No Resurrection Without Crosses

Reposted from Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008

“Cross and Reflection” by Kyle Thompson on Flickr. Released with a CC license.

Easter Sunday was not within three days of the Transfiguration but within three days of Good Friday. Love is not to be measured by the joy and pleasures it gives but by the ability to draw out of sorrow, a resurrection out of a crucifixion, and life out of death. Unless there is a cross in our life, there will never be an empty tomb; unless there is the crown of thorns, there will never be a halo of light.
- Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

The idea boggles the mind actually. Or maybe that’s because as naturally selfish humans we tend to think solely of life’s crosses as hardships and suffering instead of as an opportunity given to us by God for purification.

One of the senior ladies at church once told me she thanked the Lord daily that she was given challenging people to work with. Because daily, she was given an opportunity to be holy, to be a saint, to be an adopted child of God. Of course, daily she also had to struggle to not be irritable, callous, or downright scornful. But that’s the point of the struggle: to combat, and most importantly, with God’s grace, to win against sin. Each victory a resurrection, a resumption and affirmation of life.

Sorrow, long waiting, suffering, trials, loss: the stuff of saints, the refining fire of God.

The point He’s trying to make which we sometimes don’t get: you are always at the right place at the right time. Now, at this moment, in this painful situation, what can you do to show your love for God? If we follow the path laid out for us, the path through dark valleys, we will emerge in the green pastures of Psalm 23, with tables laid out for us in sight of our foes, with the Good Shepherd always with us. With hearts in resurrection mode.

LINKS:

• Archbishop Fulton Sheen bio on Wikipedia.
• Free MP3 files of Fulton Sheen’s “Life Is Worth Living” TV show homilies from the 19650s hosted on the American Catholic Truth Society page. Download all 50 of them. They are WORTH the time it takes to listen. Timeless messages of truth.

St. Therese Couderc’s Surrender

Reposted from Thursday, September 27th, 2007

Stained glass window portraying St.Therese Couderc

To surrender oneself is to follow that spirit of detachment which clings to nothing, neither to persons nor to things, neither to time nor to place. It means to adhere to everything, to accept everything, to submit to everything. - Saint Marie Victoire Therese Couderc (1805-1885)

All I know about St. Therese Couderc is that she founded the order of the Religious Of the Cenacle, (aka the Cenacle Sisters) whose ministry is to give retreats and pray, also, this is the order to which a good college friend belongs. The only other thing I do know is a Filipino translation of her prayer of surrender, the offering of the self, which I set to music, and which the Cenacle Sisters in the Philippines now use as their theme song for their profession of vows.

So it is interesting to read that St.Therese Couderc managed a hostel for women at La Louvesc, France , but after a while, when there were too many people and the place was too unruly and noisy, she asked her superior to change the rules: that they could only give shelter to women who were willing to pray there for several days. And suddenly: a retreat house. When her superior introduced St.Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises, the sisters who came to be known as the Cenacle Sisters found an important element to their spirituality, one that would help them draw the women temporarily staying in their houses to God.

LINK: St.Therese Couderc’s bio.

St. Ignatius’ Letters

Reposted from Wednesday, September 26th, 2007

St. Ignatius of Loyola

I’ve always liked St.Ignatius. I remember reading a book about him as a Grade 3 school-kid in Ateneo de Manila and being puzzled at how a man whose leg got shot through with a cannonball could so completely change his life from one of worldly soldiering to one of Christly teaching via a few months of recuperating with nothing else to read but a book on the saints and the Bible. I’ve always admired him for all that he bravely accomplished in his life but never really knew what he was like as a person, until now that is.

This website hosts a collection of Ignatius’ instructional letters to his fellow Jesuits, and in these letters reveals himself in his entirety: as imperfect man, as worthwhile leader, as spiritual guide, as Soldier Of Christ. Wonderful reading.

Much of Saint Ignatius Loyola’s spiritual teaching is found in his letters, and these have always been regarded by Jesuits as an important source of their spirituality. Among Ignatius’ many letters, those written to his fellow Jesuits have always had a special place, for in these the Jesuit of today not only finds Ignatius’ teaching on the spiritual life, but he also meets Ignatius the man, expressing his affection for, and interest in, those to whom he wrote. None of Ignatius’ other writings so ably exhibits the love he bore in his heart for those who chose to walk with him along the path toward Christ than do these letters.

LINK to Ignatius’ Letters.

Daily Thoughts From St. John Baptist de La Salle

Reposted from Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

Back when I was teaching in De La Salle- College of Saint Benilde, I went in search of the writings of St. John Baptist De La Salle, for whom the school was named. His writings are not well-known to many. And upon finding some of them, I realize why this is so: a lot of his letters had to do with the day-to-day activity of the brothers in his order. On the surface of it all, his words were about mundane things. Nevertheless, his spirituality shines through precisely because it deals with the mundane.

One website I found recently: Daily Thoughts From St. John Baptist de La Salle has collected St. De La Salle’s thoughts and placed one thought, one quote per day for the entire year.

Brother Patrick Tierney F.S.C., took all excerpts from St. La Salle's writings, and added headings and scripture quotes. It’s a lovely way to introduce yourself to the saint’s writings.

St. Peter Chrysologus’ Wisdom

reposted from Friday, August 24th, 2007

St. Peter Chrysologus of Italy. Feast day: July 30.

This quote arrived in my email at the end of last month. And I’d forgotten I started this blog entry then. So let me finish it now. First the quote:

Anyone who wishes to frolic with the devil cannot rejoice with Christ. - Saint Peter Chrysologus (406-450)

Perfect in its simplicity. Succinct and precise. Either you get closer to God or you move away from God and move closer to the world and all its vain allures, and all its empty promises — and everyone knows those vain promises of (fleeting) happiness brought by sin can only come from the devil.

Monday, July 30 is the feast day of St. Peter Chrysologus, who was an archbishop in Italy, and a doctor of the church, and was known for his short homilies because (it was said) he was afraid of boring the people.

And I wouldn’t have known of this quote had it not been for the wonderful work of the Good News Ministries that sends out 2 daily email messages: Today’s Blessing which is a quote by a saint, and Daily Reflections on the Mass readings for the day. Get those 2 emails in your inbox everyday, I implore you. Stop frolicking with the enemy.

LINK: Good News Ministries
LINK: Wikipedia entry on Saint Peter Chrysologus

Mother Teresa’s Dark Night Of The Soul

Reposted from Friday, August 24th, 2007

Time Magazine has an extensive article about a new book of letters spanning 66 years of correspondence between Mother Teresa and her confessors and superiors, showing that she was battling a spiritual dryness since starting her missionary work — a totally new dimension to the woman, one that not even her fellow sisters in the Missionaries of Charity fully knew.

Edited by Rev. Brian Kolodiejchuk, the man petitioning for Mother Teresa’s sainthood, the letters reveal that Christ talked to her, invited her to start serving the “poorest of the poor,” and then except for 5 weeks in 1959, never again. Yet despite no consolation and possessing the feeling of abandonment by the God she served, she forsook neither her faith nor her work, persevering till death.

The article describes highlights of her life with quotes from the letters, positing explanations for her crisis, and lauding her struggle for holiness and humility.

My respect for her truly deepens.

LINK:Mother Teresa’s Crisis of Faith