18th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 18^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A): The Feast of the Transfiguration

 

Readings:  Daniel 7: 9-10. 13 – 14; 2 Peter 1: 16 -19; Matthew 17: 1-9

 

Selected Passage: While he was still speaking, behold a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, “ this I my beloved Son, whom I am well pleased; listen to him." (Matthew 17: 5)

 

Meditation: The challenge of the Gospel today is to experience our own transformation. This is primarily a gift from God - a grace given to make us turn to the Lord by LISTENING to his beloved Son, Jesus Christ.  We need to experience our own transfiguration – that is being like to God!

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.

 

 

Our 3 Temptations

OUR THREE TEMPTATIONS

We are all made in God’s image and likeness, blessed, and our private secret that we are special is, in fact, the deepest truth. However, that isn’t always easy to believe. Life and circumstance often tire us in ways that tempt us to believe its opposite. It happened to Jesus. 

During his baptism, Jesus heard his Father say: “You are my blessed son, in whom I take delight.”

But throughout his life Jesus struggled to always believe that. For instance, immediately after his baptism, we are told, the spirit drove him into the desert where he fasted for forty days and forty nights – and afterwards “he was hungry”. Obviously what scripture is describing here is not simply physical hunger. Jesus was empty in ways that made him vulnerable to believe that he was not God’s blessed child.

Jesus was first tempted by the devil in the desert, to this effect:  “If you are God’s specially blessed one, turn these stones into bread.” In essence, the devil’s taunt was this: “If you believe that you are God’s specially blessed creature, why is your life so empty?” Jesus’ reply, “One doesn’t live on bread alone!” might be rendered: “I can be empty and still be God’s blessed one! Being blessed and special is not dependent upon how full or empty my life is at a given moment!”

It is good to remember, namely, that we are God’s special, blessed sons and daughters, even when we lives seem empty, anonymous, and devoid of any special privileges because then we won’t forever be putting God and our restless hearts to the test, demanding more than ordinary life can give us.

To read about Jesus’ other two temptations in the desert click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/our-three-temptations/#.XvDdwPJ7k_8

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17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 17^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A): Parables of the Kingdom

 

Readings: 1 Kings 3: 5. 7-12; Romans 8: 28 - 30; Matthew 13: 44 – 52

 

Selected Passage: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again, and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13: 44)

 

Meditation: The Kingdom of God is treasure is hidden in each one of us. The kingdom (reign) of God is a mystery. We cannot have a complete picture of it.

Thus, the real challenge is to find it within us and in others and let the reign of God flourish and shine before all.

 

The first reading gives us the prayer of Solomon: “Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?" (1 KIi9ng 3: 8) 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.

 

 

When What Is Precious Is Taken from You

WHEN WHAT IS PRECIOUS IS TAKEN FROM YOU

Our kids grow up and leave home, friends move away, loved ones die, we lose our health, and eventually, we die too. Moreover even what is precious to us in terms of our faith and values suffers in the same way: things change, thoughts and feelings shift, rock foundations that once anchored us unassailably give way, doubt creeps in, the bottom falls out, and we are left wondering what we really believe in and what really can be trusted.

Happily, this is only half the equation: Everything we lose is eventually given back to us, and in a deeper way. Our kids become wonderful adults who begin to parent us, new bonds of friendship form across distance, we reconnect in a deeper and more permanent way to our loved ones who have died, we find something deeper and more permanent than physical health, death opens us up to the infinite, and the bottom falling out of old beliefs sends us free-falling to a place where we land on bedrock, on a foundation so secure that it can never be shaken again.

We see the pattern for this in scripture in the story of the Jewish community and the Babylonian exile. After arriving in Palestine (“the Promised Land”) it took a number of generations to establish control over the land, unite all the various tribes into one nation, and build a temple in Jerusalem as center for worship.

But then the Assyrians came and conquered the land, deported all the people to Babylon, killed the king, and knocked down the temple to its last stone. With that, the loss of land, king, and temple, the bottom fell out of their world, religiously and literally. How to you continue to believe, trust, and live in joy when all that once anchored these has been taken from you?

God’s answer was this: You will find me again, when you search for me in a deeper way, with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole soul.

God gives us that same answer today whenever we feel betrayed, orphaned, and disoriented in this same way.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser
http://ronrolheiser.com/when-what-is-precious-is-taken-from-you/#.XwsyMpNKh0s

God's Ineffability

GOD’S INEFFABILITY – WHAT’S REVEALED IN JESUS’ EYES?

That means that we can know God, but never adequately capture God in a concept. God is unimaginable. If God could be understood, then God would be as limited as we are.

But God is infinite. Infinity, precisely because it’s unlimited, cannot be circumscribed. We don’t even have a way of picturing God’s gender. God is not a man, not a woman, and not some hybrid, half-man and half-woman. God’s gender, like God’s nature, is intellectually inconceivable. We can’t grasp it and have no language or pronoun for it. God, in a modality beyond the categories of human thought, is somehow perfect masculinity and perfect femininity all at the same time. It’s a mystery beyond us.

But while that mystery cannot be grasped with any rational adequacy, we can know it intimately, and indeed know it so deeply that it’s meant to be the most intimate of all knowledge in our lives. It’s no accident that the bible uses the verb “to know” to connote sexual intimacy. There are different ways of knowing, some more inchoate, intuitive, and intimate than others. We can know God in a radical intimacy, even as we cannot conceptualize God with any adequacy.

So, where does that leave us with God? In the best of places! God may be ineffable, but God’s nature is known. Divine revelation, as seen through nature, as seen through other religions, and especially as seen through Jesus, spells out what’s inside God’s ineffable reality. And what’s revealed there is both comforting beyond all comfort and challenging beyond all challenge.

Nature, religion, and Jesus conspire together to reveal an Ultimate Reality, a Ground of Being, a Creator and Sustainer of the universe, a God, who is wise, intelligent, prodigal, compassionate, loving, forgiving, patient, good, trustworthy, and beautiful beyond imagination.

God cannot be deciphered, circumscribed, or captured in human thought; but from what can be deciphered, we’re in good, safe hands. We can sleep well at night. God has our back.  In the end, both for humanity as a whole and for our own individual lives, all will be well, and all will be well, and every manner of being will be well. God is good.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/gods-ineffability-whats-revealed-in-jesus-eyes/#.Xv8-5JNKh0s
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16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 16^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A): Parables of the Kingdom

 

Readings: Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19; Romans 8: 26-27; Matthew 13: 24-43

 

Gospel Passage: “Let them grow together until harvest; then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, ‘First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning; but gather the wheat into my barn’.” (Matthew 13: 30)

 

Meditation: Meditating on the weed and the wheat, we pray that we become the wheat and not the destructive weed that is destined for burning…

 

It is a mystery why God does NOT immediately prune society or community of weeds but waits until each person’s nature is revealed.  This would allow us to recognize the process that transforms others and us from what look bad at the beginning into something good. It is the awesome and miraculous transformation from sinners to Saints. Thus we need to be OPEN and be patient…! 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.

 

 

 

 

 

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 15^th Sunday of the Ordinary Time (A):

 

Readings: Isaiah 55: 10 -11; Romans 8: 18 -23; Matthew 13: 1-9

 

Selected Passage: “Some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear."(Matthew 13: 8-9)

 

Meditation: The challenge is to provide fertile soil for seed sown in us at Baptism so that we can produce fruit in plenty – both in words and in actions. Through our good deeds, we make the soil fertile  for the Word of God to bear fruit abundantly. Do not let the Word of God fall on deaf ears. 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.

 

 

Evryday 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
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

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
www.facebook.com/ronrolheiser

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.”

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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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