Spirituality: Cynthia Bourgeault in "The Wisdom Way of Knowing"

“We are knee-deep in a river, searching for water,” writes Kabir Helminski, a contemporary Wisdom teacher in the Sufi lineage, using a vivid image to capture the irony of our contemporary plight. The sacred road maps of wholeness still exist in the cosmos. There is a vision large enough to contain not only our minds but also our hearts and souls; an understanding of our place in the divine cosmology large enough to order and unify our lives and our planet. These truths are not esoteric or occult in the usual sense of the terms; they are not hidden from sight. In the Christian West they are strewn literally throughout the entire sacred tradition: in the Bible, the liturgy, the hymnody and chants, the iconography. But to read the clues, it is first necessary to bring the heart and mind and body into balance, to awaken. The One can be known—not in a flash of mystical vision but the clarity of unitive seeing.

Poem: “Hurrahing in Harvest,” Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J.

Summer ends now; now, barbarous in beauty, the stooks arise 

Around; up above, what wind-stalks! What lovely behaviour 

Of silk-sack clouds! has wilder, wilful-wavier 

Meal-drift moulded ever and melted across the skies! 

I walk, I lift up, I lift up heart, eyes, 

Down all that glory in the heavens to glean our Saviour; 

And, eyes, heart, what looks, what lips yet gave you a 

Rapturous love’s greeting of realer, of rounder replies? 

And the azurous hung hills are his world-wielding shoulder 

Majestic – as a stallion stalwart, very-violet-sweet! – 

These things, these things were here and but the beholder 

Wanting; which two when they once meet, 

The heart rears wings bold and bolder 

And hurls for him, O half hurls earth for him off under his feet.

Poem: Mary Oliver

I am thinking, or trying to think, about all the 

Imponderables for which we have no answers, 

yet endless interest all the 

Range of our lives... 

Mystery, after all, is God’s other name... 

But, but--- excuse me now, please; 

it’s morning, heavenly bright, 

and my irrepressible heart begs me to hurry on 

Into the next exquisite moment.

Literature: Cathal Ó Searcaigh in "The Well"

‘That’ll put the jizz back in you,’
said old Brid, her eyes glinting,
as she handed me a bowl of real water
from the purest well in Gleann an Atha…

‘It’s had to find a well these days,’
said old Brid, filling up my bowl again.
‘They’re hiding in rushes and juking in grass,
all choked up and clatty with scum
but for all the neglect they get
their mettle is still true.
Look for your own well, pet,
for there’s a hard time coming.

There will have to be a going back to sources.’

Spirituality: Martin Shaw, "A Branch from the Lightning Tree"

At a conference on the Iranian poet Hafez I attended recently, one of the older Persian speakers suddenly leaned forward to the audience and said, “Make your work The Face of the Beloved, and let what you create be her lashes, her mole, her lips.” To do that would mean carrying all these gifts, letting the radiance of the World beyond the world shine into each cottage door you come to. Doing so requires both huge strength and the capacity for a kind of visible luminosity, an active principle that can only be born from a great stillness.

Poem: “Fall, Leaves, Fall," Emily Bronte

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away; 

Lengthen night and shorten day; 

Every leaf speaks bliss to me 

Fluttering from the autumn tree. 

I shall smile when wreaths of snow 

Blossom where the rose should grow; 

I shall sing when night’s decay 

Ushers in a drearier day

A Rare Moment The Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

                                                         A Rare Moment

The Twenty-Ninth Sunday of Ordinary Time 2021

October 17, 2021

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Isaiah 53:10-11; Psalm 33; Hebrews 4:14-16; Mark 10:35-45

 

The disciples James and John are not bashful to ask for Jesus what they want, even if they are not quite sure they know what they are asking. Jesus gives them a plain answer, and then he calls the other disciples over to instruct them on the proper attitude and disposition to be a minister of the church. In our church today, we are given a rare opportunity to (1.) ask our questions, (2.) share our concerns, and (3.) correct the church’s attitudes so that we have the right disposition for Christian service as the church is not intended to be served but is designed to serve others. 

 

Our church is embarking upon a two-year synod, which is a commission of bishops and experts, to examine how we are to be church in this current time. The originality of this process is that the whole church will go through it together, which means that every bishop in his diocese across the world will involve the laity into a process of study, reflection, and prayer about “how we are to walk together” in our journey of faith united under the Pope but expressing our local diversity. This will not be solely a European or a Western process and it is no longer an event, but an organic process that will unfold over time through various phases. 

 

For some, this is a frightening process. For those who do not like change or want to maintain the status quo, this is an unsettling process because it has not been a traditional way of operating within the church. The goal is to provide an opportunity for the entire People of God to discern together how to move forward on the path towards being a more collegial Church in the long-term. The church refers to this synod as a way of “listening, walking together, being a church that shares.”

 

Father Dario Vitali, a professor of theology at the Gregorian University in Rome and a consultor with Synod of Bishops, says, synodality is “the specific way of living and working of the Church, the People of God, which reveals and gives substance to her being as communion when all members journey together, gather in assembly, and take an active part in the evangelizing mission.” Synodality means listening. It means to re-establish relationships, otherwise there is a hierarchy with no people, and it hopes to address some base problems within the church, this is, identity and belonging.

 

Synodality is a process of trying to achieve a united church capable of thinking and acting together. The synod does not want to impose anything and there is no prescribed result that the Church intends to ready. It will assemble the results of its processes in collaboration with all members of the church at every level the ability to imagine a different future for the church and it institutions in keeping with the mission give to it by Christ. This is a rare moment in the history of the church. This is a new style that respects the inherent dignity of each person. It is a moment in which we can express our heartfelt desires to make our church better, a church that serves, a church that brings the glories of God to a world hungering for a meaningful existence.

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Romans 1) Through him we have received the grace of apostleship, to bring about the obedience of faith, for the sake of his name, among all the Gentiles,
among whom are you also, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.

Tuesday: (Romans 5) For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification come to reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.

 

Wednesday: (Romans 6) Present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life
and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin is not to have any power over you since you are not under the law but under grace. 

 

Thursday: (Romans 6) For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free from righteousness.

 

Friday (Romans 7) I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want,
but I do the evil I do not want. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

 

Saturday (Romans 8) Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death. For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 11) At the judgment the queen of the south will rise with the men of this generation and she will condemn them, because she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and there is something greater than Solomon here.

 

Tuesday: (Luke 12) Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

 

Wednesday (Luke 12) Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

 

Thursday (Luke 12) I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 

 

Friday (Luke 12) You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky; why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

 

Saturday (Luke 13) Or those eighteen people who were killed when the tower at Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than everyone else who lived in Jerusalem? By no means!

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 17: Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 107) was born around 33 A.D. and became a leading figure in the new church at Antioch. He served as bishop for 38 years before he was persecuted and killed under Emperor Trajan for being a Christian leader. He wrote seven letters about church life in the early second century and is the first-mentioned martyr of Roman heroes in the first Eucharistic Prayer.

 

October 18: Luke, evangelist (first century) was the author of his version of the Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He is described as a doctor and a friend of Paul. He was a well-educated Gentile who was familiar with the Jewish scriptures and he wrote to other Gentiles who were coming into a faith.

 

October 19: North American Jesuit martyrs: Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, priests, and companions (17th century) were killed between 1642 and 1649 in Canada and the United States. Though they knew of harsh conditions among the warring Huron and Mohawk tribes in the New World, these priests and laymen persisted in evangelizing until they were captured, brutally tortured, and barbarically killed. 

 

October 20: Paul of the Cross, priest (1694-1775), founded the Passionists in 1747. He had a boyhood call that propelled him into a life of austerity and prayer. After receiving several visions, he began to preach missions throughout Italy that mostly focused upon the Passion of the Lord. After his death, a congregation for nuns was begun. 

 

October 23: John of Capistrano, priest, had a vision of Francis of Assisi when he was imprisoned during an Italian civil war at which time he was the governor of Perugia. He entered the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1415 after ending his marriage. He preached missions throughout Europe including a mission to Hungary to preach a crusade against the Turks. After the Christian victory at the Battle of Belgrade in 1456, John died. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 17, 1578: St Robert Bellarmine entered the Jesuit novitiate of San Andrea in Rome at the age of 16. 
• October 18, 1553: A theological course was opened in our college in Lisbon; 400 students were at once enrolled. 
• October 19, 1588: At Munster, in Westphalia, the Society opens a college, in spite of an outcry raised locally by some of the Protestants. 
• October 20, 1763: In a pastoral letter read in all his churches, the Archbishop of Paris expressed his bitter regret at the suppression of the Society in France. He described it as a veritable calamity for his country. 
• October 21, 1568: Fr. Robert Parsons was elected Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. He resigned his Fellowship in 1574. 
• October 22, 1870: In France, Garibaldi and his men drove the Jesuits from the Colleges of Dole and Mont Roland. 
• October 23, 1767: The Jesuits who had been kept prisoners in their college in Santiago, Chile, for almost two months were led forth to exile. In all 360 Jesuits of the Chile Province were shipped to Europe as exiles.

Un momento raro Vigésimo noveno domingo del tiempo ordinario 2021

                                                          Un momento raro

Vigésimo noveno domingo del tiempo ordinario 2021

17 de octubre de 2021

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Isaías 53: 10-11; Salmo 33; Hebreos 4: 14-16; San Marcos 10: 35-45

 

Los discípulos Santiago y Juan no se avergüenzan de pedirle a Jesús lo que quieren, incluso si no están muy seguros de saber lo que están pidiendo. Jesús les da una respuesta clara, y luego llama a los otros discípulos para instruirlos sobre la actitud y disposición adecuadas para ser un ministro de la iglesia. En nuestra iglesia de hoy, se nos da una oportunidad excepcional para (1.) hacer nuestras preguntas, (2.) compartir nuestras preocupaciones y (3.) corregir las actitudes de la iglesia para que tengamos la disposición correcta para el servicio cristiano como iglesia. no está destinado a ser servido, sino que está diseñado para servir a otros.

 

Nuestra iglesia se está embarcando en un sínodo de dos años, que es una comisión de obispos y expertos, para examinar cómo debemos ser iglesia en este tiempo actual. La originalidad de este proceso es que toda la iglesia lo atravesará junta, lo que significa que cada obispo de su diócesis en todo el mundo involucrará a los laicos en un proceso de estudio, reflexión y oración sobre "cómo debemos caminar juntos". en nuestro camino de fe unidos bajo el Papa pero expresando nuestra diversidad local. Este no será únicamente un proceso europeo u occidental y ya no es un evento, sino un proceso orgánico que se desarrollará con el tiempo a través de varias fases.

 

Para algunos, este es un proceso aterrador. Para aquellos a quienes no les gusta el cambio o quieren mantener el status quo, este es un proceso inquietante porque no ha sido una forma tradicional de operar dentro de la iglesia. El objetivo es brindar una oportunidad para que todo el Pueblo de Dios discierna juntos cómo avanzar en el camino hacia una Iglesia más colegiada a largo plazo. La iglesia se refiere a este sínodo como una forma de “escuchar, caminar juntos, ser una iglesia que comparte”.

 

El padre Darío Vitali, profesor de teología en la Universidad Gregoriana de Roma y consultor del Sínodo de los Obispos, dice que la sinodalidad es “la forma específica de vivir y trabajar de la Iglesia, Pueblo de Dios, que la revela y le da sustancia ser como comunión cuando todos los miembros caminan juntos, se reúnen en asamblea y participan activamente en la misión evangelizadora ”. Sinodalidad significa escuchar. Significa restablecer las relaciones, de lo contrario hay una jerarquía sin personas, y se espera abordar algunos problemas de base dentro de la iglesia, esto es, la identidad y la pertenencia.

 

La sinodalidad es un proceso de intentar lograr una iglesia unida capaz de pensar y actuar juntos. El sínodo no quiere imponer nada y no hay un resultado prescrito que la Iglesia pretenda preparar. Reunirá los resultados de sus procesos en colaboración con todos los miembros de la iglesia en todos los niveles, la capacidad de imaginar un futuro diferente para la iglesia y sus instituciones de acuerdo con la misión que Cristo le dio. Este es un momento raro en la historia de la iglesia. Este es un nuevo estilo que respeta la dignidad inherente a cada persona. Es un momento en el que podemos expresar nuestros deseos más sinceros de mejorar nuestra iglesia, una iglesia que sirve, una iglesia que lleva las glorias de Dios a un mundo hambriento de una existencia significativa.

 

Escritura para la misa diaria

 

Lunes: (Romanos 1) Por medio de él hemos recibido la gracia del apostolado, para realizar la obediencia de la fe, por causa de su nombre, entre todos los gentiles, entre los cuales también estáis vosotros, que sois llamados a pertenecer a Jesucristo. . 

 

Martes: (Romanos 5) Porque si, por la transgresión de uno, vino a reinar la muerte por medio de aquél, cuánto más los que reciben la abundancia de la gracia y el don de la justificación llegarán a reinar en vida por medio del único Jesucristo. .

 

Miércoles: (Romanos 6) Preséntense a Dios como resucitados de entre los muertos a la vida
y las partes de sus cuerpos a Dios como armas de justicia. Porque el pecado no debe tener ningún poder sobre ti, ya que no estás bajo la ley, sino bajo la gracia. 

 

Jueves: (Romanos 6) Porque así como presentaste las partes de tu cuerpo como esclavas de la impureza y de la iniquidad por la iniquidad, ahora preséntalas como esclavas de la justicia para la santificación. Porque cuando erais esclavos del pecado, estabais libres de la justicia.

 

Viernes (Romanos 7) Sé que el bien no habita en mí, es decir, en mi carne. La voluntad está a la mano, pero hacer el bien no. Porque no hago el bien que quiero,
pero hago el mal que no quiero. Ahora bien, si hago lo que no quiero, ya no soy yo quien lo hago, sino el pecado que habita en mí.

 

Sábado (Romanos 8) Ahora bien, no hay condenación para los que están en Cristo Jesús. Porque la ley del espíritu de vida en Cristo Jesús te ha librado de la ley del pecado y de la muerte. Porque lo que la ley, debilitada por la carne, no podía hacer, Dios lo ha hecho. 

 

Evangelio: 

Lunes: (Lucas 11) En el juicio, la reina del sur se levantará con los hombres de esta generación y los condenará, porque vino de los confines de la tierra para escuchar la sabiduría de Salomón, y hay algo más grande que Salomón aquí. 

 

Martes: (Lucas 12) Cíñete los lomos y enciende tus lámparas y sé como los sirvientes que esperan el regreso de su amo de una boda, listos para abrir inmediatamente cuando él llegue y llame. Bienaventurados los sirvientes a quienes el amo encuentra vigilantes a su llegada.

 

Miércoles (Lucas 12) Tengan la certeza de esto: si el dueño de la casa hubiera sabido la hora en que viene el ladrón, no habría dejado entrar por la fuerza en su casa. También debes estar preparado, porque a la hora inesperada, vendrá el Hijo del Hombre.

 

Jueves (Lucas 12) He venido a prender fuego a la tierra, ¡y cómo desearía que ya estuviera ardiendo! Hay un bautismo con el que debo ser bautizado, ¡y cuán grande es mi angustia hasta que se cumpla! ¿Crees que he venido a establecer la paz en la tierra? No, les digo, sino división.

 

Viernes (Lucas 12) ¡Hipócritas! Sabes interpretar la apariencia de la tierra y el cielo; ¿Por qué no sabes interpretar el tiempo presente?

 

Sábado (Lucas 13) O esas dieciocho personas que murieron cuando la torre de Siloé cayó sobre ellos, ¿crees que eran más culpables que todos los demás que vivían en Jerusalén? ¡De ninguna manera!  

 

Santos de la semana

 

17 de octubre: Ignacio de Antioquía, obispo y mártir (muerto en 107) nació alrededor del año 33 d.C. y se convirtió en una figura destacada en la nueva iglesia de Antioquía. Se desempeñó como obispo durante 38 años antes de ser perseguido y asesinado bajo el emperador Trajano por ser un líder cristiano. Escribió siete cartas sobre la vida de la iglesia a principios del siglo II y es el primer mártir de los héroes romanos mencionado en la primera Plegaria Eucarística.

 

18 de octubre: Lucas, evangelista (siglo I) es el autor de su versión del Evangelio y de los Hechos de los Apóstoles. Se le describe como médico y amigo de Paul. Era un gentil bien educado que estaba familiarizado con las escrituras judías y escribía a otros gentiles que estaban llegando a la fe.

 

19 de octubre: Mártires jesuitas norteamericanos: Isaac Jogues, John de Brebeuf, sacerdotes y compañeros (siglo XVII) fueron asesinados entre 1642 y 1649 en Canadá y Estados Unidos. Aunque sabían de las duras condiciones entre las tribus Huron y Mohawk en guerra en el Nuevo Mundo, estos sacerdotes y laicos persistieron en evangelizar hasta que fueron capturados, brutalmente torturados y brutalmente asesinados.

 

20 de octubre: Pablo de la Cruz, sacerdote (1694-1775), fundó los Pasionistas en 1747. Tuvo un llamado de infancia que lo impulsó a una vida de austeridad y oración. Después de recibir varias visiones, comenzó a predicar misiones en toda Italia que se centraban principalmente en la Pasión del Señor. Después de su muerte, se inició una congregación de monjas.

 

23 de octubre: Juan de Capistrano, sacerdote, tuvo una visión de Francisco de Asís cuando fue encarcelado durante una guerra civil italiana, momento en el que era gobernador de Perugia. Ingresó en los Frailes Menores Franciscanos en 1415 después de terminar su matrimonio. Predicó misiones en toda Europa, incluida una misión a Hungría para predicar una cruzada contra los turcos. Después de la victoria cristiana en la batalla de Belgrado en 1456, John murió.

 

Esta semana en la historia de los jesuitas

 

· 17 de octubre de 1578: San Roberto Belarmino entra en el noviciado jesuita de San Andrea en Roma a la edad de 16 años.

· 18 de octubre de 1553: Se abre un curso de teología en nuestro colegio de Lisboa; Se matricularon a la vez 400 estudiantes.

· 19 de octubre de 1588: En Munster, en Westfalia, la Sociedad abre un colegio, a pesar de la protesta localizada por algunos de los protestantes.

· 20 de octubre de 1763: En una carta pastoral leída en todas sus iglesias, el arzobispo de París expresó su amargo pesar por la supresión de la Compañía en Francia. Lo describió como una verdadera calamidad para su país.

· 21 de octubre de 1568: P. Robert Parsons fue elegido miembro del Balliol College de Oxford. Renunció a su beca en 1574.

· 22 de octubre de 1870: En Francia, Garibaldi y sus hombres expulsaron a los jesuitas de los colegios de Dole y Mont Roland.

· 23 de octubre de 1767: Los jesuitas que habían estado prisioneros en su colegio de Santiago de Chile durante casi dos meses fueron llevados al exilio. En total, 360 jesuitas de la provincia de Chile fueron enviados a Europa como exiliados.

Poem: “The Harvest Moon,” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is the Harvest Moon! 

On gilded vanes 

And roofs of villages, 

on woodland crests 

And their aerial neighborhoods of nests 

Deserted, on the curtained window-panes 

Of room where children sleep, on country lanes 

And harvest fields, its mystic splendor rests! 

Gone are the birds that were our summer guests, 

With the last sheaves return the laboring wains! 

All thing are symbols: the external shows 

Of Nature have their image in the mind, 

As flowers and fruits and falling of the leaves; 

The song-birds leave us at the summer’s close, 

Only the empty nests are left behind, 

And pipings of the quail among the sheaves.

Poem: From "In beauty may I walk", Traditional Navaho Blessing Way Prayer

All day may I walk.
Through the returning seasons may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
With beauty may I walk.
With beauty before me, may I walk.
With beauty behind me, may I walk.
With beauty below me, may I walk.
With beauty all around me, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
It is finished in beauty.
It is finished in beauty.