Sunday Meditation: Mary is the Icon of Advent

Mary's womb: the first Tabernacle

Advent words: waiting, preparation, hope, expectation, longing, promises, light and dark, redemption...

But the one word that, for me, encompasses all the others and summarizes all that is Advent leading up to Christmas when Jesus Christ is born to us, that word is Mary.

Mary's lap: the first altar of worship

Mary is advent's icon.
She represents the hope, the expectation, the longing for a Messiah. It is Mary whose "yes" begins the fulfillment of God's promise to send a Redeemer. Mary waits while the Word Made Flesh dwells in the darkness of her womb. She prepares for his coming lovingly sewing His swaddling clothes. She longs for the day when the Son of God will be born like the sun rising in the East to bring light to the world. Mary, the Mother of God, is Advent's icon.

Sister Lucia of Fatima loved Our Lady profoundly and she presents her to us in Eucharistic language
fitting for Advent meditation:

Sunday Meditation: What Better Way to Start the New Year than Repent of Our Sins and Make a Firm Purpose of Amendment?

I'm not sure how I got on Buffalo Regional Right to Life's mailing list, but a recent newsletter contained an Act of Contrition which offers much for meditation. One can sin through malice or through ignorance. Obviously, the sins we commit out of ignorance limit our culpability, but they still offend God's justice. Praying and sacrificing in atonement for those sins, both our own and those of others, can be a response to St. Paul's admonition to "make up what's lacking in the suffering of Christ." (Colossians 1:24)

Obviously, Jesus' sacrifice is perfect so what can possibly be lacking? The answer: our free will decision to join our sufferings to His. He will never force our will, but He invites us to participate in the salvation of the world. If you read Fr. Collins' description of God's covenantal relationship with us, you know how much God desires our union with Him and with each other. Whenever we sin, we break that covenant and damage both our relationship with God and with the human family. It is good to ponder on that and repent.

Sunday Meditation: Beauty, Our Invitation from God to Know Him

Changing colors in Maine

The other night we were sitting around a fire with some camping neighbors at St. Andrews on the bay (of Fundy) in New Brunswick. Overhead the moonless sky allowed a dazzling display of stars and the Milky Way. Breathtaking! On our drive through Maine the trees were changing from green to brilliant hues of gold, scarlet, and orange. We would go from a stretch of evergreens with only an occasional dash of color, follow a curve in the road to be met by a hillside of deciduous cousins dressed in fall finery. The sun was shining and the bright blue Mary sky provided the perfect background to set off their beauty.

Sunday Meditation: The Sin against the Holy Spirit

Repentance? I'll think about that tomorrow.

Reading Amoris Laetitia for some reason got me thinking about the sin against the Holy Spirit. You know, the "unpardonable sin." Now why did the exhortation push me in that direction? I think it's all the talk about mercy, mercy, mercy. As if mercy is a get-out-of-jail-free card.

Actually, though, mercy is the key to understanding the sin against the Holy Spirit. On the one hand, God's mercy is limitless, but on the other hand it is limited. Why? Because God gave us free will. He offers mercy freely to all those who desire to receive it. And that's the catch. We have to ask for it. And to ask for it, one must think he needs it. That implies repentance.

Sobering Meditation for Sunday: Have we made peace with evil?

Fall of the damned into hell - Rubens

Fr. Jerry Pokorsky offers a sobering article on the way "good" people make peace with evil in their lives. Death bed conversions are rare. As we live, so we are likely to die. If we have rationalized grave evils like abortion, contraception, "murdering" the reputations of others, etc. are we likely to even recognize them as evil on our death beds? If a personnel director makes sure abortion, contraception, physician-assisted suicide, trans gender surgery, etc. are covered in his company's health plan, well, how likely is he to see those things as evil? Even if he is personally against them, he is likely to rationalize offering "choices"  to others (even evil ones) as a necessary part of doing business. It isn't his sin, after all, if a woman decides to kill her baby or even herself. The fact that she might not have done it without the scandal of the company telling her abortion or physician-assisted suicide are acceptable "choices" will likely escape him.

We would do well to examine our consciences in the light of Christ's grace begging Him to reveal the sins we hide from ourselves. All of us have blind spots and just like missing the car in our "blind spot" on the road can lead to a disastrous accident, so can missing the serious sins in our lives have disastrous spiritual consequences. After all, what can be more disastrous than going to hell because we rationalized our gravest sins? Please Lord, don't let me blind to those things in my life that threaten my eternal salvation? Show me myself as You see me, so I can repent and turn to you with a clean heart.

I'll close with Fr. Pokorsky's question: 

"Have we ourselves – traditional-minded, pro-life Catholics made peace with some profound evil that has been buried somewhere in the tangle of our minds? What sins or patterns of sin are we overlooking or rationalizing when we go to Confession? If we could see ourselves with the eyes of others – through the eyes of God – what would we see?"

Two Thumbs Up for my Pastor who Gave a Great Homily on Marriage!

We often hear some in the Church lamenting how bad Vatican II was, but here's a quote that is right on target, one to meditate on frequently:

"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws....God himself is the author of marriage."
                                                     Gaudium et Spes #48

This is the portion quoted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church that Father read to us this morning, but it would be well worth while to pull out your copy of the documents of the council (You have one right?) and read the entire section on marriage. I'm leaving for retreat tomorrow and I'm taking it as a source of meditation so I can reflect on how I'm doing after 45 years.