How Do You Begin Your Day?

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Successful people these days believe how you begin the day is important.   Some get up early and make a little time for themselves; some read before they get to work; some jot down what needs to be done in the day ahead; some practice “mindfulness.” Little mention of praying.

Shouldn’t prayer be on that list too? I’m not sure what “mindfulness”is. It seems to mean getting your thoughts together, breathing in and breathing out, gathering strength and attention for the day. Reaching into yourself.

Instead of reaching into yourself, prayer reaches out to God, who is much stronger than we are and stands ready to help.

Our own spiritual tradition says that daily prayer is important and points to the beginning of the day and the end of the day, morning and evening. as the best times to approach God in prayer. The Liturgy of the Hours, the church’s official prayer, says those hours are the principal hours for praying.

Jesus prayed in the morning and evening, the scriptures say. He prayed at other times too, but in the morning and evening he prayed the prayers his people prayed, the psalms. He knew them by heart and prayed them each day.

We prayed those same prayers this morning in our chapel and we’ll pray them this evening at vespers, evening prayer. Before I lifted a finger this morning, I heard these words as I entered my day:
“He has strengthened the bars of your gates,
He has blessed the children within you.
He established peace on your borders,
He feeds you with the finest wheat.” ( Psalm 147, Friday Morning IV )

And this evening as the night comes, the symbol of sleep and death:

“The eyes of all creatures look to you
and you give them their food in due time.
You open wide your hand,
grant the desires of all who live.” (Psalm 145, Friday Evening IV)

God’s hand is opened wide to receive us and to give.

I wish more were aware of the treasure we have in our morning and evening prayers–the Liturgy of the Hours. The Second Vatican Council wanted the prayer of the church to be extended to all its people but its efforts only got so far, I’m afraid. Still more to go.

33rd Sunday c: What’s the Future?

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For this week’s homily please watch the video below.

November Thoughts

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Lord and Creator of all, especially of our human family,
You are our God and Father,
Ruler of your children,
Lord of life and death,
guide and benefactor of our souls.

You fashion and transform all things in due time through your creative Word, In your wisdom and providence receive those who have gone ahead of us in the journey from this life. They have reached the place of rest before us, walking the same road we do.

Receive us too when our time comes,  guiding us through the years, as long as it good for us. Prepare us to love and hope in you, to be untroubled, not shrinking back on the day of death, like those who love this world too much. Instead, may we set out eagerly for that everlasting and blessed life which is in Christ Jesus.

You ask so little of us and give so much. Hoping in you and loving you, let us endure everything and give thanks for everything that befalls us, since everything can bring us to salvation.

To you be glory for ever and ever. Amen”

Saint Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop.

The Kingdom among us: Luke 17: 20-25

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Where is God?

God is everywhere.

That was one of the first question and answer I learned from my catechism many years ago. 

The Pharisees ask a question somewhat like that as Jesus approaches Jerusalem with his followers:

 “When is the kingdom of God coming?”

Jesus responds: “The coming of the Kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’For behold, the Kingdom of God is among you.” (Luke 17:20-25)

The catechism of the scriptures, which we listen to now, says “The kingdom of God is among you.” The Greek word translated “among” can also be translated “within” so some translations have “The kingdom of God is within you.” But commentators say it’s better we look for the kingdom of God among us than simply within us. 

Yes, God who is everywhere is within us, holding us and all things in being. God makes a home in us, Jesus says, but we should not limit God’s presence to human beings or see God working only in us. God is among us, in others and in the universe we are part of. God is not present among us as an observer, God is building a kingdom that we may not observe. We can miss it, the parables of Jesus indicate.

Especially in times like our, the kingdom that’s coming is hard to see.  

It’s hard to see Jesus in the bread and wine, in his followers, in the wars and the destruction happening in our environment.

That’s what eyes of faith are for. Lord, that we may see.

United States Catholic Bishops on Immigration

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The United States Catholic Bishops issued this Special Message yesterday during that November meeting in Baltimore, In a vote  216 votes in favor, 5 votes against, and 3 abstentions, the bishops overwhelmingly approved the Special Message, with sustained applause of the body following the vote.

As pastors, we the bishops of the United States are bound to our people by ties of communion and compassion in Our Lord Jesus Christ. We are disturbed when we see among our people a climate of fear and anxiety around questions of profiling and immigration enforcement. We are saddened by the state of contemporary debate and the vilification of immigrants. We are concerned about the conditions in detention centers and the lack of access to pastoral care. We lament that some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status. We are troubled by threats against the sanctity of houses of worship and the special nature of hospitals and schools. We are grieved when we meet parents who fear being detained when taking their children to school and when we try to console family members who have already been separated from their loved ones. 

Despite obstacles and prejudices, generations of immigrants have made enormous contributions to the well-being of our nation. We as Catholic bishops love our country and pray for its peace and prosperity. For this very reason, we feel compelled now in this environment to raise our voices in defense of God-given human dignity.

Catholic teaching exhorts nations to recognize the fundamental dignity of all persons, including immigrants. We bishops advocate for a meaningful reform of our nation’s immigration laws and procedures. Human dignity and national security are not in conflict. Both are possible if people of good will work together.

We recognize that nations have a responsibility to regulate their borders and establish a just and orderly immigration system for the sake of the common good. Without such processes, immigrants face the risk of trafficking and other forms of exploitation. Safe and legal pathways serve as an antidote to such risks.

The Church’s teaching rests on the foundational concern for the human person, as created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:27). As pastors, we look to Sacred Scripture and the example of the Lord Himself, where we find the wisdom of God’s compassion. The priority of the Lord, as the Prophets remind us, is for those who are most vulnerable: the widow, the orphan, the poor, and the stranger (Zechariah 7:10). In the Lord Jesus, we see the One who became poor for our sake (2 Corinthians 8:9), we see the Good Samaritan who lifts us from the dust (Luke 10:30–37), and we see the One who is found in the least of these (Matthew 25). The Church’s concern for neighbor and our concern here for immigrants is a response to the Lord’s command to love as He has loved us (John 13:34).

To our immigrant brothers and sisters, we stand with you in your suffering, since, when one member suffers, all suffer (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:26). You are not alone!

We note with gratitude that so many of our clergy, consecrated religious, and lay faithful already accompany and assist immigrants in meeting their basic human needs. We urge all people of good will to continue and expand such efforts. 

We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement. We pray that the Lord may guide the leaders of our nation, and we are grateful for past and present opportunities to dialogue with public and elected officials. In this dialogue, we will continue to advocate for meaningful immigration reform. 

As disciples of the Lord, we remain men and women of hope, 
and hope does not disappoint! (cf. Romans 5:5)

May the mantle of Our Lady of Guadalupe enfold us all in her maternal and loving care and draw us ever closer to the heart of Christ.

Blessed Eugene Bossilkov,CP: November 13

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We remember Blessed Eugene Bossilkov in the Passionist calendar November 13. A Bulgarian Passionist and bishop he was executed by the Communist regime November 11,1952 after being sentenced at a mock trial in Sophia, Bulgaria. His body was thrown into a lime pit outside the prison; as far as I know it has never been recovered.

His death was not confirmed to the outside world until 1975, when a Bulgarian minister visiting the Vatican was asked by Pope Paul VI what happened to Bishop Bossilkov. The minister confirmed the date and place of his execution. The Communist regime in Bulgaria was known at the time as perhaps the most brutal and secretive of all the Communist controlled countries of Eastern Europe.

Bishop Bosilkov was declared “Blessed” on March 15,1998 in Rome by Pope St. John Paul II, who said he was  “a splendid treasure of the church in his motherland. A brave witness of the cross of Christ; he is one of many victims sacrificed by atheistic Communism, in Bulgaria and elsewhere, as it attempted to annihilate the church. In those days of fierce persecution, many looked up to him and from his courageous example gained the strength to remain faithful to the Gospel to the end. I am happy on this joyful day for the nation of Bulgaria to honor so many, like Bishop Bossilhov, who paid with their lives for holding on to the faith they received at baptism.”

I attended Bishop Bossilkov’s beatification in 1998 and what I recall most was not the impressive ceremonies at the Vatican but the Bulgarians who came for the occasion and stayed at our monastery of Saints John and Paul in Rome. They were relatives of the bishop and men and women from the church where he was bishop. Simple ordinary people who had come through hard times in a country emerging from Communism.

His niece, Sister Gabriella Bossilkov, was one of them. She knew him as a little girl; she was with him when he was arrested, attended his trial and visited him in prison before his execution. She described in great detail how they bullied him and lied about him; she remembered what he said when she told him in prison shortly before his death that they were trying to arrange for a pardon. “No,” he told us, “I know the Lord has given me his grace. I am willing to die.” 

She brought a blanket and baskets of food to him in prison a few days before his death, but then the food basket was returned untouched. “He won’t need that any more,” she was told. When the prison guards finally said he had died and she demanded some proof, they gave her his blood stained shirt, which later at his beatification was the only relic that remained of him.

I’m sure his story will be told more fully when his canonization arrives. Politics and historical circumstances often delay the telling of a story like his. But it will be told. God reveals the glory of his saints, and Bishop Eugene Bossilkov is surely one of them, 

His niece said “I remember my uncle saying ‘The stains of our blood will guarantee a great future for the new church of Bulgaria.’”

Mother Cabrini: November 13

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Mulberry Street, New York City, ca.1900

From 1880 to 1920 more than 4 million Italian immigrants came to the United States, mostly from rural southern Italy. Many were poor peasants escaping the chaotic political situation and widespread poverty of a recently united Italian peninsula.

Almost all the new immigrants came through Ellis Island; many settled in the crowded tenements of the New York region, where men found work in the subways, canals and buildings of the growing city. The women often worked in the sweatshops that multiplied in New York at the time. Almost half of the 146 workers killed as fire consumed the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911, were Italian women.

Over time, the immigrants moved elsewhere and became prominent in  American society, but at first large numbers suffered from the over-crowding, harsh conditions, discrimination and cultural shock they met in cities like New York. Many returned to Italy with stories of the contradictions and injustices lurking in “the American dream.”

Mother Maria Francesca Cabrini

Mother Maria Francesca Cabrini (1850-19170), founder of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, an order of women missionaries , came to America in 1889 at the urging of Pope Leo XIII to serve the underserved poor. Her work is succinctly described on the website of the Cabrini Mission Foundation. and in the movie Cabrini.

She proceeded to found schools, orphanages, hospitals and social services institutions to serve the needs of immigrants in the United States and other parts of the world. Despite poor health and frailty, Mother Cabrini crossed the ocean 25 times during 29 years of missionary work, and with her sisters founded 67 institutions in nine countries on three continents – one for each year of her life.

Mother Cabrini was a collaborator from the start of her missionary activity. She was a woman of her time, yet beyond her time. Her message – “all things are possible with God” – is as alive today as it was 110 years ago. Mother Cabrini lived and worked among the people, poor and rich alike, using whatever means were provided to support her works. She was a progressive, strategic visionary, willing to take risks, adaptable to change, and responsive to every opportunity that arose to help others. In recognition of her extraordinary service to immigrants, Mother Cabrini was canonized in 1946 as the “first American saint,” and was officially declared the Universal Patroness of Immigrants by the Vatican in 1950.”

Be good to have leaders like her today in the church, as well as in society, wouldn’t it? “… a progressive, strategic visionary, willing to take risks, adaptable to change, and responsive to every opportunity that arose to help others.”

Her feastday is November 13th. “Mother Cabrini, pray for us.”

St.Josaphat: Nov. 12

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The Eastern Catholic Church of the Ukraine will be celebrating the feast of St. Josaphat (1580-1683) on November 12. They’re celebrating him as a holy ecumenist who worked  tirelessly to bring unity among the Eastern Christian churches of Eastern Europe. He gave his life for it. 

Josaphat was born in Voldymyr, a Ukrainian city the Russians targeted early in their current  invasion of the country. Raised Orthodox, he joined the Ruthenian Catholic  church, became a monk, then was made archbishop of Polotsk. At the time, Polish and Lithuanian armies conquered this disputed territory – the land has been continually fought over. 

St. Sophia Cathedral, Polotsk

Religion entered the fight. Some Orthodox churches wished to be aligned to Rome after the Polish-Liithuanian conquest, so the authorities ordered some Orthodox churches be turned over to the Eastern Catholic Church. That triggered a violent reaction. Mobs sought out Josaphat in his cathedral, beat him, put him to death and threw his body in the Daugava River.

His body was retrieved and brought to his cathedral for burial. Later, it was interred in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Relations between the church of Rome and the Orthodox churches were strained then; they’re strained now. Political battles, historic feuds and rivalries have only increased tensions between the churches. For Josaphat they caused his death, at the hands of fellow Christians.

The Second Vatican Council in its document Orientalium Ecclesiarum affirmed the right of the Eastern churches to their own liturgy,  theology and organization. As we appreciate their history and spirituality more, respect needs to grow. Members of churches in communion with Rome can share in the sacraments with one another.

Josaphat’s experience points to the difficult path to Christian unity, in this case between the church of Rome and many of the Eastern Orthodox churches. Presently, there are 23 Eastern Churches and about 18 million members united to the Roman Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox number about 300 million. The churches originate in Middle East, Eastern Europe, North Africa and India

Efforts towards Christian unity among the churches of the east and west need a patient, steady faith that looks more on God’s grace than human skills. Jesus commands we be one. 

St.Josaphat reminds us to respect the Eastern churches and the rich liturgical and spiritual traditions they offer.  Much of Roman Catholic liturgy and spirituality, especially our feasts of Mary, comes from the churches of the east. Josaphat had a keen appreciation of the common treasure we all share. We need that appreciation today.

Our liturgical calendar, honoring Josaphat, recognizes the universal call to holiness in saints who are from every age and nation. “Holiness is not bound by time and place.” (The Roman Calendar. Text and Commentary, 1976)  We’re called to recognize the church as universal, catholic, existing everywhere..

St. Martin of Tours, November 11

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If saints are antidotes to the poison of their times, as Chesterton said, Martin of Tours is a saint worth reflecting upon.  So, what poison did Martin confront?

One was the poison of militarism. Martin was born into a military family in 316,  his father a Roman officer who arose through the ranks and  commanded the legions on the Roman frontier along the Rhine and Danube rivers. When his son was born his father saw him as a soldier like himself and named him Martin, after Mars, the god of war.

Rome was mobilizing then to stop invading barbarian tribes, and soldiers, like the emperors Constantine and Diocletian, were its heroes.  But Martin wanted nothing to do with war. As a young boy he heard a message of peace and non-violence from Christians he knew. Instead of a soldier, he became a Christian catechumen, over his father’s strong objections.

Martin was a lifelong peacemaker. He died on his way as a bishop to settle a dispute among his priests.

Another poison Martin confronted was the poison of careerism. Elected bishop of Tours by the people, Martin adopted a lifestyle unlike that of other bishops of Gaul, who were increasingly involved in imperial  administration and adopted the privileged style that came with an imperial administrator.

Bishops set themselves up in the cities;  Martin preferred to minister in the country, to the “pagani”, the uneducated poor. He established monasteries and the simple Christian life they promoted. The great monastic settlements that contributed to the evangelization of Gaul were largely his legacy.

Are the poisons of militarism and careerism around today? We remember our war veterans today.So many died in terrible wars these 100 years and many bear the scars of war. Militarism, the glamorizing of war, is still around.  So is careerism .

Finally, martyrdom was the great sign of holiness in Martin’s day, but Martin witnessed to another kind of martyrdom, the martyrdom of everyday. That could happen in embracing monasticism or religious life. It also could take place in embracing fully one’s own state in life. Martin was a martyr of another kind. For all these reasons, he is an important saint on our church calendar.

The story that epitomizes Martin, of course, is his meeting with a beggar in a cold winter as he was coming through the gate in the town of Amiens. Still a soldier but also a Christian catechumen, he stopped and cut his military cloak in two and gave one to the poor man. That night, the story goes, Christ appeared to him in a dream, wearing the beggar’s cloak. “Martin gave me this,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI commented on this event.

“ Martin’s gesture flows from the same logic that drove Jesus to multiply the loaves for the hungry crowd, but most of all to leave himself to humanity as food in the Eucharist… It’s the logic of sharing.

May St Martin help us to understand that only by a common commitment to sharing is it possible to respond to the great challenge of our times: to build a world of peace and justice where each person can live with dignity. This can be achieved if an authentic solidarity prevails which assures to all inhabitants of the planet food, water, necessary medical treatment, and also work and energy resources as well as cultural benefits, scientific and technological knowledge.”

Well said.

In medieval Europe farmers, getting ready for winter at this time, put aside food and meat for the cold days ahead. Martin’s feast day was their reminder to put aside something for the poor. The poor are always with us; are we remembering them?

Today  Veterans’ Day in the USA honors those who fought in our country’s wars. It was originally called Armistice Day celebrating the end of fighting between the Allies and Germany on November 11, 1918. The United States lost 116,516 troops in the 1st World War; other countries lost millions more. The wars that followed added to that count.

Wisdom

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Everyday this week, the 32nd week of the year, we’re reading at Mass from the Book of Wisdom. the Bible’s wisdom literature –Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom, Sirach– is not primarily spiritual wisdom or the high-level learning of graduate school. It’s  wisdom from the school of everyday.

Jesus’ parable of the wise and foolish virgins from Matthew’s gospel is an example.  Why didn’t the foolish virgins bring enough oil to the wedding like the wise virgins did? They didn’t learn from their own experience. Simple as that. (Matthew 24, 1-13)

Learn from your own life experience and the experience of others, the wisdom traditions says.  Yes, God’s help is there, but God expects us to help ourselves, and we have to do that everyday.

“The beginning of wisdom is: get wisdom; whatever else you get, get understanding.” (Proverbs 4,7)

Keep learning, from childhood to old age; it’s imperative. Search for wisdom every day, whether the day is easy or dark, whether there’s joy or suffering. (Book of Job)

The wisdom literature recognizes the search for wisdom is hard. We get fixated on things like success, careers, money, pleasure, health, politics, but the school of life is bigger than any of these.

The wisdom literature recognizes too that we’re drawn to a greater reality. “Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” We’re made to wonder before what’s greater than we are. We’re not satisfied with small things. “Our hearts are restless, till they rest in you.”

“Resplendent and unfading is Wisdom, and she is readily perceived by those who love her, and found by those who seek her.

She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her; one who watches for her at dawn will not be disappointed, for she will be found sitting at the gate.” (Wisdom 6, 12-14)