A family activity: Reading Pope Francis' Letter "On the Meaning and Importance of the Nativity Scene"

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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Good Day Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ,

Pope Francis has written a letter to us inviting us to contemplate the meaning and gift of Jesus' coming to us, which we celebrate at Christmas... Parents might want to share each of the thoughts in it with your children... a little each day....

The Diocese of Montreal gives a brief summary of his letter: https://www.diocesemontreal.org/en/news-and-info/latest-news/pope-writes-apostolic-letter-significance-christmas-creche

Here is the letter itself: https://www.diocesemontreal.org/sites/default/files/2019-12/Pope%20Francis_Ap%20Letter_2019-12-01_admirabile-signum.pdf

Peace to you all and blessed preparation for the celebrations of Christmas and extending this joy into the 12 days of Christmas.... Even the poor, sick, oppressed, and suffering are able to turn their attention away from their distress to take joy in our God who at every moment and in every circumstance comes to share in our lives, to be with us where we are, so that we may not be alone and take comfort from his love for us.

We take heart at the good news that our distress will not last forever but will come to an end when the Lord commands. This relief enables us to turn to our neighbor, especially the one in need, to extend a smile, a comforting word, a helping hand....

Blessed continuation of Advent and entry into the joy of the Christmas Season!

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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PRAYER - Fr Ron Rolheiser on Prayer - 4 part series

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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Dear Reader, Merry Christmas! 

Yes, Christmas Eve and Day are past, and today we come to the end of the Octave of Christmas with the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God, but we are still in the heart of the Christmas Season as we celebrate, ponder, and contemplate deeper each day into the Mystery of our God who has come among us in the Person of the Divine Son. 

He is now and forever Jesus Christ, Son of Mary, Jewish man of Nazareth and Galilee, but also our Messiah, our Lord, King of Kings as so beautifully expressed by Haendel in his "Messiah" overture sung so often all over the world at this time of year. 

So it is still time to wish you and your family, friends, work and school colleagues, neighbors, and even enemies, a Merry Christmas, and of course a Happy, Healthy, and Holy New Year 2012! 

 I am pleased to offer you the gift of a link to a wonderful 4-part reflection by Fr Ron Rolheiser, OMI, columnist and speaker, on prayer, which is so essential to our growth in faith and in a living and lively relationship with the Living God through Jesus and in the Holy| Spirit. 

2011-11-28 | Prayer as Seeking Depth

2011-12-04 | Praying So As Not To Lose Heart

2011-12-11 | Prayer as Seeking God's Guidance

2011-12-18 | Praying So As To See God's Glory Inside Of Humanity 

As in all things given or offered to us by Jesus, it is in the actual doing of it that we can and do and will go on experiencing the benefit and the blessing. It is not enough to hear and agree, we must pass into action and practice what we have heard, not being dismayed by our emotional or intellectual impressions of inadequacy, but being content to be poor in the presence of our God. 

It is God who is infinitely rich and who loves nothing more than to bestow upon us his riches and even his own self, which the Father does in offering us his Son Jesus again and again in his Living and inspired Word and in the Holy Eucharist, the gift of himself as food for our soul, food for the journey.... 

May you and your loved ones accept to ever dwell in the Love, Peace, and Joy which are the life of the Holy Trinity from all eternity, and into which they are drawing us, if only we continue to humbly give them our consent, as did Mary when she responded "Let it be done to me according to your word!" to the Angel Gabriel's message of proposal from Almighty God....              Fr Gilles

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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15th Day of Christmas - the Baptism of the Lord

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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What's that? Christmas is over, you say? All the lights are being put out, the decorations are for the most part gone, and other "commercial seasons" are beginning to clamour for our attention? Well, let them go fly a kite! They're not getting my attention, which I am carefully and jealously guarding for what and who really matters.... 

Since the time of the first Christians, they needed and loved to extend the festivals that grew around his passion, death, and resurrection, and subsequent ascension into heaven and sending of the Holy Spirit.... 50 days in fact! Even that wasn't enough, and they gave themselves another 40 days to prepare for that holiest of weeks between Passion/Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. 

They did the same thing to properly remember, ponder, and celebrate the Lord's incarnation and birth, taking 30 to 40 days before Christmas - if we mark the time from the 33rd Sunday and the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Solemnity of Christ the King, which focus our attention of the "final things" and second coming of Christ in glory as judge of the nations - to get off the merrygoround of the world to give proper attention to the significance of the presence of God among us in the human flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. 

The Christmas carol "The Twelve Days of Christmas" marked the high season of Christmas from the Day of the Nativity through New Year's Day marking the maternity of Mary, Mother of God (since Jesus although fully human was truly God, the divine Son of the Father, existing from all eternity with the Father) to the Solemnity of the Epiphany, the manifestation or the revelation of Jesus as Son of God and Saviour of humanity to the nations in the persons of the three Magi from the East. 

The pressure from society at large and the secular culture to get on with the business of profit and pleasure is so great that only the devout and determined manage to maintain the ancient tradition of keeping festival of the Lord's birth not just for 12 but for 40 days, til February 2nd, the Presentation of the Lord, also known as Candlemas, when candles are used in procession to gather around the manger to acclaim, worship, and praise Jesus as the Light of the Nations. Merry Christmas Season! Happy, Healthy, and Holy New Year 2007!!!!                  Fr. Gilles

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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The Nativity Story film - refreshing our view of the mystery of Jesus' birth to a real human couple.

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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This film is a remarkable attempt to portray in a fresh way the great mystery of the Son of God coming to Earth as the infant of a virgin betrothed to a young man before they had come to live together. The sheer human drama of it has been found in every generation to be a gripping story that inspires the simplest and most sophisticated people alike. 

At Christmas we seem to catch a glimpse of what humanity could be all the time if we only came to accept one another as children of the same God and as brothers and sisters to each other. When you first see the film, you may find some of your sensitivities shocked or surprised, because we become familiar with certain tellings of the Nativity Story and certain renderings of the details. It is like that with any element of our faith when in each generation it is reformulated so that it can be put in words more likely to convey to a new generation, for whom the usage of the language has changed, the full truth and wonder of the original events and divine revelation. 

Check out the Catechism of the Catholic Church and what it says about the birth of Jesus. I seem to recall that our Church teaches that Mary remained a virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus, but that does not necessarily mean she was spared birth pains altogether. She who shared in Jesus' passion would most appropriately share in what women have inherited from Eve, so that as Jesus took on himself our sins; so his Blessed Mother took on herself what is proper to women, but in a way that restored, by the grace of God, what the Creator originally intended for women to be and experience in cooperating with Him for the creation and transmission of life. 

In reviewing this film and discussing anything related to our faith with people of our day, I think we would want to avoid approaching people with wholesale rejections of anything in the culture that is not a faithful and exact expression, interpretation, or quotation of our Church's teachings. It takes nothing away from our faith for us to appreciate the value of such a film on its own merits and to see how it can be helpful in our ongoing quest to understand the mysteries of divine revelation and of our salvation. I was attentive to the teachings of our faith while viewing the film and found nothing that manipulated or contradicted the Gospels. 

The film is the best rendering I've ever seen of what it would have been like for Mary and Joseph to go about their business in Nazareth once word got out that she was pregnant, and word must certainly have gotten out once she returned from Elizabeth's after four months or so. In fact, I found the film quite edifying in showing Mary and Joseph as quite human, though she is without sin. She is never portrayed as sinning, even though she is shown as experiencing a wide range of emotional states as she lives through the amazing events within her and around her. I don't think it is an insult to our faith and Catholic dogma to say that Mary would have experienced some childbirth pains. 

In the Book of Genesis, the Lord told Eve that her pains in giving birth would be intensified; so even the way God created the sinless first man and woman, there would have been some birth pains, which is only logical in considering that a baby must pass through the birth canal. Original sin intensified those pangs. Mary's sinlessness would have spared her the intensification and acknowledging the possibility that she may have endured some pangs makes it possible for her to be presented to people today as a real person and not as one who wasn't really or entirely human but almost angelic. 

John tells us that Jesus was human like us in all things but sin, so why should his blessed Mother be any different from Him, the sinless One? Devout or inspired renderings of the nativity such as by Maria Val Torta or some saints suggest that Mary was taken up in a sort of ecstasy at the time she gave birth to Jesus, which is not an insult to human nature or science either. Ths film goes along those lines, where Mary has some pains, not particularly intense, and then there's a hint of ecstasy as she looks up to the light shining down from the star. Very plausible and very reverently rendered, I thought. 

If we want to evangelize the culture, I believe we must not descend upon it like a SWAT team to pounce on every potential deviation from Catholic dogma, and rather approach it critically, appreciating anything that can contribute to our understanding of these mysteries (we have no direct reports about what Mary's experience of childbirth was like), and graciously pointing out anything that is ambivalent with regards to our faith and anything that is inaccurate, explaining why we believe differently and pointing out how the sciences, theology, Church teaching, and art can work together to present as ever fresh the truths revealed to us by God for the salvation of humanity. Otherwise, the people we try to reach will only see us as the fanatics we would be and would dismiss us as irrelevant. We would not be honoring the Lord or serving his Gospel very well then.

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Where is God when we just can't find work?

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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In recent months, a number of parishioners first at Becket and now at St. Luke have shared with me the distress of being out of work for a prolonged period. During this time naturally they had recourse to God so that they might quickly find a new job and continue to be able to provide for their families. As the weeks

lengthened into months and the months into, yes, even years, the searching, failing, and waiting takes a toll on the person we are and can actually shake us to the very depths of our identity and loosen the grip we thought we had on life, on our faith, on God, on ourselves, on our spouses, and on our families. The very heart and soul within us cries out to the heavens in words and groanings like these: "Lord, where are You? Do you not care that we are without work? When, O Lord, will you answer?" 

Such heart wrenching prayers are truly inspired by the Holy Spirit himself, and we can find their pattern in the Gospel when the apostles were in the boat on the lake during the storm that threatened to sink and drown them, and in the Psalms, which are filled with such cries that come from the depths of the heart and soul in us. I know from experience that the Lord wants most of all and actually does support each of us in our persons, in who we are within our situations. 

That means that the Lord does not always seem overly eager to provide the answer which may seem to us to be so obvious. It also means that, ironically, such hardships actually become occasions to find ourselves closer to God, as we discover that He isn't just a valet who does our bidding or a Daddy who in our child's memory gives us what we need almost as soon as we need it or even before we realize that we need it. That is what makes great parents wonderful, the sollicitude with which they brood over their children's welfare and push away harm and envelop them in good. 

Still, even perfect human parents cannot push away all harm or provide absolutely all goods, or they would in effect end up living their children's lives for them. Something needs to remain for the children to do for themselves. That is the gray zone in which children begin to doubt their parents and parents suffer over their children, and why when we go through hard times God suffers with us and in us through Jesus, who though in glory remains quite human too and is exquisitely sensitive and compassionate toward us. 

Over the years as people have shared their struggles and stories with me, I have discovered that when it seems most difficult to find new work, what is going on is that the familiar categories within which we were used to function are straining against a lack of opportunity, and as the strain increases, what often happens is that it is the categories that burst open to reveal new ways of doing, or new kinds of work, or hidden gifts and talents never discovered or long unused, and so on, but also opportunities to resist feeling sorry for ourselves, resist the temptation to worry over our welfare, and go in the very opposite direction and with determination continue to trust in the Lord and his guidance and do something completely out of keeping with the situation such as volunteer our time and attention to someone in greater need than ourselves or to a neglected family relation. 

Such a time of difficulty can be transformed by God's almighty power into a wonderful encounter of love and service, or restoration of broken relationships and reconcilations, which is the stuff that Christmas stories are often made of. May I join you, Reader, and your family members in praying that the Blessed Trinity may glorify themselves in you and bring out of your distress in your seasons of difficulty this very kind of good news and make you a blessing in yourself, for your family, your church, and your neighbor! 

It does not immediately recommend itself to us to share with others our distress, since there's quite enough bad news in the world without adding our own to it. Surprisingly, the very opposite is true. It is precisely when all is not well that the Lord Jesus wants us to tell others the good news that He came to bring to pull the world up out of the misery of relying only on itself. He told us to ever be ready to speak up for ourselves and for Him when we are pushed or persecuted or challenged in our faith. 

He told us not to worry about what to say because the Holy Spirit would give us the words to say in that moment. The most unlikely moment to tell others about the good God is doing is precisely when He doesn't seem to be doing it yet and we are still waiting. That really gets other people's attention, because it is counterintuitive to be full of hope when there are no hopeful signs, but that is precisely what hope is, to believe in the good that is coming before there are any signs of its coming at all. 

Once we see it coming it becomes evident and past the time for needing hope, which is replaced by certainty and jubilation. May you and yours have an amazing season of hope-filled waiting for the Advent of the Lord and approach with the fresh joy of childlike hearts the celebration of his coming to us as a blessing for the whole Earth during the festive days of Christmas and its extension in the long winter nights that will bring us to "Candlemas" 40 days later at the Presentation of the Lord on February 2nd! 

  “Were not our hearts burning within us as He talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?” Luke 24:32

«Notre cœur n’était-il pas tout brûlant au-dedans de nous, quant Il nous parlait en chemin, quand Il nous ouvrait les Écritures?» Luc 24 :32

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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Pope John Paul II was a living witness to Jesus Christ, and to the reality that Human Civilization is ever in progress, a construction site....

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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November 27th, 2006. 

We now approach another Advent and Christmas season, and it's a year and a half since Pope John Paul II died and went to his eternal reward. What an instrument of God this man was, that at the time of his dying, death, funeral, and its aftermath he drew more undivided attention from people of all nations and faiths as no one had ever done before in such a way that gave so many people a glimpse of the human bond that unites all human beings that it was reminiscent of what we call the "spirit of Christmas". 

May these days be an occasion of a fruitful reflection for you on the meaning and purpose of life in light of the revelation of God given to humanity in Jesus Christ! 

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Christ is risen! Alleluia! Alleluia! As we witness Pope John Paul II serenely and prayerfully surrender his life into the merciful hands of his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, I am filled with emotion and with memories, ever since that day October 16, 1978 when, at the beginning of my first semester at St. Paul University Seminary in Ottawa, I witnessed Karol Wojtyla be elected Bishop of Rome. "Be not afraid to open the doors to Jesus Christ!" he proclaimed. He has profoundly marked my life of faith and inspired my ministry as a Roman Catholic priest and pastor.

 

Often, in the course of shepherding the people of God entrusted to me or who simply come up to me or call, I have reflected on countless life issues and situations. Inspired by Pope John Paul II's dedication to preaching and teaching the truth and to showing pastoral charity to believer and unbeliever alike, I have accumulated some reflections in such questions as: 

Why go to church on Sunday? 

What is the significance of praying the Rosary - how is that in accord with Jesus' command that we pray to his Father? 

Why do Catholics give such attention to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and isn't that taking away from the worship we owe to Christ the Lord? See Pope Saint John Paul II's Letter on the Holy Rosary HERE.

In fact, Catholic and Orthodox faith in Mary's God given privilege of having already shared in the Resurrection of Jesus is supported by St. Paul to the Corinthians, in his first letter, where he says that Christ is the first fruits of those to rise from the dead, followed by those that belong to Him. 

It is clear then that Christ valued his own Mother above all others by sharing the grace of resurrection with her first. Other questions often asked are such as these: 

Of what value is prayer, and of what use is it for couples to pray together? 

Why does the Roman Catholic Church make such a fuss over sex and why has the Pope been so conservative about sexuality? 

Why do the youth at World Youth Days cheer Pope John Paul II when he appeals to them to safeguard their chastity? 

Is the Bible true or is it just a myth? 

What's wrong with a Catholic Christian or any Christian joining a Masonic lodge, the Free Masons? 

Why don't more recently ordained priests want to celebrate Mass for our family or group, when our previous pastor/priest would celebrate Mass for us at home or for our group? Hint: The focus of our Church is on the Sunday Assembly, which all too many of the baptized are avoiding....

There are many more questions that come up, and you will find many of them given excellent treatment by Fr. Thomas Dowd in his Facebook Page. Let's continue to pray for our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, now and beyond his hour of death, that the Lord may grant him a swift entry into eternal life and the reward of his banquet table; notwithstanding any regrets or shortcomings or sins he may have on his conscience. God bless you and your loved ones!

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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"I lured her into the wilderness and spoke to her heart."

My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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It's in the wilderness of our everyday lives, especially when we become so preoccupied with the physical world around us and its reality within us, when we most acutely become aware of our fragility, dependence, and poverty, that the greater reality of God and the world and life of the spirit can come breaking through to us. 

That is precisely what the best Christmas stories are all about, as they all reflect the very first Christmas story, that of the long arduous journey of a simple young married couple on the verge of giving birth to their only child with not place to stay... As long as we are strong and self reliant, we are less inclined to see, hear or even notice the presence of God, but when we become desperate, our minds, hearts, eyes, and ears mysteriously open up. 

No wonder God has such love for the poor, the suffering, the destitute, and the abandoned. They have lost the illusion of being able to be self-sufficient and are in touch with their need for God and the life that He constantly offers. They are more attentive and appreciative of each breath, each sip of water, each morsel of food, each moment of shelter, and each stitch of clothing. May you have a meaningful Advent and joyous Christmas season, you and your family!!! Fr. Gilles 

November 20th, 2006 

I'm shocked to see it was almost 2 months that I last posted a reflection on pastoring or news of my sabbatical journey.... I seem to recall that in mid-October, we went to Mundelein Seminary, where there is a conference/retreat center, and had a day of recollection. It had been almost two months since our arrival August 23rd, and I began to sense that I had launched rather intensively into it all: going to all the classes, taking an extra course a half hour away at the Water Tower Campus of Loyola University downtown Chicago, blogging, participating in our sabbatical community, taking solitude time for prayer, reading and reflection.... 

I wasn't playing enough. So, I visited a few museums, alone and with another priest, and took time to walk, and began going for morning swims 3 times a week at the almost new athletic center of Chicago University. I intended to blog again, but days went by, and it was enough just to clear the box of email.... A few weeks went by. 

Then I caught a cold when I left the car at a garage for repairs and came home in the wind and rain. I could have chosen a better day. They replaced the fuel pump, which probably needed to be changed and saved me breaking down altogether anywhere anytime, but the car still had the same intermittent problem with ignition, occasionally sputtering and losing power. 

So I rested to recover from the cold, when I cut my thumb trying to open a package. 18 stitches and my first experience going through an American hospital ER later, I needed to recover from the wound. Then we had a week retreat at Our Lady of Fatima Retreat Center at Notre Dame Univ., Indiana, came back for the weekend, and it was Thanksgiving break. I spent the week at Madonna House Windsor, and had a good rest. 

In the meantime, I did quite a lot of work on the research project on pastoring, and for the course with John Shea. The sabbatical was truly becoming a time of renewal. I began spiritual direction around the time of my last post, and that has been a wonderful grace as well. Also around that time, our reflection group asked me to give the homily at our scheduled weekly Thursday group Eucharist, followed by a social: preprandrials and supper. 

Each member of the four groups participates in the animation of the liturgy when it's their group's turn. They asked me again and I gave the homily once more last evening. It was a wonderful experience. As we come into the last 2 weeks, I've scheduled some films for the benefit and enjoyment of the whole group: "Babette's Feast", "The Passion of the Christ", "A Christmas Carol" (1951), "It's a Wonderful Life". We're into the great season of Advent now, a time to stop and listen to the breath of life coming from our God.... Well, I've got to end, as the library closes early on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, another little obstacle in getting to the internet. God bless you all.... 

 (to be continued)

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My purpose in these posts is to help spread the contributions of a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.

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© 2004-2021 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal  QC
© 2004-2021 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC 

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