14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 14^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A)

 

Readings: Zechariah 9: 9-19; Romans 8: 9, 11-13; Matthew 11: 25-30

 

Gospel Passage: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11: 28)

 

Meditation: We need NOT carry our crosses ALONE. Life is NOT an endurance test!  Do you weary and fret over about many things? Often we act like gods… We are NOT! We need to learn how to relinquish control and let go and allow God to be in control.  Jesus invites us to go to him and share with him our burden. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

 

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

 

Dhikr is an Arabic word which means REMEMBRANCE.

1st step: Write the text in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

 

 

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 13^th Sunday of the Ordinary Year (A)

 

Readings: 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37- 42

 

Selected Passage:  “If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward." (Mt. 10: 42).

 

Meditation: Any good deed will endure forever. Jesus also pays attention to the merits those who show gestures of kindness to his disciples.  And NO single act of hospitality will go to waste. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

 

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD...

1^st step: Write the Dhikr in your heart.

2^nd step: Let the Dhikr remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the dihkr silently as often as possible...

3^rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the Dhikr in your life.

 

 

Everyday Life as Sacrament

EVERYDAY LIFE AS SACRAMENT

Our belief is that the universe shows forth God’s glory. That means each of us is made in God’s image, that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, that the food we eat is sacramental, and that in our work and in our sexual embrace, we are co-creators with God.

In Christianity “the word becomes flesh”, God enters into the physical and thus everything that is physical is potentially sacramental. It’s noteworthy that scripture does not simply say that God became a human being. It says more: “God becomes flesh” - physical, earth. 

There are many reasons why we aren’t more habitually alert to the fact that we are standing on holy ground. Although our everyday activities come laden with sacrament, most of them are rooted in the fact that we are human, that life is long, and that it isn’t easy to sustain high symbols, high language, and high ideals in the muck and grime of everyday life.

Eating, working, and making love should be holy, but too often we do them more for survival than for any sacramentality and “getting by” is about as high a symbol as we can muster on a weekday. I say this with sympathy. It isn’t easy, day by day, hour by hour, to experience sacrament in the ordinary actions of our lives.

But there’s another reason why we have lost the sense of sacramentality in our lives, namely, we have too little prayer and ritual around our ordinary actions. We too seldom use prayer or ritual to connect our actions – eating, drinking, working, socializing, making love, giving birth to things – to their sacred origins.

Generally, we don’t connect our food to its sacred origins, don’t consider our work as co-creation with God, don’t bless our workplaces and boardrooms, and would shrink at the very thought of blessing a bedroom where sex takes place.

We are the poorer for that, not just religiously, but humanly.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/everyday-life-as-sacrament/#.XvDYMPJ7k_8
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Naming the Present Moment

NAMING THE PRESENT MOMENT & A RETREAT OPPORTUNITY

by Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

John of the Cross suggests that God’s daily word is written inside of ordinary experience. Our task is to examine our own experiences and try to name what God is saying to us inside of them, by using images from scripture and our faith tradition

For example, today, a group of believers today might ask itself: “What time are we living in? Is this the time of the desert? Is this again the time of the Babylonian exile? Are we on the road to Emmaus? Are we meeting Jesus, along with the Syro-Phoenician woman, on the borders of ethnicity, religion, gender? Are we in the upper room, awaiting a new Pentecost, taking seriously Jesus’ counsel to not leave the city until we feel ourselves clothed with power?”

And given our experience of being Christian within a post-ecclesial society, we might ask too: “What is God saying to us inside of a culture that is spiritual but not ecclesial, Christian but mostly bitter and grandiose about its own roots? Is this a time of pruning, of special humbling? What is our task in a time of ecclesial, historical dis-privilege? What should our waiting consist of?”

To pray and struggle to name our experiences biblically and in faith is to “read the signs of the times”. It’s also good spiritual direction as John of the Cross defines it.

I like a comment I once heard from Richard Rohr: “Not everything can be cured or fixed, but it should be named properly.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

12th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 12^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

 

Readings: Jeremiah 20: 10 – 13; Romans 5: 12 – 15; Matthew 10: 26 - 33

 

Selected Passage: “Are not two sparrows sold for a small coin? Yet not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge. Even all the hairs of your head are counted. So do not be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. (Matthew 10: 29-31)

 

Meditation: Jesus exhorts his apostles to take courage in their work and they should not be afraid to talk and to proclaim God’s kingdom. They may encounter hostilities along the way. But they have to take courage just the same.

 

Have NO fear! Trust in the Lord. Believe that we are worth more than many sparrows. Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

 

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

 

Dhikr is an Arabic word which means REMEMBRANCE.

1st step: Write the text in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

 

What Dark Nights Do for Us

WHAT DARK NIGHTS DO FOR US

On the surface this might seem incongruous, even contradictory; but those two things, her feeling that God was absent and her exceptional selflessness, are not unconnected. The opposite. The latter depends precisely upon the former; her inability to feel God affectively, the dryness of her faith experience, the dark night that enveloped her, were precisely the reason her faith was so pure, and her actions were so selfless.

In short, with all affective feelings gone and with her imagination helpless to create images of God and a concept of God’s existence, she was no longer able to manipulate her experience of God and reshape it to fit her own needs. She had to receive God on God’s own terms, not on her terms. The very dryness of her faith was what made it so pure. The seeming absence of God also helped assure the absence of her own ego.

Evidence suggests that 95% of the time we do manipulate our experience of God to serve our own interests. However, God arranges things so that we cannot do this all the time. God corrects our proclivity to create a God who works for our self-interest by sending us, as he did to Mother Teresa, crushing dark nights of the soul, namely, periods of imaginative and affective dryness within which we simply are unable to imagine and affectively feel either God’s existence or God’s love for us.

While we continue to somehow “know” God at a deeper level, our imaginations and our emotions run out of gas, completely. When this happens, we find ourselves powerless to manipulate our experience of God in any way – and certainly not to work it for our own benefit.

God can then flow into us purely, with our egos, narcissism, and selfishness now unable to color the experience.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser
http://ronrolheiser.com/what-dark-nights-do-for-us/#.XtkkumpKg_8

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Private Integrity

PRIVATE INTEGRITY

What we do in secret ultimately shapes the person whom we present in public. Dishonesty changes the very way we look because it changes who we are. That’s the reason why so often those around us will intuit the truth about us, smell the lie, even when they don’t have any hard evidence on which to suspect us.

Doing something in secret that we can’t admit in public is the very definition of hypocrisy and hypocrisy forces us to lie. And lying, among all sins, is perhaps the most dangerous. Why? Because we hate ourselves for it and we stop respecting ourselves. When we stop respecting ourselves, we will, all too soon, notice that other people stop respecting us too.

The biblical image of the honest sinner humbly turning towards God is predicated precisely on honesty, on the sinner not hiding or lying about his or her sin. When we don’t honestly admit our sin we move in the opposite direction, namely, towards rationalization, hardness of attitude, and cynicism. When we hide a sin, we are forced to lie, and with that lie we immediately begin to harden and reshape our souls. You can do anything, as long as you don’t have to lie about it. That’s very different than saying that you can do anything as long as nobody finds out about it.

We should never delude ourselves into thinking that the things we do in private, including very small actions of infidelity, of self-indulgence, of bigotry, of jealousy, or of slander, are of no consequence since no one knows about them. Inside the mystery of our interconnectedness as a human family and as a family of faith and trust, even our most private actions, good or bad, like invisible bacteria inside the blood stream, affect the whole. Everything is known, felt, in one way or another.

Others know us, even when they don’t exactly know everything about us. They smell our vices just as they smell our virtues.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/private-integrity/#.Xt5slGpKg_8
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Private Integrity

PRIVATE INTEGRITY

What we do in secret ultimately shapes the person whom we present in public. Dishonesty changes the very way we look because it changes who we are. That’s the reason why so often those around us will intuit the truth about us, smell the lie, even when they don’t have any hard evidence on which to suspect us.

Doing something in secret that we can’t admit in public is the very definition of hypocrisy and hypocrisy forces us to lie. And lying, among all sins, is perhaps the most dangerous. Why? Because we hate ourselves for it and we stop respecting ourselves. When we stop respecting ourselves, we will, all too soon, notice that other people stop respecting us too.

The biblical image of the honest sinner humbly turning towards God is predicated precisely on honesty, on the sinner not hiding or lying about his or her sin. When we don’t honestly admit our sin we move in the opposite direction, namely, towards rationalization, hardness of attitude, and cynicism. When we hide a sin, we are forced to lie, and with that lie we immediately begin to harden and reshape our souls. You can do anything, as long as you don’t have to lie about it. That’s very different than saying that you can do anything as long as nobody finds out about it.

We should never delude ourselves into thinking that the things we do in private, including very small actions of infidelity, of self-indulgence, of bigotry, of jealousy, or of slander, are of no consequence since no one knows about them. Inside the mystery of our interconnectedness as a human family and as a family of faith and trust, even our most private actions, good or bad, like invisible bacteria inside the blood stream, affect the whole. Everything is known, felt, in one way or another.

Others know us, even when they don’t exactly know everything about us. They smell our vices just as they smell our virtues.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/private-integrity/#.Xt5slGpKg_8
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Corpus Christi Sunday

Short Reflection for the Corpus et Sanguinis Christi Sunday (A)

Readings: Deuteronomy 8: 2-3. 14-16; 1 Corinthians 10: 16-17;mJohn 6: 51-58

Selected Passage: “I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." (John 6: 51)

Meditation: The Feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ reminds us of the price of redemption.  He broke his body and shed his blood that we may have life!  When we eat his body and drink his blood we share his life. And if we do share his life, we, too, are invited to break our body and shed blood for others that they may have life. See www.badaliyya,blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Our Need to Kneel....

OUR NEED TO KNEEL

Few things are as debilitating for true worship today as is the mistaken notion, popular in many circles, that somehow we belittle ourselves, are regressive, insult human dignity and put-down oppressed peoples, if we kneel, if we bow in obedience and if we genuflect so as to acknowledge that we are below and something else is above.

In the name of religious progress, we are teaching ourselves not to genuflect, not to kneel and not to think of ourselves (and feel ourselves) as living under God.

We mean this sincerely and there are some understandable reasons for why we feel this way, not the least of which is a religious upbringing that many of us are still reacting against. But this is not progress—religiously or otherwise. We are poorer because of this.

Genuflection is the ultimate moral act—and it lies at the basis of all morality. We become moral on that day when we first genuflect and know what we are doing.

Perhaps we need a new language which no longer uses phrases like "under" or ''below" (though, like Rohr, I doubt this) and perhaps we do need gestures other than genuflection and kneeling (though my imagination runs out of gas here). Whatever language and whatever the gesture, we need again to "kneel" and to "genuflect" and put ourselves "under" someone.

To kneel does not belittle or demean us. It does not make us smaller. It makes us larger. No person, female or male, is taller in terms of dignity and genuine adultness, than when she or he kneels in prayer, in adoration and in obedience.

There are few gestures singularly powerful as is that of bending the knee before the God who made us.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/our-need-to-kneel/#.XnOn1JNKg_8
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Trinity Sunday

Short Reflection for the Trinity Sunday (A)

Readings: Exodus 34: 4-6. 8-9; 2 Corinthians 13: 11-13; John 3: 16-18

Selected Passage: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” (John 3: 16)

Meditation: We begin to understand the one Triune God through the contemplation of God as LOVE.  Fr. Cantalamessa in his homily for the Feast states that in every love there are always three realities or subjects: one who loves, one who is loved and the love that unites them.

Where God is understood as absolute power, there is no need for there to be more than one person, for power can be exercised quite well by one person; but if God is understood as absolute love, then it cannot be this way.  The life of the Trinity is a mystery of relation. This means that the divine persons do not “have” relations, but rather “are” relations.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Pentecost Sunday

Short Reflection for the Pentecost Sunday (A)

Readings:  Acts 2: 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12: 3-7. 12-13; John 20: 19-23

Selected Passage: (Jesus) said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20: 21-23)

Meditation: Jesus breathed on all of us the Holy Spirit at Baptism. The marks of the Spirit in us and in our community are peace and the forgiveness of sins.  Yes, each one and each community born of the Spirit are empowered to forgive sins.

With the Holy Spirit in us, we can unlock the doors that imprison us and break free to share his/her gifts with everyone.  We pray to the Holy Spirit to enkindle our hearts the fire of divine love and wisdom that open all horizons and break all borders and frontiers the separate peoples and nations.

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Good Bye and Ascension

PAINFUL GOODBYES AND THE ASCENSION

Historically, the ascension was an event within the life of Jesus and the early church and is now a feast day for Christians, one that links Easter to Pentecost. But it is more than an historical event, it is at the same time a theology, a spirituality, and an insight into life that we need to understand to better sort out the paradoxical interplay between life and death, presence and absence, love and loss.

Here’s an example: I was 22 years old when in the space of four months both of my parents, still young, died. For my siblings and me the pain was searing. Initially we were nearly overwhelmed with a sense of being orphaned, abandoned, of losing a vital life-connection (that, ironically, we had mostly taken for granted until then). And our feelings were mainly cold. There’s little that’s warm in death.

After several years, the coldness disappeared, and my parents’ deaths were no longer a painful thing. I felt again their presence, and now as a warm, nurturing spirit that was with me all time. The coldness of death turned into a warmth. They had gone away but now they could give me their love and blessing in a way that they never could fully while they were alive. Their going away eventually created a deeper and purer presence.

And this is even true, perhaps particularly so, in cases where our loved ones were difficult characters who struggled for peace or to bless anyone in this life. Death washes clean and releases the spirit and, even in the case of people who struggled to love, we can after their deaths receive their blessing in way we never could while they were alive. Like Jesus, they could only give us their real presence by going away.

Separation hurts, goodbyes bring painful tears, and death of every kind wrenches the heart. But that is part of the mystery of love. Eventually we all reach a point where what is best for everyone is that we go away so that we can give our spirit. The gift that our lives are can only be fully received after we ascend.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/painful-goodbyes-and-the-ascension/#.XsQR-cZ7k_8
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The Ascension of the Lord

Short Reflection for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord (A)

Readings: Acts 1: 1-11; Ephesians 1: 17-23; Matthew 28: 16-20

Selected Passage: "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age." (Mt. 28: 18b-20)

Meditation: Jesus sends the apostles with a mandate to make disciples of all nations.  And they have nothing to fear, because He assured them of his presence in their midst until the end of time. 

All the Baptized share in the Mission of the Apostles to proclaim the Good News and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to observe what Jesus has commanded- the Love of God and the Love of neighbor, especially those in need!

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

6th Sunday of Easter 2020

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

Readings: Acts 8: 5-8. 14-17; 1 Peter 3: 15-18; John 14: 15-21

Selected Passage: “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always, the Spirit of truth, which the world cannot accept, because it neither sees nor knows it. But you know it, because it remains with you, and will be in you.” (John 14: 16-17)

Meditation: Jesus does not leave as orphans. He sends the Spirit, our Advocate, to be with us always until the end of time. The Holy Spirit, the Advocate, will remind us of Jesus’ teaching and command – the Love of God and the Love of neighbor.  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

On Hearing the Voice that Soothes...

ON HEARING THE VOICE THAT SOOTHES

We are always a bit dissatisfied. Like Rahner, Henri Nouwen, too says that in this life, it seems that there is no such a thing as a clear-cut, pure joy, but that even our happiest moments come with a shadow, a fear, a jealousy, a restlessness. Inside us, no matter what our age, we are always somewhat lost and full of a sadness that we don’t quite know what to do with.

We reach a point in life when there is an ache and a sadness inside us that no one can still and comfort, other than the one who ultimately brought us to birth.

The Gospel of John opens very differently than the other Gospels. There are no infancy narratives. Right at the beginning, we already meet the adult Christ and the first words he speaks are a question: “What are you searching for?” John’s whole Gospel tries to answer that, but the full answer is given only at the very end, by Jesus himself.

What are we ultimately searching for? On the morning of the resurrection, Mary Magdala meets the newly risen Jesus, but she doesn’t recognize him. He approaches her and asks (in words that repeat his question at the opening of the Gospel): “What are you searching for?” She explains that she is searching for the body, the dead body, of Jesus. He says just one word to her in response: “Mary”. He calls her by her name and, in that, she recognizes him.

In Jesus’ response to Mary Magdala, we learn the answer to life’s most fundamental question: What do we ache for? Ultimately all our aching is for one thing: to hear God, lovingly and individually, call us by name.

There comes a moment in the night for each of us when nothing will console us other than this, hearing our names pronounced by the mouth of God.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser: http://ronrolheiser.com/on-hearing-the-voice-that-soothes/#.XpcqhVNKg_8
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PCID Message in the Month of Ramadan

Christians and Muslims: Protecting together the places of worship

Dear Muslim brothers and sisters,

The month of Ramadan is so central in your religion and therefore dear to you at personal, familial and social levels. lt is a time for spiritual healing and growth, of sharing with the poor, of strengthening bonds with relatives and friends.

For us, your Christian friends, it is a propitious time to further strengthen our relationships with you, by greeting you, meeting you on this occasion and, where possible, by sharing in an iftar with you. Ramadan and 'Jd al-Fitr thus are special occasions to foster fraternity between Christians and Muslims. It is in this spirit that the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue offers its prayerful best wishes and hearty congratulations to you all.

The thoughts we like to share with you this year following our cherished tradition are about the protection of the places of worship.

As we all know, the places of worship occupy an important place in Christianity and Islam, and in other religions as well. For both Christians and Muslims, churches and mosques are spaces reserved for prayer, personal and communitarian alike. They are constructed and furnished in a way that favours silence, reflection and meditation. They are spaces where one can go deep in himself/herself, so favouring for God-experience in silence. A place of worship of any religion therefore is "a house of prayer" (Isaiah, 56, 7).

Places of worship are also spaces for spiritual hospitality, where believers of other religions also join for some special ceremonies like weddings, funerals, feasts of the community etc. While they participate in the events in silence and with due respect to the religious observances of the believers of that particular religion, they also savour the hospitality accorded to them. Such practice is a privileged witness to what unites believers, without diminishing or denying what distinguishes them.

In this regard, it is worthwhile to recall what Pope Francis said when he made a visit to the Heydar Aliyev Mosque, in Baku (Azerbaijan) on Sunday, 2 October 2016: "Meeting one another in fraternal friendship in this place of prayer is a powerful sign, one that shows the harmony which religions can build together, based on personal relations and on the good will of those responsible".

In the context of recent attacks on churches, mosques and synagogues by wicked persons who seem to perceive the places of worship as a privileged target for their blind and senseless violence, it is worth noting what the Document on "Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together", signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmad Al-Tayyeb, in Abu Dhabi, on 4 February 2019, said: "The protection of places of worship - synagogues, churches and mosques - is a duty guaranteed by religions, human values, laws and international agreements. Every attempt to attack places of worship or threaten them by violent assaults, bombings or destruction, is a deviation from the teachings of religions as well as a clear violation of international law".

While appreciating the efforts done by the international community at different levels for the protection of the places of worship worldwide, it is our hope that our mutual esteem, respect and cooperation will help strengthen the bonds of sincere friendship, and enable our communities to safeguard the places of worship to assure for coming generations the fundamental freedom to profess one's own beliefs.

With renewed esteem and fraternal greetings, in the name of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, we convey friendly wishes for a fruitful month of Ramadan and a joyous 'Id al-Fitr.

From the Vatican, 17 April 2020

Miguel Angel Cardinal Ayuso Guixot, MCCJ

President

Rev. Msgr. Indunil Kodithuwakku Janakaratne Kankanamalage

Secretar