Spirituality and Today's Mass Reading



From the First Reading at Mass Today:



The LORD's messenger found her by a spring in the wilderness,

the spring on the road to Shur, and he asked,

"Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from

and where are you going?"

She answered, "I am running away from my mistress, Sarai."

But the LORD's messenger told her:

"Go back to your mistress and submit to her abusive treatment.I will make your descendants so numerous," added the LORD's messenger,

"that they will be too many to count.



I have put the passage that struck me in bold. Interestingly other translations do not translate this passage in the same way. The RSV translates it as "Return to your mistress and submit to her." But back to the text as it exists in the Lectionary, Hagar who flees the harsh treatment of Sarah is told to go back and to submit to it. When I attended Mass the priest ignored the reading commenting rather accurately that it would be hard to offer a pious homily on the first reading, I would differ with him on that point.



The reading and the verse in particular point to a certain way of approaching life. Do we flee the reality we are placed in (this is obviously the "way" many approach life in our culture) or do we face the good and the bad? What is more is to look at how we view the world around us and in particular the part of the world where we are placed, is it a curse or a blessing?



Hagar's return to Sarah is accompanied by a promise of blessing. The Christian's taking up the cross with Jesus carries with it a promised blessing.



I recall many years ago hearing Father Benedict Groeschel, at that time a Capuchin, preach on the mental health of some of the saints. His diagnosis is that many of them suffered from neurotic states but through their devotion to God while not relieved of their condition it was sanctified. Grace building on nature.



Every day we all suffer at the hands of our "Sarah's" who abuse us out of jealousy and envy. The small mindedness that backs such abuse is easy to understand but difficult to deal with when directed at yourself. We all are tempted to flea but God tells us to stay and what is more to see a blessing in it all.



The next time you read the life of a saint, take off your pious sunglasses and try to imagine what it must have been like to live in a community with such a person. Would you have experienced them as a gift or a burden? It is clear from the testimonies of many who have enjoyed the blessing that it hardly seemed like a blessing to them at the time.



In the case of facing our abusers we have to understand that if they can be helped we can lead them in that direction. Perhaps that is why God wants us to go back so that they may face their own activity even as we face up to it.



The severity of life is often ignored both by those who make it harsh for others and for those whe enjoy it's cruel deserts.

A Note from the Publisher of Sophia Publishing



Dear Friends:



Just a brief note to forestall possible scandal.



The magazine Inside the Vatican just published a harsh letter

attacking the Pope, and it was signed by Michael Rose.



Our author, Michael S. Rose, did not write that unfortunate

letter and does not know who did. Nor does he hold the views

expressed in the letter.



Michael has contacted Inside the Vatican about this, and I told

him that I would let my contacts know that he did not write it,

lest he be misjudged for intemperate words that are the product

of another's pen.



John



I'm surprised that Inside the Vatican would have published the letter in the first place if it is critical of the pope and without checking with Michael Rose to see if he wrote it.

Back from a whirlwind trip. First to Kentucky where we (Amy, Joseph and I) saw my parents, my two nieces, one nephew and my youngest sister and her husband. Then after a day there we drove to Tennessee where we saw Amy's Father and wife Hilary, and Amy's oldest son Christopher. The trip back was made longer because of snow, ice and salt-less roads in Ohio. Fortunately the roads in Indiana were well salted so the trip went a little quicker once there.

Need a Rosary Book?



A comment from one of Amy's posts:



That little book you guys did on the rosary is great.

Prayer of Bob Russel of Louisville's Southeastern Christian Church



Heavenly Father,



We come before You today to ask Your Forgiveness and seek Your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, ''Woe to those who call evil good,'' but that's exactly what we have done. We have lost our Spiritual equilibrium and inverted our values. We confess that; we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it pluralism; We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism; We have endorsed perversion and called it an alternative lifestyle; We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery; We have neglected the needy and called it self preservation; We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare; We have killed our unborn and called it choice; We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable; We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem; We have abused power and called it political savvy; We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition; We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression; We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, O God, and know our hearts today; try us and see if there be some wicked way in us; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent here by the people of this state and who have been ordained by You, to govern this great state of Kansas. Grant them your wisdom to rule and may their decisions direct us to the center of Your Will.



I ask in in the name of your Son, The Living Savior, Jesus Christ



This came to me via email and I had to check it out to tell if the story told were true. To read the story and the email check out TruthorFiction.com.

Heartbeat Heard on Image of Guadalupe?



From The Catholic Advocate:



Doctor Margaret Pasakas placed her stethoscope on the heart of the copy of the Missionary Image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Joseph Hospital in Reading, Pennsylvania. To her utter astonishment she heard a human heartbeat and knelt down in tearful veneration. More than 200 people have felt the heartbeat of an unborn child in the Image. Dan Lynch, Guardian of the Image says, “It is a sign that life begins at conception and is not a 'choice' for the mother because God, the Author of Life, has already chosen the child for life.”

Archbishop Dolan Reflects on One Year in Milwaukee



Milwaukee Channel News:



Dolan is a man with true passion for the priesthood and the Roman Catholic Church and a man with a great sense of humor, Elliott said.



"Is it everything you thought it would be? Milwaukee?" Elliott asked.



"It's a little cooler than I thought," Dolan said.



"Yeah we're working on that -- the temperature," Elliott said.



"No, listen, you can have cool and the winters were a lot easier. It is everything I thought from a good point of view," Dolan said. "The sense of vitality, the community spirit, the sense of promise, and I'm not saying there aren't some problems and some challenges, you bet there are."



Given what he said in response to the interviewer, I don't think he was talking about the weather.