A NEW STAGE FOR "PRAYING ALONE TOGETHER"

Introduction

I was the pastor of St. Rafael's parish in South Central Los Angeles for twenty years. (1994-2014) In my retreat in my tenth year, I had a special experience with the Interior Castle of Saint Teresa of Avila. For the next ten years, I continued the study and prayer as an expression of Carmelite spirituality. I also began to invite my parishioners to join me on my journey. At the end of 2014, I finished my stay in San Rafael and went to help a friend, Father David Blanchard, in his parish in El Salvador. After a few months there, I explained to David my desire to continue sharing my experience with Teresa of Avila. He suggested that I start a blog on the topic. I didn't know what a blog was, but I started one in December 2015.

During the first few years, a certain clarity developed in my topic. It evolved into a reflection on deep personal prayer in the Carmelite Tradition of spirituality. I have been steadfast in my messaging, providing a blog every week for almost nine years. In the first four years, I had 117,000 visitors to the blog, Praying Alone Together. Last September 2024, I had more than 128,000 visitors in a month. At this moment, the blog has surpassed 4,000,000 visitors. So, obviously, there has been steady growth. Similarly, I am sure there has been steady growth among some of the faithful participants. Therefore, I am going to expand the nature of my presentation. I will offer material on contemplation, which is the result of a special gift from God on the path of spiritual growth in loyalty to Jesus Christ.

To better understand the contemplative experience, it will be useful to place it in the context of the three stages of growth in the traditional Catholic understanding of development. These periods are the Purgative, the Illuminative, and the Unitive. The Purgative stage begins with a basic conversion, one of the many on the journey. There is a new awareness of one's own sinfulness and the need for forgiveness. Prayer becomes a part of one's life. There is a growth in self-awareness. There is a turning away from sin and towards growth in virtue. This is the stage of beginning a commitment to life and deep, regular personal prayer.

Through this prayer, one begins to experience Jesus Christ as the source of new life and freedom. On the Illuminating Path, one begins to have the experience of contemplation. This new and special encounter with the enriched presence brings many special gifts. There are large areas of deeply rooted selfishness that completely resisted one's previous efforts, no matter how hard one tried. Now, with the special grace of God in the contemplative experience, a new purification takes place and removes the stubborn obstacles to God's call. The journey of the Illuminating Path manifests the enlightening powers of contemplation. From the fourth to the sixth, by Teresa The mansions in the inner castle are related to the process of purification and illumination that leads to transformation. Similarly, John of the Cross has an extensive in-depth description of the consequences of contemplation that leads to the Unitive Way in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night.

Finally, upon reaching the Unitive Way, one arrives at the true destiny of humanity, to be one with God. Here is Christian perfection through the elimination of selfishness to the extent that is possible in this life. The love of God flows through the person's life. seen in such a way that Jesus' commandment to love God and one's neighbor dominates the individual's reality.


The new goal of my blog:
I will continue presenting material on Deep Personal Prayer every two weeks. In the alternate week, I will add a new section on contemplation. This will address the movement and experience of the second stage of spiritual growth on the Illuminating Path. For the most part, readers will be able to: identify which level is most appropriate for their spiritual life.

Development I am writing all this as a pastor. Consequently, the material on the Unitive Path is well above my pay grade. I will always continue my weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel. The vision of the blog "Praying Alone Together" What does it mean today to be a good Catholic? A good Christian? A good believer? People are seeking an answer with increasing intensity these days. They want to go beyond the conventional and predictable demands of church members. It is obvious that regular attendance at services has been unsatisfactory for a large number of people, including many individuals of true convictions. Church membership and church attendance have steadily declined in our churches.


The new goal of my blog:
Most of the time, these new ventures emphasize personal needs rather than the more demanding pursuit of God. There are trends towards a fundamentalism and an approach to meditation that seek the satisfaction of indulgent self-analysis instead of the evangelical mandate of sacrificial self-transcendence. Many of these new religious entrepreneurs offer a Jesus free of any personal cost along with no concern for the poor and forgotten. Every search for God must seek God as God is, not as we want God to be. Jesus is our invitation to God, our call to the Mystery of Love. Every authentic religious experience needs to find the true God through the Way, the Life, and the Truth that is Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. This is the Jesus who invites us to join him on the road to Jerusalem. In our days, all the most authentic spiritual movements, of which there are many, share a common characteristic: a deep personal prayer. This prayer leads to an encounter with Jesus and true self-knowledge. This is the path to a more experiential, insightful, and richer life with God. Our Catholic tradition has an abundance of resources on these practices. All of them lead to the practice of contemplative prayer.

The Carmelite tradition on prayer holds a prominent place among the many spiritualities that enrich and clarify our return to our original innocence. The message of this blog is to offer this movement towards a deeper spirituality as a challenge and opportunity in a pastoral context. We need to return to the call of Vatican II to universal holiness. This will lead us to: Raise expectations for everyone. Any effort that neglects our baptism, the responsibility to seek God with our whole being, is a guarantee of mediocrity. As parish priests and parishioners and those who seek God in any authentic way, we are all called to seek God as the center of our Christian vocation. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross offer us a path, among many, that places contemplation as the most fruitful means to achieve this goal. As Doctors of the Church, they have the approval not only of the Vatican but also centuries of acceptance by the faithful. Their invitation for us on the pilgrimage to God offers a set of concrete and practical guidelines.

My invitation in this blog is for us to incorporate the following into our personal and pastoral programs. The importance of personal prayer is something that can be scheduled in any parish. Our parishes can and should be schools of prayer. People are hungry for something more. Our parishes must take advantage of this desire for a deeper spirituality. Our Catholic Church, which is heritage, has the potential to satisfy this growing hunger for a meaningful experience of God in the most reliable way.

The renewal of the liturgy has been one of the most special blessings of Vatican II. It has also been accompanied by the gift of a new appreciation of the Bible in our times. As a result of biblical studies becoming common in our parishes, people are much more comfortable with the Bible. Lectio Divina and Bible. Reading is constantly growing in the Catholic community. This is the result of a pastoral vision that has taken advantage of a hunger. This practice invites people to seek more, to delve deeper into the Mystery that burns in their hearts. We can continue expanding this pastoral vision by scaling up programs that present a call to a deeper personal prayer. This is the path to contemplation.

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THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

Lk 3:15-16, 21-22

Dear Friends in Christ, we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. This feast concludes the season of Christmas in the Church Year. The secular message of Christmas is all finished with the special sales in the few days after the 25 th . The Church has a totally different schedule and a totally different meaning for Christmas.

“The Word was made flesh.” (Jn 1:16) from the Gospel of John read in the Christmas Mass at midday, is our invitation to ponder what it means that God became human. That mystery is made even more challenging in today’s Gospel when Jesus is baptized.

Christmas means that God bought into the whole human package in the birth of Jesus. This included diapers and brushing teeth, learning how to walk and to pound a nail. At an even deeper level, it meant love and goodness were to encounter sin and evil. It meant He who is the way, the life and the truth would ultimately bring this life into conflict with ignorance and violence and their consequences in death. That the Word was made flesh means that God opened the way for us out of the darkness of our broken humanity. It was the beginning of our deliverance from death and all of its many manifestations in the evil of our daily life.

When Jesus became a baby there were consequences. Good and evil were in the final and absolute conflict. Light and darkness, so much part of our troubled journey as humans, were to play out the concluding battle. Love and hatred, which saturate our daily struggle within our hearts, within our families, within our communities and within our world have the ultimate and most consequential conflict. That the Word became flesh not only meant it would lead to the Cross but more importantly, it meant the victory of light and truth and love and life in the Resurrection.

Through Jesus, God chose to enter our reality, to share our experience. The baptism is a symbol of that sharing because a very real part of our reality is that we need forgiveness of our sins. In the Hebrew Scriptures three elements of today’s baptism of Jesus had a special role. Water, Spirit and fire were deeply connected to the purifying process. In the baptism of Jesus, these three purifying signs proclaim a new era of holiness and grace.

This beloved Son of the Father will open up a new era of healing and salvation.

In this new day that Jesus will inaugurate, Luke makes clear that prayer has a special role. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus prays often and at length. In today’s gospel, Jesus is praying when the Spirit comes upon him. Luke has Jesus praying before each of the important events on his gospel journey. Luke displays Jesus’ prayer as the condition for openness to the action of God in one’s life.

In Jesus, the seeds of victory are sown so love overcomes hatred, ignorance is sucked up into the power of the truth, and life is the last word in the conquest of death. The love of God prevails in Jesus, the Beloved Son.

We hear the Good News of this great event again today in the Preface of the Mass for the Baptism of the Lord: “For in the waters of the Jordan you revealed with signs and wonders a new Baptism, so that through the voice that came down from heaven we might come to believe in your Word dwelling among us and by the Spirit’s descending in the likeness of a dove we might know that Christ your Servant had been anointed with the oil of gladness and sent to bring the good news to the poor.”

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THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY

Mt 2:1-12

Dear Friends, The Gospel message of the feast is that all peoples are invited to the heavenly banquet. This beautiful manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles is peculiar to the Gospel of Matthew. His community was Jewish and they had become followers of Jesus. They struggled with their identity. Were they the true Jews following Jesus as the Messiah? Or were they part of the new reality that was identified as Christians? Mathew’s message in the story of the Magi is clear.

The gospel is for all humanity. What the followers of Jesus would be called was not his concern. The manifestation of the Epiphany’s message of universality is at the heart of the Christmas story.

It connects the coming of the Savior and the hunger in the human heart for deliverance from the brokenness of the human condition. The Magi were faithful to the search.

They followed the star. The Jewish leaders did not. We are all called to let go and join the pilgrimage to God where our stars come in all kinds of different forms. Yet they are united in one goal: to lead us to Jesus!

The Epiphany is commonly known as the feast of the Three Kings. The scriptural text says nothing about the number three. It also makes no mention that they are kings nor anything about their racial makeup. These are various cultural expressions developed over the centuries.

Cultural and folkloric expressions have always enriched the proclamation of the Gospel. Often, these additions have been enlightening to the basic message of salvation. On the other hand, the message also has been deeply distorted with the overlay of pietistic exaggerations and even contradictions rooted in national and cultural prejudices which often hide the star which will lead us to Jesus.

One of the major hopes of Vatican II was to get us back to the central Gospel message, to put Jesus at the center. One of the most important developments of that holy gathering occurred a decade later when Pope Paul VI gave us one of the all-time great papal documents. It was on the topic of Evangelization. Paul VI pointed out that the message of the Gospel is never free of cultural expressions but that we have to work to always go beyond any particular cultural, national or racial expression that limits the Gospel.

Whether it is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade or the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Cristo Negro of Esquipulas, or the celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes they all have a pull to limit the Gospel to some partial view of one group or nation. Today’s feast of the Epiphany opens us up to the vision of salvation for all humanity. We are invited to include everyone. This call to unity has challenged every age of the Christian journey as it does our age today.

Today’s Gospel account of the Magi is much more than a lovely tale about strange visitors coming in an unexpected way to a poor family. This is a message of Good News that informs us that this child is the long- awaited Son of David, the promised ruler and savior of Israel. He will open the gift of salvation to all peoples.

All are welcome at the table. There are no people without residential papers at the crib! All are welcome! Today’s Gospel tells us we need not travel far to seek Jesus. Exotic places do not have to be part of our search.

The Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus, is always taking place in the midst of our life. Jesus is all around us. We need only look with faith to embrace Him in our brothers and sisters especially the poor and needy among us.

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FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

Lk 2:41-52

Dear Friends. It is important to cast off the plastic-statue image of Mary to discover her true beauty in the many trials in her life. She was not walking through life with a pre-arranged script. For her, as for us, life is a long, searching struggle passing through the confusion and brokenness of reality.

One of my favorite authors offered a great insight into the humanity of Mary in his description the family at Nazareth. In the beginning there was the isolation of an overwhelmed pregnant teenager and a betrothed man who felt rejected. The birth of the child was encompassed in poverty and political intrigue. At the presentation the mother received the warning of great suffering to come. The family became political refugees in a foreign country. On their return, they were uprooted again because of fear and insecurity.

The young teenager drove the parents to desperation as he began to clarify his identity in the Temple. The mother was confused by her son’s apparent indifference at Cana. Then she continued to be befuddled as his activities were in such conflict with the traditions of the village and family. He even held others as his true mother.

Then he was rejected and executed in the height of his popularity. She was handed over to someone outside the family at the moment of his excruciating death.

Truly, Mary had no idea what the angel’s message had in store for her. On the other hand, most families cope with these kinds of disruptions and totally unexpected turmoil. It is demanding to walk, the journey in faithful love within the confines of a broken and sinful humanity.

Love demands that the family be both the source of identity and the source of independence. This holds the seeds of the “road to Jerusalem” for all family members. Mary surely did not comprehend the full consequences of her “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Lk1:38).

Yet, she lived life with the continuing openness to the mystery of God’s presence in life. For Mary, as for us, that loving presence starts and is supported by our relations in family. We need to believe and trust that God uses the power of the intimate relations within the family in all their human frailty to be a birthplace of life and love. By its very nature, the family in all its complexities is the font of the deepest love and the most consuming wounds. It is a special place to encounter God continuing to take flesh in our midst. Only love opens it up to be origin of true life and joy.

Today is not a day to bemoan all the difficulties and burdens of family life. Rather, this feast challenges each family to be open to the ever-new horizons that are the gift of family life.

Whether it is the first diaper or the first day in the nursing home, it is a mystery that only opens to its true beauty with love and self-sacrifice. Mary understood the depth of this wonder no matter what her circumstances. She again is our model of the true disciple in her simplicity of truly human life lived in love and self-giving.

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CHRISTMAS REFLECTION

Christmas means He has come to turn the darkness of our night of violence, war, poverty, destruction of our environment, hopelessness and ambiguity into a burning light of freedom, healing, hope and love. Christmas is about the Child that is born among us. It is the celebration of the most consequential event in history.

The Word has become Flesh. When we lose sight of the Child becoming one of us, our celebration quickly fades into a passing illusion. Putting Christ back into Christmas is surely the desire of most Christians. The intensity of the “Black Fridays” and “Cyber Mondays” seems to never let up. It is truly difficult to break through the message to “shop till you drop.” On a personal level, a great number of people try to balance the gross commercialism and the spiritual significance of the feast. An honest and intelligent reading of the Scriptures opens up the chasm between our celebrations and the great mystery of the feast.

The truly radical message in Luke and Matthew of the birth of Christ go wildly beyond the catchy slogan, “Put Christ back into Christmas”. We are caught in a conundrum of the incredible cultural pressure of the commercial conquest of Christmas and the simple overwhelming act of love that is the Word made flesh.

We have created a sentimental and flowery description of the birth in Bethlehem that distorts Luke’s story. The commonly accepted version hides the uprooting, poverty and deep bewilderment of Mary and Joseph. How could God allow his Son to enter the world in such destitution?

Our “Silent Night” is the sentimental interpretation of the event that leaves little room for the true message of Luke, and practically no room for Matthew’s description of the story. Both evangelists are inviting us into the deepest and truest dimension of our reality, a graciousness that is always calling us out of the darkness into the light. The evangelists’ harsh and challenging description of the birth offers a suitable backdrop for God’s ultimate conversation with a broken humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.

An important point to remember is that both Matthew and Luke describe the birth of Jesus as an overture for the entire gospel message. The child in the manger is the beginning of a journey that leads to the Messiah on the Cross. God speaks to us in both events that are of the one reality: God’s saving love for us. A few cultures capture this profound truth by using the wood of the crèche for the wood of the cross for their Good Friday celebration.

Matthew’s story emphasizes the connection of Jesus’ birth to the Jewish longing for the Messiah as the Son of David. This Messiah in Matthew is Emmanuel, God with us. The reaction to the birth, seen in the dealings of the Wise Men and Herod, prefigures all the intrigue and violence that will happen in the journey to Golgotha.

While Luke has a strong element of song and joy, the somber note in Matthew continues in the exile into Egypt and the killing of the Innocents. Mary’s infant avoids the slaughter by divine intervention only to face the Father’s will in the Garden.

Matthew’s version of the conflict of good and evil features the Holy Family and Herod. It looks back at Moses and the Pharaoh and looks forward to the saving death that concludes in the resurrection.

The world Matthew is portraying in Jesus’ birth is a portrait of our world today with our unwelcome migrants and sexual slavery, gangs and abuse in families, grossly unjust distribution of wealth and vast investment in arms, the ever-present curse of racism all crystallized in Putin’s war and the horror going on in Gaza. On top of it all, we hardly have a newscast that does not start out with the ravages of climate change.

From the moment of her call to be the Mother, Mary faced the irony of utter joy and wonder in her heart against the continual disorientation, confusion and total displacing of her plans and events in her daily life. Both Matthew and Luke are addressing the question that pervades all the Gospels: What kind of Messiah will Jesus be?

Our cultural and commercial celebration of Christmas is filled with an answer that Jesus challenged at all times in his life, ministry and teachings and especially in his death and resurrection. He will not be a Messiah isolated from the poor and marginalized. He will not be draped in wealth and power. He will be a Messiah of sacrifice and service wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The salvation Jesus offers as a suffering Messiah is not one of the easy fix. It is a salvation that calls for our purification and self-giving leading to a personal transformation. Luke’s message of hope and joy is more wondrous in the context of this full gospel message.

Just a few months before his death, Archbishop Romero captured the spiritual depth of Christmas. He said, “Today, we recall God’s reign is now in this world, and that Christ has inaugurated the fullness of time. Christ’s birth attests that God is now marching with us in history – that we are not alone, and that our aspiration for peace, for justice, for a reign of divine law, for something holy is far from earth’s realities.

Nevertheless, we can hope for all these things, not because we human beings are able to construct that realm of holiness which God’s holy words proclaim but because the builder of a reign of justice, of love and peace is already in the midst of us.”

These words, on the Christmas message of hope, became very real for me recently. I was at a police station filling a report on my stolen phone. Waiting for my report, a young mother and her six-month-old son sat next to me. I shared how crazy it was to lose your phone. She responded, “If you want to know about crazy, you need to have a violent and abusive husband.” In our conversation I learned she was an immigrant from a Muslim country only here two and a half years. Even though they both still live in the same building, the situation between her and her husband is so bad, they must exchange the child at the police station.

This happens four days of the week when she goes to school. She is pursuing a Doctor’s degree in clinical psychology. What struck me about this scene was how hopeful she was despite being an abused woman, a Muslim immigrant and the mother of a young child in a failed marriage.

It was obvious to me that the message of hope and the grace of the Infant of Bethlehem is for all people and at all times even if they do not have the label Christian. The Word made flesh has exposed a reality pregnant with life and love for all people at all times no matter how challenging the circumstances.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Lk 1:39-45

Dear Friends, Advent looks at the coming of Christ in two ways. The first is in the completion of the redemptive reality in the Second Coming. The second is recalling the great coming in Christ’s birth. The season of Advent, like every season of the Church Year, invites us into the great mystery of the Christ event.

For us to truly understand and accept in faith the Advent message, we need to start with the present reality of the world. We live in a world that absolutely needs a savior. Our racial, ethnic and religious divisions, the brokenness of our sexuality, the rampant divisions between the poor and the rich, the pervasive de-humanizing consumerism, the gross neglect of the planet and so many other expressions of injustice scream out the need for a savior.

Add to this all the personal hurts and hungers and turmoil in our lives. We truly find ourselves ready for the Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

Today’s encounter between the young pregnant unwed teenager and the older expectant mother set the scene. This was the definitive intervention of God in our broken human history. These two woman are central to the story of the Christ event. The triple blessing of Elizabeth revealed Mary’s special role. The coming Savior was the blessed fruit of her womb. Mary is blessed among women as the mother and the woman of faith. The final blessing recognized the depth of her faith: “Blessed are you who believed what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Lk 1:45)

Mary’s faith made her the first among the disciples. Her faithful surrender was joyfully expressed in the famous words: “May it done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) This submission modeled a life that all followers of Christ can emulate. She entrusted herself to the journey with her Son against all logic and common sense.

Elizabeth identified these gifts of faith early on with her triple blessing. If we are to imitate the will not be found in a list of teachings and doctrines. It will be in a person. It will be the event of that person’s coming among us. Like Mary, our life experience will be filled with unending questions and situations of confusion and desperation. Yet we must be open to the call to be faithful in our commitment. From the poverty of Bethlehem to the power and beauty of Cana, to the rejection in Nazareth to the ultimate mystery of Cavalry, Mary had no answers. She did, however, have an open and trusting heart. She was, indeed, the true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Advent offers us the challenge that faced Mary: an opportunity to accept the joy of the Lord or to fall into despair and hopelessness. The many questions and bewilderment of our life draw us into the same test of faith that consumed the entire life of May. Faith let Mary understand well a teaching of her Son’s Gospel: what seems to be, really is not, and what does not seem to be, really is. Jesus demonstrated this truth from his birth as Messiah with the poor shepherds in the insignificant town of Bethlehem to the total abandonment and rejection a Calvary. Mary walked in faith and love every step of the way with him. She was present to the all- powerful God and Creator of the universe wrapped is swaddling clothes and nailed to the cross.

It may seem completely out of place to speak of Calvary in this immediate approach to the Christmas event. Yet, Mary’s faith opened her heart to the profound connection between these two events. When pure love entered the world, evil and hatred immediately stirred up the plans for its obliteration. Mary understood in her faith-filled heart that the joyful sounds of Christmas would never be far from the lamentations and sighs of Good Friday. Yet, she always believed that love would win out!

Advent’s message for us is to imitate the surrender of Mary. We are called to embrace the hope and the coming of the Christ event in our Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus!

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THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Zephaniah 3:14-18…Philippians 4:47…Luke 3:10-18

Dear Friends,

The rose candle in the Advent wreath is a symbol of rejoicing expressed tin today’s readings. Paul says, “Rejoice in the Lord always. I shall say it again: Rejoice!” (Phil4:4) We are coming close to the coming of the Lord, the day of salvation. Our God will be faithful to his promises. He will deliver us. The true rejoicing in Advent flows from a trust in God’s promises from the time of Abraham to gift of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

The readings of today offer us a two-fold task. The first is to move out of our sense of self-independence and to trust in the Word of God proclaimed today in Zephaniah, Paul and Luke. At the same time, there is another message. We have to move away from trusting in our possessions as an expression real security and of our self-sufficiency. This kind of misdirected trust removes God from our lives.

John, and Luke after him, stress that we have to do our part in seeking this great gift of the Advent hope. In the first reading, we have a message of why we should rejoice. Zephaniah says, “The Lord your God is in our midst, a mighty savior; he will rejoice over you with gladness, and renew you in his love.” (Zeph 3:17) Paul tells us not to worry, to place our trust in God. “Then the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 4:7)

In the Gospel, John the Baptist tells us why we should rejoice. “One mightier than I is coming.” (Lk, 3:16) This is the message of Advent. This is why we are filled with hope. This is why our Advent prayer is so powerful and so on target, Come, Lord Jesus!

Our world, and each of us, need salvation. It is easy for Paul to tell us not to worry but we know many things cause us distress. It is sickness or the job, our kids or the family. The streets are an every day, every hour challenge. Then there is the growing divide in our society that threatens our basic unity. Hope is not so easy to find in the darkness of our reality.

This is why we have the rose candle. God has not forsaken us. This is why Zephaniah can say, “The Lord has removed judgment against you. He has turned your enemies away…. the Lord is in your midst.” (Zeph 3:15) Hope is the treasure revealed in our Advent celebration.

However, John the Baptist has a very important message that is especially relevant for our situation today. To the crowds, to the tax collectors and to the soldiers John offers a critical admonition. They were invited to give up blackmail, extortion, gouging and acquisitiveness and to begin sharing with the needy. In that way, they would be enacting their repentance, their return to God. This is a truth that pervades Luke’s Gospel. John tells these groups and all his disciples and us the same message: do not let your possessions and your longing for possessions hinder your search for God and hope in God.

John’s wisdom, which is developed by Luke in many eloquent ways in his Gospel, states that a hunger for wealth and more possessions becomes an obstacle to the hope we are celebrating in this Advent Season. It opens us to a centering on ourselves and locking out God. It leads to the mistreatment, even the de-humanization of our brothers and sisters. Likewise, it contributes to the escalating violation of God’s creation. There is a simple truth that Luke’s Gospel proclaims with an urgent consistency. Our possessions easily become our idols and turn us away from God. Our possessions either draw us to God in loving trust or become a major roadblock on our pilgrimage to God that is the authentic Christian life.

This focus on God is a truly challenging truth about our Advent hope. This hope must be rooted in God and not ourselves. God is the Creator. We are the crenatures. Likewise, it should be the measure of how we celebrate Christmas. We need to ask if the possessions of December 26th are going to bring us closer to God or are they going to burden us down and blind us to love of God and love of neighbor?

St Teresa of Avila captured this spirit of trusting in God and not things in her beautiful and classical Bookmark

Prayer.

Let nothing disturb you.

Let nothing make you afraid.

All things are passing.

God alone never changes.

Patience gains all things.

If you have God you will want for nothing.

God alone suffices.

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Lk 3:1-6

Dear Friends, The Advent Season, connecting the end times and the coming of the Lord, addresses the Christian understanding of time. We call it Salvation History.

Today’s Gospel heralds the Good News of Jesus coming at a specific time as Luke delineates the political and religious leaders of the known world in that day. He opens to us a new day and invites us into the saving reality of God’s love as the true destiny of time and our lives. The shackles of hopelessness and blind fate are shattered with the Baptist’s announcement. By these words of the Baptist, all that was, all that is and all that is to come are engulfed in a reality that is pregnant with a gracious, irrevocable sense of hope. God has spoken and love will prevail.

On this Second Sunday of Advent, we are invited to meet this hope-drenched reality in the words of Baruch (5:19), Paul (Phil1:4-6, 8-11) and Luke. We are encouraged to look upon the brokenness and burdens of our life and world with eyes of hope and a longing heart seeking God’s presence that continually bursts through the darkness to reveal the light.

Previous to Biblical times, life was seen as part of a repeating cycle with no discernable beginning and no identifiable end.

Each of today’s readings is rooted in the Salvation History of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian gospel revelation, acknowledging the presence of God in time and in the personal history of our lives. This is a clear vision of time that is linear with a clear sense of direction and a final goal. Advent is an invitation into this Salvation History. Advent is calling each one of us to embrace this divine summons to walk with Jesus toward our true destiny, to be one with God.

Advent’s message of the coming of Jesus, delivers us from the hopeless cycle of the endless repetition of life and death. Without the gospel message, it so easy to feel trapped in a relentless cycle that excludes any meaningful purpose of hope. This leads to a sense of abandonment along with a crippling sense of the inevitable. We are blessed to have the saving gift this Advent. This holy Season gives us a clear goal and call to find direction and purpose in Jesus Christ. The Advent offer of hope is at the heart of today’s celebration.

An important part of today’s Advent festivity calls us to the awareness of the coming of Jesus, the completion of the redemption rooted in the Death and Resurrection. The first part of this season puts the emphasis on the second coming of the Lord. Only after the sixteenth of December do we direct our attention to the Incarnation. This initial focus on the second coming also helps us to see the emergence of God in our daily experience. It helps us to center our lives in the great gift of Salvation History.

Our Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus!, captures the need for deliverance fills our life and world. We need salvation. “All flesh will see the salvation of our God.” (Lk 6:6) The One we await offers us the glorious possibility of goodness, justice, peace and truth. To prepare for this advent of the Lord we need to open our hearts to change. We must overcome the valleys of our selfishness, the mountains of our many prejudices, the judgement of others and especially the neglect of the poor. We can, indeed, straighten all these difficult and crooked ways by a life in the footsteps of Jesus. The loving response to our daily responsibilities and relationships will open our hearts. It will lead the way to be ready for the coming of Jesus with a joyful hope and a heart longing for a new day. Come, Lord Jesus!

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FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Luke 21:25-28, 34-36

Dear Friends, Advent is not primarily a time to prepare for Christmas. The first part of the holy season, up till December 16th, is about the final coming of the Lord, the end of the human venture in its present historical form. The final nine days seek to guide us in celebrating the Word made flesh.

Our great temptation is to mix the truly marvelous spiritual challenge of Advent with the rich and enticing rituals of the Christmas season proposed by Macy’s, Walmart and all the other commercial interests. It is to their bottom line interest to see Christmas as an ever-repeating cycle of good times and wonderful memories.

In the Advent Season, the Church is inviting us to a totally different celebration. We are called into a new day dawning in Jesus Christ. We are called to embrace a new reality that has given purpose and direction to every human being.

Each Sunday of Advent the community of faith is invited to go beyond the alluring rites of the commercial season. Now we are called to a faith-driven encounter of the twofold coming of Jesus Christ.

Advent has us look backward so we can look forward. Both views call us to live in the present with hope for a new day.

The Old Testament prophets, especially, Isaiah and Jeremiah, have a clear and strong message of hope that we recall at this time of Advent. Today, Jeremiah, calls out from the darkness and despair of the Exile: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.” (Jer 33:14)

Luke’s message today and in this time of Advent is based on the fundamental confidence flowing from the Christian message. Christ will return in glory and with him will come the fullness of redemption. A new day is coming. Luke is emphatic: we need to be ready: “And then you will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. But when these signs begin to happen, stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand. (Lk 21:27-28)

This longing for the return of the Lord mirrors the passionate longing expressed in the Prophets. Yet it is incredibly enriched and supported by our gift of the Gospel reality. The second coming is better understood as the completion of the redemption that Christ has already begun. So, we join together in our liturgies and in our lives to proclaim the great Advent yearning: Come Lord Jesus!

In the meanwhile, Jeremiah (Jer 33:14-16), Paul (1 Thes 3”12-4:2) and Luke have a clear and simple message for us. Live today in faithfulness to the Lord. Enter into our reality. We do not know the future but we do know the present. We are called to live the gospel with acts of mercy and forgiveness, with concern for justice and peace, and a passion to care for the gift of God’s creation. In the constant struggle Paul encourages us with these words “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all…at the coming of our Lord Jesus.” (1st Thes 3:12)

Advent challenges us to look at the lost opportunities, the time wasted and misdirected. We all have more than enough to account for. Advent calls us to gather ourselves together and live today, in the grace of the present moment, for tomorrow is in God’s hands. We indeed need to cry out, Come Lord Jesus! But a life seeking to walk with Jesus right now makes our cry all the more real and focused.

God is very capable of keeping the schedule. He will do his job of finishing the program at the appropriate time. It is quite normal for us to use that familiar question of our youth, Are we there yet? God will let us know. In the meanwhile, our task is to be faithful to the gospel message and express the hunger in our heart for a new day with the beautiful Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!


In Christ,
Fr. Tracy O’ Sullivan O. Carm

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CHRIST THE KING

Jn 18:33-37

Dear Friends, Today’s readings on this last Sunday of the Church Year have a clear and powerful message. Besides the celebration of the Jesus beginning the reign of God, we also celebrate the invitation into divine life that Jesus offers so generously.

In the Gospel of John, the story of Jesus and Pilate is one of the most important parts of the Passion narrative. It involves seven different scenes.

One dimension of the story is that Jesus is defined as king in contrast to the earthly leaders. Their position is rooted in status, exclusiveness, rings and robes, expressions of wealth and power, titles and the ability to manipulate everything and everybody to their own advantage. In contrast, Jesus’ kingship is designated by the call to testify to the truth, to serve, to be free in poverty and lack of recognition, to let love prevail in all decisions. In his kingship, everything comes from God and leads to God.

Jesus offers the clearest expression of this kingship before the soldiers at the time of the scourging and mockery. Jesus had said clearly, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” (Jn 18:36) In his Passion and Death Jesus is pulling together the total message of his ministry and life. He is inviting us to receive all his teachings through the lens of his kingship expressed by the crowning with thorns before the soldiers and the solitary abandonment and death on the cross.

Jesus was testifying to a reign of God that has already begun. All of his life, teachings and actions are concrete expressions of what God’s reign truly looks like in sinful world in need of redemption. His many miracles and exorcisms, his merciful acceptance of sinners and tax collectors, his humble service and message of hope, all express the coming reign of God in our broken sinful world. His life was a witness to God’s power to transform all reality into the reign of love and justice, peace and healing. Jesus’ message was the invitation to this new life. The seemingly hopeless end on the cross was, in reality, the opening to the true the beginning.

This new beginning, this passage out of the darkness of sin and death, is what we are celebrating in our liturgy of Christ the King. These past few weeks we have been pondering the end times. Next week we begin the great season of Advent which is the other side of the end times in the coming of the Lord.

Today’s feast is a bridge for this powerful reflection on the end times and the coming of the Lord. Jesus, as King of the Universe, guides us in confidence and hope to the new day that is described in the Preface of today’s feast:

“By offering himself on the altar of the Cross as a spotless sacrifice to bring peace he might accomplish the mysteries of human redemption and, making all created things subject to his rule, he might present to the immensity of your majesty an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”

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COMING HOME: THE GIFT OF CONTEMPLATION

Teresa has this powerful and relevant statement in this crisis of “moving on up” from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places. Teresa describes it this way: “With humility present, this state (third dwelling places) is a most excellent one. If humility is lacking, we will remain here our whole life and with a thousand afflictions and miseries. For since we will not have abandoned ourselves, this state will be very laborious and burdensome. We shall be walking while weighed down with this mud of our human misery, which is not so with those who ascend to the remaining rooms.” (Interior Castle: 3.2.9) 

The Contemplative Switch

This teaching of Teresa is truly insightful. The Gospels give us a marvelous vision into this struggle of “contemplative switch.” The stories of the rich young man, Peter’s rejection of Jesus and the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage help us understand the process. 

Teresa always connects the third dwelling places to the rich young man. As the Gospel states, “Jesus looked on him with love.” (Mk 10:21) When pushed to choose, “he became sad because he had many possessions.” (Mt 19;21) A fair description of his wealth in the time of Jesus would be two donkeys or a horse if he was truly rich, at least three sets of clothing, servants, land and a fancy outhouse. This incident is the only situation in all the Gospels where an individual directly rejects Jesus’ call.

Contrast that with the story of Peter’s denials.  “At that instant while he was still speaking, the cock crew, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter…and he went out and wept bitterly.” ((Lk 23:60-62) Peter offers a beautiful picture of Teresa’s teaching on humility: the truth of our total dependence on the mercy of God. This is a profound experience of redemption for Peter – moving away from his self-righteousness and control, “even though I have to die with you I will never deny you.” (Mt 26:35), to abandonment to the merciful embrace of a loving God. This is a giant step on the road to contemplation.

A third person who helps us to understand this contemplative switch is the woman plagued with her disease for twelve years. In saying, “If only I can touch his cloak, I will be cured.” (Mt 9:21) The woman saw in Jesus not just hope for her physical healing but the fulfillment of the deepest longing in her heart. Her eyes of faith let her see in Jesus the mystery of love made flesh offering the totality of liberation, redemption and eternal life beginning now in this monumental encounter of love.  Jesus said, “Courage daughter, your faith has saved you.” (Mt 9:22) This miracle, like others, is a symbol of the purifying and transforming experience of the new presence of God in contemplation.

These are our choices in the third dwelling places. We can reject the call and hug “our donkey” for security. We can continue the struggle in humility coming face to face with our spiritual poverty. We can “let go and let God” moving on to the deeper life of contemplation. The key for all of us is a life of deep personal prayer. This is the center of a mature spiritual life. Teresa’s program of humility, detachment and love for the brothers and sisters is the great support in this grand venture.

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THEN THEY WILL SEE THE SON OF MAN COMING IN THE CLOUDS

Thirty Third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 13:24-32

Dear Friends, The apocalyptic language that Mark uses in today’s gospel passage lends itself to many interpretations. It is deeply rooted in the many visionary messages of the Old Testament. This language points to Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of God. We know this kingdom is a future and transcendent event. It is God’s will and plan to overcome the consequences of sin at the beginning and all through human history. This divine event is beyond our grasp. So, today’s gospel uses much imaginative language to attempt to describe the kingdom’s final breakthrough into our reality and the end of the world.

As we come to the conclusion of each Church year, we have a message about these fateful events of the end times. It is always dramatically different than the sensationalist message we hear every several months from one crazy group or another. The Gospel message is clear. We do not know and we will not know. Our task is clear: keep vigil. All other speculation and worry is useless. Today’s narrative is best understood as an invitation to vigilance and preparedness in how we live and wait for the coming of the Son of Man.

However, beyond vigilance, there are other messages for us in today’s readings. One is about suffering and injustice. Life’s difficulties are so often arbitrary and rooted in injustice and basic human ugliness.Like Mark’s audience in the earliest days of Christianity, we find suffering so hard to comprehend, especially when it is connected to our faithful commitment to the gospel

Today Mark is proclaiming with power and wisdom. God will have the last word in this sinful world. It will be a word issuing the victory of justice, compassion, reconciliation forgiveness and love. Our hope will be answered and it will wipe out all our worries. Faith and fortitude will give way to the final devastation of fear. We are being challenged to let our trust in God help us to see the world through the prism of anticipation that opens to our destiny in the Crucified and Risen Savior.

However, there is another dimension to today’s Gospel message that fits very well with our human experience. It refers to a common occurrence we all have. There are sudden and dramatic changes in our life that come from sickness, death, failure of personal relations, economic disaster or in our days, the consequences of climate change. When these things happen, it seems as if our world has come an end. We have to face up to a new reality that is frightening and strange. Often, hope seems totally out of reach.

One of the most powerful events of this kind in my experience was a deeply traumatic event of my sister, Mary. She found herself the mother of six children over the span of eight plus years. One morning her husband woke up with severe pain in his stomach. Several weeks later she was a young widow as the ravaging cancer took her husband away. With his death also gone was her world that centered on his love and support.

Mary was totally overwhelmed. For several weeks she could hardly get out of bed. Finally, one day she faced up to the new world. As a woman of deep faith, she took on the task of raising her children. She did a totally fantastic job overcoming all kinds of obstacles including having six teenagers at the same time. Any mother would rejoice to have the young adults that came from that family.

This is a clear example of what the gospel tells us what we need to do when our world seems to be shattered. We need to live life with a loving responsibility and trust in God. This is something that is going to happen to all of us more than a few times in our lifetime.

Today’s gospel says that when you see all these things happening “then they will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds.” (Mk 13:26) That means when our personal world falls apart, and the bottom drops out of our lives, we will be able to see past the ugliness and to see through the pain to the ultimate reality of things. Despite appearances, God is still in charge, still cares, still has the power to make things right and still intends to do just that -in God’s good time!

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THE ILLUSION OF WEALTH MAKES US THINK WE ARE IN CONTROL

Thirty Second Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mark 12:38-44

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel places the self-promotion of the Scribes and the heroic generosity of the poor widow in disparity to each other. In the person of the widow, we are offered an example of true piety and faithfulness. On the other hand, we witness the pompous self-righteousness of the Scribes. The poor widow shines out in contrast to the self-grandiosity and holier-than-thou opportunists. Surely, Jesus‘ lesson on true integrity in religious practice is intended to teach the disciples and us today. Religious activity is never without those seeking their own fame and profit in religious matters large and small.

Like all of Jesus’ teachings, the story of the widow’s mite has many levels. At the time of Jesus, the role of the widow was particularly painful and harsh. First of all, she had no rights. The inheritance of the husband in most cases would go to his family. The widow was, in fact, kept from returning to her family if anything was owed on her dowry. There were some instances where the widow was sold into slavery to make payment on the debt of the dowry.

So, for Jesus to highlight the widow was a very specific and thoughtful choice. The contrast to the rich donors and Scribes was extreme.

There is a second point about the widow of the Gospel story and the widow of the first reading feeding Elijah in the Book of Kings. It was not a question of the two desperate women guarding their resources. They were simply dealing with empty pockets or purses. This was closer to the norm in their ordinary lifestyle.

The example of both widows is a clear and powerful example of trust in God. This is the same trust that Jesus has been urging upon his disciples for several chapters now since they acknowledged him as the Messiah. (Mk 8:27) He said that he indeed was he Messiah but his call to fulfillment meant a journey of trust and abandonment on the road to Jerusalem that would end in the Passion, Death and Resurrection. The disciples did not get it but the blind beggar did. (Mk 10:52) The rich man did not get it (Mk 10:22) but the poor widow did.

One level of today’s story contrasting the donation of the rich donors and the poor widow is a call by Jesus to be real, to see with eyes of faith that obliterate the delusion of wealth and possessions that make us think that we are in control. The widow is us. The big difference is that she sees with clarity and deep faith what it means to be a creature. We are all totally and absolutely dependent on God. Each day and each moment is a free gift. The escalating destructive power of the hurricanes and the other consequences of our devastation of the environment make this clearer by the day. The widow understood her dependence. She accepted the total loving control of a gracious God. The rich donors were happy to share a token of their perceived power and control with God. But in reality, they were poor and weak and the widow was powerful and free in her acceptance of her total reliance on God! God has a different way of seeing things. Each Sunday Jesus is inviting us to join him on this path to understand and embrace the true wisdom that will set us free like the poor widow.

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THE CONTEMPLATIVE SWITCH

Teresa of Avila lays out a map for seeking God in her classic on the spiritual life, The Interior Castle. She describes seven stages or dwelling places. For most of us, the third dwelling places is most relevant to our search.

The movement from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places in the Interior Castle seems irrelevant to our life today. The reality, however, is different. The stagnation in the third dwelling places is the reason we have so much bickering within Christian groups and among loved ones. It is the root of so much tension in staff meetings and at the dinner table. It is the source of many of our problems in personal relations and the division between groups.

The contemplative switch, this movement from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places, occurs when we experience a deep sense of being loved by God. This helps us accept ourselves in both our brokenness and giftedness. We begin to wait and listen to God. We are more open to be taught by God. The desire to control God continues to lessen. Now our prayer is that God will set us free to love with a pure heart.

in describing this path Teresa offers us a profoundly pastoral and practical message. Her teachings open up great vistas of possible new understanding and reconciliation. 

The contemplative switch, moving on up to the fourth dwelling places and the beginning of contemplation, is based on these fundamental teachings of Teresa:

1. Having arrived in the third dwelling places the person is in a good place because of a meaningful moral conversion.

2. The strain at this point in the spiritual journey contrasts God’s call to move on with the person’s desire to settle down and enjoy the progress.

3. The great difficulty is that the flagrant egoism of the previous dwelling places has gone underground. Now it surfaces in the cloak of virtue which feeds one’s self-righteousness and hypocrisy in a way that is destructive and divisive at all levels.

4. This newly hidden selfishness is the dominant obstacle to progress. “To let go and let God” is a long, arduous passage. Teresa wavered around this decision for almost two decades in spite of a faithful prayer life.

Teresa’s teaching on this contemplative switch points to three possibilities:

1. rejection of God’s call which leads to division, hostility and conflict;

2. the call to struggle to move ahead which opens up possibilities of growth and reconciliation;

3. surrender to God’s call leading to the seeds of peace, harmony and justice in contemplation.

In his personal testimonial, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis gives a vivid description of this failure to “move on up”, forsaking the battle to go beyond the third dwelling places:

 

“Those who have fallen into this worldliness look on from above and afar, they reject the prophecy of their brothers and sisters, they discredit those who raise questions, they constantly point out the mistakes of others and they are obsessed by appearances. …This is a tremendous corruption disguised as a good. We need to avoid it by making the Church constantly go out from herself, keeping her mission focused on Jesus Christ, and her commitment to the poor. God save us from a worldly Church with superficial spiritual and pastoral trappings. This stifling worldliness can only be healed by breathing in the pure air of the Holy Spirit who frees us from self-centeredness cloaked in an outward religiosity bereft of God.” (#97)

Here are a few concrete examples from parish life of the ego operating in the name of virtue which wreak havoc and division. The same principle is operative in family life, at work and in the larger community.

• a Eucharistic minister who insists on distributing the “bread” and not the “cup”;

• an ethnic group celebrating the unity and love of the Eucharist while intensely angry at another ethnic group of the parish selling used clothes outside during the Mass;

• a pastor who is deaf and blind when dealing with the recommendations of the parish council and economic committee;

• parents who are incapable of receiving any criticism of their child from a teacher;

• the chronic blaming of “those people” for the dirty kitchen even though they have no idea of who last used the facility.

These are just the firecrackers of parish life. The more destructive land mines of ethnic division and power struggles are examples of the many hurtful events constantly challenging unity. Clericalism, the abuse of power of some bishops and the Vatican bureaucracy ‘s hunger to control are among many forces driving the Church away from Gospel values. Pope Francis’ call for a “revolution of tenderness” seems a long way off.

Teresa has this powerful and relevant statement in this crisis of “moving on up” from the third dwelling places to the fourth dwelling places. Teresa describes it this way: “With humility present, this state (third dwelling places) is a most excellent one. If humility is lacking, we will remain here our whole life and with a thousand afflictions and miseries. For since we will not have abandoned ourselves, this state will be very laborious and burdensome. We shall be walking while weighed down with this mud of our human misery, which is not so with those who ascend to the remaining rooms.” (Interior Castle: 3.2.9) 

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YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF

Thirty First Sunday of Ordinary Time

Mk 12:28-34 Dear Friends, In his response the scribe’s question, Jesus begins with the phrase, “Hear O Israel! (Mk 12:29) These words hold profound significance in understanding Jesus’ statement on love of God and love of neighbor. First of all, he places his response in the context of Israel’s call in which God has placed everything the initiative of divine love. God loves us first. The second element is the invitation to listen. Listening is the surest way into the mystery of God’s love.

The first part of Jesus’ response was as familiar to the average Jew at the time as the sign of the cross is for today’s Catholic. Jesus, however, adds to that familiarity the call to love your neighbor. Jesus is beckoning us into a community of love. The love which is initiated with God must be returned not only to God but that love needs to to include our neighbor. In this way, we are brought into a community of love.

This brings me to my favorite description of the Bible. It states that the Bible’s message is simple: God is love and Jesus teaches us what love is. In listening to find love and wisdom, our quest draws us to Jesus.

Jesus teaches us who God is and how God loves. In our encounter with Jesus, we experience the compassion and mercy of God. In Jesus, we learn that there are no limit to God’s love, no fences or labels of exclusion. In Jesus, we listen to God and hear the cry of the poor and marginated, all the forgotten who are isolated in ways only the broken human heart can develop to isolate and abandon. In Jesus on the cross, God’s word lays before us a challenge to put everything and everyone in second place so we “love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength… you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mk 12:30-31)

All four of the Gospels are the richest symphony of God’s love song that is Jesus. In the Gospels, we hear the call to respond to our daily reality with a heart that is oopen and healed. We need to be open to life because if we are in touch with Jesus, we will be lured outside the limiting and constricting boundaries of our selfishness. The needs of our neighbor will be set before us in a new clarity and urgency.

This love of God and love of neighbor is what our hearts were made for. However, this is not always what our hearts want. If we are listening to Jesus, we cannot avoid hearing the difficult message. Love means to lose our life to save it. Love means to seek to be the servant not the ruler. Love means to wash the feet of all. Love means to walk with Jesus to Jerusalem. Love means we win by losing.

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