5th Sunday of Easter (B)

Short Reflection for the 5^th Sunday of Easter (B)

Readings:  Acts 9: 26- 31; 1 John 3: 18-24; John 15: 1-8

Selected Passage: “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you” (John 15: 7)

Short Reflection: The challenge to each one of us is to remain steadfast in the faith both in good times as well as in bad times.  The gospel tells us we to connected to Jesus in order to bear much fruit.  The Father is the vine grower and we submit to his way of making us productive.  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1.    Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2.   Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3.   Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

Our Unfinished Symphony

OUR UNFINISHED SYMPHONY
Thomas Aquinas taught that “every choice is a renunciation” and that is why commitment, particularly a life-long commitment in marriage, is so difficult.

Karl Rahner famously stated: “In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable, we finally learn that here in this life all symphonies must remain unfinished.”

And those of us who are old enough remember the haunting line in the old Salve Regina prayer: “To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.”

What each of these captures, in essence, is that in this life there is not such a thing as clear-cut pure joy and that we will live more peacefully and happily if we can accept that and not put false pressure on life, on our loves ones, and on God, to give us the full symphony right now.

Every day of their lives, my parents prayed words to the effect that, this side of eternity, they were “mourning and weeping in a valley of tears”. It didn’t make them sad, morbid, or stoic. The opposite: It gave them the tools that they needed to accept life’s real limits and the real limits and imperfections within community, church, family, and marriage. They were happier for knowing and accepting that.

My worry is that today we aren’t equipping our own children in thesame way. Instead, too often, we are helping them nurse the false expectation that, if they do it right, they can have it all already in this life. All that is needed is to have the right body, the right career, the right city, the right neighborhood, the right friends, the right vacations, and the right soul mate and they can have the full symphony here and now.

It’s not to be had, and Anita Brookner’s maxim that in marriage we “cannot not disappoint each other” simply states, in secular language, that no one, no matter how good, can be God for somebody else.

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http://ronrolheiser.com/our-unfinished-symphony/…
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Our Unfinished Symphony | Ron Rolheiser

“Our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment. There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our life. It seems that there is no such thing as a clear-cut pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence...

RONROLHEISER.COM

4th Sunday of Easter (B)

Short Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Easter (B): Good Shepherd Sunday

Readings: Acts 4: 8-12; I John 3: 1-2; John 10: 11-18

Selected Passage: “I am the good shepherd, and I know mine and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I will lay down my life for the sheep." (John 10: 14 - 15)

Meditation: We are, indeed, called to become THAT GOOD SHEPHERD with the people entrusted to our care and service. A good shepherd defends his sheep; he protects them from danger and death; and he lays down his life for them.

Visit www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1. Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…
2. Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips.
3. Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…

3rd Sunday of Easter (B)

Short Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Easter (B)

Readings: Acts 3: 13-15. 17-19; 1 John 2: 1-5a; Luke 24: 35-48

Selected Passage: “And he said to them, thus it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and that repentance, for the forgiveness of sins, would be preached in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things." (Luke 24: 45-48)

Meditation: We are, indeed, witnesses of the life, teachings and deeds of the Risen Lord.  Post Resurrection, we no longer see the physical face or look of the Risen Lord, yet we see and recognize him in good works done for the least of our brothers and sisters – food to the hungry; drink to the thirsty; clothes to the naked; visit the sick and prisoners; home to the strangers.  The disciples recognized the Risen Lord when they gave the stranger shelter and meal to the hungry. Right at the very act of breaking/sharing of the bread, they recognized the Risen Lord.

Visit www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

Dhikr is an Arabic word for remembrance. In the “tariqa” (the way) movement, dhikr developed into a form of prayer… It is a prayer of the heart… following three simple steps:

1.    Write in one’s heart a certain passage of the Holy Writ…

2.   Make the same passage ever present in one’s lips. 

3.   Then wait for God’s disclosure on the meaning of the passage…that interprets one’s life NOW…!

It takes a week of remembering (dhikr)…or even more days to relish the beauty of this method…