prev20

current reflections...

Mercy

In December of 2015 Pope Francis opened the Jubilee Year of Mercy. In his homily on Divine Mercy Sunday he stated:

Here, then is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favourable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone, everyone, the way of forgiveness and reconciliation. May the Mother of God open our eyes, so that we may comprehend the task to which we have been called; and may she obtain for us the grace to experience this Jubilee of Mercy as faithful and fruitful witnesses of Christ.

The Holy Father is telling us that no matter how many or great our sins, God is always there to forgive us if we turn to Him in sincerity of heart. The hard part he tells us is forgiving others. Forgiveness is a choice and perhaps one of the most powerful examples of this happened ten years ago in Nikel Mines, PA. A young man named Charlie Roberts entered an Amish school and shot ten young girls, killing six of them. The parents of the young man were horrified and wanted to move from their community so deep was their guilt and grief. Their Amish neighbor came the next day and urged them not to go saying this tragedy was not their fault and the Amish community had already forgiven Charlie. Terry, (the mother) was not so quick to forgive her son and was stunned at his funeral at the welcome from their Amish neighbors.

For the mother and father who had lost not just one but two daughters at the hand of our son, to come up and be the first ones to greet us – wow. Is there anything in this life that we should not forgive?” She continued, I realized if I didn’t forgive him, I would have the same hole in my heart that he had. And a root of bitterness never brings peace to anyone,” Roberts said. “We are called to forgive.” Daily News-New York 2007

A few years ago the initials WWJD (what would Jesus do) were very popular and they are the heart of the Jubilee Year of Mercy. We are called to walk in the footsteps of Christ and to make known to others his love and forgiveness. Many who struggle to live as Christians might feel this call is too hard for them but ‘God uses the weak to confound the strong’ (1 Cor. 1:2-7). We are ‘wounded healers’ and give others hope by accepting our own wounds and growing despite of them.

Yet, what about sinners getting what they deserve? We Americans are a very law and order society. As the saying goes, if you do the crime—you should do the time. This is where God’s forgiveness and mercy blows our little minds! If that were God’s mindset, Jesus would never have died on the Cross and we would never have been forgiven but HE DID and WE ARE! Pope Francis also addressed the issue of justice and mercy in speaking of the Jubilee Year.

“The temptation…to focus exclusively on justice made us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable step…The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more,” he states. He addresses the relationship between mercy and justice, which he says, “are not two contradictory realities, but two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love.” Francis says that in many biblical passages, “justice is understood as the full observance of the Law and the behavior of every good Israelite in conformity with God’s commandments.” But he continues: “Such a vision … has not infrequently led to legalism by distorting the original meaning of justice and obscuring its profound value.” He then quotes Jesus’ response to the Pharisees in Matthew’s Gospel – “Go and learn the meaning of ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice.' -- Francis says, “Jesus is bent on revealing the great gift of mercy that searches out sinners and offers them pardon and salvation. (Salt and Light Website)

It is important for us then to remember during the Pascal Triduum the infinite mercy of Jesus who died for our salvation. His last words, ‘Father, forgive them’ should resonate with new meaning during this year of mercy. We are a forgiven and risen people! Let us now go forth and share the Good News! Alleluia!

Reprinted with the generous permission of the Carmelite Nuns in Piedmont, Oklahoma

http://www.okcarmel.org/

Lent

Why is it that the human heart seems attracted to the somberness of Lent? For most of us, Lent means turning inward.

Some people spend this season meditating on the Passion. Perhaps, this is a good place to start. Even though the media is geared to happiness, pleasure and satisfaction, deep down we all know that there is pain, suffering and disappointment in our lives. It seems strange, in some cases, to invite suffering people to do more penance. Perhaps, this is the true meaning of passion.

Lent does us a favor by reminding us that we, by ourselves, will never be able to relieve our own suffering. This relief comes from God working in us, from a God Who so desires to do this for us. The season of Lent can be soothing. In a way, it pours balm on our heartaches.

Lent is also a call to bigness of life. There is a mysticism which could aptly be called the "pain of God", a mysticism in which we come to see dimly as God sees. We come to know that there are some situations in life which God does not intend or desire. Some writers would say that, in these situations, God suffers in us and with us. Our tears and the tears of God become one.

Meister Eckhart says that there is no pain or sorrow which comes to us that has not first passed through the Heart of God. Lent is an invitation to lay our sufferings in that Heart and to walk on bravely, with an air of confidence. Underneath the pain, there is a victory holding everything together. It will not be shaken.

By: Mary Jo Loebig, O.C.D.

Nazareth Time

The time after Christmas and before the beginning of Lent is referred to as Ordinary Time or more often in Monastic life, as Nazareth Time. When we pause to reflect upon it, we can better understand it as a time to grow and a time to deepen our love for God. Perhaps the best way to do this is to recognize God’s love for us in our daily lives.

I like to think of it as “Mary’s time.” In Scripture, we have a long period after the birth of Christ and his being found in the Temple, to the beginning of His public life and works.

My Novice director once told me, that “Our Lady must have prepared many a meal for Jesus and Joseph.” One could further surmise that, while not every meal was special or festive in the kind of food presented, every one was prepared with much love.

Most of our life falls into the Ordinary Time category. With the help of Our Lady we pray to acknowledge the love and the presence of God that accompanies our everyday activities.

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Christmas 2015

from the works of Sr. Mary Jo Loebig, O.C.D.

Advents

In a recent homily Fr. Tom Hennen reminded us that there were different Advents in the life of Our Lord... for example the time before his birth, which we are now celebrating, his return to his Father (the Ascension) and his coming to the final judgment at the end of time.

This helped me to think about the Advent times in our own lives. At Santa Clara Carmel in a side chapel there is a beautiful image of Our Lady and St. Joseph pictured on the way to Bethlehem. A close friend who also knew what it meant to await the arrival of a child once remarked to me. “I know just how tired she felt.” Being a very prayerful and holy woman, I know that even her tiredness was a means of uniting her with the presence of God. On a deeper level perhaps that is what our personal Advents are inviting us to.

We can be awaiting the birth of child, graduation from School, the beginning of our life’s work or more soberly the end of our life’s journey or the death of a friend. All of these times can be graced by acknowledging Christ’s presence within us.

Finally, we know that in our liturgy, the season of Advent comes every year, yet each Advent is different, simply because we are different. We can celebrate it once again as fresh, new and exciting by uniting our personal Advents with Christ’s and acknowledging his presence and love at this time in our lives.

Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.

Paris

We are especially praying for the people of France who have been hurt by the recent terrorist attacks.

May St. Thérèse and St. Joan of Arc intercede for them during this stressful time.

We're united in prayer to God with all who are asking for peace and protection from violence in our world.

St. Teresa of Jesus

Sisters and Daughters

A few months after I had entered Carmel in 1981, my parents came for a visit. They met and talked with the nuns, paused and prayed in the chapel and viewed the grounds. As we were walking to the guest house, my mother stopped and asked, "so who was this St. Teresa and what did she do?"

On a deeper level my mother's question was more to the point as to what or who is attracting my daughter to this way of life? When I briefly answered that St. Teresa was a woman of deep prayer who founded a number of different Carmels for other women who were also interested in a deeper prayer life; this "mother to mother" approach seemed to best appeal to my own mother's heart and helped her to begin to understand what I was being called to embrace in my vocation.

Now as I read on an IPad the story of The Foundations of St. Teresa, I am once again made more deeply aware of her motherly spirit. Indeed, I believe she was, and continues to be, our spiritual mother in Carmel in the very best of sense of the word. Also, perhaps nowhere else in her writings is this better expressed than in the Foundations.

Teresa writes freely about her personal love of God and her gifts of prayer and her call to make foundations. Yet, with all of her desire to please God and to remain detached from personal trials and her limitations of illness and age, she states that she is not detached from the love she has for her Sisters and daughters.

Indeed, it cost her dearly to leave after a foundation was completed. "And to leave my daughters and Sisters when going from one place to another, was not the smallest cross, I tell you, since I love them so much; especially when I thought I was not going to return to see them again and I saw their great sadness and tears. Even though they are detached from other things, God has not given them the gift to be detached from me, perhaps so that it might be a greater torment to me, for I am not detached from them either,...their love for me is great and in many ways it is obvious that this love is true." (chap 27 18)

When it came to caring for the welfare of the Sisters, Teresa wrote: "I never would, or did, leave any monastery until it was in fit condition, had a spirit of recollection and was adapted according to my wishes....And as though I were to live in that house for the rest of my life, I sought to obtain everything, even the smallest thing that would contribute to the tranquility suitable for the life, and so it gave me great happiness to see that everything was in good shape." (chap 19 6)

Now almost five centuries later, the seventeen Carmels that Teresa personally founded are still in existence. Her story and her spirit remain fresh in the Church that she so desired to serve. Canonized a saint, she continues to inspire both men and women to commit themselves to grow deeper in their relationship to God and to all of their brothers and sisters.

Thus, I can only praise and thank God for the wonderful gift of this Spanish mother who touched my own mother's heart and who continues to invite her daughters in the twenty first century to express their own motherhood in praying for all of God's people.

Finally, like St. Teresa I am reminded that while we pray and work in Carmel, we also trust in God working within us. As La Madre explained: "One day, while I was in prayer beseeching our Lord to give them a house since they were His brides and had such a desire to please Him, He told me: 'I have already heard you; leave it to Me.'" (chap 25 4)

First published on Generalate Website

by Miriam Hogan, O.C.D.