I Took Some Pictures Today…February 2, 2013tags: brothers, cholestasis, pregnancy, sick, yukon questI haven’t picked up my camera at all since Christmas, but then I stumbled upon this scene when I woke up: Gold at the end of a rainbow.Also photo worthy was the start of the Yukon Quest dog sled race, a 1o00 mile race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks, Alaska. Jasper and I left James and J.D
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Entitled, Brothers (or Friars):There are other versions done in:Strings and percussion Violin, strings and percussionString quartet Cello and pianoFour, eight, twelve… cellosWind octet and percussionString quintetWind quintetViolin and pianoViola and PianoI like it done in violin and piano best.Here’s a good version done in violin and guitar:Fratres in aeternum
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The Church of the Good Shepherd – A Sodality of the Anglican Use: From Our Brothers and Sisters at Tyendinaga, Mohawk Territory- Kersitos Ne Korah:Kowa Coat of Arms of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St.
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From Our Brothers and Sisters at Tyendinaga, Mohawk Territory- Kersitos Ne Korah:Kowa
I am haunted by the image of the young Eva Sandler smiling with her husband and sons and the image of her weeping at their funeral.
Of course I am also sick at heart thinking of the parents of that beautiful little girl. And then there are the people who loved the French soldiers.
But it is Eva Sandler that I think of most, for she lost her husband and her sons all in the same minute, and she has a tiny baby to look after. That tiny baby will grow up in loss: loss of her father, loss her brothers. And Eva herself is not even 30.
See “Jewish Mom”
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So here we are first Sunday in Lent of 2012. What are you doing for Lent? As my amazing journey continues I am realizing more that Lent is not about giving up things like chocolate, television on Wednesday’s etc. Mind you it is an important part of nor is it only about helping out the poor or saving your loose change weekly to aid the poor, this again another part to Lent.
I have found that in Lent it is about what can I do to be closer to God. How do I build my spiritual life and how do I strengthen this tie with God. I saw a lot of new faces during mass last night and I imagine this trend will continue today. Hopefully these people keep coming after Lent also but it is a start.
I plan to attend as many masses as I can during this Lenten season, meaning the first Friday, stations of the cross etc. what is available I want to go to to help open my soul up to absorb and strengthen my spirit, my belief in God and to build a deep foundation that no matter what comes will be never broken or damaged. To me Lent is a time where I can receive from God to give back even more.
Here is the Pope’s message for Lent that for some reason I only came across today. Regardless I still wish to share. Please do not just read this and move on read and read and absorb to build your life around. Take care and God Bless!!
Pope’s Message for Lent 2012
“We Must Not Remain Silent Before Evil”
VATICAN CITY, FEB. 7, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Here is a Vatican translation of Benedict XVI’s message for Lent 2012. The message is dated Nov. 3 and was released today.
Ash Wednesday falls this year on Feb. 22.
* * *
“Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works”
(Heb 10:24)
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Lenten season offers us once again an opportunity to reflect upon the very heart of Christian life: charity. This is a favourable time to renew our journey of faith, both as individuals and as a community, with the help of the word of God and the sacraments. This journey is one marked by prayer and sharing, silence and fasting, in anticipation of the joy of Easter.
This year I would like to propose a few thoughts in the light of a brief biblical passage drawn from the Letter to the Hebrews: “Let us be concerned for each other, to stir a response in love and good works”. These words are part of a passage in which the sacred author exhorts us to trust in Jesus Christ as the High Priest who has won us forgiveness and opened up a pathway to God. Embracing Christ bears fruit in a life structured by the three theological virtues: it means approaching the Lord “sincere in heart and filled with faith” (v. 22), keeping firm “in the hope we profess” (v. 23) and ever mindful of living a life of “love and good works” (v. 24) together with our brothers and sisters. The author states that to sustain this life shaped by the Gospel it is important to participate in the liturgy and community prayer, mindful of the eschatological goal of full communion in God (v. 25). Here I would like to reflect on verse 24, which offers a succinct, valuable and ever timely teaching on the three aspects of Christian life: concern for others, reciprocity and personal holiness.
1. “Let us be concerned for each other”: responsibility towards our brothers and sisters.
This first aspect is an invitation to be “concerned”: the Greek verb used here is katanoein, which means to scrutinize, to be attentive, to observe carefully and take stock of something. We come across this word in the Gospel when Jesus invites the disciples to “think of” the ravens that, without striving, are at the centre of the solicitous and caring Divine Providence (cf. Lk 12:24), and to “observe” the plank in our own eye before looking at the splinter in that of our brother (cf. Lk 6:41). In another verse of the Letter to the Hebrews, we find the encouragement to “turn your minds to Jesus” (3:1), the Apostle and High Priest of our faith. So the verb which introduces our exhortation tells us to look at others, first of all at Jesus, to be concerned for one another, and not to remain isolated and indifferent to the fate of our brothers and sisters. All too often, however, our attitude is just the opposite: an indifference and disinterest born of selfishness and masked as a respect for “privacy”. Today too, the Lord’s voice summons all of us to be concerned for one another. Even today God asks us to be “guardians” of our brothers and sisters (Gen 4:9), to establish relationships based on mutual consideration and attentiveness to the well-being, the integral well-being of others. The great commandment of love for one another demands that we acknowledge our responsibility towards those who, like ourselves, are creatures and children of God. Being brothers and sisters in humanity and, in many cases, also in the faith, should help us to recognize in others a true alter ego, infinitely loved by the Lord. If we cultivate this way of seeing others as our brothers and sisters, solidarity, justice, mercy and compassion will naturally well up in our hearts. The Servant of God Pope Paul VI stated that the world today is suffering above all from a lack of brotherhood: “Human society is sorely ill. The cause is not so much the depletion of natural resources, nor their monopolistic control by a privileged few; it is rather the weakening of brotherly ties between individuals and nations” (Populorum Progressio, 66).
Concern for others entails desiring what is good for them from every point of view: physical, moral and spiritual. Contemporary culture seems to have lost the sense of good and evil, yet there is a real need to reaffirm that good does exist and will prevail, because God is “generous and acts generously” (Ps 119:68). The good is whatever gives, protects and promotes life, brotherhood and communion. Responsibility towards others thus means desiring and working for the good of others, in the hope that they too will become receptive to goodness and its demands. Concern for others means being aware of their needs. Sacred Scripture warns us of the danger that our hearts can become hardened by a sort of “spiritual anesthesia” which numbs us to the suffering of others. The Evangelist Luke relates two of Jesus’ parables by way of example. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, the priest and the Levite “pass by”, indifferent to the presence of the man stripped and beaten by the robbers (cf.Lk 10:30-32). In that of Dives and Lazarus, the rich man is heedless of the poverty of Lazarus, who is starving to death at his very door (cf. Lk 16:19). Both parables show examples of the opposite of “being concerned”, of looking upon others with love and compassion. What hinders this humane and loving gaze towards our brothers and sisters? Often it is the possession of material riches and a sense of sufficiency, but it can also be the tendency to put our own interests and problems above all else. We should never be incapable of “showing mercy” towards those who suffer. Our hearts should never be so wrapped up in our affairs and problems that they fail to hear the cry of the poor. Humbleness of heart and the personal experience of suffering can awaken within us a sense of compassion and empathy. “The upright understands the cause of the weak, the wicked has not the wit to understand it” (Prov 29:7). We can then understand the beatitude of “those who mourn” (Mt 5:5), those who in effect are capable of looking beyond themselves and feeling compassion for the suffering of others. Reaching out to others and opening our hearts to their needs can become an opportunity for salvation and blessedness.
“Being concerned for each other” also entails being concerned for their spiritual well-being. Here I would like to mention an aspect of the Christian life, which I believe has been quite forgotten:fraternal correction in view of eternal salvation. Today, in general, we are very sensitive to the idea of charity and caring about the physical and material well-being of others, but almost completely silent about our spiritual responsibility towards our brothers and sisters. This was not the case in the early Church or in those communities that are truly mature in faith, those which are concerned not only for the physical health of their brothers and sisters, but also for their spiritual health and ultimate destiny. The Scriptures tell us: “Rebuke the wise and he will love you for it. Be open with the wise, he grows wiser still, teach the upright, he will gain yet more” (Prov 9:8ff). Christ himself commands us to admonish a brother who is committing a sin (cf. Mt 18:15). The verb used to express fraternal correction – elenchein – is the same used to indicate the prophetic mission of Christians to speak out against a generation indulging in evil (cf. Eph 5:11). The Church’s tradition has included “admonishing sinners” among the spiritual works of mercy. It is important to recover this dimension of Christian charity. We must not remain silent before evil. I am thinking of all those Christians who, out of human regard or purely personal convenience, adapt to the prevailing mentality, rather than warning their brothers and sisters against ways of thinking and acting that are contrary to the truth and that do not follow the path of goodness. Christian admonishment, for its part, is never motivated by a spirit of accusation or recrimination. It is always moved by love and mercy, and springs from genuine concern for the good of the other. As the Apostle Paul says: “If one of you is caught doing something wrong, those of you who are spiritual should set that person right in a spirit of gentleness; and watch yourselves that you are not put to the test in the same way” (Gal 6:1). In a world pervaded by individualism, it is essential to rediscover the importance of fraternal correction, so that together we may journey towards holiness. Scripture tells us that even “the upright falls seven times” (Prov 24:16); all of us are weak and imperfect (cf. 1 Jn 1:8). It is a great service, then, to help others and allow them to help us, so that we can be open to the whole truth about ourselves, improve our lives and walk more uprightly in the Lord’s ways. There will always be a need for a gaze which loves and admonishes, which knows and understands, which discerns and forgives (cf. Lk 22:61), as God has done and continues to do with each of us.
2. “Being concerned for each other”: the gift of reciprocity.
This “custody” of others is in contrast to a mentality that, by reducing life exclusively to its earthly dimension, fails to see it in an eschatological perspective and accepts any moral choice in the name of personal freedom. A society like ours can become blind to physical sufferings and to the spiritual and moral demands of life. This must not be the case in the Christian community! The Apostle Paul encourages us to seek “the ways which lead to peace and the ways in which we can support one another” (Rom 14:19) for our neighbour’s good, “so that we support one another” (15:2), seeking not personal gain but rather “the advantage of everybody else, so that they may be saved” (1 Cor 10:33). This mutual correction and encouragement in a spirit of humility and charity must be part of the life of the Christian community.
The Lord’s disciples, united with him through the Eucharist, live in a fellowship that binds them one to another as members of a single body. This means that the other is part of me, and that his or her life, his or her salvation, concern my own life and salvation. Here we touch upon a profound aspect of communion: our existence is related to that of others, for better or for worse. Both our sins and our acts of love have a social dimension. This reciprocity is seen in the Church, the mystical body of Christ: the community constantly does penance and asks for the forgiveness of the sins of its members, but also unfailingly rejoices in the examples of virtue and charity present in her midst. As Saint Paul says: “Each part should be equally concerned for all the others” (1 Cor 12:25), for we all form one body. Acts of charity towards our brothers and sisters – as expressed by almsgiving, a practice which, together with prayer and fasting, is typical of Lent – is rooted in this common belonging. Christians can also express their membership in the one body which is the Church through concrete concern for the poorest of the poor. Concern for one another likewise means acknowledging the good that the Lord is doing in others and giving thanks for the wonders of grace that Almighty God in his goodness continuously accomplishes in his children. When Christians perceive the Holy Spirit at work in others, they cannot but rejoice and give glory to the heavenly Father (cf. Mt 5:16).
3. “To stir a response in love and good works”: walking together in holiness.
These words of the Letter to the Hebrews (10:24) urge us to reflect on the universal call to holiness, the continuing journey of the spiritual life as we aspire to the greater spiritual gifts and to an ever more sublime and fruitful charity (cf. 1 Cor 12:31-13:13). Being concerned for one another should spur us to an increasingly effective love which, “like the light of dawn, its brightness growing to the fullness of day” (Prov 4:18), makes us live each day as an anticipation of the eternal day awaiting us in God. The time granted us in this life is precious for discerning and performing good works in the love of God. In this way the Church herself continuously grows towards the full maturity of Christ (cf. Eph 4:13). Our exhortation to encourage one another to attain the fullness of love and good works is situated in this dynamic prospect of growth.
Sadly, there is always the temptation to become lukewarm, to quench the Spirit, to refuse to invest the talents we have received, for our own good and for the good of others (cf. Mt 25:25ff.). All of us have received spiritual or material riches meant to be used for the fulfilment of God’s plan, for the good of the Church and for our personal salvation (cf. Lk 12:21b; 1 Tim 6:18). The spiritual masters remind us that in the life of faith those who do not advance inevitably regress. Dear brothers and sisters, let us accept the invitation, today as timely as ever, to aim for the “high standard of ordinary Christian living” (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 31). The wisdom of the Church in recognizing and proclaiming certain outstanding Christians as Blessed and as Saints is also meant to inspire others to imitate their virtues. Saint Paul exhorts us to “anticipate one another in showing honour” (Rom 12:10).
In a world which demands of Christians a renewed witness of love and fidelity to the Lord, may all of us feel the urgent need to anticipate one another in charity, service and good works (cf. Heb 6:10). This appeal is particularly pressing in this holy season of preparation for Easter. As I offer my prayerful good wishes for a blessed and fruitful Lenten period, I entrust all of you to the intercession of the Mary Ever Virgin and cordially impart my Apostolic Blessing.
From the Vatican, 3 November 2011
BENEDICTUS PP. XVI
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Ever since Adam and Eve ate the fateful apple, human beings have tended to frame the idea of responsibility in terms of blame. There’s a sort of “let him who made the mess clean it up” mentality, which leads to a strong desire to inquire into the question of who made the mess. In the case of homosexuality, this leads to various different kinds of blame-narratives, most of them centred on the parents of people with SSA. The best known trope of this kind is the “distant father, overattached mother” narrative which reparative therapy borrows from an older Freudian model. This, however, is far from the only finger that has been pointed at the parents of LGBTQ kids. From the molly-coddling fears of the 1950′s, to theories that Satan gets into the womb as a result of marital infidelity during pregnancy, theories to explain how parents cause their kids to end up gay abound.
The legacy of this is not difficult to see. I’ve noticed that Christian parents of gay and lesbian children often react as though homosexuality was a much greater tragedy than any other sinful inclination. Part of the reason for this, as Foucault very aptly describes it, is that “The…homosexual became a personage, a past, a case history, and a childhood, in addition to being a type of life, a life form, an amorphology, with an indiscreet anatomy and possibly a mysterious physiology. Nothing that went into his total composition was unaffected by his sexuality. It was everywhere present in him: at the root of all his actions because it was their insidious and indefinitely active principle…It was consubstantial with him, less as a habitual sin than as a singular nature.” Realizing that not everyone speaks Foucauldian, I should clarify that what he’s saying is that the Middle Ages understood sodomy as a class of sin, an act which a person might engage in, whereas in the modern era we have come to think of homosexuality as a condition which effects a person in their entirety. Their childhood and the way in which they were raised is therefore naturally implicated. For the parents of LGBTQ kids, this means that their child’s sexual inclinations are not merely temptations, and not even merely a disorder, they are the evidence of personal failure on the part of the parents themselves.
Christianity construes responsibility in a different way which I think could be much more helpful to parents of homosexual children than the guilt-saturated models. The tendency to accuse the parents for the sufferings of the child is not new: there is a striking example in the New Testament. “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, for him to have been born blind?” The disciples ask Jesus in the 9th Chapter of John. Christ replies, “Neither he nor his parents sinned. He was born blind so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as the day lasts I must carry out the works of the one who sent me.” Christ dismisses the question of who is responsible for the blindness of this man in terms of blame, and moves immediately to a discussion of who is responsible in terms of healing. His attitude is not that the person who is responsible must make amends, but rather that the person who is able to fix the problem is responsible for doing so. He creates a different kind of narrative, a narrative of restoration in which the blindness of the man becomes a locus of grace rather than an indictment for past sin.
For the parents and families of people with same-sex attraction, I think that this same principle can be applied. There are many ways in which parents and relatives of homosexual people are inclined to apply blame. Some feel that a son or daughter’s homosexuality means that they were bad parents, others become resentful and try to escape from a sense of personal guilt by arguing that the gay or lesbian child is responsible for their own condition, while still others push the guilt further away, blaming homosexual partners or a gay-friendly culture for corrupting their beloved child. I think that instead it is more useful to focus on looking for ways that a child’s homosexuality can become an opportunity for grace. The genesis of homosexuality is, as the Catechism points out, unknown. It is also not especially important. The much greater and more essential truth is that this too is a way in which the works of God might be displayed in a human life, and that we are all called to take responsibility – not blame – for “All are responsible for all.” (Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)
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A few days ago while flipping stations on my car radio, I came across a protestant preacher, and stopped to listen for awhile because what he was saying sounded interesting. He was talking about the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, and how poor Joseph was “always getting the short end of the stick.” Not having heard this particular angle taken before, I listened, giving consideration to his thought process. He explained that Joseph always had things going wrong and about telling his dream to his brothers (about the sheaves bowing to his sheaf), well, he just needed to learn wisdom and grow up a little. He explained Joseph was an arrow being polished for the Lord’s quiver so that he would be ready to go on God’s time.
Ever since I heard that particular interpretation of Joseph’s story, I’ve wondered about it, most particularly the “short end of the stick” part. Although Joseph went through many trials, could it really be claimed that he got the “short end of the stick”?
I decided to read that story again during Adoration yesterday and try to do so with new eyes.
You all know the story: Joseph is a child of his father’s old age, so is a favored and quite coddled son. One night Joseph has a dream that he and his brothers were binding sheaves, and the all arose and bowed to Joseph’s sheaf. His next dream was of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him, and this second dream annoyed even Joseph’s father.
As I read that, I could see, of course, how Joseph was taunting his brothers. While on the surface he seems only to be revealing a dream, it’s easy to imagine the not-so-pure fallen human using the dream against his brothers instead of simply keeping it to himself. His father’s own reaction, rebuking Joseph, seems to support the fact that he did indeed realize Joseph was being a pill and was not merely innocently recounting a dream.
Joseph’s brothers then went off to move the flock and one day Israel ordered Joseph to find them to see if they are well, and to bring word back.
This next part is fascinating, for it seems out of place:
Gen 37:14-17
So he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to Shechem. And a man found wandering in the fields; and the man asked him, “what are you seeking?”
“I am seeking my brothers,” he said, “tell me, I pray you, where they are pasturing the flock.”
And the man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say ‘Let us go to Dothan’.”
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan.
E
very time I read this story, I pause at this section. Who is this random unnamed man? Look again at the dialogue:
“What are you seeking?”
And Joseph doesn’t answer with a “what”, but a
“who
“.
“I am seeking my brothers.”
Joseph is given direction by the unnamed man who clearly knew who his brothers are, and he goes, and finds them.
This passage is so loaded; it reveals a prefigurement of the Messaiah, and a subtle shift in power; it is not his brothers who seek him, but Joseph who seeks his brothers.
Of course, he finds them, they plot to kill him and at the behest of Reuben who wants no harm to come to his brother, convinces them to put him in a cistern instead (so Rueben can restore him to his father). Instead, Joseph is sold into Ismaelite slave traders, who take him to Egypt and sell him to Pharaoh’s Captain of the Guard.
Genesis Chapter 39 tells us that the Lord was with Joseph and he became a very successful man as a slave in Potiphar’s house, and finds favor; he was actually placed in charge of the household.
Then the woman of the house hit on him and when Joseph refused to submit, fleeing the woman’s greedy embrace, she lied and accused him of attacking her, causing him to be thrown into prison.
Genesis 39:21-22 tells us the favor of the Lord was steadfast and he caused the prison keeper to have regard for Joseph, and all prisoners were placed into his care. It was in this context that Joseph met the butler and baker of the king of Egypt.
The two servants of the king had mysterious dreams, and Joseph found them downcast, and upon learning the dreams, stated, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” So they told Joseph the dreams and he interpreted them; both came to pass as Joseph said. The baker was executed and the butler restored to the King’s service.
Two years later the Pharaoh had a dream, and the Butler remembered Joseph and told the King about him. Joseph was summoned from prison and brought before the King, where he interpreted the dream and gave advice on how to proceed with the prediction of the oncoming famine. Because of his gift and his wisdom, the Pharaoh set Joseph as his second in command and put him in charge of preparing for the famine.
Reality Check
As I re-read all of this, I kept pondering the protestant preacher’s words: Joseph was getting the short end of the stick? Really?
Let’s take a closer look:
Well, first we have a spoiled brat who taunts his brothers, and he brothers go overboard on the revenge. OK, granted, that was a pretty awful thing to do; to plot to kill one’s own flesh and blood and then sell him into slavery. Very low. That does seem to be quite a detriment.
Well, Ishmaelite slave traders weren’t exactly known for being gentle folk, and Joseph could have been sold anywhere – but no, he want to Pharoah’s Captain of the Guard. Then he is placed in charge of the household. Oh, right, he was thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit, but then he still found favor. After all, as scripture tells us, the favor of the Lord was upon Joseph and everywhere he went, even prison, he was the favored son and experienced the best of conditions.
No matter how I read this, I simply can’t see that Joseph EVER got the “short end of the stick.”
Did he suffer trials? Indeed, and yes, they were harsh!
Still, Joseph was cared for by God, and I see those trials as a purification; he had misused his gift and had to be taught how to use it. Not to benefit himself, but, rather, to benefit others. He had to learn not to abuse his gift to grow in regard of others, but rather, to grow in humility and wisdom.
While Joseph, after he favorably interpreted the dream for the Butler, asked him to remember him when he was restored, and revealed he was unjustly imprisoned, we hear not a word of complaint from him for the two following years as he continued his prison work.
It was not until he was sufficiently purified in God’s eyes that he was called upon to place his gift and himself at the service of the Pharaoh and all his kingdom, and ultimately, his own family.
What are you seeking?
Look again at the unnamed man in the field and his conversation with young spoiled Joseph.
He was seeking his brothers, and even when those who had sold him came to him, he sought until he had found them all. Joseph was not satisfied with only a few brothers; he ached for his family and his homeland and knew he could not reveal his identity until the time was right, and when all had been properly restored…and forgiven.
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As the world turns, today is Father Joseph Ratzinger’s 60th anniversary of priesthood.
He says the following, on this special day:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
“
Non iam dicam servos, sed amicos
” – “I no longer call you servants, but friends” (cf.
Jn
15:15).
Sixty years on from the day of my priestly ordination, I hear once again deep within me these words of Jesus that were addressed to us new priests at the end of the ordination ceremony by the Archbishop, Cardinal Faulhaber, in his slightly frail yet firm voice. According to the liturgical practice of that time, these words conferred on the newly-ordained priests the authority to forgive sins. “No longer servants, but friends”: at that moment I knew deep down that these words were no mere formality, nor were they simply a quotation from Scripture. I knew that, at that moment, the Lord himself was speaking to me in a very personal way. In baptism and confirmation he had already drawn us close to him, he had already received us into God’s family. But what was taking place now was something greater still. He calls me his friend.
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