Advent Week 1 - Thursday

Gospel
MT 7:21, 24-27

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.

“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it collapsed and was completely ruined.”

Reflection:

Here is the question posed by Bishop Barron for the day:

"On what, precisely, is the whole of your life built? Is your foundation strong and solid?"

I wish it were possible to say in response, "I was confirmed into the church on May 20, 1973 and from that day to to this, I have lived my life in harmony with the gospels, with total obedience and a unwavering faith." The truth is no one can make such a claim. We don't have the luxury of only having to lay the foundation once and that build up a towering spire over the course of our lives.

Instead we have to begin again each day. There is no guarantee the work we did yesterday or over the last week is still steady and still. The Lord, for his part, is still there and is ever ready for us to lay down our burden of rock and pain and to great us reward for our effort but we are not so dependable.

Some days we build a good structure, tall and straight that rises several story high. Other days we are lost to the flood of uncertainty and we fail to build something of value. Overtime we can become more adept at using faith to help keep our days centered and on him and filled with good things that honor his expectations of us.

Today started well enough but this afternoon ill winds of my own making have pushed against my work and there is some unsteadiness to the structure.

I pause to reflect on the importance of building with faith.

Advent - Week 1 Wednesday

Gospel
MT 15:29-37

At that time:
Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee,
went up on the mountain, and sat down there.
Great crowds came to him,
having with them the lame, the blind, the deformed, the mute,
and many others.
They placed them at his feet, and he cured them.
The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking,
the deformed made whole,
the lame walking,
and the blind able to see,
and they glorified the God of Israel.

Jesus summoned his disciples and said,
“My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
for they have been with me now for three days
and have nothing to eat.
I do not want to send them away hungry,
for fear they may collapse on the way.”
The disciples said to him,
“Where could we ever get enough bread in this deserted place
to satisfy such a crowd?”
Jesus said to them, “How many loaves do you have?”
“Seven,” they replied, “and a few fish.”
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then he took the seven loaves and the fish,
gave thanks, broke the loaves,
and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds.
They all ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over–seven baskets full.

Reflection:

Bishop Barron asks: 

"Do you notice any change in your life when you don't receive communion for awhile? "

This publication was planned long before Corona 19 was a thing. The reflections come from homilies given by the Bishop over a period of years. The question posed could have no way presaged the events of this year so the impact of the question could never have been anticipated. Within 3 weeks of the shutdown, I had gone the longest period of time without attending mass since conversion to the faith. From that day forward, we are in unknown lands. I never conceived there would come a time when the norm for us sitting in front of a TV screen watching a life streamed or recorded Mass where we can participate only virtually in the liturgy of the Eucharist. I have received the body in hand perhaps 5 times in 8 months and given the current spirally numbers of infection, it may be months more before I can again receive in person. 

There is great value, I have learned, however, in watching while in a proper disposition while Father Jeff Fleming prays an entire Mass without another person present. I gain comfort watching the Mass life streamed from Mt. Angel Abbey and there is real mystery from watching a Mass "As Gaeilge"  from Glenstal Abbey in Ireland. These are worship and celebration opportunities that would have never occurred to me as being normal ways to spend Sunday morning. 

The thing is, the decision to stay home on Sunday is mine to make. I am not forced to take these options but the church has deemed it wise to make in person attendance optional but then to make other avenues of participation possible. 

What we have now is not perfect but just as the earliest Christians had to be creative to celebrate the eucharist, we are now called upon to do the same. I don't like it. No one does. I am, however, grateful to be in communion if if I am not at Holy communion. 

Advent, Week 1 - Sunday

Prologue 

It has been 6 months since my last entry. I intended to take 2-3 months off before getting back into a regular spiritual reflection practice. I let acedia get in the away. Since we are now in the period of "mini-Lent" we call Advent, it is time to saddle up and ride again. My intent will be post twice a week. Once on Sunday and then again on Wednesday for my Perkins 4th day brothers. Gitti-up. 

Gospel
MK 13:33-37

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Be watchful! Be alert!
You do not know when the time will come.
It is like a man traveling abroad.
He leaves home and places his servants in charge,
each with his own work,
and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch.
Watch, therefore;
you do not know when the Lord of the house is coming,
whether in the evening, or at midnight,
or at cockcrow, or in the morning.
May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping.
What I say to you, I say to all: ‘Watch!’”

Reflection:

Bishop Barron poses this question: 

In what ways are you "sleeping" and not being "watchful" for the end, either your won death or the Second Coming? 

There are few among us who are not both "sleeping" and "watchful." We have been faithful to the Mass until the pandemic flipped our lives upside down and for the first time in who knows how long we were given exemption from the requirement to attend Mass on Sundays. Who knew on Easter Sunday infection rates and deaths would still be be rising as we enter into Advent? Who knew that our 4th day and other prayer groups would be forced from gatherings around the table to gathering in front of screen? I have to confess that not only did my practice of weekly mass fall by the wayside, but I fell out of the habit of the Liturgy of the Hours and Lection Divina. It seems that many of my years long devotional practices went out the window because of the changes caused by working from home and the move.

I was clearly more in the sleep state than I was wakeful. In recent weeks, however, I have begun to climb back up the ladder. I tune into virtual mass more often and pay close attention to the liturgies. I adopt the postures of the mass and recite the prayers and responses. The eucharist is missing but a sense of communion has returned. I am praying the hours again and walking daily with my senses invested in creation with thanksgiving and gratitude. I am waking up again. the world is different. I am different. Our liturgy is different. God is the same.

In pinch myself and whisper "Watch!"

Silence, Solitude and Stillness

An invitation…..

 

Mark 6:30-31

 

The apostles gathered together with Jesus and reported all they had done and taught. He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” People were coming and going in great numbers, and they had no opportunity even to eat.

 

The words silence, solitude, and stillness are not complicated. Silence, a time or place of quiet or calm. Solitude, a place of separation and aloneness. Finally, there is stillness, a place of repose, and restlessness. They describe places that are inviting and call out to us in the noise and chaos of the tumbling hours of our days.

 

This view, however, is overly simplistic. Each word is multidimensional and within the span of the meaning of each there lies contradiction. Silence is a privileged choice or it is toxic wounding. We can choose silence or we can be silenced, one is holy and the other poisonous to us.

 

Solitude can be something different than a place of comfort, it can be a choice like a walk in along a wooded path or sitting  on hillside offering a wide panorama of a wild place. It can also be an unchosen place of loneliness and isolation.

 

We wish to embrace stillness as a sanctuary of placidness and calm. Stillness is also a word for lifelessness, or it can describe when we are becalmed by a failed evening breeze and we can't reach our desperately sought destination.

 

There is another perspective as well. We talk of inner silence, solitude, and stillness but more often we think of external places of these things where there is no noise, no crowds, or agitation.

 

In reality, places of total silence, solitude, and stillness are hard to find and if we find them we experience them as emptiness rather than fullness of spirit. When we speak of Silence what we actually speak of is a place free from irritation and distraction rather than being a vacuum empty of sound that exists in the vastness of space. When I seek silence what I am really looking for is a place to ignore interruptions and distractions. A place of silence for me could be standing knee-deep in rushing water that is so noisy I can't hear the sound of cars passing by on a nearby roadway or it might be when I focus on the sounds of the wind and birds and let the distractions of a barking dog not pull me away from the quiet.

 

As I am editing and honing this reflection, my son and daughter in law are banging things and running power tools while laying flooring in our new home. It is far from silent and yet I can let my own words pull me away from the present moment to where the sounds of nature, a breeze in the cottonwood trees, a lone Canadian Goose sailing overhead unseen against the darkened sky but clearly heard anyway.

 

Solitude is not about being alone but is more about finding a place of complacency in the presence of others. It is being able to tune out the cacophony whether it is my wife doing dishes or my neighbor trimming the hedge. To be in solitude is to be alone with your private thoughts while the hubbub of others goes on and on around you.

 

Finally, stillness. To find stillness is the hardest thing of all for me because it requires me to calm myself, to find a patient, measured breathing rhythm that will allow me to literally to will my heart rate to slow so I can focus in on one thing rather than a kaleidoscope fractured images and issues.

 

It is easy to understand the inner place of quiet of calm is most easily accessible in places of quiet, separation and peace but Meister Eckert states it is important we be able to access the quietest of places in the noisiest of times because that is when we need refuge most.

 

Over the past few months, I have made a practice of attempting to sink into contemplation in the most unlikely of places. In the waiting room of my dentist or doctor. Sitting at a railroad crossing waiting for a slowly rolling train ease to a stop and then painfully begin backing the other direction. Recently it has been a challenge to back away from the falls while standing in line at a home improvement store. While I have improved, the turmoil and upside-down nature of the world over the past 10 weeks has caused me to let go of some my good habits and slide back into some less fruitful ones that I had previously pushed away.

 

There is too much here to cover in just one reflection. It will take some time to cover each of the three characteristics and it important that while we are looking Celtic Spiritual practices, we are all about tying the practices to our Catholic and Christian faith. We are not pagans meditating and contemplating a non-responsive void, we are Christians who believe in a revealed God, a resurrected savior, and an ever-present, ever-loving Holy Spirit. The practices lead us into a relationship that is constantly nourished and sustained by our faith in his response to our prayer.

 

Let's begin with this thought from Meister Eckhart, "There is nothing so much like God in all the universe as silence." We are called to become more like God, to emulate the father in the prodigal son. To be the good shepherd to the family and friends that surround us. We can't become like those things until we are first silent so we can hear him as his words echo softly in the deepest corners of our being.

 

In another sermon the good Meister wrote "Nothing in all creation is so like God as stillness." At first, I thought he was saying the same thing about stillness as he did silence but there is a difference. During the first 6 days, God created all there was to create but it was not until the 7th day that he paused, reflected and celebrated the work of the first 6 days. Created in his image, we can most closely seek to be like him when we choose the quiet.

 

The summary of Eckhart is that to enter into silence, solitude and stillness is the only way we can offer ourselves to the presence of God and be present in God. Turn off the music and TV. Put down the magazines and books. Sit quietly and turn away from distractions and other things around you. Breath in and out slowly. Be still. God fills the voids and rewards us with what he chooses based upon on what we need most whether or not we know it.

 

Let's close with this short quote from my hero John O'Donohue, "To return back into ourselves, there are three things needed, for which you don't require a computer, television or radio: the first is a bit of stillness. Nothing can happen without a certain stillness. We also need silence. There is nothing so vocal and articulate as silence; all good language, all great words, are born of it. And the third thing we need is solitude. We need to acknowledge that solitude is an invitation to the soul to come alive. Solitude is utterly luminous if we lose our fears and begin to enter it more deeply."

Foghlaim de Chroí - Learning by Heart

Jeremiah 31:31-34

See, days are coming—oracle of the LORD—when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke my covenant, though I was their master—oracle of the LORD. But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days—oracle of the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people. They will no longer teach their friends and relatives, “Know the LORD!” Everyone, from least to greatest, shall know me—oracle of the LORD—for I will forgive their iniquity and no longer remember their sin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-jABcYKhDrI

Jesus loves me this I know

For the Bible tells me so

Little ones to Him belong

They are weak but He is strong

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes, Jesus loves me

Yes Jesus loves me,

for the Bible tells me so

This beginning no doubt have you really wondering where we are going today. What has a 160 year old poem written to comfort a dying child which was shortly thereafter turned into a wildly popular Protestant hymn loved around the world got to do with a mature group of Catholic guys taking a turn looking at Celtic Christian spiritual practices? The answer is it has everything to do with learning by heart. My grandmother taught it to me as a small boy and, in turn, my mother taught it to my boys. I hope to teach it to my granddaughter even if I have to do it on the sly. Where we are going to do is to understand how this simple little song makes a profound statement about learning by heart. The memories associated with this song compiled over 60 years don't live in my mind. They are etched into my heart.

When we talk of things learned by heart, we usually think in terms of rote memorization like the poetry we were required to cite in 6th grade. After 50 plus years all I can remember are a few lines. Here is one by Frost:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

Then this one by Noyes:

And the highwayman came riding—

 Riding—riding—

The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

Beautiful poems, both of them, chock full of beautiful imagery and intent and yet they are largely lost in the dark tunnels of past time and yet the little song about the love of Jesus is there on the tip of my tongue ready to roll out when I have the thought to sing it. The Frost poem was particularly important to me at one time but I no longer understand why except to think I might have fancied I was called to take the less-traveled road. This is something that time has revealed to not be in my nature. Taking the less traveled road would leave unprotected from the lions and tigers eagerly awaiting my arrival if I were to foolishly start down that road.

We already intuitively understand that knowledge resides in our heads and wisdom lives in our hearts because that is where God records all things that he wants us to know. Recall the words of Jeremiah, "I will place my law within them and write it upon our hearts." When we speak from the heart or listen from the heart we communicate from the place where our divine souls and our human existence meet, unite and our eternal and temporal essence flows through a threshold of God's design.

Over the years we have been together, I have built up a large store of things written upon my heart. The words to describe what has inscribed are many, so many they don't form sentences but they bubble around in a pot filled with emotion, love, shared experience, service, support, sorrow, and gladness. Each of you has, at times, spoken prophecy mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians. We have shared the word, meaning, and intent of the risen Lord week by week, month by month and year by year so we have an endless store of memories recorded where when we leave this place and this world, we will be able to take those things of essence with us. The soul never forgets what is laid

down in the heart and it will pick up every little thing it finds and give all back to God with gratitude.

I don't need to tell you to seek to learn by heart. You already know that and live like you know that. The only difference is now you might have a different understanding of what it means to learn by Heart. I do.

Thank you. I take all of you and all we mean to each other with me. I love all of you in ways I can't describe but you already knew that and the knowledge resides in your hearts.

Ag Siúl na Mbabhtaí

The seventh Celtic practice is the ancient form of prayer called Walking the Rounds. Think, for a moment, about the common elements in most Celtic symbols. Most often the circles are not always round but are always circuitous, starting in one place and winding around in a predictable design l eventually returning to the starting point. If you follow the path that brings you back to the start, you have the first ingredient of how to Walk the Rounds.

Traditionally, Walking the Rounds took one around a sacred or holy place, a place with significance like a graveyard or holy well. There is another interesting addition that holds the walk must always be in a clockwise direction so that the walk always follows the path of the sun. This is something new to me but it makes perfect sense when you consider that the Celts always sought to be in step with nature. To go with the sun is to keep the light in front of you to shine on your journey and if the sun is the center of all things, you are aligned with the center of all creation.

This might be interesting to hear about but it does not seem to have much of consequence to us today. Why would this be a practice of use to us in our modern spiritual practice? Walking in a circle seems pointless if we think our mission is to get from one place to another. A journey has to have a purpose, a destination, right? Otherwise why bother leaving? How many times do we have to be reminded it is all about the journey? The destination is no place we can reach during human years but we keep deluding ourselves into thinking we can choose where we go when in fact we can only choose the direction.

Remember the Holiness talk? To be holy requires only that we turn to God and orient ourselves to go towards Him. It is what we do on the voyage and the character of our travel that is important. We can choose how we travel.

Instead of scripture reading for today the lyrics of an old Harry Chapin song haunt my thoughts so I will share the words with you.

All my life's a circle;

Sunrise and sundown;

Moon rolls through the nighttime;

'Til the daybreak comes around.

All my life's a circle;

But I can't tell you why;

Season's spinning round again;

The years keep rollin' by.

It seems like I've been here before;

I can't remember when;

But I have this funny feeling;

That we'll all be together again.

No straight lines make up my life;

And all my roads have bends;

There's no clear-cut beginnings;

And so far no dead-ends.

He hit the nail on the head.  No straight lines make up our lives, all of our roads have bends and we have no clear cut beginning or end.

When we walk around a holy place, we always come back to where we began but it is never the same place. The circle is really a spiral goes round and round but sometimes we are higher up or further down but never back to the exact same place.

Still, where are we going with this that is relevant for today? Let's revisit the journey around a holy center. What are we do when we discern? We consider something of importance, significance, something that might even change the arc of our lives. The process causes us to travel around what is being discerned, to examine it from all sides. If we are in true discernment, we make a journey around several times and we continue until we have seen the decision from every side.

We can walk the rounds around many things, some important, others not so much but others of life-altering importance. As we walk God accompanies us and he does so without bidding but there is no value unless we remind ourselves we walk in his presence and to ask for his help. Following the sun reminds us to walk in the light he shines for us. It illuminates our path as we make our way around until we see what we are intended to see and our discernment is complete.

The idea of circles is nothing new to us. Think of encircling prayer. Walking the rounds is really to walk in prayer, everything comes together in completion that has no real beginning or end.

The beauty of this is that we can physically and spiritually walk the rounds and one will support the other. How many times have we taken a walk when making a difficult decision. For me the number is without measure. 

Paidir Timpeall

Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross
[through him], whether those on earth or those in heaven.

In the middle of the passage, this line casually slides by almost unnoticed: He is before all things and in all things hold together. When we think of a circle, we think of it is as existing only on one plane but our existence is not confined to one level as if we were stand in the middle of a circle painted on the ground.

Imagine, if you will, a ball. There are 360 circles that comprise that ball so the center of the ball is completely surrounded. No matter which direction you travel, you will always intersect the outer limit of the circle. There is no escape, everything is within the circle of circles. Christ is the force that holds the circle together for we read that in him all things hold together.

What is outside the circle? He is. He is before all things so he is in the circle and outside it as well. He is, we know every where. Said another way, there is no where he is not.

Encircling prayer is prayer that calls on God to surround to us in protection and support. This is an ancient idea of the Pre-christian Celts who say themselves as totally enveloped in creation. When they converted to Christianity, the concept of being encircled came right along with them. There is, of course, a prayer we all know from the tradition of St. Patrick.

An abridged version prays like this:

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ when stand.
Christ when I arise
I arise today
Through a mighty strength,
the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

We learn from this prayer that we are not just surrounded by Christ, we are engulfed in him and he is above, below and beside is in all directions at all times. We are wrapped up in him, completely sheltered from harm. These view lines are just a short list of all of the thing from which we are protected. The whole prayer runs about 75 lines. Even just praying these lines gives someone like me who wakes each day on the Serengeti surround by hungry lions wondering if I should be running or hiding, this prayer is very comforting.

We live today in a totally alien time. Our daily lives have been flipped upside down and former patterns have been shattered. I never dreamed that the person I pass by on the way to the pharmacy might have just sneezed and in so doing volatilized a million burr shaped ghouls that might just sneak into my nose or mouth putting me on a collision course with a potentially moral illnesses. How about this for another pleasant thought. After I have been exposed but before I showed symptoms, I push open a door at the gas station and the person right behind me puts their hand on the exact some spot? Ugh.

The imagery of being totally surrounded by God's love and protection is beyond comforting. It is soul sustaining. We know that no matter what happens, we will be protected from the virus and even if we contract it and the worst comes to pass, Christ is there to save us from eternal death because of his death and resurrection for our very souls. Christ is everywhere and there is no nowhere. If things are not alright, they will still end up alright. No matter what.

• I arise every day through his mighty strength. We all do.
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• Your assignment this week? Share this prayer with one other person.