One Mind and Heart Intent Upon God

To Bless - A Heartfelt, Cosmological Invitation to Holiness

2011-11-26T21:45:00.000-08:00

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"Sun and moon, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"Stars of heaven, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"Every shower and dew, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"All you winds, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"Fire and heat, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

"Cold and chill, bless the Lord;
praise and exalt him above all forever."

R. Give glory and eternal praise to God.

I’ve been taught since my childhood that God forgives me and heals me and blesses me. I have little trouble understanding - or at least appreciating the enormity and value of the grace that God bestows upon me…..but just what is it that I’m called to give back? To praise and exalt God above all forever? To give glory and eternal praise? These ideas – as difficult and impossible as they may seem at times – are at least understandable concepts that I can embrace as goals and ideals. But I’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea of me “blessing” God. What does my “blessing” of God really mean or do? Can the sun and the moon and the winds really bless the Lord? The mountains and the hills? I want to ask one of my Mexican brothers if he believes that cold and chill can really bless the Lord --- or even if they should? Is an icicle worthy to bless the Lord? Is a rock worthy to bless the Lord? Am I worthy to bless the Lord?

The meaning of the Hebrew word brk or Bahruuk (Blessing) seems to be a point of argument among many scholars. BUT whether the definition is understood in terms of benefits conveyed from one party to another or alternately as a form of praise and worship it is agreed that it always implies a favorable relationship… being in relationship!

I’m not sure that I’ll do this thought justice – but I heard that a certain theologian believes that any random planet may very well do a better job of praising God than we can do – that the planet is in fact fulfilling its purpose – it is doing just as God intended or is at least doing all it can do within the atmospheric variables it exists within at any given moment.

God’s creation blesses and praises and exalts God simply by being --- by being the very thing that God has created. Perhaps we have much to learn from the stars or even from the storm cloud that sometimes makes us unhappy. The storm cloud is what it is meant to be – a catalyst in creation – and as it does its part it’s not always as pleasant as the sun and the moon. Come to think of it - even the sun can be tough to live with on some days. We love the warmth...but sometimes it’s too hot in relation to our part of the earth. All of creation and its processes have what we would judge as its “good and bad days.” And we’re left uncomfortable.

Like a rock or a storm or a snow bank…. all I’m left with some days…...is just the ability to be. To do my work, complete my tasks and to remain in relationship – to live up to my vows in the best way that I can - when it’s difficult. --- to be content to just put one foot in front of the other for awhile. To act as one who believes the words that he prays each day and really trust that God will not abandon me if I honestly try to function at my highest level --- however little that may be for today! ---to give glory and eternal praise, to exalt------to be in relationship….to bless!

As Azariah prayed: “With contrite heart and humbled spirit let us be received…”

---

Reflection Given by Joe Murray, OSA, on November 23rd, at St. Augustine Friary in Chicago.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

2011-04-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Albrecht Altdorfer, The Resurrection

Byzantine icon

He Qi, The Risen Christ

O let your stillness speak today

2011-04-22T14:12:00.000-07:00

(To be sung to an LM meter tune)

O Let your stillness speak today
With silent mouth speak to us:
For whoso hears your silence is,
awaiting for renewal with you

You suffered much until the end
You loved us all to the extreme
That beauty and splendor hath adorned
Creation's height and depth and width

You mingled our humanity
you clothed it with divinity
You lifted it upon the cross
to share with us of your glory

It is through this mystr’y of truth
that Leviathan is trodden down
In dying you destroyed our death
In hope we await to rise with you

Allow us Lord to die with you
To break our hearts by loving you
And in this way may we partake
Of blessed dance of Trinity

-Carlos J. Medina, OSA
(I took much of the imagery from the poems of St. Ephrem and St. Gregory of Nazianzen)

A Very Brief Timeline of the Church with a focus on the organization of the Roman Catholic Church

2011-04-19T08:09:00.001-07:00

Up to the 11th Century

New Testament Times

Ministry of Jesus was preaching (kerygma), serving (diakonia), witnessing (koinonia) and praying (leitourgia).

Jesus appointed ministers. The were three categories of people who sometimes are distinct from each other, and sometimes they are not: The 12, The Apostles, The disciples, the 72.

After resurrection, Paul mentions three lists of ministries: Romans 12, 4-8; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-12; and Ephesians 4, 11-14. The most prominent ministries are being an apostle, a prophet, and Teacher. Prophets, apostles, and deacons included women.

No individual Christian was called “priest” in the New Testament, and it is not certain who presided over the Eucharist in the early communities with such varied structures.

2nd Century

Deacons, Presbyters, and Episcopi start to become the prominent ministers.

Presbyters become more prominent as advisors of bishops.

Monepiscopacy develops, namely one bishop for every Christian community.

Presiding at Eucharist begins to be linked with the bishop

3^rd Century

Cyrpian notes in 250 for the first time that the Bishop is a priest, and that presides in place of Christ.

The bishop of Rome started to claim authority over the entire Church.

4^th Century

In 330 Emperor Justinian moves to Constantinople changing the political landscape, especially the importance of Rome.

Meletian Schism (361-415) – It affected Syriac Christianity and the patriarchate of Antioch. It had to do with different views not agreeing on the relation between Christ’s human and divine nature.

Donatist Troubles: In North Africa, some people considered those who had given in during persecutions as “traditores” or traitors. They claimed that sacraments administered by traditores were invalid.

5^th Century

With the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, populations moved to the countryside and many parishes were established in the country. In the cities, bishops began to occupy civil positions of leadership.

Pelagian controversy: In Europe and North Africa there was a dispute regarding the necessity of Grace for becoming a good person. Great theologians such as Augustine of Hippo, and John Cassian were involved.

Nestorian Schism – Syriac Churches did not accept the title Theotokos (God-bearer) given to Mary because they emphasized the distinctness of Christ’s human and divine nature.

St Benedict (480-540) – started a monastic way of life with his rule which became very popular in the West.

St Patrick evangelizes Ireland. Saint Brigit of Kildaire also has a role in evangelization by founding several monasteries. Columbanus continues their mission after their death.

6^th Century

With the fall of the Roman Empire, bishops struggle to be controlled by local princes, or are themselves princes. Over time, they become part of the political hierarchy. It is the beginning of the “investiture struggle” or the struggle for the highest authority between church and civil authority. This struggle would continue for the rest of the Middle Ages.

Eastern bishops saw the rejection of canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon by Pope Leo I as an improper act.

7^th Century

Syriac monks and missionaries spread Eastward along the trade routes. Alopen reaches China in 635.

The growth in papal supremacy led to the beginnings of estrangement with bishops in the East.

There were double monasteries in Ireland and Northern England, where men and women lived in a common property, with separate buildings.

Boniface (675-754) goes to Germany and evangelizes and reforms churches.

8^th Century

Monasteries by this century were very pervasive, and were seen as islands of the ideal life in the midst of a chaotic age.

Under the time of Charlemagne (742-814), parish life experienced upsurge in quality as Charlemagne worked to get parishes under more direct control of bishops.

9^th Century

A tithing system was put in place so that a community would support a priest and also send money to the bishop. In 840 with the death of Louis the Pious (Charlemagne’s son) the plan fell apart.

Cyril (d. 869) and Methodius (d. 885) evangelized the Slavs.

Photian schism (863-867) – The East and West split briefly due to the appointment of Photius I of Constantinople, a lay scholar to the patriarchate of Constantinople. The Pope Nicholas III was opposed to such an appointment. Below the surface, the filioque along with differing practices between the churches fueled the separation.

10^th Century

Metropolitan bishops began to be called Archbishops. Their homes started to become centers of juridical and theological importance. Archbishops presided at the consecration of suffragan bishops, settled disputes in both canon and civil law, and presided at local synods or councils.

Cluny – reform of Benedictine monks which had become lax.

11^th century

The word papacy (“papatus”) appears for the first time.

The great schism of 1054 – the rupture that had begun two centuries earlier finally becomes visible and formal. Some of the issues were the universal jurisdiction of the Pope, the filioque, disagreement on how to evangelize Bulgaria, and liturgical practices proper to each branch.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Prayer of Repentance

2011-04-14T19:21:00.000-07:00

Merciful Father help me see myself in your truth. Clothed in your son, may your Spirit dwell in my mind, and fill my heart. Yet help me be patient with myself in this process. Help me stay away from false images of perfection, but rejoice in hearing the music of your Spirit instead. Hold me fast, and grant me the strength to hold on to you while you take time to enlarge my heart with your love. May I never despair, but always drink of your saving hope, always trust in your promises. May repentance be a great understanding and realization where I see myself, in the Light of your Christ. In His light may I see Light so that all darkness of fear and shame may vanish. Merciful Lord, accept me in repentance, and help me accept myself as I am. Help me accept myself in my weakness, in the times when I am weary. O Holy Spirit, Give me new eyes to see that fundamentally at my deepest core I am beautiful because I am created in your image. Help me affirm myself in You my God, my friend. Lord Jesus, help me see not where I have failed, but how I can live in your love each day. May I be grateful that you are by me at every moment, instead of self-hating because of what I am not. Give me faith to see that under the ugliness that I see is the beauty you created. Take me as I am, and remind me each day that you made me beautiful. May I never forget how much I am loved, how precious I am in your eyes. Merciful Lord, accept me in repentance, and help me accept myself as I am. You who write straight on crooked lines, help me accept myself as I am, where I am at today, and give me hope that tomorrow I will have the faith to do the same. O Holy Trinity, Holy God - Beauty, Life, Love. Help me affirm myself in You my God, my friend.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

The Gift of Loneliness

2011-04-10T18:12:00.000-07:00

I would like to voice loudly and clearly what might seem unpopular and maybe even disturbing: The Christian way of life does not take away our loneliness; it protects and cherishes it as a precious gift. Sometimes it seems as if we do everything possible to avoid the painful confrontation with our basic human loneliness, and allow ourselves to be trapped by false gods promising immediate satisfaction and quick relief. But perhaps the painful awareness of loneliness is an invitation to transcend our limitations and look beyond the boundaries of our existence. The awareness of loneliness might be a gift we must protect and guard, because our loneliness reveals to us an inner emptiness that can be destructive when misunderstood, but filled with promise for him who can tolerate its sweet pain.

When we are impatient, when we want to give up our loneliness and try to overcome the separation and incompleteness we feel, too soon, we easily relate to our human world with devastating expectations. We ignore what we already know with a deep-seated, intuitive knowledge - that no love or friendship, no intimate embrace or tender kiss, no community, commune or collective, no man or woman, will ever be able to satisfy our desire to be released from our lonely condition. This truth is so disconcerting and painful that we are more prone to play games with our fantasies than to face the truth of our existence. Thus we keep hoping that one day we will find the man who really understands our experiences, the woman who will bring peace to our restless life, the job where we can fulfill our potentials, the book which will explain everything, and the place where we can feel at home. Such false hope leads us to make exhausting demands and prepares us for bitterness and dangerous hostility when we start discovering that nobody, and nothing, can live up to our absolutistic expectations.

Many marriages are ruined because neither partner was able to fulfill the often hidden hope that the other would take his or her loneliness away. And many celibates live with the naive dream that in the intimacy of marriage their loneliness will be taken away.

When the minister lives with these false expectations and illusions he prevents himself from claiming his own loneliness as a source of human understanding, and is unable to offer any real service to the many who do not understand their own suffering.

-Henri Nouwen

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick

2011-04-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Anointing of the Sick and Symbols from Today's Readings (Fourth Sunday of Lent)

First reading: OIL

“There is still the youngest, who is tending the sheep.” ... The LORD said, “There—anoint him, for this is the one!” (1 Samuel 16: 11-12)

The youngest were considered the most unworthy, and God chooses the youngest as the King.

Second Reading: LIGHT

You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Ephesians 5, 8

During illness we can make experience shame, self-centeredness, guilt, anger, and even so, we are not in darkness.

Gospel: SALIVA

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes,
and said to him, “Go wash in the Pool of Siloam” —which means Sent—.
So he went and washed, and came back able to see. (John 9: 5-7)

Body fluids, when outside of the body were considered shameful and impure. The sick were considered shameful because people thought they were the result of sin. Jesus uses what is shameful to heal from shame. Since he is Light, anything he touches is not in darkness.

Other Passages about Anointing of the Sick

“Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? 6 He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint (him) with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful” (James 5: 14-16).

"If one member suffers in the Body of Christ, which is the Church, all members suffer with that member" (1 Cor 12: 16).

What is the sacrament of anointing about?

Remember that sacraments speak to us through their symbols. With Water of baptism tells us we enter into the new life of Christ by becoming members of His body by dying to sin and rising to new life in His Spirit. In eating the Body of Christ we express and deepen our unity with Christ, and His Church as the Body. In the anointing of the sick, the anointing with oil expresses that not even severe illness separates you from the Church as community, as Body of Christ. Whereas illness can be a source of shame, in anointing the sick we express that you are still loved by God and the church, especially during this time. You are anointed just like kings and prophets were. If illness can be a source of shame, in the sacrament of anointing sickness becomes an opportunity for reconnection with the community, for remembering that you are made holy by Jesus Christ. The priest, as a representative of the community, embraces the sick sister or brother, and in this way protects the person from separation from the Church because of illness. In the letter of James, the apostle says that the presbyters (today we call them priests) are to pray over the sick, not just for the sick (James 5,14). In praying over the sick, the sick person is commended to the prayer of the whole Church. As the catechism says, "By the sacred anointing of the sick and the prayer of the priests the whole Church commends those who are ill to the suffering and glorified Lord, that he may raise them up and save them. (Catechism Para 1499).

When can someone receive the sacrament of anointing of the sick?

Each time a Christian falls seriously ill, he may receive the Anointing of the Sick, and also when, after he has received it, the illness worsens. (Catechism, Para. 1529)

What are the spiritual benefits (special graces) that can be received through the sacrament of anointing?

• the uniting of the sick person to Christ is a special way;
• the knowledge that Jesus also suffered, and is with the person.
• the strengthening, peace, and courage to endure in a Christian manner the sufferings of illness or old age;
• the forgiveness of sins, if the sick person was not able to obtain it through the sacrament of Penance;
• the possibility of healing,
• the preparation for passing over to eternal life. (Para. 1532)

Why receive the sacrament? Why not just pray for my health, or ask anybody to pray for me?

It is not either, or. It is always good to pray for others and ourselves, so the sacrament of anointing does not mean that we do not pray for each other or for ourselves. As written above, the sacrament is more than the priest praying for you – he’s representing your Church, and expressing that you are still a beloved member of the community, and anoints you as a sign of who you are in Christ.

Carlos Medina, OSA

3 points about our vocation

2011-03-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

You have made us for yourself O Lord, and our Hearts are restless until they rest in you. Saint Augustine begins his Confessions with this prayer. In this short, beautiful line he expresses how God loves us into being with a divine destiny in mind. As creatures of God we are called to develop to our full potential, but as daughters and sons in christ, we are called to share in divine life - to love as God loves. This is the first point I came to share with you: Almighty God, the Holy Trinity wants to share divine life with you. This is a vocation we are all invited to share.

Now, If there is a destination, then there's a way to get there. Psychologist Adrian Van Kaam says that we make our life our own by the commitments we make. If we are all called to be like God, and yet not all of us make the same commitments, then I think that there are different paths to reach our destination. The way that I find my rest in God is different from the way you may find your rest in God. And yet, I think we can group together some of the different paths by the commitments of love they share in common. For Most people, the significant commitment of love they make is marriage. In marriage, a man and a woman commit themesleves to help each other walk toward God. In that process their mutual love reveal to the rest of us an aspect of God's love: His fidelity. Other people commit themselves personally to God, and live a consecrated single life. They are consecrated lay people, or hermits, or consecrated virgins. Among the men, some become diocesan priests. Lastly, there is a third category of people: These are people who commit themselves to God in the context of a community of brothers or sisters. These are religious sisters and religious brothers. Among the religious brothers, some are called to ordained ministry.

As you can see, there is a great variety of commitments. And even within a particular commitment you find differences: not all marriages are alike, and not all religious people live the same type of religious life. Yet we are all called to the same destination of sharing life with God, and as we walk towards this destination together we are a pilgrim people, we are Church.

I'm speaking as one from the third group: I'm a religious. More specifically, I'm an Augustinian friar. I find inspiring the path of seeking God that St Augustine started 1600 hundred years ago. In order to imitate Christ more freely and more closely, and rooted in the spirit of the early Christian community from the Acts of the apostles, St. Augustine established a community with his friends. The main purpose of such community was to live together in harmony, so as with a single mind and a single heart seek the Lord.

What initially attracted me to religious life and priesthood was not this beautiful vision of community life for the sake of journeying together toward the Lord. Rather, it was the opportunity to serve others in a very meaningful way. After some involvement with church ministries before entering to the Order, I find out when I entered the Novitiate that during the novitiate we were not allowed to be involved in any ministry for that year. I had been used to helping at Church, volunteering every now and then, and all of a sudden I could not do it anymore. What first was surprising news, became upsetting to me. Thanks to my novice director, I learned that I was used to doing a lot of things, to having a busy schedule. Now I had a rigorous schedule, but it was aimed at prayer and solitude.

I heard that among some traditional aboriginal tribes, people who have been journeying for a while sit down so that their spirits can catch up to their bodies. After doing a lot to get into college, and then doing a lot in college to get into grad school, entering the novitiate was like sitting down, and allowing my spirit to catch up to me. Slowly, but painfully, after getting used to being, rather than doing, I started to realize that in my previous running to seeking to serve others, I was trying to fill a void of acceptance in me. At an unconscious level I thought that if I helped others, that I would be accepted by others and by God. After all we all have a deep need to be accepted. On of the blessings of the novitiate was that in the silence of God's presence, I learned to allow myself to be loved by God first. While I was trying to earn drops of the water of acceptance, in the silence of my heart I found God was willing to give me a whole ocean of it. I was loved as I was, without needing to do anything. And after experiencing such acceptance, I can now tell you that you are already loved. We are not on this journey toward God so we can be loved, but we are called to God because we are already loved. We hear that God loves us all the time, but I invite you to truly accept it.

St. Paul tells us today in our second reading:

"For Christ, while we were still helpless,
died at the appointed time for the ungodly.
Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person,
though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die.
But God proves his love for us
in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us."

Think of the consequences: If I am enough for God, then there is nothing I need to hide from God, and if God accepts me as I am, then I can accept myself; and if I can accept myself, then I can accept other people. You can change "accept" for forgive. If God forgives me, then I can forgive myself; and if I can forgive myself because God has forgiven me, then I can forgive other people. I think We hear much of what we should be or should do, and not enough of who we are in Christ - in Christ we are beloved sons and daughters. I do not deny that we are works in progress, that we are in journey, but we are loved at every step of the way. This is the second point I came to share: You are already loved at every step of the journey.

With this great lesson in hand, Last summer I professed my first vows, and I started studies in theology last Fall in Chicago. In the course of my first semester I managed to get so focused on my theological studies, that I started to forget about the vision, the destiny we have in Christ, and the path I had started to walk to get there. The lesson has been the realization that I am quite vulnerable in living out vocation I am called to if I try to do it on my own. I need God's assistance along the way.

We heard in the Gospel of John how Jesus answered to the Samaritan woman:

“If you knew the gift of God
and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,
you would have asked him
and he would have given you living water.”

If you knew the Gift of God, Jesus says. If we knew the gift of God! In acknoledging who we are as recipients of the gift of God, we may realize all the more that we do not need to strive to earn the gift. After all, a gift is free. We can become accustomed to thinking that all there is is the regular water that the samaritan woman went to get everyday, when in fact God is waiting for us to accept his living water. How easy it is to mistake one for the other. To confuse our dreams for plans. How easy it is to resignate ourselves, to focus on our thirst that we forget about the living water. Like the Israelites from the first reading, who "In those days, in their thirst for water, they grumbled against Moses,
saying, “Why did you ever make us leave Egypt?" (Ex 17, 3) - sometimes we may grumble as well, and wish we were back in our Egypts.

During this time of Lent we are called to repentance. In light of today's Gospel reading, I invite you to see repentance as the opportunity to look beyond the routine thirst of resignation, and helplessness into the living water that has been promised to us. This is my third point: let us nourish our hope. I agree with a theologian who says that When hope is frustrated, it produces sadness, resignation, resentment, and helplessness. I invite you to nourish hope by spending time with the Lord, and by encouraging, and reminding each other of who we are in Christ. Let us enter the silence of our hearts and drink from the Living water Jesus has for us.

So these have been my three points:

We are called to walk toward a sacred destiny
We are already loved every step of the way.
And thirdly, let us nourish the hope we have received.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA
[I gave this talk today at Our Mother of Good Counsel in Homer Glenn, IL)

Still, My Soul, Be Still

2011-01-25T08:09:00.000-08:00

“There we shall rest and we shall see, we shall see and we shall love, we shall love and we shall praise.” St. Augustine

I came across a contemporary expression of this human desire to be still in God:

By Keith and Kristyn Getty

Still my soul be still
And do not fear
Though winds of change may rage tomorrow
God is at your side
No longer dread
The fires of unexpected sorrow

God You are my God
And I will trust in You and not be shaken
Lord of peace renew
A steadfast spirit within me
To rest in You alone

Still my soul be still
Do not be moved
By lesser lights and fleeting shadows
Hold onto His ways
With shield of faith
Against temptations flaming arrows

Still my soul be still
Do not forsake
The Truth you learned in the beginning
Wait upon the Lord
And hope will rise As stars appear when day is dimming

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, OSA

St Augustine recognized the presence not only of ‘hidden saints’ but also ‘prophets’ among the Gentiles

2010-12-04T20:58:00.000-08:00

"...Balaam, a Mesopotamian diviner, was somewhat unfairly vilified in the NT. In the full story about him (Num. 22:1-24: 25), he clearly exemplifies how an ‘outsider’, who never joins the people of God, can pronounce genuine prophecies about the destiny of Israel, its royal leader, and Jesus himself. Could we imagine such prophetic activity continuing today among those who do not belong to the Church?

One might readily think here of ‘positive’ figures such as Martin Buber (1879 – 1965), Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948), and the Dalai Lama (b. 1936). But what of such notoriously ‘negative’ figures as Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939), Karl Marx (1818 – 83), and Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900). Marold Westphal entertained the possibility in his Suspicion and Faith: The Religious Use of Modern Atheism. Westphal explored brilliantly the abiding challenges that Freud, Marx and Nietzsche pose to believers, who slide into various forms of self-deception. Without changing anything, he might have given his book another subtitle: The Prophetic Use of Modern Atheism. What would it be like to take the case of Balaam as an encouragement to look for prophetic figures, both positive and negative, in the modern world? St Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430) recognized the presence not only of ‘hidden saints’ but also ‘prophets’ among the Gentiles (Contra Faustum 19.2; De catechizandis rudibus 22.40). He declared roundly that ‘prophecy was extended to all nations (omnibus gentibus dispensabatur prophetia)’ (In Ioanem 9.9)."

by Gerald O’Collins, S.J. Salvation For All: God’s Other Peoples (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 203-4. Taken from here

-Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Some thoughts on Unity

2010-12-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

"I urge you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that all of you agree in what you say,
and that there be no divisions among you,
but that you be united in the same mind and in the same purpose.
For it has been reported to me about you, my brothers and sisters,
by Chloe’s people, that there are rivalries among you.
I mean that each of you is saying,
“I belong to Paul,” or “I belong to Apollos,”
or “I belong to Cephas,” or “I belong to Christ.”
Is Christ divided?
Was Paul crucified for you?
Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel,
and not with the wisdom of human eloquence,
so that the cross of Christ might not be emptied of its meaning."

-1 Cor 1:10-13, 17

Paul asked the divided Corinthians: is Christ divided? This is a powerful question. Clearly the answer is no. But in the rhetorical question Paul implies something profound: We are the body of Christ. Since Christ is not divided, neither are we. We are all members –sure, the members are different from each other – the hand is different from the foot, and they are different from the mouth, but they all belong to one body of Christ. Our Church like the Corinthians is divided. We are different, which means we will have different opinions; and I think this difference is good, because God created each of us in a unique way. But the differences rooted in fear of the other and selfish interest leads to division. Pauline theology goes a step further: because we are one in Christ, unity is not an ideal or goal to be realized, but a reality that needs to be acknowledged, and recognized.

The more we recognize that we are in Christ, the less I hope, that division will be a problem, or better the more we will realize that there is no division, but unity, and all we need to do is live accordingly.

Only in Christ and Through Christ are we one. Christ is one, so we are one.

The question is: How can we recognize that we are already one, when division seems so real?

I do not know. But there are things that I believe can help. One of these things we can learn from a quote I found by Michael Jordan. He said some interesting things about fear that perhaps we can apply to division:

“I know fear is an obstacle for some people, but it’s an illusion for me… Any fear is an illusion. You think something is standing in your way, but nothing is really there. What is there is an opportunity to do your best and gain some success.”
We learn from Jordan that Fear is an illusion. He does not deny the experience of fear, but he says feel the fear, and act anyway. So perhaps it is the same with division. How can we possibly be one, especially when the experience of division among some groups within the church is so marked? Part of the answer may be: let us start acting as if we are one. This won’t take away differences, because differences will always be there, but the more we draw to Christ in whom we are already one, and the more we do so with people or groups with whom we feel divided, the more our differences (I hope) will be seen as gifts.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

He is no forgetful listener

2010-11-17T14:38:00.000-08:00

A Muslim story begins this way:

"There was once a King with a vast kingdom. He was a very great King, good, fair, just, merciful, loved deeply by all his subjects, by all the creatures in His kingdom.

His was not an ordinary kingdom. He ruled over all of nature, the mountains, streams, skies, and the wide earth whose strength supported all of these.

The King was loved deeply by all his subjects who knew well his continuous kindness and mercy.

One day the King called all of His subjects to come before Him. They all came willingly and from among their numbers each group chose a representative to stand before the King. The mountains chose the firmest and mightiest among them to go forward as their representative. The skies chose the strongest wind and in like manner each group sent forward their chosen representative.

The King said He had a task, a test, "a trust", a difficult undertaking, and He wanted to see who among His subjects would undertake this task.

The task was to journey through a faraway land known as the land of forgetfulness.

Anyone who entered this land forgot who they were, where they came from, even why they came to that land.

And even though that land was also part of the kingdom, the visible signs of the King were concealed and disguised in that land. Those who entered there became so forgetful and distracted that they forgot their beloved King and forgot that He had set them a task.

Only those who were able to look deep into their hearts would be able to remember their King and their task, because the forgetfulness was like a thick fog that clouded their minds.

And only those with a firm and deep love for the King would be able to journey safely through the midst of this land of forgetfulness.

The King asked the mighty mountains if they would accept but the mountains trembled and said they would accept any other task but this task was too difficult – how could they bear the separation.

The King asked the skies which enveloped the mountains and rose high above them, but the skies refused, sighing fearfully at the thought of such forgetfulness and what it might lead to.

Amidst all the creatures who refused this task, only one came forward. The other creatures turned…and looked at the human being. It was insignificant compared to the mountains, the sky, and the earth but on its face was the look of one who was consumed with a burning love for the King. I will undertake this task, he said."

I find myself in this story –as having said yes to the the king, and then once in the land of forgetfulness I often forget about the King and my promise to him.

The reading today from evening prayer (James 1,19-25), speaks of a different kind of person, of one who “is no forgetful listener, but one who carries out the law in practice. Blest will this man be.” How do I stop being a forgetful listener? I listen, get excited about the message, and over time forget it, and ends up sinning again.

This theme of the forgetful listener struck me in light of Mass readings from Revelations this week. On Monday we heard “I know your works, your labor, and your endurance… Yet I hold this against you: you have lost the love you had at first.”In other words, the past was good, but overtime the listener became a forgetful listener. And yesterday, we heard “Remember then how you accepted and heard; keep it, and repent.”

When I commit sins that sometime in the past I had figured out how to avoid, I experience a certain anger at myself for being forgetful. “I should have seen that coming! –I tell myself -I can’t believe I did that again! Once I realize I have been a forgetful listener I repent.

I remember reading in one of Augustine’s letters that when we stop striving to move toward the Lord, that we automatically begin to fall. In my experience, I can only continue moving forward if I remember the lessons of the past, so that I don’t trip into the same stone again. But the question for me is how do I remain watchful, and not allow the goodness of the Lord become something of the past which I forget? How can I continually bring into the present the lessons from the past?

The experience of pre-Exilic times in the old testament seems to be an experience of forgetfulness: the people of God experienced salvation, God made a covenant with them, they were not loyal to God in the covenant, in other words they sinned, which led to punishment, then they repented, and experienced salvation, and again forgot about the covenenant, and sinned, were punished, and repented, but forgot over time, and the cycle continued.

So the question for me becomes, how do I break from the cycle?

I have been learning about the way that oral cultures are able to maintain alive traditions by retelling stories. Each time the story is told, the past is brought into the present. The story tellers are gifted people who can look deeply into the present in order to retell the past, and in this way carry the cultural identity of the group into the future. Sometimes story tellers even embellish or situate the story into details of the present – biblical literature is full of this anachronisms, where the essence of the story is maintained but the details are a little off. The details are off for those who want to read the story as history, but for the audience, those details brought the story to the present.

So to answer the questions I asked myself: how do I remain watchful, and not allow the goodness of the Lord become something of the past which I forget? How can I continually bring into the present the lessons from the past?

Perhaps I need to retell myself the story of my vocation more often, and update it to my current situation. I’ve had to write a vocation story applying to the pre-novitiate, one during novitiate, and one for CTU. At the end of novitiate, I wrote a long reflection about my novitiate year, and why I wanted to profess vows. I am going to start to re-read these stories, and add details to them each time I read them, and in this way, bring into the present the lessons of the past. I hope that by bringing the past into the present by way of my personal story, I may be able to peer into freedom's ideal law through the fog of forgetfulness, and become less of a forgetful listener.

-Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Dialogue and Via Negativa

2010-11-04T10:16:00.000-07:00

By Fr. Tomas Maltus, OSB Cam

Dialogue is communion among persons who accept their differences and seek unity in the truth. Interreligious dialogue recognizes religious differences within the context of this common search. Unity is seen as both a given and a goal, but on the way the differences have positive value too.

Why do I, a Christian monk, engage in dialogue? Because it is here, in dialogue, that I find truth. Although I find truth first of all in my own religion, I am not forbidden to seek truth and to find it in what other persons and other religions say. But at the same time, I know that truth cannot be found, nor can there be dialogue, in the mixing together or the melting down of all religions into one amorphous mass.

Truth is found in dialogue, because it is found in communion. Truth, by its very nature, demands to be communicated and shared with others, even though sometimes a particular truth can seem impossible to put into words. Only those who seek the truth find it. The discovery of truth is the fruit of dialogue among seekers. Truth is betrayed by thinking that it is some kind of private property I can acquire on my own and for myself alone. No one has a first mortgage on truth. Truth is also betrayed by claiming to possess it in such a way that there is no longer any need to seek it. “I do not believe, I know!” has been taken to be the affirmation of a wise man, and it may be a kind of wisdom. But true wisdom is expressed by saying, “I seek to know, therefore I believe.”

The source of truth, as I know it and seek it, is God, who is existentially a communion and an intercommunication. The religion of the Trinity, Christianity, is a religion of dialogue. The truth of Christianity, as I see it, lies in its capacity for dialogue and communication. If the doctrine of the Trinity means anything beyond the statement that God is one being in three persons, it must mean that Christians are called to be a people in dialogue, seeking truth in such a way that they no longer need to seek it; and saying this, they imply that they no longer need to believe. Only a person of deep convictions can engage in dialogue. Only if I am deeply convinced of what I believe can I remain unthreatened when I discover truth in what others believe.

What does this mean for me as a monk? Christian monasticism defines itself as God-seeking. The monastic call arises from within the attitude of faith and the desire to know, which means a state of unknowing. Perseverance in the monastic search means abiding in faith and unknowing. And there is a higher unknowing which is a fruit of the monastic search.

To the monastic way of unknowing corresponds a theology called “apophatic,” also called “negative theology” or the via negativa. Apophatic theology does more than just deny of God the imperfections of creatures. It says that there is a mystery in God which cannot be affirmed at all in human terms. There is a profound abyss of meaning in God which the human mind cannot sound out.

Negative theology is more than just a special kind of discourse or “God-talk.” Monks have always appreciated the saying of Evagrius Ponticus: “If you truly pray you are a theologian; if you are a true theologian, you pray.” Theology is prayer; it is experience. In terms of experience the via negativa is the sense of the “divine darkness.” God is dark not just because He is an excess of light or because He exceeds the capacity of our faculties. God is dark not just because He is an excess of light or because He exceeds the capacity of our faculties. God is dark because He exceeds being.

The “theologian” par excellence is the author of the fourth gospel. The summit of Johannine theology is the confession of Thomas in chapter 20: “My Lord and my God!” This is theology without grammar or syntax. It may be taken as a prayer, and it is certainly the outward expression of what we can call a mystical experience.

Because of our Western cultural prejudices about what is or is not theology, we always want to add a subject and/or a predicate to the exclamation of Thomas. We want to make him say: “You are . . ., ” “I believe. . ., ” “Now I understand. . .,” “. . . is here,” “. . . did this.” Not that these additions are meaningless; nor would I say that they betray the sense of John 20:28. But to elaborate on the text in this way means to withdraw from the immediacy of the experiential moment, when we know that God is not only above names and above knowing, but also above being.

In other words, I find a special quality in the experience of God, as narrated in monastic writings, that implies a certain understanding of what it means to know God or to know anything. This understanding corresponds closely with the one implied in apophatic theology. And so, in my search for truth and God, I take as my guide the axioms of the via negativa: “If God is, we are not; if we are, God is not; God is not only above knowing; He is also above essence.”

Apophatic theology, then, leads to silence before God and silence about God—you might call it “adoration theology.” As such, it is a condition for true dialogue and for, dialogue in the search for what is true. Dialogue among religious truth-seekers, and especially among monastics of different religions, begins with silence, and then perhaps words can be exchanged. In our search for unity in truth through dialogue, we can best approach and understand our religious differences by the way of unknowing and of silence. Only in this way, I believe, can the recognition of our differences become an integral part of the search and a necessary stage on the way to the goal of unity in truth.

The Spirit Is the Source of Holiness

2010-10-24T14:41:00.000-07:00

The Second Vatican Council stressed the close relationship which exists in the Church between the gift of the Holy Spirit and the faithful's call and aspiration to holiness: "Christ, the Son of God, who with the Father and the Spirit is praised as 'uniquely holy,' loved the Church as his bride, delivering himself up for her. He did this that he might sanctify her (cf. Eph 5:25-26). He united her to himself as his own body and brought it to perfection by the gift of the Holy Spirit for God's glory. Therefore in the Church everyone...is called to holiness.... This holiness of the Church is unceasingly manifested, and must be manifested, in the fruits of grace which the Spirit produces in the faithful; it is expressed in many ways in individuals, who in their walk of life, tend toward the perfection of charity, thus causing the edification others..." (LG 39).

Being the source of holiness is another basic aspect of the work of the Holy Spirit in the Church.

As seen in the conciliar text just cited, the holiness of the Church begins in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who became man by the work of the Holy Spirit and was born of the most holy Virgin Mary. The holiness of Jesus in his conception and birth by the power of the Holy Spirit is in deep communion with the holiness of her whom God chose as his mother. As the Council again notes, "It is no wonder therefore that the usage prevailed among the Fathers whereby they called the Mother of God entirely holy and free from all stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature" (LG 56). Hers is the first and the highest realization of holiness in the Church, through the power of the Holy Spirit who is the Holy One and the Sanctifier. Mary's holiness is entirely directed toward the supreme holiness of the humanity of Christ, whom the Holy Spirit consecrated and filled with grace from the start of his earthly life until its glorious conclusion when Jesus revealed himself as the "established Son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness through the resurrection of the dead" (Rom 1:4).

On the day of Pentecost this ecclesial holiness shone forth not only in Mary but also in the apostles and in the disciples who with her "were all filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4). From that time until the end of time, that holiness, the fullness of which is always Christ from whom we receive all grace (cf. Jn 1:16) is bestowed on all those who open themselves to the power of the Holy Spirit through the apostles' teaching, as the Apostle Peter said in his Pentecost discourse: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).

That day was the beginning of the history of Christian holiness to which both the Israelites and the pagans are called. As St. Paul writes, both can "have access through Christ in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph 2:18). All are called to become, according to the text already referred to in the previous catechesis, "fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone. Through him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord...to become God's dwelling place in the Spirit" (Eph 2:19-22). This concept of the temple is dear to the Apostle, who asks in another passage: "Are you not aware that you are God's temple and that the Holy Spirit dwells in you?" (1 Cor 3:16). And in another place: "Your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Cor 6:19).

It is clear that in the context of the Letters to the Corinthians and to the Ephesians the temple is not just an architectural space. It is the representative image of holiness which is brought about by the Holy Spirit in people alive in Christ and united to the Church. And the Church is the "place" for this holiness.

The Apostle Peter too in his first letter uses the same vocabulary and gives us the same teaching. Speaking to the "faithful dispersed" (among the pagans), he reminds them that they have been "chosen in the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification by the Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 1:1-2). By strength of this sanctification in the Holy Spirit all are "like living stones built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ" (1 Pet 2:5).

This is a significant special link which the Apostle drew between sanctification and the offering of "spiritual sacrifices," which is really a sharing in the very sacrifice of Christ and in his priesthood. It is one of the basic themes of the Letter to the Hebrews. But also in the Letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul speaks of the "oblation acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit"; people (pagans) become that offering through the Gospel (cf. Rom 15:16). And in the Second Letter to the Thessalonians he urges readers to give thanks to God because "he has chosen you as the first fruits for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in truth" (cf. 2 Thess 2:13). All these are signs of the first Christians' common awareness of the action of the Holy Spirit as the author of holiness within themselves and in the Church. They knew that the Spirit which had been granted to them made them temples of God.

St. Paul insists on this in repeating that the Holy Spirit brings about human sanctification and forms ecclesial communion among believers, as sharers in his very holiness. People who have been "washed, sanctified and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" become holy "in the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor 6:11). "Whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him" (1 Cor 6:17). And this holiness becomes true worship of the living God: "worship in God's Spirit" (Phil 3:3).

This Pauline teaching goes together with the words of Christ referred to in John's Gospel about "true worshippers" who "worship the Father in spirit and in truth.... The Father seeks such people to worship him" (Jn 4:23-24). This "worship in spirit and in truth" has its roots in Christ who carries out the entire program which was brought to life by him in the Holy Spirit, as Jesus himself said at the Last Supper: "He [the Holy Spirit] will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and reveal it to you" (Jn 16:14). The entire opus laudis in the Holy Spirit is the "true worship" paid to the Father by the Son, the Incarnate Word, in which believers share through the Holy Sprit. Therefore it is also the glorification of the Son himself in the Father.

The sharing in the Holy Spirit by believers and by the Church occurs also in all the other aspects of sanctification: purification from sin (cf. 1 Pet 4:8), enlightenment of the mind (cf. Jn 14:26), observance of the commandments (cf. Jn 14:23), perseverance in the journey toward eternal life (cf. Eph 1:13-14; Rom 8:14-16), and listening to what the Spirit himself "has to say to the Churches" (cf. Rev 2:7). In considering this work of sanctification in his catechesis on the Apostles' Creed, St. Thomas Aquinas finds it easy to pass from the affirmation about the Holy Spirit to the one about the "holy Catholic Church." He writes: "As we see that in a person there is a body and a soul, and still there are various members, so too the Catholic Church is one body made up of various members. The soul which gives life to this body is the Holy Spirit. And therefore, after our profession of faith in the Holy Spirit, we are commanded to believe in the holy Catholic Church, as the creed says. Now 'Church' means assembly; and therefore the Church is the assembly of the faithful, and every Christian is a member of the Church which is holy...through washing in the blood of Christ, through anointing with the grace of the Holy Spirit, through the indwelling of the Trinity and through the invocation of the name of God in the temple of the soul, which must never be violated (cf. 1 Cor 3:17)" [1] .

The logic of this explanation is based on the fact that holiness, the source of which is the Holy Spirit, must accompany the Church and her members in the course of their whole pilgrimage toward the eternal dwelling place. Therefore in the creed the articles on the Holy Spirit, the Church and the communion of saints are all connected: "I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints." The perfecting of this union—or the communion of saints—will be the eschatological result of holiness which is bestowed by the Holy Spirit on this earth to the Church in her sons and daughters, in every person, in every generation throughout the course of history. Even though during this history the sons and daughters of the Church often "sadden the Holy Spirit" (Eph 4:30), faith tells us that, "marked" by this Spirit "for the day of redemption" (Eph 4:30), they can advance along the paths of holiness, despite their weakness and sins, as far as the journey's end. The ways are many, and great are the various types of saints within the Church. "Star differs from star in brightness" (1 Cor 15:41). But "there is one Spirit" who in his own way and divine fashion brings about holiness in each person. Therefore we can accept with faith and hope the exhortation made by the Apostle Paul: "Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be firm, steadfast, always fully devoted to the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain" (1 Cor 15:58)

Pope John Paul II
General Audience — December 12, 1990

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Significance of the Command to love one another for the audience of John's Gospel

2010-10-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Briefly examining the historical circumstance of the Gospel of John leads me to ask two questions: (1) How was the relationship between the Johanine community and the other Christian communities? (2) How was the relationship among the members of the Johanine community?

Regarding (1), there is a question of whether the Johanine community separated itself from the other apostolic churches. According to Powell in Introduction to the New Testament, the Gospel of John exhibits sectarian characteristics. One example is calling believers as children of light, and calling other groups, particularly the Jews, as children of darkness. The significance of this possibly sectarian character of the community is that the command to love one another perhaps was intended as internal command. In other words, love those who are part of the community, but not those who are outside of it. Powell concludes however that because of the inclusion of Samaritans, Greeks, and even “other sheep” (10:16), that the Johanine community was probably not a sect.

Regarding (2), Raymond Brown in his book The Community of the Beloved Disciple explains that the Johanine community went through stages in its development, and this development included the diversification of the groups that composed it. Brown suggests three stages. In the first stage, the community was composed primarily of Jews with a low Christology. In the second stage, a group with a high Christology emerges. There was conflict between the low Christology and the high Christology groups. The third stage was the large increase of gentiles. I believe that it is difficult to speak then of a Johanine community with a single identity, because its composition seemed to change over time. What “love one another” meant for the community at one time, might have been different at a different time in their development. What I can say about the significance of the command to love one another in John's Gospel is that it might have been a response and a challenge to the division that was going on.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Distinctiveness of Mark's Gospel and Mark's Portrait of Jesus

2010-10-20T08:00:00.000-07:00

Significant characteristic of Mark’s Gospel

Mark’s Gospel is written with the lowest kind of linguistic quality compared to the other Gospels. He assumes that his audience knows the meaning of Latin words such as centurion, denarius, and praetorium. While he exhibits poor grammar and low linguistic quality, Mark is a gifted story teller. As good story teller, Mark uses effective rhetorical devices such as threefold patterns and intercalation (sandwich style story telling). As a story teller he appreciates mystery and ambiguity. One example is that in 8:14-21 when Jesus calls the disciples’ to be attentive to the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod, he does not explain what he means when he notices the disciples’ lack of comprehension. The Gospel exhibits an unusual urgency marked by repeated use of “and,” by presenting the story in the context of one year, and not telling us of the change of days. Lastly, Mark is very concerned with the suffering and death of Jesus. Although Mark’s Gospel is about half as long as Luke’s and Matthew’s, his account of the passion and death is about the same length. Thus, Mark spends a greater percentage on the cross.

Mark’s Portrait of Jesus

Mark’s portrait of Jesus is very human. He exhibits a wide range of emotions: pity (1:41), anger (3:5), sadness (3:5), wonder (6:6), compassion (6:34), indignation (10:14), and anguish (14:34).

Mark presents Jesus as involved in secrecy: his parables seem to function as a sort of code language for insiders, he tells people not to make known miracles and healings, and silences demons who announced that he is the Son of God. There are several theories trying to explain this secrecy. Most scholars today understand the secrecy theme in the context of Mark’s centrality of the cross in his Gospel. Jesus did not want anything he did or said understood apart from the context of the cross.

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

Earliest Traces of Compassion

2010-10-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

THE GIST

Traces of the world's first known disabled, elderly human have been found in Spain.

The individual is thought to have been a male who received support from his group and lived 500,000 years ago.

This discovery suggests that our ancient human relatives were capable of compassion and social bonding.

Read the rest of the article here:
http://news.discovery.com/archaeology/disabled-elderly-human.html

The Cross as The Perspective to Look at the Problem of Evil

2010-10-02T19:59:00.000-07:00

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?”

-Attributed to Epicurus

I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as “God on the cross.” In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? ... [The God I worship is] that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. … There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we … stamp another mark, the cross, which symbolizes divine suffering.

Excerpt From John Stott's The Cross of Christ found here

-Carlos J. Medina, OSA

A Reflection on Anger After Reading the letter of James

2010-09-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

"Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.
Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does." James 1: 19-25

“Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” The reading goes on to tell us “humbly welcome the word that has taken root in you.” The question for me is: how do I welcome this word of being slow to anger? At one point in my life I was much like a priest who said, “I’m a priest, I don’t get angry -I get even,” except I didn’t get even, getting even was too close to anger, when what I experienced was at most rightful indignation.

The expression “be slow to anger” sounds like an oxymoron. The experience of anger is not slow, but overcomes one rather quickly. So I have tried to avoid anger for a long time. I have discovered that I end up falling into the well known trap of unconscious, passive aggressive behavior.

What does one do? One seems to be in the dilemma of either being overcome by anger or overcome by passive aggression (albeit unconscious). Take your pick. It’s like the option of sugar or sugar substitutes: do you prefer the calories or the risk of cancer? Except that one can always go without sugar, whereas the anger or passive aggression seems to be a forced dilemma.

What is it about anger that I am afraid of? Such a question reveals something powerful: perhaps the problem is not so much anger, but the fear of anger. Why do I fear anger? Because I do not want to snap at people, and say something harmful.

Perhaps experiencing anger does not necessarily lead to snapping at people. I think this may be what the scripture may be getting at by admonishing us to be slow to anger. Be slow to anger may be paraphrased as experience anger, but do not be overcome by it. The question is, How? In my limited experiential knowledge, two things seem most important. First of all anger must be acknowledged to ourselves. Perhaps the reason why some people react so quickly when they are angry is because they haven’t first acknowledged that they are angry. Second, maintaining an awareness of God’s presence: “The word that has taken root in you has power to save you” says the text. We are to remember this word constantly, not be like the man who looks at himself at the mirror, goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. Rather than snapping at someone, experiencing anger in remembrance of the Word, may help us say with Jesus, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” or perhaps, we may be angry at a social injustice, and in the spirit of compassion be led to do something about it. These two steps of acknowledging our anger to ourselves, and doing so in the context of our relationship with God are difficult, no doubt. So let us practice often! And may St. Augustine, and Our Mother of Good counsel pray for us!

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

With Much Gratitude

2010-09-14T07:37:00.000-07:00

"Humanity needs to know and above all to live this fundamental reality: God is love, and the encounter with him is the only response to the restlessness of the human heart."

"Augustine converted to Christ who is truth and love, followed him throughout his life and became a model for every human being, for all of us in search of God."

As I reflect on these two quotes from Pope Benedict's general audience on February 27th, 2008, I am filled with much gratitude for having experienced God as love, and for the opportunity to respond to His love by professing vows of chastity, obedience, and poverty, on July 31st, thus consecrating myself to abide in Him as an Augustinian.

Besides my first vows, some of the events of my province this summer give me much hope:

Br. Mark Menegatti, OSA, evangelized youth through hip-hop in England; Fr. Tom Davis, OSA, and Fr. Kirk Davis, OSA, were ordained; and Br. Ronnie Custorio, OSA, professed solemn vows.

I am having difficulty posting pictures, but visit http://www.osa-west.org/ and click on current events.

It is good to be writing again. Hopefully I will be able to write more often now that I am no longer a novice :)

Carlos J. Medina, OSA

We need permanent conversion

2010-06-12T14:17:00.000-07:00

Initially, Augustine thought that once he was baptized, in the life of communion with Christ, in the sacraments, in the Eucharistic celebration, he would attain the life proposed in the Sermon on the Mount: the perfection bestowed by Baptism and reconfirmed in the Eucharist. During the last part of his life he understood that what he had concluded at the beginning about the Sermon on the Mount - that is, now that we are Christians, we live this ideal permanently - was mistaken. Only Christ himself truly and completely accomplishes the Sermon on the Mount. We always need to be washed by Christ, who washes our feet, and be renewed by him. We need permanent conversion. Until the end we need this humility that recognizes that we are sinners journeying along, until the Lord gives us his hand definitively and introduces us into eternal life. It was in this final attitude of humility, lived day after day, that Augustine died.

This attitude of profound humility before the only Lord Jesus led him also to experience an intellectual humility. Augustine, in fact, who is one of the great figures in the history of thought, in the last years of his life wanted to submit all his numerous works to a clear, critical examination. This was the origin of the Retractationum ("Revision"), which placed his truly great theological thought within the humble and holy faith that he simply refers to by the name Catholic, that is, of the Church. He wrote in this truly original book: "I understood that only One is truly perfect, and that the words of the Sermon on the Mount are completely realized in only One - in Jesus Christ himself. The whole Church, instead - all of us, including the Apostles -, must pray everyday: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us" (De Sermone Domini in Monte, I, 19, 1-3).

Benedict XVI, February 27, 2008

God's gift of his love to us is the crowning point of our self-transcendence.

2010-06-11T14:32:00.000-07:00

St. Augustine wrote: "Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless till they rest in thee." But that resting in God is something, not that we achieve, but that we receive, accept, ratify. It comes quietly, secretly, unobtrusively. We know about it when we notice its fruits in our lives. It is the profoundest fulfillment of the human spirit. Because it is fulfillment, it gives us peace, the peace that the world cannot give. Because it is fulfillment, it gives us joy, a joy that can endure despite the sorrows of failure, humiliation, privation, pain, betrayal, desertion. Because it is fulfillment, its absence is revealed, now in the trivialization of human life in debauchery, now in the fanaticism with which limited goals are pursued violently and recklessly, now in the despair that condemns man and his world as absurd.

From Bernard Lonergan, SJ "The future of Christianity"

Carlos J. Medina

How Augustine does Theology

2010-06-11T14:30:00.000-07:00

He begins Chapter 3, Book 1 of On The Trinity in this way:

Let me ask of you my reader that, wherever you are certain, go on with me; wherever, you hesitate, join me in inquiring; wherever you recognize yourself to be in error, return to me; wherever you recognize me to be in error, call me back: so that we may enter together upon the path of charity, and advance towards Him of whom it is said, "Seek His face evermore."

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

What is more marvelous than divine beauty?

2010-05-27T19:21:00.000-07:00

It is natural to look for beauty and to love it, even though the idea of what is beautiful varies between one person and another. Now, what is more marvelous than the divine beauty? What can you think of that is more likely to give pleasure than the magnificence of God? What desire could be more ardent, more irresistible than the thirst which God inspires in the soul when once it has been purified of every vice and cries out: "I am sick with love" (S. ofS. 2:5).

The divine beauty is beyond description in words. We could compare its brilliance to the light of the morning star or the moon or the sun. But we should be as far from a true description as midday is from the dead of night. This beauty is invisible to the eyes of the body; only the soul and the mind can perceive it. Every time it illumines the saints, it leaves in them a sting, a nostalgia so strong as to wring from them the cry: "Woe is me, that I am in exile still" (Ps. 120:5).

By our nature we human beings aspire to what is beautiful and love it. But what is beautiful is also good. God is good. Everyone looks for the good, therefore everyone looks for God.

--St Basil the Great

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

2010-04-04T13:11:00.000-07:00

Meditation on the Passion through the door of Obedience

2010-04-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

One cannot take in the ocean, but one can do something better: allow oneself to be taken in by it, submerging oneself anywhere in its expanse. This is what occurs with Christ's passion. The mind cannot wholly take it in, nor can its depth be seen, but we can submerge ourselves in some moments of its occurrence. In this meditation, we would like to enter in through the door of obedience.

Christ's obedience is the most salient aspect in the apostolic catechesis. "Christ became obedient unto death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:8); "by one man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:8-9). The Letter to the Hebrews says that Christ "learned to obey through suffering." The passion was the proof and measure of his obedience. Obedience appears as the key to the reading of the whole history of the passion, from where it takes its meaning and value.

To those who were scandalized that the Father could find satisfaction in the death on a cross of his Son Jesus, St. Bernard rightly responded: "It was not his death that satisfied him, but the spontaneous will of the one who was dying."

In Gethsemane Jesus says to the Father: "yet not what I will, but what Thou wilt" (Mark 14:36).

The development of Christology, [led] St. Maximus to affirm: the "I" is not humanity that speaks to the divinity; neither is it God who, in so far as incarnate, speaks to himself in so far as eternal. The "I" is the incarnate Word who speaks in the name of the free human will he has assumed; the "you" instead is the Trinitarian will that the Word has in common with the Father.

In Jesus the Word obeys the Father humanly! And yet the concept of obedience is not annulled nor does God, in this case, obey himself, because between the subject and the end of obedience is the whole breadth of a real humanity and a free human will.

God obeyed humanly! One then understands the universal power of salvation contained in Jesus' "fiat": it is the human act of a God; it is a divine-human, "teandrico" act. That "fiat" is truly, to use the expression of a psalm, "the rock of our salvation" (Psalm 95:1). It is because of this obedience that "all have been made just."

-From Fr. Cantalamesa's Second Lenten sermon, March 2006

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Ascent to the Heights of God Led by Jesus

2010-04-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

"[I]n the breadth of Jesus' ascent, the dimensions of our following of him become visible—the goal to which he wants to lead us: to the heights of God, to communion with God, to being-with-God. This is the true goal, and communion with him is the way. Communion with Christ is being on a journey, a permanent ascent to the true height of our calling. Journeying together with Jesus is always at the same time a traveling together in the "we" of those who want to follow him. It brings us into this community. Because this journey to true life, to being men conformed to the model of the Son of God Jesus Christ is beyond our powers, this journeying is also always a state of being carried. We find ourselves, so to speak, in a "roped party" with Jesus Christ—together with him in the ascent to the heights of God. He pulls us and supports us. Letting oneself be part of a roped party is part of following Christ; we accept that we cannot do it on our own. The humble act of entering into the "we" of the Church is part of it—holding on to the roped party, the responsibility of communion, not letting go of the rope because of our bullheadedness and conceit.   Humbly believing with the Church, like being bound together in a roped party ascending to God, is an essential condition for following Christ. Not acting as the owners of the Word of God, not chasing after a mistaken idea of emancipation—this is also part of being together in the roped party. The humility of "being-with" is essential to the ascent. Letting the Lord take us by the hand through the sacraments is another part of it. We let ourselves be purified and strengthened by him, we let ourselves accept the discipline of the ascent, even if we are tired.

"Following Christ demands as a first step the reawakening of the nostalgia for being authentically human and thus the reawakening for God. It then demands that one enter into the roped party of those who climb, into the communion of the Church. In the "we" of the Church we enter into the communion with the "Thou" of Jesus Christ and therefore reach the way to God. Moreover, listening to and living Jesus Christ's word in faith, hope and love is also required. We are thus on the way to the definitive Jerusalem and already, from this point forward, we already find ourselves there in the communion of all God's saints.   Our pilgrimage in following Christ, then, is not directed toward any earthly city, but toward the new City of God that grows in the midst of this world. The pilgrimage to the earthly Jerusalem, nevertheless, can be something useful for us Christians for that greater voyage."

From Benedict XVI's Palm Sunday Homily

We Adore You, O Christ, and we praise you, because by your Holy Cross You have redeemed the world.

Posted by Carlos Medina

Augustine on Jesus' Washing of the Feet

2010-04-01T13:56:00.001-07:00

"He rises from supper, and lays aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He pours water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel."

It is He, into whose hands the Father had given all things, who now washes, not the disciples' hands, but their feet: and it was just while knowing that He had come from God, and was proceeding to God, that He discharged the office of a servant, not of God the Lord, but of man.

Why should we wonder that He rose from supper, and laid aside His garments, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation? And why should we wonder, if He girded Himself with a towel, who took upon Him the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of a man? Why wonder, if He poured water into a basin to wash His disciples' feet, who poured His blood upon the earth to wash away the filth of their sins? Why wonder, if with the towel wherewith He was girded He wiped the feet He had washed, who with the very flesh that clothed Him laid a firm pathway for the footsteps of His evangelists?

In order, indeed, to gird Himself with the towel, He laid aside the garments He wore; but when He emptied Himself [of His divine glory] in order to assume the form of a servant, He laid not down what He had, but assumed that which He had not before. When about to be crucified, He was indeed stripped of His garments, and when dead was wrapped in linen clothes: and all that suffering of His is our purification.

So great is the beneficence of human humility, that even the Divine Majesty was pleased to commend it by His own example; for proud man would have perished eternally, had he not been found by the lowly God. For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost. And as man was lost by imitating the pride of the deceiver, may he now, when found, imitate the Redeemer's humility.

Tractate 55 on the Gospel of John

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Augustine on Psalm 22

2010-03-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Now what follows is spoken in the person of The Crucified. For from the head of this Psalm are the words, which He cried out, while hanging on the Cross, sustaining also the person of the old man, whose mortality He bore. For our old man was nailed together with Him to the Cross.

"All that saw Me laughed Me to scorn" For they shook their head in derision, saying, "He trusted in the Lord, let Him deliver Him:" "let Him save Him, since He desires Him."

"I have been strengthened in You from the womb." It is the womb of the Synagogue, which did not carry Me, but threw Me out: but I fell not, for You held me. "From My mother's womb You are My God." From My mother's womb: My mother's womb did not cause that, as a babe, I should be forgetful of You.

"You are My God," "depart not from Me; for trouble is hard at hand." You are, therefore, My God, depart not from Me; for trouble is near unto Me; for it is in My body.

"They opened their mouth upon Me." They opened their mouth upon Me, not out of Your Scripture, but of their own lusts. "As a ravening and roaring lion." As a lion, whose ravening is, that I was taken and led; and whose roaring, "Crucify him, Crucify him."

"I was poured out like water, and all My bones were scattered." "I was poured out like water," when My persecutors fell: and through fear, the stays of My body, that is, the Church, My disciples were scattered from Me. "My heart became as melting wax, in the midst of my belly." My wisdom, which was written of Me in the sacred books, was, as if hard and shut up, not understood: but after that the fire of My Passion was applied, it was, as if melted, manifested, and entertained in the memory of My Church.

"My strength dried up as a potsherd." My strength dried up by My Passion; not as hay, but a potsherd, which is made stronger by fire. "And My tongue cleaved to My jaws." And they, through whom I was soon to speak, kept My precepts in their hearts. "And You brought Me down to the dust of death." And to the ungodly appointed to death, whom the wind casts forth as dust from the face of the earth, You brought Me down.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Augustine's Major Works - Part 3

2010-03-26T10:35:00.000-07:00

Despite all his humility, Augustine must certainly have been aware of his own intellectual stature. Yet it was far more important to him to take the Christian message to the simple than to write lofty theological works. This deepest intention of his that guided his entire life appears in a letter written to his colleague Evodius, in which he informs him of his decision to suspend the dictation of the books of De Trinitate for the time being, "because they are too demanding and I think that few can understand them; it is therefore urgent to have more texts which we hope will be useful to many" (Epistulae 169, 1, 1). Thus, it served his purpose better to communicate the faith in a manner that all could understand rather than to write great theological works. The responsibility he felt acutely with regard to the popularization of the Christian message was later to become the origin of writings such as De Catechizandis Rudibus, a theory and also a method of catechesis, or the Psalmus contra Partem Donati. The Donatists were the great problem of St Augustine's Africa, a deliberately African schism. They said: true Christianity is African Christianity. They opposed Church unity. The great Bishop fought against this schism all his life, seeking to convince the Donatists that only in unity could "Africanness" also be true. And to make himself understood by the simple, who could not understand the difficult Latin of the rhetorician, he said: I must even write with grammatical errors, in a very simplified Latin. And he did so, especially in this Psalmus, a sort of simple poem against the Donatists, in order to help all the people understand that it is only through Church unity that our relationship with God may be truly fulfilled for all and that peace may grow in the world.

The mass of homilies that he would often deliver "off the cuff", transcribed by tachygraphers during his preaching and immediately circulated, had a special importance in this production destined for a wider public. The very beautiful Enarrationes in Psalmos, read widely in the Middle Ages, stand out among them. The practice of publishing Augustine's thousands of homilies - often without the author's control - precisely explains their dissemination and later dispersion but also their vitality. In fact, because of the author's fame, the Bishop of Hippo's sermons became very sought after texts and, adapted to ever new contexts, also served as models for other Bishops and priests.

A fresco in the Lateran that dates back to the fourth century shows that the iconographical tradition already depicted St Augustine with a book in his hand, suggesting, of course, his literary opus which had such a strong influence on the Christian mentality and Christian thought, but it also suggests his love for books and reading as well as his knowledge of the great culture of the past. At his death he left nothing, Possidius recounts, but "recommended that the library of the church with all the codes be kept carefully for future generations", especially those of his own works. In these, Possidius stresses, Augustine is "ever alive" and benefits his readers, although "I believe that those who were able to see and listen to him were able to draw greater benefit from being in touch with him when he himself was speaking in church, and especially those who experienced his daily life among the people" (Vita Augustini, 31). Yes, for us too it would have been beautiful to be able to hear him speaking. Nonetheless, he is truly alive in his writings and present in us, and so we too see the enduring vitality of the faith to which he devoted his entire life.

Benedict XVI, February 20, 2008

Augustine's Major Works - Part 2

2010-03-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

De Civitate Dei - an impressive work crucial to the development of Western political thought and the Christian theology of history - was written between 413 and 426 in 22 books. The occasion was the sack of Rome by the Goths in 410. Numerous pagans still alive and also many Christians said: Rome has fallen; the Christian God and the Apostles can now no longer protect the city. While the pagan divinities were present, Rome was the caput mundi, the great capital, and no one could have imagined that it would fall into enemy hands. Now, with the Christian God, this great city no longer seemed safe. Therefore, the God of the Christians did not protect, he could not be the God to whom to entrust oneself. St Augustine answered this objection, which also touched Christian hearts profoundly, with this impressive work, De Civitate Dei, explaining what we should and should not expect of God, and what the relationship is between the political sphere and the sphere of faith, of the Church. This book is also today a source for defining clearly between true secularism and the Church's competence, the great true hope that the faith gives to us.

This important book presents the history of humanity governed by divine Providence but currently divided by two loves. This is the fundamental plan, its interpretation of history, which is the struggle between two loves: love of self, "to the point of indifference to God", and love of God, "to the point of indifference to the self" (De Civitate Dei XIV, 28), to full freedom from the self for others in the light of God. This, therefore, is perhaps St Augustine's greatest book and is of lasting importance. Equally important is the De Trinitate, a work in 15 books on the central core of the Christian faith, faith in the Trinitarian God. It was written in two phases: the first 12 books between 399 and 412, published without the knowledge of Augustine, who in about 420 completed and revised the entire work. Here he reflects on the Face of God and seeks to understand this mystery of God who is unique, the one Creator of the world, of us all, and yet this one God is precisely Trinitarian, a circle of love. He seeks to understand the unfathomable mystery: the actual Trinitarian being, in three Persons, is the most real and profound unity of the one God. De Doctrina Christiana is instead a true and proper cultural introduction to the interpretation of the Bible and ultimately of Christianity itself, which had a crucial importance in the formation of Western culture.

Benedict XVI, February 20, 2008

Posted By Carlos J. Medina

You, neighbor God, if sometimes in the night

2010-03-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

You, neighbor God, if sometimes in the night
I rouse you with loud knocking, I do so
only because I seldom hear you breathe
and know: you are alone.
And should you need a drink, no one is there
to reach it to you, groping in the dark.
Always I hearken. Give but a small sign.
I am quite near.

Between us there is but a narrow wall,
and by sheer chance; for it would take
merely a call from your lips or from mine
to break it down,
and that without a sound.

The wall is builded of your images.

They stand before you hiding you like names.
And when the light within me blazes high
that in my inmost soul I know you by,
the radiance is squandered on their frames.

And then my senses, which too soon grow lame,
exiled from you, must go their homeless ways.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Posted By Carlos J. Medina

Augustine's Major Works - Part 1

2010-03-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

The Confessions is undoubtedly one of the most widely read books of Christian antiquity. Like various Fathers of the Church in the first centuries but on an incomparably larger scale, the Bishop of Hippo in fact exercised an extensive and persistent influence, as already appears from the superabundant manuscript transcriptions of his works, which are indeed extremely numerous.

He reviewed them himself in the Retractationum several years before he died, and shortly after his death they were correctly recorded in the Indiculus ("list") added by his faithful friend Possidius to his biography of St Augustine, Vita Augustini. The list of Augustine's works was drafted with the explicit intention of keeping their memory alive while the Vandal invasion was sweeping through all of Roman Africa, and it included at least 1,030 writings numbered by their Author, with others "that cannot be numbered because he did not give them any number". Possidius, the Bishop of a neighbouring city, dictated these words in Hippo itself - where he had taken refuge and where he witnessed his friend's death -, and it is almost certain that he based his list on the catalogue of Augustine's personal library. Today, more than 300 letters of the Bishop of Hippo and almost 600 homilies are extant, but originally there were far more, perhaps even as many as between 3,000 and 4,000, the result of 40 years of preaching by the former rhetorician who had chosen to follow Jesus and no longer to speak to important figures of the imperial court, but rather, to the simple populace of Hippo.

And in recent years the discoveries of a collection of letters and several homilies have further enriched our knowledge of this great Father of the Church. "He wrote and published many books", Possidius wrote, "many sermons were delivered in church, transcribed and corrected, both to refute the various heresies and to interpret the Sacred Scriptures for the edification of the holy children of the Church. These works", his Bishop-friend emphasized, "are so numerous that a scholar would find it difficult to read them all and learn to know them" (Vita Augustini, 18, 9).

In the literary corpus of Augustine - more than 1,000 publications divided into philosophical, apologetic, doctrinal, moral, monastic, exegetic and anti-heretical writings in addition precisely to the letters and homilies - certain exceptional works of immense theological and philosophical breadth stand out. First of all, it is essential to remember the Confessiones mentioned above, written in 13 books between 397 and 400 in praise of God. They are a sort of autobiography in the form of a dialogue with God. This literary genre actually mirrors St Augustine's life, which was not one closed in on itself, dispersed in many things, but was lived substantially as a dialogue with God, hence, a life with others. The title "Confessiones" indicates the specific nature of this autobiography. In Christian Latin this word, confessiones, developed from the tradition of the Psalms and has two meanings that are nevertheless interwoven. In the first place confessiones means the confession of our own faults, of the wretchedness of sin; but at the same time, confessiones also means praise of God, thanksgiving to God. Seeing our own wretchedness in the light of God becomes praise to God and thanksgiving, for God loves and accepts us, transforms us and raises us to himself. Of these Confessiones, which met with great success during his lifetime, St Augustine wrote: "They exercised such an influence on me while I was writing them and still exercise it when I reread them. Many brothers like these works" (Retractationum, II, 6); and I can say that I am one of these "brothers". Thanks to the Confessiones, moreover, we can follow step by step the inner journey of this extraordinary and passionate man of God.

A less well-known but equally original and very important text is the Retractationum, composed in two books in about 427 A.D., in which St Augustine, by then elderly, set down a "revision" (retractatio) of his entire opus, thereby bequeathing to us a unique and very precious literary document but also a teaching of sincerity and intellectual humility.

Benedict XVI, February 20, 2008

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

He and we together are the whole man

2010-03-18T13:50:00.000-07:00

In a lecture on Augustine, The Holy Father explains that, "The human being, Augustine stresses later in De Civitate Dei (XII, 27), is social by nature but antisocial by vice." This resonates with the fact that most people live in cities, towns, etc., and yet, it is usually in the cities, or largest congregations of people where crime is highest.

He goes on to explain that outside God's outpouring love in Jesus Christ, "no one has been set free, no one will be set free" (De Civitate Dei, X, 32, 2). Through acceptance of that love by choosing to unite ourselves with Jesus that we grow into the human beings God intended us to be:

"As the one Mediator of salvation Christ is Head of the Church and mystically united with her to the point that Augustine could say: "We have become Christ. For, if he is the Head, we, the members; he and we together are the whole man" (In Iohannis evangelium tractatus, 21, 8)."

-Carlos J. Medina

The commitment

2010-03-17T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is the commitment of being a Christian: following Christ in his incarnation. And if Christ is God in His majesty who becomes a humble man even to dying like a slave on the cross, and who lives with the poor, that's what our Christian faith should be like. A Christian who doesn't want to live this commitment of solidarity with the poor is not worthy of being called a Christian.

Oscar Romero, February 17, 1980. Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

I saw water trickling

2010-03-16T19:38:00.000-07:00

"Do you not know that you are God's temple?" -St. Augustine

A reading from the prophet Ezekiel:

The angel brought me, Ezekiel,
back to the entrance of the temple of the LORD,
and I saw water flowing out
from beneath the threshold of the temple toward the east,
for the façade of the temple was toward the east;
the water flowed down from the right side of the temple,
south of the altar.
He led me outside by the north gate,
and around to the outer gate facing the east,
where I saw water trickling from the right side.
Then when he had walked off to the east
with a measuring cord in his hand,
he measured off a thousand cubits
and had me wade through the water,
which was ankle-deep.
He measured off another thousand
and once more had me wade through the water,
which was now knee-deep.
Again he measured off a thousand and had me wade;
the water was up to my waist.
Once more he measured off a thousand,
but there was now a river through which I could not wade;
for the water had risen so high it had become a river
that could not be crossed except by swimming.
He asked me, “Have you seen this, son of man?”
Then he brought me to the bank of the river, where he had me sit.
Along the bank of the river I saw very many trees on both sides.
He said to me,
“This water flows into the eastern district down upon the Arabah,
and empties into the sea, the salt waters, which it makes fresh.
Wherever the river flows,
every sort of living creature that can multiply shall live,
and there shall be abundant fish,
for wherever this water comes the sea shall be made fresh.
Along both banks of the river, fruit trees of every kind shall grow;
their leaves shall not fade, nor their fruit fail.
Every month they shall bear fresh fruit,
for they shall be watered by the flow from the sanctuary.
Their fruit shall serve for food, and their leaves for medicine.”
(Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12)

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

A man who is distant from God is also distant from himself

2010-03-13T06:52:00.000-08:00

Augustine felt a closeness of God to man with extraordinary intensity. God's presence in man is profound and at the same time mysterious, but he can recognize and discover it deep down inside himself. "Do not go outside", the convert says, but "return to within yourself; truth dwells in the inner man; and if you find that your nature is changeable, transcend yourself. But remember, when you transcend yourself, you are transcending a soul that reasons. Reach, therefore, to where the light of reason is lit" (De vera religione, 39, 72). It is just like what he himself stresses with a very famous statement at the beginning of the Confessions, a spiritual biography which he wrote in praise of God: "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you" (I, 1, 1).

God's remoteness is therefore equivalent to remoteness from oneself: "But", Augustine admitted (Confessions, III, 6, 11), addressing God directly, "you were more inward than my most inward part and higher than the highest element within me", interior intimo meo et superior summo meo; so that, as he adds in another passage remembering the period before his conversion, "you were there before me, but I had departed from myself. I could not even find myself, much less you" (Confessions, V, 2, 2). Precisely because Augustine lived this intellectual and spiritual journey in the first person, he could portray it in his works with such immediacy, depth and wisdom, recognizing in two other famous passages from the Confessions (IV, 4, 9 and 14, 22), that man is "a great enigma" (magna quaestio) and "a great abyss" (grande profundum), an enigma and an abyss that only Christ can illuminate and save us from. This is important: a man who is distant from God is also distant from himself, alienated from himself, and can only find himself by encountering God. In this way he will come back to himself, to his true self, to his true identity.

-Benedict XVI Jan 30, 2008

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

A Catechesis from St. Hilary of Poitiers

2010-03-12T10:09:00.000-08:00

Our Lord has not left the minds of His faithful followers in doubt, but has explained the manner in which His nature operates, saying, “That they may be one, as We are one: I in them and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in one.”

Hence, if indeed Christ has taken to Himself the flesh of our body, and that Man Who was born from Mary was induced Christ, and we indeed receive in a mystery the flesh of His body--(and for this cause we shall be one, because the Father is in Him and He in us), -- how can a unity of will be maintained, seeing that the special property of nature received through the sacrament is the sacrament of a perfect unity?

Let us read what is written, let us understand what we read, and then fulfill the demands of a perfect faith. For as to what we say concerning the reality of Christ's nature within us, unless we have been taught by Him, our words are foolish and impious. For He says Himself, “My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” As to the verity of the flesh and blood there is no room left for doubt. For now both from the declaration of the Lord Himself and our own faith, it is verily flesh and verily blood. And these when eaten and drunk, bring it to pass that both we are in Christ and Christ in us.

Now how it is that we are in Him through the sacrament of the flesh and blood bestowed upon us, He Himself testifies, saying, “And the world will no longer see Me, but ye shall see Me ; because I live ye shall live also; because I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.”

Again, how natural this unity is in us He has Himself testified on this wise,--"He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” For no man shall dwell in Him, save him in whom He dwells Himself, for the only flesh which He has taken to Himself is the flesh of those who have taken His.

He had already taught before the sacrament of this perfect unity, saying, “As the living Father sent Me, and I live through the Father, so he that eats My flesh shall himself also live through Me.” So then He lives through the Father, and as He lives through the Father in like manner we live through His flesh. For all comparison is chosen to shape our understanding, so that we may grasp the subject of which we treat by help of the analogy set before us. This is the cause of our life that we have Christ dwelling within our carnal selves through the flesh, and we shall live through Him in the same manner as He lives through the Father.

Let us listen to that chosen vessel and teacher of the Gentiles, when he had already commended the faith of the people of Rome because of their understanding of the truth. For wishing to teach the unity of nature in the case of the Father and the Son, he speaks thus, “But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God is in you. But if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. But if Christ is in you, the body indeed is dead through sin, but the Spirit is life through righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Christ from the dead dwells in you; He Who raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit Who dwells in you”.

We are all spiritual if the Spirit of God dwells in us. But this Spirit of God is also the Spirit of Christ, and though the Spirit of Christ is in us, yet His Spirit is also in us Who raised Christ from the dead, and He Who raised Christ from the dead shall quicken our mortal bodies also on account of His Spirit that dwells in us. We are quickened therefore on account of the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us, through Him Who raised Christ from the dead. And since the Spirit of Him Who raised Christ from the dead dwells in us, and yet the Spirit of Christ is in us, nevertheless the Spirit Which is in us cannot but be the Spirit of God.

---
Excerpts taken From St. Hilary of Poitiers' work on The Trinity. St Hilary lived in the early part of the 4th century. This work was the first systematic treatise on the Trinity, and hence laid the foundation for Augustine's own work, and later theological reflection and understanding.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Prayers from the Confessions - Book 1

2010-03-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

How should the God who made heaven and earth come into me? What am I to you that you should command me to love you?

For in truth, all good things are from you, O God. From you derives all manner of being, all existence, O God most beautiful, who endow all things with their beautiful form and by your governance direct them in their due order.

My faith calls calls upon you, Lord, this faith which is your gift to me, which you have breathed into me through the humanity of your Son, and the ministry of one of your preachers.

The house of my soul is too small for you to enter: make it more spacious by your coming.

O Lord my God, tell me what you are to me. Say to my soul, I am your salvation. Say it so that I can hear it. My heart is listening, Lord; open the ears of my heart and say to my soul, "I am your salvation". Let me run toward this voice and seize hold of you. Do not hide your face from me: let me die so that I may see it, for not to see it would be death to me indeed.

To whom but yourself can I cry, Cleanse me of my hidden sins, O Lord, and for those incurred through others pardon your servant?

Great are you, O Lord, and exceedingly worthy of praise; your power is immense, and your wisdom beyond reckoning. And so we humans, who are part of your creation, long to praise you -we, who carry our mortality about with us, carry the evidence of our sin, and with it the proof that you thwart the proud.

Hear my prayer, Lord. Let not my soul faint under your discipline, nor let me weary as I confess before you those acts of mercy by which you plucked me from all my evil ways. I long for you to grow sweeter to me than all those allurements I was pursuing. You have enabled me to love you with all my strength, and with passionate yearning grasp your hand, so that you may rescue me from every temptation until my life's end.

Translated by Maria Boulding, OSB

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Augustine's last days

2010-03-08T19:49:00.000-08:00

In old age, he said, ailments proliferate: coughs, catarrh, bleary eyes, anxiety and exhaustion. Yet, if the world grows old, Christ is perpetually young; hence, the invitation: "Do not refuse to be rejuvenated united to Christ, even in the old world. He tells you: Do not fear, your youth will be renewed like that of the eagle" (cf. Serm. 81, 8). Thus, the Christian must not lose heart, even in difficult situations, but rather he must spare no effort to help those in need. This is what the great doctor suggested in his response to Honoratus, Bishop of Tiabe, who had asked him whether a Bishop or a priest or any man of the Church with the barbarians hot on his heels could flee to save his life: "When danger is common to all, that is, for Bishops, clerics and lay people, may those who need others not be abandoned by the people whom they need. In this case, either let all depart together to safe places or let those who must remain not be deserted by those through whom, in things pertaining to the Church, their necessities must be provided for; and so let them share life in common, or share in common that which the Father of their family appoints them to suffer" (Ep 228, 2). And he concluded: "Such conduct is especially the proof of love" (ibid., 3). How can we fail to recognize in these words the heroic message that so many priests down the centuries have welcomed and made their own?

In the meantime, the city of Hippo resisted. Augustine's monastery-home had opened its doors to welcome episcopal colleagues who were asking for hospitality. Also of this number was Possidius, a former disciple of Augustine; he was able to leave us his direct testimony of those last dramatic days. "In the third month of that siege", Possidius recounts, "Augustine took to his bed with a fever: it was his last illness" (Vita, 29, 3). The holy old man made the most of that period when he was at last free to dedicate himself with greater intensity to prayer. He was in the habit of saying that no one, Bishop, Religious or layman, however irreprehensible his conduct might seem, can face death without adequate repentance. For this reason he ceaselessly repeated between his tears, the penitential psalms he had so often recited with his people (cf. ibid., 31, 2).

The worse his illness became, the more the dying Bishop felt the need for solitude and prayer: "In order that no one might disturb him in his recollection, about 10 days before leaving his body, he asked those of us present not to let anyone into his room outside the hours in which the doctors came to visit him or when his meals were brought. His desire was minutely complied with and in all that time he devoted himself to prayer" (ibid., 31, 3). He breathed his last on 28 August 430: his great heart rested at last in God.

"For the last rites of his body", Possidius informs us, "the sacrifice in which we took part was offered to God and then he was buried" (Vita, 31, 5). His body on an unknown date was translated to Sardinia, and from here, in about 725, to the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia, where it still rests today. His first biographer has this final opinion of him: "He bequeathed to his Church a very numerous clergy and also monasteries of men and women full of people who had taken vows of chastity under the obedience of their superiors, as well as libraries containing his books and discourses and those of other saints, from which one learns what, through the grace of God, were his merits and greatness in the Church, where the faithful always find him alive" (Possidius, Vita, 31, 8). This is an opinion in which we can share. We too "find him alive" in his writings. When I read St Augustine's writings, I do not get the impression that he is a man who died more or less 1,600 years ago; I feel he is like a man of today: a friend, a contemporary who speaks to me, who speaks to us with his fresh and timely faith. In St Augustine who talks to us, talks to me in his writings, we see the everlasting timeliness of his faith; of the faith that comes from Christ, the Eternal Incarnate Word, Son of God and Son of Man. And we can see that this faith is not of the past although it was preached yesterday; it is still timely today, for Christ is truly yesterday, today and for ever. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Thus, St Augustine encourages us to entrust ourselves to this ever-living Christ and in this way find the path of life.

Jan 16, 2008 Pope Benedict XVI

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

From the Message of the Holy Father for the World day of Vocations (April 25 2010)

2010-03-05T13:04:00.000-08:00

...I would like to mention three aspects of the life of a priest which I consider essential for an effective priestly witness.

A fundamental element, one which can be seen in every vocation to the priesthood and the consecrated life, is friendship with Christ. Jesus lived in constant union with the Father and this is what made the disciples eager to have the same experience; from him they learned to live in communion and unceasing dialogue with God. If the priest is a “man of God”, one who belongs to God and helps others to know and love him, he cannot fail to cultivate a deep intimacy with God, abiding in his love and making space to hear his Word. Prayer is the first form of witness which awakens vocations. Like the Apostle Andrew, who tells his brother that he has come to know the Master, so too anyone who wants to be a disciple and witness of Christ must have “seen” him personally, come to know him, and learned to love him and to abide with him.

Another aspect of the consecration belonging to the priesthood and the religious life is the complete gift of oneself to God. The Apostle John writes: “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us; and therefore we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren” (1 Jn 3:16). With these words, he invites the disciples to enter into the very mind of Jesus who in his entire life did the will of the Father, even to the ultimate gift of himself on the Cross. Here, the mercy of God is shown in all its fullness; a merciful love that has overcome the darkness of evil, sin and death. The figure of Jesus who at the Last Supper, rises from the table, lays aside his garments, takes a towel, girds himself with it and stoops to wash the feet of the Apostles, expresses the sense of service and gift manifested in his entire existence, in obedience to the will of the Father (cf. Jn 13:3-15). In following Jesus, everyone called to a life of special consecration must do his utmost to testify that he has given himself completely to God. This is the source of his ability to give himself in turn to those whom Providence entrusts to him in his pastoral ministry with complete, constant and faithful devotion, and with the joy of becoming a companion on the journey to so many brothers and sisters, enabling them too to become open to meeting Christ, so that his Word may become a light to their footsteps. The story of every vocation is almost always intertwined with the testimony of a priest who joyfully lives the gift of himself to his brothers and sisters for the sake of the Kingdom of God. This is because the presence and words of a priest have the ability to raise questions and to lead even to definitive decisions (cf. John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis, 39).

A third aspect which necessarily characterizes the priest and the consecrated person is a life of communion. Jesus showed that the mark of those who wish to be his disciples is profound communion in love: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35). In a particular way the priest must be a man of communion, open to all, capable of gathering into one the pilgrim flock which the goodness of the Lord has entrusted to him, helping to overcome divisions, to heal rifts, to settle conflicts and misunderstandings, and to forgive offences. In July 2005, speaking to the clergy of Aosta, I noted that if young people see priests who appear distant and sad, they will hardly feel encouraged to follow their example. They will remain hesitant if they are led to think that this is the life of a priest. Instead, they need to see the example of a communion of life which can reveal to them the beauty of being a priest. Only then will a young man say, “Yes, this could be my future; I can live like this” (Insegnamenti I, [2005], 354). The Second Vatican Council, in speaking of the witness that awakens vocations, emphasizes the example of charity and of fraternal cooperation which priests must offer (cf. Decree Optatam Totius, 2).

Here I would like to recall the words of my venerable Predecessor John Paul II: “The very life of priests, their unconditional dedication to God’s flock, their witness of loving service to the Lord and to his Church – a witness marked by free acceptance of the Cross in the spirit of hope and Easter joy – their fraternal unity and zeal for the evangelization of the world are the first and most convincing factor in the growth of vocations” (Pastores Dabo Vobis, 41). It can be said that priestly vocations are born of contact with priests, as a sort of precious legacy handed down by word, example and a whole way of life.

The same can be said with regard to the consecrated life. The very life of men and women religious proclaims the love of Christ whenever they follow him in complete fidelity to the Gospel and joyfully make their own its criteria for judgement and conduct. They become “signs of contradiction” for the world, whose thinking is often inspired by materialism, self-centredness and individualism. By letting themselves be won over by God through self-renunciation, their fidelity and the power of their witness constantly awaken in the hearts of many young people the desire to follow Christ in their turn, in a way that is generous and complete. To imitate Christ, chaste, poor and obedient, and to identify with him: this is the ideal of the consecrated life, a witness to the absolute primacy of God in human life and history.

Every priest, every consecrated person, faithful to his or her vocation, radiates the joy of serving Christ and draws all Christians to respond to the universal call to holiness. Consequently, in order to foster vocations to the ministerial priesthood and the consecrated life, and to be more effective in promoting the discernment of vocations, we cannot do without the example of those who have already said “yes” to God and to his plan for the life of each individual. Personal witness, in the form of concrete existential choices, will encourage young people for their part to make demanding decisions affecting their future. Those who would assist them need to have the skills for encounter and dialogue which are capable of enlightening and accompanying them, above all through the example of life lived as a vocation. This was what the holy Curé of Ars did: always in close contact with his parishioners, he taught them “primarily by the witness of his life. It was from his example that the faithful learned to pray” (Letter Proclaiming the Year for Priests, 16 June 2009).

May this World Day once again offer many young people a precious opportunity to reflect on their own vocation and to be faithful to it in simplicity, trust and complete openness. May the Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church, watch over each tiny seed of a vocation in the hearts of those whom the Lord calls to follow him more closely, may she help it to grow into a mature tree, bearing much good fruit for the Church and for all humanity. With this prayer, to all of you I impart my Apostolic Blessing.

Sin

2010-03-01T19:40:00.001-08:00

Sin is what killed the Son of God and sin continues to be what brings death to the sons of God. We see this fundamental truth of faith in situations in our country. You can't offend God without offending your brothers and sisters. It is not, then, out of pure routine that we repeat once again that there is a structure of sin in our country. It is sin because it produces the fruit of sin: the deaths of Salvadoreans; the quick death through repression, or the slow death through oppression. Because of this we have denounced the sin of injustice.

Oscar Romero, February 17, 1980. Translated by Irene B. Hodge

Who are you my God?

2010-02-28T14:38:00.001-08:00

You are most high, excellent, most powerful, omnipotent, supremely merciful and supremely just, most hidden yet intimately present, infinitely beautiful and infinitely strong, steadfast yet elusive, unchanging yourself, though you control the change in all things, never new, never old, renewing all things yet wearing down the proud though they know it not; ever active, ever at rest, gathering while knowing no need, supporting and filling and guarding, creating and nurturing and perfecting, seeking although you lack nothing. You love without frenzy, you are jealous yet secure, you regret without sadness, you grow angry yet remain tranquil, you alter your works but never your plan; you take back what you find although you never lost it; you are never in need yet you rejoice in your gains, never avaricious yet you demand profits. You allow us to pay you more than you demand, and so you become our debtor, yet which of us possesses anything that does not already belong to you? You owe us nothing, yet you pay your debts; you write off our debts to you, yet you lose nothing thereby.

St. Augustine Confessions Book 1 Ch4

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Self-Knowledge possible in God

2010-02-27T14:59:00.000-08:00

Human beings can't know themselves until they have encountered God. Because of this, we have so many who idolize their own egos, so many with unhealthy pride, so many human beings clinging to the self, worshiping false gods. They have not encountered the true God, and because of this, they haven't known his true greatness. And how unfortunate is life when instead of finding the true God, one is adoring a false god: the god of money, the god of pride, the god of pleasure.

Oscar Romero, February 10, 1980 Trans. by Irene B. Hodgson

Recognizing our Omission

2010-02-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

What can I do and what didn't I do? What did I do wrong? Because I am the first to recognize that, as all limited human beings, not everything that I have done is good. That when I ask the Lord in the Mass to pardon me for sins of omission, I am indicating the most mysterious chapter of evil in each heart: what we could have done and didn't. How much of a hole do we leave in life! How much good do we refrain from doing!

Oscar Romero, Dec 31, 1979 Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

Reflection on the Ecclesial Aspects of Prayer

2010-02-21T11:37:00.000-08:00

The invocation of the name of Jesus has an eccesial aspect. In this name we meet all those who are united with the Lord and in the midst of whom he stands. In this name we can embrace all those who are enclosed within the Divine heart. To interecede for one another is not so much to plead on his behalf before God, but rather to apply to his name the name of Jesus and to unite ourselves to the intercession of our Lord himself for his loved ones.

Here we touch upon the mystery of the Church. Where Jesus Christ is there is the Church. The name of Jesus is a means of uniting us to the Church, for the Church is in Christ. In him the Church is unsullied. It is not that we seek to dissociate ourselves from the existence and the problems from the Church on earth, or to close our eyes to the imperfections and disunity of Christians. We do not wish to separate or oppose the invisible and visible aspects of the Church. But we know that what is implied in the name of Jesus is the spotless, spiritual and eternal of the Church which transcends every earthly manifestation and which no schism can destroy.

From a monk of the Eastern Church (author of The Jesus Prayer)

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

A Catechesis from St. Athanasius

2010-02-21T11:33:00.000-08:00

Humankind faced its impending destruction in death, as a consequence of sin. Out of love, God did not see it right that those who had once shared His image should be destroyed.

What, then, was God to do? What else could he possibly do, being God, but renew His image in humankind, so that through it, men might once more come to know Him? And how could this be done save by the coming of the very image himself, our savior Jesus Christ?

In order to effect this re-creation, however, He had first to do away with death and corruption. Therefore, he became a human being without losing His Divine nature, in order that in his body death might once for all be destroyed, and humankind be renewed according to the Image.

Jesus, by what seems his utter poverty and weakness on the cross, overturns the pomp and parade of idols, and quietly and hiddenly wins over the mockers and unbelievers to recognize him as God.

He alone, being Word of the Father and above all, was both able to recreate all, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be an ambassador of all with he Father.

Taken from excerpts from On The Incarnation by St. Athanasius

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Message of Pope Benedict XVI for Lent 2010

2010-02-19T12:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Brothers and Sisters!

Each year, on the occasion of Lent, the Church invites us to a sincere review of our life in light of the teachings of the Gospel. This year, I would like to offer you some reflections on the great theme of justice, beginning from the Pauline affirmation: “The justice of God has been manifested through faith in Jesus Christ” (cf. Rm 3, 21-22).

Justice: “dare cuique suum”

First of all, I want to consider the meaning of the term “justice,” which in common usage implies “to render to every man his due,” according to the famous expression of Ulpian, a Roman jurist of the third century. In reality, however, this classical definition does not specify what “due” is to be rendered to each person. What man needs most cannot be guaranteed to him by law. In order to live life to the full, something more intimate is necessary that can be granted only as a gift: we could say that man lives by that love which only God can communicate since He created the human person in His image and likeness. Material goods are certainly useful and required – indeed Jesus Himself was concerned to heal the sick, feed the crowds that followed Him and surely condemns the indifference that even today forces hundreds of millions into death through lack of food, water and medicine – yet “distributive” justice does not render to the human being the totality of his “due.” Just as man needs bread, so does man have even more need of God. Saint Augustine notes: if “justice is that virtue which gives every one his due ... where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God?” (De civitate Dei, XIX, 21).

What is the Cause of Injustice?

The Evangelist Mark reports the following words of Jesus, which are inserted within the debate at that time regarding what is pure and impure: “There is nothing outside a man which by going into him can defile him; but the things which come out of a man are what defile him … What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts” (Mk 7, 14-15, 20-21). Beyond the immediate question concerning food, we can detect in the reaction of the Pharisees a permanent temptation within man: to situate the origin of evil in an exterior cause. Many modern ideologies deep down have this presupposition: since injustice comes “from outside,” in order for justice to reign, it is sufficient to remove the exterior causes that prevent it being achieved. This way of thinking – Jesus warns – is ingenuous and shortsighted. Injustice, the fruit of evil, does not have exclusively external roots; its origin lies in the human heart, where the seeds are found of a mysterious cooperation with evil. With bitterness the Psalmist recognises this: “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me” (Ps 51,7). Indeed, man is weakened by an intense influence, which wounds his capacity to enter into communion with the other. By nature, he is open to sharing freely, but he finds in his being a strange force of gravity that makes him turn in and affirm himself above and against others: this is egoism, the result of original sin. Adam and Eve, seduced by Satan’s lie, snatching the mysterious fruit against the divine command, replaced the logic of trusting in Love with that of suspicion and competition; the logic of receiving and trustfully expecting from the Other with anxiously seizing and doing on one’s own (cf. Gn 3, 1-6), experiencing, as a consequence, a sense of disquiet and uncertainty. How can man free himself from this selfish influence and open himself to love?

Justice and Sedaqah

At the heart of the wisdom of Israel, we find a profound link between faith in God who “lifts the needy from the ash heap” (Ps 113,7) and justice towards one’s neighbor. The Hebrew word itself that indicates the virtue of justice, sedaqah, expresses this well. Sedaqah, in fact, signifies on the one hand full acceptance of the will of the God of Israel; on the other hand, equity in relation to one’s neighbour (cf. Ex 20, 12-17), especially the poor, the stranger, the orphan and the widow (cf. Dt 10, 18-19). But the two meanings are linked because giving to the poor for the Israelite is none other than restoring what is owed to God, who had pity on the misery of His people. It was not by chance that the gift to Moses of the tablets of the Law on Mount Sinai took place after the crossing of the Red Sea. Listening to the Law presupposes faith in God who first “heard the cry” of His people and “came down to deliver them out of hand of the Egyptians” (cf. Ex 3,8). God is attentive to the cry of the poor and in return asks to be listened to: He asks for justice towards the poor (cf. Sir 4,4-5, 8-9), the stranger (cf. Ex 22,20), the slave (cf. Dt 15, 12-18). In order to enter into justice, it is thus necessary to leave that illusion of self-sufficiency, the profound state of closure, which is the very origin of injustice. In other words, what is needed is an even deeper “exodus” than that accomplished by God with Moses, a liberation of the heart, which the Law on its own is powerless to realize. Does man have any hope of justice then?

Christ, the Justice of God

The Christian Good News responds positively to man’s thirst for justice, as Saint Paul affirms in the Letter to the Romans: “But now the justice of God has been manifested apart from law … the justice of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction; since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, they are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as an expiation by his blood, to be received by faith” (3, 21-25). What then is the justice of Christ? Above all, it is the justice that comes from grace, where it is not man who makes amends, heals himself and others. The fact that “expiation” flows from the “blood” of Christ signifies that it is not man’s sacrifices that free him from the weight of his faults, but the loving act of God who opens Himself in the extreme, even to the point of bearing in Himself the “curse” due to man so as to give in return the “blessing” due to God (cf. Gal 3, 13-14). But this raises an immediate objection: what kind of justice is this where the just man dies for the guilty and the guilty receives in return the blessing due to the just one? Would this not mean that each one receives the contrary of his “due”? In reality, here we discover divine justice, which is so profoundly different from its human counterpart. God has paid for us the price of the exchange in His Son, a price that is truly exorbitant. Before the justice of the Cross, man may rebel for this reveals how man is not a self-sufficient being, but in need of Another in order to realize himself fully. Conversion to Christ, believing in the Gospel, ultimately means this: to exit the illusion of self-sufficiency in order to discover and accept one’s own need – the need of others and God, the need of His forgiveness and His friendship. So we understand how faith is altogether different from a natural, good-feeling, obvious fact: humility is required to accept that I need Another to free me from “what is mine,” to give me gratuitously “what is His.” This happens especially in the sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist. Thanks to Christ’s action, we may enter into the “greatest” justice, which is that of love (cf. Rm 13, 8-10), the justice that recognises itself in every case more a debtor than a creditor, because it has received more than could ever have been expected. Strengthened by this very experience, the Christian is moved to contribute to creating just societies, where all receive what is necessary to live according to the dignity proper to the human person and where justice is enlivened by love.

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent culminates in the Paschal Triduum, in which this year, too, we shall celebrate divine justice – the fullness of charity, gift, salvation. May this penitential season be for every Christian a time of authentic conversion and intense knowledge of the mystery of Christ, who came to fulfill every justice. With these sentiments, I cordially impart to all of you my Apostolic Blessing.

Repentance

2010-02-18T10:13:00.000-08:00

"You repent not by feeling bad, but by thinking differently" (Tony Gittins), and I would add, by loving differently. Often repentance is confused with feeling bad, with guilt. Repentance is liberating, and hence it must be distinguished from enslaving guilt. Perhaps we can pray with the poet:

"I need to know I am yours, Beloved,
To untangle my every alliance with Guilt.
When that cruel net casts itself,
it can cause even a great one
to live in sorrow and distress."

-Hafiz

Am I willing to examine my life in this light, and consider the possibility that I need to see things differently?

Name the wound.

In the face of human frailty, Jesus holds up the potential of redeemed humanity. How am I seeing others, especially those I do not like? What are my prejudices?

Jesus emptied himself in order to give us life. Is my life self-centered? Do I expect too much of others? How do those at my work, in my family, my community feel about me?

Jesus is called the King of Kings. What does my life has to do with bringing about that He reigns? Is he the King in my own life?

Feel and weep over the wound. That is strength, not weakness.

Seek the face of the Father. That is action and journey, not passivity.

Own and take responsibility for your life and behavior. Don't wait for warm feelings or miracles. Act as if. Do it. Go with it. Risk it.

Carlos J. Medina
(Words in Italics are from Richard Rohr, OFM in The Journey of the Wild Man)

The Beautiful will save us

2010-02-18T07:06:00.000-08:00

"It has been expressed that after Auschwitz it was no longer possible to write poetry; after Auschwitz it is no longer possible to speak of a God who is good. People wondered: where was God when the gas chambers were operating? This objection, which seemed reasonable enough before Auschwitz when one realized all the atrocities of history, shows that in any case a purely harmonious concept of beauty is not enough. It cannot stand up to the confrontation with the gravity of the questioning about God, truth and beauty. Apollo, who for Plato's Socrates was "the God" and the guarantor of unruffled beauty as "the truly divine" is absolutely no longer sufficient."

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger explains that in the face of this problem of evil, we must return to the paradox of Christ. Of him it is said both that, "He had neither beauty, no majesty, nothing to attract our eyes, no grace to make us delight in him"(Is 53, 2), and yet Psalm 44 says: "You are the fairest of the children of men and grace is poured upon your lips". This paradox is most clear in the Passion and death of Christ.

"In the Passion of Christ, the experience of the beautiful has received new depth and new realism. The One who is the Beauty itself let himself be slapped in the face, spat upon, crowned with thorns; the Shroud of Turin can help us imagine this in a realistic way. However, in his Face that is so disfigured, there appears the genuine, extreme beauty: the beauty of love that goes "to the very end"; for this reason it is revealed as greater than falsehood and violence."

"Whoever believes in God, in the God who manifested himself, precisely in the altered appearance of Christ crucified as love "to the end" (Jn 13,1), knows that beauty is truth and truth beauty; but in the suffering Christ he also learns that the beauty of truth also embraces offence, pain, and even the dark mystery of death, and that this can only be found in accepting suffering, not in ignoring it."

"We must learn to see Him. If we know Him, not only in words, but if we are struck by the arrow of his paradoxical beauty, then we will truly know him, and know him not only because we have heard others speak about him. Then we will have found the beauty of Truth, of the Truth that redeems. Nothing can bring us into close contact with the beauty of Christ himself other than the world of beauty created by faith and light that shines out from the faces of the saints, through whom his own light becomes visible."

Taken from "The Beauty and Truth of Christ" by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Deceptive Beauty

2010-02-18T07:02:00.000-08:00

A beauty that is deceptive and false, a dazzling beauty that does not bring human beings out of themselves to open them to the ecstasy of rising to the heights, but indeed locks them entirely into themselves. Such beauty does not reawaken a longing for the Ineffable, readiness for sacrifice, the abandonment of self, but instead stirs up the desire, the will for power, possession and pleasure.

It is that type of experience of beauty of which Genesis speaks in the account of the Original Sin. Eve saw that the fruit of the tree was "beautiful" to eat and was "delightful to the eyes". The beautiful, as she experienced it, aroused in her a desire for possession, making her, as it were, turn in upon herself.

Who would not recognize, for example, in advertising, the images made with supreme skill that are created to tempt the human being irresistibly, to make him want to grab everything and seek the passing satisfaction rather than be open to others?

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger "The Beauty and Truth of Christ"

Almsgiving

2010-02-17T19:50:00.000-08:00

During Lent we are especially encouraged to give alms. Here are some questions to consider regarding alms-giving:

Does the way I give demean others?

Do I give myself?

Am I willing to do something beautiful for the poor?

Does my gift come as a duty, or is it out of love for Christ?

Along the lines of these questions, Tony Gittins, priest and author, suggests the following principles to apply in our daily lives:

- Never walk by the poor: walk with them, lest you walk on them.

- If your life takes you away from the poor, it is taking you away from life.

- Don't allow "the poor" to remain an abstraction. Know the names of a few poor people.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina (based on a lecture by Tony Gittins at the Inter-Community Novitiate in Techny, IL.)

Tips on Prayer from a Monk

2010-02-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

When praying it would be a mistake to try to induce intensity and emotion, to raise our voice inwardly. When God manifested himself to the prophet Elijah, it was not in a strong wind, nor in an earthquake, nor in a afire, but in a gentle, whispering breeze that followed them. Little by little we are to concentrate our whole being around the name of Jesus, allowing it like a drop of oil silently to penetrate and impregnate our soul.

***

Let us not think that an hour during which we have invoked the name of Jesus, without "feeling" anything, remaining apparently cold and arid, has been wasted and unfruitful.

***

The name of Jesus gives peace tho those who are tempted: instead of arguing with the temptation, instead of thinking about the raging storm -that was Peter's mistake on the lake after his good beginning- why not go to Jesus alone and go to him walking on the waves, taking refuge in his name? Let the person tempted gather him [her]self together gently, and pronounce the name without anxiety, without feverishness; then his heart will be filled by the wind of the name and protected against violent winds.

***

When we pray the name of Jesus, we enthrone him in our hearts, we put on Christ; we offer our flesh to the Word, so that he may assume it into his mystical body.

***

Jesus, who after his resurrection chose several times to appear to his disciples "in another form" (Mk 16, 12)- the unknown traveler on the road to Emmaus, the gardener near the tomb, the stranger standing at the shore of the lake- continues to meet us in our daily life in a veiled way and continues to confront us with this all-important aspect of his presence: his presence in man. What we do to the least of our brethren, we do to him. Under the faces of men and women, we are able with the eyes of faith, to see the face of the Lord; by attending to the distress of the poor, of the sick, of sinners, of all men, we put our finger on the place of the nails, thrust our hands into his pierced side, and experience personally the resurrection and presence of Jesus Christ in his mystical body; and so we can say with St. Thomas "My Lord, and my God." (Jn 20, 28).

From a Monk of the eastern Church (Author of The Jesus Prayer)

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

God is near

2010-02-14T13:52:00.000-08:00

No Christian should feel alone in his or her path, no family has to feel abandoned, no people should be pessimistic even amid crises that seem insoluble, like those of our country. God is among us. Let us have faith in this central truth of the sacred revelation. God is present; he is not asleep, rather he is active, he observes, he helps and, at the proper time he will act appropriately. Because of this the presence of joy awakens joy in our hearts. Rejoice in the Lord!Again I say to you: Rejoice because God is near!

Oscar Romero, December 16, 1979

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

As brothers and sisters

2010-02-14T13:50:00.000-08:00

Let us not serve the poor with paternalism, helping him or her as if reaching down from above to someone below. This is not what God wants, but rather he wants us to do this as one brother or sister to another. This is my brother or sister, this is Christ; and, with Christ, I am not reaching down from above to serve someone below, rather I am reaching up from below to serve him above.

Oscar Romero, September 2, 1979 Trans. by Irene B. Hodgson

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Each one of you has to be God's microphone

2010-02-10T10:23:00.000-08:00

Where is your baptism? You are baptized in your professions, in the field of workers, in the market. Wherever there is someone who has been baptized, that is where the Church is. There is a prophet there. This is where you have to say something in the name of the Truth that shines through the lies of the world. Let us not be cowards. Let us not hide the talent that God gave us on the day of our baptism, and let us truly live the beauty and responsibility of being a prophetic people.

Oscar Romero, July 8, 1979 Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

A Christian can't be a pessimist

2010-02-10T10:22:00.000-08:00

Christians must always keep the fullness of joy alive in their heart... It is the joy of feeling yourself intimate with God, even when human beings don't understand you. It is the greatest joy that you can have in your heart.

Oscar Romero, May 20, 1979 Trans. by Irene B. Hodgson

Christianity Offers Dual Citizenship

2010-02-08T20:52:00.000-08:00

Ice and snow did not keep them away. Amidst the flurry of a winter snowstorm, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, archbishop of Vienna, addressed an auditorium over-flowing with students, faculty, clergy and lay faithful at the Catholic University of America (CUA).

Cardinal Schönborn, a Dominican religious, was ordained a priest in 1970. Before being named archbishop of Vienna in 1995, he was a professor of dogmatic theology at Fribourg, Switzerland. He was later elevated to cardinal in 1998. The cardinal addressed Wednesday's audience on the question "Christianity: Alien Presence or Foundation of the West?"

Fascinating alternative

Cardinal Schönborn began his address by delineating three legacies that he believes fundamental to the inheritance of Christian culture to the West: a sense of moral integrity, by which Christians are often recognized not only by what they do, but also by what they do not do; the concept of humanity as a united, universal family; and the idea that freedom makes man most like God, and is man's greatest possession.

The cardinal went on to ask, "Is it true that modern man wins his freedom through a bitter struggle against the Church? Is it true that the Enlightenment brought human freedom and dignity to humanity, not Christianity?" This, he claims, is the great hypothesis of modern history. But he is not convinced.

Cardinal Schönborn suggested that much of the early Church was born and emerged from a pluralistic Greco-Roman world 2,000 years ago, Christianity today offers a fascinating alternative to the modern secular world.

"Christianity's position in modern Europe is paradoxical," the cardinal proposed. "It is both a foreign body and a root for Europe. Although it is seen as a foreign entity, it still evokes a feeling of home and nostalgia for many in Europe.

"Europe has an increasingly number of people who, after having lived a fully secular lifestyle, find there way to a conscious Christian faith. And they have a way of describing their discovery of Christianity as a 'way home,' or a 'finding home.'"

Of heaven and earth

Alluding to St. Augustine, Cardinal Schönborn went on to explain, "Here in lays the distinctive and unmistakable strength of Christianity: her dual citizenship. At once earthly and heavenly, it invites one to a loyal participation in society, taking on responsibility for the city of man without wanting to overthrow it in order to create some utopian society. This engagement with the temporal is founded on the fact of a peril-less citizenship in the city of God."

Cardinal Schönborn made clear that the Christian's claim to belong not only to an earthly citizenship, but to a heavenly one, is what makes Christianity hated by totalitarian systems, most especially notable in the 20th century. "The Christian is free," he says. "Free with respect to the state, because he is never only a citizen of the state. Never before has this Christian freedom been more clearly expressed than during the time of fascism, communism, and Nazism during the last century, when authentic Christian witness resulted in millions and millions of martyrs."

The cardinal believes that this foundation of freedom is precisely what Christianity has to offer modern Europe. "It is freedom from the demands of the mainstream, from political correctness, or simply from the pressure of the latest fashions. Christian freedom," Cardinal Schönborn described.

Radical freedom

As testimony to the power of Christian freedom, Cardinal Schönborn recalled the great spiritual movements that became cultural movements in Western history. "This year marks exactly 1,100 years since the monastic reform of Cluny," he remembered. "This monastic reform brought Europe over 4,000 monasteries in a period of 200 years. A fantastic network all over Europe, with an enormous economic, social, artistic and spiritual energy."

The cardinal explained that when Cluny began to decline another great spiritual renewal was sparked with Bernard of Clairvaux, then again with the Cistercians, and history repeated itself again with the mendicant orders of Francis and Dominic. Each of these spiritual renewals made enormous contributions to the cultural and civil societies of their time.

"Has enough consideration been given to the freedom made possible by these renewal movements and how much Europe has been influenced by these movements?" he questioned. "From its inception, Christianity allowed people to step outside of their temporal and political order. The idea that man must obey God before he need obey man brought an enormous element of freedom into society," he continued.

The cardinal argued that throughout the centuries the freedom to radically follow Christ set free enormous creative energy throughout the Western world, and is "one of the permanent sources of European vitality."

Cardinal Schönborn also expressed his joy over the resurgence of spiritual movements in today's Church. "Why should history not repeat itself today?" he asked. "Why should we not have the kind of surprise, undreamt-of surprise, ahead of us that Francis of Assisi brought to Europe 800 years ago?" He described the lay movements in the Church as "a very vital sign" and claimed they point to the same creative Spirit that once brought to life the Christian spiritual and cultural renewals of previous centuries. The cardinal mentioned in particular Opus Dei, the Neo-Catechumenal Way, and Communion and Liberation.

Call to purification

But the cardinal did not fail to point out that the modern relationship between secularism and Christianity serves a needed purpose for the purification and maturation of Christianity: "Christianity also needs the critical voice of secular Europe, asking hard questions, sometimes nasty questions, questions we should not try to escape or avoid.

"It does Christianity good to listen to the questions of secular society and be challenged to answer them. It wakes the Christians up and challenges them. It questions Christianity's credibility. And Christianity needs to be questioned.

"It is good for us to be held accountable."

He explained that the critical questioning of the secular world presses Christianity to become what it is called to be, and helps to purify what is incoherent between its words and deeds. "And why?" he asked. "Because deep down, the secular West longs for an authentic Christianity, and hopes for a Christianity that is credible through its life."

Cardinal Schönborn ended the evening with a call to faith. "Christian freedom has an inexhaustible source. 'Remember, I am with you until the end of time.' This saying of Jesus Christ is Christianity's most powerful resource!" he exclaimed. "This alone explains the inexhaustible power of regeneration in Christianity, which again and again experiences its resurrection, in the power of the One who rose again."

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEB. 4, 2010 (Zenit.org). - Kirsten Evans

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Giving our Lives for Others

2010-02-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

Christ is saying to each one of us: if you want your life and your mission to be fruitful like mine, do as I have, be converted into grain that is buried. Let yourself be killed. Don't be afraid. The one who avoids suffering will end up alone. There is no one more alone than selfish people. But if, out of love for others, you give your life for others, like I am going to give mine, you will have an abundant harvest; you will experience the deepest satisfaction. Don't be afraid of death or of threats. The Lord is with you.

Oscar Romero, April 1, 1979 -Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Christ Overflows the Church

2010-02-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

Christ overflows the Church, like when you put a glass in a well full of water, the glass fills with water, but does not contain the whole well; there is a great deal of water outside the glass... In the Church not all Christians are present, nor are all those who present, Christians.

Oscar Romero, August 13, 1978 Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Idolatry

2010-01-29T12:49:00.001-08:00

Denouncing idolatry has always been the mission of the prophets and the Church. Today we no longer speak of the god Baal, but there are other great idols in our time: money is a god,power, luxury, licentiousness. How many gods are enthroned in this environment! And the voice of Hosea is still contemporary today: Don't mix these idolatries with the worship of the true God.

Oscar Romero, June 11, 1978

Not knowing how to love

2010-01-29T12:47:00.000-08:00

This is the greatest sickness of today's world: not knowing how to love. Everything is selfishness, everything is the exploitation of human beings by other human beings, everything is cruelty, torture. Everything is repression, violence.

Oscar Romero, March 23, 1978

What kind of Gospel is that?

2010-01-27T19:16:00.000-08:00

This is what the Church wants: to bother your conscience, to provoke a crisis in the times we are living in. A church that doesn't stir up a crisis, a gospel that doesn't make us uncomfortable, a word of God that -to put it crudely- doesn't cause an allergic rash, a word of God that doesn't touch the specific society in which it is spoken, what kind of Gospel is that? Very beautiful pious concerns that won't bother anyone is how many want the sermons to be. And those preachers who, so as not to bother anyone and so as not to have conflicts and difficulties, do not shed light on the reality they are living in, lack the courage of Peter to say to the mob, "You have killed him" [Acts2, 23]. Although he would also lose his life because of this accusation, he proclaimed it. It is the courageous gospel; it is the good news that came to take away the sins of the world.

Oscar Romero April 16, 1978

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Blessed Jospehine Mary of Saint Agnes

2010-01-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Today we celebrate the memorial of our Augustinian sister Josephine Mary of Saint Agnes. Josephine Teresa was the name which a poor but honorable couple chose for the daughter who born to them on 9 January 1625 in the village of Beniganim near Valencia, Spain. On 25 October 1643, when she was eighteen years of age, Josephine entered the Augustinian convent in her hometown as a lay sister and received the name Josephine Mary of Saint Agnes. Her sisters in religion more commonly knew her as Mother Iñez. Though she had a minimal formal education, she possessed a gift of counsel and a noteworthy understanding of theological matters. Because of this, as well as a remarkable gift of spiritual discernment, her advice, was sought by some of the most important and influential people of Spain.

Josephine died on the feast of her patroness, Saint Agnes, 21 January 1694. The archdiocese of Valencia initiated the examination of her cause for beatification that resulted in her beatification on 26 February 1888 by Pope Leo XIII. Her confessor, Father Philip Benevent, the pastor of Beniganim, wrote an authoritative biography of Blessed Josephine Mary. The body of Blessed Mother Iñez rests in the convent which was her home for more than half a century.

Rotelle, John, Book of Augustinian Saints, Augustinian Press 2000

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Letter of Solidarity with the People of Haiti

2010-01-21T09:45:00.000-08:00

A week has already passed since the tragic earthquake in Haiti, even though new tremors, some very strong, continue to occur. During these days, we have all heard and seen the news of the catastrophe transmitted by the media. Reporters and journalists cannot find words to adequately convey all that the people of the poorest country of Latin America have suffered until now and continue to suffer. The Haitian government has released the first official figures of the tragedy: 75,000 deaths, 250,000 injured and a million people homeless. It also seems that more than half of the victims of the earthquake are under 18 years of age according to reports from the UN.

Perhaps we are not capable of processing all of this data and are somewhat stunned by the figures and images that are by now embedded in our minds. We cannot imagine that such calamities occur even now. In fact, we have a lot of questions, but there are no answers beyond the technical explanations. Yet, when it is has to do with the lives of so many people, those explanations do not satisfy us. I believe, however, that in the midst of this climate of death the question that we should ask is whether we are not somewhat hypocritical in our way of thinking and acting. I say this, because every hour of every day the tragedy of death affects the weakest among us on our planet. This fact, alone, should lead us to reflect and to then commit ourselves on the level of the Order to the weakest and the poorest of the earth.

In Haiti, there are not survivors, but rather lifeless bodies, desperate families and many children left completely alone … but life goes on and babies continue to be born. Yes, it is true, in the midst of death new life appears and, perhaps, new hope for a people who have been abandoned so many times. As Prior General I invite you to join in solidarity with these our brothers and sisters who have suffered this immense tragedy. At this moment, the Haitian people are the most needy and they plead for the help we can give. It is indeed important that we share deeply in their sorrow and keep the victims, living and deceased, ever present in our daily prayers before the Lord. But it is also important that our material help reach them because their recovery as a people and the reconstruction of their country will demand much effort and help over a long period of time.

From a letter by Fr. Robert F. Prevost, Prior General of the Order

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Pope Benedict XVI's Response

2010-01-13T13:10:00.000-08:00

God saves us. That is the center of the teaching of Benedict XVI addressed to Christians, mired in difficult problems, often groping in the fog, prey to the latest attack on God as the enemy of man. The pope is aware of this attack and goes down to the mudd.

In his summary of the year to the Curia, the Pope remembering his trip to the Czech Republic, said, "we need to worry that man shelved the question of God, an essential issue of his existence..." He pointed out that the people who consider themselves agnostic or atheist feel a natural apprehension when hearing about a new evangelization, because they fear they will be converted into an object of mission, or they fear giving up their freedom of thought and will. But even so, says Benedict XVI, the question of God remains even if they dare not go near it. And remembering the space in the temple of Jerusalem that the Gentiles had to pray to a God they sought but did not yet know, the Pope has created this unique proposal: "I think the Church today should also open a "courtyard of the gentiles," where people can somehow cling to God, without yet knowing him -before they have found access to the mystery in the Church." We cannot remain indifferent about this proposal of faith in this historic moment.

During New Year's Mass, the Pope pronounced a very original and thought-provoking homily on God's face and the faces of men. According to him, the face is the expression par excellence of the person, since it brings out the feelings, thoughts and intentions of the heart. And even though God is by nature invisible, the Bible refers constantly to his face because he is a God who reveals himself, who converses with his people, with men, and makes himself known. This trend finds its ultimate development in God taking the human face of Jesus. And from here the Pope transitions to ask the great question [that turns the attack on God as enemy of man, upside down]: "who but God can safeguard the depth of the human face?"

It is impossible not to remember the memorable speech before the statue of the Immaculate Conception, when he spoke of a social life that makes us see only the surface, and in which we lose depth in perceiving the human faces that compose that social reality. In such a loss, human beings become interchangeable commodities. If man silences his thirst for meaning, if he censors his desire for an endless hug, for justice and happiness beyond his own strength, then man loses the ability to go within himself, and ends up a part of a sad mechanism of mere survival.
God is the source and destiny of man, but also the way and the historical resource his adventure. "Whoever has the heart empty, sees only flat images, lacking any depth ... however, the more we are inhabited by God, the more will we be able to see the face of the other, in our brothers and sisters. And thus, we stop seeing the other as means to and end, as rival or enemy, but as another I." In Spe Salvi, great document for Christians in this tumultuous start of the century, the Pope says: "Our hope is in God, not in the generic sense of a religious or faith covert fatalism. We trust in the God who has revealed fully in Jesus Christ His will to be with us, to share our history ... This is the great hope that encourages and sometimes corrects our human hopes."

It is reasonable to have hope because history has meaning and direction, because despite many dramatic twists and turns, it is met by God's love, a love which has gone to the unthinkable in becoming flesh and dwelling among us. However, that divine plan is not satisfied automatically but requires the free acceptance of every man and woman. So Benedict XVI says that 2010 will be more or less "good" not according to the best of circumstances that each one dreams, but to the extent that we cooperate with God's grace. What a difference comapred to the many idle talks during these days, but mostly what a breath of fresh air, what a hymn to freedom and to the the infinite value of every human life! What a calm and reasonable certainty about the future! Precisely what we all need.

Original Article in Spanish by Jose Luis Restan

Posted by Carlos J. Medina (Translated with Google's help)

The Mark of Prayer

2010-01-06T10:23:00.000-08:00

The proof of my prayer is not to say a great many words, the proof of my plea is easy to see: How do I act toward the poor? Because God is there.

Oscar Romero, February 5, 1978. Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

Posted By Carlos J. Medina

The Church of the Poor

2010-01-06T10:19:00.000-08:00

Mary and Joseph were poor, but what a saintly poverty, what a dignified poverty. Thank God that we also have this kind of poor among us. And from this category of the dignified poor, the poor saints, Christ proclaims: Blessed are those who hunger, blessed are those who weep, blessed are those who thirst for justice. The Church cries out from that same place, following the example of Christ, that this is the poverty that will save the world. Because both the poor and the rich have to become poor, in an evangelical sense; not the poverty that is the result of disorder and vice, but rather the poverty that has freed itself, that is trusting that everything will come from God, that is turning its back on the golden calf in order to adore the one God. That is sharing the happiness of having with those who have not, that is the joy of loving.

Oscar Romero, September 11, 1977. Translated by Irene B. Hodgson

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-06T07:19:00.000-08:00

As we begin this new year we may have some goals in mind. Bishop Oscar Romero in one of his sermons said, "The destiny of a person is not to have a great deal of money, to have great power, to be very visible, but rather to know how to do the will of God" (Nov 6, 1977, Trans. by I.B. Hodgson). May our goals always be directed towards doing God's will.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Song that Changed the World

2009-12-30T12:42:00.001-08:00

Before the song started, the world broken hearted
Was dreamlessly passing the long empty days
Then a dark, lonely hillside was spangled with light
And a song burst into the night

From He Started the Whole World Singing by Bill Gaither, Gloria Gaither and Chris Waters

As St. John tells us, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and through the Word the world was made. That Word, for the sake of saving the broken world one day was born a baby, and probably cried. The cry of that baby was now the voice of the Word incarnate, crying for the first time. That baby would grow and cry against injustices, cry in pity for his people, cry in supplication to the Father, and would cry at the end giving his Spirit to the Father, so that the Spirit would be given to us. During this Christmas season I thank the Lord for crying -the most beautiful song the universe has heard.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Lord's Birthday

2009-12-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

It is called the Lord’s birthday when the wisdom of God presented itself to us as an infant, and the Word of God without words uttered the flesh as its voice. And yet the hidden divinity was signified to the wise men by the evidence of the heavens, and announced to the shepherds by the voice of an angel. And so we celebrate this day every year with great solemnity, because on it was fulfilled the prophecy which said,

Truth has sprung from the earth, and Justice has looked forth from heaven (Ps 84:12). Truth, which is the bosom of the Father (Jn 1:18), has sprung from the earth, in order also to be in the bosom of his mother. Truth, by which the world is held together, has sprung from the earth, in order to be carried in a woman’s arms. Truth, on which the bliss of the angels is incorruptibly nourished, has sprung from the earth, in order to be suckled at breasts of flesh. Truth, which heaven is not big enough to hold, has sprung from the earth, in order to be placed in a manger.

For whose benefit did such sublimity come in such humility? Certainly for not of his own; but, if we are believers, totally for ours. Wake up, mankind, for your God became man!

Rise, you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will enlighten you (Eph 5:14). For you, I repeat, God became man. You would have died for eternity, unless he had been born in time. You would never be set free from the flesh of sin, unless he had taken to himself the likeness of the flesh of sin (Rom 8:3). You would have been in the grip of everlasting misery, had it not been for the occurrence of this great mercy. You would not have come back to life, unless he had adjusted himself to your death. You would have faded away, if he had not come to the rescue. You would have perished, if he had not come.

St. Augustine, Sermon 185, 1

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

A Story of Grace

2009-12-21T17:45:00.001-08:00

"Is anything too wonderful for God?" This question appears both in the Old and New Testaments. It resonates through the story of the Bible, a story of a people's quest for God, but primarily a quest of God for his people. In such quest one is surprised at the lengths that God goes for the sake of his people.

Much of the quest is filled with suffering. Most of it, like all suffering, is hard to make sense of. And yet, it is not hard to agree with the poet who said "great suffering breaks our heart so that good comes out."

Jesus himself was part of this history of suffering. He came out of a history and a people deeply affected by exile. Some of the people of his lineage were great men and women, and others not so great.Yet all were burdened by sin.

Jesus' missionary urgency, his concern for the poor and the marginalized, perhaps partly came out of his identity as a man of the covenant, and partly as the Son of God who came to restore life, and set his people free.

The suffering that had been the lot of God's people because of disobedience, is transformed in Jesus. As St paul says in the letter to the Hebrews, Jesus is "crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death... he was made "lower than the angels," [so] that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." The Son of God became man by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that "through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death had been subject to slavery all their life." Great suffering broke his heart and the world was never the same.

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

(This post is half lecture notes, and half my thoughts on the lecture notes taken from Don Senior's presentation at the Inter-Community Novitiate in Techny, IL, 2009)

Faith as a weapon against fear

2009-12-17T20:14:00.001-08:00

Some time ago I came across this thought-provoking quote by Bertrand Russell: "Those who do not fear their neighbors see no necessity to tyrannize over them." It seems to me that Russell perhaps is right in pointing to fear as one of the causes of violence. How many acts of violence, from the authoritarian head of the household, to the realm of world politics, are actually rooted in insecurity and fear? Perhaps too many.

Fear is a reality. Yet, I believe we are not subject to how we deal with it. As Christians, with the gift of faith, our goal must be to act with the courage to anticipate others in kindness, especially towards those we do not like. And we must pray for the gift of living in forgiveness.

"Few men will dare to go where no one wants to go. If we have faith in God, we must have faith in men. Even the most evil among us has some redeeming feature. Faith will seek it out." - Catherine Doherty

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

A Glimpse into the East's Understanding of Salvation

2009-12-17T19:59:00.000-08:00

In my conversation with people from other traditions and denominations of Christianity I have come to learn that many non-Roman Catholics do not really understand what the Roman Catholic Church teaches. They disagree with what they think Roman Catholic teaching is, but once I start explaining away the misunderstandings, they are not as sure that they reject Roman Catholic teaching. I think that many of us, Roman Catholics, on the other hand are also culpable of ignoring what other Churches actually believe. In order to engage in ecumenism, and work for the unity of the Church, I believe one of the first steps we should take is to get to know each other better. As a little step towards this major step, I want to share the following summary of Eastern Christianity's understanding of Salvation.

"Western Christianity tends to see salvation in black-and-white terms: either one is saved (i.e., destined for eternal dwelling in heaven) or not. Legal or forensic models of Christ's redeeming work, focusing on the Crucifixion, predominate. For example, Anselm believed that redemption consisted of Christ paying our debt for violating God's honor through sin, a debt for which God (because He is just) must require adequate repayment. Anselm's approach, which was ultimately integrated with general principles of human law, was highly influential in Roman Catholic and Protestant theologies. This is evident in reviewing the theologies of other western Christian thinkers, such as followers of Luther, who focus on how God declares us righteous "in a divine court" based on our faith in Christ's work on the Cross.

In the Orthodox Christian tradition, salvation is more process-oriented and can be defined as progressive theosis (partaking of the divine nature; 2 Peter 1:4), which is accomplished by joining ourselves more and more fully to God and restoring His likeness within us."

(from "Interpersonal forgiveness from an Eastern Orthodox Perspective" by Elizabeth Gassin)

The experience of salvation "is not limited to a point in time, but is a lifetime synergistic process, involving not only God's presence and activity, but also one's own personal struggle to be open and to cooperate with the energies of Grace." (From "Beloved to God: An Eastern Orthodox Anthropology" by Elizabeth J. Gassin and J. Stephen Muse found in The Psychologies in Religion: Working with the Religious Client by E. Thomas Dowd, Stevan Lars Nielsen)

According to these authors, in the Orthodox tradition, sin is not seen as an individual, legalistic concept, relating to juridical transgression that require substitutionary atonement, but rather as a a sickness, and developmental arrest, that is cured by entering into the fullness of life opened up in Christ.

The follwing quotation from the Orthodox saint Cosmas of Aiotolos are an example of Orthodox spirituality which presupposes cooperating with God's grace in order to work out one's healing, so that one may be open to union with God:

"If you want to cure your soul, you must first forgive your enemies."

"The Christian needs two wings in order to soar upward and attain Paradise: humility and love. When the first order of angels fell from angelic glory and became demons, the other nine orders humbled themselves and worshiped the All-Holy Trinity, and remained in their place and rejoice forever. We, too, my brethren, must reflect what an evil thing pride is - that it cast down the devil from angelic glory and he will always burn in Hades - and that humility kept the angels in Heaven, and they rejoice perpetually in the glory of the Holy Trinity. Let us then, my brethren, avoid pride, because it is the first daughter of the devil, is a path that leads to Hades; and let us have humility, because it is angelic, is a path that leads to Paradise."

"Know my brethren that love has two characteristics, two gifts. One of them is to strengthen man in what is good and the other is to weaken him in what is evil. I have a loaf of bread to eat; you do not have. Love tells me: Do not eat it alone, give some to your brethren and you eat the rest. I have clothes; love tells me: Give one garment to your brother and you wear the other one. I open my mouth to accuse you, to tell you lies, to deceive you; but at once I remember love and it deadens my mouth, and does not allow me to tell you lies. I stretch out my hands to take what belongs to you, your money, all your possessions. Love does not allow me to take them. Do you see, my brethren, what gifts love has?"

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Enkindling our Desire for God

2009-12-17T19:42:00.000-08:00

In the letter to Proba St Augustine gives us several guidelines in regards to prayer. He writes that our desire for God is important for the life of our prayer, and he believes that our desire must be insistent:

"Therefore we pray always with insistent desire, in that same faith and hope and charity."

And yet, he warns that our prayer must not come solely when we desire, but rather we must have a fixed schedule:

"But, we also pray to God in words at certain fixed hours and times"

The reason he gives us is, "so that we may urge ourselves on and take note with ourselves how much progress we have made in this desire, and may rouse ourselves more earnestly to increase it."

He adds to the explanation: "because that desire [for union with God] grows somewhat lukewarm by reason of our cares and preoccupation with other things, we call our mind back to the duty of praying at fixed hours. In this way, we urge ourselves in the words of our prayer to press forward to what we desire; otherwise, after our desire has begun to grow lukewarm, it then becomes entirely cold, and is completely extinguished, unless it is frequently rekindled."

And as our desire is enkindled by our fixed prayer we come to pray

"even in the necessary works and obligations."

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Figure of Stephen Bellesini in the Year of the Priest (excerpts) - Part 5

2009-12-09T14:24:00.000-08:00

He was named pastor of the church of Saint Mary of Good Counsel at the age of 57. He would occupy this office until his death. Many of the responsibilities of pastors of our day were also a natural part of the ministry of Blessed Stephen. His days were regularly taken up with preaching, celebrating Eucharist and hearing confessions, teaching children, visiting the sick, tending to the poor and needy, as well as sharing fully in the life of his community through common prayer, meals and recreation. It was thus a full life in which Stephen was completely and happily engaged. Given the desperate situation of many of his poor parishioners, he also carried on an intense correspondence with those whom he believed were in a position to assist him in caring for them, including his own brothers in Trent, the friars who belonged to the papal household, bishops, wealthy past visitors to the shrine, and even the pope himself. He had no hesitation whatsoever in putting his hand out on behalf of the needy of his parish and even those who were not his parishioners, but poor nonetheless. “He would write me letters almost every week begging me to find the means to help his poor,” said his confrere, Fr. Agostino Proja, a good friend and member of the papal sacristy community. His warm and affectionate rapport with the youth of the town was evident and observed by the superior of the Sisters of Charity who once remarked, “there were also some insolent youth who took advantage of his affability, tugging at him like a toy. I saw this from my window opposite the monastery and I felt sorry for him, and while I admired his patience and good-nature, I said to myself, ‘this is a new Saint Philip Neri!’, so much did his love take me by surprise.”

Perhaps the dimension of Stephen’s ministry as pastor which stands out in particular relief, is his compassion and care for the sick and the poor. Many are the testimonies offered by those who were the personal recipients of his attention and generosity, many too, - especially the friars of his own community - who were witnesses of his special concern for the most needy.

“In assisting the sick, he wasn’t satisfied to offer only spiritual works of mercy, but in the homes of the poor he performed also those corporal works which his charity was able to provide. This happened with the sick of his own parish, but I think he did the same with those who were not his parishioners. He even provided their medicine, paying the pharmacist with the money that the monastery had given him or which he received from people of means to whom he continually had recourse.” It would be this solicitude for the sick poor during a typhus epidemic that would finally bring his ministry on earth to a close.

While at prayer with his community on January 23, 1840, he was called to minister to a man who had fallen ill. Stephen rose from his seat, and on stepping out from his choir stall, fell, causing a gash on his leg. He had to be put to bed with a high fever, and though the fever had left him the following morning, allowing him to visit the sick man, three days later he was in bed again. On February 2, 1840 this faithful and faith-filled Augustinian and priest died.

The late Archbishop, Joseph Raya, once described a saint as “a brother or sister who leaves behind a trail of light on which we can walk.” In the life of our brother, Stephen, we have been given such light, to guide and inspire us as Augustinians and as priests.

-Michael DiGregorio, OSA

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice

The Figure of Stephen Bellesini in the Year of the Priest (excerpts) - Part 4

2009-12-09T14:23:00.000-08:00

In December, 1817, Stephen was affiliated to the monastery of Our Mother of Good Counsel in Genazzano, but before he could reach there he was asked by the Prior General to become Master of Novices at Sant’Agostino. In this new duty he quickly became an example of simplicity and devotion, of gentleness and fervor. One of his novices from this period remarked years later, “When I entered the novitiate I was 17 years old and I was accompanied by my maternal uncle, who on first meeting Fr. Stephen said to me: ‘He seems like a saint to me.’ That judgment was really founded on the truth. I never met anyone else with a heart as loving as his toward us, like the most affectionate of fathers toward his own children."

According to the judgment of his novices, the basis of all of Fr. Stephen’s instructions to them remained always the fundamental principle of the Rule and of the Gospel: love of God and love of neighbor. And Fr. Stephen’s own life was a clear expression of his own teaching. His was a love that was visible in the profound reverence he held toward all that pertained to the life of faith: prayer, devotion, piety, simplicity of life, respect, love for the Church and love for the Order; and love practiced in his dealings with others as brother, father, and – yes, at times even mother – in acts of service to those entrusted to his care, in the most concrete and menial of tasks, which he performed happily, faithfully, and quietly.

-Michael DiGregorio, OSA

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Figure of Stephen Bellesini in the Year of the Priest (excerpts) - Part 3

2009-12-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

During the late summer of 1817 Stephen suddenly resigned from his various offices and, on September 24, after sharing dinner with his family, left for what all thought was to have been a brief vacation before school was to resume. Stephen was now 43 years old and had never had a real vacation before. His family wished him safe travel, not suspecting in the least that he would never again sit at their table.

Two weeks later, he wrote his brother Angelo from Bologna, informing him of the true nature of his plans, “Don’t be surprised if I tell you that I have left Trent never to return. The reason for this decision of mine was the royal decree not to re-open the monastery of San Marco. What fervent desire burned in my heart to put on once again my holy habit! God finally heard my wishes and deigned to have me called by my General to Rome where I am to meet my fate.” (Domenico Gobbi, Lettere di Stefano Bellesini, Santa Maria del Buon Consiglio, Genazzano)

Soon he would arrive at the monastery of Sant’Agostino, where he had once been a student, to take up again the way of life he had been forced to put aside.

“According to the spirit of the world, this determination of mine will be strongly disapproved and it will be considered foolishness to abandon homeland, pension and position to close myself in a monastery… God called me to return to the life I had professed and, with all the joy of my heart, I obeyed the Divine call promptly, which I hold to be one of the greatest mercies that the Almighty has deigned to show me, and I find myself close to the harbor of my happiness…” On his arrival at Sant’Agostino he wrote to his sister-in-law, “I am enjoying a perfect calmness of spirit for which I am so happy that it seems I have been resurrected and, after baptism, I don’t think I have received from God a grace greater than this, to have been freed from so long an exile and to have been returned to my most dearly beloved mother (religious life) who with the sweetest and most tender dealings welcomed me and continues to make me taste the keenness of her love. It gives me such consolation to be here that I feel as though I am in paradise.”

-Michael DiGregorio, OSA

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice

The Figure of Stephen Bellesini in the Year of the Priest (excerpts) - Part 2

2009-12-09T14:19:00.000-08:00

He was one of four friars of the monastery who taught in the so-called ‘Normal Schools’, institutions established for the children of the lower classes, though, in fact, the greater number of poor children received no education at all. It was due precisely to this apostolate in the schools that Stephen and three other friars were permitted to remain at San Marco when in September, 1810, the other members of the community were forced to leave.

It came naturally as he walked the streets of Trent and saw children involved in every type of mischief and danger, occasioned by boredom and the lack of guidance. Moved by such conditions, Stephen would converse with them, share in their games, and invite them to his brother’s home. He began to offer them instruction, as well as what food and articles of clothing he could find for those in need of them.

In short time the numbers of children who came to him increased and the more formal organization of classes began. By year’s end more than 200 boys and girls became students of Fr. Stephen’s free school, as well as recipients of every kind of benevolence he had to offer. The school had by now outgrown the Bellesini home as well as the outreach of this single teacher, who therefore rented additional space and hired assistants, all at his own expense. But as attentive as he was to their physical needs, and as fervent his desire to provide them with adequate instruction, Stephen was motivated no less by a concern for their religious formation.

-Michael DiGregorio, OSA

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice

The Figure of Stephen Bellesini in the Year of the Priest (excerpts) - Part 1

2009-12-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

We are fortunate to know a good deal about Stephen’s life and work. He was born on 25 November, 1774 in Trent, Italy and entered our monastery of San Marco there, professing vows on May 30, 1794. Three years later, on November 5, 1797, following studies in Bologna and Rome, he was ordained priest in the cathedral of Trent. Just eight days previously he had been carried to that same cathedral on a stretcher, not yet fully recovered from some serious illness, to meet his appointment for ordination to the diaconate. Years later Stephen’s niece, Marietta, recalled having heard this story told by her father, adding that “it showed how anxious Uncle Stephen was in wishing to receive holy Orders.” Sor Maria Emanuella della Santissima Trinità (Marietta Bellesini), in Positio P. Fr. Stephani Bellesini, Summarium 5, §35.

Stephen exercised his ministry at San Marco until 1809, both as teacher in the public schools and, for many years, as sacristan – or quasi-rector – of the monastery church. In this latter office it would fall to him to see that Mass and confessions were made available to the people who chose San Marco as their preferred place of worship. The celebration of Mass and the confession of penitents would be a large part of his ministry at San Marco, as well as the preaching of missions, tridua, or Lenten series, which he was frequently called upon to give both within and outside of Trent. His preaching activity was thus quite intense – as well as fruitful. One of his biographers, A. Weber, records that Stephen “devoted a great part of his night to study, drawing from the Gospel, as well as from reliable authors, the truths that he was to proclaim. Prayer was the key that he used to open minds and hearts, the dew that nourished the seed. As he grew in experience, he perfected the gift of entering and moving souls, and filled as he was with the spirit of charity, he anointed his sermons with the warmth of feeling, so that he could easily inspire his listeners, who flocked in droves to hear the thoughts by which he himself was moved.”A. Weber, Vita del B. Stefano Bellesini, Trento, 1940

-Michael DiGregorio, OSA

Posted by Carlos J. Medina, Novice

Faith as a weapon against fear

2009-11-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

The Mendicant Calling

2009-10-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

Tom Whelan OSA, this summer during the first convocation of the four, English-speaking, North-American provinces pointed out in his homily that the spirituality of the Order is as diverse and eclectic as its origins. Fr. Tom explained that the three major sources of life that brought the Augustinian way of life and spirituality as we know it today are St. Augustine and his rule, the hermitages from which the order was brought about, and the mendicant friar tradition into which we were brought into by Popes Innocent IV and Alexander IV. You can read Tom Whelan OSA's homily here.

As a novice in a Mendicant order, and one that will probably experience changes in the future, I think it is important to think about the roots of the Mendicant tradition in order to envision the future. Here are some historical considerations:

I believe that in a way the Mendicant movement surprised the Church. Perhaps it was something unexpected -at least for the hierarchy. Medieval Europe was a culture in which the clergy and the rich had the upper hand in society, and when the Mendicant movement started it was a lay movement that embraced poverty. Since this movement had no formal recognition from the Church at first beyond a blessing, and its contact with Church hierarchy was not always smooth, it is not surprising that some of the first mendicants became heretical. The most well known of these heretical groups were the Waldensians and the Cathari, which could have existed already in the 12th and 11th centuries.

The first Mendicant Order, St. Francis' Friars Minor, did not come until 1210, and tradition says that Pope Innocent III would not have approved it without a dream in which God told him that Francis would be a support for the whole Church. Thanks be to God that the Church finally recognized the needs of the time, and the Mendicant orders served as a proper outlet or way of life for people who felt called to identify with the poor in a time when the rich and the nobility had a say in society.

The Mendicant movement was flexible enough to grow into accomodating the other emerging needs of the time, such as in matters of studies. Today Thomistic theology, which in many aspects rests on Aristotelian philosophy, was revolutionary in the 13th century. The church was at first quite hesitant of Aristotle's philosophy, and yet, thanks to the genius of St. Thomas, it came to in some ways compatible, and even helpful (with some variances of course).

The Augustinians around the first half of the 13th century were not yet part of the Mendicant movement. They were hermits who lived in communities in the countryside of Italy, and other parts of Europe. It was thanks to Popes Innocent IV and Alexander IV, that different erimitical and monastic communities were united into one group, and were given the new identity of a Mendicant Order. This procedural aspect of this transition started in 1243 and was finalized in 1256, but the new Order took some time in to develop into the Mendicant way of life to which it was called by the Holy See.

From these considerations, two things come to mind.

1) I think that Mendicants, and in a sense all religious by way of their vow of poverty, have a mission to stand as a witness against the culture of consumerism.

2) I think that Mendicants are called by our history to pay attention to our society, our culture, our Church. Are there elements, movements, desires, that we as a Church have disregarded? In the time of St. Francis, it was the desire for simplicity and poverty. In the time of St. Thomas it was Aristotle. Whatever they are in our time, perhaps we need to acknowledge them, own them, and present them to the Lord for redemption.

Carlos J. Medina

A few points for Community Living

2009-10-28T14:17:00.000-07:00

St. Paul begins the 4th chapter of his letter to the Ephesians with these words:

I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you
have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another
through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace:

: one body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call;

: one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all; and in all.

I find the greeting quite dense, a bit puzzling, and yet full of practical advise for living in community. Several things strike me:

1) Our unity is supposed to be a sign of the unity of having "one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all."

2) We must strive to preserve and further this unity.

3) Humility is very important. How can reconciliation happen if we are not able to admit we were wrong?

4) Gentleness is very important. Does any one wish to be one with people who are not kind?

5) Patience is very important. If God bears with us patiently, we need patience to deal with the aspects of others we find difficult.

6) Love for each other is very important. This point reminds of St. Teresa of Avila's quote, "It is love alone that gives worth to all things."

Carlos J. Medina

As Respect Life Month draws to a close

2009-10-26T14:40:00.000-07:00

"I wish I could tell you that Church leaders were brave, countercultural and prophetic," I can still hear him say, "but that would not be the truth."

"With very few exceptions," he went on, "Catholics in the United States did little or nothing to condemn the dramatically moral evil of slavery, and demand its end. And that is to our shame to this day."

Those words came from my mentor, friend and teacher, Msgr. John Tracy Ellis, the legendary professor of the history of the Catholic Church in the United States, during his sobering lecture on the Church and slavery, when I was a graduate student at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Perhaps we have learned our lesson, for Catholic leaders—committed laity, religious sisters and brothers, clergy, bishops—have been on the front lines of the premier civil rights issue today, the right to life. And that is to our credit. And that's good to ponder during October, Respect Life Month.

The comparison of abortion to slavery is an apt one. The right of a citizen to "own" another human being as property—to control him/her, use him/her, sell him or decide her fate—was, prior to 1865, constitutional, sad to say.

That "right" to own a slave was even upheld by a decision of the U.S. Supreme Court (whose Chief Justice at the time, Roger Brooke Taney, was a Catholic, "personally opposed" to slavery!) in the infamous 1857 Dred Scott Decision, declaring that a slave who had escaped and claimed freedom had to be returned to his "master," because he had no rights at all.

Tragically, in 1973, in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court also strangely found in the constitution the right to abortion, thus declaring an entire class of human beings— now not African-Americans, but pre-born infants—to be slaves, whose futures, whose destinies, whose very right to life —can be decided by another "master." These fragile, frail babies have no civil rights at all.

Our faces blush with shame as we Catholics admit we did so little to end slavery; but we can smile and thank God that the Church has indeed been prophetic, courageous and counter cultural in the right to life movement. As an evangelical pastor recently commented to me, "We may criticize you Catholics for some things, but we have sure been inspired by your early and courageous leadership in the pro-life movement.""

-Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan

posted by Carlos J. Medina

A few words on Faith by Pope Benedict XVI

2009-10-26T14:05:00.000-07:00

Often I've thought of introducing someone to the faith in the same way that I would introduce her to some academic topic. Yet in thinking that way I forget that the essence of faith is not believing in facts, even facts about God, but about coming into a relationship with God. The Holy Father expresses this point in the following way:

"One does not really know a person if one knows about this person secondhandedly. To proclaim God is to introduce to the relation with God: to teach how to pray. Prayer is faith in action. And only by experiencing life with God does the evidence of His existence appear" ("The New Evangelization: Building the Civilization of Love").

Along the same lines he says the following in The Process of Spiritual Growth:

Never begin with thinking alone. For if you try to pull God toward you in the laboratory of rational thought, and to attach him to you in what is to some extent a purely theoretical fashion, you find you can't do it. You always have to combine the questions with action. Pascal once said to an unbelieving friend: "Start by doing what believers do, even if it still makes no sense to you." You can never look for faith in isolation; it is only found in an encounter with people who believe, who can understand you, who have perhaps come by way of a similar situation themselves, who can in some way lead you and help you. It is always among us that faith grows. Anyone who wants to go it alone has thus got it wrong from the very start.

Carlos J. Medina

Growing into One Heart and One Mind

2009-09-30T15:04:00.000-07:00

According to the theologian Paul Tillich, the human condition is one of estrangement -estrangement from God, and estrangement from one another. Since we grow into this condition, this condition seems normal, even natural. Yet, the Gospel is that Jesus came to set us free, to destroy the estrangement.

Before the resurrection, the apostles quarreled with each other as to whom was the greatest, (Luke 22; Mt 18). Perhaps Tillich would say the disciples were estranged from each other, even though Jesus, the source of all unity was in their midst. After the resurrection, after receiving the Holy Spirit, "The whole group of believers was of one mind and one heart. No one claimed any of his possessions as his own, but everything was held in common (Acts 4, 32)." As Jesus went to the father, he left them his Spirit which enabled them to grow into a life of harmony.

St. Augustine founded a rule for community life based on this verse. He writes, “before all else, live together in harmony being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.” For along time, I thought that for a group to be of one mind and heart all was needed was that the group had unity , and yet recognized the individuality of each member. Through the grace of God, this happens at the Augustinians houses I have been a part of and visited. Talking to an Augustinian sister, I realized that the meaning of “ being of one mind and one heart on the way to God” has more layers than I had realized. Perhaps this visible fellowship of different personalities is just one level, one layer of meaning, but there are deeper layers of meaning which I am just beginning to see. Perhaps seeing the full meaning of being one mind and heart on the way to God is something we discover as life as a religious, or a child of the Church goes on.

Augustine explains in a sermon that becoming one is not a complete good in itself. He explains that our source of unity could be something that brings disunity for the larger world community. In a concrete example, if a group of robbers are united by their greed, then their unity does not serve Christ. It is not Christian unity. Christian unity must be the unity Jesus prayed for. He prayed, "that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me" (Jn 17, 22-23).

According to our Holy Father, "In this priestly prayer, the Lord asks at least four times that his disciples may be "one", in accordance with the image of the unity between the Father and the Son. This is a unity that can only grow by following the example of the Son's gift of himself to the Father, that is, by coming out of oneself and uniting oneself with Christ. Moreover in this prayer Jesus twice adds as the purpose of this unity: so that the world may believe. Thus, full unity concerns the Church's life and mission in the world. She must live a unity that can only derive from her unity with Christ, with his transcendence, as a sign that Christ is the truth. This is our responsibility: that the gift of unity by virtue of which our faith is made credible may be visible in the world. For this reason it is important that every Christian community become aware of the urgent need to work in every possible way to achieve this great objective. However, knowing that unity is first and foremost a "gift" of the Lord, it is necessary at the same time to implore it with tireless and trusting prayer. Only by coming out of ourselves and going towards Christ, only in our relationship with him, can we become truly united with one another. (Pope Benedict XVI - January 21, 2009)

I think that anyone whose father is God, and whose mother is the Church, is a brother in the fullest sense. And yet, as the Holy father explains, this unity is possible only in Christ. Only in Him all estrangement may be overcome, and only in Him does unity reach its complete value. I think the whole Church is called to this unity, and I think that the Augustinian family, and all who consider themselves Augustinian have a special call to participate in the work for unity, a work that starts with prayer.

Carlos J. Medina

The Reality of Faith

2009-09-25T09:02:00.000-07:00

I dare to think that all people who call themselves religious, or spiritual, in some sense believe that there is more to life, to reality, when that life and reality seem utterly meaningless. In regards to this issue, I believe that what is unique to Christianity, is that that belief is made concrete in Jesus Christ. He was humiliated, tortured, and killed, as have been many throughout the world, and throughout history. Yet, death was not the end. On the third day, when all hope had been lost, he resurrected from the dead. In dying he offered his life, so that we all may have life. Neither, humiliation, torture, death, (and these can be psychological, and spiritual, as well as physical) are the end. He who was from the beginning became one like us, endured the evil of this world to the end, and yet he came out of it victorious in His resurrection. His suffering was real, and so was his death. But even more real is His resurrection. In it, He wants us all to partake of His life. The most commonly used phrase of St. Augustine is the line from the confessions “You have created us for yourself Oh God, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” What comfort is there in resting in Jesus! In knowing that all the questions that torment us in life are not the end if we cast ourselves upon him.

Faith then is not “believing something you know to be false” or merely believing something you cannot prove, but it is casting of your whole self on Him in spite of disease, a world who appears hostile, and a universe that seems impervious to us.

“Without faith there is no hope, without hope there is no strength, no fortitude to continue fighting. Faith is everything; it's what gives meaning, especially faith in Christ.” These words sound wonderful, and yet, one may still doubt, and think that they are fantasies of a theologian disconnected from the real world. But these words are the words of Ingrid Betancourt in an interview after she was rescued. She was a presidential candidate in Colombia who was kidnapped in 2002, and had to endure years of separation from her family in horrible conditions in the jungle for 6 years. I have written what I wrote in the previous two paragraphs inspired by her words.

Carlos J. Medina

St. Augustine on Sacrifice

2009-09-24T13:20:00.000-07:00

"A true sacrifice is every work which is done that we may be united to God in holy fellowship, and which has a reference to that supreme good and end in which alone we can be truly blessed. And therefore even the mercy we show to men, if it is not shown for God's sake, is not a sacrifice."

"[Each person], consecrated in the name of God, and vowed to God, is a sacrifice in so far as he dies to the world that he may live to God."

"Exhorting to this sacrifice, the apostle says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service (Romans 12:1). If, then, the body, which, being inferior, the soul uses as a servant or instrument, is a sacrifice when it is used rightly, and with reference to God, how much more does the soul itself become a sacrifice when it offers itself to God, in order that, being inflamed by the fire of His love, it may receive of His beauty and become pleasing to Him?"

"The whole redeemed city, that is to say, the congregation or community of the saints, is offered to God as our sacrifice through the great High Priest, who offered Himself to God in His passion for us, that we might be members of this glorious head, according to the form of a servant."

"Accordingly, the apostle had exhorted us to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, our reasonable service, and not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed in the renewing of our mind, that we might prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God, that is to say, the true sacrifice of ourselves."

"As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another, having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us (Romans 12:3-6). This is the sacrifice of Christians: we, being many, are one body in Christ. And this also is the sacrifice which the Church continually celebrates in the sacrament of the altar, known to the faithful, in which she teaches that she herself is offered in the offering she makes to God."

St. Augustine City of God Book 10, Ch 6

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

The Holy Father on Ecology

2009-09-24T13:01:00.000-07:00

The Earth is indeed a precious gift of the Creator who, in designing its intrinsic order, has given us bearings that guide us as stewards of his creation. Precisely from within this framework, the Church considers matters concerning the environment and its protection intimately linked to the theme of integral human development. In my recent Encyclical, Caritas in Veritate, I referred more than once to such questions, recalling the "pressing moral need for renewed solidarity" (n. 49) not only between countries but also between individuals, since the natural environment is given by God to everyone, and our use of it entails a personal responsibility towards humanity as a whole, and in particular towards the poor and towards future generations (cf. n. 48). Bearing in mind our common responsibility for creation (cf. n. 51), the Church is not only committed to promoting the protection of land, water and air as gifts of the Creator destined to everyone but above all she invites others and works herself to protect mankind from self-destruction. In fact, "when "human ecology' is respected within society, environmental ecology also benefits" (ibid.). Is it not true that an irresponsible use of creation begins precisely where God is marginalized or even denied? If the relationship between human creatures and the Creator is forgotten, matter is reduced to a selfish possession, man becomes the "last word", and the purpose of human existence is reduced to a scramble for the maximum number of possessions possible.

Pope Benedict XVI - August 26, 2009

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Augustine Day by Day

2009-09-23T12:44:00.001-07:00

Questions to Ponder

2009-09-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

If you are discerning your vocation, you might find prayerful meditation on these questions helpful:

When do I feel fully alive? What things, events, activities, etc., make me feel that life is really worth living, that it's great to be me, and to be alive?

What do I do well? What have I to contribute to the life of others? What skills do I have?

What things do I need to learn to do better?

What wishes could I be turning itno plans? Any dreams I've discarded as unrealistic that I could start dreaming again?

What would I do with my life if I knew that everything would turn out perfectly?

Posted by Carlos J. Medina
Questions posed by Don Loskot, SDS, PhD in a lecture on transitions.

Happy day of St. Alonso de Orozco

2009-09-19T12:45:00.000-07:00

Alonso was born at Oropesa (Toledo), Spain, on 17 October 1500. Attracted to Augustinian religious life by the words and example of St. Thomas of Villanova, Alonso entered the novitiate at the age of twenty-two, together with his brother Francis, on 8 June 1522.

For thirty years Alonso was engaged in the apostolate of teaching and preaching. Four times he was appointed prior of various monasteries and in 1548 obtained permission to fulfill his long felt desire to go to the missions in Mexico. By the time he reached the Canary Islands, however, a severe case of arthritis forces his return home. In the book of his Confessions, Alonso records that in the year 1542, while residing in the monastery of Seville, he beheld in a dream the Mother of God "who spoke to me but one word, and that was 'Write.'" Ever after Alonso followed this instruction, producing books on a variety of subjects up until his ninetieth year.

In 1551 he was appointed prior in the royal city of Valladolid and shortly thereafter named court preacher and chaplain to the royal family. Ten years later King Philip II transferred his court to Madrid and Blessed Alonso was constrained to accompany him. He occupied a cell in the friary of San Felipe el Real, where his life was one of simplicity and humility in contrast to the official functions of the court in which he necessarily participated. In the midst of his many duties in Madrid he was also responsible for the foundation of three convents of Augustinian contemplative nuns and the College of the Incarnation for the education of candidates to the Order.

On 19 September 1591, after an illness of several weeks duration, Alonso died at the age of ninety, mourned by young and old, wealthy and poor, the humble and the great.

Taken from Rotelle, John, Book of Augustinian Saints, Augustinian Press 2000

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

John Paul II on Ecumenism

2009-09-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

"Jesus himself, at the hour of his Passion, prayed "that they may all be one" (Jn 17:21). This unity, which the Lord has bestowed on his Church and in which he wishes to embrace all people, is not something added on, but stands at the very heart of Christ's mission. Nor is it some secondary attribute of the community of his disciples. Rather, it belongs to the very essence of this community. God wills the Church, because he wills unity, and unity is an expression of the whole depth of his agape."

"To believe in Christ means to desire unity; to desire unity means to desire the Church; to desire the Church means to desire the communion of grace which corresponds to the Father's plan from all eternity."

"[T]his unity bestowed by the Holy Spirit does not merely consist in the gathering of people as a collection of individuals."

"Christians cannot underestimate the burden of long-standing misgivings inherited from the past, and of mutual misunderstandings and prejudices. Complacency, indifference and insufficient knowledge of one another often make this situation worse."

"The Catholic Church knows that, by virtue of the strength which comes to her from the Spirit, the weaknesses, mediocrity, sins and at times the betrayals of some of her children cannot destroy what God has bestowed on her as part of his plan of grace. Moreover, "the powers of death shall not prevail against it" (Mt 16:18). Even so, the Catholic Church does not forget that many among her members cause God's plan to be discernible only with difficulty. Speaking of the lack of unity among Christians, the Decree on Ecumenism does not ignore the fact that "people of both sides were to blame", and acknowledges that responsibility cannot be attributed only to the "other side"."

"The Church of God is called by Christ to manifest to a world ensnared by its sins and evil designs that, despite everything, God in his mercy can convert hearts to unity and enable them to enter into communion with him."

"The power of God's Spirit gives growth and builds up the Church down the centuries. As the Church turns her gaze to the new millennium, she asks the Spirit for the grace to strengthen her own unity and to make it grow towards full communion with other Christians."

"How is the Church to obtain this grace? In the first place, through prayer. Prayer should always concern itself with the longing for unity, and as such is one of the basic forms of our love for Christ and for the Father who is rich in mercy. In this journey which we are undertaking with other Christians towards the new millennium prayer must occupy the first place."

Taken from Ut Unum Sint

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Q&A about the Eucharist (2)

2009-09-16T12:48:00.000-07:00

Are those who take part of the Eucharist committed to anything?

Proclaiming the death of the Lord “until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26) entails that all who take part in the Eucharist be committed to changing their lives and making them in a certain way completely “Eucharistic”. It is this fruit of a transfigured existence and a commitment to transforming the world in accordance with the Gospel which splendidly illustrates the eschatological tension inherent in the celebration of the Eucharist and in the Christian life as a whole: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:20).

Is receiving communion a solely personal event?

“The bread which we break, is it not a communion in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor 10:16-17). Saint John Chrysostom's commentary on these words is profound and perceptive: “For what is the bread? It is the body of Christ. And what do those who receive it become? The Body of Christ – not many bodies but one body. For as bread is completely one, though made of up many grains of wheat, and these, albeit unseen, remain nonetheless present, in such a way that their difference is not apparent since they have been made a perfect whole, so too are we mutually joined to one another and together united with Christ”.

Which one is prior our union to the Church or our union to Christ?

"our union with Christ, which is a gift and grace for each of us, makes it possible for us, in him, to share in the unity of his body which is the Church... The Eucharist, precisely by building up the Church, creates human community."

What is the value of Eucharistic adoration?

"The worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass is of inestimable value for the life of the Church.

If in our time Christians must be distinguished above all by the “art of prayer”, how can we not feel a renewed need to spend time in spiritual converse, in silent adoration, in heartfelt love before Christ present in the Most Holy Sacrament?"

Answers from Pope John Paul II's Ecclesia de Eucharistia

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Q&A about the Eucharist

2009-09-16T12:32:00.000-07:00

Is the Eucharist just one gift among many others?

"The Church has received the Eucharist from Christ her Lord not as one gift – however precious – among so many others, but as the gift par excellence, for it is the gift of himself, of his person in his sacred humanity, as well as the gift of his saving work."

Is the Eucharist confined to the past?

"Nor does it remain confined to the past, since all that Christ is – all that he did and suffered for all men – participates in the divine eternity, and so transcends all times"

Does the Mass repeat the sacrifice of the Cross?

"The Mass makes present the sacrifice of the Cross; it does not add to that sacrifice nor does it multiply it. What is repeated is its memorial celebration, its “commemorative representation” (memorialis demonstratio), which makes Christ's one, definitive redemptive sacrifice always present in time. "

Does the Eucharist commemorates and makes present only the sacrificial death of Christ?

"The Eucharistic Sacrifice makes present not only the mystery of the Saviour's passion and death, but also the mystery of the resurrection which crowned his sacrifice."

Besides the words at the Last Supper, did Jesus say anything about the Eucharist?

“As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me” (Jn 6:57). Jesus himself reassures us that this union, which he compares to that of the life of the Trinity, is truly realized. The Eucharist is a true banquet, in which Christ offers himself as our nourishment. When for the first time Jesus spoke of this food, his listeners were astonished and bewildered, which forced the Master to emphasize the objective truth of his words: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life within you” (Jn 6:53). This is no metaphorical food: “My flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed” (Jn 6:55).

Answers from John Paul II's Ecclesia de Eucharistia

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Brief directives for prayer of the heart

2009-09-15T19:22:00.000-07:00

1. Sit or stand in a dimly lit place.
2. Recollect yourself.
3. With the help of your imagination find the place of your heart.
4. Leave your mind from the head and into the heart -your breathing can help you
descend to your heart.
4. Stay there with attention, and slowly repeat in your mind or softly with your lips, "Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me."

From the writings of the Eastern Fathers in the Philokalia

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

God Our Creator

2009-09-14T19:32:00.000-07:00

"For it was you who created my being,
knit me together in my mother's womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
for the wonders of all creation." (Psalm 139)

According to sociologist Norbert Wiley, "The infant is born non-symbolic and without a self, though [in normal cases] it does have the pre-conditions for acquiring one. The parents, however -to view them at their best -see baby as a self from the beginning, talking as though he or she can understand them and finding meaning in baby before any is there... Broadly speaking the parents are communicating two things to baby: "We love you" and "You are there." They are pouring love and also existence into their baby. Or, in more technical terms, they are giving "recognition" and selfhood to the child."

I was touched by tha fact that our self is created by the free outpouring of love of our parents, or caregivers. Wiley goes on to say that development of the self "comes a lot more slowly if the love and recognition are thin, for these are the foundations of baby's trust."

If we are created in the image of God, perhaps we can read off the way our self is born something about God, namely that God's act of creation was the result of an outpouring of love. St. John tells us that, "We love because he first loved us;" (1 Jn 4, 19) perhaps we can say: "We exist because he first loved us." God as our Father, our brother, and the Spirit, continues to express to us the same things that brought us into being "We love you" and "You are there."

Wiley explains that engaging in "role-taking" and emerging from it as a self is not easy for the baby. "It is more peaceful and effortless to remain silent and symbiotic." The emergence of self of the baby is reinforced by the parents. "the parents are saying take a shot at it, smile, be cute, make little noises with your mouth, and we'll love you no matter how you do it. We'll mirror what you do, possibly with some minor corrections or suggestions, but no matter how you do it, we'll applaud you."

Throughout the psalms and the prophets there are instances in which God speaks of himself in this nurturing and caring attitude. Yet several people, even some believers, have a problem in believing in a God who is love given all the suffering and evil in the world. Joan Chittister quotes Einstein as saying, “God is subtle but not malicious.” She comments on Einstein, "Well, perhaps ... but such subtlety and goodwill were hardly visible to the human eye, hardly arguable to those who were suffering the evil they were told was meant simply to test their fidelity or to try their character. Such subtlety, in fact, is barely sustainable without the eye of blind faith in the light of the injustices and struggles of the real world around us."

Chittister believes that perhaps our notion of God is misguided. She says we need to develop a new notion of God as creator given the current knowledge about creation. From a mechanistic understanding of the universe, most of us inherited a notion of a God who set in motion a planned universe, and then stepped back except for few exceptions.

The new scientific discoveries in the human sciences and biology reveal to us that creation is not mechanistic. These scientific insights can give us a better glimpse of what kind of creator God is. Chittister believes that our current scientific understanding leads us to believe in a "God who shares power and waits for the best from us and provides for what we need to make it happen. We become participants in the process of life and the development of the world that is not so much planned as it is enabled. As nature grows, experiments, unfolds, selects and adapts, so then must we. Growth, not perfection, becomes the purpose of life. Ongoing creation, not predestined fate, becomes the purpose of life."

"The very process of human growth, not human puppetry in the hands of a disinterested and demanding God, becomes the purpose of life. And God becomes the God of a universe on its way to growing into glory, of becoming one with its creator. Life ceases to be a program of expectations tied up in a black box, the purpose of which is to tease us into unlocking and unraveling the mystery of our lives before it gets to be too late to achieve it."

"God is the one who stands by as we grow from one self to another, from one level of insight to another, from one age and awareness to another. God, we come to understand, is not the God of fixed determinations now... God, we come to see in the model that is evolutionary, is promise and possibility and forever emerging life."

------

Chittister, Joan. National Catholic Reporter: "The God who beckons"
Wiley, Norbert. Symbolic Interaction. "The Self as Self-Fulfillin Prophecy"

The views here posted are my own, and not necessarily those of my province or of the Order.

Carlos J. Medina

The source of life for the Church

2009-09-14T19:23:00.000-07:00

By the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost the Church was born and set out upon the pathways of the world, yet a decisive moment in her taking shape was certainly the institution of the Eucharist in the Upper Room. Her foundation and wellspring is the whole Triduum paschale, but this is as it were gathered up, foreshadowed and “concentrated' for ever in the gift of the Eucharist. In this gift Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church the perennial making present of the paschal mystery. With it he brought about a mysterious “oneness in time” between that Triduum and the passage of the centuries.

The Church draws her life from Christ in the Eucharist; by him she is fed and by him she is enlightened.

Even when it is celebrated on the humble altar of a country church, the Eucharist is always in some way celebrated on the altar of the world. It unites heaven and earth. It embraces and permeates all creation. The Son of God became man in order to restore all creation, in one supreme act of praise, to the One who made it from nothing. He, the Eternal High Priest who by the blood of his Cross entered the eternal sanctuary, thus gives back to the Creator and Father all creation redeemed. He does so through the priestly ministry of the Church, to the glory of the Most Holy Trinity.

By John Paul II from Ecclesia de Eucharistia 5, 6, 8

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Happy Feast Day of St. Nicholas of Tolentine!

2009-09-10T19:14:00.000-07:00

Nicholas Gurrutti was born in the village of Sant'Angelo in Pontano, Italy in 1245. At an early age Nicholas was greatly moved by the preaching of the Augustinian, Father Reginaldo do Monterubbiano, prior of the monastery of Sant'Angelo, and requested admission to the community.

His religious formation was greatly influenced by the spirituality of the hermits of Brettino, one of the congregations which came to form part of the "Grand Union" of Augustinians in 1256. whose communities were located in the region of the March where Nicholas was born and raised.

At times, Nicholas devoted himself to prayer and works of penance with such intensity that it was necessary for his superiors to impose limitations on him. At one point he was so weakened though fasting that he was encouraged in a vision of Mary and the child Jesus to eat a piece of bread signed with the cross and soaked in water to regain his strength. Thereafter he followed this practice in ministering to the sick himself. In his honor the custom of blessing and distributing the "Bread of Saint Nicholas" in continued by the Augustinians in many places today.

Nicholas was ordained to the priesthood in 1271. He lived in several difference monasteries of the Augustinian Order, engaged principally in the ministry of preaching. In 1275 he was sent to Tolentino and remained there for the rest of his life. Nicholas worked to counteract the decline of morality and religion which came with the development of city life in the late thirteenth century. He ministered to the sick and the poor, and actively sought out those who had become estranged from the Church.

He was declared a saint in 1446, the first member of the Augustinian Order to be canonized. Saint Nicholas' body is venerated in the basilica in Tolentino which bears his name.

Taken from here: http://www.osa-west.org/saintnicholasoftolentine.html

Posted by Carlos J. Medina

Growing in Prayer

2009-09-09T19:41:00.000-07:00

Are we entirely happy with the way we are growing spiritually? If we are not, we are in good company, right in the same league with Augustine himself, who tells us:

Never stop questioning yourself. Let your present state always leave you dissatisfied, if you want to become what you are not yet. For whenever you grow satisfied with yourself, you stop making progress (sermon 169, 18).

...Augustine also tells us that we cannot really know another person unless we are willing to receive him into our midst and strive towards real friendship with him (De Div. Quaestionibus 83). In the same way we cannot expect to really know Jesus unless we are willing to know him personally, as a friend, and not just as the object of a good book or as the ideal of the saints. Too many people -even priests and religious- can talk about God as an object of speculation, of intellectual curiosity, but they will never really know him unless they search for him and his will, as one person relates with another.

...We always find time for the things we consider important in life, even for the trivial: the daily newspaper, our favorite TV show, a sports event, a meeting, etc. If God is important to us -and how can he not be? - we will find time, we will make time for him also. Prayer -interior, contemplative, silent prayer - will not be something we "squeeze in" at the last moment, or to which we give the minimum time required, or from which we excuse ourselves for almost any reason at all... Prayer will be a real treasure for us when we succeed in making it less complicated, less routine, and look upon it as it really is: a personal encounter with Jesus, with a friend, with the one who loves us and gives us life, and is anxious to have us draw closer to him. When that happens, then we will have begun to burst those bonds, those marble blocks, that restrain us and have perhaps tied us down for too long, so that we can be truly free to grow and become what we are not yet.

By Fr. Theodore V. Tack, OSA from "Growing in Prayer."

Posted by Carlos J. Medina