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Saturday, March 23, 2013

Outermost Limits of Kindness

 Luke tells us that when Jesus was carrying his cross:
Large numbers of people followed him, and of women too, who mourned and lamented for him. But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, weep rather for yourselves and for your children.” Luke 23:27-28

This scripture is also captured for us in the Eighth Station of the Cross:

Leader: We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you.
All: Because by your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Jesus, as you carry your cross you see a group of women along the road. As you pass by you see they are sad. You stop to spend a moment with them, to offer them some encouragement. Although you have been abandoned by your friends and are in pain, you stop and try to help them.

Father John Bartunek in The Better Part wrote, “Amazingly, even in a furious hurricane of personal suffering, his mind is not on himself, but on those whom he loves. . . . This conversation teaches us how to carry our crosses – and Jesus promised that his followers will have crosses to carry, every day."

“Then he said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” Luke 9:23

Fr. Bartunek wrote further, “. . . Our acceptance of God's will when it's costly is the only way to exercise the virtues of faith, hope, and love that will restore our souls to health and holiness. . . . When God sends us crosses they too can be redemptive—just as Christ won grace by carrying and dying on his cross. We can win graces” for those in our lives, those who need them the most “through carrying and dying on our crosses with Christ, uniting our imperfect fidelity and trust to his perfect surrender.” Jesus taught us “salvation comes not in spite of or instead of suffering, but through suffering”

Fr. Bartunek wrote to the reader that Jesus knows we love him and that he knows we want to show him our love. Jesus knows that the more we show him our love, the happier we will be.

That rings true for you doesn't it?

Then he has these words for us in meditation, from Jesus,

“Here is a vast arena where you can love. Every time I permit a small suffering to come your way, if you accept it the way I accepted mine, you can offer it to the Father in reparation to the Father in reparation for the sin of someone who is still imprisoned in sin, and if you do this in my name, you will help set that person free.”

Meditating on this and building upon the prayer in the book, I offer this prayer:

Jesus, I see you carrying your cross, thinking about the mission the Father has given you. You remain sensitive to the needs of others. O Jesus, give me a heart like that! Make me love as you love! I tend to turn in on myself when I am given crosses of sadness or suffering. Help me, Lord. I want to accept what God wills for my cross, to unite it with your suffering, your perfect surrender as the Lamb of God to redeem us, to win graces for those who need them most, including those among my own family and friends. I want so much to show you my love.

Mary, Mother of Jesus, and due to his generosity and love, Our Spiritual Mother too, gave her whole self including her heart to her God, as the handmaid of the Lord. Mary's Immaculate Heart never left Jesus.

God has everything he wants but he only has our hearts if we care to offer them to Him.

In the book He and I, he tells us he is our “incomparable Friend . . . . So don't be upset by anything. Once and for all place your heart in Mine, in joy as in distress. . . . Begin right from this very moment. . . . Ask the Immaculate one for this grace. Her heart never left Me.”

“Step outside of your self-center. This will be a new way of coming to Me. Try to see Me more clearly in those around you and your entire association with others will be transformed.” Instead of feeling sorry that you were not alive when I was on earth so that you could be with me, be fully aware of Me in those around you. Serve Me in them."

To me this is Jesus's pep talk to help us, ok me, follow his teaching in the Gospels:

You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” Matthew 22:39b

And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these my brethern, you did it to me.'” Matthew 25:40

Jesus knows it is our joy to please God, that the more we show God our love, the happier we will be.

Jesus used He and I, to tell me the Father has given me (us) many opportunities of pleasing Him. Jesus says, “Go to everyone without partiality. And since it's Me, give them your whole self. Go to the very outermost limit of your kindness. . . . Scatter kindness on everyone alike. . . . Don't I scatter My sunshine and rain on the just and the unjust? Widen your smile as you did yesterday. It glorified Me. My very dear little child, I'm counting on you.”

“If I have fulfilled you, it is for the sake of others too. Be ready to pass on to them with love all that you have received. You owe Me this; you also owe it to them. Believe with all your heart that in sharing this overflow of graces you will help many others. A river gives everything to the sea, yet it always swells anew. My little girl, don't you see, one can never give too much.”

“I'm waiting for you – already giving you all the grace you need, the grace I want you to make use of so that those who meet you will meet Me.”

Jesus said, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” John 15:13

Thank you to the Holy Spirit for orchestrating these meditations and scriptures together with the advice I received from the priest today, “Ask Mary to help you to give your whole heart to others, as she gave her whole heart to Jesus.” It was miraculous and true working of the Holy Spirit that what came out of his mouth was in perfect alignment with the Holy Spirit's teaching of me through my daily meditation books.

A couple parting quotes from Abba Pimen (sometimes spelled Poemen), a desert Father:

“If one overhears hurtful words and instead of replying with similar spite, restrains himself and remains silent, or, having been deceived bears it and doesn’t retaliate — through this he has laid down his soul for his friend.”

“There is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his neighbor. When you hear someone complaining and you struggle with yourself and do not answer him back with complaints; when you are hurt and bear it patiently, not looking for revenge; then you are laying down your life for your neighbor.”

Those are hard, right. I found this that tells the secret – the secret is Humility:

“Humility has no problem believing that God loves us and will not reject us, damaged by sin and weakness though we are. In light of this love we can give up the need to be above reproach. We do not have to be perfect to perform the small acts of loving service that are right in front of us. Since the person with true humility has no self-image to maintain they can be free to do whatever God asks of them, nothing is beneath them.” from Cal Wiebe.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Love this Picture!

This is a woman in a cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina's Metropolitan Cathedral.  She looked a bit more joyful and grateful than I felt, but I was really VERY happy.  It was really exciting day to be Catholic, wasn't it?

I was in line for airport security at Ohare when I got an email from a workmate, and then a call from a family member to let me know we had a new Pope!  I had been watching the smoke cam, and the seagull that seemed to enjoy being the center of attention perched on the chimney before I left.  Sure enough when I got to the airport that was actually a headline on the foxnews website, but I don't think it lasted long!  I got the ewtn.mobi going on my iPhone and watched the crowd growing and the excitement increasing.

Are you happy?  Were you excited waiting to find out who?  I heard Francis in Italian on the ewtn.mobi feed but didn't know if that was his real name or his Pope-name.

Exciting how humble he is isn't it?  Instead of living in the Archdiocesan mansion he lived in a room downtown, took public transportation, instead of the bishop's limousine, and cooks his own meals!  The priests in our local parish don't even cook their own meals!


I love that the Pope is from Latin America too.

The first criticisms I heard was, "Oh, he's too old."  But then EWTN was saying he was a vigorous 76 (or is it 75?).

Weren't you wondering about the story that he "came in second" in the 2005 conclave?  And that he got emotional and told the cardinals to stop voting for him.  How would that get out?

I got a chance to answer some questions and criticisms about the Catholic Church, that I love, while traveling  with my 3 business co-workers today.  I was happy to share and answer questions.  Not usually a good opening so much as the day of a papal election.  I was telling them about St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis Xavier, St. Ignatius.  It was fun.  Like you who are reading this, I am fairly geeky Catholic.  Similar to say Jimmy Neutron talking about his new chemistry kit.

Did you hear about the people, "all but the very young and very elderly" that broke into a trot when they heard the cheers and bells to run into the plaza?  So exciting!


God Bless our new Pope, and this One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church!

(Jesus said) "But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves." Luke 22:26


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Black Smoke Today

Do you know enough about any of these cardinals to have a favorite among them relative to the others?

I am full believer that the Holy Spirit guides the Church and the selection of Pontiff.  This is an exciting time to be a Catholic.  It is funny when you hear Father Jonathan Morris being interviewed by Megyn Kelly on FoxNews and he cannot contain his exuberance.  

So while I would agree prayer, prayer, prayer (well probably prayer with fasting) is the most positive and constructive action we should undertake to support the selection of the next pope, it is sure fun, albeit in a Catholic-geeky way, to know a little more about the men who might be selected, and that is the subject of this post.

Looking back on last election, the only two Cardinals I was pulling for were Ratzinger and Arinze.

As I look through this list and then the table I put together before finding this list, the only Cardinal I have listened and seen enough is Francis Cardinal Arinze, but he is given higher odds of selection due to being 80 years old, older than Ratzinger when he was selected.  Christoph Cardinal Schonborn would arguably be the closest person they could elect that would be a younger Benedict XVI.

For some reason we get very little exposure via EWTN to the Latin American candidates.  George Cardinal Pell from Australia was given some coverage last week on EWTN.  There were some news articles that said he was not as strong on the sex abuse handling, which is clear contrast to other cardinals, of which Sean Cardinal O'Malley and Christoph Cardinal Schonborn are given high marks from within and outside our Church.

We don't have long to wait now.  Would you like to leave in the comment who you are hoping is selected?  Or you can just keep praying and then find out more about who is selected afterward.

This is the table I put together during my lunch at work today - it is terribly incomplete:
Cardinal
Country
Age
PP Odds
Orthodox
Charismatic?
Managerial?
Multiple Languages?
Sean O'Malley
US
68
12/1
?
Neutral
Yes
Yes
Odilo Pedro Scherer
Brazil
63
7/2
Yes
?
?
Yes!
Angelo Scola
Italy
71
5/2
Yes
?
?
Yes
Peter Turkson
Ghana
64
13/2
?
Yes
?
Yes!
Tarcisio Bertone
Italy
77
12/1
?
?
?
?
Marc Ouellet
Canada
68
8/1
Yes
?
?
Yes!
Leonardo Sandri
Argentina
69
20/1
?
?
?
?
Christoph Schönborn
Austria
67
14/1
Yes
?
Yes
Yes!
Gianfranco Ravasi
Italy
69
20/1
Yes
Yes
?
?
Angelo Bagnasco
Italy
69
25/1
Yes
?
?
?
Jorge Bergoglio
Argentina
75
33/1
?
?
?
?
Angelo Sodano
Italy
85
200/1
?
?
?
?
Francis Arinze
Nigeria
80
50/1
Yes
Yes
?
Yes
Raymond Burke
US
64
20/1
Yes
Neutral
?
Yes
Timothy Dolan
US
63
20/1
Yes
Yes
Yes
Not Really
Wondering what "PP Odds" is?  These are the latest odds from PaddyPower.com.  Yes, people are voting on this.  You'll be relieved to know that while Nobel Prize Nominee Bono (U2 Lead Vocalist and famous philanthropist) did make the list, Nobel Prize Winner Barak Obama did not.  Bono really doesn't qualify either since the minimal qualifications are male and celibate, and like Barak, he is married with children.  Of course maybe the drone strikes and their well publicized killing of non-combatants (i.e. children, elderly) took him out of betting consideration?  Have to think there was profit motive to including Bono on the list, like the fun choice for someone with money to burn, who would enjoy decreasing the odds for Bono just to spite the Catholics?  Who knows, but probably PaddyPower doesn't mind taking the bets.  Even 1000/1 is overly generous odds for Bono though, don't you think.  Sean Cardinal O'Malley is an actual Cardinal with good record on working for the poor.

Archbishop Angelo Scola (Italy)
Cardinal Reinhard Marx (Germany)
Cardinal Donald Wuerl (United States)
Cardinal Odilo Scherer (Brazil)
Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith (Sri Lanka)
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor (UK)
Cardinal Peter Turkson (Ghana)
Cardinal Robert Sarah (French Guinea)
Archbishop Georg Ganswein (Germany)
Cardinal Marc Ouellet (Canada)
Cardinal George Pell (Australia)
Cardinal Ivan Dias (India)
Cardinal Sean O'Malley (United States)
Cardinal Claudio Hummes (Brazil)
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin
Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone (Italy)
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re (Italy)
Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard (France)
Cardinal Christoph Schonborn (Austria)
Archbishop Vincent Nichols (England)
Cardinal Silvano Piovanelli (Italy)
Cardinal Raymond Burke (United States)
Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera (Mexico)
Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo (Brazil)
Cardinal Timothy Dolan (United States)
Cardinal Angelo Amato (Italy)
Cardinal Francis George (USA)
Cardinal Peter Erdo (Hungary)
Archbishop Pier Luiga Celata (Italy)
Cardinal John Tong Hon (China)
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi (Italy)
Cardinal William Levada (United States)
Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Muller (Germany)
Cardinal Leonardo Sandri (Argentina)
Archbishop Piero Marini (Italy)
Cardinal John Njue (Kenya)
Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco (Italy)
Cardinal Giuseppe Betori (Italy)
Cardinal Kurt Koch (Switzerland)
Cardinal Joao Braz de Aviz (Brazil)
Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois (France)
Cardinal John Tong Hon (USA)
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle (Philippines)
Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani Thorne (Peru)
Cardinal Angelo Sodano (Italy)
Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Argentina)
Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela (Spain)
Cardinal Daniel DiNardo (USA)
Cardinal Philippe Barbarin (France)
Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi (Italy)
Cardinal Wim Eijk (Netherlands)
Cardinal Mauro Piacenza (Italy)
Cardinal Attilio Nicora (Italy)
Archbishop Nicolas de Jesus Lopez Rodriguez (Dominican Republic)
Cardinal Wilfrid Napier (South Africa)
Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe (Italy)
Cardinal Giacomo Biffi (Italy)
Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga (Honduras)
Cardinal Jaime Lucas Ortega y Alamino (Cuba)
Cardinal Dominik Duka (Czech Republic)
Cardinal Thomas Collins (Canada)
Cardinal Paolo Sardi (Italy)
Cardinal Walter Kasper (Germany)
Cardinal Francis Arinze (Nigeria)
Cardinal Julian Herranz Casado (Spain)
Richard Dawkins (UK)
Cardinal Agnostino Vallini (Italy)
Cardinal Karl Lehmann (Germany)
Bono (Ireland)
Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera (Spain)
Cardinal Jose Da Cruz Policarpo (Portugal)
Father Dougal Maguire (Craggy Island)
Patriarch Bechara Peter Rai (Lebanon)