The Son's Healing Rays

"Beloved souls, in suffering and in joy,

go to Jesus hidden in the Sacred Host

and let the sweetness

of His loving gaze fill you.

Like the sick who expose their diseased bodies to the healing rays of the sun, expose miseries, no matter what they are, to the beams of light streaming forth from the Sacred Host."

 - from "The Holy Eucharist", by Jose Guadalupe Trevino

On February 11th, 2012, Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and World Day of the Sick, we had a beautiful day here at Our Lady of Solitude.  Fr. Fred Adamson offered Mass, heard Confessions, offered the Anointing of the Sick to those able to receive this Sacrament. Then Father led us in a Eucharistic Holy Hour/Healing Service.  It was an amazing and grace-filled day.  I will let the photos speak for themselves!

 

 

 

Stewing Over Some Things

"If you have to be employed in domestic duties, as for instance in the kitchen, remember that the Lord goes about among the pots and pans, helping you in all things."

+ St. Teresa of Avila

Perhaps you didn't know that my mom is world famous for soup making - at least she is a famous soup maker in my world.  As I am currently serving as 'cook' for our community, I often pull out one or the other of mom's tried and true soup recipes.

When I heard that a large group of Dominican novices would be coming to stay a few days with their Novice Master (and our dear friend), Fr. Anthony, I knew what recipe to turn to: Mom's Beef Vegetable Soup.  

"First throw in the chuck roast with some water and fennel and get a good broth going."  Yes, that's step one.  This is what I did, letting it cook for sometime.  Next came the odd directions to (and this is a direct quote): Skim the scum off.  Sure enough, after about an hour, the 'scum' appeared.  Ick.  Skim, skim, skim. 

Next I was advised to pull out the meat and chop it up, then put in the hard vegetables that needed more cooking time.  Then season with salt and pepper.  Then, after awhile, put in the soft vegetables, then cook some more. 

Needless to say, making this soup got to be an all day affair - between the peeling, the chopping, the seasoning, the adding this and adding that.   It gave me quite a bit of time to think and pray.  Peeling the carrots, chopping the parsnips and onions and cabbage and celery...yes, I had lots of time to think.  

And what came to me?  Making soup is a lot like the Novitiate...or even more broadly, it is a lot like the life of grace.  There's the raw material of who we are that we bring to the Lord.  "Throw in the chuck roast..."  And we are put in the pot...and the water starts boiling.  And, sure enough, the scum comes to the surface.  (Thank You, Lord, for the gift of Confession!)  Then there is a lot of peeling and chopping. "Cut away here, burn away there - all that is within me that is not Thine." - Cardinal Merry del Val.  

Then the things within that are most resistant to change are thrown into the water (This is only right, as we know, indeed, that it will take longer to soften them).  Perhaps we did not even know what these 'hard vegetables' were: the parsnip of pride, the turnip of temper, the fennel bulb of infidelity, the corn cob of crankiness, the carrot of uncaring, and the celery stalk of selfishness! Sometimes the water has to boil for some time before any softening occurs.  But when it does, we find that the broth is all the tastier, the flavors more vivid and unique!  

Then comes the seasoning.  Add just a little salt and pepper, mom would say.  You don't need any artificial anything.  No bouillon cubes.  No MSG.  No facades.  Just salt and pepper.  The seasoning of good humor!  No artificial anything.

Then there comes a time in every soup making experience, in every life experience, when you just have to put the lid on it and let it simmer.  The work of transforming those vegetables and meat into nourishing meal is not ours.  The heat, the cook, the pot, the lid, the water, the vegetables, the meat and the seasoning - each has a roll to play.  So it is in our life of grace.  It's not for us to control our own transformation.  We simply allow the Lord to turn up the heat now and again, to let our scum be skimmed, to be receptive to the peeling, the chopping, the combining, the boiling, the softening, the melding, and the seasoning.  We allow the great Chef to cook.  We allow time for the process without expecting immediate results.  It's the work of a day for a good pot of soup.  There's no rushing it.  Nor is there rushing the Lord of glory.  Let Him do His work.  Just simmer.

Support Respect for Rights of Conscience Act

"We cannot - we will not - comply with this unjust law. People of faith cannot be made second class citizens. We are already joined by our brothers and sisters of all faiths and many others of good will in this important effort to regain our religious freedom. Our parents and grandparents did not come to these shores to help build America’s cities and towns, its infrastructure and institutions, its enterprise and culture, only to have their posterity stripped of their God given rights. In generations past, the Church has always been able to count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties. I hope and trust she can count on this generation of Catholics to do the same. Our children and grandchildren deserve nothing less."- BishopOlmsted

In Bishop Olmsted's letter, which was read at all the parishes in the Diocese last weekend, he explained in depth the serious state of affairs regarding the HHS Birth Control Mandate.  Click here to read the Bishop's letter in full.

In short, he asked that the faithful to do 2 things.

1. "Commit ourselves to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored."  Very specifically he asked that we pray the Rosary, "asking Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Patroness of our Nation, to intercede for us.  Without God, we can do nothing; with God, nothing is impossible."
2. The Bishop recommends visiting www.usccb.org/conscience, to learn about this severe assault on religious liberty.  

Here is a link to send an email to Congress to support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act.

Let us pray, as in generations past, the Church will, in fact, be able to "count on the faithful to stand up and protect her sacred rights and duties".

Capacity to Love

"Sanctity is the only cure for the vast unhappiness 

of our universal failure as human beings."

- Caryll Houselander

For all of you who prayed for the success of our recent Duc In Altum retreat: THANK YOU!  Your prayers were heard and answered in marvelous ways.  Unfortunately the days passed too quickly and kept me very busy...so busy that I forget to take one single photo.  Oi!  But take my word for it, from start to finish, the retreat was blessed and anointed. 

Seeing those young ladies engaged in the great work of prayer and discernment was inspiring.  Seeing the Holy Spirit so active and alive brought an influx of hope to my soul.  

On our first Duc in Altum retreat I noticed something really beautiful: In the midst of this silent retreat (silent, save for recreation at dinner), there was a bond that developed among the retreatants.  I attributed this bond to the fact that most of the retreatants already knew each other.  

Well, that theory was blown out of the water last week.  Again, we had the Duc in Altum and observed the silence (save for dinnertime) and most of the ladies did not know each other; and yet, I witnessed a similar bond being formed among the retreatants.  It was both obvious and tangible.  

I found this pattern very interesting and it got me thinking.  My reflections led me to this conclusion: Love grows in silence - both our love for God and, perhaps more mysteriously, our love for neighbor.  Each of these young women were keenly aware that they were not alone on this retreat, that they were supported by the presence of others on a similar journey.  Each seemed to be lifting the other up in prayer.  And it was there, in that silent support and care, that this bond began to be formed.  It was reinforced during the dinner recreations where human interaction and shared experience brought such joy.

When striving for deep intimacy with God, inevitably we come to a deeper love of His creatures and all of His creation.  

Sometimes I hear or read about these outrageous stories about how unfulfilled a priest or religious is because they can't marry.  My response? What hogwash!  

True fulfillment is borne, first and foremost, in our INTENSE and ALL-CONSUMING love for God.  If a priest or religious is unfulfilled, I would dare to assert that perhaps it is because they have not tapped into true intimacy with God, and thus cannot know authentic and ardent love for neighbor.  It is not because they can't marry.  Otherwise you would never find an unhappy married person.  Fact is, no matter what vocation you are called to, in order to be truly fulfilled there is a degree of intimacy with God that must be present in the soul. 

I believe the great writer, Caryll Houslander, would agree with me from what I read in her quote below:

 Sanctity is a genius for love.  This is why the saint never complains of not being 'fulfilled'.  No matter what the circumstances of his life are, the saint loves to his fullest human capacity not only supernaturally, though this is what really matters, but naturally too; and it is on the degree of his capacity for objective love, and on nothing else, that the fullness of any man's life depends.

Houslander goes on to say that: "It does not depend upon circumstances or chance, on whether he is gifted or not, on whether he has a happy or a melancholy temperament, on whether he is rich or poor, married or single, on whether he has a magnificent vocation or a humdrum one, or whether he travels the world over or is restricted to the same few streets for the whole of his life, on whether he is good looking or plain, on whether he is healthy or unhealthy..."

So you may be wanting to ask: THEN UPON WHAT DOES SANCTITY AND HAPPINESS DEPEND???

"...it depends upon one thing and one thing only - whether he has or has not the capacity to love."

WOW!

Dear Lord, 

I humbly ask that You increase, 

ever more and more,

with each passing second, 

my capacity to love!

Amen.