Jesus, Christians, intimacy, and you - 1.

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

It has been a busy weekend for this pastor, since my last post. Friday to Sunday, I prepared for Sunday ministry and preaching, prayed with and gave the Anointing of the Sick to a few people, continued to host our new associate pastor - there are always so many things to learn in a new house and assignment - visited my aging but very dear parents, and made final preparations for this annual English Montreal Fraternal Gathering and retreat. I picked up our retreat master or preacher, Fr. Eugene "Red" O'Reilly, Redemptorist, at the airport in Dorval and we arrived here for supper Sunday night. Our associate pastor kindly delayed his departure in order to be able to pick up and drive one of our elder veteran priests on Monday morning. 

We are at the beautiful and extensive marian shrine of Notre Dame du Cap de la Madeleine near Trois Rivières, Province of Québec. Every good retreat draws our attention to Jesus, the One Saviour of the world. It is because the journey is long, the journey of faith, even though life on Earth may seem short, that we need to go into the wilderness, to a quiet place, so that we can allow our spirit to rest in the Spirit of God, and once again discern his voice speaking to our hearts. 

Unlike what we construct in this world, where things tend to last or stay where we put them, at least for a while; our interior life is constantly in flux and we are ever creating as it were the person we are becoming through our decisions. You may say, and rightly so, "Hey, Father, consider yourself lucky to be able to get away like that! With our family, and work, it's really difficult if not impossible for us to do that." You're right. 

We priests consider ourselves privileged, blessed to be able to go on retreat like this. One reason we need to, as part of our labor and job description in ministry, is because we spend so much time pondering the Word of God and concerning ourselves with the affairs of his Kingdom and the Church, and sharing the burdens of his people; that we actually need to go into the wilderness in a regular way just to remember who we are and find again our own mind, heart, and soul underneath all that is yours that we accept to bear with you. If we completely lose track of who we are, then we will no longer be of much use to you and will tend to go into "auto mode". 

If you catch us doing that, maybe we need encouragement from you not to wait any longer and go ahead and seek out a time of retreat. So, you're right, but you're also wrong. I mean that it's not true that you can't go on retreat yourselves. True, you may not be able to go away, both husband and wife, and leave your little children behind. However, if they're older and can manage on their own, with their grandparents or other reliable and committed person to watch over them and assure the continuance of their routines, then there's no reason why you shouldn't consider both going, say, on a weekend retreat. 

It would not only be a graced time to bring you closer to God and allow Him more deeply into your life and soul, but He would also bring you both closer to each other, and renew your deep love of your children, and refresh you, and send you back with renewed vigor to love and to serve those entrusted to you. If you can't both go on a weekend retreat at the same time, you may be able to go on it one at a time. If that's still too difficult, or you've never been on a retreat, then you can try a smaller bite. 

There are twilight retreats that go from late in the afternoon to early evening. Now that's something you can probably manage, either together or separately. The point I'd like to make with you is that, whatever your situation and conditions might be, God always has ways and means to refresh you in mind, heart, soul, and body, and He's always available to fill you with his mercy, love, kindness, and renew in you the freedom and vitality of the children of God by means of the Holy Spirit and his power. He does need your consent to work with, and awaits your decision to seek out the information and decide on an opportunity and go for it. We need to take the step and allow Him to do the rest. 

What follows is not a transcription of our retreat preacher's words, but a reflection from my own spirit in response to his words, as I look back at his opening remarks on Sunday evening and the four conferences he has given us since then. Perhaps you may find in this ongoing reflection something that may help you come closer to Jesus or simply realize how eager Jesus is to come closer to you, that you may have the divine life He offers, bringing your human life to abundance and fruitfulness. 

Fr. "Red" began by having us consider all the people and influences that have shaped who we have become, in particular how our formation either enhanced or hindered our ability and willingness to be open to the kind of intimacy that allows for a truly human and authentic life. There have been times past and perhaps still today when priests and religious were formed to fear intimacy, to fear their own frailty. This approach often applies as a solution to the dangers of human frailty a discipline of obedience without thinking. It is a blind obedience. You do this because I tell you to do it. Don't think. Don't trust your ability to make your own decision, but just obey. 

It is true that Jesus gave a lot of importance to his obedience to his Father's will, but this is not exactly the kind of obedience He practiced. Catholic Christians who are older remember learning that we were made, created by God to know, to love, and to serve God. Fr. "Red" proposed that as true as this tenet of faith is, its expression in our catechesis was not entirely complete, because it left out the other side of this truth, namely, that God also longs to love and serve us. I remember hearing about a contemplative nun who once told a young priest that when we spend time before Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, what is happening is not just that we are contemplating or attempting to adore God. God always precedes us, and like any truly loving parent, is also contemplating and "adoring" or loving us. He radiates upon us with love as that parent radiates upon their child with love. 

Now, the formation we have received both as people, human beings, and as Christians, may not always have enhanced our ability to appreciate this reality about God. The very thought of God loving us calls for an intimacy of acceptance and response, and this is very much connected to our capacity for intimacy among ourselves, with other human beings. Sadly, there has been and probably always will be, such fear because of the possibility of sexual misconduct or acting out, that a disciplinary response which relies too much upon excessive authority doesn't really help a child or youth to develop their own conscience and will, both their ability and willingness to make the discipline their own. 

Instead, we may have raised or be raising people who will only behave according to our values when they think someone is looking or out of fear of being caught and punished or fear of having love withdrewn. Such fear of punishment is the lowest level of moral development, and doesn't really allow for independent thinking or decision making. My own thought, in light of those recent scandals in the military here and there, is that if an authority undertakes to deconstruct a person's character in order to rebuild them according to the accepted model currently valued by the military authority, they may not realize that they are actually severing the ties within the person between values and conscience. 

At the other end of society, we are discovering so much about what influences our thinking and behaviour that it is becoming increasingly common for people to blame conditions around them for their actions. In both cases, we are witnessing a society where we are more and more loath to accept responsibility for ourselves and rather inclined to blame someone else, anyone else, or even everyone else, for our own behaviour. What is tragic about this is that, only through our own responsible decisions, do we grow as persons and become more fully human beings. 

Further, only as I accept who I am and take responsibility for my decisions, can I see anything good in myself. If everyone else is to blame and I see nothing good in myself, I will be so afraid that others won't like what they see, won't love me, that I will avoid revealing myself to others at all cost. In such a case, intimacy is impossible, but without itimacy, there can be no happiness, no meaningful existence, no personal encounter, and no real communion of persons. This is because, fundamentally, intimacy is what happens when I allow another to "see into me - into me see". This is what happened when God came to the Earth in his Son, Jesus. He allowed us to see into Him, into God. 

More than that, Jesus then reached out to people and called them to receive his words and to accept the love being offered by God the Father through Him, his Beloved Son, whom He sent into the world to reveal Himself to us; that we might have life in Jesus and have it abundantly. Jesus even said that He gave us his joy and wanted our joy to be complete. This is a view of life that is at the heart of the kingdom, or reign, of God, and is completely different from other views of life prevalent in our world. 

What is exciting and at times excruciating is that we bear both views within us at the same time, and from time to time, in varying degrees. Letting the world, the weakness of the flesh, or the devil have the upper hand brings us into misery, but allowing God and his Spirit to have the upper hand and unite us to Jesus brings us into joy. 

... to be continued...

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

God is calling you. Does your heart hear? Seeing love return in the eyes of one we have loved - this is the joy of priesthood and parenthood.

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

This entry is about being fully alive, breaking through the veil of superficiality that causes one to feel bored with life, feeling at one with all the other creatures in the world around us, and seeing the radiant Presence of God in everything - the great undercover wonder who takes delight in enabling us to participate in his own work of creation and of giving life - it's about hearing the call to participate fully in living and in giving life to others. 

November 30, 2006. Feast of St. Andrew. 

This is a very fascinating place to be after eleven years, with just one little year to go in my current assignment. The first few years were an awesome challenge, and I even felt then that I might be in over my head. At the same time, there were those really great hearts who lost no opportunity to give a word of encouragement, to lend a helping hand, to offer a kind gesture or sage word of advice. 

People are amazing, and without thinking much of what they are doing, at times reach high levels of excellence in their outlook, speech, behaviour, and action. People like that really do make the world a better place, despite those that make a lot more noise or wreak havoc and destruction. It is so very deeply satisfying when they say that my presence, word, attitude, action, or example has really touched, inspired, encouraged, or challenged them, because some of them do that for me. 

The sharing of a common journey, the collaboration in a single important task, the mutuality in that intercourse of persons who happen to breathe the same air on the same planet at the same time while discovering the same hidden mystery at the very source of it all... incredibly intensifies the wonder of just being alive. This alone is already the kind of stuff that inspires poets, playwrights, composers, philosophers, theologians, wives and husbands, mothers and fathers... yet there is more! 

The middle years of my time here became increasingly active and productive, but most importantly of all, they challenged me even more to go beyond my comfort zone, grow in generosity, and learn even from those younger than me. The wonder of other people is that, however young, each person has character virtues or strengths, abilities or experiences that they hold or use uniquely, and this challenges and encourages me to open my spirit to greater possibilities. 

Difficulties, obstacles, apparent failures, and even discouragement can serve to push us beyond the limits of what we thought was possible. The most fascinating and puzzling area of life seems to me to be where we are most weak, vulnerable, helpless, or powerless. I have been stable in one place and the same assignment long enough to have accumulated a long list of what might be called personal failures, or failed personal attempts to accomplish this or that. In turn, this opens up the awareness of my own personal limits. 

You'd think that as a person open to the supernatural and to the spiritual dimension I would have had a better grasp all along of the boundary between what I can myself accomplish and what can only be possible to God. Perhaps it's the eternal youth in me that still feels overly responsible for the world around me, or the child in me that never learned very well to ask for help, or again the current context in which so much is expected by so many of the priest or pastor, or is it simply our common human condition from the time of our origins that causes me and us to daily struggle valiantly on as though it were all up to me, to us? In the midst of it all, there are deep joys for me these days and today. 

As what we call the "pastoral year" - the year of the caring we receive from God in churches - ended and now starts up again with the coming and going of summer; I have been taken hostage, no, rather set free by an unexpected and disconcerting realization. It's not a new invention, but it is certainly fresh and impactful for me. 

All these very wonderful and unique people keep coming back to this church, and it's not because of me. It's because of Jesus Christ, the One Saviour of the world. He died, but rose again from the dead - the "first fruits from the dead" - who came into the very midst of our darkness to seduce our hearts, enlighten our minds, heal our bodies, and to restore the vigour of our wills, and so to lead us out of the darkness into his own wonderful light. Though He truly is the "all in all" of God; yet is He so kind and considerate as to remain among us and work still within us, but under cover, under the cover of spirit being, existence, speech, and action. 

He could accomplish by himself the salvation and lifting up of every generation of humanity, but He continues to submit himself to the Father's plan and will that as many of us humans as possible might come to the life changing satisfaction and delight of participating as partners in this ongoing transformation of people and their lives, beginning with our own and the lives of those we love. 

What is it that covers Him up? In large part, it is the network of illusions that we nurture that nothing happens without us or me. This is the perspective of the child of two, who naturally thinks that all that is new to them isn't known to anyone else. As we move away from that time of innocence, we varyingly try to resist opening our self to others and to persist in serving our selves. All this static of self blocks the waves of divine vitality radiating from God, and we just don't "tune in" to the "godcast", we miss the happenings, we reject the gift of faith which alone clears the static and opens the receiver. 

This is the joy I receive as gift these days, to rediscover more deeply than ever before that we are all the work of God - even though it is his pleasure that we have a part and take delight in taking up our part - so that all that is real, beautiful, true, good, and loving, all that lasts, comes from Him. It is ours to notice, see, hear, accept, and receive, to use, develop, say, do, and accomplish, in partnership with God and with each other. 

What brings me joy in this is not the mere idea of it, but the all-pervading realization of it, the conviction of it in my gut, the bright perspective of it illuminating all that I concern or busy myself with, the humbling magnitude of it as I go on relating to and collaborating with others. How can any thing ever be the same again? 

Another pulse within this same joy came tonight. Some of us diehards got drenched mucking around in the rain playing golf through the front nine holes, and then went for cover in the form of a good shower and change into dry, warm clothes; while only three really passionate players went on to play the bottom nine. That was fine. We shmoozed over appetizers and drinks and then along came one of our fine recruits. He didn't play but joined us among those who simply came as part of the "supper shift" - priests invited over the years and who remain on the active list because they either have come or at least answered the invitation. 

It's all about fraternity, the simple joy of being with these other men we love and who love us, mostly because of Jesus. We have in common Jeremiah's experience: Jesus seduced our souls and we let ourselves be seduced by Him. It's all about just being there together, sharing one another's company, anecdotes, and friendly intercourse. Then it happened. The young recruit, about seven years into his personal formation and professional training, shared with me what it's like for him to be at this point in the journey, and how vital it also is for him to be so very intimately caught up in the saving relationship with Jesus, our Saviour, our Lord, and the Beloved of our souls. 

What an awesome thing it is to see happening in another life, another soul, another person, the very same mystery of existence beyond human sight and only visible by faith. This undercover Jesus is truly a wonder, to accomplish such similar effects in so different lives, all the while respecting the fragile yet intricate web of freedom and discretion that makes up each unique human being. I already have the joy of knowing that this is the very same pattern that happens in the lives of all these dear brother priests, some of whom I know much more intimately than others. 

It is very touching to see it happening anew in someone still in the early stages of the formation years, because that is when you feel so small in the face of what you are gradually preparing and committing yourself to do for the rest of your life. To be a Roman Catholic priest is to commit yourself for the rest of your life to do the impossible, all that you cannot possibly accomplish, but which Jesus can in you, as He has been doing for two millennia. It's awesome to be called and to freely and gladly respond and accept to be part of something like that. 

It's very much like the awesome mystery into which a woman and man enter when they fall in love and leap into the precipice by joining their destinies to each other and get married, preparing and committing themselves to bring into this confused and even dangerous world an undetermined number of brand new, fragile human persons to share in the eternal destiny offered us all by God the Father in his extravagant bounty. 

What an awesome, timeless ecstatic experience it is to gaze in wonder into the eyes of your child, a unique, individual little person who didn't exist before, and who only exists now because your committed love joined you to your spouse in your committed love, and this love between you, making you one, has multiplied you, and you are lost in the contemplation of this new life, which is looking back at you with a response of unconditional love, gratitude, joy, delight, and innocent wonder! 

It is the same for a priest whenever he gazes into the eyes of any and all of God's children whom he has the privilege and honor of serving, as he notices the power of God passing through him into their lives: healing their wounds, forgiving their sins, restoring their dignity, intensifying their love, filling them with gratitude, giving them hope, enthralling them with new vision of the mystery of the Holy Three in One, restoring their will to courageously do battle with temptation, sin, and evil in the world, strengthening their hearts to endure all the trials, difficulties, opposition, persecution, and burdens of life; so that they may acquire an ever expanding capacity for love, peace, joy, delight, contemplation, passion, fruitfulness, generativity, endurance, hope, and faith. 

If you are a single Roman Catholic man and have been moved by this account, perhaps God is calling you to consider the life and ministry of the priest, who is given by Jesus a share in the saving ministry He came to Earth to begin. If such is the case, open your heart to Jesus with me and make your own a prayer something like this: "Dear Jesus, You who came to the Earth to reveal to humanity the love of the Father and to save us from our sins, lifting us up to live a life of love beginning on Earth and continuing into eternity; if You are calling me, please let me know. 

I open my mind, heart, soul, and body to You. I am willing to explore the possibilities, and to find within myself the freedom to respond to your call, with your help. Let your Holy Spirit enlighten me and guide me every step of the way. Thank You for touching my spirit. Please continue to reveal yourself to me. Lead me to some of your other disciples, who will help me to discover your ways. Amen." I unite myself to you in the praying of this prayer. Feel free to email me by entering a comment through the hotlink below, or else to contact a Roman Catholic priest of your choice. May God continue to bless you along this amazing adventure of life on Earth and eternal life in Heaven!

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

The Gospel is being proclaimed all over the world today. Have you heard of Alpha? It is a Practical Introduction to the Christian Faith in a Community Setting.

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The Alpha Course developed over the past 30 years as the Holy Trinity Brompton Anglican Church equivalent of our Roman Catholic Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. In the late 80's and early 90's it took a very "user friendly" form and is sweeping across the face of the Earth like a good brush fire. 

It is also called "A Practical Introduction to the Christian Faith." Currently in Canada, we are engaged in what Alpha Canada calls the Annual Alpha National Initiative which this year is taking the form of a "Prayer Blitz". The whole point is to give people of today who are searching for meaning and purpose in their life an opportunity to personally meet Jesus Christ, who is not dead, but risen from the dead, the first human being to do so. Alpha is approved and widely used in the Roman Catholic Church as well.

That He is also Son of God is the main reason why He was the first one to rise from the dead. This also explains why He has so much to offer every human being alive and walking the Earth at this moment and in every generation and in every circumstance of life: youth, on campus, in homes, in community centers, in prisons, in the workplace, in the military, in a Catholic context, and offsite in such places as in pubs and restaurants! 

As Paul preached the good news in the public square in Corinth, so too any setting can become an ideal opportunity to proclaim and share the good news today. Alpha Canada's hope and plan is to draw together the collaboration of Christian churches of all denominations; so that the entire nation can be invited to "attend and Alpha Supper in a church or other venue near you" and have the opportunity to go to "an Alpha Course near you." 

Who is Alpha for? Anyone who is searching for more, who is beginning to feel that something is missing, that there has to be more to life than what they have found to date. If that's you, then Alpha is first and foremost for you. If you have a friend, or relative, work colleague, or classmate who is always asking you questions or who is also searching for more, why not invite them to go check it out with you? If you can't get the hyperlinks, here are some URL's you can check out. 

Alpha Canada - Find a course near you:     In Canada: https://alphacanada.org 

Worldwide: https://www.alpha.org/global-impact/ 

In the U.K.: https://alpha.org.uk 

You can shop for Alpha Course materials 

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

"It's a Wonderful Life!" is the story of a simple Christian. Jesus is still the best Good News we've got.

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Man, it's been a long time since my last post, and I just wiped out 3 paragraphs by trying to insert a hot link before saving as a draft. My old brain isn't as sharp in some ways as it once was. In any event, on April 1st, John Paul II was dying, and the next day he breathed his last. His death had a profound effect on millions of people. The real question is how deep and extensive is the impact he had upon us while he was alive? 

This question is what makes the classic film "It's a Wonderful Life." such a beloved movie, especially at Christmas time, and that's no coincidence! Most people can tell the difference within them from relating to one person or another but may find it harder to know what effect they are having on others. Pope John Paul II knew much about the effects he had on people, because that has a lot to do with just being a Christian and more do to with also being a priest, let alone a bishop or the Pope, Bishop of Rome. 

I just went today to visit with a brother priest and friend the exhibit at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal entitled "Saint Peter and the Vatican. The Legacy of the Popes." Walking through history, as it were, stirred up a whole lot of significant memories in me. I remember the day Cardinal Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope John Paul II. It was my first year of seminary formation for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church, and on October 16, 1978 the new pope came out and addressed all of humanity, exclaiming "Do not be afraid to open wide the doors to Jesud Christ!" 

Those words were like a blazing sword of fire cutting through my spirit like a hot knife through butter, only it wasn't something painful, on the contrary. It was rather like the lightning stroke one feels when one suddenly falls in love. There is a moment of recognition: "This is really good, beautiful, rich, precious... and I want it. I want to give myself to it, to him/her." or "Hey! That's what I've been looking for, or this is who I am, but I hadn't realized it until now. This is who I want to be from now on, and completely!" The surge of power that went through me that day has left an indelible impact in my spirit, no, more than that, what happened in me that day was alive, and it lives still in me, and goes on growing, developing, and bearing fruit, like a tree. 

This is one way to recognize the power of God at work within us, in a human life. Pope John Paul II was where he was because since the age of 16 or younger he had become familiar with this living power, and had come to recognize it in the form of three persons known to Christians as God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He had become so enraptured by these divine Persons, that even as a young man he found the freedom and enthusiasm to freely surrender his life to an unending relationship with them in a life of service out of love. 

This is what it means to be a Roman Catholic priest. A bishop leads and cares for priests as well as the faithful as a father, and the Bishop of Rome is the bishop among equals chosen by the others to care as a father for all the others as well as for all the Catholic Christians in the world. No human being could be so bold as to claim to be able to do such a thing, unless he were insane of course. However, it is a commonplace belief for all Christians that what is impossible for humans becomes suddenly possible when we accept to be in partnership with God. It is the divine partnership of the Father, the Son Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit that made Pope John Paul II such a powerful figure and effective servant of humanity. 

Would you believe that you can have the same kind of experience? Well, it's true! Even if you have a hard time in believing in God! All you have to do is want to do it and go ahead and do it. Just call out from within your spirit, the center within where your heart and mind and psyche and body become one, and say, "Are You really there? Please let me know, and in a way that I can know that it must be You because there could be no other explanation." 

Then brace yourself and see what happens. Keep in mind a few things. The eye sees by being sensitive to electormagnetic waves we call light. The ear hears by being sensitive to dynamic sympathtic waves we call sound. The skin feels by being sensitive to air waves we call breeze or wind. The soul or spirit perceives by being sensitive to "movement" or "touch" within itself. It's like the example I gave above of what happened within me when I heard Pope John Paul's first words to the world. It's also like what happens to us when we're with a really good person and friend. 

There is movement within us, we are touched by who this person is, what they say, how they feel, the way they look at us, the care they show us, and so on. We are changed by this person and are no logner quite the way we were before this encounter. It is that way with other human beings, and it is also this way with the three divine persons. Why shouldn't it be? A person is a person. 

So, go ahead and call out. Talk to a Christian you know who has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, his Father, and the Holy Spirit. Talk to a pastor, or go to a church. Find out where there will soon be an Alpha Course near you - go check out the Alpha Canada website. What have you got to lose? You have everything to gain, both now on earth, and for ever in the eternal life beginning after death. Jesus is still the best Good News humanity has ever had or will ever have! Don't just take my word for it. See for yourself! If the hotlink feature isn't working, so here's the URL: https://alphacanada.org

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

Jesus the spiritual teacher opens our mind to the spirit realm, away from the traffic of the senses - "Spiritual Development and the Gospel Narratives 8" by John Shea

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Our professor John Shea explained to the class that, like Jesus, we too must practice spiritual disciplines, if we are to become conscious of the presence of God all around us and in creation, as well as within us. Moreover, because our mind tends not to be spiritual and to go with all that we take in through our senses, spiritual disciplines and pondering the Word of God draws our mind beyond the limited vision and realities of the physical world in order to catch a glimpse of the "bigger picture". One such spiritual discipline is the practice of meditation, or of stilling the body, the mind, and the heart, so that we can find our way within to the place of our soul or spirit, which has been created by God with a capacity to be in union with Him.

To become conscious of my inner self, and get out of the heavy traffic of the senses, I pull in my consciousness and immediately become aware of my body in a way I wasn’t until now; so I may suddenly realize I have an ache in my leg, or that I am cold, and so on. I acknowledge the body - make any necessary adjustments to my posture to put the body at ease so it won't need to continue to seek my conscious attention - and pull my consciousness in further, and become aware of the mind, whose every thought wants me to identify with it, give it my full attention, or resist it.

I do none of that, but acknowledge each thought, and then simply let it go, and pull in further to the place between my thinking apparatus and my deep inner self, where there is contact between my spirit and the Spirit of God. Now this sounds simple, and in reality it really is, but it is not so easy to actually do. That's why it is called a spiritual discipline, requiring steady efforts to do it, without much regard for success or failure, but just to do it and be there, with trust that God is faithful and always keeps his appointments. Whether or not we actually sense anything go on within us really doesn't matter, since the Scriptures make it clear that God prefers to come in a silence and stillness in which we cannot lay hold of Him or manipulate Him the way we tend to do with things and people in the physical world. God is great and will not be used by us. He is sovereign and decides what is best for us. He loves us too much to allow us to sink into the illusion of  manipulating or having any "control" over Him. Seeking or taking control shuts down freedom, relationship, and any possibility of love. 

Normally, the mind wants to take hold of such a spiritual discipline and control everything about it in the same way it controls much of what we do all day long, with thoughts about what to do to prepare, what to do during, and what to do after, and more thoughts on how things seem to be progressing. None of that is relevant in the realm of the spirit. Whatever God wants us to know He will allow to stay with us afterwards as a lingering impression that won't go away. That is one way we can know what was real and from God, by what lingers persistently and remains for us to notice. Some of that may still be just from our own mind, heart, psyche, or body; so we need to learn and we can learn to distinguish where each thought, sentiment, or impression really comes from over time.

As I try to enter into this meditation and try to be still, the mind lets me release its many thoughts that come to me by the Word of God that I take in, which gives the mind truths to consider that capture its interest and stimulate it to open itself to more depth and abundance that it will find within, in the realm of spirit. As I employ this discipline regularly my mind opens more readily to my own spirit within, where it can draw Living Waters from the deep wells of Spirit within, as Jesus told the Samaritan woman He met at Jacob's well.

The Pharisees exemplify people with minds closed to spirit. They are so identified with closed worldly thoughts of fear, insecurity, competition, influence, keeping records of sins and wrongs, and of course domination, that they cannot open themselves to the Spirit. Jesus calls their attention to their thoughts and offers them a more helpful set of thoughts. Much of our pain is self-inflicted from the deadly thoughts to which we give our whole attention, such as all the many considerations around providing a life for ourselves and our families, and all that is within us concerned about how we are doing or what people think of us, and so on. Spiritual teachers always situate themselves in tension with the person, to intrigue, shock, or cajole the mind to give its attention instead to a spiritual set of thoughts capable of drawing the mind inwards to the spirit place, whence it might draw from the wellsprings of spirit and life. The spiritual teacher Jesus doesn’t focus on what a person says, but on the person itself, and is always trying to open the mind to the spirit within.

Jesus knows what is happening, when we are into “mob think” and caught up in shallow worldly ways of self-sufficiency, power, initiative, competition, and domination. Jesus hears our unproductive thoughts and calls us beyond that limited mind (meta-noia) into the “game” of repentance and life. He acknowledges our painful situation or struggle and calls us to go beyond it into mission and bear fruit. Jesus cursed the fig tree without fruit and it withered, even though it wasn’t the season for fruit, to get everyone's attention with a clear statement that He, Jesus, is the gardener and also the season for fruit – with Jesus, the time to bear fruit is always now, today. He digs up our roots to manure them, but we must be aware that our time for bearing fruit is limited – we don’t have unlimited time - we need to wake up now to what the Spirit is saying to us in the depths of our soul.

There is only so much space in our consciousness; speculation, idle amazement, chronic worry about life or excessive fear block out thoughts that can lead to conversion and openness to spirit. As spiritual teacher, Jesus tries to wake us up, using whatever we are experiencing: troubles, illness, or even death, to supplant unproductive, closed minded worldly thoughts with productive, open minded spiritual ones. It's not that the world is bad, after all, it is God's own creation and handiwork. It's simply that there is the realm of spirit that suffuses and radiates from within all that God the Father sustains in being, and He has created us with an inner capacity to recognize the inner spiritual radiance of his presence in all creatures. St. Francis of Assisi was sensitive to this presence of God in creatures and called them "Sister" and "Brother".

Spiritual teachers either love the teaching and give it to us, or else they love us and set the conditions for us to discover the teaching for ourselves – Jesus uses both tracks. In this way we can understand Jesus’ “dueling of words” in the Gospels, especially with the Pharisees, at the service of waking people’s consciousness to truth and to his guidance to life in the Spirit. He draws us away from our inner web of anxious thoughts in the project of survival towards faith in our Father's love and confidence that God cares for us, notwithstanding the sensory “evidence” to the contrary, erroneously filling us with thoughts like "It's a jungle out there. It's every man for himself."

God is always present, the Spirit / wind always blowing, but we have to put up our sails to catch it. The open sail is deliberate, trusting prayer. In Matthew, prayer isn’t telling God our needs, since He already knows even more than we do about what we need, but consciousness of God’s graciousness. We draw our mind away from tomorrow thinking by meditating on the gift of being alive today, now. In God we draw from a fullness of abundance - the divine abundance that gives meaning and purpose to our spirit - even in the midst of poverty, pain, mourning or persecution; as Jesus taught in the "beatitudes" portion of his sermon on the mount. It is only by receiving from this abundance that we can engage in Christian ministry, because the ministry Jesus began and then entrusted to his disciples to carry on is a ministry drawing from the abundance of the Father's love for his children.

The spiritual teacher frees us from the domination and tyranny of our senses, which keep insisting that we are separate beings and that life is a competition for limited resources. As our spiritual teacher, Jesus shows us how to glide - buoyed up by grace like the swan once it hobbles off the land into the water - by freely choosing to waddle with difficulty off the land into the water of God's presence all around us.

Today is the time of beginning again, and we can recommit ourselves to the practice of various useful Christian disciplines like (1) observing the Lord’s Day as a Sabbath rest and celebration and letting this rest filter into each day, month, and year; (2) stopping the impulse to possess by actively receiving spirit from Jesus and practicing fasting and almsgiving; and (3) practicing meditation and prayer to seek the Spirit within, to be drawn where the Spirit wills, and to draw from the font of Living Water.

to be continued....

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

Unlike finished objects, we are "happenings of being" made up of love we give and receive in communion - "Spiritual Development and the Gospel Narratives 6" by John Shea

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

It very challenging for us to live in both the physical/flesh world and the spirit world all at the same time. We suffer a lot because of what is happening in our psyche and flesh, as a social, emotional, and physical being, and wonder what has become of our soul / spirit, but we realize that we were really identifying ourselves with our psyche and body – mind, emotions, and flesh - as though this were all that we are. We want and need to see clearly the difference between "me" and "I". We think that we are a living thing that is already created, finished, done, but that is not what we are. 

Oh yes, the body is here, but who I really am emerges from within and is composed of the meaning I give to my life through my decisions, words, and actions, how I live out and order my thoughts and feelings. Who I am can’t come under my own observation, because it’s the transcendent “happening of being” where God breathes life into me and where I am one with God, from whom I flow and to whom I am returning. It is from this transcendent level of being that I can observe the rest of me in all its levels and parts, none of which really constitute who I am of themselves, either separately or together.

Those other levels and parts have a lot happening in them, they all have their own structures and ways of operating, and their interconnectedness is very complex, but in terms of spiritual development – my own and that of others – how do I identify myself? How does my identity truly come into being? The spiritual realm constitutes our identity as surely as the other realms do, (physical, emotional, psychological, social, intellectual, etc.) because we are related to a transcendent Source, but it also has the capacity to unify all the others in an integrated sense of who I am. Actually realizing this is a long (life time), difficult process, and a crucial factor is what my treasure is: that to which I give most of my attention, where my heart invests itself, and how it distributes my life force and energy.

Giving all our attention to sin – temptation, actually sinning, and torment over having sinned – is how we come to identify with sin and constitute our identity around sin. This only tends to lock us into producing more fruit of sin and injury as we get caught up with networks of social reinforcement. Jesus refused to take part in the complicities around sin, judging, and retribution but instead gave all his attention to his Father and the Father’s love, forgiving people in order to set them free from the traps of sin for the freedom of the children of God; so that they / we might freely receive love and in turn give ourselves in love like Jesus. Still, we struggle to accept God’s forgiveness and to then in turn offer it to others, in part because we are so invested in keeping track of our hurts and the offences of others.

Like the Pharisees, a fair amount of our identity has formed around distinguishing ourselves as different from or better than others. The Pharisees had a lot invested around the rituals of purification from sin and ritual uncleanness. Without sinners, the Temple economy would collapse. For my part, if I can’t sit in judgment over others, then I will have to look at my own sins, and I may not want to. A formidable obstacle to forgiveness is that holding a grudge and seeking revenge can make me feel powerful and be quite intoxicating, which makes other practices necessary for coming to freedom.

Restitution can give a sense of the damage caused by sin, penance can purify or burn away my sense of identification with my sin, and seeking a firm purpose of amendment brings me to face the decision to turn my attention away from sin and give it to God, others, and spirit. God’s love lets me face the fear of being exposed by his light of truth as a sinner, and in forgiving me, shares with me his power to turn to others with forgiveness. God’s limitless mercy and grace frees me from Pharisee stingy impulses to control and ration forgiveness.

In life, God’s Word opens up this territory of forgiveness; theology and theological reflection - like the pondering in the heart that Mary was always doing - maps the territory of forgiveness out, and practical spirituality walks the path and does forgiveness. These three - God's Word, theological reflection or pondering, and practical spirituality - are three essential disciplines for the Christian life. We cannot live our faith in Christ as Lord and follow Him as his disciples without practicing these. God is always there and lovingly bent over us, like a loving and doting parent, but like children, we are not always or constantly aware of, or appreciative of, this loving presence and attention of our Father.

Although I don’t recall ever articulating that every human being is at a certain level always in union with God; as I reflect on it, I sense that I have always believed that this is so, but could not say it in clear terms. Over time, I have gone from a static view of creation (like the universe, we were created all at once and are a finished product) to a dynamic one, where we are ever growing and developing and God is constantly holding us in being by his will and breathing his own Spirit into us. 

Jesus brought home to us the intimacy of this relation and the gratuity of the freedom with which the Father calls us to enter into this life more deliberately through love for God and of every other human person. In sin we cease breathing in and out the life and love offered us by God,  but we also hold back forgiveness, and stop receiving and giving ourselves in love - we begin to die. The great joy of reconciliation wells up from our restoration to being loved and loving. So, am I filled with joy today?

to be continued....

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +  

Unselfconscious gratuitous acts of love make us most ourselves and unite us to all and to God - "Spiritual Development and the Gospel Narratives 5" by John Shea

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Beatrice Bruteau, in her book The Grand Option, inspired especially by Teilhard de Chardin, expresses a vision of human evolution that would have us be willing and conscious elements that will evolve into a higher order of being all together as a collective human organism. I like it though as a fresh way of looking at the Body of Christ, the Communion of Saints, and our willing and conscious participation as active members. She explores the distinction between our human nature ridden life and the loftier human / divine transcendence to which Jesus calls us in the Gospels and which the saints obviously attained in their lifetimes. 

She says it’s really up to us to move towards a collective awakening that as human beings we are really all united and all responsible together for our collective outcome on this planet. She goes to the root of the Gospel message to seek for an understanding of the giftedness in us and our potential as human beings that can include all of humanity, irrespective of religion or other distinguishing attributes. Christians have been entrusted with the revelation of how we are connected to our Source and with each other; so we have the responsibility to make this good news known. In addition, Jesus has given us as his Church means to remain in communion with Him and be transformed into Him by the Spirit as we accept to love, obey, and follow Him.

As Gandhi took Jesus and his good news to heart and put his approach into practice; so we must follow Jesus literally and actually live the familiar and comforting revelation that we are children of God and in our practice renounce privilege, titles, and influence in exchange for the truth and the solidarity to which it calls us. These are the very same things Jesus formally renounced in the desert as He was tempted, and then continued to renounce until the end. Like Jesus at his Baptism and temptations, we must hear God the Father call us his beloved children, and go discover all that we are not – no magic, no miracles, no domination for the sake of our own interest – and what we are – regarding all as equal, impartial as God is, loving our enemies, pure in fact as well as in ritual, and considering ourselves blessed even in misfortune. Against the entrenched “routine assumption that we are all separate, isolated, but comparable units” we are children of God who do “inherit the nature of our parent” – an integration of the metaphysics of a global spirituality uniting East and West.

As children of God we are incomparable – just as there can be no adequate description of God, so there can be no adequate description of who we are – mysterious and indefinable as God. Any description of our self remains limiting, and points to only a part of who we are. Our true self is mysterious, flowing with life from our Source. We are “transcendent of all descriptions” as God is. Like our Father, we are love, that is, we are most fully ourselves in the very act of loving the other with no interest for or awareness of ourselves, not responding to external stimulation, request, or need, but creatively going out to another – especially those unworthy of our love – such as enemies. God’s love, ever creative and original, is unexpected from the world’s point of view. Loving like God, I become a lover, distinguishing myself from my beloved at the same time that I unite myself to the one I love. The more I love, the more I become who I am, a lover, in the image of God.

When we creatively and freely love another, our distinctiveness as persons is clarified at the same time our love joins us to the other, and our loving them actually brings us into them, and them into us. This is what happens between the contemplative and God. God loves us first, and as we contemplate God we become aware of his love and surrender to it, loving our Lover back. In self-giving love, “each subject sees through the other’s eyes, feels with the other’s heart, wills in conjunction with the other’s will, and flows together with the other’s action.” The more distinct and free the person is, the more perfect their love can be. The original paradigm for such total union is the “perichoresis”, the union of love among the three Divine Persons in the Blessed Trinity, an essential doctrine of Orthodox and Eastern Rite Churches which is at the heart of how they understand and deliberately intend to live their lives of faith in love in following Jesus.

This love truly creates and gives life, enabling the newly beloved to in turn become filled with life and overflow with love to others. God in Jesus visibly pours himself out to give us life; we too become conscious of the deep desire to pour ourselves out into others in love. Inhabited by God’s active love, like Jesus we become “incarnate as creative process” as we too learn to pour ourselves out in love for others. Our “central self is full, luminous life, safe from all injury, and is most itself when it is most giving itself.” It is at the level of person, not of nature, that we pour our love and forgiveness towards others for their future good, whether they accept it or not. 

What is evil in our lives and our suffering both fall in the “order of reaction and choice freedom” within the confines of this physical world and life, but we transcend it by loving impartially like God, simply for the good of the “I am” in the other, ignoring attributes of nature. We are the activity of the Trinity drawing us into their perichoresis – as we live it most deliberately in Holy Communion – uniting with our activity in a moment of self-realization that we are loved and lover, and God unites with us as we love another and in turn unite with their self-realization and outreach of love to a third. 

This is how we are in the image of the Trinity, persons in union with all other persons, and loving in God’s love, rising above our nature. We can force none to this love, but can freely love others, as Jesus did. Virgil Elizondo’s “I Forgive but I Do Not Forget” seems to bypass or at least ignore traditional teaching on the 7 capital sins as the root cause of human sinfulness and misery, but it’s only that he makes a very good point, namely, that much of our human misery comes from our originally sinful inclination to cry out for justice when we feel wronged and to secretly desire, if not demand or exact, punishment or vengeance for those who offend us. We just can’t forget wrongs, because our memory of them continues to stimulate feelings like anger, resentment, and desire for revenge or at least to see the offender punished. Our damnation is continuing to cling to this misery and refusing to let it go. 

He makes a very good case for wanting to be free of these destructive feelings and desires, which I agree eat away at our “innards” until we become free of them, and the only way to do that is to forgive the offender as though we had never been offended at all. I like his conclusion that this means undoing or “uncreating” the offense, but as only God can create and uncreate; only God can effectively forgive. We lost our God-given ability to do that in the original sin, and what has now become natural is a deep-seated desire for retribution justice. This enlightens what it means to be enslaved by the law, and why God himself had to come in Jesus to clear a new path, make a new humanity possible, through loving forgiveness of offenders, which only divine love makes possible.

This text too, like the others we have been reading, affirms that it’s our condition to live in both the flesh and the spirit at the same time. While our remembrance of offenses continues to generate feelings of hurt, anger and desire for retribution justice; our own experience of God’s inexhaustible and undeserved forgiveness, mercy and love set us free to manifest the same superabundant love and mercy to others. This is the new man, the new life in the Spirit which is the freedom of the children of God and such good news. Like Jesus and his Father, we refuse to allow offenses against us to become the basis of our relationships with our offenders or anyone else. We refuse, like Jesus, to identify or to reidentify with sin; having once and for all left sin and failures behind in order to embrace life in God.

In chapter 8 “The Living One’ of Beatrice Bruteau’s The Grand Option, she seems to pick this up when she states that forgiveness is not directed to the corpse of the past offense, but rather “unites with the other’s creative act of stepping forward into the next moment… is an act of making the future.” Forgiveness is just one dimension of self-giving love that emerges not from the psyche and other elements of my personality, but from the spirit which is profoundly centered in union with God and shares in God’s “sense of sheer ‘I am’… (and) is radiating in all directions the intention ‘May you be!’” The self that we give to others in love is not the self we are normally conscious of, our living soul, but the deeper self, which, united to God, is also a life giving spirit. Agape is more than contemplative or appreciative love, is active, bursting “with energetic desire that there be more being.” Creative, free self-giving desires to bring into being what does not yet exist for the other’s good.

It is this transcendent spirit in us which is our true self – in union with God and flowing from God as its Source – and the new life revealed in Jesus and shared with us since his Resurrection. It is a challenge for us to be aware of this spirit and creative freedom, unpredictable and bringing forth life that is ever new, as our true self and to deliberately live out of it from moment to moment, and to be further aware of pouring ourselves out in love into the same fluid spirit self in others and of all others pouring themselves out in love into us. At this level, we realize that the boundaries of our selfhood are interpersonal to the limits of the Body of Christ, rather than the narrow limits of our psyche and physical traits and awareness. We are so familiar in the confines and comfort of our body / psyche self, that we require spiritual disciplines to cultivate the ongoing awareness of our spiritual self in communion with God and with all the others like ourselves.

In “The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels…” John Shea demonstrates how Jesus provided us with means to live out of this sense of communion with all others through ongoing reconciliation: talking it out one to one, then if they refuse to listen including a few other people, but if they continue to refuse to listen only then finally appealing to authority, and finally when their refusal becomes obstinate, simply considering the offender as one needing ministry or work. At every stage, relational skills and the willingness to dialogue and be open to other possibilities are necessary for reconciliation to occur.

More importantly, we need to bridge the disparity between the psycho-social level within us and Spirit. Prayerful attention to Spirit can help all those involved get in touch with their deep desire for peace and enter into the process of reconciliation from the deeper spirit self from which radiates the love of God, which makes the process infinitely more fruitful and life giving for all. Our psycho-social self tends to keep a record of wrongs and hurts, so that forgiveness tends to put pressure on letting go of the score keeping; whereas our spirit self is aware of receiving itself from God and more willing to give itself in forgiveness in order to see the future life of the other come to pass in peace and love.

to be continued....

----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

----------------------------------------------------------------

© 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 

+ + + + + + + + + + + +