Good tree, good fruit

Saturday, September 10, 2011:  Today’s liturgy speaks about a good tree bearing good fruit and a bad tree bearing bad fruit.  In every fruit-bearing tree is a seed: apple, pear, plum, chestnut, apricot, banana, breadfruit, mango, oranges, etc. The fruit does nothing but await the nutrients the tree feeds it: water, sun’s rays, and its own sap or the nutrients from within the tree. Within you and me, a seed was planted by God’s creation of us. We are all created in the image of God. That image grows at its own pace, as does the apple, orange, mango, etc.  Besides the gift of being created in God’s image is the gift of faith given many of us at our baptism.  This seed also grows, if we give it the nourishment  it needs. And it grows, also, at its own pace. My faith today is very different than my faith as a adolescent, for instance.  The question is:  Am I providing the nourishment my faith needs every day to grow into a “strong oak”: prayer, solitude, the sacraments, reflection on the Scriptures, and relating to others in the events of each day in a way that my actions and attitudes are life-giving and flow from the power of the Spirit at the core of my being?

Spirituality of Mother Frances Streitel: what nurtured it

Amalia aka Mother Frances Streitel, grew up in the Western part of Germany, at the foot of the Thuringian Forest and the Rhoen mountains in a town of about 5000 persons (the population today is around 6,000). The environment abounds with beauty. Picture yourself in a opulent forest surrounded by mountainous terrain, stretches and stretches of pristine foliage.   What a gift nature is to all of us who long for the solitude and spectacular experiences of the out-of-doors.  There is a saying that goes like “Nothing is more like God than solitude.” Nature abounds with silence. Hikers, mountaineers, outdoors persons, landscapers and others absolutely love it, seek it, drink it into the marrow of their bones. Amalia did, I believe, and it may have been this closeness to God through nature that nurtured her faith. What nurtures yours? Tune in for more tomorrow!

A choice: focusing on other's faults or transforming one's own

This morning I meditated on today's Gospel (Lk 6. 39-42). Last night when the sisters I live with shared faith based on their reflections of this passage, I was touched by the opening phrase another emphasized: "Can a blind person guide a blind person?" All of a sudden I realized that the statements that follow this describe how I become blind, that is, when I am focusing or obsessing about the mistakes others are making, or I think they are making, complaining about their weaknesses, I am then actually blinded--that plank in my eyes fogs my vision of what God asks of me. While criticizing others, I am not engaging in constructive behaviors/attitudes that will make a difference today in building a Kingdom of peace and justice and love by what I do or say or leave undone or unsaid. I cannot serve that part of me tearing others down and also serve that part of me called to build the Kingdom. I cannot simultaneously follow good spirits while serving evil spirits.

Specialness, blessings

We just celebrated several birthdays of sisters with whom I minister here in NJ. There are several of
SSMs celebrating birthday this month. This led me to thank God for His creation of us and of
 of people who cross our lives. One such person in my life is Amalia Frances Rose Streitel, aka Mother Frances, the Foundress of my religious community. Amalia was born on November 24, 1844. It was a dreary, gray day.  As was the custom, she was baptized that same day. In spite of no sun, the room lit up like a Christmas tree and the priest quoted Scripture, asking: “What will this child turn out to be?”   As mind-bottling as her baptism is her life with God. The same is true of each of us, even if the room in which we were baptized did not burst into unexplainable light! More tomorrow!

Mary's birthday--a woman who totally cooperated with God

Today we celebrate the birthday of our Blessed  Mother. No ordinary birthday, to say the least.

Here is a woman who always said “yes” to God’s plan of salvation. Her “yes” was not an easy yes.  She risked her life when she said “yes” to the incarnation, to allowing God to use her womb to give human form to His Son, whom He was sending into the world to carry out His plan of redemption. He was not going to lose any part of His creation. His love for us was too great to let that happen. Yet, God has given each one of us a free will. We can say “yes” or “no” to our salvation and to what it takes to choose that which leads to eternal life with God, to eternal happiness, to eternal peace and, in the meantime, to peace with ourselves, with others and with God.

Mary believed in God. She accepted His plan and did not ever thwart it. She sums it up at Cana when she said to the servants: “Do whatever He tells you.”  Do I do whatever God tells me? Do I even take time to inquire of God what His will is for me or do I just plow ahead each day doing my own thing? And when obstacles come—I don’t get my way—do I simply rant and rave, become quarrelsome instead of stepping back, taking time to reflect and pray about the situation that I am ranting about?

God's compassion and blessing

September 7—Today’s responsorial psalm reminded us that God is compassionate toward all of His works. That means that God is compassionate toward you and me. God understands the challenges we face as human beings to live as Jesus lived: being nonjudgmental; caring toward the oppressed, those who are crippled emotionally and/or physically, the hearing impaired, the mentally challenged, the needy, ourselves, children and adolescents when they test our patience.  Jesus says to us in today’s Gospel: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” We might translate that into “Blessed are you when you know how dependent you are on me.” To be compassionate as Jesus was we need His intervention; we need grace.  Neither do we develop a sense of compassion without being in relationship with others. Therefore, to put on Christ, we need one another as much as we need God. We do not grow spiritually in a vacuum or by isolating from others and from the challenges of life.  Being poor in spirit and therefore blessed means that we depend upon the Lord and one another, that we believe in the goodness of God, in our own goodness and the goodness of others.  For me, this brings me to the foot of the cross, begging for God’s mercy and His help and thanking Him for the grace of redemption .

the gift of meditation, the gift of faith

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, according to their Rule or Constitution, set aside a minimum of 30 minutes each day for meditation upon the Scriptures or another source of spiritual nourishment. This morning I meditated on the first reading of today’s liturgy (Col.2:6-15). What an awesome reading in which we are reminded that we share in the fullness of the diety in human form in Christ Jesus.  We share in the fullness; we do not, obviously, possess the fullness. But even to share in the fullness of the diety is awesome.  How is it that we are given this gift? St. Paul  tells us that, on the cross, Jesus took our transgressions upon Himself, obliterated them,  removed them, nailed them to the cross.  All that causes death was nailed to the Cross with Christ and all that causes new life in God was raised to life with Jesus. In baptism, we, too, die and rise with Christ. The self that was alienated from God and the things of God by sin and selfishness, greed and lust for power, prestige and worldly pleasures—the allurements of the world, worldly philosophies and ideologies—was buried with Christ at our baptisms.  We rose with Christ through the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. The self that rose with Christ is a new self. We put on Jesus Christ in baptism.  We are now rooted in Christ Jesus.  Our hearts have been circumcised , that is, we underwent a spiritual circumcision, not a physical one.  Our hearts, not a physical part of our bodies, were changed by baptism into Christ.  By dying and rising with Christ in our baptisms and through the faith that was given to us in baptism,  we are now spiritually dead to sin, selfishness, worldly philosophies and ideologies, jealousies, lusts for power, prestige and popularity, fear of death (saving the self, not losing it in love, in truth, in purity). We rose with Christ transformed into new persons, reconciled to God and to one another. What a grace!