Psalm 1: 1-2, 3-4, and 6“…Those who follow you, Lord, will have the light of life. …” Luke 11: 42 - 46 “… ‘Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God’.…” St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647 – 1690) At 22 Margaret joined the Order of the Visitation nuns at Paray-le-Monial, and added the name Mary. The order was founded by St. Francis de Sales and was known for its humility and selflessness. But, like so many other saints who received spiritual gifts, Margaret Mary would suffer from the slights and contempt of those around her when she began revealing the substance of the messages she was getting from the Lord. She remained diligent in prayer and won many over. Though not the founder, she is one of three disciples to popularize and call us to a Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The other two, John Eudes, S.J. and Claude de la Columbiere, S.J. helped spread the word by writing about her experience with the Lord. For more information on the twelve promises of our Lord including the practice and prayers, click here. There was a wonderful connection between today’s readings and the message St. Margaret Mary received from our Lord and it’s all about God’s Love and being called back to that reality constantly. Jesus spoke to St. Margaret Mary about how much He loves us and wants to be loved in return. Thinking about my own disconnection to God’s love for me, I realized how much I needed this reminder. Can’t we all remember wondering where the time went during a Mass, or remember being so lost in thought you don’t remember the readings? We’ve even spaced off while going to receive Holy Communion. If you stop and think about it really, how do we get so distracted if we’re a people of the Spirit, and go by the name Christian? The message from the first reading, at first seems like the opposite of God’s love, how many freeze up when the subject of sin comes up? But St. Paul is calling us back to our spiritual side (mind, body, spirit) because that’s the path to true happiness. I had an opportunity to teach the centering prayer method this past weekend, and I picked up Fr. Thomas Keating’s book, The Human Condition to help me prepare. At the very beginning, Fr. Keating asks the question in this book, as from God talking to Adam: “Where are you?” He follows this up with another story of seeking a lost key, but it can’t be found because the people searching for it are looking outside of the place where it was lost. Fr. Keating then says, “We have all lost the key to our house. We don’t live there anymore. We don’t experience the divine indwelling. We don’t live with the kind of intimacy with God that Adam and Eve reportedly enjoyed in the Garden of Eden…The house in the parable represents happiness, and happiness is intimacy with God, the experience of God’s loving presence. Without that experience, nothing else quite works; with it, almost anything works.” (The Human Condition, Thomas Keating, pp 7-9). Similar language is found in the Gospel reading in Luke, where Jesus is chastising the Pharisees saying they’ve lived by rules and not paid attention to judgment, love for God, and love for neighbor. It is understandable how we can easily get off track and today’s readings merely point our attention back to our heavenly goals. May we each find the tool or the exercise that helps keep this goal in mind as we strive to serve a world that is in desperate need of saving. |