Take, Beloved, receive…

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them…Whoever does not carry one’s own cross cannot be my disciple…Anyone of you who does not renounce all one’s possessions cannot be my disciple.  Luke: 14:25-33

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          The good Jesuit priest Ignatius of Loyola founded the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) to be missionaries. Ignatius never got the opportunity to go on mission physically, but he was the catalyst of an order which one day would bring about a Pope Francis with a missionary and merciful zeal. Every day, Ignatius would pray before a cross in Rome these words. I imagine he also sang them:

Take Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. You have given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is yours, dispose of it wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and your grace, for this is sufficient for me.

When couples marry, a man and a woman leave their parents and become one. In reality, they say those words St. Ignatius used: “Take and receive all my liberty, all I have and possess. Your love is enough for me.”

When a newborn is presented to parents, parents say to their children: “Take and receive all my liberty, all I have and possess. Your love is enough for me.” Beyond the anxieties, they said these words to each of us.

When we are ordained priests or enter religious life, it is not all blessings and bliss. We say to the people of God, “Take and receive all my liberty, all I have and possess. Your love is enough for me.”

So, when we assess what we will need to complete the most essential successes in life, those that manifest our love, whether we understand or not, the outlay will be all we have and possess. Discipleship is of course one of those successes that require us to be “all in for love.”

This weekend our Holy Catholic Church officially proclaimed what the whole world already knows: Mother Teresa of Calcutta is a saint. Having worked with the sisters in Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica and Guatemala, I know all of her sisters are saints who gave everything and received everything they need from God.

She once said, “Look at your hands; you have five fingers. Every morning ask yourself what you will do today for the Lord with these five fingers. At night do the same thing and ask what you will do for Jesus and humanity tomorrow.”

In the parables of the tower and the king preparing for war, Jesus reminds us that we do not live the life of God by accident, that to live our baptisms demands focused attention and deliberate action, courage, faith and hope and love.

Now Jesus is on the cross and says these words to each of us:

Take Beloved, 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 is simply waiting for our response. Jesus is waiting for us to say “Yes” to his invitation to join him on the Cross. This Cross has built more than bridges, but love to shelter us for eternity.

Mother Teresa suggested a “Simple Path,” for humanity to thrive (let’s say it together)

The fruit of SILENCE is

PRAYER

The fruit of prayer is

FAITH

The fruit of faith is

LOVE

The fruit of love is

SERVICE

The fruit of service is

PEACE…That would truly be good news!

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On the night that Mother Teresa died, September 5, 1997, I had a dream. I wrote the following in my journal that morning.

Mother Teresa  +

         forgive us God

         for all this pomp

         tell her we love her

         and push us and gently guide us

         to get back to work

         and quench the thirst

         of Jesus on the Cross

 

a dream I had last night

that I entered a special

and privileged group

everything was given to me

as I went from event to event

they smiled, the ones in charge

and freely gave me and my companions

everything we needed

         but

         but

I was very distressed…

uneasy

like something was expected

i had to earn my keep… pay back

i became angry in my dream

at these people who gave me things

i tried to ask them what they wanted in return

         but nothing

                  just a dumb smile

 

I was looking for the hitch

         the trap

nobody gives anything without

         expecting something

 

and then I got it

they were the rich who gave a lot

they were in charge

and wouldn’t look into our eyes

         touch our sores

we were the poorest of poor

and they were satisfied

         in us

when we are so grateful for their sharing…

which wasn’t totally true love… free of guilt

 

and then I woke up immediately recognizing how rich I am.

snatched with this thought…

God smiling

Teresa smiling

Holy Spirit smiling

   and Jesus smiling.

At Eucharist

Jesus gives to all… the same plain bread and wine

         some places in the world can’t afford the wine

         but that’s okay

         sort of

Working with the Sisters of Charity

         they eat what the poor eat

         Cities of Joy

                  in

Haiti, Jamaica, Guatemala, Cuba

Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Tanzania, Mexico, Ghana, Liberia, Los Angeles, Jacksonville, New York, Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Panama, El Salvador….

                                             They are there!

                                             Jesus cries out from the Cross:

                                             “I thirst!”

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.

SOULITUDE

  

An attitude

A mystery

Desperately digging deep down beyond resistance and sabotage

Soul is a place seldom fathomed deep in the dark, trenches and cold

Only black rain and pain visible at first

And fear touched, tasted and taunted by

more real, too real than we can speak of… pray of… scream of…

Courage!

Seek beyond

Borrowed energy of forced path into intense terror and unjust wars

projecting self through thorny brush, chaotic trees, rocky obstacles

desiring to fly stealthily like a hawk in pursuit of prey

feathering, tripping, panting, sweating, maneuvering… pursued!

giving up almost

crawling up to evaporate

dying.

But keep going self talk… slightly beyond gibberish babble in Babel Empire

Take in all dimensions

Solely alone – suddenly stopped – stalked!

Breathing arrested

Pounding heart slowing

Eyes opening like slow ascending elevators

Spirit and skin stripped, melting into the desolate land littered

with bones and residual hostile emotions

Tears wrung out of mops heroically swabbed to clear the

bloody fluid leftovers

from amputations and desperate incisions of bodies, hearts and souls

Lifting, lifted, rising

Beyond the dew, grief, hostility, terror, isolation and stifling silence

Weak hope still present like faint pulse

peace still perceived, but shrinking

joy not withstanding… not!

Soul-i-tude

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.

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

50 Years of Edgar and Margaret

A few weeks ago
I went to visit Edgar
who was declining at the hospital
He didn’t seem to have much life
as in weeks
Body was shutting down.
Yesterday, just before Mass
Josie told me he would die that day
I told her we would pray
And then go after praising the Lord

So we praised the Lord, Our Beloved Jesus

I thank you God for my truck
It brought us safely
Josie and I shared how
we were not afraid of death
We both had brushed up against it,
peace and warmth
We remembered her husband, Jim,
two years ago when I was there
We enjoyed the ride.
Josie and I journeyed through the bereavement,
such good women at St. Patrick’s Church
Edgar wasn’t Catholic
But he always paved the way
for his beloved wife of 50 years and their children
The children went through our school
So here we were
gathered around Edgar’s deathbed
Renewed their vows
sang songs of love
kissed his ravished body
The Beloved is our Light and Salvation
of whom should we be afraid?

We peeked into heaven…
Edgar was leaving promptly
When I anointed Edgar,
I felt such a warmth
He smiled the best he could
Then, when I anointed his beloved Margaret…
I sensed that him leave his body

Their Marriage has left
yet it still remains
Heaven and Earth
together
Earth giving way to Heaven
This isn’t exactly romantic
but beyond comprehension
All the Spirit asked me to do
was to move her hand toward his
and clear the path for
their lips to lock and let go

Love, poverty of life, joy

You see, just before we die
we are the poorest of the poor
When our loved ones die
we are so poor and desperate
because we love to love
and need the food produced when we
love one another

God you are magnificent,
to create us in your image
breath,
beat,
blood

Sing praises, Dance Eternal
Alive
A love
Alone
All One!

Suffer, we do
Die, we will
Rise, we are
In love
In joy
In peace… Alleluia!

Father Ron Camarda – 2004

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Journey of a Soul into Eternity

It doesn’t matter who we are, we all are on a journey in this life.

We all must be born and thrust out into the world usually against our will. We were all created from the sperm of a man and an egg of a woman. We strive to understand these donors as “Father” and “Mother”. Sometimes, because of circumstances that just are, others must step in out of love as foster parents to raise and love us.

Who would want to leave the warmth of our mother’s womb? We can’t fathom nor dream how total consciousness gets better and better. Human beings seem to be the only living creatures that are capable of contemplating the future and past. We think about an afterlife. Susi Pitman’s book, Animals in Heaven? Catholics want to know, contemplates whether our pets and animals will or are in heaven. We human beings can raise this kind of question, however animals don’t appear to “think” about it. Animals don’t write about thoughts like this article is doing, nor do they read and understand like you are doing at this moment. It isn’t good or bad, it is just an observation.

Sometimes, when life and being human becomes difficult, we wish we were like our pets. A dog or cat in a loving family really doesn’t worry about much. Nothing keeps them awake at night thinking. All of their worries and needs are in the present. Unlike our spouses, the more delayed you are in getting home, the happier the dog gets when you finally return home!

Basically, we are all more like animals than we are different. All of us strive to survive. We want to live. Even the person who commits suicide wants to live. The emotional, spiritual and physical pain has become unmanageable. The suicidal person, who basically has a “spiritual heart attack”, is hoping to get the life back flowing in their lives.

God is good, just look around. God doesn’t make junk. Too often, we focus and belittle ourselves mostly as sinners without looking at ourselves as a miracle of life. My experience of God is a loving Father and Mother. My hope is that God will always be this loving. God is always waiting for me to come home. God embraces you and me everyday with breath and a heartbeat. Mean dogs are only mean because they were trained to be mean by human beings. We are all first and foremost incredible, fantastic and beloved children of God. None of us would ever believe for a second that it is okay to abuse or injure a baby or toddler. And yet, we were all once just that. Loved. The only time a child is abused or aborted is when we fail to see the child as a one-of-a-kind and unique person like all of us. Those people are simply blind or dead to being open to the miracle of life and transcendence.

It is difficult to live. And it will be difficult to die. We see it coming and know that no one gets out of this world without dying. It is natural. I look forward to my death for it will be a journey, my journey. Don’t be afraid of living in heaven today on this earth. Life is an opportunity to journey and transcend our world and become more and more like our Creator. Amazing! Crazy! Fabulous! Forever.

Newborn babies don’t have a clue as to what is happening, but consciousness is a slow process. I suspect heaven will be the same. We are loved and God understands that we couldn’t possibly feed and protect ourselves from the beginning.

Trust God’s love for you and have a blessed day as a Steward of God’s Creation, which includes being stewards of our “thinking” and “birthing into heaven”.

Love, joy, peace,

Father Ron Moses +

Pura Vida