We Are The Lord's

Writing from Contoocook and on the last day of our Marist Youth Encounter Christ, I can claim with St. Paul that indeed, "None of us lives for oneself, and no one dies for oneself...we are the Lord's" (Rm 14: 7). The faith that has brought this community of 34 students and 4 team members together is being shared to the point where those who have faith are being strengthened and those whose faith is weak, or still in embryonic form, or even "not there yet" are discovering it and awakening to it. They are all making new friends, discovering the gifts inn one another and realizing how powerful a community, especially a faith community can be. Some wish they lived way back in time with Jesus when "miracles happened all the time" and it would be "easier to believe," but are coming to see that 2000 years later, faith can and must be stronger (without the miracles). The real miracle is, that they are coming to believe, despite how hard they admit it to be. Our prayers, then are bearing fruit, and our communion in faith with them strengthens both them and us. We are all the Lord's and he never tires of reaching out to us no matter where we are, and bringing us closer to him.
Bro. Rene

Our Best Energy

What would the world be like if we used our best energy, the uniqueness that is the prerogative of each one of us, to its maximum capacity? Some have the gift of humor and can make a cat laugh, others have compassionate ears that absorb the woes and worries of all who come to them. Some have the gift of music and can play or sing away the sorrows of others. Some have the gift of teaching, others or praying, others of healing. If we gave these gifts over the the use of Jesus, how soon would the world be healed and be ready for his Second Coming!
This new day is a gift, a chance to "make a difference". Let's not procrastinate, let's not hold back on using our special gift to the fullest TODAY!
Bro. Rene

Excuses

 We have a guest writer today, a recent graduate from the University of Notre Dame, Catherine Russell, whose reflection should touch us all.

I will be on the Junior/Senior Encounter in Contocook, NH till Thursday afternoon.  Am not sure about wi-fi access. but it seems to me, it is available.  If not...keep praying.  No excuses!  (During our last Encounter, Pope Francis was elected. Let's pray for him and for all of us taking TIME to be with God and give him our undivided attention.)
Bro. Rene

Why do we make excuses to spend less time with God?
As of recent, my main excuses have been “I’m too tired” or “I have to catch up on this season of my favorite TV show.” While some reasons are more meaningful than others, such as spending more time with a family member, all excuses stand in the way of us dedicating more time to God.
In today’s passage, the townspeople pushed their invitation to supper aside because they felt that their time was better spent focusing on other commitments. Why do we put our work and daily activities before our time with God? It is easy to forget about God when life is fine and we are moving at a fast pace. When we start to struggle, however, God is right back in the picture.
Making excuses to move away from God is easy to do, especially when life is good and we may think talking to God is not necessary. But what do we gain? We might gain more time focusing on family, friends, work; but less time building a foundation in faith, which could transform these relationships and commitments.
If we continue to make excuses to turn down a relationship with God, we lose the opportunity to open our hearts to grace, which truly builds our souls to spread God’s love into all of our daily activities. Accept today’s invitation to join the feast of God’s grace so that we can draw upon this relationship to exude joy into all other aspects of our lives.

Catherine Russell ‘12

Maintaining Zeal

A four letter word, one of the few "z" words in the English language, zeal packs a power punch.  The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as "an eager and ardent interest in the pursuit of something."  We know how hard it is to maintain interest in anything, once we fall into a rhythm and interest sinks into rote and routine.  How to keep it "eager and ardent" is even more of a challenge.
Our model in zeal, of course, is Jesus himself.  The dry words on the pages of our New Testament do not convey the heat and humidity of Israel, nor the dust on the roads, nor the noise of the clamoring crowds looking for cures. Jesus could hardly find time to eat and pray.  He rose early to go to deserted places, and sometimes stayed up all night to lay himself before his Father and seek the grace and strength to continue his mission. He knows then, the plight we face in our own circumstances and encourages us allow him to guide us, strengthen us, and fire up our "eager and ardent" interest in whatever we are doing.
I think of Michelangelo, taking 25 years to paint the Sistine Chapel, or pounding away at a damaged hunk of Carrara marble until his magnificent David appeared.  Passion, zeal, hard work, determination, all yielded magnificent works of art.  Applied to our spiritual lives, these can yield holiness.
Bro. Rene

Lover of Souls

The Jesus who reaches out to Zacchaeus, and invites himself into the home of this chief tax collector, already a reason to be despised, and acknowledged sinner, is indeed the Son of the God described by the author of the Book of Wisdom.  In beautiful imagery, Wisdom describes the whole universe as a grain from a balance or a drop of morning dew, insignificant in light of the ineffable mercy of God for all, which enables him to overlook people's sins.  God, Wisdom tells us,  loathes nothing he has made, and preserves everything he has created  because it is his.  Truly a lover of souls, he "rebukes offenders little by little, warns them, and reminds them of the sins they are committing that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in him." (Ws 11:12: 2)
This is exactly the case with the overture Jesus makes to Zacchaeus, the grace he extends to him, which brings about a dramatic and instantaneous conversion.  Suddenly the sinner becomes so repentant that he promises to give half of his possessions to the poor and to repay those he's cheated four times over, so touched was he by the mercy of God.
This lesson in God's mercy:  that it is there always, and that God takes the initiative in lavishing it upon us, is itself a grace that can bring the Zacchaeus in us to conversion and to welcome the lover of our soul into our hearts with the assurance that no matter what sins or sinful behavior is still there, it can be and is pardoned.
Bro. Rene

Praying for the Deceased

It has long been a practice to offer prayers for the deceased, in the belief that the final stage of the journey home to God needs the support of our love expressed though our prayers and actions to help the purification process reach completion.  In this final month of the Year of Faith, we might put our faith into practice by praying for the souls in Purgatory, especially the most forgotten ones.  This is a secular age in which we live, and many have grown accustomed to living their lives for immediate pleasure and gratification, with no thought even to the possibility of an after-life. I often wonder what an awakening awaits them after their final breath.  Believing in God's infinite love and mercy, we trust that even a small spark or ember of faith would be enough to trigger the process of purification, and that with our prayers and sacrifices, these souls will eventually enter into the fullness of life in heaven. All Souls Day is focused on the Faithful Departed and the whole month of November continues the prayers begun today.  Let us make the souls in purgatory our special intention this month..
Bro. Rene

We Are All Called To Holiness

Most of us cringe at being called "a saint", perhaps because still lingering in our minds is the image of the saint whose heroic acts of asceticism and self-denial from another time and age make us equate sainthood with the impossible. In so doing, we are giving ourselves a rain-check on the game plan our baptisms laid out for us.  We were baptized into the death of Jesus, to rise with him; we were adopted as children of God and blessed with the charge of imitating our brother Jesus as priest, prophet and king.  These mandates we just can't dismiss.  Living out our baptisms as best we can, becoming the best version of ourselves that is possible is not impossible if we remember that it is God who takes our fragility, our weaknesses, as well as our strength and talents, and molds them into that ideal ME that I was created to be. He provides so much help for this to happen: the Scriptures, the sacraments, the teachings of the Church, guaranteed to be free from error; the example of those, who like us, walk hand in hand with each other with and toward Jesus.  Our agreement to follow this path, our willingness to take step after step, each one enriched by the grace of God, is all that is needed.  If, with Charles de Foucauld we can thus pray, then we will become saints.
Into your hands I commend my soul; 
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
For I love you Lord,
And so need to give myself,
To surrender myself into your hands,
Without reserve, and with boundless confidence
For you are my Father.
Bro. Rene