Do Not Be Afraid ~ 19th Sunday

Jesus said to his disciples: Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.                          St. Luke 12:32-40

Jesus says it over and over, “Do not be afraid.”

Let us ask the question: “What am I afraid of?”

Jesus shares with us that if we open the door immediately when the Master knocks, he will have us recline at table and then wash our feet, and then proceed to wait on us. What could we possibly be afraid of?

God was knocking on Penny’s door. She volunteered to go to Kalighat, a home for the dying run by Mother Teresa’s sisters, for the first time. I suppose she was intrigued by the love of the Missionaries of Charity. It was terribly traumatic for Penny—being a beauty therapist, she was used to everything being all nice and spick-and-span, smelling nice, so it was quite a shock. I am sure many of you can relate to this when you volunteered for mission work in a place like Haiti or Catholic Heart work camp. Or maybe the first time your first child had diarrhea. When I began volunteering as a retreat director for Ministries of Disabilities, the drooling, physical suffering, and people who violated my boundaries raised my anxieties. I had whopping headaches and emotional paralysis.

When one of the sisters asked Penny to wash this woman she just thought, ‘There’s no way. I just couldn’t.’ So the sister said, ‘All right, come with me,’ and she picked up this little bundle of bones, because that’s what this lady was, and took her into the bathroom. Even now it makes her cry—there wasn’t a lot of light in the room and she was absolutely catatonic. Then all of a sudden the whole room just lit up! One minute she was saying ‘I just can’t’ and the next she realized, ‘Of course, I could.’

Throughout our lives, especially those here at Queen of Peace, we have worked among the poorest of poor, people with severe mental and physical disabilities, social injustice, Marines, sailors, soldiers and families torn apart by IED’s and shrapnel to the soul. Whenever we tell God there is something we just can’t do, like shave a man who does not have use of his arms, comfort the grieving, embrace a person with AIDS, tell a person we love them just before they will die, or work with schizophrenics or drug addicts… God seems to knock on the door of our terrified hearts. Then all of a sudden, light floods our darkness. We no longer label people as a diagnosis; we see the whole person light up. One minute we are saying, “I just can’t” and the next we realize, “Of course, we can!”

God doesn’t ask us to do things he isn’t already doing.

God is hoping that we do small things with great love.

God is hoping to find us ready when he knocks.

And then Our Father will welcome us home, wash our feet and invite us to dine with him and Our Family.

When God asks us to step out of our comfort zone and we do it,

we are always better for the experience.

Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.

Now that is Good News we can treasure.

 

Mission Statement of Queen of Peace

As Christians we receive God’s gifts gratefully,

cultivate them responsibly,

share them lovingly in justice with others,

and return them with increase to the Lord.

Soulful Prayer ~ 17th Sunday

Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:

                        Father, hallowed be your name,

                           your kingdom come.

                        Give us each day our daily bread

                        and forgive us our sins

                        for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us,

                       and do not subject us to the final test.”

And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give the visitor the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.

Jesus went on, “And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish? Or hand him a scorpion when he asks for an egg? If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?              

                                                                                                            St. Luke 11:1-13

Jesus was praying. He doesn’t ask us to do things he wouldn’t do himself.

Jesus teaches us how to pray if we ask; real and sustaining prayer; prayer like food.

Jesus also informs us that as sons and daughters of the Father, we have an abundance of bread and gifts that the world is in desperate need of.

Prayers to God and Jesus are always answered. Prayers are not always answered the way we expect or desire, but they are always the absolute best answer. Why? Because God loves us as only a mother and father could. If we ask for a snake to eat, God most likely will give us a fish.

When we ask for something in prayer, do we always consider how our prayer will impact others? I am sometimes baffled how God could answer my trivial prayer to get over a cold before migrants and refugees who ask only to be treated with a drop of respect and drink of water. I shutter to think how our country cries over our health care details when our life expectancy is greater than most other countries that have none. Being rich is not a blessing as much as it is a responsibility. When much has been given, much is expected.

Our daily bread is a recognition and Eucharistic gratitude that we have the Creator of the world within our bodies and hearts. Therefore our prayer needs to be for wisdom (the first gift of the Holy Spirit), humility, joy and gratitude.

The serenity prayer says much about a true prayer. People who have hit rock bottom and are crying for mercy desperately pray it. “Lord, grant me the courage to change the things I can change, the acceptance of the things I can’t change, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

I accept that I can’t change how we human beings prophet from violence and from divisions like divorce and politics. What I can change is being more responsible for myself; becoming less reactive and more peaceful.

The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, self-control and faithfulness. All human beings can improve on this fruit. I’m praying for a bumper crop of love, joy and peace… in me!!! I am reassured that in tragedies like Orlando and Dallas and Baton Rouge, people still come together like they never knew they could.

God is more interested in our return to prayer than we are. It isn’t about the sins of others, but about my sins and my need for mercy. We simply need to listen and spend time with Jesus and continue to ask him to teach us how to pray better than we did yesterday. It all begins and ends with love. But our prayer will be uncomfortable.

I often take long walks on the beach and I pray. Often this song wells up from my soul:

There is a longing in our hearts, O Love, for you to reveal yourself to us.

There is a longing in our hearts for love, we only find in you o God.

 

For justice, for mercy, for freedom hear our prayer.

In sorrow, in grief, be near hear our prayer o God.

 

For wisdom, for courage, for comfort… hear our prayer.

In weakness, in fear, be near hear our prayer o God.

 

For healing, for wholeness, for new life… hear our prayer.

In sickness, in death, be near hear our prayer O God.

 

Lord save us, take pity. Light in our darkness.

We call you. We wait. Be near, hear our prayer O God.

                                    Song by Anne Quigley  1992

If you pray like this, I am confident that God, the Father, will not only hear your prayer, but answer it.

As a country, many knock at our door. Many are praying that we open our doors and see. Once I saw the poorest of poor in Haiti, Jamaica, the special needs and Honduras… I realized that I needed to bang on the doors of my friends for some bread (food and money). When confronted with over 1500 casualties and 81 deaths in Fallujah Iraq, I realized the 10,000 soldiers, sailors and Marines were pounding on the door of my heart for spiritual bread to make sense of the senseless. I was depleted and bankrupt of mercy. As long as we profit from wars, we will never be able to listen to the prophets. Although Jesus has given me an abundance of Bread and Blood, there came a time when I was the one pounding on the doors of my friends late at night for my friends and their families in need. I am still pounding!

In other words, my prayer is that I have the courage to open the locked door of my heart tonight and see the plight of the poor and hungry. Sometimes I have to be the beggar for the hungry, refugee, oppressed and poor like the friends who come to me in the middle of the night. God will provide.

Ah the dangers of praying as Jesus teaches us…

Do you think God might answer this prayer?

O my! & wow!

 

 

 

 

Reflecting & Reflected

Beauty all around me

Even sickness can be beautiful

Not me this time… my friend

morning stillness

yet still wrestling

still restless

I am very at peace and yes, happy.

Completed my license requirements

Patiently waiting for the green light and rising question

“Now what?”

Gorgeous morning

Light in the trees

Coolness of house

Attempting to meditate beyond distractions

unawakened

awakened

purgative

illuminative

dark night of the soul

union… hoping

my soul feels at home

within soulitude

and Beloved God.

 

Remember what He said to you…

Easter- 2016 ~ Luke 24:1-12 ~ At daybreak on the first day of the week, the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were puzzling over this, behold, two men in dazzling garments appeared to them (Moses & Elijah of Transfiguration?). They were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground. They said to them, “Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. Remember what he said to you while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified, and rise on the third day.” And they remembered his words. Then they returned from the tomb and announced all these things to the eleven and to all the others.

The women were Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James (Peter, John and James in Transfiguration); the others who accompanied them also told this to the apostles, but their story seemed like nonsense and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb, bent down, and saw the burial cloths alone; then he went home amazed at what had happened.

 I am amazed and humbled that with two phenomenal preachers here at Queen of Peace, I was asked to preach today like a third string quarterback. O well, pray for me!

We remember.

We celebrate.

We believe.

Jesus, we remember how you washed our feet. In his homily on Holy Thursday, Father Jeff helped us understand that it is you, Jesus, who consecrates and breaks the bread, feed our souls, baptizes and anoint us. You heal us so often even when we complain that we can’t find you.

Even though Jesus walked with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, they didn’t recognize him because they were too caught up in their own terror, fear and anxieties.

Their hopes were not as big as God’s hopes and dreams for them. But Jesus was patient and asked the two to remember all the way to their dinner table. They celebrated and believed when he said the blessing and broke the bread. Another miracle of Easter is that the men finally believed the women.

Though we don’t always recognize Jesus present in our sufferings and distractions, we do believe he is with us at this moment and for all eternity. In fact, Jesus can’t imagine heaven without every one of us today! We have trouble accepting such a magnificent love. Too often, we seek the living one among the dead.

The living one is seeking us today.

Jesus, we celebrate the breaking of your body and the water and blood that flowed from your side. When we are terrorized by hatred, unfaithfulness and betrayal, you show us how to love. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” and “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Your sacrificial love is our only hope to end all wars, hatred and fear. Yes, it was a truly Good Friday.

Jesus, we celebrate how you eat and drink with us every time we come to Eucharist. “Lord, I am not worthy for you to enter into my body, but only say the Word, and my soul will be healed.

Here a million wounded souls, are yearning just to touch you and be healed.Gather all your people, and hold them to your heart.

We remember how You loved us to the end.

And still we celebrate, for you are with us here;

and we believe that we will see you when you come in glory, Lord.

We remember. We Celebrate. We believe.   (Song by Marty Haugen, 1980)

The key to Easter is that God loves us and wants to spend time with all of us. (Lots of time and for all of eternity).

It isn’t so much that we are seeking God, but God is seeking us.

It is through the birthing pains of our faith, the way of the Cross, that we understand this. When we encounter the empty tombs, keep searching. We must seek more diligently than the kids who will be seeking those Easter eggs in a few minutes, which might seem like hours to them. It is not an easy task, but with love of God and one another in our hearts… Jesus walks with us this Easter Morning today… even before we find him or recognize Him. He is alive with us… TODAY!

We remember his words.

We celebrate his love and mercy.

We believe how much God loves all of us… no exceptions.

He is Risen! Halleluiah!

WOW!

Let us raise our voices with Father Kaz.

Discover the Risen Christ, the Beloved, as we sing our Easter Joy with Hallelujahs…

Life is changed…not ended.

Anchor

Yes!

Why are you terrified?

A Father’s Love

14 YEARS AGO…TODAY!

26 August 2000     +

Mom, she died just two weeks ago.

Seems like two years.

            I’ve cried all night, like a rainy day.

Needing to be alone

                        all day

                        and now all night.

O Beloved,

I miss my mom.

You know this,

            and you desire my heart…

            which is broken.

What you want with a broken heart, I just don’t know.

It probably has a little cholesterol and stress damage.

            But you still want it,

demand it.

Will you fix it?

Something tells me that you won’t be making it stronger,

and that I’m about to experience

            more brokenness

            through love.

How does the soul, the spirit, survive?

            It doesn’t.

            I figured.

You, O God, don’t want us to stay too long here,

            too much grief is unbearable

            and helps us let go

            of this crazy world

Love and brokenness and grief and joy

They all go together.

Heal us O Lord,

Now!

I’m listening…

 

******

I wrote this exactly 14 years ago today, 13 days after my mother died. She was a remarkable woman who raised 9 children. She took the picture of my father holding my hand with his right hand and my sister with his left hand. Sometimes I want to go back to that day and just be totally in the moment. My oldest brother Ray is getting married in 17 days for the second time. My mother once shared with me at my youngest brother’s wedding as we danced, “The Camarda boys stay married.” I think she is wrong on this one. However, she would tell me even now, “The suffering makes life more fun most times.” I am excited to welcome another sister-in-love to this crazy family. If we only let go of our expectations… we will enjoy life so much more. Have a blessed week and remember to dance with your whole soul. Love, joy, peace! Ron +

 

THEY DON”T HAVE TO GO AWAY…Give them some food yourself!

The Prophet Isaiah: 55:1-3 ~ All you who are thirsty, come to the water! You who have no money, come, receive grain and eat.

Psalm 145: The eyes of all look hopefully to you, and you give them their food in due season

Paul’s letter to the Romans: 8:35-39 ~ What will separate us from the love of Christ?

 The Gospel According to St. Matthew: 14:13-21 ~ Jesus said to them: “There is no need for them to go away; give them some food yourselves.” But they said to him, “Five loaves and two fish are all we have here.” Then Jesus said, “Bring them hear to me,” and he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass.

A doctor who was quite lukewarm in his faith returned from a church sponsored mission to Honduras and Guatemala on fire for Jesus. His compassion and love for the poor was growing every day. His prayer life was becoming very intimate to the point that he could hear God speak in his heart. One night in prayer, the doctor asked God a few questions to which he was surprised at how he could hear God’s voice in his heart.

“God, how much is a thousand years to you?”

God answered, “About a second.”

Then he asked, “God, how much is a million dollars worth to you?”

God answered, “About a penny.”

The doctor thought he would go out on a limb and asked, “God, please give me two pennies for my mission work in Honduras and Guatemala?”

God answered, “Sure! Just give me two seconds.”

The doctor’s heart was in the right place. However, he didn’t realize that his intimate relationship with Jesus is worth far more than two million dollars. You see a million or two dollars does not address the problem of the poor. It is a temporary fix. I am sure that the poor people of Honduras or Guatemala need much more from the doctor than his fund raising/ appeal to God. They need to see the doctor working side by side with Jesus, never separated.

Like the disciples, we look at what we got and focus on our own limited resources rather than the abundance of God. “Five loaves and two fish is all we have here!” God invites all of us to give from our own needs, not just our surplus. How often does Jesus point out to us how our own faith is the source of healing for ourselves and for our loved ones? “Go in peace. Your faith has healed you!”

Our ideas about ministering to the poor often miss the mark just like the disciples who believed that their concerns for the crowd were greater than Jesus. They tried to tell Jesus to send the people away to get food. Discipleship requires great emotional sacrifice and humility. Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God is already with us for all eternity. We have nothing to fear. God loves us, what could we fear?

Jesus seems to be suggesting that we get in the boat with him and travel to the deserted, poor and war torn places. When I get in the boat with Jesus who is grieving the death of his cousin John who was violently beheaded, it can be overwhelming. Can you see how Jesus feeds the crowds every time with our meager offerings?

Jesus feeds millions with just a little bit of bread and a few drops of wine. We truly will all eat and be totally satisfied after eating the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation today. Nothing, absolutely nothing can separate any of us from the love of God, not for a second nor a thousand years.

Jesus can teach us how we together can feed millions in both heart and soul with just five loaves and two fish. Just bring what you have to Jesus.

Then Jesus will take our bodies, look to heaven, say the blessing. God will break our bodies that are one with Jesus. Then God will feed the world with our unconditional love.

Now that is Good News you can sink your teeth into.

The Treasure Within my Soul – 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Book of Kings 3:5-12: “I give you a heart so wise and understanding…”

Paul to the Romans: We know that all things work for good for those who love God…

Gospel According to St. Matthew: Jesus said to his disciples: “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

You offer security.

You are solid under me.

I walk,

And you seem to glide beneath my feet,

Catching my footsteps,

Preventing a fall into the abyss.

 

True, at times, you seem too fixed,

Unmoved, unresponsive, unyielding,

Then, you hurt, aggravate, block,

That’s your nature.

My faith does not want to move your mountains—

But rather, aspire to their triumph

Touching the sky.

 

When you do move beneath us—

Quaking, sliding, collapsing—

Our safety vanishes.

We need you to be invincible, for

The earth (treasure) in us is so vulnerable.

          Meditations for the New Millennium: Communion of Life by Chris Glaser, 1999 (Day 5 Earth)

We are all in the palm of God’s hand

This poem could be a direct prayer to the kingdom of God, our treasure. We come into this world with nothing but dust. We leave this world with nothing but the treasure buried in our dust. I don’t know about you, but I often cherish security as my greatest treasure… if I am honest. I cling to security like a child desperately wanting swim, but refusing to trust and let go of his patient father. For the first stanza I thought of Simon Peter saying to Jesus during the storm, “If you are the Son of God, then command me to walk on the water to you.” “Come!” Jesus says. And when Peter finally walks a few steps, he reverts back to the way things were, safe in the confining boat.

With the second stanza I think of Jesus saying to Simon Peter, “Get behind me Satan!” or “Put out into the deep and lower you nets for a catch!” “But master, we have been hard at it all night long and caught nothing!” Then we hear Jesus say not only to his disciples, but to me, “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood… pick up your cross and follow me… love me more than family… to follow me requires suffering… Will you leave me also?” Then you hurt, aggravate, block… That’s your nature. And then we think of treasure buried within us of the broken bread/body and poured out blood.

They recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread, but he vanished from their sight. “Weren’t our hearts burning within us as he spoke to us along the way?” The Way of the Cross is not easy. We cry out like the poet: My faith does not want to move your mountains— But rather, aspire to their triumph, touching the sky.

In the final stanza, we realize life without the treasure hidden within us is a life without safety, joy or hope. Our life is so vulnerable.

What if the second coming of Jesus, the pearl of great price, is actually hidden among the refugee children risking everything to enter our Southern borders from Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador? Your bulletin gets it right this week, “If you think fertilized eggs are people but refugee kids aren’t…you’re going to have to stop pretending your concerns are religious.”

The parable today inspires Queen of Peace Catholic Community to think about tithing beyond 10% to the poor. Our community finds the buried treasure of God’s Love for the Poor. Then we go out and sell everything to purchase the field with the buried treasure. Cheerful givers that we are, Queen of Peace does this by giving away 10% of the offertory. That is the first place people consider finding more money. We don’t want to look at the 90%, but that is where God buried the treasure! Our God being good all the time, will not be outdone in generosity. The Kingdom of Heaven resides in each of us today. O my!

As Christians we receive (or find) God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly in justice with others, and return them with increase to the Lord. (When we hide the treasure in our bodies as Eucharist… God, our treasure, multiplies the fruit within us: more fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, self-control and faithfulness.

After my mission visits to Haiti, Guatemala and Honduras, I agree wholeheartedly with Pope Francis. “I can say that the most beautiful and natural expressions of joy which I have seen in my life were in poor people who had little to hold on to. I also think of the real joy shown by others who, even amid pressing professional obligations, were able to preserve, in detachment and simplicity, a heart full of faith. In their own way, all these instances of joy flow from the infinite love of God, who has revealed himself to us in Jesus Christ.” (Joy of the Gospel: 7)

And finally in the Imitation of Christ, we recognize the rising and revealing Treasure inside our hearts:

“God frequently visits the heart of a person. There the Beloved shares with the person pleasant conversations, welcome consolation, abundant peace and a wonderful intimacy. So come faithful soul. Prepare your heart for your spouse to dwell within you!

Make room for Christ. When you possess Christ you are a rich person, for the Beloved Jesus is sufficient for you.

Until you are intimately united with Christ, you will never find your true rest.

Beloved, the Kingdom of heaven that Jesus speaks of is already buried within us. We only need to search for the treasure with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. As we search, we discover that God has been searching for us. Let us use the gift of wisdom and be like three magi who offered the infant Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

God says to us: “I give you a heart so wise and understanding…”

Let us imitate St. Ignatius of Loyola who sang before the crucifix every day: “Take Lord, receive, all I have and possess: my memory, understanding, my entire will. Give me only your love and your grace, that’s enough for me. Your love and your grace are enough for me.

Jesus has buried the treasure in each one of us.

Now that is Good News I can treasure. How about you?

Is God searching for YOU?

Soulitude: Mission Possible

Mission of the Soul

            Jesus used stories. This is a story about how millions of people had their lives changed forever. It is every soul’s story. We all were created from a gesture of love, although sometimes we have to go back a generation or two. The story is about a tear in the soul. It is about being vulnerable to trust another soul.

Because Soul, by nature, is difficult to define yet is felt in moments of “lived truth,” perhaps Soul is the grail where spirituality, philosophy and psychology converge (Cosineau, 1994).

            On many occasions I have seen the soul leave the physical body. Sometimes this “soul rising” occurs before the person actually stops breathing. However, most times the soul leaves simultaneously at the time a doctor would declare a person dead.

            Every body and soul needs a family and relationships in order to survive and thrive. Every body and soul is in need of abundant love and joy and sorrow. We all need peace, boy to we need peace! We also need just the right amount of discipline, tensions, anxieties, sufferings and crosses to grow to be healthy and wise.  We can still flourish without the traditional family of mother and father, limbs or eyesight, or the normal mental capacities. But we must have love from others in order to become what we were created to be: a stunning, magnificent, and beautiful soul!

            One story passed on to us is when Jesus was just a few weeks from his death, a man ran up to him and knelt down. He blurted out a question. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him by saying, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments. You shall not kill. You shall not steal. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not defraud. Honor your mother and father.” The earnest man shared without boasting, “Sir, I have kept all of these since my youth.”

            Jesus looked at him and loved him. “You are lacking one thing. Go sell what you have and give alms to the poor and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come and follow me.” He bowed his head and went away sad because he had many possessions. 

 

            The silence that follows is unbearable. It feels soulless, but it is really soulful. The man needed nothing else in the world and he blew it. Can you imagine if he had allowed the Love from Jesus to permeate his body and soul? If I knew that I missed that opportunity, the trillion-dollar look, I would lose all hope.

The Good News is that the impossible is still possible with God. Our mission that goes beyond lent and Easter is a mission possible. The Soul can only awaken in a place of solitude. Our attitude must be soulitude. Soulitude is when we actively seek God with all our heart, mind, strength and soul. We seek God beyond the loneliness and isolation, the hostilities and persecutions, the illusions and boredom.  God is waiting for us.

            This story and mission possible is about journeying into cultural and religious warfare only to discover that the war is within my own soul. This mission is more difficult than making it to the Final Four as a 16 seeded basketball team.

            Our mission will explore the dark night of the soul. Our mission is to turn the place of utter isolation into solitude, unbearable hostility into hospitality, and our illusions into nourishing prayer. Within the dark nights of the soul, there really is hope. The soul is wounded physically, emotionally and morally. But God heals. Hope is life.

**Check this song out: SOMETHING MORE BY NICK VUJICIC: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrV_ZvwZRvw

 

 

            Having a spirit of Soulitude will call us to an authentic life. At Queen of Peace the people have understood stewardship and a genuine love for the poor. When much has been given, more is expected. Jesus is asking us to put out into deep water and lower our nets for a catch. Like Simon Peter at the beginning of his encounter with Jesus, we balk and complain. “Master, we have been working hard at stewardship for over 25 years… but at your command we will lower the nets.”

It is Jesus who calls us to renew ourselves at this mission. Even if you struggle with lent, keep asking Jesus to help you in this journey into the desert. Pray for me. No prophet is accepted in his native home. I am borderline native even if I have a graduate degree from Mississippi State. Please do not lose sight of the fact that Jesus was rejected by his own people. This mission will hopefully inspire us to experience Jesus’ look of love… and respond better than the man who bowed his head prayerfully and went away sad.

I am about to tell this story.

You are about to tell this story.

We are about to tell this story.

I am

You are.

We are.

The story,

The mission,

The birth of a soul,

The tear in the dark night,

and the death consubstantial with the Beloved.

            When God falls in love with us, it means that God cannot go on living without us. God suffers at times like a parent who mourns a child or a grandchild. There is no consoling of God’s broken heart and soul.

            God so loved the world that God became one heart, one mind, one strength and one soul with us.

God and we became

One Soul

One Heart

One Mind

One Spirit

One Love

Without God we have no life, birth soul, spirit

Without You and Me God no longer has life, birth, soul or spirit.

St. Teresa was correct: God has no hands, no feet, no soul without us.

You see, God really loves us. God looks at us and loves us.

When the man bows his head and goes away because of his possessions taking priority, do we see and acknowledge that Jesus weeps and mourns for this beloved man? Do we see the tear… the tear of his soul.

Because God is in every cell and fiber and spiritual sense of every sing human being…

It was actually God, my Beloved, that I experienced in every casualty, death and grieving mother, father, spouse, child and friend destroyed by the violence of war or sexual abuse.

My mission is God’s mission.

You and I have been anointed and loved by Jesus, the Beloved, (Just as Fathers Jeff, Brian and Kaz) to bring great news to the poor (in spirit, mind, heart and soul).

God sends us to proclaim liberty to captives  (by their sins, addictions, and possessions).

God sends us to aid in the recovery of the blind, especially the inwardly blind.

Jesus calls us to smash the yoke of those oppressed in any way, shape or form.

We are God’s lovers. Let us give it all away. We must be bread to the hungry at our doors. Open the gates, bring the robe and rings. Lavish the hungry with the plenty we have received in the Word and Love of God.

As Christians we receive God’s gifts gratefully,

cultivate them responsibly,

share them lovingly in justice with others,

and return them with increase to the Lord.

Psalm 131

O Lord, my heart is not proud

            nor are my eyes haughty

I do not busy myself with great matters,

with things to sublime for me.

Rather, I have stilled my soul,

hushed it like a weaned child.

Like a weaned child on its mothers lap,

so is my soul within me.

Israel, those who wrestle with God, hope in the Lord (Beloved),

now and forever.

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Stewards of Blood!

Gospel according to St. Luke: Jesus said to his disciples, “A rich man had a steward who was reported to him for squandering his property. He summoned him and said, ‘What is this I hear about you? Prepare a full account of your stewardship, because you can no longer be my steward.”

 

Spiritual awakening is frequently described as a journey to the top of the mountaintop. At the peak we have transcended all pain. We experience the transfiguration of Jesus and the voice of God, “This is my Beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him!” The only problem with this mountaintop experience is that we leave all the others behind—our drunken brother, our schizophrenic sister, our tormented animals, friends and Mother Earth. Their suffering continues, unrelieved by our personal escape. Jesus heads back down the mountain before we are ready.

In the process of discovering our compassionate heart, the journey goes down, not up. It’s as if the mountain pointed toward the center of the earth instead of reaching into the sky. Instead of transcending the suffering of all creatures, we move toward the turbulence and doubt. We jump into it. We slide into it. We tiptoe into it. We move toward it however we can. We explore the reality and unpredictability of insecurity and pain, and we try not to push it away. If it takes years, if it takes lifetimes, we let it be as it is. At our own pace, without speed or aggression, we move down and down and down.

Jesus calls out to us amidst the descent, darkness and chaos. “Come and follow!” “Don’t be afraid!” “Put out into the deep waters and lower your nets!” “Get out of the boat and walk on the stormy seas!” “Give them some food yourselves!” “Do not be afraid as we walk into the room where your dead child lies.” “Forgive those who hurt you.” “Today you will be with me in Paradise!”

This parable is for each of us. It helps us to realize our own sin, our neglect of the poor and the suffering. This unloving state we are in can be corrected by going down the mountain and realizing that we are too weak to dig and too ashamed to beg. With us move millions of others, our companions in awakening from fear. At the bottom we discover water, the healing water of the compassionate heart. Right down there in the thick of things, we discover the love that will not die.

Every Sunday we receive a drop of blood from the side of Jesus. Jesus says that unless we eat his body and drink his blood we will have no life… eternal life! I reckon after many years and drops of blood consumed from the side of Jesus, our hearts are more that of Jesus than ourselves.

God has given me a new heart and a new spirit. I hear Jesus say to me, “Ron Moses, don’t focus on the jerk who crushed your sand castle. After all, it is only sand. Enjoy the beach, sky, breath and surf!!”

Atlantic Beach

Jesus goes on to say, “No servant can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and mammon.”

The Hebrew definition of ‘mammon’ is ‘what one trusts in.’  This is interesting because every coin and monetary bill has the motto of our nation, ‘IN GOD WE TRUST’. Jesus knew that Pharisees and the rich trusted in their wealth more than God.  We might be the same. They were slaves to their wealth. And the poor were slaves to them. Scriptures are quite clear that the borrower is slave to the lender. The Lord’s prayer says, Forgive us our debts as we forgive the debt of others.  We are all indebted either emotionally, monetarily or both.  And thus we are all enslaved. Jesus sets us free. The world and godless people keep us enslaved.

If we hear Jesus call us to follow him, we will be with the poor. We will eat with the poor. We will fall in love with the poor. We will actually learn to beg for the poor.

God teaches us to give 10% of our first fruits

…but God is encouraging us to give it all away, 100%

God is more concerned with our 90%,

but God can do nothing until we commit the first 10%.

Much has been given. Much is expected. We are merely stewards.

If God can trust us stewards with 10% (just a little)

Then God can entrust us with much more.

If God cannot trust us with 10%, God will not let us squander more of his love.

We will suffer needlessly in this world if we do not learn how to work with God in all things.

 The great Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, sang before the crucifix every day. He wanted to be a missionary priest more than anything, but God needed his heart and mind to stay in Rome for greater things. God foresaw that one of the Jesuits of his order would one day become Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome.

All Jesuits know this prayer. How about you?

 Take Lord, receive, all I have and possess

My memory, understanding, my entire will

Give me only your love and your grace, that’s enough for me

Your love and your grace, that’s enough for me.

 This is your homework this week. Learn this prayer. Then sing this prayer with all your heart before the crucifix. Sing it every morning before you start your day. Allow it to wash over you like the rising tide or the ocean breeze. Let it sink into your being like rain into the rich soil. Observe how your heart is more like Jesus, more in love with the suffering and the poor.

Jesus seems to indicate that we are all stewards of God’s bountiful gifts. We are all given the position of stewards as the U.S. Catholic Bishops declare in their letter A Disciple’s Response. When each of us dies, and we will all die, God will ask us to prepare a full account of our stewardship, because we can no longer be God’s stewards. What has our Master heard about each of us? How will each of us respond?

The really good news is that God will be pleased if we are found with the suffering, the lowly, the orphans and the poor.

Take Beloved, receive, all I have and possess; my memory, my understanding, my entire will.

Give me only your love and your grace. That’s enough for me.

Your love and your grace are enough for me.

Moonset

(Special thanks to thoughts from When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times by Pema Chodron 2000)

Middle Spring

Come take a journey with me into the forest.
My wonderful friend died today. Her soul was welcomed into the arms of the Beloved. I believe. I trust.
I almost didn’t recognize the woods today. There was so much life and love.

I heard a homily this past week from my friend’s son. “If our leg is amputated, we are still the same person.” We are not less of a person. We just have to manage past that cross or rock in our path.

Beloved, all of us are loved by God. Our Beloved God will not allow us to be harmed.
All God ever wanted was to hear us say, “I love you!”
Love one another.
What do you have to lose.
Let go of all bitterness.
Love one another.

Flower power!

Delicate

Ready to Spring

Awakening

Web of Life

Go with God
Nothing to fear!

Swing into action

Longing for Color

Broken but beautiful

See Butterfly?

hang in there

Gotta have it!

Be careful!

Loving it!

Can you hear the fern sing?

Unique

Bashful

Smitten by beauty

Ants assist flowers

Trust

My Beloved and My God!

Living

The old

Have faith

Potential

Trust

Pray for us

It will one day bloom!

Love does it all

God needs our help

Anchor

Hospitality

Now what?

We all play our part!

Be part of the solution

Insignificant…Not!

Yes!

Delicious

Love one another

Go with Beloved God Elvira!
I love you!
Ron