Our Lady of Guadalupe

For an amazing website all about Our Lady of Guadalupe, click here.

The 13th Day

"In a world torn apart by persecution, war and oppression, three children were chosen to offer a message of hope. Based on the memoirs of Sister Lucia Santos and independent eye-witness accounts, The 13th Day dramatizes the incredible true story of three shepherd children from the village of Fatima in Portugal who experienced six apparitions with a Lady from Heaven between May and October 1917, which culminated in the final prophesied miracle.

The lady, who later revealed herself to be the Blessed Virgin Mary, gave a secret to the children told in three parts, from a harrowing vision of hell, to prophetic warnings of future events including the advent and timing of the Second World War, the spread of communism, and the attempted assassination of the Pope. Stylistically beautiful and technically innovative, writer-directors Ian and Dominic Higgins use state-of-the-art digital effects to create stunning images of the visions and the final miracle that have never before been fully realized on screen. This film was shot on location in Portugal and in England."

- from the trailer For more information on The 13th Day visit www.The13thDayMovie.com

Real Men Pray the Rosary (and Women too!)

On a dusty road in Ireland’s countryside, back in the early years of the 20th century, a man was walking, communing with nature and with God. His fingers whispered through the beads, offering a prayer to the One through the soft repetition of words found in scripture…. “Our Father, Who is in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name….” “Hail Mary, full of grace…” He was stopped by British soldiers. The beads he prayed upon were nearly forced down his throat in an act of bestial bigotry. That man was my great grandfather, William. I can still recall nights when my own father, William, would fall asleep in the chair holding his beads, stressing to us the importance of faith, of the rosary, of meditation on the Passion of Our Lord, and on the mysteries of the Gospels encapsulated in every set of “mysteries.” Every action teaches, every reaction reinforces something for good or ill. Every move of the hand, every slip of the tongue. All the more reason then to train the tongue, and to mold the mind on the pattern of a higher love. That’s the goal of the Rosary…. Today we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. For the Catholic, the rosary is the soundtrack of the Gospel, the music of the meditation on the Word of God that keeps us tethered as it were by a string of beads to the life of Jesus and the life Mary in Scripture. May we take a hold of that life-line today, singing again the Song of Mary on the dusty roads we walk… “My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit finds joy in God my Savior!”

I Love This Nun

I'm sure you've had times in your life when you stumbled onto something great, something refreshing, amazing, ennobling, uplifting; something even today you keep going back to for solace or inspiration.... and you don't even remember how you found it in the first place.

One of those treasures for me is Alba's Pizza in Browns Mills, NJ. Just kidding. It's the poems of Jessica Powers, aka Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit. Give yourself a coffee break and soak your weary soul in this one. This is what it's all about! This is why we are here, why we exist! Our souls like mirrors are made to reflect the One, the Only, the Love that shaped the universe. Here's my objective for the day.... reflection, reflection, reflection.... Enjoy...

The Pool of God

There was nothing in the Virgin’s soul
 that belonged to the Virgin –
 no word, no thought, no image, no intent.
 She was a pure, transparent pool reflecting
 God, only God.
 She held His burnished day; she held His night
 of planet-glow or shade inscrutable.
 God was her sky and she who mirrored Him
 became His firmament.

 When I so much as turn my thoughts toward her
 my spirit is enisled in her repose.
 And when I gaze into her selfless depths
 an anguish in me grows
 to hold such blueness and to hold such fire.
 I pray to hollow out my earth and be 
 filled with these waters of transparency.
 I think that one could die of this desire,
 seeing oneself dry earth or stubborn sod.
 Oh, to become a pure pool like the Virgin,
 water that lost the semblances of water
 and was a sky like God. – Sister Miriam of the Holy Spirit (Jessica Powers) ______________________________ The Selected Poetry of Jessica Powers

ICS Publications 2131 Lincoln Road, NE Washington, DC 20002-1199

Peter versus Mary

Does the Church believe that men are better than women? Why can't women be priests? When is the Vatican going to break free of this outdated patriarchal system of "government" and get with the times?

Hmmm. On this feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, the rocks on which the Church was built, I wonder if in certain circles, these questions aren't stirred up again with new ardor.

The mystics tell us that there are two dimensions to life, two movements of the heart, two approaches to reality and spirituality. They are as big and as cosmic as Earth and Sky, Sun and Moon, Masculine and Feminine. They are the Petrine Way and the Marian Way.

Many of us tend to plod along in our faith journey following the Petrine Way; named after St. Peter, impetuous, lovable, "open mouth insert foot" Peter. It is active, leaps ahead, goes, grabs, speaks with passion and is a very productive way, no doubt. Generally speaking, it has masculine characteristics. To get closer to God, I'm going to "do" this or that.... get involved in a group, knock on doors, do the stations every day, read the entire Bible in a year, etc. It springs forth from us, from our initiative.

There's nothing wrong with it. It's the active branch of the Active/Contemplative paradigm that makes up the Christian Way of life. In the Martha and Mary gospel story, this is Martha.

But it is not the only way to live in the Spirit that God has poured into our hearts. In fact, the primordial way, the first way, the fundamental posture for those who thirst for the Holy Spirit is the Marian Way, modelled after Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This in fact, is the "better part" that Martha's sister chose, and Jesus said it shall not be taken from her. This Way is receptive, it waits, receives, is still. It listens to Words and contemplates the Word. By no means, incidentally, is it to be confused with passivity. This is (paradoxically) an active listening, and eager expectation that the Gift of God should be done unto me, should be given unto me! This Way leads to our being filled with God.

Mother Teresa knew this well. She said only the heart that is empty can be filled. The receptive heart is empty of agendas, aggressive opining, over analyzing. It is essentially feminine. And the saints and mystics say that in relation to God we are all of us feminine...

Guys, this is NOT an affront to our manhood. It simply means that God is Creator, we are creature. It means God (Who is neither male or female) is essentially "masculine" - He initiates, He gives, He impregnates, and we respond, we receive, we are filled with the seed of His Divine Life.

So who's "better" - man or woman? Well, no answer really. Both are creatures equal in dignity, called to respond, receive, conceive the Divine Life. But at the same time, Peter's shining moments did come to him when he was essentially "receptive" - when he stopped talking and started taking in what God was saying to him.

Jesus said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter said in reply, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Jesus said to him in reply, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.

It seems clear that in that moment, Peter "looked up" - he opened his mind and heart and received that Word from the Father. This was Peter's Marian moment. Perhaps this is why Pope John Paul II called Mary the icon of all humanity, and called for a rediscovery of the "feminine genius" in our times.... our overly productive, aggressively masculine times. Why he called woman God's masterpiece.

Just some thoughts to shed light on more questions. We need both ways, but the foundation lies in the feminine. Let's ponder this one some more today. Am I first a receiver of God's gifts? Or do always make the first move, on my own, from my own strength, my own agenda?

"Only those who have learned to remain with Jesus, are ready to be sent by Him to evangelize."

- Pope John Paul II

The Power of a Word

Today we celebrate the YES of one woman that changed the course of history, that turned the tide of Death into a sweeping Song to Life! Mary's passionate YES is the model for all of us, who have also been given a marriage proposal by the Divine Lover of humanity. May we too give that active, eager YES in each moment, in each encounter, that we engage in today. The Chanticleer version that I first heard (thanks Mike!) And a beautiful women's choir version as well.

Who is God's Mommy?

When we were young and questions rolled from our lips in long, curling arabesques about the earth and sky and our own origins, we may have once asked about one of the greatest mysteries - the mystery of God's origin. "Who is God's mommy?" the child whispers. And an answer may have come quite confidently; "God doesn't have a mommy. He always was..." For most of us, that response may have... a) perplexed us, b) sparked another question, or c) opened a wide road that seemingly had no end, and even now we may still be walking it. The answer, of course, is true..... and false. The infinite God certainly had no beginning. That would merely point to One greater than He, and that One would be God. We discover through philosophy (our reaching up), and through Revelation (His pouring down) that God is pure Spirit, the fullness of all Being, and source of all that has being. He is not bound in time and space, nor is He made in it. He makes it, lets it be. But in His love, the Author of all things chose to step into His own story, into time and space, and became one of us! On January 1st, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. To some, this title of Mary is an enigma. How can the immortal God have a mortal mother? Did God have a beginning? Again, the answer is no, and yes. God loves paradoxes. St. Paul says in the second reading for this great Solemnity that when the fullness of time had come, "God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons." (Gal 4:4-7) To some, it's scandalous to think that the Transcendent One should come into our world of flesh and bone and blood at all. But the Incarnation of Jesus, the Word of God becoming flesh, has shown us a great wonder, and cured us of a great wound: the wonder is that everything is holy now, for He has graced the world of air and water and earth with His presence; the wound was in our thinking that the two were ever really separate. So God is born of an earthly woman, and cared for by an earthly father. Why? His actions, as always, are teachers. God seeks to reawaken us to the beauty of the family. The family has from the beginning been part of His plan to make us whole, to show us Who He is, to give us a place to grow and to know and to love Him through others. St. Paul continues, "God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” This is the scandalous love of God, that we use such an intimate Aramaic phrase (literally daddy) to address Him! Even more, we honor the humble virgin Mary as His own Mother, and through adoption, as ours! Mary's motherhood of Jesus, Who is One with the Father, is a mystery that can only be known and lived in the heart. The paradox seems like a contradiction to the mind, but in the heart paradoxes fit. As the readings for this feast continue, we hear from Luke, who is believed to have taken much of his infancy narrative right from the lips of Mary herself. We find her taking with her gentle hands this great paradox of being the Mother of God and placing it in the sanctuary of her soul. Luke writes "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." And so should we. We need to return as well to a deeper appreciation of the family. Mother, Father, Son, Daughter. These are the titles of all of us. Each of us bears one of these names. These titles point with fingers of flesh and bone straight up and into the Transcendent Mystery of God Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God, as Pope John Paul II has said, in His deepest identity is not a solitude, but a family! Our first steps on this road of self-discovery begin in the home; in that little pool of life that is our family. It's a communion of souls, always three (like a micro Trinity) or more, but it's sometimes splintered into fragments because of sin or circumstance, or both. In its pure form, it might resemble an upside down triangle; a man and a woman whose love rises up from a single point of contact, and forms a new plane of existence, and supports that new line with their lines outstretched in a selfless gift of love. Imagine a world of families like the Family that is God? “As the family goes, so goes the nation and so goes the whole world in which we live.” - Pope John Paul II Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, pray for us and form us into true sons and daughters of God! May our families reflect the inner life of the Trinity, and glow with the warmth of your home at Nazareth.

______________________________________________

This post is featured on a new online journal called The Publican of Philadelphia. You can visit it here now!

Lovely Lady Dressed in Blue

Lovely Lady dressed in blue Teach me how to pray! God was just your little boy, Tell me what to say! Did you lift Him up, sometimes, Gently on your knee? Did you sing to Him the way Mother does to me? Did you hold His hand at night? Did you ever try telling stories of the world? O! And did He cry? Do you really think He cares If I tell Him things little things that happen? And do the Angels' wings make a noise? And can He hear me if I speak low? Does He understand me now? Tell me, for you know. Lovely Lady dressed in blue Teach me how to pray! God was just your little boy, And you know the way. - Mary Dixon Thayer This prayer-poem was made famous in the 1950s by Bishop Fulton Sheen. Let's sing it from the heart today on this great feast of Mary's Immaculate Conception!

All Shall Be Well

Today, Catholics throughout the world celebrate a feast and sing a
hymn of praise for the gift and beauty of the human body. This is a
feast of hope in the resurrection of the body, and our eyes are gazing
in wonder at the beauty of a human body: the Ark of the Covenant, the
New Eve, the Mother of Mankind, the Woman clothed with the Son. Mary.

We revel in the beauty of her body, not as the world does, with a
beauty only skin deep; we see the big picture, not parts but the
whole. Like a crystal that shines throughout, it's the body "capax
Dei" - capable of the Divine. The body as a temple, God's dwelling
place, open to Grace, now glorified and divinized!

Mary is taken up into glory today. And why should this seem so
unlikely, this mystery that seems not to appear in the Bible? Isn't it
in fact the Song that suffuses the entire Bible? This song is the
original music, the song of life, the Song of Songs, and the score
that sin tore apart and twisted. But we still in this valley of tears
remember the melody. Mary's Assumption into Heaven is God's symphony
for sinners.

And so we gaze in wonder, and reflect on the fact that for us too, by
His Grace, what has fallen shall be raised up, what went sour shall be
sweet again, what was broken will be repaired in us. And not by our
merit, or by Mary's alone. In the end it is all and always the Son who
supplies the Light in this darkness.

As we pray for the healing of our unborn child, I relish this feast of
the Assumption even more. We're asking for a miracle, for God can heal
all of our wounds, weakness, cancer, acrania, disease, decay, and
deformity even now, today. In this moment He can make all things new.
He did it before and if He so wills it He can do it again. So I pray
He pours His redemptive and healing power into the womb and bring
forth life! Through the hands of Mother Mary, like a channel of grace
from God, through the prayers of Pope John Paul II, Apostle of the
Human Person, and all in the Name of Jesus... let it be done unto us
according to His Word. Mary, Mother of the Unborn, pray for us.

New Podcast Up

Finally back in action after a little "technical difficulty," this week's podcast centers on Elizabeth Ficocelli's new book "Lourdes: Font of Faith, Hope & Charity"

"A fascinating look at Lourdes, one of the world's most popular Marian places of pilgrimage. Includes the history of the apparitions to Bernadette Soubirous, the response of the Church, the advent of cures and pilgrimage, and Lourdes today as a powerful center for physical, spiritual, and emotional healing. Featuring interviews with the Bishop, Medical Director, and other key personnel of the Sanctuary. Foreword by Fr. Benedict Groeschel, nationally acclaimed scholar, theologian, author, speaker and host of "Sunday Night Live with Father Benedict Groeschel" on EWTN."

Visit Elizabeth's website here and for the book by Joan Carroll Cruzon, "Incorruptibles," mentioned in this podcast, visit Amazon here.

God Sleeps in the Womb of the Earth

Yesterday Christ died. He said "It is finished," and He gave up His spirit. The great Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Morning Star was Himself extinguished by the Darkness.

So now we wait, and weep, and wonder. Has Death won? Is faith just a futile attempt to hold off the inevitable night, like a match lit for a brief moment, surrounded by impenetrable shadow, for a few seconds of illumination, until all is night? We wonder if there's more. We wait, we watch, like Mary by the tomb.

I see her sitting there, still stunned by the events of that Dark Friday, a whole cut into her heart, scraped clean. Open hands, cupped, lying on her lap, still breathing out the sweet smell of myrhh and oils from the Jewish burial custom. She stares blankly over the distance between the shade of an olive tree and the Roman guards moving about their watch, mumbling in a language she doesn't know. She is there keeping vigil, but she is not there. She is nowhere, she is no one. Her thoughts can only find rest on a few random phrases of His, like a bird alighting on swaying reeds.

"Destroy this temple.... And I will raise it up."
"Just as the seed falls to the earth and dies, so must the Son of Man...."
"I am the Resurrection and the Life..."

But then the winds of memory and sorrow and unspeakable torture blow through her mind again, and the bird of her heart must fly away, for this wind is too strong. After all, she saw His broken body, washed those wounds with His Mother. She saw the marks, the gaping hole in His chest. "It is finished," she whispers to the wind. And her tears drop into the dusty earth.

But Holy Saturday is a day pregnant with possibility....

"Just as the seed falls to the earth and dies, so must the Son of Man...."

Yesterday, Words that can remake the world were spoken, dropped from the mouth of Jesus like seeds full of paradoxical promise. They were spoken the night before as well, at a supper His heart longed to celebrate. These Words convey to the human heart the very secret of human life, the way to the truth of who we are and what we can become. These Words and only these Words, like a magic spell, can rebuild the shattered Dream of Eden, and create a Civilization of Life and Love. These Words have unspeakable power in them.

"This is My Body, given up for you.... Take and eat, take and drink."

To the barren fields of fallen man, the God-Man has given His body as grain. To the earth that has shared in our sorrow, drink. Where thorns and thistles grew now the seed in the blood of Jesus flows. In the dark womb of the earth, He lies broken, sleeps, and germinates, sending out the small, green shoots of promise...And with Mary, we watch and wait for Morning.

For Mary and for Us

On a darkened night 12 years ago, I first heard the Ave Maria by Franz Biebl, performed below by the Smoky Hill High School Symphonic and Chamber Choirs. When I first heard it performed, it was sung by the St. Charles Schola, a well trained group of seminarians who knew their Latin well! I had just wrapped up two years of studying the mother tongue myself, so it was with a deep sense of awe that I sat in my pew, after taking the Son of God into my heart in the Eucharist, and took in also the words of the Angelus sung in Franz Biebl's piece.

I was completely blown away that night. It was one of those wow moments that change your life, add a layer of gravitas, lift you up to a new plateau, shift the paradigm, and adjust the focus, so that suddenly what you thought you clearly knew about God and Life and Yourself was blown to bits and reconstituted before your very eyes; clarified and reconfigured, better than you imagined it ever was.

The most stirring moment of the song (captured more in the seminarian's singing when I first heard it) was at the verse "et Verbum caro factum est... et habitavit in nobis" - and the Word was made flesh... and dwelt among us...

The voices hushed to a whisper and I felt the air electrify, angels hanging in deep amazement. She said yes!! Mary opened the door to the Bridegroom and let Heaven into her heart! No longer holding our breath, no longer in exile, we find the Savior has found a home in Mary, and through her now He comes to us in every Communion. What Adam and Eve had lost, Jesus and Mary have revealed! God wants to dwell among us, and better still, within us! He wants to be all ours and us all His! So let us speak with Mary that great consent. "Fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum." - Be it done unto me according to Your Word. How's that for a New Year (and a New Life's) resolution? To open the gates to Divinity, to redemption, to healing, to mercy...

What a wondrous God we have, willing to pour Himself out into us weak and so often clueless creatures, for the sake of Love, for the rescue of our captive hearts. Come Lord Jesus!

If You Build It, She Will Come

"For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late." - Habakkuk 2:2-4

So it is written in the closing lines of this Sunday's first reading of the Mass. I don't know how it happens, but as usual, the Word hits the spot, once again, sinking in perfectly like a cylinder into a circle-shaped hole.

When I heard it read, I just smiled at the synchronicity. A couple of months ago, I was invited to give a talk on "Rekindling Eucharistic Amazement" just outside of Cleveland, Ohio. "Just outside" is an understatement.

Mike Malloy picked me up Friday night and for over an hour, we wove our way from the city lights, past the stadium where the Indians has just tied it up, into the misty shadows of the wide open farms and woods of central Ohio. In the middle of a quiet farm in Windsor, we finally reached our destination. And then I saw her.

Gazing serenely over a dark lake that was wrapped by luminous spheres (forming a massive rosary), was a 50 foot statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Whoa. The biggest in the world (I have no doubt). As we drove onto the gravel road where the Heinz family lives, I had a sense that this place was... different.

Years ago, this faith-filled family of 10 had lived on this farm, and then after a series of unfortunate events, including bankruptcy, job changes, and travels and travails overseas in England, they won it back again, against all odds! In gratitude, they wanted "to do something for the Lord." The story is a good one, involving mystics, miracles, and mysterious truckers from Texas. And lots and lots of faith and trust.

This place is special. You can feel the peace, and I found myself smiling for no particular reason as I walked around the wet grass, and the people who came for a day of prayer, Mass, adoration, and talks. Maybe it was the funny feeling I had of being in a Catholic version of Field of Dreams. "If you build it, she will come," I thought to myself, as I walked up to that statue yesterday morning.

People come from all over; they just show up. Migrant workers from local farms and factories feel they've found a home away from home here. The sick and terminally ill come. The curious, the Catholic, the neighbors.

It's ridiculous in a way. What's happening here? What's this massive statue doing in the middle of a farm in Ohio? How did they do it? What's the plan for the future? They have no idea.

"For the vision still has its time, presses on to fulfillment, and will not disappoint; if it delays, wait for it, it will surely come, it will not be late."
- Habakkuk 2:2-4

The sun had just tipped over the horizon and began pouring its light on Mother Mary (she faces the east, of course, where the sun rises). You get a sense that something big is happening. Something is coming. Or perhaps Someone. I made a final visit this morning, in the cool quiet of the dawn. Just me, "One-eyed Sam" (the farm dog) and Maggie (the border collie who used to herd the llamas and other animals when it was more of a working farm).

I thought of the confessions heard in the shade of trees yesterday, the beautiful little adoration chapel, the Holy Mass under the stars, and the fact that Fr. McFadden was preaching about Jesus, and that the Bishop of Youngstown had been here twice, and was pleased.

People are praying here, loving God in a little Garden of Eden, and finding their place in the shadow of the New Eve, the one who never grasped at, but only and always received Love. The Woman clothed with the Son, whose "yes" has changed the course of history. When I first saw that statue, I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I hope that's a grace that stays with me.

For Mary is the window, and her Son is the view.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

Poems, Prayers and Mary Song

This is the day of the wedding feast for Mary, her Assumption into Heaven, her home-coming, her reunion with Jesus, her union with God. This is a day for sweet hymns. Today we celebrate the icon, the perfect woman, the one who images us all at a level of such wholeness that we can only call it holiness! Mary....

So what better way to celebrate than to sing with a sweet hymn of words from the poet priest Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–89).

Just a teaser here, but visit this link for more of his art!

The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe

...My lung must draw and draw
Now but to breathe its praise,
Minds me in many ways
Of her who not only
Gave God’s infinity
Dwindled to infancy
Welcome in womb and breast,
Birth, milk, and all the rest
But mothers each new grace
That does now reach our race—
Mary Immaculate,

Merely a woman, yet
Whose presence, power is
Great as no goddess’s
Was deemèd, dreamèd; who
This one work has to do—
Let all God’s glory through,
God’s glory which would go
Through her and from her flow
Off, and no way but so.

I say that we are wound
With mercy round and round
Be thou then, O thou dear Mother,
my atmosphere;
My happier world, wherein
To wend and meet no sin;
Above me, round me lie
Fronting my froward eye
With sweet and scarless sky;
Stir in my ears, speak there
Of God’s love, O live air,
Of patience, penance, prayer:
World-mothering air, air wild,
Wound with thee, in thee isled,
Fold home, fast fold thy child.

Something About Mary - Tonight's Radio Show

In tonight's radio show, on this eve of the Feast of the Assumption of Mary, we'll dive into the great mysteries of death, heaven and the resurrection of the body.

My guest is Sister Sheila Galligan, an Immaculate Heart of Mary sister who is currently the Chairperson of the Department of Theology at Immaculata University. Sr. Sheila studied for her Master's at St Charles Seminary and completed her doctoral work at the University of St Thomas (the Angelicum), in Rome. She focused on the writings of C.S. Lewis.

We'll take an in-depth and wonder-filled look at this teaching of the Church on the glorified body and heaven, how it came to be understood, and why it's so crucial that we understand Mary's Assumption and her role in our life today. What happened to Mary is part of God's plan for all of us! Tune in and find out why!

"God’s temple in heaven was opened,
and the ark of his covenant could be seen in the temple.
A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,
with the moon under her feet,
and on her head a crown of twelve stars."

- Revelation 11:19

Empty. . .

Suffering scours and scrapes us clean.

Then alone, we are hollow.
Empty as the heart of a mountain,
rough-hewn by the cuts of sin and sorrow.

Sitting in our stone-carved solitudes, clattering, words falling like rocks, who does not ultimately long to be filled? To be answered?


We come of age and reach that "cross"-road where a choice must be made. A turn to the right or the left, a turn within or a turn without.

Do we believe? Is there a hand reaching into our wounded sides to touch our trembling hearts? Will it take hold of our fear and pour it out? Is this a hand we can trust?

Will we take it or will we fear again what this pierced hand holds out to us?
Will we run from Crucified Love?

Running will not heal the hurt. We must put aside the pills and ask for no more substitutes. No more Babelling Towers that rise up to our own hollow heavens. We must turn back to Love.

Love that was born in a cave in the earth.
Love that was buried in a tomb in the earth.

We find Him suffering too, scoured and scraped clean by sorrow,
our sorrow, all sorrow, heaped up and balanced on His back.

Didn't we notice He was there?
In the classroom, in the alleyway, on the gallows, under mortar fire and in the ocean deep and cold? Where else would Love be?

All death and sorrow has been swallowed up in His death.
All tears and madness are consumed in His dying.
All tombs will someday be empty because of Him.

So let's come before Crucified Love and weep; then let's peer inside and see.

Until we recognize Him in all of this, we are in the dark, alone, outside an empty tomb...
struggling to make sense of ourselves without Him.

Seeking the living among the dead.

Mary's Open Heart

Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord. It actually fell on Sunday, but that's Resurrection Day, so it got the Biblical Bump. Fine by me... because a solemnity in Lent means all fasts are off! Woohoo! Bring on the snacks! It's cool to be Catholic!

Just shy of nine months from now, we'll celebrate the fruit of the womb that was conceived this day; the Word Made Flesh! Miracle of Miracles!

Now sometimes we can see Mary's yes as such an easy thing, all roses and sweetness. Really, how difficult would it be to raise the Perfect Son? But let's remember that Mary was a true Hebrew, and as such she would know the prophets and the prophecies by heart. She knew her people were searching for the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. Mary had the tender heart to see that the Messiah would be this Suffering Servant that Isaiah alluded to, not a military man that the militant were hoping for.

So the shadow of the Cross fell over the cradle Joseph had built. In the light of this truth, Mary's YES becomes so much more powerful, so much more of a sacrifice and a death to self. Her openness to God and to the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit was closer to the openness of the wound that Jerome Miller describes below (After all, it was her heart that Simeon the priest said would be pierced through even as she cradled the newborn Messiah in her arms that day).

This is a reflection I've had for years, stashed in my files of Spiritual Gems. I don't know where I first found it or who it was who first gave it to me to ponder. But hear it now with the vision of Mary behind it all. Sweet Mother of Sorrows, pray for us! The path to wholeness and holiness, I believe, must begin with this radical vulnerability before God and the mystical movements of life....

"A more essential condition is the willingness to be devastated, by which I mean the willingness to let the mortal wounds penetrate one's heart so deeply that it is broken completely open by it. This is, I think, a pregnant image. For it suggests that the deepest lessons the heart has to deliver to us become accessible only when it is ruptured. It is anguish that makes the heart an open book because the wound it causes pierces all the way through to the core. These are terrible lessons, the kind that fill one with nausea. We like to think our lives would be happier if we could find a way to avoid learning them; but the only way to do that is to close one's heart and keep it closed, so that nothing gets in or out of it - to make oneself a heart of stone. It is terrible to put into words the one real alternative to this avoidance. But I see no way to get around what seems to be the harshest, the most merciless truth about the human heart - I mean the fact that, to keep it open, once it has been pierced, one must allow it to be an open wound."

- Jerome Miller

Two Spiritual Gems from Two Spiritual Giants

On this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, I thought I'd just offer you a couple of thoughts from the Big Boys; St. Anselm (old school) and Bishop Sheen (new school, kind of). Today's celebration means that Mary, who was conceived through the loving embrace of Joachim and Anne, was kept free from original sin or its stain. This is what "immaculate" means: without stain. We believe that God gave her this grace through the redemptive death of Jesus in a pre-emptive way, because of her unique role in the history of salvation. So to Mary our Star and our Hope, thank you for your YES!

O Virgin, by Whose Blessing All Nature is Blessed!

Blessed Lady, sky and stars, earth and rivers, day and night – everything that is subject to the power or use of man – rejoice that through you they are in some sense restored to their lost beauty and are endowed with inexpressible new grace. All creatures were dead, as it were, useless for men or for the praise of God, who made them. The world, contrary to its true destiny, was corrupted and tainted by the acts of men who served idols. Now all creation has been restored to life and rejoices that it is controlled and given splendour by men who believe in God.
- Excerpt from a sermon by St Anselm

A New Beginning
Our human nature was very much like a polluted stream up until the Incarnation. Imagine a ship, for example, sailing in polluted waters. It wishes to sail in clear waters, but without the pollution coming from one into the other. How could the transfer of the ship be made except by a lock? So the ship in the foul waters would be put into a lock where there would be a separation of waters, then the ship would be raised to the level of the unpolluted waters. Now the Immaculate Conception and the virgin birth were that lock. The pollution stopped because there was no union of man and woman. It was simply woman alone who gave a human nature to Christ and began the new humanity.
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen