This makes me think... about praying more...

The central concern of most people seeking guidance in their pursuit of God is contemplative prayer...

[A] thirst for the divine... coincides with the biblical "one thing," the top priority in any human life: "to gaze on the loveliness of the Lord" (Ps 27:4, see also Lk 10:38-42 NAB).

It is not for nothing  that the very incarnation itself took place deep in the flesh of the contemplative woman par excellence, in her whose personal spiritual life is twice characterized by St. Luke as pndering the word in her heart. (Lk 2:19, 51.) As von Balthasar put it, "Because she was a virgin, which means pure, exclusive hearer of the Word, she became mother, the place of the incarnation of the Word."

Each of us is an incarnated puzzle, and each of us has an insatiable thirst for the infinite. Never content with the limited nibbles and tastes offered by created realities, we find buried in our depths a dynamic that is restless and voracious. Even the self-avowed atheist is, in his or her endless desires, a witness to this basic need for the divine. Though Jesus shared in none of our wounded sinfulness, his actions as well as his words pointed to the primacy of immersion in the Father: "In the morning, long before dawn... he went off to a lonely place and prayed there... He went off into the hills to pray... He would always fo off to some place where he could be alone and pray... He went out into the hills to pray... He was praying alone... He would spend the night on the hill..." (Mk 1:35, 6:46; Lk 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 21:37.)


---Thomas Dubay, S.M. Seeking Spiritual Direction, Servant, 1993.

It Makes Me Think... (30 years ago today!)

30 years ago, I was a 19-year old youth minister who brought my youth group to see Pope John Paul II at Madison Square Garden in New York City. He was there to speak to youth. He was rather youthful himself in those days. 

His call to "Look to Christ..." has stayed with me all these years.... I thought the memory was worth sharing. Enjoy!

ADDRESS OF HIS HOLINESS JOHN PAUL II

TO HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Madison Square Garden, New York

Wednesday, 3 October 1979

Dear young people,

I am happy to be with you in Madison Square Garden. Today this is a garden of life, where young people are alive: alive with hope and love, alive with the life of Christ. And it is in the name of Christ that I greet each one of you today.

I have been told that most of you come from Catholic high schools. For this reason I would like to say something about Catholic education, to tell you why the Church considers it so important and expends so much energy in order to provide you and millions of other young people with a Catholic education. The answer can be summarized in one word, in one person, Jesus Christ. The Church wants to communicate Christ to you.

1. This is what education is all about, this is the meaning of life: to know Christ. To know Christ as a friend: as someone who cares about you and the person next to you, and all the people here and everywhere—no matter what language they speak, or what clothes they wear, or what color their skin is.

And so the purpose of Catholic education is to communicate Christ to you, so that your attitude toward others will be that of Christ. You are approaching that stage in your life when you must take personal responsibility for your own destiny. Soon you will be making major decisions which will affect the whole course of your life. If these decisions reflect Christ's attitude, then your education will be a success. We have to learn to meet challenges and even crises in the light of Christ's Cross and Resurrection. Part of our Catholic education is to learn to see the needs of others, to have the courage to practice what we believe in. With the support of a Catholic education we try to meet every circumstance of life with the attitude of Christ. Yes, the Church wants to communicate Christ to you so that you will come to full maturity in him who is the perfect human being, and, at the same time, the Son of God.

2. Dear young people: you and I and all of us together make up the Church, and we are convinced that only in Christ do we find real love, and the fullness of life.

And so I invite you today to look to Christ.

When you wonder about the mystery of yourself, look to Christ who gives you the meaning of life.

When you wonder what it means to be a mature person, look to Christ who is the fullness of humanity.

And when you wonder about your role in the future of the world and of the United States, look to Christ. Only in Christ will you fulfill your potential as an American citizen and as a citizen of the world community.

3. With the aid of your Catholic education, you have received the greatest of gifts : the knowledge of Christ. Of this gift Saint Paul wrote: "I believe nothing can happen that will outweigh the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For him I have accepted the loss of everything and I look on everything as so much rubbish if only I can have Christ and be given a place in him" (Phil 3: 8-9).

Be always grateful to God for this gift of knowing Christ. Be grateful also to your parents and to the community of the Church for making possible, through many sacrifices, your Catholic education. People have placed a lot of hope in you, and they now look forward to your collaboration in giving witness to Christ, and in transmitting the Gospel to others. The Church needs you. The world needs you, because it needs Christ, and you belong to Christ. And so I ask you to accept your responsibility in the Church, the responsibility of your Catholic education: to help—by your words, and, above all, by the example of your lives—to spread the Gospel. You do this by praying, and by being just and truthful and pure.

Dear young people : by a real Christian life, by the practice of your religion you are called to give witness to your faith. And because actions speak louder than words, you are called to proclaim, by the conduct of your daily lives that you really do believe that Jesus Christ is Lord !

© Copyright 1979 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

It Makes Me Think...

Anger is the worst fault. It's the heart of the devil. The angry person gnaws away every virtuous grain and devours everything that's germinating.

Anger is a stubborn thief. It gnashes its teeth at people because of their worth gifts from God. It steals whatever it can snatch.

Anger starts controversy wherever it can.  Anger is a dragon burning everything up wherever it goes. In anger, wisdom is unwise, patience strains with impatience, and temperance rushes around without moderation.

Anger is the bitterness vomiting out of the goodness and sweetness in God's teachings.  Its the murderer dividing body and soul and not allowing them to be together.  It's also a hard, immovable rock because it grinds away every good and honest thing.  When anger overcomes someone, it overcomes them with great madness, thinking neither about earthly things now about heavenly things while it shatters another person who was made in God's image.

Anger attracts great torments to itself.

Avoid this sin if you want to live in God. Avoid it so you don't wound your soul seriously.  Repent while you can.

---Hildegard of Bingen, The Book of the Rewards of Life, as found in Incandescence by Carmen Butcher

It Makes Me Think...

The more severely the person puts himself down, the more likely he is to judge another critically. As the saying goes, misery loves company.

The correction here is simple: The individual has to learn to accept himself more realistically, with his good as well as his bad points, with his strengths and weaknesses, his abilities and limitations. Then, to the degree that he can realistically accept himself, to that degree he can genuinely accept others. If he is too severe in judging his own faults, his neighbor won't stand a chance!

-----Fr. Andrew Apostoli, CFR, Walk Humbly With Your God