Proclaiming God's Greatness

The Feast of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her cousin, Elizabeth, as described in St. Luke's Gospel, (1: 39-57) not only gives us two beautiful prayers, but also another stone in the solid and rich foundation of Marist Spirituality.  Elizabeth's greeting,  "Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb",  (Lk 1: 44) now incorporated into the Hail Mary, prompts Mary's beautiful and humble response, now known as the Magnificat. She turn the attention from herself to God:  "My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord;/ my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,/ for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant./ From this day all generations will call me blessed."  (Lk 1: 47-48).  She goes on to praise the works of the Lord who favors the poor and the hungry, filling them with food and sending the rich away empty, knocking the proud and arrogant from their pedestles and raising up the lowly. Mary had come immediately (with haste) to be with her aged cousin to help her before she delivered her son, John the Baptist, and stayed long afterwards, forgetting her own needs.She also came to share the treasure of her own child, with others; the unborn John recognized him and leapt for joy.
As Marists, we follow Mary in her haste to bring Jesus to others, to serve the lowly and help them see their place on the pedestle of God's kingdom, all the while focusing on God's greatness and gifts, not our own. The Visitation Sisters, the Congregation of Notre Dame Sisters, and many others celebrate this as their patronal feast, but it is very much ours as well.  How can we better respond to the needs of others? How can we bring Jesus to them?  How can we proclaim God's mightiness and keep ourselves humble?  May this be a happy and fruitful day spent with Mary and Elizabeth.
Bro. Rene

Who Is Like Our God?

The author of Psalm 25 provides an appropriate prayer for all of us who seek to find meaning, connection, purpose in our busy lives. Let us put ourselves into it as if it were our own prayer, slowly, prayerfully reading and reflecting; we will find peace and direction.
The Lord is good and upright.
He shows the path to those who stray,
he guides the humble in the right path;
he teaches his ways to the poor.

His ways are faithfulness and love
for those who keep his covenant and law.
Lord for the sake of your name
forgive my guilt, for it is great.

If anyone fears the Lord
he will show him the path he should choose
His soul shall live in happiness
and his children shall possess the land.
The Lord's friendship is for those who revere him;
to them he reveals his covenant.

My eyes are always on the Lord;
for he rescues my feet from the snare.
Turn to me and have mercy
for I am lonely and poor.

Relieve the anguish of my heart
and set me free from my distress.
See my affliction and my toil
and take all my sins away.
Redeem Israel, O God, from all its distress.

Bro. Rene

The Spirit of Love

The Church often prays for the Spirit of Love to unite believers in mind and heart with Jesus and with one another.  In responding to the call to the priesthood, St. Marcellin opened his heart to another call, the founding of the Little Brothers of Mary, whose purpose would be to unite their students in love with each other and with Jesus.  With humility, simplicity, faith and determination, he did not waver nor swerve from this path and in his short life, set the direction of future brothers, and now an increasing number of lay people.  His efforts were crowned by the Church which beatified him on this day in 1955, and canonized him on April 18,1999, honors, which this humble man did not seek. Today, despite a declining number of brothers a new vitality is surging in different parts of the Congregation as the pooling of resources and personnel leads to new works...Talk of a new community in Harlem of brothers from Canada, Mexico and the United States, along with lay members, might soon come into being, showing that the Spirit of Love is still at the heart of the work begun by St. Marcellin.
Bro. Rene 

God's Plans For Us

Everyone's life is a testing ground a growing ground, sometimes causing us pain as year after year we seem to bounce from one place physically, mentally, or spiritually.  We look for permanence, stability, so that we can sink roots, grow and blossom into the person we think we would like to be, and thus find satisfaction and happiness.  Unfortunately, it does not always work out that way.  A soldier goes off to war, is wounded, and comes home blind or maimed; grateful to be alive, but oh, what a painful road physically, mentally and spiritually to move to acceptance of this new state, even to come to embrace it.  The nagging question, "Why me? lingers for years, especially if one has been good and "followed all the rules."  It seems like an unfair lot, even a punishment, for a crime not committed. 
It could be even less dramatic...simply being cut year after year from job after job, because of budget cuts.  Where does one go for help, for solace when the bottom has literally been torn from the boat?  It's in these moments of loneliness and darkness that God eventually will reveal his plan, reminding us of the consoling line from Jeremiah the Prophet: "I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, plans of fullness, not of harm, to give you a future, and a hope."  (Jer 29: 11). Sometimes tears flow, when this hits one right between the eyes...There is a plan, there is resurrection...but not in our time line, but in God's.  There's the rub, there's the call to FAITH.  Praying over this verse will eventually bear fruit, and when the plan actually begins to unfold, there is great rejoicing, as in the calm afer the storm.
Bro. Rene

Decoration Day

Decorating the graves of fallen soldiers with flags and flowers began in the 1860's...in Warrenton, Virginia as early as 1861.  By 1868, it had become a national custom later, came to be known as Memorial Day and includes all deceased, with still an emphasis on military men and women who gave their lives in service of our country.  As we pray for these deceased today, and take part in the parades and speeches that were once so much a staple of this day, we might also pray for those veterans who have returned from war maimed, physically or emotionally and pray for those who are helping to rehabilitate them.  Iron Stone farm has recently begun "horse therapy" for veterans who have "lost themselves" but have found themselves and meaning in their lives by contact with horses.  Let us also pray for those who at this moment are serving in those troublesome spots of the world:  Afghanistan, the Middle East and Korea.  The Lord is their shield and protector and we place them in his hands.
Bro. Rene

How Great Thou Art

As we reflect on the Holy Trinity today, it might be good to begin, as the hymn goes, to consider all the works God's hands have made. "I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder/ Thy power throughout the universe displayed." "Awesome", though such a popular word with teenagers, falls short when we attempt to describe the wonder, magnitude and mystery the heavens alone contain.  Then we come to us:  What is may that you should be mindful of him....You have made him a little less than the angels,/ and crowned him with glory and honor,/ You have given him rule over the works of your hands/ putting all things under his feet." (Ps 8: 4-6). The beauty of humans, so breathtaking, so diverse, even palls when we consider all that makes us tick, from brain, to nerves, to organs, fingers, all..
Our faith tells us that all of this comes from God in whose image and likeness we are made...We stand stunned, as it were, before our creator as we contemplate his works...And more than a Creator, we come to see him even more clearly as Jesus has revealed him:  as a loving, compassionate Father, who counts the hairs on our head, so intimately does he know and love us.  Jesus gives us a fuller picture of this Father, whose Spirit is the love he has for his Son, and who is breathed into us to give us the "strength, the drive, the life-giving energy that will make us followers of Jesus, his witnesses and partners at the service of the grand project of the Holy Trinity" as Jose Pagola so beautifully puts it. (Following in the Footsteps of Jesus, Year C, p, 84).  This is the God we honor, celebrate and to whom we  lovingly sing: "How great thou art!"
Bro. Rene







llovingly

Like a Trusting Child

 Simplicity is one of the hallmarks of our Marist Spirituality.  Along the way we run into examples of it, such as in "little way" of St. Therese of Lisieux, but Jesus gives us the best formula for it:  "I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it." (Mark 10: 15).  If I can allow myself to become like a little child in the arms of Jesus, trusting, asking questions without hesitation, and simply being loved by him, I will find the key to serenity, the energy I seek to follow him more closely and discover that I can do the impossible as Doug Larson,noted columnist, discovered in child like simplicity:  "Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible."-  Child like simplicity lets us go to places where others have feared to tread.  Lord, help me to become like a little child.. 

Bro. Rene

-------------------------------------------------------