Be Midbar

I went to class with my mom today at the Major Seminary, and needless to say, it was awesome sitting in that class room. So many Holy guys just giving God a chance to work in their lives. And there is something interesting about hearing a lecture on scripture where the background theme is "how can I take this to a congregation and how can this help me in my Sunday preaching?"

Anyway, we were talking Numbers (like the book in the Bible, not math) and I (always paying attention) wrote a small reflection, enjoy!

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It is in the wilderness, the wasteland where God Provides.

The place where there is no protection, no food; the place overrun with the wild and with the untammed. There in that place there is only room for trust.

When our lives are full of turmoil, when chaos rules our every moment. When our future path is unmade and unwalked. When we can barely see the next step. We find ourselves in the wilderness of life, scared and unsure but needed to move forward, it is there that we need to trust and seek God.

We are supposed to call out to him, like the Israelites in the desert wandering, We must shout, "Lord I'm here and need provisions, Lord I need your light, I need your support, I trust you, but also need your presence."

In the wilderness and chaos of the live we lives - Calling out to God and trust in him are essential and through that we will find peace.

M18, p&f, love

We are creation made out of LOVE &
called to carry that love to ALL we meet.
If we are bringing the LOVE then GOD will also be present.

We were created with Gifts&Talents through which we experience and bring God to :::others:::. If, however, they become the ->center<- of our lives, we hinder our growth in GOD and in LOVE.

With God at the ->center<- of our Lives
EVERY MOMENT becomes and opportunity to grow Closer to Christ.
Let's find where our Christ centered life is leading.

Once discerned, don't let any
selfishness...pride...
other person...reservations...
or any type of FEAR

:::STOP YOU::: from following the CALL.

Because w.a.l.k.i.n.g. that p.a.t.h. is where you find happiness,
as you give more&more
of yourself
to GOD.

M18 ::: Surrender to LOVE ::: TAP the BACK

The Invitation - Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I went on a retreat called Guidance earlier in the year. On the retreat, one of the speakers used the poem entitled "The Invitation" by Oriah Mountain Dreamer. It is a beautiful Poem, and I hope to come in and edit this post with my reactions at some point, but until then, here is the poem:

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the center of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shriveled and closed
from fear of further pain.

I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.

I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.

It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.

I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.

I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.

It is a good poem, and very deep. What ever readers I have - It's your turn to reflect - comment, I'd love to see what you think :)

between two Eucharists

It is weeks like this when I rely on prayers and rely on Christ.

I found a quote that resonated with me as I walked out down the Campus Ministry hallway at 3:00 when I was done studying for the night.

"I can endure anything
between two Eucharists."
- Dorthy Day

I don't know much about Dorthy Day; nothing more than she was a Catholic who was involved with the poor, who worked for social justice, was fairly modern, and founded the Catholic Worker newspaper. The quote resonated with me as I walked back to my dorm and gave the the strength to not fall into despair with my overwhelming week.

It is a beautiful thought: "I can endure anything." But it comes with the knowledge that I will be fed again and given the strength of our savior by consuming the Eucharist. I can do all things though Christ who strengthens me, says Paul. How true that is when our lives begin to revolve around the strength - spiritual, physical, and emotional- that we are given at each celebration of the Mass. How thankful are we? Do we hide how much we rely on our savior? even to him, are we scared to admit it. Weakness - an anti-value of our culture. We must be strong, self sufficient according to them. But how different are we supposed to be in the eyes of Christ. Reliant on our savior, childlike looking to Christ to guide and and support us each day.

It is truly a gift given to us. The Eucharist didn't have to happen. Christ could have come and then left, but instead he knew there would be centuries of persecution, wars that destroyed so much of mankind, famines, natural disasters, and on an individual's level, the loss of a child, the feeling of anxiety, unemployment, fear of future, and even midterm weeks. And because he knew that, he gave us himself to give us strength. The Cross is where we find salvation, and the Eucharist is where we find strength to always remember to live in that saving grace.

The times that are emotionally trying, that are physically taxing, the days when you look around and don't understand how you got where you are, or where you are supposed to be going, it is those times that the Eucharist calls us. "Come, child, rest in me for this hour, do not think, just open your heart and allow me to love you right here. All will be well, find strength in this gift, rest in me. I will soon be resting in you and carrying you though the day."

With Christ with in us, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, we can endure anything between two Eucharists.

what does it mean to be Catholic today

Catholic.
A word that means so many things, carries infinite connotation in today's world.
Catholic.
A Catholic is Christian. So Christ is my Lord. That in itself carries a truck load of baggage. With Christ as Lord I am called to action. To sacrifice. To be Christ for others. How?
Catholic.
There is mass, there is prayer, there is Eucharist. Not any of these things are set as idea for the capital "C" church especially. But each has a Catholic idea and implementation. A worship, unique in ritual and style. A prayer (more like a few hundred) recited word for word, around the world, in every language heard. A Eucharist, a person not a symbol, our God - divine made flesh - human in bread - matter.
All of this... Catholic
Catholic. Universal, community, God and Man, a kiss in the temporal and transcendent captured in the moment: "This is my body."
Church
Catholic.

May the Lord accept the sacrifice,

ps. sorry about the font size change, it's not letting me fix it

"Pray, brethren, that our sacrifice my be acceptable to God, the Almighty Father."
"May the Lord accept the sacrifice, at your hands, for the praise and glory of His name, for our good and the good of all His Church."

When it comes time for Communion, we are not only partaking in the sacrifice of Christ, but also of ourselves.


On the altar, Christ comes down. It is the eternal kiss between divinity and humanity. Christ's one sacrifice spans all of eternity. It is not a reenactment of the passion, but a participation in it. Through the sacrifice of the Mass we are PRESENT at the table of the last supper, the 40 lashes, and the final breaths of the Cross. Christ is outside of time, and so while He was on the cross, He gave up his life for each and every Mass, each and every person. We are tapping into the divine love of the ultimate sacrifice. A gift fully given that will never be fully understood.


But it is not only Christ who is present on the altar. We are also called to make an offering. The words italicized above commonly are understood to pertain to the bread and wine, the offering that the priest will consecrate allowing the congregation to take part in Christ's sacrifice. However, we can also take this time with in the Mass to lay something on the altar. We pray "Accept the sacrifice" of our day, our frustrations, our joys, our pains. We offer our lives to Christ, telling Him, "It is all for you. I may not be a missionary, a priest, a nun; I am only a student, parent, worker. I have no conversion story. I am not Paul. I simply live, loving you, each day." We lay down THAT life, knowing our faults, and asking the Lord to accept the effort we put forward as we strive to become more rooted in Christ and fall deeper into Love.

We consecrate ourselves. Asking that as the bread and wine are transformed, we may also be transformed. We undergo a 'transubstantiation' of sorts. The bread and wine- physical, natural, human- becomes the Body and Blood - divine, the soul of Christ. We consume this into ourselves. And we the congregation of Christ - physical, natural, human- open ourselves to the grace of the divine, the soul of Christ, and it's ability to change us.

It does not happen with out our will. The divine cannot transform us, unless we allow it. Our lives are our own, feeble, human, weak, until we allow Christ, the Great High Priest, to consecrate them and work through our hands, our hearts, our selves to love all of humanity. By allowing Him to consecrate our lives, by offering ourselves to Him, we are then more prepared and able to live out the call and mission Christ has given to us. To LIVE and LOVE all for Christ, in all that we do, all we say, and all we are.

Mile 8

It’s an interesting feeling. Freeing. Intense. Calm.

Getting back in shape is tiring. Running, and running, and running some more. Bad run after bad run with no stopping or relief. It’s a hard thing to run through. But persistence gives way to the sweet feeling of strength and grace.

That feeling of being on mile 8, with the sweat of miles past on your shirt and brow, you keep focus ahead on the path that shrinks around the bend. No longer are you counting down the steps the minutes to the end. You look ahead instead for a farther goal. You can trust your legs, your self to carry you not to the finish, but really anywhere. You look down and see your feet – one two, one, two, one, two –over and over the song of the sidewalk sung with your shoes, unique to you.

The created wind on your face, ever changing with your pace is a reminder of your power and a display of your grace. With the care of a nurse, as self trained you may be, you take a quick diagnosis of your body, muscles, lungs, joints, insides. When the results come back all clear a smile creeps across your face. Shoulders back, hips forward, strides long. The day is back, you are once again a runner. You look down at your legs, powerful and strong, knowing they can handle it.

You press on, at that moment nothing can stop you.