Saturday, February 03, 2007

How quickly the days go by... as shoulder to shoulder we work with the Lord Jesus to build the Kingdom of God in human spirits and lives.

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 morning to you, or whatever time of day it is as you read me. The last 17 days have been so full.... Life in my family seems like a roller coaster ride some days.... It is a consolation for all of us to have one another, all the more so because we are relatively few.

It is a fact of life that I have not been close to any of my cousins, perhaps because our lives were so different, and for a time I had a lot of difficulty enduring cigarette smoke and most of them were smokers.... I'd be open to renewing their acquaintance again... perhaps when I retire....

It was Saturday, December 9th that I had my first big breakthrough with my website when I enjoyed dinner with Marcus Arts, his dear wife and son, and then he introduced me to the art of webmastering. He helped me with the software and tutored me on its use. While there I searched the web and found a good web host and service provider and signed up. From then on, I found my way, continued doing what Marcus had shown me, and made new web pages, designed them and loaded all kinds of files.

It was as if a huge backlog of pressure built up over the past several years was finally allowed to rush forth! I had long accumulated reflections and documents that have various uses in the course of ministry that I wanted to make available both to share with other priests and with the people I serve and work with. It's all about the kingdom of God and not personal glory.

So these past few weeks have been particularly intense with creativity and the preparation and loading of homilies as MP3 files and miscellaneous Word documents and web pages from a few good Christian web publishers. My web site has been a real construction zone!!!! My intuition in reviving this English blog and in beginning another en français was that when the dust settles I will be able to slip into either one and log theological reflections on my days and experiences in the vineyard of the Lord; so that He might get the glory and souls might be helped, and that we who labor together might become more transparent to one another.

For these reasons I must heartily disagree with the professor who was quoted by the Gazette as saying that bloggers are primarily lonely and isolated individuals, for whom blogging is a kind of substitute for relating directly with real people. Get a life, please! Loneliness is part of the human condition for everyone, and it hits particularly hard at the turning of 40 - somewhere between 36 and 44 - according to Dr. Jeannine Guidon, who founded the Institut de Formation Humaine Intégrale de Montréal.

People like Francis of Assisi and Benedict of Nursia before him who went and spent years alone in a cave were not lonely, isolated people who couldn't face the rigors of relationships! No, they were people who could no longer ignore the profound and very intense desire in their soul to know and experience God directly, and it was the Spirit of the Living God who attracted them into solitude. The Holy Spirit even today attracts receptive souls into various forms of solitude - temporary, permanent, or periodic - in order to more easily perceive and actively communicate with the Three Divine Persons and then emerge purified for more transparent relations with other people. Whoever faces the rigors of relating in the dark night of faith with divine persons can certainly face the uncertainties and demands of relating to other human beings in the flesh! 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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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I'm a priest - why all this web activity? Who's going to read or listen to it? We're building the Kingdom of God together.

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Yes indeed, that is an interesting question. Why should a priest, who has so many things to do and people to see, bother with a blog like this or a web site or an additional blog en français? This question was put to me by a dear friend today, and I'm so grateful that he did, because it sent me into the depths, where the meaning and purpose of our lives is to be found.

As Dr. Jeannine Guindon was fond of saying, as a guiding principle and as an integral part of the formation program she pioneered since the 1950's through the 1970's, it's about the meaning and purpose we choose to give to our lives through the decisions we make and what we then say and do that makes us the persons we are becoming.

As my friend's question burrowed down into my soul, I began to notice again the depths of gratitude that I have been enjoying these past several months.... two years ever since my sabbatical experience in Chicago, really.... I'm grateful for the great grace and privilege of having been chosen and loved by the Blessed Trinity from infancy... I still remember my Christian Initiation: first Penance, Confirmation, and First Holy Communion.... there was Someone there! Indeed there was a Triple Someone there!

For decades from youth into adulthood there was painful confusion and inner conflicts, and it wasn't until a good and holy elder priest who loved young people shared with us the great grace of silence, reflection, and prayer, that I had a real opportunity - for the first time in my 27 years of life - to look back on my "sacred history" with God. Once those flood gates opened, I couldn't get enough of silence and retreats and prayer and then getting to know the three Divine Persons and how They were present and speaking / guiding deep in my mind, heart, and soul....

Then came another great struggle and wonderful call: to follow Jesus and serve Him as a priest.... After 23 years and counting, I am filled with gratitude to overflowing for the privilege of seeing Jesus speak, heal, enlighten, teach, warn, reproach, caution, instruct, form, lead, love, and nourish through me, and that is only the beginning of it.... It goes on! It's so clear to me how great God is for bringing about such wonderful blessings and life in others through the poverty and weakness that I am!

There are countless blessings going on all the time in my parents, who despite - no perhaps because of - their growing weakness and increasing illness, are aging and entering into the Fall and Winter seasons of their lives so graciously....

My sister and I are only two, and it has been and continues to be at times such a burden, and yet, we are being changed, purified, stretched and blessed as well as our parents by the opportunity and challenge of attending lovingly to our aging parents....

The transition I have been living from Becket to St. Luke and to the Lakeshore General has been and continues to be quite exciting and exhausting, but I have a deep sense that it is all good and for the glory of God. In fact, that is why I am bothering with this blog and began one in French and finally have succeeded in activating a web site. It is to put on display all the gifts the Lord is pouring out for you his people through me, such as I am.

So we are posting the homilies on the website* and occasional reflections here. Beloved sisters and brothers in Christ, and other guests, feel free to share this site with your friends and family, with fellow students and work colleagues. Our Creator and God is doing a wonderful thing in people in our time, despite the dreariness and violence that the media are constantly feeding us in the form of a daily dose of poison. It's about time we give ourselves another diet than this poison.

*(Note: In the Fall of 2020 in full Covid-19 Pandemic I migrated recent homilies (older homilies will remain at the old website until Spring 2022) and other pages from this 2007 website and launched a new website hosted by Blogger at: https://gillessurprenant.blogspot.com)

We know there is evil out there, all around us, and yes, even within us, but that is why it is such Good News that God has sent us a Saviour in Jesus Christ! Jesus is God the Father's antidote to the poison unleashed as a dragon's vomit by the father of lies and chief rebel, the primordial serpent.... Jesus is Lord and has crushed the serpent, overcome the dragon, and robbed him of his treasure hoard. He has made us children of God so that we might enjoy the freedom of his children.

"Glory be to God our Father in his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, victorious over sin, suffering, and death, and in the Holy Spirit, Lord and Giver of life! now and always and forever and ever! Amen!" Fr. Gilles

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Saturday, January 13, 2007

Let's pray together now - the Lord wants us to do it.

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You may never have seen it or not even know about it, but the Lakeshore General Hospital has an interfaith chapel that was inaugurated this past year 2006. Its benches hold 20 to 30 people and there is an altar. At the back there is a section for praying without shoes made especially for Muslims or for anyone wanting to pray without shoes.

Next week all over the world Christians will begin observing the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, while in Canada and other countries Christians will observe the week with two weekends bookending January 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul.

The Pastoral Services Team of the Lakeshore General Hospital has just sent out today to dozens of Religious leaders in the West Island and beyond an invitation to offer a prayer and worship service on one of the days from January 18 to 25 inclusive. Councils of churches worldwide have prepared the materials for prayer and worship gathering together Christians of all denominations throughout the week. Non-Christians are also welcome to attend these services, as it is in their interest that Christians become more united; as this will enhance peace among people and nations.

We've also invited these religious leaders to offer a prayer and worship service on one of the days during the week leading up to the World Day of the Sick on February 11, which would be on any of the days from February 3 to the 11. The purpose of this day - and we thought that a week would allow more people to participate and benefit the hospital population - is to affirm and raise the dignity of those who are sick, to commend those who care for and attend them, and to encourage their family and friends. Read Pope Benedict's message (another version) on the occasion of this 15th World Day of the Sick.

Naturally, people of all faiths and spiritual values are welcome to participate in these manifestations of solidarity, support, and prayer. As religious leaders respond to this invitation and offer to lead prayer and worship services on particular days and at specific times, we will draw up a calendar and begin to publicize it as soon as we can. You will find it on this blog as soon as it is ready.

With time we hope to better prepare such weeks and events, but since Fr. Michael Tauro and I are only part-time, we prefer to spend most of our time visiting patients. Exceptionally, I have spent two days setting up an email list of religious leaders and sending out our invitation to them. If you go to this link you will see that full time chaplains who have been at work for some time have prepared wonderful resources (more resources) to enhance our care for the sick and their care givers.

Feel free to let other people know about these events and to make use of this blog entry to help you pass on this information. "He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak" (Mark 7: 31-37) is the theme of the 2007 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. An annual event, the Week of Prayer is a significant time during which churches around the world express their longing for and commitment to Christian unity. You will find this and other texts at the World Council of Churches website.

If it's been a while since you gathered with Christians of other denominations to pray, chat, share or collaborate on a common project, why not talk it up with friends and consider coming together to participate in a little prayer and worship service during one or both of these two weeks, for the benefit of the patients and their families at the hospital, as well as the medical and support staff and administration, not to mention all those who come in for ambulatory care.

Prayer for others is a powerful instrument for good because it is motivated by love and taps into the very heart of the Blessed Trinity, source of all life and being. Contact your pastor and ask whether they intend to participate or even offer to lead a prayer and worship service and maybe you can offer to help or assist them. Whatever you are able and choose to do, may the blessing of Almighty God fill you and rest upon you and your families, Father, + Son, and Holy Spirit, now and always and forever and ever.

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Friday, January 12, 2007

What is the difference between denial and shock?

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This question arises from conversations I have recently had with folk both in the parish and at the hospital. I have had my own experience of both shock and denial, and you may be surprised by what you will read me write about them. Denial - especially the kind related to illness and death, but other kinds too - is often, if not usually, spoken of as something negative that just cannot be avoided and that we should get out of as quickly as possible so we can get on to the good part, the healing, and move on.

The fact is that in nature many things are as they are for a good or several good reasons. Denial is somewhat related to shock, and it will be helpful to have a better appreciation of what denial is all about if we look at shock first. The shock I want to examine here is that physical state we go into that shuts down our feelings when there is trauma and the feelings are too overwhelming and could actually kill us. Shock allows us to go on for a while right after a trauma, and as we go along in the process of the aftermath following our traumatic experience, we try as well as we can to carry on with life.

As we do so and begin to want to relate to others again, we slowly begin looking at our trauma, just fleeting glances at first. Then, as we are able, our organism senses this and thaws out the tangle of emotions connected to the shock but only a little bit at a time, and so this emotional flood comes over us in waves, just to give us a taste or glimpse at first; then shuts down again. Something triggers these waves of emotions, we taste them more intensely and deeply each time, and they shut down again so we don't get damaged by the sheer power of them.

This process accelerates and intensifies as our organism senses we're up to it. Faith in God, hope in his grace, and love lubricate this process incredibly. Denial is like shock but different. Whereas shock shuts down our affectivity, denial shuts down our will, our willingness to look at, think about, admit, imagine, remember, visualize, feel or even acknowledge the source of our pain, the traumatic event itself. The purpose is similar - our own protection and self preservation - and it enables us to go on functioning until we have enough energy, stamina, and vitality to begin looking at the awful truth.

When we consider then that both denial and shock, and other mechanisms like them, are really gifts from God, woven into the fabric of our being, to help us cope with the powerful events of life; then we can look at them and approach them with more reverence and appreciation for what they are designed to give us and allow us to do. Everything that is written or said about both of these by way of warnings applies to the danger of remaining in these states longer than we need to, as a kind of unhealthy appetite for the anesthetic effect, much in the same way one can develop a dependence or appetite for excessive alcohol or drugs.

There is great wisdom in the Jewish Scriptures that is applicable here:

"There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens. A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant. A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build. A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance. A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces. A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away. A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace." Ecclesiastes (Qoheleth) 3:1-8.

“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

l’abbé / Fr. Gilles A. Surprenant

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Monday, January 08, 2007

15th Day of Christmas - the Baptism of the Lord

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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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Sunday, December 17, 2006

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

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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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Monday, December 11, 2006

How to love enemies and deal with offensive people.

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It is a difficult thing to deal with people who are offensive, manipulative, or simply disagreeable. Everything inside us wants to escape, run away from them, and just get on with our day. The longer we have to endure them unwillingly, the more likely we are to explode at them in anger, or if we can't bear to be angry with them, we may very well dump all our anger on the next most likely recipient, who usually turns out to be a person we love or are very close to. Then they are shocked and wonder why we are treating them like that. Where is the Lord when we need Him most? What does the Lord expect us to do?
             Believe it or not, when we are harrassed by such life situations, and they happen far more frequently than we want to admit, the Lord is actually providing us with a wonderful opportunity to make progress in all the areas of our life touched by all of this. A lot of people struggle with similar issues but find it more difficult to make progress because the troublesome person has died and is no longer around for them to respond to in a different way, as they would like to have done earlier but were unable because they were too young or didn't know how. Now that they are older, they see how they could approach it differently.
             Here is my suggestion. While it seems to be so annoying or troubling for us to deal with an offensive person, the main part of our burden is that we allow ourselves to be drawn into the other person's agenda. What I mean is that we respond to whatever initiatives he makes or words she says. We are responding on their terms. Instead, we can try the following.
             We can choose how we want to respond to the other person. This is a way of practicing what Jesus said about loving our enemies and doing good to those who persecute us. Here is how the Lord has taught me to do it. When such a person is coming "at me" I retreat inside myself to that place where the Lord is with me and I ask Him, "So, Lord, here he is again. What would You suggest I do with him? Here is how he makes me feel..... I don't want to go there, Lord, but instead I want to remain peaceful in You. Please show me how You see him and love him." and so on....
             While you're doing this, you are removing your very sensitive self at least "one layer" away from the offensive person and choosing to walk around in that place where you can be with the Lord and notice your own thoughts and feelings. This is very important, because it is there that the best solutions will become apparent as the Holy Spirit sheds light on the situation and on your own thoughts and feelings and allows you to see the Father's will, just as He did it for Jesus when He walked this Earth.
             At some point, the offensive person will notice that you are not listening to him and will say something. That will be the first time that he will actually be looking at you and listening to you. That's when you can share with him something of what you have seen inside yourself of God's will and love for you. What I usually choose to say to an offensive or disturbing person is something like "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but right now I happen to be late for an appointment (if this is the case. Remember that it is important not to lie, not even little white lies, but always to remain in the truth. Jesus said that only the truth will set us free.) and so cannot continue this conversation. Don't call me, I'll call you. If you don't hear from me a month from now, please do call and we'll talk about it then." OR (In the case of an offensive father.)
            "Dad, have I ever told you that I'm grateful for the gift of life God has given me through you and Mom? Thank you. I am content with what I'm doing to help myself right now. I appreciate your concern, but it's all right. I can handle this fine. It's my life and I have to do this myself. I have a husband now, and he is the one I look to for the help I need. What I need from you, Dad, is.... (For example, "just pray for me", or just be supportive, and so on.)
             I would suggest other family members do the same thing. It may sound stupid for me to say that we don't have to let people upset us, since we have no choice about the involuntary feelings that come over us just as an immediate response of our organism to what stimulates it. It is true that our immediate gut reaction is involuntary and that we have no choice but to endure it. This is something we all must endure and part of what Jesus means when He asks us to carry our cross. Much of our cross is our own organism and all its inner workings which can be a burden for us each day.
             What I'm suggesting above relates to another part or level in us deeper than the gut reactions of our organism. It's the soul, which includes the faculties of intelligence to make sense out of what we observe with our senses and feel with our emotions. It also includes our memory and imagination, our heart and soul, where the Blessed Trinity stay within us. When we go into our soul consciously, then we go into a place where the possibilities are literally endless, because we are allowing the Blessed Trinity to partner with us, and we are being attentive to them. We can begin to learn how to better notice the suggestions and inclinations they are giving us as guidance and as alternatives to the gut reactions we are making efforts to resist. We want to resist our gut reactions so that they don't dominate our entire self.
             When we try to do this, this is what it looks or feels like. You continue to be aware of your gut reactions to the other, but you begin to see that these are on the surface, like the storm on the surface of a lake. You begin to feel less threatened or dominated by this storm of feelings and thoughts, as you discover the hidden depths within yourself, where there is a lot of room for refuge, and where you can find a few seconds to think other thoughts than the ones the offensive person wants you to have. Then you begin to taste how good that freedom, however small, can be, and this strengthens you to stand more solidly on your own feet, and you can begin to think independent thoughts about even this offensive person, and feel pity for him, and gratitude for the fact that he cares, however inappropriate the means he takes to show it.
             The key is simply to do something to assert your independence and to practice relying on the Lord in each situation by pulling your attention away from the person trying to manipulate or control or persuade you and giving your precious atention to the One who will make better use of it, Jesus. May you continue to walk in the Lord and make good use of this opportunity the Lord is giving you to allow that youthful part of us, what some call the "inner child" to pass through the threshold of the next generation, passing through the gate of youth into adulthood. This is what adults do. We stand on our own two feet, take responsibility for our own self, and face any and all comers, with the Lord's help, of course.
             Let us pray that we may all continue to find ways to enjoy the Lord's help and come to the satisfaction of finding our way through the thickets of obstacles in our life. There is nothing sweeter than the satisfaction of doing something like this ourselves. May we continue to have a meaningful Advent and peaceful, loving Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Were not our hearts burning within us as He talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us

“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

l’abbé / Fr. Gilles A. Surprenant

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Monday, November 27, 2006

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

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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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Sunday, February 12, 2006

Extreme Islamic zeal on London, England streets vows extermination of western society

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CAUTION: There is an email message being circulated with the following headline (in red):

Muslim 'Religion of Peace' Demonstration

These pictures are of Muslims marching through the STREETS OF LONDON during their recent “Religion of Peace Demonstration.” Makes you wonder doesn't it....

This author admits Islamic extreme zeal happens.... the signs seem to show that some would exterminate all who oppose or resist Islam... but before you panic, do a little research.... A Christian response

In the email messages being circulated there follow variations of comments as in the red print above, but no impartial analysis of the photos....

I grant that one cannot imagine having a Christian demonstration against Islam in downtown Baghdad or anywhere in the Middle East – first of all because Christians tend not to show such religious intolerance, but even if nominal Christians do, they tend not to do it in the name of Christ or of the Christian faith. Christian churches have leaders that regulate and attempt to discipline the behaviour of their members. That does not seem to happen, at least that we can observe, in the Muslim world.

Second, we cannot imagine such a demonstration in a Muslim country because the demonstrators would soon be put to death by the local crowd, as occasionally happened in Christian countries of the Middle Ages, in a feudal society, where behavior was on extreme occasions controlled by the crowd when they felt some behaviour was intolerable.

The Muslims in the photos seem to avail themselves of the freedom of western society to trample on that very freedom and threaten, even promise, the wholesale extermination of westerners and their society. Where it exists in truth, such hatred gives one a glimpse of hell.

In actual fact, the photos were of a different demonstration, and the local authorities made some arrests.... Check it out at the links below....

BBC News coverage…. Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4700482.stm Put it in perspective…. Analysis…. and conclusion: Don’t be so quick to pass on frantic, paranoid email messages… Take the time to research and analyze it first; lest you be manipulated for whatever reason by whomever! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jyllands-Posten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy

A Christian Response and Reflection

We are Christians. We have come to know, believe in, and love Jesus as the Christ, the Chosen One of God, the One and only Saviour of the world, of humanity, the only-begotten Son of God and Lord of all, Risen from the grave and firstborn of the dead, who at the end of time will stand in judgement of the nations.

Many who espouse Islam – submission to Allah – and claim to be fervent adherents to Islam and practitioners of the Muslim faith in the name of that faith seek a harmony of mind and heart with other human beings and peoples who try to live spiritual and just lives and adhere to the one God and Creator of all by way of the Jewish or Christian faith, the other great world religions, or other spiritual paths. These Muslims truly do as the Qur’an says and honor the “people of the book” and it is possible to dialogue and live in peace with them. These are a more peaceful kind of people, who do not seek headlines nor attempt to impose their will on others or society.

Then there are other Muslims who claim to practice unquestioned following of the Prophet Muhammad and literal observance of the Qur’an who seek to impose Islam on everyone and on the whole world. They claim to have and practice zeal for God as Allah and in the name of his prophet Muhammad, and manifest such hatred and murderous intent and conviction towards all who are perceived by them as resisting or denigrating Islam, even simply by virtue of believing in the God of Israel or in Jesus as Lord and God. In the face of such hatred and homicidal zeal, what are we Christians to do?

It was like this from the time of Nero until Constantine, and it was like that in Japan, Korea, Uganda, and so many other places when the Gospel was first preached and there were early conversions to Jesus.... It is the blood of martyrs that fertilized the Church in every place.... men, women, youth, and even children who received from God the grace of enthusiasm for Jesus and the Gospel at the exact moment that they needed power from God to face their persecutors and give a vibrant, awe-inspiring testimony to Christ.

Our time may come, but if it does, then it will be allowed by God and an opportunity of grace to give our own testimony to Jesus and his Gospel, and put our trust in the Father as Jesus did himself, as He showed his apostles in the Gospel quoted today, September 20th, 2009. As Fr. Michael said in his homily today, for Jesus glory and the Cross are inseparable; more than that, it is from the Cross that glory comes for God, that God's love for us is made fully manifest: God loves his human creatures even when they spit on Him, despise Him, torture Him and put Him to death.

Our Trinitarian God knows very intimately each Muslim who is so erroneously zealous to massacre every human being who in any way resists Islam or criticizes anything about Islam, and He alone knows his own will and plan for them and for us. As Jesus said, God allows the darnel growing among the wheat to go on growing and producing its unwanted fruit until the end, when He will send his holy angels to separate the wheat from the darnel and bring it into his house, while the darnel will be thrown into the fire....

This worldwide situation has in our time a new face, but it has elements that have been there all along from the origins of these cultural and religious traditions, and they may very well be there until the end of time. These are not problems that are ours to solve, but merely to live through them with the best of our faith and ability, and trust in our God and Father and in his Son Jesus Christ.

L’abbé / Fr. Gilles Check out the Madonna House website!

“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

Email: fathergilles@gmail.com Web Site: https://gillessurprenant.blogspot.com

Blog : http://fathergilles.blogspot.com/ Blogue: https://lafractiondupain.blogspot.com

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Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Jesus, Christians, intimacy, and you - 5.

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My last post represents a decision to publish my notes from this retreat by Fr. "Red" Eugene O'Reilly, C.Ss.R. to our English priests. My third post in this series was mostly a long digression from our priests' retreat, in which I looked at our human sexual faculties as a gift from God, one which is very powerful and calls for constant purification of our motives. We ended noting that friendship is the best context within which married couples can manage their sexuality and the rest of us can harness our sexual energy.

Our most basic challenge in life is to become more honest, better, kinder, and gentler human beings, and friends help each other take steps in that direction. I experience intimacy as I come to trust another enough to allow the other to see into me. Not only is it possible for both married and single to live life fully and be chaste, but chastity actually allows us to enter into much more intimate relationships, with much more honest and transparent motivations.

In our relationship with Jesus as Lord, the centurion shows us that another element of intimacy is being willing to allow the other to see what our situation is, to admit to the other our weakness, vulnerability, or helplessness. Once the centurion allowed Jesus to see his helplessness to do anything more to help his sick servant, and showed his willingness to let Jesus have the last word, then Jesus was able to do something for him and his servant. Because God is of course stronger, wiser, and has more time, it makes perfect sense for us to allow God to have the last word, which requires letting go of our opinions, demands, and expectations.

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Monday, September 19, 2005

Jesus, Christians, intimacy, and you - 4 - (retreat notes).

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I began this series of reflections on a retreat by Fr. Eugene "Red" O'Reilly, C.Ss.R., given to a good number of our English priests at Maison de la Madonne, at Cap de la Madeleine, Trois Rivières, from September 11th to 16th, while still at the retreat. I was surprised to find that that his remarks and reflections stirred up so many thoughts in me, particularly regarding human sexuality, which is such a source of suffering and struggle for many people today.

In the last two posts I developed fairly involved reflections on our human sexuality, and realize that in order to mine as much of the gold as I can from this retreat I should begin by publishing my retreat notes. These notes follow below.

Sunday night. Warning: These notes are generally not direct quotes of Fr. "Red", but include his words as well as I could catch them out of the air, my own thoughts merging with his, and comments that I make to myself, either in the 1st person (I find that... We must...) or 3rd person (Priests experience...) and so on. If anyone wants to know at some point what is "Red's" and what is mine, ask. People who have been in our lives have either been contributing, leading me to where I am going, or opposing, making it difficult for me to be where I am. Where I am, we are, is no accident. "Red" gave a brief overview of his life and vocation, sharing his gratitude for al these people and God's call. This week will focus on JOY and COMPASSION, which are essential for the priesthood and for the Church. It is not easy to live in the present. We can get caught in the past, and we can apprehend the future. Only the present is mine, ours, God's gift to us.

Monday morning. Remember the Baltimore Catechism? "We're made to know, love, and serve God now and forever in heaven." This definition of our destiny is true, but incomplete, which makes it effectively inadequate. This is because God also longs to love and serve us. This at first sounds outrageous, but it reminds me of the nun who told a young priest that when we pray before the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament exposed, what is happening there is not only that we are contemplating Jesus Christ present in the Holy Eucharist, but also that He is contemplating us. God loved us first, remember, as St. Paul put it? That means God has been looking upon us with love even before we realized He exists, or knew who the Blessed Trinity are. If contemplation is also adoration, gazing with love at the Beloved, then we'd have to agree that God adores us, contemplates us, gazes at us with love.

When we do these things, we are simply responding to God who does them first. That God also longs to love and serve us can be seen in the countless ways in which what the Gospels recount about Jesus can also be understood as being about us. For example, at Jesus' Baptism, the Father's voice was heard to say, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Everyday, this is also addressed by God to us. We are pleasing to God our Father. He loves us and calls us. He loves us as we are and also calls us to be, to become, more. How do we feel about ourselves? For some of us our seminary formation did not enhance our view of our own worth. It did not give us a healthy, positive self-image. Some of us were not encouraged to develop close friendships.

In fact, at some times and in some seminaries there was a fear of particular friendships. This was often actually a fear of sexuality. In some seminaries and houses of formation, we were told, "We'll take you apart and then put you back together in our own image, the way we want you to be, with no individuality, creativity, or sense of responsibility. We saw many of our creative, independent, and talented guys leave. The rest who stayed behind obeyed the rules. You could not question authority. Strange practices were imposed such as wearing a "discipline" - a wire with barbs - around a leg or arm underneath the clothing, or self flagellation. There were to be no demonstrations or assertions of personality or individuality. Such practices did not forster the notion of being good, or having anything good to offer. Labels were put on some men in formation and they stuck. After that, they were never trusted with responsibility ever after, which is so sad, so tragic.

... continued... in Part 5

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"In the Breaking of the Bread" BLOG

Saturday, February 03, 2007

How quickly the days go by... as shoulder to shoulder we work with the Lord Jesus to build the Kingdom of God in human spirits and lives.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

I'm a priest - why all this web activity? Who's going to read or listen to it? We're building the Kingdom of God together.

Saturday, January 13, 2007

Let's pray together now - the Lord wants us to do it.

Friday, January 12, 2007

What is the difference between denial and shock?

Monday, January 08, 2007

15th Day of Christmas - the Baptism of the Lord

Sunday, December 17, 2006

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

Monday, December 11, 2006

How to love enemies and deal with offensive people.

Monday, November 27, 2006

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

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Extreme Islamic zeal on London, England streets vows extermination of western society

Muslim 'Religion of Peace' Demonstration

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Jesus, Christians, intimacy, and you - 5.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Jesus, Christians, intimacy, and you - 4 - (retreat notes).

Who Am I?

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