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Spiritual Zen
A spiritual path towards enlightenment.
Jun
30
There is a fragmentation of the Christian faith in the inpost-modern young of God, in which the human espiritualidad gets to be separated from the religious expression anexplicitly. The spiritual lives of people have not died; they aresimply who happen outside the church.
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Jun
27
I am not realising perhaps great changes in the world, but if I have helped somehow or animated somebody throughout the then trip I have done they call what me to do.
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Jun
26
????????? I have a keen attraction and alikewise repulsion to this Gospel passage. The attraction is my desire andmovement to profoundly be united with Jesus in the most sensible, tangible ways;the repulsion is that I don’t want to see the feelings of Jesus get profoundlyhurt as many people leave him as they his words distasteful. I fear for hisvulnerability as he gives his true self to others. It hurts badly when peopleturn away from you when they realize you are a disappointment to them. I cansense that his invitation makes them sick to their stomachs. Deep down, they havea “yuck” reaction. I can imagine the hurtful, disappointed look onhis face as many walk away and I simply want to ask Jesus to tell me what he feels.I want him to know that he is not alone. Because of their response, I want totell Jesus that I will stay with him even though what he asks of us is hard totake, and yet I want my response to be a positive one because of what he offersus. ????????? We meet Jesus after he tells thecrowds who witnessed his miraculous feeding of the 5,000 that if they are to behis believers, they are to eat his fleshy body and drink his coursing blood. Hetells them they must be like cannibals who are to chew on the meat that makesup his body. This eating is real ‘crunch and munch’ grinding and chomping offlesh and blood. Understandably, this idea was revolting to many partialfollowers that turned away from Jesus. ????????? Every friendship has a critical momentwhen we choose to remain friends or to end what we thought was going to be asatisfying relationship. After periods of intrigue and curiosity, infatuationand testing, and a safe, but mostly superficial revealing of our outer selvesto the other, a relationship moves to a decisive vulnerable point when wereveal something about ourselves that we fear the other might not like to know.If we are going to be real friends, we cannot avoid this juncture. We are tochoose from our gut. Will we accept this man, Jesus, as a personal companioneven though we know the stakes for friendship will take more out of us than we thinkwe can give. It is going to cost us and we will likewise feel vulnerableand get hurt. ????????? Jesus gives us a good model of ministry – perhaps a different model than weexpected when we first signed on. If we are to minister in today’s church, weare to do so from a position of vulnerability – from a position where weacknowledge our fears, our hesitations, our weaknesses, and our hurt feelings.We minister by giving our true selves away just as Jesus did. We are to revealwho we truly are to others who are in search of Christ. It does no good to hideit because people who are seeking the truth can see right through it, and the truthis, what we keep hidden is going to come out sideways with unintended consequences. ???????? Ministering from our vulnerabilities gives us credibility that makes ussensitive to the yearnings and desires of others. It means not that we arecapable of doing or saying the right things, but that we can express compassionand care to those who are in fear or are suffering. It means our heart breaksat their broken hearts and that we rejoice when?they come to a new level offreedom. The people of God aren’t seeking credentials and accomplishments, butrather a heart that chooses to walk with theirs on a journey of uncertainty. They seeka companion of Jesus who is ready to share their true selves in freedom. ????????? I saw this type of moment earlier thismorning from 2-4 a.m. as I couldn’t fall asleep. Ironically, it came in a scenefrom the remake of the Karate Kid when the trainer, Mr. Miagi, was angrily grievingthe loss of his son and wife from a car accident he inadvertently caused. As heslumped in his car as a broken down man, his twelve year old student had enoughcompassion to reach out to him and be with him in his grief. His training gave hima technique to be still enough to reach inside another person and mirror their feelingswithout moving them to another place. The student honors and respects his teacher’s suffering and showed him that he could hold his pain for him. When Mr. Miagi knows he is not alone in hissuffering, his recovery begins. He is teased to move awayfrom his self-directed anger and pity to be led to the person who he truly is becoming. The inside stuff has to emerge until it finds solidarity with the other self. Byradically being “with” someone, we become “for” that person.This is precisely what Jesus does for us. ????????? Jesus gives us himself in body andblood so he can nourish us onwards and upwards in?a world that is both redeemed andfragile, but we are not to keep what he has given us to ourselves. TheEucharistic chewing and ingesting is fundamentally an action done for us so wecan give our fragile selves away. While our Eucharistic liturgies are a placefor us to be nourished by gathering and worshiping, we are sent on mission tothe world to enact the Mass for others. Mass unfolds when we leave thechapel or church. We become who we eat. Day after day, year after year, as weconsume the flesh and blood of Christ, we can’t help but become like him. It isnot something we can effect, but we learn the contours of his heart and we feelthe depth of emotions he experiences. We see through his eyes, create with hishands, and hold the pain of others as gentle companions with a radicalsolidarity. By doing so, we become contemplatives in action and friends ofJesus. ????????? What does it mean to be a companion ofJesus today? We simply want to be friends of Jesus who, through his grace, become our true selves,revealed through our desires andemotions, the positive and negatives ones, to others so they may come to knowthe liberating freedom of Christ in their tiny corner of the world. We give toothers (because we first give to Christ) all our liberty, memory, understandingand our entire will. We become this always-giving person by sharing all that wehave and possess knowing that we are gifts given to ourselves by God for ourenjoyment and happiness. No one has ever become poor by giving to the needy. Thegrace of Christ, that he freely offers to us in his body and blood, becomes allthat we need for every movement in our lives. ????????? Be weak enough and vulnerable enough togive away those parts of yourself that you hold onto most strongly. Begin my bringingthose areas to the Lord’s table today as he gives his very body and blood to you.He will transform all you give him so he can be more present to you and our fragileworld. Come. Let us feast on his invitation to friendship.
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Jun
26
The problems of the work in these postmoder to us, contexts of post-Christian do not need any elaboration here, because the limit linebetween the gospel and the culture modern and postmodern raisin through theheart of each of us. Each Jesuit finds the impulse to first ofall of the descreimiento in; it is only when we took care of that dimension in which we ourself thatwe can speak to others of the God reality.
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Jun
24
Bread of angels of skies, fact the food of the mortal man: Meat of the children, to the denied dogs: In the old woman types foresignified: In the heav’n-proveído manna, Isaac, and the paschal lamb. Jesu! Shepherd of the ewes! Thousands that thy multitude in security keeps. Alive bread! thy source of the life; The force we, or we dies; Llénenos of celestial tolerance; Thousands, that more feedest we down! Source of all what we have or that we know! Grant who with thy holy above, sitting down in the banquet of the love, we can see thee expensive face. Amen.
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Jun
23
The education of Jesus goes directly against the Psalmist’scry that the God enemies are their enemies also, and so he deserves destruction.? Commentaries of Martin Buber: ? `Cosiderando it everything, the proverb of Jesus on lovefor the enemy derives its light from the world of the Judaism in which he standsand that it seems to dispute; and eclipses it. ‘Fidelity to the commando of Jesus to love his enemiesprovides a critical test, then, of within if one is placed or outside therealm of God. In order to accept the credible love of enemies as it implies one’sinter-subjective attitudes of alteration. In the calculation of Jesus, and Buber also, tolove of the lack an enemy means fall to know God true, and so the declaration to anunbeliever. But San correct Pablo in the majority of the important aspect: The God love isluminous in the embracing of those in enemistad with God.Adrian Lyons, S.J of imagines believing
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Jun
22
June 26, 2011 Deuteronomy 8:2-3,14-16; Psalm 147; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; John 6:51-58 Ina highly dramatic scene, Jesus tells the crowds who witnessed his miraculousfeeding of the 5,000 that if they are to be his believers, they are to eat hisfleshy body and drink his coursing blood. He tells them they must be like cannibalswho are to chew on the meat that makes up his body. This eating is real ‘crunchand munch’ grinding and chomping of flesh and blood. Understandably, this ideawas revolting to many partial followers that turned away from Jesus. He claimsthat a person who does not eat and drink of him will not have true life andcannot be raised on the last day. TheEvangelist John portrays Jesus to be greater than Moses. We get another exampleof the way Jesus supersedes the great lawgiver in the Bread of Life discourse. Deuteronomydepicts the Hebrews in the desert after their emancipation from slavery inEgypt. They are being tested to see if they will keep the Lord’s commandments.The Lord provides them each day with a food to sustain them that is unknown totheir ancestors. The great lesson is to depend upon the Lord for all things andyou shall have life. Jesustells the crowds he is the new manna from heaven, but this food is greater thanthe one the Hebrews ate for they died. Jesus gives life. His body is true foodand his blood is true drink. The people are to depend upon him the ways theHebrews relied upon the Lord’s providence. Jesus provides the bread that bringseternal life. Ifind it helpful to remind myself of the old saying, “You are what youeat.” In this case, each time we eat we become more like the one weconsume. If we admire a trait in someone, we emulate it and incorporate it.This trait becomes our own. If we participate in the Eucharist, somethinghappens to us over time. Some days, I can sit during Mass and draw a blank onthe Gospel proclaimed or on what the homilist said, but I recognize I am stillsitting in the presence of Christ. In whatever way I am present, I am stillrelating to him and observing something about him – even if I’m not consciousof it. I find it more consoling to think of the type of person I am becoming by eatingthe body of Christ and drinking his blood over a period of months and years.Somehow, I am mysteriously changed and I depend upon the Eucharist as a sourceof salvation and nourishment. It is a melioresse – something greater that is going on that is inexplicable. I hungerfor Christ if I am unable to attend Mass. Not every Mass is going to be a earth-shatteringevent for me, but I choose to show up and be in the presence of the one whom Iadore. Sometimes,a calm, stable, uneventful Mass is what I and the world needs. With horrificviolence, wars of upheaval, and gruesome disasters, the stability andregularity of Mass becomes consoling. It communicates to me that Christ isalways present – steadfast in his desire to feed us and care for our woes. TheFeast of the Body and Blood of Christ permits me to think of the myriad ofpeople who participate in Mass each day, month, year, and century. God is charitablein answering our prayerful needs. God has provided since the advent of time andit is completely remarkable that so many people have turned to God to havetheir prayers answered. The billions upon billions of people who have eaten ofChrist over the centuries shows to me the magnificence of his gift to us. Iwant to eat of him and drink his blood so I can become more like him. Themes for this Week’s Masses FirstReading: Abraham protests to the Lord as they gaze upon thecities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose great sin was a violation of hospitality.The Lord would not destroy the city if only 10 righteous men were found in it. Asthe cities were being consumed, Lot’s life was spared. He took refuge in Zoar,but his wife looked back and was cast into a pillar of salt. The Lord then asksAbraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a show of fidelity. As Abraham readies todo so, a ram is caught in a thicket and the Lord permits its sacrifice instead.The story of Isaac bestowing his blessings on Jacob instead of Esau is nowtold. Gospel: Jesus begins to gather followers, but he warns them that he has no place to layhis head until his work is accomplished. ? Jesus gets into a boat while a violent wind kicksup. To ease the fear of his disciples, he stills the storm and raises questionsin the minds of his followers. Jesus infuriates the religious authoritiesbecause he cures and heals, but also forgives sins – an action reserved onlyfor God. The feasts of Peter and Paul, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and theImmaculate Heart of Mary supersede the Gospel passages for the day. Saints of the Week Monday: Cyrilof Alexandria, bishop and doctor (376-444), presided over the Council ofEphesus that fought Nestorian the heresy. Cyril claimed that since the divineand human in Jesus were so closely united that it was fine to say Mary was themother of God. Tuesday: Irenaeus,bishop and martyr (130-200) was sent to Lyons as a missionary and he wascharged with combating the persecution the church faced there. He was adisciple of Poycarp who was a disciple of the Apostle John. Irenaeus assertedthat the creation was not sinful by nature but merely distorted by sin. As Godcreated us, God redeemed us. Therefore, our fallen nature can only be saved byChrist who took on our form in the Incarnation. Wednesday: Peterand Paul, apostles (first century) are lumped together for a feast daybecause of their extreme importance to the early and contemporary church. UponPeter’s faith was the church built; Paul’s efforts to bring Gentiles into thefaith and to lay out a moral code was important for successive generations. Itis right that they are joined together as their work is one, but with twoprongs. For Jesuits, this is a day that Ignatius began to recover from hisillness after the wounds he sustained at Pamplona. It marked a turning point inhis recovery. Thursday: TheFirst Holy Martyrs of the Holy Roman Church (c. 64) were martyrs underNero’s persecution in 64. Nero reacted to the great fire in Rome by falselyaccusing Christians of setting it. While no one believed Nero’s assertions,Christians were humiliated and condemned to death in horrible ways. This day alwaysfollows the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. Friday: TheSacred Heart of Jesus is set on the Friday following Corpus Christi. Theheart of Jesus is adored as a symbol of divine, spiritual, and human love. Itsdevotion grew during the Middle Ages and was transformed in the 17th centurywhen Mary Margaret Alocoque and her Jesuit spiritual director, Claude LaColombiere, reinvigorated the devotion. Saturday: TheImmaculate Heart of Mary began as a devotion in the 17th century. In 1944,the feast was extended to the Western Church. Her heart signifies her sanctityand love as the Mother of God. This Week in Jesuit History ? · ???????? Jun 26,1614. By a ruse of the Calvinists, the book, Defensio Fidei by Francis Suarez was condemned by the FrenchParliament. In addition, in England James I ordered the book to be publiclyburned. · ???????? Jun 27,1978. Bernard Lisson, a mechanic, and Gregor Richert, a parish priest, wereshot to death at St Rupert’s Mission, Sinoia, Zimbabwe. · ???????? Jun 28,1591. Fr. Leonard Lessius’s teaching on grace and predestination caused a greatdeal of excitement and agitation against the Society in Louvain and Douai. ThePapal Nuncio and Pope Gregory XIV both declared that his teaching was perfectlyorthodox. · ???????? Jun 29,1880. In France the law of spoliation, which was passed at the end of March,came into effect and all the Jesuit Houses and Colleges were suppressed. · ???????? Jun 30,1829. The opening of the Twenty-first General Congregation of the order, whichelected Fr. John Roothan as General. · ???????? Jul 1,1556. The beginning of St Ignatius’s last illness. He saw his three greatdesires fulfilled: confirmation of the Institute, papal approval of theSpiritual Exercises, and acceptance of the Constitutions by the whole Society. · ???????? Jul 2,1928. The Missouri Province was divided into the Missouri Province and theChicago Province. In 1955 there would be a further subdivision: Missouridivided into Missouri and Wisconsin; Chicago divided into Chicago and Detroit.
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Jun
21
There is nothing so no secular that it is cannot be sacred, and that one is one of the deepest messages of the incarnation.
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Jun
19
It reaches? The balls and the small sticks capture my simultaneously attentionseconds. Detent? Nonfodder so. Conejito, leaf that falls, asquirrel that – oh joy – is scared really. It smells the dull wind, thenI’m again: dirt, pool, settle, residueof cualquie thing thrillingly died. And you? Anyone sinks to him the past in, half of our long walk, thinking about which you never can bring behind, or you are dull in a little fog that tries tomorrow -, is that what you you call to him? My work: to the deformation of time of unsnare (and to the weave), recovering, my haze-directed friend, you. This shining crust, gongo bronzy of a master of zen, calls to him here, entirely, now: wow, wow, wow.
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Jun
18
We request today for our parents who can receive special tolerances of the gentleman to continue the paper of by life forming the lives of their children. As we matured ourselves, sometimes we have ambiguous relations with our papas and of him we learn to how taking care of the authority – especially our own personal effectiveness. We request that we learn to exercise our right authority and with the great preoccupation and the compassion for others. We give thanks to our parents by the positive ways that formed our lives and took care of for us. We request that our parents can continue supporting to us of spiritual, emotional, and psychological ways beneficial. As he continues aging, we find ways to support it since he does against the challenges of the life. We can all make an effort to us to do our best one for one another one. We say thank for our parents to him to do its best one with us.
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Jun
18
How festively you celebrate Pentecost? The Christians in the USA put great emphasis in Christmas and Passover and they seem to forget the great paper the alcohol in our faith. Pentecost seems to be a change. I ask myself if its changeable positioning in the calendar is in conflict with secular activities of the summer like graduations, dances of course aim, and weddings. His signficance handicapped reflects something more fundamental on our faith and our image of God? What you are thinking?
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Jun
18
Esfuércese to love his neighbors and actively untiring, and at the most close you come to reach of this love, it will be convinced of the existence of God and the inmotalidad of its soul.
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Jun
17
Listening to St. Paul’s litany of adversity fills me with admiration and honor for the man who persevered in his mission to bring to Good News of Jesus Christ to many peoples. In a quick count, he lists twenty-six categories of multiple, severe calamites and adversities. It is mind-boggling. If we slowly absorb all his hardships, we would be astonished with the remarkable character of this man. I know I ought not to boast, but I am eternally grateful and proud of him. I am proud of you as well. Though your stories of chaos and suffering are different from Paul’s, they are equal in dignity and worthiness. In other words, your pain and suffering are as real and as important as his, and thanks be to God that you came on this retreat to be with Jesus Christ. It takes real courage to do that and to let yourselves be vulnerable to the one who heals and saves. I don’t know what happened with each of you this week. God may have done numerous things with you. Perhaps Christ has saved you from something; perhaps he has saved you for something. All I know is you are here and you sought to be with the God who continues to create, to save, and to sustain you. I pray that you treasure this time with the Lord as you move forward into your summer season. I hope you can be like the mom of Jesus who treasures all these things in her heart and lets her song of joy emerge naturally from her core self. Saint Ignatius, at the end of the Spiritual Exercises, hopes that retreatants are to see themselves as gifts by God to their very selves. We are to delight in these gifts, which means that we are to delight in our own goodness, worth, and dignity just because we are created and loved by God. As God is generous, we are to imitate God and give ourselves away to one another because love gives itself to others freely. Love consists in sharing what one has and who one is with another. Love expresses itself more fully in action than in words. When we see the exhaustive way that God loves us, we can begin to love the world the way God does. What we see, what we acknowledge, what we affirm and praise becomes a way to see through God’s eyes. The lamp of the body is the eye and if your eye is sound, your whole body will be filled with light. So how do you see your retreat? What will Christ save for you to hold onto? We know from the first reading that our trials and toils are far from over, but I would gather we don’t feel so alone in our struggles. The Trinitarian God will work many angles to let us realize they are providing us with many spiritual resources. We return to our daily lives – some of us to an empty house, others to a religious community, and some to spouses and families – and we all return to a larger community. What will we bring them? They will want to know what happened our own retreat – and more specifically, if we have changed. To be precise, they want to know if they have a valued part in our lives – even the person who rubs us the wrong way and annoys the Hades out of us. They want to know, in whatever unusual way, whether you still care for them and have a place for them and their chaos. Please. When you return to your home, community, or work, tell the people you missed them – even if you don’t mean it. Let them see in action how the retreat has worked within you. Let it emerge gracefully and with longstanding patience. Christ will be with you to gently let it unfold before you and them. Your retreat will be impelled to move outward like Mary’s song of praise that could no longer be contained when she saw her kinswoman, Elizabeth. Her song burst forth only after letting matters simultaneously settle and stir for a few months. Be patient. This special time is just about to bloom, and we can boast, but our boasting will be of those things that show our weakness because in that weakness, Christ hides and reveals himself. Our vulnerabilities that make us feel weak are what Christ uses to make him and us strong. As we leave this sacred place, let us remember to save the treasures we have encountered here this week. We know these treasures are ones whether neither moth nor decay can touch. Bully, oppressor, victimizer, religious official, boundary transgressor, and unjust abuser of authority cannot touch these treasures. No one. Jesus Christ will save these for you. When we treasures these things, the Lord will save us from all distress because no harm or ruin can come to us. Give them over to Jesus and he will give them back to you in due time. He calls us to live as fully as we can with great joy, praise, and dancing. Our souls will be glad because it will receive what it most needs and desires – the presence of God through Jesus Christ and his Spirit. Our souls shall find the joy that stills all the turmoil around us and our lips shall praise the wonders of the Lord who remains steadfast and in radical solidarity with us.
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