Daily Scripture

Scripture:

Acts 18:9-18
John 16:20-23

Reflection:

"God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise." PS 47: 6-7

Learning to praise the Lord in word and song has been a very important part of my spiritual journey and is now a big part of my prayer life. I grew up praying our traditional prayers, and I still love them and pray them every day. I especially like to pray the "Anima Christi" after communion. But I’ve also learned to simply praise the Lord… focusing on God’s attributes and getting lost in who God is.

I start saying the names of God and thinking about who God is…"Praise You Lord, You are the Living Word and the Bread of Life. You are my Hiding Place, my Savior, and my Provider. You are the great I AM. You are my Shepherd, my Rock, my Deliverer" and so on. When I focus on who God is, my heart starts rejoicing and I am filled with thanksgiving. I am then much more able to be quiet and listen to the Lord, or I can just enjoy basking in His presence. God is SO GOOD!!!

Praise ushers us into God’s throne room. We read in Ps. 100: 4, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise." Praise takes us right up to God’s throne! I can’t get in to see President Obama without great difficulty, if ever, but I can come into the courts of the King of kings and the Lord of lords whenever I want to!!! How awesome is that?

Another great thing about praising God in all situations is that it keeps our minds off of our problems. When we choose to praise God even when things aren’t going so well, we are trusting Him to provide for us and take care of things. It saves a lot of time and energy that we might otherwise spend worrying or trying to figure out the solution to the problem. Let’s praise God often for He alone is worthy of our praise. Let’s keep our eyes on God and rejoice in His amazing love!!!

I created a bookmark with many of the names of God found in a Litany of Praise. If you send me a SASE I will be happy to send you one. (You can get my address by emailing me.)

 

Janice Carleton and her husband Jim live in Portland, OR and partner with Passionist Fr. Cedric Pisegna in Fr. Cedric Ministries. Janice also leads women’s retreats. She is the mother of 4 grown children and grandmother of 2, soon to be 3. Visit her website: www.jcarleton.com or email her at [email protected]. 

 

Scripture:

Acts 1:1-11
John 16:6-20

 

 

 

Reflection:

The Easter event has fuzzied the notion of presence.  From the first encounter with the risen Jesus, people had trouble discerning precisely Who He was.  They somewhat identified Him, but there was a difference.

This Easter trait carries over into the scriptural accounts today, starting with Jesus’ words at the Last Supper about His visibility to His disciples.  "A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me."  This literally happened during the days surrounding Easter.  Today’s gospel goes on, in Jesus’ words, to acknowledge that His followers will weep and mourn, but then counters by remarking that this grief will become joy.  Such exactly was the experience of the first seer at the tomb, Mary Magdalene.  Weeping, she was unable to discern the presence of the Person before her, but this soon turned into joy.

Paul rather vividly illustrates this "now you see me, now you don’t" experience, in today’s account from Acts.  Just arrived in Corinth from Athens, he continues his intense pace in preaching the gospel, moving about within Corinth itself, from association with Aquila and Priscilla, to teaming up with Silas, to housing with Titus Justus, to evangelizing Crispus.  Totally unlike his former Jewish compatriots, for whom spreading their faith by such missionary endeavors was virtually unknown, Paul engages anyone and everyone, regardless of race, with his message about Jesus as the Messiah.  He extends Jesus’ remark above about no longer being seen by leaving his Jewish setting, when he finally grasps how they oppose and revile him.  "He shook out his garments" and departed from them, allying with the gentiles.  Paul has an Easter sense of absence and presence.  Like the risen Jesus, he bestows it on willing listeners, but withholds it from those who close their ears to his message.

Easter prompts us to review our sense of Jesus’ presence, in word, sacrament, community and the poor.  Life tends to be fuzzy.  Easter challenges us to improve our focus on the risen Christ before us.

 

Fr. Sebastian MacDonald, CP, [email protected], is a member of the Passionist formation community at Catholic Theological Union, Chicago. 

Scripture:

Acts 10:25-26, 34-35, 44-48
1 John 4"7-10
John 15:9-17

Reflection:

The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, tells us that on March 18, 1958, he was given a sudden insight as he stood on the corner of Fourth and Market (now named Muhammad Ali) streets, in downtown Louisville, Ky.  He was "suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people…"  He found them "walking around shining like the sun."  This graced intuition led him to redefine his monastic identity, putting greater involvement in social justice issues.

This kind of breaking more fully into God’s world, sharing God’s vision, is something we all experience in many different ways.  Some, like Merton and Dorothy Day, have these profound experiences locked in a moment of time.  I believe that most of us grow and mature into these "new visions, new worlds" more gradually.

In today first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, we find good old Peter, deeply formed in mind and heart by his Jewish upbringing.  Salvation was for the Jews.  All of a sudden he was looking through the lens of Jesus-given faith.  Like looking through the Hubble telescope, he was seeing new worlds.  God was going crazy loving everyone.  "I begin to see how true it is that God shows no partiality.  Rather, the man of any nation who fears God and acts uprightly is acceptable to him."  The Holy Spirit was falling on people left and right.  Peter had trouble keeping up with God.  He quickly made the decision to give baptism to the family of Cornelius.  He responded in the Spirit, but later on his logic and enculturation caught up with him and stirred doubts and questions that he would need to resolve.

The most delicious grace I have received in recent years, is the intuition that shows me that God is at work calling all people, no matter what religion they belong to.  It is true that through Jesus all people are saved but God is mysteriously marvelous in the ways used to offer that call.  Pope John Paul II’s loving call to the peoples of all religions, East and West, freed my mind to let the Holy Spirit move my soul and get me genuinely excited about the unity I feel deep down with all peoples.  To be able to hug and embrace all peoples and believe in an eternity together, is and will remain a great grace given to me.

 

Fr. Blaise Czaja, C.P. gives parish missions and retreats.  He is a member of the Passionist Community in Detroit, Michigan. 

Scripture:

Acts 15:22-31
John 15:12-17

Reflection:

In the immediate context before our current gospel reading Jesus announces that he is the vine and we are the branches. (John 1-11) He tells his disciples to remain always connected to him as branches that share the life force of the vine stock. He invites us to "abide in my love."  Whoever remains in him bears much fruit. As is characteristic of the Fourth Gospel what is emphasized is an individual, personal relationship of the disciple to Jesus as the source of his/her life. The perspective widens with verse 12 with the new commandment, "love one another as I have loved you."  Now we see that it is not just Jesus and me. We are invited to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters as he did. But almost immediately we are called back to that personal relationship of being friends of Jesus. He has revealed to us everything he learned from is father. He has shared his mind with us, and has opened his heart to us. He has personally chosen us and then commissioned us to go out and bear fruit. We are his ambassadors. The fruit we are commanded to do goes out into the community as the passage comes to a close. "Love one another."

The Fourth Gospel does not give us those practical guides to loving as we find in Paul’s hymn to agape in 1 Cor 13. We are on a deeper level. John’s basic idea of love is the sharing of life together in concern and understanding. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share their life together in love. This is what every married couple is called to. This is what every community of believers is to strive for.

 

Fr. Michael Hoolahan, C.P. is on the staff of Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center in Sierra Madre, California.

Scripture:

Acts 15:1-6
John 15:1-8

Reflection:

Harold, of the Trappists in Vina, California told me that their yield last year was about four and a half tons per acre.  I was impressed.  Think of all the wine they could sell! 

When I made retreat there in March, some of the community were pruning the branches from last year in advance of this year’s new growth.  I was able to join them in this work.  Pruning is an art, getting the branch trimmed at just the right spot to insure good growth.  Then, we raked the trimmed branches to the end of each vine row.  I’ve thought since of how God prunes us…by the insight of a friend or spiritual director, by an insight in prayer.  Usually, this pruning is gentle, yet sometimes it might be difficult, like staying with an exercise/diet program.  Jesus tells us to remain in Him as branches on the vine…branches that are pruned daily by prayer, eucharist, family and community life.    

In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Paul, Barnabas and all of the early church had to deal with the issue of some wanting to insist on circumcision for the new members of the church.  They had to discern God’s will through prayer and discussion…what was absolutely necessary to be a member of the church and what was not.  Paul would later say in Acts that this burden was not necessary for new converts.

Today is the optional memorial of Our Lady of Fatima.  Mary told the young shepherds to offer their prayers and sacrifices for the conversion of sinners and for world peace.  This is a gospel way of realizing that we are all branches connected to the vine.

 

Fr. Bob Bovenzi, C.P. is a member of the Passionist community stationed in Chicago, Illinois. 

Scripture:

Acts 14:19-28
John 14:27-31a

Reflection:

The early Christian community struggled to establish itself amidst many conflicts. Not only were there external threats, but the community was susceptible to internal animosity, bitterness and greed. Yet in the midst of skirmishes and scuffles, as the Acts of the Apostles assures us, the Spirit surged forth in new life and new forms. The Spirit of Christ was continuing to shepherd the community.

Perhaps that is why Psalm 23 is the favorite prayer of many people. "The Lord is my shepherd" is the go-to-psalm when life feels overwhelming, when adversity seems to be crushing our hopes, or when we sense we have lost our way. The images in Psalm 23 are graphic and gripping metaphors of peace. It promises the pleasure of abiding in verdant pastures; the delight of relaxing beside restful waters; the assurance that a table of plenty will be provided amidst our foes.

How do we get there? How do we find that place of tranquility and satisfaction promised by the good shepherd and manifested in the early Christian community? How do we come to experience the peace which Jesus promised?

The answer is revealed in the second line of the psalm – "I shall not want."

The wanting-mind is the cause of so much agitation and misery. By simply observing our mind we will discover that whenever the mind wants something to be different than it is, we suffer and we are miserable. Two conditions provoke this insatiable wanting: when we have something we do not want or when we want something we do not have. Either situation creates a tension in the mind called misery.

When life goes our way and we get what we want, the mind is peaceful. But do not confuse that with the peace which Jesus promised. Yes, the world gives us peace when we get what we want. But Jesus promised a peace which the world cannot give. That is the peace which comes when the wanting in the mind stops before we get what we want.

One of the great insights of the spiritual life is to understand the cause of suffering and how the mind can be free. It all comes down to a simple statement: I shall not want. The cessation of desires in the wanting-mind is a central feature of Easter peace. It is experience as the absence of fear and manifested in a heart that is not troubled.

 

Fr. Joe Mitchell, CP is the director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center in Louisville, KY.  

 

Scripture:

Acts 14:5-18
John 14:21-26

Reflection:

A retreatant recently shared with me his aspiration.  "I want to recapture the great feeling I once had of God’s love in my heart."

Several weeks later, a middle-aged man told me that his marriage of less than 20 years had grown stale.  The couple no longer felt any love for each other.  He also admitted he had strong "feelings" for a co-worker.

Though they faced different challenges, their solution was essentially the same: to recapture a "feeling" of love.

Our Lord however didn’t tell his disciples that those who love him would have a warm "feeling" in their heart.  He said:  "Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.

To that well-meaning retreatant, the Lord is saying: stop searching for feelings in your heart.  I won’t be there.  To that middle-aged man ready to jettison a "stale" marriage, the Lord is saying:  When the Father and I are dwelling with you we can even revitalize your "stale" marriage.

To all of us, the Lord is saying don’t be misled by feelings.  They come and go.  Instead, every day in whatever the circumstances of our lives, keep his commandments.  And the Lord and his Father will dwell with us.  Love is not something we feel; it’s a Christ-like self-surrendering choice we make.

 

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.

Mother’s Day

Scripture:

Acts 9:26-31
1 John 3:18-24
John 15:1-8

Reflection:

I am fascinated by the theme of connection that runs through today’s readings.  We are connected to Christ, the vine in whom we live and to whom we offer praise.  We are connected in love through the vine to all the other branches.  There is something very reassuring in this talk of abiding intimacy and love. 

Yet there are deep implications lurking below the feel-good surface.  For instance, just this morning I was talking to a friend about someone for whom I have lost respect.  I will not choose to work with him again, and I am saddened by all the people he has hurt.  Yet I am connected to him.  He is part of the vine, too – one of the branches just as I am.  And Jesus asks me to love him, that God may be glorified.  Ouch.

Of course, Jesus doesn’t ask me to be a doormat.  I can take reasonable precautions, as the apostles did with Saul before they allowed one who had been killing their friends to walk freely in their midst.  I don’t have to work in an unhealthy or abusive relationship with anyone.  I don’t have to make myself vulnerable to almost certain hurt. 

But I do have to love.  I do have to honor my connection through Christ even to those who have hurt me or acted in ways I cannot condone, in fact, even to those who have caused me irreparable harm.  This kind of love is not a warm, fuzzy feeling.  It is a choice that stretches me to the limits and makes demands that sometimes seem beyond my capacity.   

 No matter how deeply I have been wronged, can I work through and express my feelings until I am ready to let go of my anger and hurt?  Can I release my desire to see the other person suffer as much as I have suffered?  Can I shed revenge and my human definition of "justice"?  Can I free myself from another’s bad choices, refusing to hang onto grudges, hate, and bitterness?  Am I willing to no longer hold negativity toward the other, but instead actually pray for their happiness and healing?  In other words, can I engage in the difficult and emotional process that eventually leads to forgiveness, whether or not the other person ever asks for it?

Suddenly, abiding intimate connection is not so easy.  In fact, sometimes I’m not sure I want to be part of that vine.  I hug my hurt and anger to my chest too tightly.  The demands are too great. 

Yet if I refuse the call to love, I punish the wrong person.  I cut myself off from the vine, from the Source of all mercy and grace.  Instead of choosing love, I choose to remain bitter, narrow, angry, and alone.  Is that what I want?

Therein lies the challenge.  As I look at the hurts in my life, as I determine the kind of person I want to be, as I consider the formidable example of Christ, what do I choose?

 

Amy Florian is a teacher and consultant working in Chicago.  For many years she has partnered with the Passionists.  Visit Amy’s  website: http://www.amyflorian.com/.