Friday, March 28, 2008

Breakfast in Galilee

Green of the countryside, wind in the trees
Dew on the roses, spring in the breeze
March of His soldier beating his drum
Source of sea's waves as swiftly they come

Washing and buffing our outermost shore
Where no power of man has ever before
Created and breathed life in the midst of the dead
Where water springs eternal- as so You have said
My eyes You have opened
On Your water I sputter
My mind You have cleared from the noise and the clutter
You call me to shore from the boat where I toil
Like Peter I swim from my world to dry soil

'It's the Lord!' It was said by him whom You love

I swim to You madly, my need for You grows
I want You to love me with that love that John knows
But yet I know firmly it is already mine
It is and it was from the dawn of all time

Because even today…

You catch all the fish and you give us the merit
You've purchased our souls that we may inherit
This intimate moment we share as fish fries
As dawn breaks above us in opal crisp skies
This moment is ours on Tiberias' shore
This one, Beloved, and so many more

As family you've bid that we share in Your feast,

With an eternity of chances to fix what we've damaged
As we look to our brother, as thrice he did manage
To remind us all gently that yes, we shall fall
But faithfully, surely, You follow and call
You bid us to shore to share in your meal
Like Peter I swim, and like Peter I'm healed.

Thursday, March 20, 2008

The Hidden Kingdom

Just as your majesty is veiled by a small white Host;
Just as your mother’s pure and spotless beauty was clothed in humility;
So do I wish to be veiled
So do I wish to be hidden
It is not in earthly pleasures I shall seek my comfort
For I have found my only treasure in You.
I did not find my treasure in the place where I saw the crowds trample before me;
I looked in barns and stables
I looked among the poor and the lost
And there I found You;
Encased in dirt,
And in the downtrodden baggage of human misery
I was looking with the wrong eyes before
But how quietly and knowingly I now gaze upon You;
Enamored,
In awe. Because:
You have hidden these things from the world’s nobles
And You have revealed all this to only the simplest of hearts.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

On Holiness

As is sung by Danielle Rose- "Holiness is Faithfulness"...

The holiness we all want, as children of the John Paul II generation is holiness in its simplest form. For surely true holiness is essentially this: the aroma that emanates from a simple heart. This holiness is without the trappings and the complexities that plague all other areas of our society. It is paradoxical in that it is simple to live out once gained but so difficult to attain by human effort. By this very fact, we establish its supernatural nature…this holiness seems to find those who befriend silence regardless of their state of life. The activist can find it just as surely as can the contemplative.

This true holiness is a divine science that is unitive (brings together opposites: the introvert and extrovert, the academic and the blue-collar worker). It is without principle but richly layered and unmistakeable in its manifestations. Those who ‘emit’ this fragrance are mostly unaware or are indifferent to this emission because this holiness-in all its sweetness- is merely secondary. The only thing that matters to the truly holy is communion with the Beloved. Anything else that flows forth as a fruit of this union is considered superfluous to the enamoured.

The devotion of the saints is unique in that it is completely object-centred. Devotion springs forth from love in the way a mother fusses over her child. Love underlies all of her efforts and even the most eccentric movements of a mother’s heart towards her child are out of a selfless, all-consuming love. So it is with genuine love of God. That which appears to be excessive to the world to the heart of the besotted, is necessary. A devoted, fervent soul will stop at nothing to make its love known.

Yet, the pursuit continues far beyond sanctity. One has never reached a state that is ‘good enough’…(read St. John of the Cross, The Spiritual Canticle)…
What is it then to be called to be holy? The Lord Jesus meets us on the road. His hope is that we find and recognize Him on the road because otherwise we will most certainly exert ourselves far beyond what is necessary to know Him. When a holy person approaches the Lord Jesus in prayer it is gentle and simple. Kneeling on the outside and on the inside, the holy soul waits in adoration. Since these souls are friends of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit Himself takes pains to lift the very soul to God and the humble soul is thus reminded again of her smallness.

God bestows this gem of holiness on those who allow themselves to be found; on those who drop their defences and begin to loosen their fearful grip on time and ‘their lives’. Characteristic of this holiness is the disappearance of all anxiety regarding the passing of one’s life and having ‘nothing to show for it’. The best imaginable moment is one of perfectly simple receptivity. This can’t be taught but it must be learned.

Look at these lives:
Brother Andre Bessette
Mother Teresa of Calcutta
St Gemma Galgani

Not only do they know that God IS, they know that God is NEAR. That God is here in this moment in a more real way than we are here in this moment. It is only because He is here, in this moment that we ARE.