22:15:55.266-04:00What's In A Name? Feast Day of St.Celestine V, By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pope Celestine V<br />
<i>Information below aided by a film found at Formed.Org "Saint Celestine: The Pope Who Quit"<br />and my Nonna</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The extent I knew of my middle name, Celeste in 2011 when I opened up this blog, was that it's meaning is "heavenly" and that I share a middle name with my paternal nonna, and also with my godfather whose middle name is Celestino. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Beyond this, I had no deeper care for meaning. However, it did seem all the more appropriate to be using this "heavenly" name as I blogged the experience of attempting to draw nearer to meriting heaven (<i>still stumbling and typing away</i>). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Celeste stuck, and I grew to like it. Although in learning Catherine means "pure" I was quite drawn to that too. Too bad I wasn't made aware of the meanings of my first and second name before many falls..names better suited then would have been impure and hellish, I digress. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Over time, I became more interested in origin, precisely listening to my grandmother share stories of her hometown Sant'Angelo, Limosano in Molise, Italy. My father was born there. It is good to learn our history, there are lessons and wisdom to unearth. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I recall speaking to my nonna some years ago about our shared name, she went on to tell me that her nonna was also named Celeste and many others down the line in her family also had the masculine name of Celestino. It's not uncommon in Italian tradition to be passing down names, so it wasn't completely unnatural to see this pattern. However, one day she told me that this name came from a Pope born in her town. I was quite confused, primarily because I hadn't heard of him, and secondly because her recollection of the history was very scarce as well. I dug deeper. And in digging deeper I discovered a fascinating man, a holy man, who desired a quiet life of solitude as a hermit, and ended up briefly serving as Pope before resigning. He is also the patron saint of Sant'Angelo.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">His life, I came to learn was one of mystery. Even the exact town and date of his birth are argued over. There are two places in Molise that claim to be his birthplace, Isernia and our hometown of Sant' Angelo in Campobasso. Obviously, I choose to claim him as belonging to Sant' Angelo....shamelessly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Saint Celestine was born Pietro Angelerio, also known as Pietro of Morrone. in arguably 1209 or 1215, he was the 11th of 12 children and came from a farming family. He was not poor so was able to have his studies paid for. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He felt called to enter the Benedictine order, as he felt strongly drawn to ancient tradition and especially a call to detach from the world. He sought to live alone in caves and other very solitary places removed from the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A professor from the University of Verona, named Paolo Golinelli stated that <i>"Pietro felt life should be articulated by prayers and very little sleep"</i> He longed for living a life of simplicity and austerity. He also lived in a very turbulent time of the Church history. Between 1217 and 1270, five crusades were announced and several chaotic situations arose from there, including a great deal of heresy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pietro's quiet life in the caves and mountains surrounding Molise became noisier as people were made aware of his apparent holiness. People flocked to visit with him often, and he would soon then quicken his steps to flee seeking the solitary and prayerful life in a new secluded place. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He was considered then a living saint, and also attributed to being a "miracle worker" people claimed being healed by him in various ways. Golinelli said that "<span style="background-color: white;">his miracles were very peculiar , almost as a type of rural and country healer"</span><span style="background-color: white;"> He was also very cautious about company with women, and never wished to see them, if they should have required his aid for healing then the husbands of these women were sent to see Pietro on their behalf. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He had grown a small following of men who desired to live his way of life, a way of life based on the traditional Benedictine order, with an even more intense austerity than what was observed being lived by him. It is noted as being similar to the Cistercians, even in dress. I found this point to be most intriguing. For me, the Cistercian charism has been one of great inspiration and has helped form me. </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There seems to be scarce information about what the life of his order was like specifically, making it difficult for me to draw definitive differences or concrete similarities. But the depth of reverence for silence and solitude from the world and prayer is woven within both. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Pietro wanted to escape the political current of his time, while also mindful of it's reality and his desire to establish his order securely he walked to Lyon, France in 1274, travelling 1200km to speak with Pope Gregory X ,and to take part in the "<i>C</i></span><span style="background-color: white;"><i>ouncil of Lyon in hopes to get his order approved. Because it was not possible to found new orders.</i></span><i>During the Fourth Council of the Lateran, a special decree had already been issued : ne nimia monacorum 'Let there not be too many monks" ..limiting the proliferation of orders, but his order is included in the Benedictine tradition, for this reason it is not a new order, but rather a particular version of the Benedictine monasticism."</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Through such Pietro was able to have his order secured, they would become known as the Celestines, following his acceptance of the Papacy and him taking the name Pope Celestine V, an event which came about in the oddest of fashions. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Church was in a complete mess. There was a struggle between the powers of Roman families and the Cardinals within the Church, and for nearly 28 months at the time there was no Pope in Rome. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Pietro wrote a letter to the Cardinals in the conclave and expressed great concern for the misfortune that this is bringing upon the Church in not being able to elect a new pope. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Essentially the cardinals unanimously chose Pietro to be Pope! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It was noted in the documentary that reasons for this included the facts that <span style="background-color: white;">he was not involved in the power games of the royal families, nor did he enjoy great prestige, and that he could be a great calm to the storm. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">His tone of humility and poverty was amplified when he rode into L'aquila (the place of his coronation ) on a donkey and not a white horse. It was said that h</span><span style="background-color: white;">e wanted to deliver a message of poverty and a truly Christian lifestyle of holiness into the church of his times. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">He was also most inspired by St.John the Baptist, and chose the day of his martyrdom to be the one of his papal coronation. It was noted that over 200,000 pilgrims came to this event, yes, even before the world of twitter and social media, that is quite profound! Even Dante Alighieri was in attendance from Florence! People were so hopeful for renewal in the Church by the hands of this new hermit holy Pope.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A month into his papacy he appointed twelve new Cardinals and wanted to quickly weed out influences of noble Roman families. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">The documentary spoke of a letter he wrote in his </span><span style="background-color: white;">acceptance of the papacy, where <i>"he references the beheading of St. John the Baptist, and compared his tiara to the scimitar on the saints neck" meaning that he would sacrifice himself for the unity and forgiveness of the Church. For Celestine, the greatest sin is the separation, the schism within the Church."</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He resided in a castle in Naples, and demanded to live in an underground , damp cell, opposed to the luxurious apartment prepared for him. He sought to maintain as much as possible his life as a hermit. That is what he most desired to be, praying and meditating. It was evident during this time that resignation was on his mind, however there naturally arose the question, "Can a pope resign?"</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The man who would become his successor, Pope Boniface VIII, came forth with a solution </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><i>"When a cardinal agrees to become Pope , then he gives his consent to the election of the Pope. Therefore, he may withdraw this consent without being influenced by anyone but his own will. "</i></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In Decemeber of 1294, St.Celestine summoned the Cardinals, and announced what has become historically known as the "great refusal"</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Fr. Quirino Salomone of </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #6a6a6a; font-weight: bold;">Studi Celestiniani</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #545454;"> ,</span><span style="background-color: white;">shared that </span><span style="background-color: white;">"Celestino did not refuse , but rather gave up, he resigned. Celestino did not refuse the papacy he accepted, and then resigned."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">People were very disappointed in this. The faithful were hopeful in him for change in the Church, and to put an end to the "material church".</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for Pietro , the humble monk , he returned to a cell, although this time as a prisoner of Pope Boniface VIII, who feared he would become an antipope, and held him in the castle of Fumone, where he resorted again to a life of prayer and meditation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">He passed away on May 19th , 1296.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">As for the Celestines, they are no more. But as for me, I find great comfort in coming to learn of this holy man and saint from my father's hometown.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I am equally thankful that the message of needed holiness is alive in the Church today. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Celeste, has now become a name of greater value to me than it was before. In speaking with my godfather today, in light of my recent learnings, I assured him someday we would venture to Sant'Angelo and the surrounding areas to pay homage to a humble holy monk from our ancestral home and </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">the reason for our sharing of middle names.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> (CC)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>St.Celestine , pray for us, and for the holiness of our Church.</i></span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-90222454833286078412018-04-13T05:58:00.000-04:002018-04-13T06:23:37.999-04:00Motherhood: Learning About Holiness in Fragments. By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">On April 9th, The Pope released his Apostolic Exhortation, Guadete et Exsultate. In this lovely exhoration, Pope Francis highlights the very important and personal call that all of us faithful, within our various vocations, have to strive toward holiness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Perhaps it seems rather obvious that in taking one's faith life seriously, there is an element of desiring to be "holy" demanded of us. Though, at times this can be something that may be lost on us. We could struggle from unhealthy ideas of what holiness truly is and where it is found. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It is important to recognize that holiness deeply belongs to where Christ has called you to serve, presently. And has also provided there a grace to enter into what is before you, keeping always present God above. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This may seem a rather idealistic portrayal. In the practical, moments and circumstances demand questions, peace may seem far out of reach, and the mundane items seem overwhelmingly unholy. There is nothing further from the truth! It is quite dangerous spiritually, to envision holiness as belonging somewhere in the clouds and not in the trenches of ordinary and practical life. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">My reflections on this area increased greatly by the very means I had to approach this document. In fragments, due to my natural obligations that I have throughout the day. By doing such , the call to holiness in motherhood became even more evident to me than it has been made known already through experience. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I read the first section riding the bike while the kids were napping.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>While I would have preferred to sit with a coffee and indulge in the document, I recognized that part of my being able to remain holy throughout my day is tending well to myself, and disciplining myself to have daily exercise increases the peace in me and aids me to be better to those I serve.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The area of motherhood is one that I have a very big heart for. In saying this, it also seems to be an area that is incredibly challenged and deeply misunderstood by society at large, more tragically by many women themselves. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is a certain reverence owed to it, that when forgotten , robs it's very essence of sacrificial servitude and replaces it instead as a self-loathed burden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I had to stop reading to vacuum the stairs</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>While I vacuumed I thought about what I read, the service of my day amplified the call to personal holiness in the deeply practical areas. Even vacuuming the stairs is not excluded from striving for holiness. Holiness manifests in the practical, on the ground. To be obedient to duties that confront us responding with love, gives rise to peace. This simple work becomes a prayerful offering.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Motherhood is often described as a thing to simply "survive" and to me that is a wounding claim, though I am sure moments can arise where one feels they are clinging off a cliff dangling , holding onto dirty bibs, screaming babies, and explosive poo. This is not a task to simply survive, but to find immense life in, and to discover the grace of God's sustenance in all of it. To see that there is nothing untouched by the providence of God, especially towards the heart of woman, offering up her many tasks in caring for the beloved , His beloved, that were sent to them.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Where there is holiness there is freedom. Our vocations call us to become holy. To discover the implications of this is where we find freedom and the grace of endurance to greet every task with joy and balance. To know to place proper emphasis on the ordinary, extraordinarily, we need to be mindful of our deeper purpose. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We need to reclaim that we are called and sustained by leaning into the love and providence of God. That nothing is insignificant, nothing too mundane or apart from His movements.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>I had to prepare the chicken for dinner..</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>Yet another pause, another means to fulfill a task oriented toward personal holiness. </i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For a mother, especially as a mother at home full-time, the call to holiness is evident in every natural rhythm of my day. Balance and structure is a primary necessity to be able to have peace, and so this has been source of much clarity for me in order to see the moments that welcome a call to holiness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">For those, who present the task as near impossible do a tremendous disservice to themselves, and primarily place limitations on the goodness of God's graces that are especially near to us, should we desire to remain in Him. There are practical means to living this out. It belongs and begins in prayer. Because alone, we learn quite quickly that we sink without this. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">There is need then to practically make time to sit with God.Even if ever briefly , formally in prayer. One must strive to make that important and a priority. It is the fuel and the source of anything good that we will do throughout the day. If God is not primary in our order of things then secondary items in comparison only spiral out of control. The yearning for <i>"me time"</i> as often pitched by our secular society, is truly a starvation for time with God. The more we avoid this, the more sense of motherhood as a burden surfaces.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> Most of what I learned practically about my vocation, oddly came from observing the monastic life, prior to even knowing I was called to marriage, let alone to motherhood. The natural rhythm of work and prayer (<i>ora et labora</i>) was incredibly helpful to understand and recognize the fundamental sustenance of God's grace through prayer, to endure work, which was not separate from the prayer itself, but only the manifestation of prayer in the practical. The service of our hands is the offering we make to God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I sat across from an old monk in my young adulthood, and he shared with me how he was greatly moved by a woman who had come to the Abbey with her <b>TWELVE</b> children and her husband. They were annual retreatants. Her children were of varying ages. And there was a newborn. As he spoke to me, I was amazed by his amazement at her sacrifice, not that it isn't heroic, because goodness.........I can't begin to claim how many ways it indeed is. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">But what struck him the most was the thought of rising in the middle of the night to feed a newborn baby. He said to me <i><b>"You have really got to have a profound love for someone to be able to do this, joyfully, and lovingly, and not despise it".</b></i> I did not offer much to that, as I couldn't claim experience yet to know what such a love, was. But I quickly thought of his life, and this is where the call to holiness, became quite evident. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I was amazed by his awe, precisely because this is a man who has woken every day for nearly 60 years then, at 2am to pray his Vigils, without fail, without complaint, simply with a fullness of love for the Lord. If he could do that for the God that he "cannot see" , then how much more gracious is motherhood in giving to us this life, this infant, whom we see, hear cry, and can wake for in those early hours, during the early phases of development to hold and caress, and to love?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> This to me began my formation in motherhood. Long before a vow was even a thought. It resonated deeply with me there, and it remained.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">It has been the source of tremendous courage and importance. The sacrifice of another that we experience helps us to endure our own. It is for such that we do not journey alone to holiness but as a Church at large. It is by each of us being faithful to the vocations we have and the call to personal holiness that encouragement is fostered.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>My husband came home from his meetings hungry</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>By this point I was sitting with a coffee and quite enjoying myself, so this moment particularly demanded me to put my thoughts into action and to serve and tend to him lovingly. There would perhaps be nothing more troubling than reading about holiness in our personal vocations and having it take us away from doing what brings forth our holiness. I found renewed joy in his grumbling hunger, and the opportunity to serve.</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Part of the freedom and enjoyment of fulfilling the very demanding role of motherhood is in growing in an understanding of it's dignity and value. We can only recognize such by remaining near to God. And in having a practical sense of what holiness is and the clarity to see that the opportunity greets us daily. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>The kids woke up from their nap</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>At this point I put the exhortation away and tended to my children. I was just about done my reading though. My son awoke with the most horrifying poo, there was nothing more grounding and humbling. There is great holiness in praising the poo. Though it may be often tough to "doo doo" ;)</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Go to Joseph"</i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Holiness manifests in the ordinary. The means to see this begins by starting the day with time in the Lord. It is the foundation of peace to lovingly endure what comes. If you can get to daily Mass this is also very helpful. I always tell moms to keep near to the Blessed Mother, but on Easter Sunday I received a message from a priest in Rome, at the bottom of his signature was "Ite Ad Joseph" , it resonated with me. Quite often I have petitioned him for my husband's vocation as a man and father, but I see him now as a very helpful intercessor for us mothers. For what better care can we expect than from a saint who cared for the most Blessed Virgin Mary, and our Lord Jesus? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">May we all strive daily to be faithful to what is presented to us as a means for our good, God's glory, and our long journey to becoming holy.</span><br />
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-57422671303162980372018-03-30T10:18:00.001-04:002018-03-30T10:18:09.932-04:00Help Us To Know You Dead. By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Today we stop to pay homage to Your going.</span></div>
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The sun shines intensely and it's wounding, radiant with reason for it's being.</div>
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Burnt offering proclaiming God's goodness,</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">and the darkness of Your endured absence.</span></div>
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To the tomb , to the tomb, dead within us.</div>
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Weeping without hope, insensible despair.</div>
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Hidden from this great unknown</div>
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Yet, known to us it is by grace of time , </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">how unmerited it seems.</span></div>
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The dream they wept for </div>
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we live out daily.</div>
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All of this faith, all of our disbelief</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">woven in the experience of Cross to tomb</span></div>
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We slumber there in disobedience of the garden </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Trembling with the obedient consent You prayed in yours.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
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While they mourned the loss of their hope</div>
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We mourn in the disbelief that is frequently ours.</div>
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Standing at the Cross in solidarity, </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">mourning at the tomb in confused offering .</span></div>
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Messy praise ,and faithless glory, unknown Lord.</div>
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At times we come so unprepared.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">What we know to call good emerges from this darkness .</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Why have You told the sun to shine so brightly today?</span><span style="font-size: 11pt;"> </span></div>
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Haunted by the grace of Your rising</div>
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Please Lord , help us to know You dead!</div>
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Help us to see Your lifeless and bloody body offered. </div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Help us to stand beside our Mother, Your Mother , </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">help us to feel that sword!</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Help us help to lay you in the tomb...</span></div>
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Just so maybe, for once, we can purify what we think we own in faith</div>
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Yet lack to claim by love.</div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-26962255842348367472018-03-27T05:10:00.002-04:002018-03-27T05:18:43.629-04:00Remembering The Cross. By: C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A spirit of irreverence toward God increases to the measure that one lives mindless of the Cross.</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Cross that we can often be mindless of bleeds for our attention. Not just a look of acknowledgement but of trembling reverence, of complete and honest submission in whatever capacity we have received to offer ourselves. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">This remembering, though not pretty or comfortable is a necessity of our spiritual life and faith in Christ . It is by this alone that we begin to grasp the fragments of the understanding available to us about the height of Christ's radical love.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Love is taught here.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Love is revealed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Given life, learned in the giving up of Christ's life for us.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Cross is our unified place of belonging. It is the inescapable reality of our humanity . We , would rather suffer it without naming it, live chased by its shadow but keep running on our own esteem.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Silly we are to run from such love. Strange love no doubt , but only in meditation of it do the implications of this love unfold to us, s</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">haped as a cross.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><i>"Do this is in memory of me" </i> becomes the necessity of remembering our belonging. The harness to our striving toward sanctity, and our encouragement along the way toward the eternal end. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">What we gain by our nearness to Calvary is the gift of the third day, the Resurrected Bread to consume and sustain us. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Liturgy is the place we walk this journey from the incarnation to the resurrection , intentionally. In this fullness and this completed mystery, yet ever hidden, we're made ready to see what has been eternally left to us.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Do we know Who is among us? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Are we aware of what is taking place?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We speak of encountering Jesus, we speak of authentic witnesses. He is met in the Calvary</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> of our hearts an encounter all consuming , we must consent to be attentive to this greeting. This eternal encounter. At the table of Christ is where witnesses are made, where the Apostles were fed with necessary remembrance, and where transformation is radiated; from what dwells in the interior, and not from the peripheral matters we often select to be consumed by.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The priest at the altar carries us to this remembering, Fathers to us, Sons in the Son, to give us a nourishment eternal.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">We suffer from infinite longings in those areas of finite limitations. Only in relationship with the infinite can we sober ourselves to the uses of our finite things, our journey here, and of Calvary's visitation to us.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Eucharist is the Son, our light, so much the sun risen on the third day, conquering evil and darkness, not absolving us of our suffering, but claiming us as beloved. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The Eucharist. Father lifts the Son before us, in this rising mirrors that of the sun , expelling all darkness, redeeming so much by His light. This spotless , unblemished Eucharist that we gather to consume even before the sun is risen shines eternally for us even if the sun outside does not. There is such an important grace here, this is the only essential Light for us. This is what sustains us even if darkness was all we could perceive outside of Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">In the priests hands is lifted the Son, filling the faithful with rays of love, mercy, hope, and belonging.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">A grace of </span><i style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">"keeping watch"</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> with Christ . Of standing at the foot of the Cross while others fled.</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Stand there first fixed at the Cross. The love is agonizing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Irreverence toward God begins in our forgetting of the Cross. You will know how to receive with an awe of reverence the Bread of Life, the love of Jesus, when you remember to remember the Cross.</span></div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2452787668951177456.post-19863825512404746852018-03-08T13:32:00.000-05:002018-03-08T13:32:04.761-05:00International Women's Day and One Universal Woman. By:C.C.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b style="font-family: Andalus, serif; font-size: 13pt;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;">W</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;">h</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #1c1c1c;">en</span></span><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal;"><span style="color: #333333;"> woman lives mindless of her divine purpose all of man suffers the confusion of it's natural order.</span></span></b></div>
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Jesus, in His encounter with women at varying points in Scripture touches them with a profound sense of dignity, entrusting to them on more than one occasion the hiddeness of His majesty that through</div>
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them was further revealed.</div>
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Women by their very design make visible the invisible to man, and in the fertility of their ordained ability of receptivity to life bring forth, even in spiritual ways, a depth of understanding and sensitivity to the movements of the Spirit that ultimately encourage man to uphold all that is entrusted to him by God.</div>
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Through Jesus’ encounter particularly with the Samaritan woman, the woman caught in adultery, and Mary Magdalene there is a restoration by His touch to return to that divine origin and dignity that they had been created in, by calling them from the bondage of sin and into the fullness of His grace.</div>
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There is great intentionality in the way that Jesus appears to these women, and what unfolds after these encounters.</div>
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Through the Samaritan woman many unbelievers came to believe, and Mary Magdalene was the one to bear witness to the most important moment in all of history and the reason for our rejoicing. I find great symbolism in the way that our Lord made himself apparent to these women, to go forth and carry the news to man that he may believe and come to faith, and even endure in it.</div>
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There is a sacrament born in the life breathed into them by Christ’s presence that blesses those who bore witness to it. They, in tremendous ways brought the Good News to men. They, through the encounter of the nearness of God made visible the invisible power of the Lord. The souls of these women and their receptivity is the fertile ground that our Lord plants seeds of His truth.</div>
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Though I am much ignorant of “feminine theology” and also the direction that a lot of it seems to take. I am struck primarily by the ways in which a false sense of feminism has crept into the Church, and into the minds of women, this idea that there is an inequality of roles, that there is need first and foremost to be as man. And to ultimately fulfill duties that our Lord never ordained to us as women. God in his design made us “helpers” to man, to be as partners, to receive life physically and reveal the majesty of God’s blessing, tangible evidence of a miraculous God through the body of the woman. This, I see as an important point that translates even in to the spiritual, into the mystical reality of Christ.</div>
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I see a tremendous suffering of ignorance to the truth and role of women as willed by God. There is one woman alive who has boldly shared her sentiments on this matter with whom I agree greatly. And this is Dr. Alice Von Hildebrand. I worry there are far too few women imbued with the sense of understanding that she holds, and as she nears her end it is a blessing that she has left us with the abundance of her words upon pages and pages that will endure beyond her time on earth.</div>
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I recall a lecture I heard of hers where she spoke about the creation of Adam and Eve, she spoke to those initial days in the garden and brought us into the moment of God’s creation of man and woman, identifying that Adam was created from “the slime of the earth”, and that “Eve had the dignity of being made from the human person”. Eve was created by God through man, through part of his body, the body that God had made from the earth, and in this wondrous creation, from the rib, and thus the dignity of the body was made Eve. She spoke to this to begin highlighting the initial glory already belonging to woman. Her thought continued in Adam’s naming of Eve <i>“Mother of all the living’,</i> this lingers in my mind as a key point, and a necessary point of remembering, that even though woman suffers the wounds of original sin, nothing can eliminate this point of potential or even divine purpose of being called to be “Mother of all the living”,even in a culture where women have too often become the handmaid’s of death through killing the life of their womb.</div>
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Vonhildebrand, a lover of St.Augustine went on to allude to his comments regarding the temptation in the garden, and while he suggested that Satan came to Eve because she was the weaker sex, Vonhildebrand differs in that she was able to see Satan’s coming to Eve as a means of highlighting the power of woman’s influence over man, for good, or for evil.</div>
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She sees this approach to the woman in light of the great threat women are to Satan’s designs, because through woman comes all life, through woman is mirrored God’s glory in a profound way exceeding that of man. She speaks of this in relation to the ability to beget life within the womb, and reminds us that everything God touches, especially in regards to the potential of conception is sacred, immensely sacred and calls for a “trembling respect”.</div>
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When we come to view woman in light of having the capacity for the greatest influence over man, the chaos we suffer from today and many of the issues surfacing arise from this forgetting of woman’s divine purpose, by women themselves.</div>
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Satan comes not as a serpent in the garden, but in cunning, tremendous ways to cloud the concept of the feminine dignity and divine purpose that consequently leads man to roam around in the filth from where he was drawn.</div>
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In numerous ways there is an outpouring of women seeking worth and dignity in areas to claim some lofty status of headship, especially in areas of the Church, in my opinion this is pursued completely ignorant to the reverence necessary to hold man in his designated place and fulfill humbly the immensity of the role entrusted to them as women of Christ. When woman becomes the antagonist to man she is no longer helper, she is no longer “Mother of All the living”.</div>
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There is One Woman through Whom we must pass to understand our role as women of God and this is the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. When we seek to be near Her and to grow in the virtues that she so taught by her witness, then we uphold the role within the Church that God willed for us. To imbue it with the gift of life, to receive in the hiddeness and fragility, by our nearness to God, the eternal truths made visible by faithful servitude.</div>
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There is One Mother of The Church, One Divine Woman deserving of the role to sit beside the alter of Christ. That woman fails at large to recognize the magnitude of her worth and divine purpose is reflective that she has forgotten her tremendous belonging to the Maternity of Mary. What does it mean to be a woman of God, and His beloved daughter, but to uphold the dignity of ourselves by seeking to unfold the mystery that we are in Him, being helpers to man by utilizing our gifts in accordance to their design. By carrying the good news entrusted to us, by being a “mother of all living” and caring prayerfully for the many sons of God through whom we receive the Living Word and Bread of Life.</div>
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Celestehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13453641862004243022noreply@blogger.com0