What's In a Name? or A Rose By Any Other Name . . .

When in the course of formation a Secular Discalced Carmelite makes temporary promises, the individual adds to his/her name a devotional name usually a mystery or attribute for example Gertrude of the Holy Rosary or Ralph of the Resurrection or even Blanche of Theresa of the Child Jesus.

For some reason I find this very exciting and I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. You want to find the perfect name, a name that you can live with for the rest of your life, but even more a name that you can meditate on and strive for and plummet the depths of its meaning for the rest of your life and perhaps even into all eternity.

Back in May of 2012, the first name that suggested itself to me was Marsha of the Ineffable Flame of God's Love. It was a good name a deep name, a name worthy of holding in your heart and pondering. Irene Groot is writing a book on Catholic symbolism and had wonderful things to say about the symbol of flame and fire as a symbol of the Divine Indwelling.

Then I considered Marsha of the Most Precious Blood. The Precious Blood for me unites all the greatest deepest most profound Devotions of the Church. It ties the Eucharist to the Sacred Heart to the Divine Mercy. One could meditate on the Most Precious Blood night and day for all eternity and never grasp its full meaning.

Now I am holding to my heart Marsha of the Crucified Christ. St. Teresa of Jesus writes in her book The Way of Perfection that the foundation of prayer is the virtues of humility, detachment and unconditional love. When I look at the crucifix that is what I see humility, detachment and unconditional love.

In Carmel unceasing prayer is the Rule of Life it is the path to all other goals and aspirations. The Crucified Christ, is the personification of unceasing prayer. He is the perfection of the those virtues which are prayer's foundation. He is the exampler of what unceasing prayer looks like. He is the beloved to which we attach ourselves and with whom we seek perfect union.

I have roughly ten months before I will make my temporary promises, perhaps longer. I've considered three names in the last six months. How many more will I consider? I don't know, right now I am content with Marsha of the Crucified Christ. It has dimenstions I have not yet pierced. If one takes a name of suffering, might that not require a willingness to suffer also? A willingness that right now today I do not have? But however many names I consider, each is an opportunity to know my beloved better.

It may be time to change our motto. We may have to give up "God bless America" It may be time to write a new song. My recommendation is that we trade it in for "God Help America" or better yet "God have mercy on us all." The Guttmacher Institute is a division of Planned Parenthood. In January 2011, the Guttmacher Institute reported: a.) 1.21 million abortions in the US in 2008. The number of abortions from 2005 - 2008 has remained the same; b.) 5.3% of abortions in the US occurred from week 16 of pregnancy to week 32; c.) From 1973 to 2008, more than 50 million legal abortions occurred in the US; and d.) Medication abortion (mifepristone) accounted for one quarter of all abortions before 9 weeks gestation in the US in 2008. US STUDY on abortions: http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.pdf Can we really expect God to bless a nation that murders its unborn? Another recent study has shown that abortions were up for the first time in years because when the economy is good the number of abortions goes down. Is this country so debauched, so degenerate, so perverse that the strength of the dollar is sufficient reason to kill babies? We need to change our motto. I vote for "God have mercy on America," because the alternative is "May God reward America according to its works." and I don't think any of us could survive that.

Justice

I once heard someone say, justice is getting exactly what you asked for. For years I've mulled this idea over in my mind and have pretty much decided that most of the time that definition is dead on right. Oh nobody ever says, "I want to go to hell and burn for all eternity," but as another old saying goes, actions speak louder than words. Yesterday, the American people elected Obama for another four years. Justice has struck again. We have gotten what we asked for. Worse, I fear we may have gotten what we deserve. Oh well, with any luck maybe the Mayans were right.

Discipleship

Last Friday on July 22, we celebrated the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene.  In 2006 Pope Benedict XVI spoke about her in his Angelus talk, and once again he nailed it.  In one sentence, just one, the Holy Father defined what countless authors have written thousands of books and articles about.   He writes:

The story of Mary of Magdala reminds us all of a fundamental truth: a disciple of Christ is one who, in the experience of human weakness, has had the humility to ask for his help, has been healed by him and has set out following closely after him, becoming a witness of the power of his merciful love that is stronger than sin and death.

http://www.piercedhearts.org/benedict_xvi/angelus/july%2023_06.htm

You may want to go ahead and do a search on Catholic Discipleship both on Google for articles and on Amazon.com for books to learn how to follow closely after Jesus and how to witness to the power of Jesus' merciful love.  Or you might want to spend some serious quiet time with your Bible meditating on the little we know about St. Mary Magdalene who gives us such a powerful example of discipleship.  

His entire homily can be found here:

Prodigal Son

Recently, I was trying to meditate upon the parable of the Prodigal Son, specifically about the Father's remark to the Elder Son, "All that I have is yours."

What the Father said was literally nothing more than the truth.  Under the ancient birthright laws, the estate was broken into equal shares and then elder son got two:  the birth right portion.  When the younger son demanded his share of the estate the father divided his property -- 2/3s to the Elder and 1/3 to the younger.  The younger son squandered his inheritance, it was all gone.  Everything that was left of the estate belonged to the elder son.

When the younger son returned home he had no rights, no property, nothing.  It all belonged to the Elder Son.

As I was thinking about this suddenly I understood something about this parable that I had not understood before.  It isn't only about a wronged Father's love and forgiveness.  It is about grace.  The robe, the ring, the shoes were all unmerited favor -- grace, but more than that from the moment the Gather embraced the prodigal to the day that the prodigal died, every mouthful of food he ate, every piece of clothing he put on, the bed he slept in and the chair he sat on and the roof over his head, it was all grace.

I am the prodigal, I deserve death but Jesus died for me and so each beat of my heart, each breath I draw, is nothing less than grace -- the infinite, unmerited favor of God.

The other thing I understood in trying to meditate on this parable was that when the Father told the Elder Son that "All that I have is yours," He was making a statement of legal fact.  The entire remaining estate was legally the Elder son's by right, 

This is where the parable parts from fact.  The only person in the universe who deserves the Father's estate by right is Jesus Christ.  Jesus is our elder brother and we are joint heirs by faith and grace.

The elder brother in the parable, of course, was not Jesus.  In fact, when he said that he had served the Father all these years and never once disobeyed Him, he was lying, because he did not have the Spirit of the Father.  He did not love as the Father loved and he did not forgive as the Father forgave.

We cannot serve and obey the Father if we do not share His Spirit and follow His example as seen in His Son Jesus.

All Love Comes from God

Recently during my prayer times, I have come to realize what most Catholics already know, that all love comes from God.  It cannot come from anywhere else.  It does not spring up spontaneously out of the human heart.  It is not a 'natural' feeling of a mother for her infant. 

Love is always from God.  No matter how evil a soul may be, if that person has even the smallest spark of genuine love in his/her heart for even God's smallest creature -- that love came from God and is proof that soul is not beyond God's grace and redemption.

I have a cat named Ginger.  God sent Ginger to me.  God gave me the love I feel for Ginger.  I firmly believe that God will never let His gifts go to waste.  So I feel confident when out of the love God gave me I pray for Ginger who God also gave me, that God will hear and answer (whatever that answer may be) out of that same love. 

Love is the greatest and most important gift that God gives to us.  In fact, all His 'lesser' gifts come out of that great gift.  Salvation, life, Church, creation, the job we hate, all the angels and saints, everything we have is nothing more than a reflection of God's love for us.  Because we ourselves are God's gift to others, we also are a manifestation of God's great gift of love to all we meet.

If I recognize that I am a manifestation of God's love, and that I am His gift to those I come in contact with, what does that demand of me?  How must I live and conduct myself in light of that understanding?

In Humility

Recently I came across a painting by Simon Dewey titled "In Humility".  It is a close up of Jesus washing the feet of one of His disciples.  You actually see very little of the disciple because the painting is focused on Jesus on his knees, holding the foot and washing it. 

It is a beautiful picture and I purchased five 5 X 7 prints of it.  One for me and the others to give as gifts.  If you are interested in seeing it go to http://www.altusfineart.com/

I look at the picture and and think about humility and sometimes I almost get it.  Have you ever really concentrated on the mystery of the Trinity and sometimes for maybe a nano second, it is perfectly plain and understandable and then just that quick it is gone? 

Well that is how humility is with me, but this morning, for a a brief moment, I almost had it and I want to share a few thoughts on it before they are completely gone.  Now you need to understand, they may not be correct in all (or any) points, because I am just trying to work this through.

Humility isn't about "oh, I'm so unworthy"  or "I'm nothing".  Jesus and Mary are perfect models of humility and they didn't feel or think that way.  Washing the feet of the disciples was an act of humility, but it wasn't humiliating for Jesus because He knew exactly who and what He was.   
In fact, I am thinking that in order to practice true humility we must know exactly who and what we are too.

I am an adopted daughter of God, a joint heir with Christ and His little sister.  He shed His perfect sinless blood to purchase my salvation = how valuable does that make me?  My mother is the Queen of all the Angels and Saints.  My mother is the daughter of God the Father, the mother of God the Son, the spouse of God the Holy Spirit by whom she conceived Jesus. 

What that means is that nothing I do, nothing that is done to me, and nothing people think about me can humiliate me.  Therefore, I don't have to worry that something might be beneath me.  Likewise, I don't need to do things to make myself look more important, or more holy or more anything in the eyes of anybody,  I particularly don't need to put people down so that I look bigger in comparison. I am free to perform acts of love for God and man with no thought of the opinions of others.

Jesus, Creator of the universe and Savior of mankind could perform the ultimate act of humility and leave the throne of heaven and become human and like a servant wash the feet of His disciples out of love because it in no way lessened who He was -- and even if it would, for the love He bore us He wouldn't care and would do it anyway.