October 15 2024 - St. Teresa of Avila - Reforming the heart through prayer

 Today we celebrate the Feast of Theresa of Avila, virgin, and doctor of the Church. Together with St. John of the Cross, she labored to reform the Carmelite order which had grown worldly and lukewarm in the 16th century. And yet, before undertaking the work of reforming the Carmelite order, she first worked to reform herself.  

For many years, after her religious consecration she was herself was lukewarm about prayer. She had difficulty committing her mind and heart to prayer, especially when prayer felt so dry and arid. 

But as she learned to quiet her mind, and quiet her heart, she grew in prayer, and would become absorbed in deep contemplation. In fact, she would occasionally become so absorbed in divine contemplation, her body would spontaneously levitate. And at times, she would become so overwhelmed with divine love, it felt like the illumining grace of God would wash her soul away. 

Most of us are far from surrendering so deeply to God in prayer, but Theresa offers a wonderful starting point in the following prayer. She writes:

Let nothing disturb you, Let nothing frighten you, All things are passing away: God never changes. Patience obtains all things Whoever has God lacks nothing; God alone suffices.

So simple, yet, like so many simple things, so profound. It is a reminder that everything in this life including our own physical life will change, that ultimately, all things--our possessions, our health, will all slip away.  So nothing need disturb us as long as we are clinging to God.

We waste so much time worrying about things we cannot change, but true peace is discovered when we allow ourselves to experience the truth that God alone suffices. Unlike time devoted to worrying and fretting, time devoted to prayer in which we seek the face of God is never wasted.  In prayer, we surrender our life, and learn to love God as the path of life unfolds.  

St. Teresa teaches us that the true reformer first reforms themselves, and to seek God ardently by detaching ourselves from worldly anxieties through simplicity, penance, and prayer.  

May St. Teresa help us to be set aflame with the longing for true holiness, and to strive for the Christian perfection for which we were made, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - -  

For Pope Francis and all Church leaders, that they may lead the faithful in seeking and growing in authentic Christian holiness. Let us pray to the Lord.

For our world, often caught up in materialism and instant gratification, that it may discover the value of patience and the sufficiency of God's love. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the Carmelites and all religious orders and communities, that they may remain faithful to their charisms and be beacons of God's love in the world. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who feel spiritually dry or distant from God, that they may persevere in prayer and experience the transforming power of divine love. Let us pray to the Lord.

For all of us gathered here, that we may learn to detach ourselves from worldly concerns and trust more fully in God's providence. Let us pray to the Lord.

For those burdened by anxiety and fear, and for all those suffering from mental illness, addiction, or any type of illness: that the grace of Christ may console and strengthen them. Let us pray to the Lord.

For the deceased members of our families, friends, and parish, and all the poor souls in purgatory, for deceased clergy and religious, and for those who have fought and died for our freedom.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the prayers of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our Lord.

April 29 2022 - St. Catherine of Siena and the Avignon Papacy

 St. Catherine’s incorrupt body is preserved in the beautiful gothic basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome.  I visited her a few times in that amazing basilica, and had the honor of attending Mass on, this, her feast day, in a small chapel behind the sacristy of the basilica from which St. Catherine would make a daily pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Basilica to pray for the return of the Pope from Avignon.

Along with many holy faithful members of the Church at the time, the Dominican nun. Catherine was deeply concerned that for nearly 70 years, the Pope resided, not in Rome, but in the lavish palace of Avignon France. It seemed the Pope had abdicated his spiritual responsibilities for purely temporal ones.  St. Catherine wrote to the Pope and visited the Pope and pleaded with him to return to Rome for the spiritual good of the Church. She did penance, she prayed, and as I said she made this daily pilgrimage. The prayers and pleadings of the holy woman were heard by God. For, in 1377, Gregory XI’s heart was moved to return his Curia to Rome where it has rightly remained.

St. Catherine life was filled with extraordinary mystical phenomena such as visions and revelations, raptures, mystical marriage, and the stigmata, and also great works of charity: nursing the sick and comforting prisoners in jail. She received the holy stigmata on her hands, feet and heart.  Catherine, also lived many years, eating nothing, save the flesh and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.  

“Preach the Truth as if you had a million voices,” she said. “It is silence that kills the world.” What an important message as we contemplate our Easter mission to preach the risen Christ and to “speak the word of God with boldness”. 

In the Gospel for today, our Lord multiplies a few fragments of bread to feed a multitude. The Lord is able to take the meager fragments of our lives, offered to him, to accomplish miraculous things, like in the life of St. Catherine—the humble, holy third-order Dominican who moved the heart of the Pope.

Through the example and heavenly intercession of St. Catherine of Siena, may we put all the gifts God gives us into his service for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

- - - - - -  

Filled with Paschal joy, let us turn earnestly to God, to graciously hear our prayers and supplications.

For the shepherds of our souls, the pope, bishops, and clergy, that they may govern wisely the flock entrusted to them by the Good Shepherd, leading the Church in the increase in faith, hope, and love.

For the whole world, that it may truly know the peace of the Risen Christ.

That our parish may bear witness with great confidence to the Resurrection of Christ, and that the newly initiated hold fast to the faith they have received. 

For our brothers and sisters who suffer, that their sorrow may be turned to gladness through the Christian faith.

That all of our beloved dead and all the souls in purgatory may come to the glory of the Resurrection.

O God, you know that our life in this present age is subject to suffering and need, hear the desires of those who cry to you and receive the prayers of those who believe in you. Through Christ our lord.

December 14 2018 - St. John of the Cross - Advent self-denial

John was a reformer, mystic poet, and theologian priest. He was ordained a Carmelite priest in 1567 at the age of 25. John noticed that his brother Carmelites had strayed from the primitive Carmelite rule, which stressed poverty, austerity, and discipline. And so he resolved to bring reform to his order, calling his community back to its original intent. His efforts however were met with increasing opposition, misunderstanding, persecution, and eventually imprisonment. His own religious brothers imprisoned him within the monastery in a cell 10 foot by 6 foot, barely big enough for his own body. He was also regularly flogged in front of his community.

There, in the darkness, John prayed, uniting his own suffering with that of our savior. He would spend his hours reciting scripture and composing poetry for God. Though he suffered physically, his interior life began to bloom, and he laid the foundation what would become some of the most beautiful mystical poetry in our Church’s tradition, his books and poems with titles like “The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night of the Soul, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame of Love.”

His poems contain timeless lessons for discipleship, and highlight the great Gospel paradox: the cross leads to resurrection, agony to ecstasy, darkness to light, abandonment to possession, denial of self to union with God.

During the last years of his life, after escaping imprisonment, John traveled throughout Spain, establishing new houses of prayer, many which endure to this day.

Another wonderful Advent saint. Who teaches us to practice penance, prayer, solitude and reflection, as the way to perfection, to open our hearts to the joy, communion, light, and peace God desires for each of us.

We are challenged by the mystics to examine our prayer lives.  Do we willingly go into the dark cell to encounter God? Do we put away all attachments that we may come to possess Him? Do we embrace the cross or shy away from it?  For as John writes in his Spiritual Canticle: “the gate that gives entrance to the riches of God’s wisdom is the cross.”

May this Advent help us to love the cross and thereby come to love and imitate more closely the One who suffered and died upon it out of love for us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
 
- - - - - - -

We raise up our prayers of petitions, as we await with longing the Advent of Christ the Lord.
That through self-denial and embrace of the cross the Christian people may experience ever-deeper union with Christ and a more faithful proclamation of the Gospel.

For the members of the Carmelite Order, that their life of prayer and penance will be for the Church a source of renewal and strength.

For an increase in vocations to the priesthood and religious life and a strengthening of all marriages in holiness.

That Christ may banish disease, drive out hunger, ward off every affliction, and strengthen all who suffer persecution for the sake of the Gospel.

For all who have died, and for all the poor souls in purgatory, and for X. for whom this Mass is offered.

Incline your merciful ear to our prayers, we ask, O Lord, and listen in kindness to the supplications of those who call on you. Through Christ our Lord.