6th Sunday of Easter (B)

Short Reflection for the 6^th Sunday of Easter (B)

Readings: Acts 10: 25-26. 34-35. 44-48; 1 John 4: 7-10; John 15: 9-17

Selected Passage: “I no longer call you slaves, because a slave does not know what his master is doing. I have called you friends, because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father.” (John 15: 15)

Meditation:  Among the many names given to the followers of Jesus, the title: “FRIENDS of Jesus” is, no doubt, the closest to the heart of discipleship. Jesus calls us friends, because he shares with us all he has from the Father

Yes. Have no fear, Jesus is our FRIEND and we are his…!

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…

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.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser
http://ronrolheiser.com/our-unfinished-symphony/…
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

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…

A Redeeming God, NOT a Rescuing God...

THE RESURRECTION AS REVEALING GOD AS REDEEMER, NOT AS RESCUER

That’s a line from Daniel Berrigan that rightly warns us that faith in Jesus and the resurrection won’t save us from humiliation, pain, and death in this life. Faith isn’t meant to do that.

Jesus is deeply and intimately loved by his Father and yet his Father doesn’t rescue him from humiliation, pain, and death. In his lowest hour, when he is humiliated, suffering, and dying on the cross, Jesus is jeered by the crowd with the challenge: “If God is your father, let him rescue you!” But there’s no rescue.  Instead Jesus dies inside the humiliation and pain. God raises him up only after his death.

This is one of the key revelations inside the resurrection: We have a redeeming, not a rescuing, God.

It took the early Christians some time to grasp that Jesus doesn’t ordinarily give special exemptions to his friends (such as in the story of Lazarus) no more than God gave special exemptions to Jesus. So, like us, they struggled with the fact that someone can have a deep, genuine faith, be deeply loved by God, and still have to suffer humiliation, pain, and death like everyone else. God didn’t spare Jesus from suffering and death, and Jesus doesn’t spare us from them.

That is one of the key revelations inside of the resurrection and is the one we perhaps most misunderstand. We are forever predicating our faith on, and preaching, a rescuing God, a God who promises special exemptions to those of genuine faith: Have a genuine faith in Jesus, and you will be spared from life’s humiliations and pains! Have a genuine faith in Jesus, and prosperity will come your way! Believe in the resurrection, and rainbows will surround your life!

Would it were so! But Jesus never promised us rescue, exemptions, immunity from cancer, or escape from death. He promised rather that, in the end, there will be redemption, vindication, immunity from suffering, and eternal life. But that’s in the end; meantime, in the early and intermediate chapters of our lives, there will be the same kinds of humiliation, pain, and death that everyone else suffers.

The death and resurrection of Jesus reveal a redeeming, not a rescuing, God.

Good Friday - A Day of Shame!

Good Friday Celebration points to the Cross - an Innocent Man was crucified and died that other may have life.

In some Arabic Literature, is called the "Day of Shame". It reminds of reading again the small book written by Elie Wiesel - Night - Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

This was a testimony of the harrowing experiences in Auschwitz...

Elie Wiesel - The Night

“I remember that night, the most horrendous of my life:

…. Eliezer, my son, come here… I want to you something… Only to you… Come, don’t leave me alone…

I heard his voice, grasped the meaning of his words and the tragic dimension of the moment, yet I did nit move.

It had been his last wish to have me next to him in his agony, at the moment when his soul was tearing itself from his lacerated body – yet I did not let him have his wish.

I was afraid. Afraid of the blows. That was why I remained deaf to his cries.

Instead of sacrificing my miserable life and rush into his side, taking his hand, reassuring him, showing him that he was not abandoned, that I was near him, that I felt his sorrow, instead of all that. I remained flat on my bed, asking God to make my father stop calling my name, to make him stop crying. So afraid was I to incur the wrath of the SS.

In fact, my father was no longer conscious. Yet his plaintive, harrowing voice went on piercing the silence and calling me, nobody but me.

Well? The SS had flown into rage and was striking my farther on the head. ‘Be quiet, old man! Be quiet!’

My father no longer felt the club’s blows: I did. And yet I did not react. I let the SS beat my father. I let him alone in the clutches of death. Worse: I was angry with him for having been noisy, for having cried, for provoking then wrath of the SS.

‘Eliezer! Eliezer! Come, don’t leave me alone…’ His voice had reached me from so far away, from so close. But I had not moved!

I shall never forgive myself.

Nor shall I forgiven the world for having pushed me against the wall, for having turned me into stranger, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts.

His last word had been my name. A summon. And I had not responded.”

www.badaliyya.blogspot.com