Two days ago I left Rimini and travelled to the Italian Alps, the town of La Thuile, within a few kilometers of Mont Blanc.
This is a week of "spiritual exercises" with almost 500 people from around the world. There is an intensity to the days with the depth of input and the robust and real nature of the conversations. The company is inspiring, and the food, drink and surroundings are helpful to say the least.
Once again Intnet access is very limited.
Monday, August 29, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Rimini: message from Benedict XVI
Pope: Nothing to Fear About the Future
Cardinal Bertone Sends Papal Message to Rimini Meeting
VATICAN CITY, AUG. 23, 2011 (Zenit.org).- It is possible to look to the future with confidence -- because Christ has wrenched man's destiny from darkness.
This is the affirmation Benedict XVI is sharing with the Meeting of Friendship Among Peoples, which is under way this week in Rimini, Italy.
In a papal message of Aug. 10, sent by the Pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Holy Father stated that "man cannot live without the certainty of his destiny."
The message was a reflection on existence and certainty, as the theme of this 32nd Rimini Meeting is "And existence becomes an immense certainty."
"On what certainty can man reasonably found his existence?" the message asked. "What is, at bottom, the hope that does not deceive? With the advent of Christ the promise that nourished the hope of the people of Israel attains its fulfillment, it assumes a personal face. In Christ Jesus, man's destiny was wrenched definitively from the nebulosity that surrounded him. Through the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Father unveiled to us definitively the positive future that awaits us."
Cardinal Bertone said that the Risen Christ is the "ultimate and definitive foundation of existence, the certainty of our hope."
"Only the certainty that is born of faith enables man to live the present intensely and, at the same time, to transcend it, perceiving in it the reflection of the eternal to which time is ordered," he stated. "Only the recognized presence of Christ, source of life and destiny of man, is capable of reawakening in us the nostalgia of Paradise and thus to project the future with confidence, without fear and false illusions."
The papal message asserted that Christians today are more than ever called to give "reason for the hope that is in us."
"The Church, rendering present in time the mystery of God's eternity, is the appropriate subject of this certainty," the cardinal explained. "In the ecclesial community the pro-existence of the Son of God is reached; in it eternal life, to which all existence is destined, can already be experienced."
Heaven, he continued, is the "definitive fulfillment of friendship with Christ and among ourselves."
Citing a French religious, Cardinal Bertone said that "heaven is, in truth, where Christ is. Thus the heart that loves desires no other joy than to live always close to the beloved."
"Thus," he stated, "existence, is not a blind proceeding, but it is a going to the one we love. Hence, we know where we are going, toward whom we are directed, and this orients the whole of our existence."
Message above
taken with permission and donation
Catholicism: life in abundance
Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.
My soul is thirsting for you, O Lord my God
It is difficult to describe the gathering. Can you imagine a world expo, with the crowds and exhibits, the talks and displays. Then consider that all the talks, and exhibits are “Catholic” ones.
Now this may stretch our minds a bit, but probably only because we tend to think of “Catholic” as a narrow form of life.
In fact the opposite is true.
To be a Catholic, is to seek the fullness of life. We know that this fullness of life is offered to us as an eternal reality. But we struggle to know what this means in the present.
To be a Catholic, is to live fully all that God has offered us.
Contemporary western Catholicism is experienced by many as a restrictive existence. To some, it seems that Catholic teachings require us to say no to everything that we are really attracted to.
This is not true.
Most of us, much of the time, (indeed all of us at least some of the time), have little idea of what we are really attracted to. For many people, “life” is a process of us trying to make ourselves happy. We do this by seeking after whatever looks as though it might ease the stresses of existence. We grasp at anything that might relive the burdens of the days, and ease the loneliness of the nights.
We reach a moment of opportunity when we realize that none of our efforts are working. Nothing that we try (in our quest to find happiness) is delivering what it promises.
This moment is often marked by apparent collapse. All that we have spent our lives for seems to have come to nothing. We may feel that our relationships and our work have disappointed us. Perhaps we wonder if we have ‘chosen the wrong vocation'?
At this point we make a false presumption. We assume that something is wrong. We might blame ourselves. perhaps we blame others. Well, there may be some things wrong in these small scenarios, but even we we have done everything 'right', we reach the point when we realise that there must be more to life. In fact we begin to suspect what is actually true: we are designed to be incomplete without God.
The little restlessnesses and dissatisfactions that we feel are an indication of a much greater reality. Without God nothing has lasting meaning. Living without God is like living in the world, without the sun. It is impossible to see with any clarity. All my efforts at planting and tending fail to reach harvest.
This is the moment of great hope. Now we are ready to consider the life that we were created for rather than spending all for a life that we create.
And I suspect that this is what brings crowds to the Rimini Meeting. The exhibits are robustly Catholic in the best and broadest sense of that experience.
Yesterday I attended a conference (along with a couple of thousand other people) that considered the way to growth in family life. The speakers included Catholics and Communists, politicians and diplomats. Each speaker was invited to present the best of their convictions.
In this ‘dialogue’ an attractive truth emerged from the thousands of words.
One speaker emphasized the importance of government-supported child care-for babies so that mothers could go out to work and once again make a “useful” contribution to society.
One speaker emphasized the importance of government-supported child care-for babies so that mothers could go out to work and once again make a “useful” contribution to society.
Another contributor spoke of the pressure on families and offered suggestions of friendship for families so that parents could be supported in the raising of their children.
It was evident to the audience that the more attractive offering, was that which is (in the midst of much criticism) promoted by the Church. As one contributor often stressed: ‘let us keep in mind: what is the most important thing?’
The overwhelming theme of the Rimini meeting is friendship. The gathering is extraordinary in so many ways. Conversations with strangers over food and coffee (in the many eating and drinking areas) is marked by a deep sense of companionship.
While language can seem to be a barrier (I can still do little more than order a beer in Italian), there is a deeper common language. We are together on a journey that has passed beyond the mirage of seeking happiness in the offerings of a secular world.
Strangers and friends here chat over coffee and beer about beauty and truth as the objective realities that lead us most urgently to God.
http://www.meetingrimini.org/eng
http://www.meetingrimini.org/eng
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Rimini Meeting
Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Rimini for the annual meeting.
Today a full day at The Meeting.
The video clip gives a taste of the experience.
Monday, August 22, 2011
attraction and resistance to God
I was asked to write this article this week for a magazine.
Blog readers get to see it before publication.
I hope you find it helpful.
J
attraction and resistance
in life with God
In every moment, any human is motivated by attraction, or by resistance. Those who are novices in life’s journey simply flow with attraction and act against whatever they consider to be distasteful.
The prisoner of this behavior lives compulsively by the motto: ‘if it feels good, do it, if it feels bad, avoid it.”
feelings
We ignore our feelings at our peril. However the feelings that are uppermost in the human consciousness, are simply a starting point for discernment. Feelings are the raw material with which we discern movement towards or away from God.
At this conscious level it may be that God is calling me to do what feels difficult. Perhaps painful, at least on the ‘skin’ of my heart.
It may be instead that the evil spirit is shrewdly enticing me to evil by attracting me to something that feels good.
the subtle tempter
As Ignatius highlights in his rules for discernment, the evil spirit can be a subtle tempter. If I am only beginning a life of faith, the evil one does not have to try too hard to derail my efforts and confuse my desires. But as one becomes more aware of the subtleties and intimacies of life with God, the technique of the evil spirit also becomes more refined.
As we practice the presence of God, we begin to see with the eyes of the heart. Now we see false advertising for what it is: so much of what the world offers, fails to deliver what it promises.
At this ‘wake-up’ moment, we begin to grow in awareness. We notice that when we follow our deepest desire, we are never disappointed. What appears to be the ‘hard road’ can pave the path to joy beyond my imagining.
I begin to realize that my feelings, at first glance, appear to impel me towards what promises everything, yet fails to deliver.
This is a painful and wonderful moment of awakening. I begin to ask questions that lead me beyond my previous limited existence. ‘There must be more to life?’ ‘What do I really want from life?’ ‘What am I created for?’
impulses & feelings
A difficulty can be that most people equate feelings with impulses. An animal responds instinctively and cannot ‘feel’ in a human sense. An animal behaves impulsively. An animal cannot savour the life of the heart. This life of the Spirit of God is reserved for humans.
Human happiness can never be found by instinctively satisfying our animal instincts and impulses. The human heart is created for much more. As St. Augustine proclaims: ‘you have made us for yourself O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you’.
At the deepest level of the human heart, our longing and desire is for God, and for all that God offers us. This unfulfilled desire is an intrinsic part of the human condition. It is not a flaw. Longing is the characteristic of the human heart. This desire is planted in us by God, to direct us to the purpose of our human existence, that is, life with God.
orientation to God: the fruit of true desire
Our deepest desire is our personal compass. This compass is a divine gift. It is our heart-experienced desire that orients us to God. Understanding this desire is the key to human purpose and happiness.
I might think that my desire is for money, for food, possessions, for sex or even for good wine. These gifts of God are all good in their time and place. But none of these gifts, (or even all of them together on a ‘busy’ evening) can deliver the satisfaction they seem to promise.
At the surface, our impulses (often the only motivations in our consciousness) are formed by fashion and fear. Most often these urges are little more than the product of our culture and upbringing.
delayed pleasure – a step on the path of maturity
A healthy child learns that it is not a bad thing to delay pleasure.
The cake looks attractive. But it will taste even better if I spend (at least a few moments) looking forward to eating it. The anticipation has a pleasure all of its own.
Then fear kicks in. If I do not eat the cake now, perhaps someone else will grab it and I will miss out?
As the child grows, she also learns the pleasure of sharing. I do not need to eat all the cake to be happy. I give some of the cake to my friend. Now I have some cake, and my relationship with my friend is also strengthened.
Then I realize that, at its best, the cake can bring happiness only momentarily. While I feel attraction to the cake, and I want to eat it, this is not my deepest desire. There is something else at work. I realize that I am being held in the loving embrace of the one who will see that ‘I have the cake, and eat it too.’
My greatest maturity is reached when I seek opportunities to give all I have and possess, to another. In this decision of the will my superficial feelings are transcended and I relax in the embrace of Jesus.
When I leave this embrace, and grasp at whatever appears to offer satisfaction, I am left feeling empty and lonely.
When I relax into the embrace and provision of the one who loves me more than I could ever dream, then I experience all that I have ever desired.
the tension of the human condition
To be caught in the tension between attraction and resistance, is a mark of the ‘fallen’ human condition. Most of the time we don’t think about this. We simply move through the day responding to the demands we experience. We like to do what attracts us. We try to avoid what we do not like.
the forces of love or of fear
But take a moment to think about it: in every moment, I am motivated by attraction or resistance.
Let’s put it another way. The forces of both love and fear (which is the opposite of love) are acting upon me in every moment.
So what am I to do? Is every decision I take to be determined by these inevitable forces? Faced with the strength of such pressures, what freedom do I really have?
Well, for a start I need to acknowledge that my idea of what constitutes both love and fear is severely distorted.
At times I fear love. In other moments I seem to hold on to the motivation of fear. I can be uncontrollably motivated by the fear of failure and vulnerability.
There are times when I resist love. In other moments I am trapped by resistance. In these moments thoughts of anger and revenge flood my consciousness.
In the midst of this human condition, what does it mean for me to be a disciple of Jesus?
This is where the good news meets our human experience. Yes, we do live with these tensions, but Christ offers us another way. He offers us a freedom that transforms and transcends the snares of sin.
If I seek to follow Christ, I am choosing not to be slave to fears and fashion. Neither am I opting to follow a path of moral guidelines and religious practices. This is a commonly held, and ultimately fatal misunderstanding of the Christian life.
In choosing Christ I am seeking to live in relationship with Jesus. Like the first disciples, we choose to follow an attraction. No doubt fears floated in the minds of Andrew and John. But they had encountered the ultimate relationship. They felt at home in the loving gaze of Jesus. They had found the relationship that they had spent their lives seeking. And when he said “come and see”, they could not resist.
the art of spiritual direction
And this is the heart of human existence.
Too often when we say that we are accompanying pilgrims on their journey of faith, we are doing little but supporting their superficial attractions and fears. This happens when we seek little for ourselves but the gratification of our own compulsions.
A spiritual director is one who themselves has a greater attraction to the objective reality of the life of God (as reflected in the life of the directee), than to the establishment and maintenance of a positive relationship with the directee. By the grace of God there will not be a tension, since the pilgrim will (ideally) also be aware of their own deepest desire for God.
By God’s grace the directee will be grateful for the critical encouragement of a spiritual companion.
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
All I have and call my own.
You have given all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.
To you, Lord, I return it.
Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
Give me only your love and your grace,
that is enough for me.
St. Ignatius of Loyola
below is a youtube clip of St. Louis Jesuits singing
this prayer of Ignatius
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Assumption homily
We all know the story well. Two thousand years ago, Mary encountered God when the angel Gabriel, God’s messenger, asked her to be the mother of the savior. Mary said YES. This is the Angelus prayer: we pray “The WORD became FLESH, and lived among us!”
Nine months later, in a Bethlehem stable, Jesus was born. All this happened, because Mary said YES. Mary followed an attraction that did not initially seem reasonable: to say YES, to an ANGEL? That is crazy for sure!
But MARY knew that the hungers of her heart could only be satisfied by following her DEEPEST ATTRACTION. And so, “the word became flesh, and lived among us.”
But today is the feast of something MORE: the Assumption of Mary to heaven. I am sure that most of the thousands of homilies given today for this feast will focus only on Mary’s YES to God. (the Annunciation) These homilies may be very good. But they miss the point of this feast of Mary assumed body and soul into heaven.
So, why do we celebrate the ASSUMPTION of Mary BODY and SOUL into heaven? (these are the Church’s words for this feast: Mary assumed “BODY and SOUL into heaven”).
The reason is VERY VERY important. It is this:
Humans too often make the fatal mistake of separating body and soul. There is something very disordered in us (the consequence of original sin), that seeks to separate our bodies from our soul (or spirit). This has disastrous consequences for human life.
Such a separation renders the human person INCOMPLETE. In fact when we separate body and soul we are no longer living a human life. Perhaps we are living only in a physical body with no consciousness of the life of our soul….so we live like animals?
OR, another serious mistake is that we try to live as angels. But we are NOT angels. God made us with bodies. Yes we are spirit (soul), but we are also EMBODIED. We are PHYSICAL.
Can you imagine going on vacation with only the spirits or souls of our friends. It would be crazy! It is my human BODY that incarnates me here in the Dolomites with friends. When I am here it is my BODY that enables me to speak and laugh, to share, to eat and drink, to embrace, to think, to discuss, to climb in the mountains.
Thank God for my BODY!
Yes it is true that by body gets tired. My body fails me. My hair goes grey and my teeth fall out. My limbs grow weary. My hearing is not good. My body also seems to enjoy sin. As St. Paul says, ‘I find myself not doing the very things I want to do, and doing the things I have decided not to do!” I seek comfort in all the wrong places. And the evil spirit says to me: John you need to escape from your body. Your body is a problem. The evil spirit even whispers to me: “John, your body is evil, God would prefer you to live like an angel!”
BUT this is the EVIL spirit.
INSTEAD, God is saying to me, “John, I made your body in my divine image. Your body is the place where I choose to become incarnate TODAY….I want you to use your body to eat and drink with friends, to love and to embrace…. yes your body will fail you, and this will be difficult for you, but this is no problem for me” (says God).
Just think, if Mary did not have a human body, she would not have been able to speak aloud her YES to God. If Mary did not have a human body, she would not be able to conceive, and so to mother the Messiah.
Mary knew that her meaning and purpose in life could only be lived if she placed her SOUL AND her BODY at God’s service. In this way her soul AND HER BODY was made ready, for eternal life.
And so, on this feast of the Mother of God being ASSUMED BODY AND SOUL into heaven, let us give God thanks for our bodies, since they enable us to be together in this place and to live today in the physical presence of our friends and families.
In the Creed we remember “the resurrection of the body” on the last day. Mary has led the way for us. We follow the way she has led by also saying YES to the desires that are deepest in our heart, that is our desire for all given by God.
We follow the way Mary has led by not giving in to the superficial attractions that seek to confuse and distract us.
Our friendship together this week is the sign that we want to follow: to allow our YES to God to grow.
We desire, like Mary, that our bodies be transformed by God, into the harmony, the unity of BODY AND SOUL (like Mary), in eternal love and service of God.
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