tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-907927455833878362024-03-06T01:51:34.367-06:00The Discalced Carmel - Called to the Royal Road of PrayerFr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-38930833919134851642013-04-08T14:54:00.001-05:002013-04-08T14:54:55.360-05:00Notes and reflections for a homily on the Sunday within the Easter Octave<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Following the Mass yesterday at Holy Hill, I was asked to share the text for my homily based on the appearance of risen Christ to St. Thomas. A bit was said impromptu but I'm posting what I had prepared before me... and I've provided something of a "more finished" end...</span></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What do our Scriptures
tell us today on this “Mercy” Sunday?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_iSZ6YgMdQ_iece8fGfqqzz51rAndBycGqIaD3cyNvJB2VMFpw2M1VXtqr8J8Zu1dttaq4i_SXmciTjuPBmWwBdIreZyEj8KJMUVCpiVxsv5LA1mzsnTIDqORVzb9kaqy45YBCQ895o/s1600/christ-hands2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA_iSZ6YgMdQ_iece8fGfqqzz51rAndBycGqIaD3cyNvJB2VMFpw2M1VXtqr8J8Zu1dttaq4i_SXmciTjuPBmWwBdIreZyEj8KJMUVCpiVxsv5LA1mzsnTIDqORVzb9kaqy45YBCQ895o/s1600/christ-hands2.jpg" /></span></a><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 1) St.
John the Evangelist tells us in today’s Gospel: “Jesus came, <i>although the doors were locked</i>, and
stood in their midst and said, <i>‘Peace be
with you.’”</i> Twice in the passage He
does so. The Risen Christ has the power
to enter the places of the heart which we keep locked up, out of fear. His love is not deterred by our stubborn lack
of faith. He <i>actively</i> seeks us out to reveal to us His power and His love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 2) It is
in spite of our <i>stubbornness of heart</i>
that the Risen Jesus reveals His power. “Love
conquers all fear,” St. John’s First Letter tells us (1 John 4:18). Jesus only invites us to look at His wounds
and to touch them in faith. As He says
to Thomas, so He says to us: SEE MY WOUNDS … look upon my RISEN BODY and see
what GOD desires for you to BECOME.
Forget your betrayals and infidelities.
LOOK at ME.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus reveals to Thomas and to us the
beauty and the truth of our humanity.
That even our many WOUNDS can become <i>life-giving</i>
… an opportunity for compassion, a door to let God into our lives again. Do not be unbelieving but belief. Because as St John tells us, our faith in
Christ is our means of conquering (1 John 5:4).<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3) Jesus can still be touched
today. St. John of the Cross tells us
that faith touches God (see <i>Spiritual Canticle</i>, 12.4). For this reason, Jesus says: “Blessed are
those who have not seen and have believed.”
Brothers and sisters, our FAITH permits us to personally encounter God
and to touch the glorious wounds of Christ.
Faith brings us HEALING. Those
who refuse to believe outright are crippled by arrogance, unable to acknowledge
whatever their minds cannot grasp. This
is a GREAT misery—to allow our tiny minds to be the measure of reality. …Christian faith is NOT some “feel-good”
optimism or mere positive thinking; but rather, faith embraces the truth that <i>reality in God</i> is <b>NOT</b> bound by or restricted to the limits of <b><i>our</i></b> paltry understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4) In Jesus, God enters the locked
upper room of our heart and reveals His power to save us. Mercy brings LIFE and LOVE where there was
NONE. Christ desires to enter the dark
recesses of our hearts and to carry there the light of His love—He wants to
free us from fear, from sin, from death.
For <i>this</i> reason He accepted the
<b>Cross</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Blessed John Paul II, a man
well-acquainted with suffering, having lost all the members of his family to
death by the time he was only 20 years old, a man who worked in labor camps at
the time of Nazi occupation, and a man who was nearly murdered by an assassin
while blessing the multitudes at St. Peter’s… this man wrote: “The cross is like a touch of eternal love
upon the most painful wounds of man’s earthly existence” <i>(Dives in misericordia, 8).</i> The <b>cross</b>—in our petty sufferings, our
impatience, our inconveniences, our misunderstandings—<b><i>this cross</i></b> is the path that, with Jesus, leads us to
Resurrection and a peace that knows no limits…<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 5) Let us trustingly examine
our hearts before the Risen Christ who enters the locked Upper Room of our
heart and desires to give us His peace there.
His is not a peace conditional upon our merits and righteousness. It is HIS <i>peace</i>, bestowed at His
pleasure, to reveal to us the indomitable mercy that comes to us from the
Father. A love that triumphs over death
in <i>any</i> of its particular manifestations during this passing life. Jesus is like that owner of the vineyard,
hiring workers throughout the day and paying them as HE wishes, who asks: “Am I
not free to do as I wish with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?” (Matt
20:15). His “plenty” stems from His
inexhaustible life, shared with His eternal Father, and now broken open to be
poured out, through the Holy Spirit… upon whomever He pleases. May God grant we might be truly surrendered
to the unfathomable gift of this Life.</span></div>
Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-32707169986132538932013-03-31T12:40:00.000-05:002013-03-31T12:49:22.282-05:00An Easter Homily at Holy Hill<br />
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<b>The Lord is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!</b></div>
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Brothers and sisters, there is NO love like the love of God in Jesus Christ. God is PASSIONATE for the man and the woman He created—He is passionate for each and every one of you and me.</div>
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<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He is passionate enough to accept being truly immersed in OUR suffering, and even to surrender the power of death… so to enter into our pain and our loneliness and our fear. In His Son, Jesus Christ, God scours the very depths of HELL to look for us and to take us upon His broad shoulders and to bring us home to Himself.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It was YOUR flesh and blood and MY flesh and blood that God took to Himself in Jesus, so to reveal to us A LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH. Our humanity now has “a place within God” because Christ rose to new life with OUR humanity (cf. Pope Benedict XVI, <i>Jesus of Nazareth: Holy Week</i>, p. 274). This is the meaning of our Easter celebration. After the horror of the crucifixion, and the abandonment and the shame, God FREELY reveals His gift of RESURRECTION. Jesus told His disciples, “I am going away and I will return to you. I do not leave you orphans.” Brothers and sisters, though at times we may think God is silent HE NEVER abandons us. When we think He does not remember us in our suffering, it is especially then that God is most active preparing an eternal dwelling for us.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>So then, it is not ONLY Christ’s victory we celebrate today, but the promise of OUR VICTORY in Jesus. Following the homily, we will renew our baptismal promises and be sprinkled with the newly-blessed Easter water, that symbolizes the waters poured upon us in Baptism. On the day of your Baptism, God made an eternal covenant with you. On that day, through the action of the priest in the company of the whole Church, God etched into your very being the very name of His Son and planted in you the seed of eternal life. We bear this SEED.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>ETERNAL LIFE is not a perpetual “continuation” of the life we experience now. It is a life of abundant love and joy, a life that has NO fear or self-concern. It is the life we LONG for in the depths of our hearts—to know a LOVE that has no end or conditions.</div>
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<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>It is our Christian belief that the gift of RISEN life begins here on earth. Brothers and sisters, understand! We are not celebrating an event of the past, or an event to come in the future. It is a reality NOW in this moment…. We who are baptized into Christ’s death are baptized into His resurrection. But the disciples running to the tomb in today’s Gospel show us HOW we are to receive this gift of new life. We are told Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved ran to the tomb, the other disciple who arrived first, BENT DOWN and LOOKED into the empty tomb, saw the burial cloths, entered the tomb and BELIEVED. We are called to BEND DOWN in faith, to make ourselves small as it were—to put aside our selfishness, our pride, our resentment of others—and to believe—to humble ourselves before the mystery of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Many do not come to know Jesus as Lord, even many baptized Catholics, because they refuse to run to the tomb, to humble themselves and to believe. They insist on holding on to the hurt and anger that is so familiar, rather than to embrace the freeing love of Christ Jesus that makes us new.</div>
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We Catholic Christians believe that the Risen Jesus touches our lives and transforms us EVERY TIME we receive the Sacraments—when we come to Holy Communion, when we receive the Sacrament of Penance—we encounter the living Jesus. How many do not come to Sunday Mass because they think there is nothing to be gained there! And yet EVERY time we receive the Eucharist, we receive the RISEN LIFE of Jesus Christ into our own body and soul! We can go pray by ourselves, go get exercise, commune with nature and even stand on our heads, BUT nothing we do can give us that RISEN LIFE that we receive in the EUCHARIST. God wants us to receive His Risen Life… Imagine the person you love most and how you would so desire to give what is most intimate to them … imagine then, this person you love casually dismissing this most intimate gift of yourself. How much MORE Christ wishes to give us the gift of His Risen Life in the Eucharist.</div>
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Today, let us all “run to the empty tomb” moved by love and let us bend down and humble ourselves so to receive through faith the gift of Christ’s Risen Life. Jesus Christ is our Savior, now and forever!</div>
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Let me finish with the words spoken last night by Pope Francis in Rome:</div>
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“Let the risen Jesus enter your life, welcome him as a friend, with trust: he is life! If up till now you have kept him at a distance, step forward. He will receive you with open arms. If you have been indifferent, take a risk: you won’t be disappointed. If following him seems difficult, don’t be afraid, trust him, be confident that he is close to you, he is with you and he will give you the peace you are looking for and the strength to live as he would have you do" (Easter Vigil Homily, Vatican Radio).</div>
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Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0Holy Hill, Erin, WI 53033, USA43.2444487 -88.32704000000001143.2411282 -88.332082500000013 43.2477692 -88.321997500000009tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-21846029530826600942012-11-22T10:50:00.000-06:002012-11-28T22:34:39.177-06:00Remembering God in a world that forgets<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On this Thanksgiving Day, we remember the countless blessings of Almighty God. Simply our grateful remembrance of God is transformative and inclines us to become more and more vessels of Divine Charity, other "humanities" (as Bl. Elizabeth of the Trinity would say) wherein Christ can live His Paschal Mystery.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the <i>Soliloquies</i> of St. Teresa of Jesus: “My soul grew greatly distressed, my God, while considering the glory You've prepared for those who persevere in doing Your will, the number of trials and sufferings by which Your Son gained it, and how much in its greatness love [which at such a cost taught us to love] deserves our gratitude. How is it possible, Lord, that all this love is forgotten and that mortals are so forgetful of You when they offend You? O my Redeemer, and how completely forgetful of themselves they are! What great goodness is Yours, that You then remember us, and that though we have fallen through the mortal wound we inflicted on You, You return to us, forgetful of this, to lend a hand and awaken us from so incurable a madness, that we might seek and beg salvation of you! Blessed be such a Lord; blessed be such great mercy; and praised forever such tender compassion!” (3.1).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let us always remember ... and give thanks.</span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-4633504129939372702012-11-14T10:10:00.000-06:002012-11-14T12:12:20.700-06:00The lineage of holiness...<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpli1d-v2OwJckrS5ckBumRADDAu-9dYAHCzVAyBrzHETtuOB6iTocYU9ZAfIttZAQ3IMT1ZE_VGHcnx-4vgnZEegwieb0HXnx7YorkD_K_SrE2a0QwEjQlJ-gAnDfj1BURxg-wiR2wLc/s1600/St+Teresa+as+foundress.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpli1d-v2OwJckrS5ckBumRADDAu-9dYAHCzVAyBrzHETtuOB6iTocYU9ZAfIttZAQ3IMT1ZE_VGHcnx-4vgnZEegwieb0HXnx7YorkD_K_SrE2a0QwEjQlJ-gAnDfj1BURxg-wiR2wLc/s400/St+Teresa+as+foundress.jpg" title="St. Teresa of Jesus and her "descendants"" width="251" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Teresa of Jesus, foundress and reformer</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I am in Brighton, MA for a gathering of the Plenary Provincial Council, which is a consultative body composed of the provincial, his council, the superiors of all our monasteries, and elected delegates from the various communities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today, for the Feast of All Carmelite Saints, Fr. Santulino Ekada, OCD, the prior of our monastery/student house in Nairobi, Kenya, preached on the responsibilities incumbent upon us friars who are "descendants" of the saints of Carmel. He spoke strikingly of the African mindset of lineage. It is of primary importance in the African culture to maintain the bloodline, to pass on the heritage of father to son, and to assure the continuity and growth of the clan or the tribe. Still more, Fr. Santulino told us that one who breaks the lineage is considered <i>accursed.</i> And so, those religious and priests, who do not have biological children for the growth of the tribe, are also regarded accursed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Analogously, it is the Discalced Carmelite community existing TODAY that bears aloft the call to holiness in Carmel. As St. Teresa wrote, "...if those of us who are alive now have not fallen away from what they did in the past, and those who come after us do the same, the building will always stand firm. What use is it to me for the saints of the past to have been what they were, if I come along after them and behave so badly that I leave the building in ruins because of my bad habits?" "Any of you who sees your Order falling away in any respect must try to be the kind of stone the building can be rebuilt with—the Lord will help to rebuild it" </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(</span><i style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Foundations</i><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, 4.6,7).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Carmel is not a history to be learned, nor simply a spirituality to be studied, <b>but a life to be lived.</b> May the Lord keep us faithful one day at a time that we may be counted one day among the saints!</span></div>
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<br />Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-55740587960288356042012-04-15T19:45:00.000-05:002012-04-16T20:31:19.519-05:00Notes for Sunday within the Easter Octave<br />
<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Notes on a Divine Mercy Sunday Homily</span></b><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Today is a glorious day in the Church—it is the final day of the Easter Octave, the great celebration of the Resurrection, it is the feast of Divine Mercy…</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Our Gospel today is SO rich. It speaks to the depth of the human heart.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Poor Thomas… He wasn’t present in the upper Room when Jesus first appeared to the other apostles. And he lived for a whole week with the others, feeling so alone in his disbelief. “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger into the nailmarks and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” No doubt he LONGED TO BE FREED from this prison he built; no doubt he wanted to share in the JOY he saw in the others… Then Jesus appears a second time.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>What does this powerful Gospel tell us today, on this Mercy Sunday?</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 1) St. John the Evangelist tells us: “Jesus came, although the doors were locked, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’” The Risen Christ has the power to enter the places of the heart which we keep locked up, out of fear. His love is not deterred by our stubborn lack of faith. He actively seeks us out to reveal to us His power and His love.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>2) It is in spite of our stubbornness of heart that the Risen Jesus reveals His power. Love conquers all fear, St. John’s First Letter tells us. Jesus only invites us to look at His wounds and to touch them in faith. As He says to Thomas, so He says to us: SEE MY WOUNDS … look upon my RISEN BODY and see what GOD desires for you to BECOME. Forget your betrayals and infidelities. LOOK at ME.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Jesus reveals to Thomas and to us the beauty and the truth of our humanity. That even our many WOUNDS can become lifegiving … an opportunity for compassion, a door to let God into our lives again. Do not be unbelieving but belief. Because as St John tells us, our faith in Christ is our means of conquering.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 3) Jesus can still be touched today. St. John of the Cross tells us that faith touches God (i.e., "Faith, ... gives and communicates God himself to us" [<i>Spiritual Canticle,</i> 12.4]. For this reason, Jesus says: “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Brothers and sisters, our FAITH permits us to personally encounter God and to touch the glorious wounds of Christ. Faith brings us HEALING.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Those who refuse to believe outright are crippled by arrogance, unable to acknowledge whatever their minds cannot grasp. This is a GREAT poverty—to allow our tiny minds to be the measure of reality. Imagine a great athlete who has enormous physical ability but he believes he is paralyzed and cannot move. …It is not that our Christian faith is some kind Peter Pan optimism; but rather, faith acknowledges that reality in God is NOT bound by the limits of our understanding.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> 4) In Jesus, God enters the locked upper room of our heart and reveals His power to save us. Mercy brings LIFE and LOVE where there was NONE. Christ desires to enter the dark recesses of our hearts and to carry there the light of His love—He wants to free us from fear, from sin, from death. For this reason He accepted the Cross. In Blessed JP II’s encyclical, <i>Dives in misericordia</i> (Rich in Mercy), he writes: “The cross is like a touch of eternal love upon the most painful wounds of man's earthly existence.”</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Today, we celebrate God’s infinite Mercy revealed in Jesus Christ—may we not turn to this Mercy only for FEAR of God’s condemnation, but rather in order to return LOVE for LOVE. Let us turn to God is CONFIDENCE and LOVE and permit Him to live in our hearts.</span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-68380867946605947672012-04-08T16:14:00.000-05:002012-08-09T11:19:29.390-05:00An Easter Homily at Holy Hill 2012<br />
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The oldest known version of the Gospel of Mark ends simply
with the women finding an EMPTY TOMB. In
this oldest form, there is no appearance of the Risen Jesus. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Only
the empty tomb.</b> Mark has told the
whole of the story of the life and death of Jesus—his baptism, his ministry,
his words, his miraculous works, his betrayal, his arrest and trial, his
passion and crucifixion and death—and finally, … he leads us with the women into
an empty tomb. We are told by a young
man clothed in white: “He has risen; <u>He is not here; LOOK, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">here is</i> the place where they laid Him.</u>”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> But these are
the women who witnessed His torture and execution with their own eyes. These are the women who accompanied His
broken and bloodied Body to the borrowed tomb—to this final dark, dank place of
death. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">We</i> were there <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ourselves</i>
on Good Friday!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> The earliest
redaction of Mark’s Gospel simply ends with this sentence: “Then they went out and fled from the tomb,
seized with trembling and bewilderment. They said nothing to anyone, for they
were afraid.” But clearly this is NOT
the end. It is NOT what the women expect
to find on this early Sunday morning … they are seized with trembling, not
simply because the body of the Lord is missing … but rather, the words and
teachings of Jesus begin to race through their minds: “Destroy this temple,” He said, “and on the
third day I will raise it up.” …Only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">now (as they see the empty tomb)</i> do they
begin to suspect WHO Jesus is. And they
are both terrified and enthralled as they <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">come
to believe</i>. The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">goodness</i> of God defies their wildest imaginations. Because, with this discovery of the empty
tomb, these women come <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to believe in
their <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">hearts</b></i>—“Everything this
man said and did was absolutely TRUE.”
And NOW He, who loved us, had even conquered DEATH!<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Pope Paul VI
wrote in his exhortation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><a href="http://goo.gl/sO3VW" target="_blank">On Christian Joy</a>:</i> “The resurrection of Jesus is the seal placed by the Father on the
value of His Son's sacrifice: it is the proof of the Father's fidelity (37). The promise of God is TRUE. The eternal Father raises the Son to new
life, a life that never ends. And Jesus,
the Son, now glorified makes it His first priority to return to us; “I will not
leave you orphans!” He said. His
glorious, risen Body is now the sign of the promise to us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Brothers and sisters,
do we understand that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">this</i> is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">OUR</i> story (we who were baptized into
Christ Jesus). We, too, look into the
tomb, the dark tomb hewn out of rock … and perhaps we expect to find in that
place of death <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">our countless
infidelities before God, our history of casual betrayals, an immeasurable debt
of sin for which we cannot atone </b>(we know it well)… and YET, we are told by
the young man in white sitting in the tomb, <u>these are GONE</u> (see where
they had laid!), these are <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><u>GONE</u></b>
because He is RISEN and He goes ahead to meet you. GO, tell the others, and go to meet Him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Let me mention
something here that NEEDS to be heard again and again in our times. In the Gospels, including the extended ending
we heard in Mark’s Gospel today, angels (and eventually Jesus Himself) tells
those who find the empty tomb or who see Him risen: “GO AND TELL THE
OTHERS!” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Just as</i> Jesus had called twelve apostles and a multitude of
disciples to share His mission, just as gave Himself in the Eucharist on Holy
Thursday and COMMANDED the Twelve to “DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME,” <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">NOW</b> these chosen disciples are
COMMANDED to witness to the Resurrection… What do I mean to say? IT is that JESUS CHRIST gives HIS LIFE and
SPIRIT to His CHURCH and MAKES HIS CHURCH one with Himself. …The cover of last week’s <i>Newsweek</i>
magazine had an image of Jesus in contemporary clothing with the striking
title: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Forget the Church, Follow Jesus.”</i> Quite an exploitative cover for Easter… No
doubt it again harkens to the scandals that have plagued the Church in recent
years, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">BUT</b> ironically it fails to
understand that Jesus Himself is responsible for the Church—He chose certain
disciples to share His authority to baptize, to teach, and to cast out
demons. Jesus chose St. Peter to be the
ROCK for His Church, against which even HELL would NOT prevail. Jesus gave to the Church the authority to
absolve and to bind the sins of men and women.
And finally it was Jesus who commanded and enabled His apostles to make
the gift of His life and death present in the Eucharistic banquet. Jesus chose sinners to be His disciples—but
He guarantees His salvation by the Sacraments they celebrate and by their
remembrance on Sunday of His death and resurrection. And finally, Jesus identifies Himself with
the community of His Church, with the members of His Church. It is the privileged commission of the
Church, her bishops, priests and deacons, and her baptized faithful to always
proclaim year-in and year-out WHO JESUS IS.
As Cardinal Dolan has said many times in recent months, there is NO
Christ without the Church, because He continues to LIVE and to FORGIVE through
His Church. If you or a family member or
a friend has been away from Mass and Confessions for a long time, tell them not
EVEN the failings of priests and believers should justify the refusal of God’s
sacraments! The throne of mercy is
always waiting for us through the gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and
the promise of ETERNAL LIFE is found in the Sunday Eucharist (Jesus says: “Whoever
eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and will raise him up on the
last day.”)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Brothers and
sisters, JESUS CHRIST LIVES FOR <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">US</b> …
and now WISHES only one thing of the Father, as he said on Holy Thursday night:
“Father, I pray that where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am</i> they <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">also</i></b>
may be, so that they may see the glory which You have given Me, because You
loved Me before the foundation of the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> In a moment we
will renew our baptismal vows as members of Christ’s Church. . . . <u>At our
baptism</u>, you and I received <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">the gift
of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Risen CHRIST.</b> What does that mean??? <u>It means we possess the SEED of
RESURRECTION within our hearts …</u> because Jesus now lives forever, sharing
our humanity, …<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">our</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lives</i> and our acts of love bear ETERNAL
consequence. GOD’S LIFE NOW LIVES WITHIN
US.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Brothers and sisters,
do we wish to heed the voice of God? Let
us then leave the TOMB and all that is within it … and let us go with faith and
joy to meet our risen Lord at the altar and in our hearts. Christ is risen! He is truly RISEN!</span><span style="font-size: 16pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0Holly Hill, WI, USA29.2435916 -81.037555529.2158816 -81.0770375 29.271301599999997 -80.99807349999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-4658648617537170442012-03-25T16:43:00.001-05:002012-03-26T17:26:32.941-05:00“When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”<i>From a homily given at Holy Hill on the 5th Sunday of Lent.</i><br />
<br />
This season of Lent is something of a school that educates and prepares our hearts to celebrate the great mysteries of our salvation—the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, Son of God and our Savior. Each Sunday of Lent is another LESSON that tells us something of WHO Jesus is and WHY He came into the world. Let me just offer a recap. The first Sunday of Lent Jesus is led into the desert to be tempted by the devil, to experience his human weakness in solidarity with us, and to glorify His Father by suffering in His weakness. The second Sunday of Lent Jesus is revealed during the Transfiguration as the Beloved Son of God the Father and the fulfillment of the law and the prophets. Peter, James and John and we ourselves are told: “LISTEN TO HIM.” The third Sunday of Lent Jesus cleanses the Temple and reveals Himself to be the NEW Temple and the means of offering true worship to God. Last Sunday, we had the beautiful passage in the Gospel of John where Jesus tells Nicodemus: “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him might have eternal life.”<br />
<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YI1G4_SR7RrJbouCcMtZVf41FM7XkFg-5ZBkd2_vQYl2zOY3smvKcPNiJ022NjJGlQ4CNh8fBLhVove592H5-LK9h24IPujje53fIVGqKJU-3y1E-nUaRRC8kxnj3miJnnRaOGQNIdo/s1600/Zurbaran--Crucifixion.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5YI1G4_SR7RrJbouCcMtZVf41FM7XkFg-5ZBkd2_vQYl2zOY3smvKcPNiJ022NjJGlQ4CNh8fBLhVove592H5-LK9h24IPujje53fIVGqKJU-3y1E-nUaRRC8kxnj3miJnnRaOGQNIdo/s400/Zurbaran--Crucifixion.jpg" title="Zurbaran's Crucifixion" width="267" /></a>And so we come to this fifth Sunday—the Sunday before his triumphant entry into Jerusalem where he’ll be crucified. Some Greeks want to “see Jesus”—they are not Jews but Gentiles—foreigners drawn to see Jesus… and it is THIS moment when Jesus declares that His “Hour” has come. In John’s Gospel, the “Hour” is both the time of Christ’s Passion AND His exaltation. Jesus tells us explicitly HOW He will be glorified and how He will glorify the Father… It is through His death on the CROSS.<br />
<br />
Jesus tells us, “The Son of Man did NOT come to be served, but TO SERVE.” To give His life for the MANY. Why? Is it because SOMEONE has to PAY? Well, it is true that Jesus alone restores TRUE justice where our sins have offended GOD. …But let us remember that it is not blood and suffering that God requires for the salvation of the world, BUT rather A HEART THAT LOVES OBEDIENTLY, even unto death.<br />
<br />
“Son though He was, Jesus learned obedience from what He suffered.” The Son of God lived a human life, united with us, and offered to God a heart that LOVED until death. “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” And so Jesus says to all of us today, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Jesus comes to understand that His life is the grain of wheat that will die to produce much fruit.<br />
<br />
We, too, must give of ourselves—more than likely NOT to be literally crucified—but maybe it is to be patient with those who greatly annoy us, maybe it is to still desire good to those who have mistreated us, maybe it is to LIVE TODAY for God even if we have FAILED to live for Him for the past week. Jesus says: “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” If you were baptized into Christ Jesus, then YOU TOO are a SEED that must die to itself so that FRUIT may be produced and GOD glorified.<br />
<br />
Brothers and sisters, in today’s Gospel Jesus gives us a THEOLOGY for Good Friday—it is that He, the Son of God made flesh, will give His life for us to glorify His Father and to REVEAL the greatest love the world has ever known. And what is the FRUIT of this love: LISTEN. “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.” That is, WHEN JESUS REVEALS the FULLNESS of GOD on the CROSS, every HUMAN HEART will awaken and be drawn to this LOVE.<br />
<br />
This is the meaning of our first reading from Jeremiah: God is making a new covenant... In the former covenant God has to show us to be our Master, but in the NEW and ETERNAL covenant, God “places His law within us and writes it upon our hearts.” The Lord says about His CROSS: “All, from least to greatest, shall know me, says the LORD, for I will forgive their evildoing and remember their sin no more.”<br />
<br />
Jesus is the Good Shepherd who climbs the wood of the cross in order to call all His scattered SHEEP to Himself and to lead them to the Father.<br />
<br />
WHAT must we do in reply?<br />
<br />
Let us LOOK at the CROSS and consider the love of Christ for us. As our shepherd, Jesus asks for the obedience of our hearts. Jesus never asks anything of us that He has not ALREADY DONE Himself. He calls us from the CROSS to give of our lives in LOVE. And if we love as He has loved, we will come to understand from experience that death is NOT the end—beyond the CROSS the Savior leads us to the Resurrection.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com11525 Carmel Rd, Hubertus, WI 53033, USA43.2444487 -88.3270443.2328822 -88.346781 43.2560152 -88.307299tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-8239192423539162762012-02-18T07:49:00.002-06:002012-02-18T08:04:54.354-06:00Holy DesireAh... my poor abandoned blog! I last posted during my travels at World Youth Day ... and with good intentions of blogging the whole trip. But my plans were soon dashed when wi-fi could not be found! ...Anyhow, we begin ANEW again and again. This is the gist of the spiritual life, isn't it?<br />
<br />
Yesterday's second reading from the Office of Readings (Friday, 6th wk in Ordinary Time) was a precious jewel from St. Augustine. In number 4 of his "Tractates on the First Letter of John" Augustine comments upon the Scripture verse: <i>we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is</i> (1 John 3:2)<i>.</i> Augustine's passage merits being quoted in length... he tells us, <b>"The entire life of a good Christian is in fact an exercise of holy desire."</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Suppose you are going to fill some holder or container, and you know you will be given a large amount. Then you set about stretching your sack or wineskin or whatever it is. Why? Because you know the quantity you will have to put in it and your eyes tell you there is not enough room. By stretching it, therefore, you increase the capacity of the sack, and this is how God deals with us. Simply by making us wait he increases our desire, which in turn enlarges the capacity of the soul, making it able to receive what is to be given to us."</blockquote>
I am reminded of something Fr. Conrad DeMeester (a Belgian Discalced Carmelite friar and arguably the world's expert on the writings of St. Thérèse), wrote in his book, <i><a href="http://www.icspublications.org/bookstore/lisieux/b_lisieux09.html" target="_blank">With Empty Hands</a>,</i> the magnificent, popular redaction of his doctoral thesis regarding Thérèse's teaching on "confidence." He says simply: <b>"Hope is love in the state of becoming."</b> What does this mean except that the merciful God readies us and transforms us within the "arena" of our life's particular circumstances? If each moment of life would bring us closer to "seeing Him as He is," the Lord must test and "excite" our desire, purifying it of its false idols--those ends which are less than God by Whom and for Whom we've been created.<br />
<br />
I recently shared with someone my realization that so much of my own disappointment and discontent in life comes from placing all my chips on things that CAN'T deliver. Hidden in that disappointment is an invitation to refocus my desires, to properly center my HOPE in God alone. The theological virtue of hope readies our hearts for the love to which we are called. And God loves us too much to let us wallow in lesser hopes. In the fact of disappointment the evil one prompts us to despair, to lose ourselves in the misery of dashed hopes. But the Holy Spirit, on the other hand, prompts us instead to "hope again" and to hope BEYOND our poor expectations ... to place our HOPES in <i>God alone.</i> Whoever loves God knows intimately the ache of "love in the state of becoming." We are being readied to look upon the Face of the Beloved, our hearts are being hollowed out and hallowed for God's glory.Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-89361218366115381832011-08-21T12:12:00.001-05:002011-08-21T12:12:51.196-05:00From glory to Glory<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="P40" height="373" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/mberryocd/JvdBhEykprmqeCuBfdhlfpqbfgvbazFJyJkuHezmpBcftpHChwlCztxkDFuk/p40.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="500" /> </div> </p>Unfortunately, I'm now posting this a week later, given the lack of wifi access during travels, so... <p>Aug 14 brought another extraordinary grace... Our pilgrimage group left Lourdes early in the morning and travelled by bus to Loyola and the family home of St. Ignatius, great Founder of the Society of Jesus. We arrived while dozens and dozens of other WYD pilgrims of different countries were arriving. I thought for sure we would be among the hundreds and hundreds preparing for an outdoor Mass in front of the Basilica.</p><p>Instead, we made our way to the upper room where St. Ignatius spent months recuperating from his near-mortal wounds taken during a battle in Pamplona, including a leg shattered by a cannonball. In this room while lying in bed he would read, finally reading as well a life of Christ and stories of the saints. From here he resolved inwardly to serve Christ and to seek His glory rather than his own. Fantasies of winning the love of a lady at court and renown for military exploits gave way to a dawning awareness of a love and beauty incomparably greater ... the majesty of a God who hid His glory for a time in order to draw all things to Himself (cf. John 12:32). A King who became a servant so as to truly establish His reign in the wayward hearts of His creatures.</p><p>Here then, in Ignatius' room, we celebrated the Mass... It was a blessing and a reminder of the true glory to which each of us is called ... that to Whom is given a name above all names. Jesus.</p></div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-54315300445299596872011-08-12T12:04:00.001-05:002011-08-12T12:04:28.564-05:00Lourdes: The gift of a "disarming" Mother<div class='posterous_autopost'><p><div class='p_embed p_image_embed'> <img alt="P32" height="500" src="http://posterous.com/getfile/files.posterous.com/mberryocd/BtwbzBagttwrtbmvaudxGnlnFAazejHnqeqpegofJDGgfuqemaoaDBirljgm/p32.jpg.scaled500.jpg" width="373" /> </div> </p>I went to the baths at Lourdes this afternoon and washed in the waters of Bernadette's spring. It was the third time I have done so in four visits to Lourdes. And each time it is powerfully emotional for me. Hundreds of human beings from all over the world standing in line to enter the baths, praying and singing in different languages, asking for graces and healing for themselves and for others.<p>What is so powerful? It is the raw vulnerability that is rendered present as one approaches a tender Mother clothed in God's mercy. A smiling Mother who says, "Come as you are and receive the mercy of my Son." She exhorts and even goads us to trust in the One who first became all-vulnerable for us in her womb, taking our fragile humanity to Himself. ...As we made our way on the line to the baths here at Lourdes, it is as though each inner doubt or fear was addressed and further elicited forth by an understanding Mother: "What are you thinking, dear child? What more? Fear nothing and hold nothing for yourself. My Son's crucified love will provide all you need."</p><p>In his Angelus address at Lourdes on September 14, 2008, Pope Benedict said: "Before Mary, by virtue of her very purity, man does not hesitate to reveal his weakness, to express his questions and his doubts, to formulate his most secret hopes and desires. The Virgin Mary's maternal love disarms all pride; it renders man capable of seeing himself as he really is, and it inspires in him the desire to be converted so as to give glory to God."</p><p>Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of death. Monstra Te esse Matrem! (Show Yourself to be Our Mother!)</p></div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-29954609417557152092011-08-09T11:33:00.001-05:002011-08-09T11:34:41.949-05:00St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, OCD<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAj41Y2yIxBB1kbBzPGdu6acmzZz9KS2kW8j_ldJkTFbT8eAFW-N2oerO3eqgo5Arc6ChW04jUp4Ncp-b1N4ts4hKDiwaDMlWM8mVcIXLLubQHmn0WBzVESgpKCbMzJ9NWMeZXps1xhw/s1600/Edith+Stein.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAj41Y2yIxBB1kbBzPGdu6acmzZz9KS2kW8j_ldJkTFbT8eAFW-N2oerO3eqgo5Arc6ChW04jUp4Ncp-b1N4ts4hKDiwaDMlWM8mVcIXLLubQHmn0WBzVESgpKCbMzJ9NWMeZXps1xhw/s320/Edith+Stein.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">WHATEVER DID NOT</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">fit in with my plan</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">did fit within the plan of God.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I have an ever deeper and firmer belief that</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">nothing is merely an accident when seen in the light of God,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that my whole life down to the smallest details has been marked out for me</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in the plan of Divine Providence and has</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a completely coherent meaning</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">in God's all-seeing eyes.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And so I am beginning to rejoice in the light of glory</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">wherein this meaning will be unveiled to me.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Discalced Carmelite Nun martyred at Auschwitz on August 9, 1942</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>Co-Patroness of Europe</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Former member of the Order's Bavarian Province to which the monastery of Holy Hill, WI once belonged as a mission house until 1947.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Pray for us, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross ... and remember especially the brothers and sisters especially of your Province and her missions!</span><br />
<br />
<i>Ave Crux, Spes Unica!</i><br />
<div><br />
</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-83538071117556311022011-07-27T16:53:00.000-05:002011-07-27T16:53:18.448-05:00Finding the Hidden God by being hidden<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:DocumentProperties> <o:Revision>0</o:Revision> <o:TotalTime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:Pages>1</o:Pages> <o:Words>90</o:Words> <o:Characters>517</o:Characters> <o:Company>Discalced Carmelite Friars</o:Company> <o:Lines>4</o:Lines> <o:Paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:CharactersWithSpaces>606</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:Version>14.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:OfficeDocumentSettings> <o:AllowPNG/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>JA</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/> <w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/> <w:OverrideTableStyleHps/> <w:UseFELayout/> </w:Compatibility> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tx-oCNUmBAPpq7ROhIz7BimEl_LHB438s7zjTU0anOaQSGZJg4V49YjgebV-_Qj2Oj2okzeL-RLiHRBYRxVso9J97xvIlJ_AZDWPIjkNyTx-meWTcxTc9X854gZuREQAloabJstITvg/s1600/forestpath.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2tx-oCNUmBAPpq7ROhIz7BimEl_LHB438s7zjTU0anOaQSGZJg4V49YjgebV-_Qj2Oj2okzeL-RLiHRBYRxVso9J97xvIlJ_AZDWPIjkNyTx-meWTcxTc9X854gZuREQAloabJstITvg/s320/forestpath.JPG" width="239" /></a></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the first stanza of his commentary on the <i>Spiritual Canticle</i>, St. John of the Cross tells the reader who seeks God, the Beloved, and who asks, "Where have you <i><b>hidden</b></i>, Beloved?" So many people suffer inwardly because they interpret their lack of sensible feeling in prayer as an indicator of God's distance or else their failed "effort" at communion. But John of the Cross declares: "we are telling you that <i>you yourself are His dwelling and his secret inner room and hiding place</i>. There is reason for you to be elated and joyful in seeing that all your good and hope is so close as to be within you, or better, that you cannot be without Him" (1.7). There's no need to look "outside" of one's soul or to "conjure" the Lord by stirring oneself like the pathetic prophets of Baal who beat themselves into a trance with stones. The Beloved is ALREADY present. However St. John says "there is but one difficulty: Even though he does abide within you, He is <i>hidden</i>." The means then to finding the Beloved who is "hidden" is for us to <i>likewise make ourselves "hidden"</i> by embracing fully the virtues of faith, hope and love. This is the "phenomenally unremarkable" but expedient and certain path to encounter the Beloved One.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to find the Beloved in your hiding place, "Seek him in faith and love, without desiring to find satisfaction in anything, or delight, or desiring to understand anything other than what you ought to know. Faith and love are like the blind person's guides. They will lead you along a path unknown to you, to the place where God is hidden. Faith, the secret we mentioned, is comparable to the feet by which one journeys to God, and love is like one's guide" (1.11).</span></div><!--EndFragment-->Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-37583792930630367642011-07-27T16:33:00.000-05:002011-07-27T16:33:08.294-05:00De profundis... I blog for you, O Lord<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ...Perhaps I should just try a "blog burst" (a series of brief posts) since it's been months since my last post. If I had a dime for every occasion or event when I thought "I should blog that," I'd be ... well, wealthier than I am now (but there's no evidence to prove the good intentions). The best blogs (and I do follow a few) offer something contemporaneous to the events they discuss--they're "current." But given my very intermittent bloggings, I tend to take an inventory of the past few months and then make some comment on past happenings.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> Why am I so reticent to blog? (I ask myself.) Well, I don't think it's laziness. Personally, it's that I'm not naturally inclined to regularly publishing my thoughts or the happenings of my daily life. Actually, when I discerned my entrance into Carmel, I was (and <i>still</i> am) drawn to a "hidden life." Those who know me and my 6'2" 240ish pound frame might chuckle to hear me say that (since I can't easily hide anywhere). But it's true. Our world is so awash in words and there are countless Twitterers and others who unreservedly disclose to the world their every thought. Lots of digital noise. Much of which is vapid. I do feel like I have much more to <i>listen</i> <i>to</i> than to <i>say</i>.</span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-79325717324124967972011-05-21T15:28:00.001-05:002011-05-21T15:30:48.581-05:00Post-Resurrection Impressions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuFqctlQT7C3hIQMcizNjkgY9XwoHH2Pu1SkNiDESYz25zepmtJDVi3r85d2RjJIwDmw5pi6Z1s_JYutTlnkYAS2MoXIKvOCTcfrmqKtz4LsGn3Z6TvJfkahCeBIMMZyDV8LC1ig6KjwE/s1600/Jesus+and+Teresa2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuFqctlQT7C3hIQMcizNjkgY9XwoHH2Pu1SkNiDESYz25zepmtJDVi3r85d2RjJIwDmw5pi6Z1s_JYutTlnkYAS2MoXIKvOCTcfrmqKtz4LsGn3Z6TvJfkahCeBIMMZyDV8LC1ig6KjwE/s320/Jesus+and+Teresa2.jpg" width="223" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In April of 1571, St. Teresa of Jesus was living in Salamanca. The day after Easter Sunday she was feeling very down and put to paper a reflection for her confessor at the time--Fr. Martín Gutiérrez, S.J., who was rector of the Jesuit house there. She says: "All day yesterday I felt very lonely, for except when I received Communion I benefited little from the fact that it was Easter Sunday" (<i>Spiritual Testimonies</i>, 12). <b>Loneliness.</b> It is an affliction that touches us at the core and it is a suffering that we make great efforts to remedy time and time again. There are times in our lives, no matter how we surround ourselves with others or lose ourselves in some task or another, when we simply pine for a rendezvous wherein we know ourselves to be known and loved intimately. And with a love that is all-assuring and absolute. To be embraced from within.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teresa says that shortly thereafter: "One day after receiving Communion, it seemed most clear to me that our Lord sat beside me; and He began to console me with great favors, and He told me among other things: <b><i>"See Me here, daughter, for it is I: give Me your hands."</i></b><i> And it seemed He took them and placed them on His side</i> and said:<i> <b>"Behold My wounds. You are not without Me. This short life is passing away"</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;"> (</span>ibid<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal;">.).</span></i> ... Ah, this is the love we desire--the love of One who has been to the depths of hell, bearing aloft like a torch His unquenchable love, seeking any who are lost. One who understands <i>my</i> longings. Just as Jesus showed His wounds to His disciples, He shows them to Teresa in order to console her and to awaken her to <i>His</i> divine perspective. <i>Forever</i> He bears His wounds in order to assure us that His love is <i>stronger</i> than death. And He does not "leave us orphans" but rather "prepares a place" for us to finally be with Him (John 14:3,18).</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Teresa's experience of loneliness serves as the pretext for her visit from the Risen Christ. Perhaps it is there, in <i>our</i> painful longing for a definitive rendezvous, where Christ our God takes <i>our</i> hands and places them on His side. Our ache is met by the touch of God. Dark faith conceals and reveals the One for whom we long. <i>Behold My wounds. You are not without Me. This short life is passing away.</i></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><i>(Icon painted by Br. Claude Lane, OSB of Mt. Angel Abbey, OR)</i></span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-57823666843161673882011-04-24T10:06:00.005-05:002011-05-07T20:50:12.412-05:00Awake, O Sleeper! ...I did not create you to be a prisoner of hell...<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">An Easter Homily given this morning at Holy Hill, the Basilica of the National Shrine of Mary, Help of Christians... Happy Easter!<br />
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</style> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;">The Lord is risen! He is truly risen! Alleluia!</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;">Brothers and sisters, there is NO love like the love of God in Jesus Christ. Pope John Paul II once wrote that in Christ Jesus, we have a God who actively goes out in search of man. God is PASSIONATE for the man and the woman He created—He is passionate for each and every one of you and me.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;"> How passionate? Our God is passionate enough to accept being immersed in OUR suffering, and even to surrender the power of death… so to enter into our pain and our loneliness and our fear. In His Son, Jesus Christ, God scours the very depths of HELL to look for us and to take us upon His broad shoulders and to bring us home to Himself.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;"> It was YOUR flesh and MY flesh that God took to Himself in order to reveal to us A LOVE STRONGER THAN DEATH. This is the meaning of our Easter celebration. After the horrific suffering of the crucifixion, and the abandonment and the shame, God reveals the gift of RESURRECTION. Jesus told His disciples, “I am going away and I will return to you. I do not leave you orphans.” Though at times we may think God is silent HE NEVER abandons us. When we think He does not remember us in our suffering, it is especially then that God is most active preparing a dwelling for us.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;"> It is not ONLY Christ’s victory we celebrate today, but the promise of OUR VICTORY in Jesus. Following the homily, we will be sprinkled with the new Easter water, that symbolizes the waters poured upon us in Baptism. On the day of your Baptism, God made an eternal covenant with you. Through the action of the priest in the company of the whole Church, God etched into your being the very name of His Son and planted in you the seed of eternal life. We bear this SEED.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;"> “I have come that you might have life and have it to the FULL!” We Christians worship a God who has the power and the DESIRE to give us ETERNAL LIFE. ETERNAL LIFE is not a perpetual continuation of the life we experience now. It is life of abundant love and joy, a life that has NO fear or self-concern. It is the life we LONG for in the depths of our hearts—to know a LOVE that has no end or conditions.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;"> It is our Christian belief that the gift of RISEN life begins here on earth. Brothers and sisters, we are not celebrating an event of the past, or an event somewhere in the future. <span style="font-weight: bold;">It is a reality NOW….</span> We who are baptized into Christ’s death are baptized into His resurrection. But the disciples running to the tomb in today’s Gospel show us HOW we are to receive this gift of new life. We are told Peter and the other disciple whom Jesus loved ran to the tomb, the other disciple who arrived first, BENT DOWN and LOOKED into the empty tomb, saw the burial cloths, entered the tomb and BELIEVED. We are called to BEND DOWN, to make ourselves small as it were—to put aside our selfishness, our pride, our resentment of others—and to believe—to humble ourselves before the mystery of Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Many do not come to know Jesus as Lord, even many baptized Catholics, because they refuse to run to the tomb, to humble themselves and to believe. They insist on holding on to the hurt and anger that is so familiar, rather than to embrace the freeing love of Christ Jesus that makes us new.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;">It is marvelous, it that we <b>Catholic</b> Christians believe that the Risen Jesus touches our lives and transforms us EVERY TIME we receive the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sacraments</span>—when we come to Holy Communion, when we receive the Sacrament of Penance—we encounter the Risen Jesus. How many Catholics do not come to Mass because they think there is nothing to be gained there! And yet EVERY time we receive the Eucharist, we receive the RISEN LIFE of Jesus Christ into our own body and soul! We can go pray by ourselves, go get exercise, commune with nature and even stand on our heads, BUT <b>nothing</b> can give us the RISEN LIFE that we receive in the EUCHARIST.<br />
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 150%;">God wants us to receive His Risen Life… Consider the person you love most and how you would so desire to give them what is most intimate to yourself … imagine then, that person you love then casually dismissing this most intimate gift of yourself. How much more Christ wishes to give us the gift of His Risen Life in the Eucharist. Do we eagerly meet Him? We received the seed of eternity in the gift of Baptism and Christ wishes to nourish that seed into FULLNESS.</span><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in; text-justify: inter-ideograph;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small; line-height: 150%;">Today, let us run to the empty tomb moved by love and let us bend down and humble ourselves so to receive through faith the gift of Christ’s Risen Life. He is our Savior, now and forever. He loves us without condition and calls us to now share in the abundance of His life. He desires only that we should know and possess His joy which is a life forever free of fear, sin, and death.</span><br />
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</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-57553858104650853932011-04-22T11:56:00.002-05:002011-05-08T22:15:26.409-05:00The Truth Will Set You Free"If man lives without truth, life passes him by: ultimately he surrenders the field to whoever is the stronger.... In Christ, God entered the world and set up the criterion of truth in the midst of history. Truth is outwardly powerless in the world, just as Christ is powerless by the world's standards: he has no legions; he is crucified. Yet in his very powerlessness, he is powerful: only thus, again and again, does truth become power." - Pope Benedict XVI, <em>Jesus of Nazareth, Vol II</em>, p. 194.<br />
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"I would rather a spirit without prayer than one that has not begun to walk in truth." -- St. Teresa of Jesus (<span style="font-style: italic;">Life</span>, 13.16)Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-21928464498281920472011-04-21T23:57:00.006-05:002011-05-09T11:42:56.015-05:00“Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88gNinFiwzQan0F_oOWk7LXdWR9yvdm_jGuj0NyJOVcJVYjxpBPOfIWM5UD1tsi17Vh5pWNXOYk3idef2AULnRSMoSFLDVnb9ljB1zFGkn65EC23DaK2EXHYgXgT-AEn9U1L-Xswi6us/s1600/getsemani.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5598268940429138098" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh88gNinFiwzQan0F_oOWk7LXdWR9yvdm_jGuj0NyJOVcJVYjxpBPOfIWM5UD1tsi17Vh5pWNXOYk3idef2AULnRSMoSFLDVnb9ljB1zFGkn65EC23DaK2EXHYgXgT-AEn9U1L-Xswi6us/s320/getsemani.jpg" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 183px; margin: 0 0 10px 10px; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<div style="font: 14.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"></span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms';"><div style="font: 12.0px 'Lucida Grande'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms'; font-size: medium;">St. Teresa of Ávila, Life 9.4: "The scene of His prayer in the garden, especially, was a comfort to me; I strove to be His companion there. If I could, I thought of the sweat and agony He had undergone in that place. I desired to wipe away the sweat He so painfully experienced, but I recall that I never dared to actually do it, since my sins appeared to me so serious. I remained with Him as long as my thoughts allowed me to, for there were many distractions that tormented me. Most nights, for many years before going to bed when I commended myself to God in preparation for sleep, I always pondered for a little while this episode of the prayer in the garden. I did this even before I was a nun since I was told that one gains many indulgences by doing so. I believe my soul gained a great deal through this custom because I began to practice prayer without knowing what it was; and the custom became so habitual that I did not abandon it, just as I did not fail to make the sign of the cross before sleeping."</span></div></span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-21298186062942605932011-04-18T15:24:00.002-05:002011-04-18T15:33:35.870-05:00A brief homily for Palm Sunday<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Today we celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem riding humbly on a donkey. Today marks the beginning of the New Exodus—like a warrior preparing to conquer death, Jesus enters the city where He will be mocked, tortured, stripped and crucified… and where He will lead us to conquer DEATH.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> </span>See the true humility of Jesus Christ—He is the Son of God who for love of us also becomes the Son of King David, in order to lay down His life for us. He is the One who will reestablish the Kingdom of God and to put and end once and for all to sin and death.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Brothers and sisters, we would do well to witness the reaction of the crowds—both the crowd that travels with Jesus up to the city gates AND the also the citizens of Jerusalem who are troubled by what this SOLEMN entrance means for them… Today we are not simply reenacting an historical event that happened long ago. Instead, we welcome Jesus Christ HERE and NOW—after all, He is more ALIVE than any of us. What do the crowds tell us today?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>1) First, there is the crowd that travels with Him to the gates of Jerusalem… They sing “HOSANNA” (a word which originally meant “SAVE US NOW!”) …and line the road before Jesus with garments and palms—what does any of this mean for us, if we do not welcome Jesus Christ with our faith and love? We NEED a Savior, but we must ask ourselves: do we WELCOME the Savior? Are we willing to throw onto the ground before Him the pride, the resentment, the greed, the lust that we hold so closely to ourselves?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>2) Then there are the citizens within the city of Jerusalem. When St. Matthew tells us: “when [Jesus] entered Jerusalem the whole city was <i>shaken</i> and asked, “Who is this?” He uses here the same Greek word to describe the earthquake following the Resurrection—the whole people are "<i>shaken"</i> as from an earthquake. In His humility, in His going to the Cross, God shakes us to our very foundations. Let us not be afraid or ashamed—God shakes us in order to FREE us from what enslaves us. This is true humility—not to belittle ourselves or to think of how “bad” we are, but to acknowledge WHO we are BEFORE Almighty God.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span>Brothers and sisters, let us welcome Jesus into our hearts and let us ENTER into this Holy Week with true humility and trust. Let us enter into the New Jerusalem with Christ our King.</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-77547220161508691032010-08-24T12:25:00.005-05:002011-05-09T11:41:27.610-05:00Foundation Day...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2opqzrfi-7FfaXW7kORMgG__Rkf8Cmk7pkeeqh68d4vCJICzwfJlQO53p7bGhGXtdvQCcCAqUPLPVqBqY7TLUZjAeHs1ndPPQC6UnVVK63aeYgVw6y4jWSuaBtf3g7qAJ6C-aEk_w9w/s1600/sanjoseavila.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5509029984093105554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit2opqzrfi-7FfaXW7kORMgG__Rkf8Cmk7pkeeqh68d4vCJICzwfJlQO53p7bGhGXtdvQCcCAqUPLPVqBqY7TLUZjAeHs1ndPPQC6UnVVK63aeYgVw6y4jWSuaBtf3g7qAJ6C-aEk_w9w/s200/sanjoseavila.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; height: 150px; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; width: 200px;" /></a><br />
Feast of St. Bartholomew, August 24, 2010<br />
448th anniversary of the Foundation of San José in Ávila<br />
The beginning of the Discalced Reform of Carmel!<br />
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…We’ll it’s been a LONG time since I entered anything in this blog. And I’m thinking I should re-title it “The Blog I Forgot.” But perhaps today is a good day to make another start. It is the very day in 1562 that St. Teresa took the plunge. The first daughters of her fledgling reform broke the silence of early morning in Ávila, having rung the monastery bell, to announce the celebration of Mass. Fr. Gaspar Daza, respected diocesan priest of the town—at one time skeptical of Teresa’s mystical experiences, even believing them to be of the devil (cf. Life, 23.14)—now presided at the firs Mass and read aloud the papal bull granting the nuns permission to found San José.<br />
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In the Life, Our Holy Mother St. Teresa of Jesus writes:<br />
“One day after Communion, His Majesty earnestly commanded me to strive for this new monastery with all my powers, and He made great promises that it would be founded and that He would be highly served in it. He said it should be called St. Joseph an that this saint would keep watch over us at one door, and our Lady at the other, that Christ would remain with us, and that it would be a star shining with great splendor. He said that even though religious orders were mitigated one shouldn't think He was little served in them; He asked what would become of the world if it were not for religious and said that I should tell my confessor what He commanded, that He was asking him not to go against this or hinder me from doing it” (32.11).<br />
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It remains the custom of all Carmels to keep a statue of St. Joseph prominently stationed at the front entrance, as a guardian of the place. The Carmel would be another Nazareth, a quiet place where God is present and another "holy family" may reside to the glory of God. May Christ <span style="font-style: italic;">continue</span> to be "highly served" in every Carmel through the guidance of St. Joseph and Our Lady. St. Teresa of Jesus, pray for us!Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-85264966307730882122009-08-26T11:00:00.009-05:002011-05-09T11:40:16.406-05:00The Transverberation of St. Teresa of Jesus<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gYcrAStC2_X1UvdqqH6rMKSPo51FBE38iuA5MVk1WzU16Kqq-WNyFeR9FsJSAO7caLPdpo9FDVdBxOGV9vKs-NvvOHfh3gWv7Cv_nMIF9rZDfKAY8Gw65Z7sbnyasUrJA_3dMeaqR4s/s1600-h/IMG_0322.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374306259699900610" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5gYcrAStC2_X1UvdqqH6rMKSPo51FBE38iuA5MVk1WzU16Kqq-WNyFeR9FsJSAO7caLPdpo9FDVdBxOGV9vKs-NvvOHfh3gWv7Cv_nMIF9rZDfKAY8Gw65Z7sbnyasUrJA_3dMeaqR4s/s400/IMG_0322.JPG" style="cursor: hand; cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 250px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #0000ee;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><br />
</span></span></div>Today the Discalced Carmelite Order celebrates that mystical grace granted to St. Teresa which we call the Transverberation, also referred to within the Carmels of Ávila as "la gracia del dardo" or the "grace of the dart." St. Teresa herself recounts the experience in chapter 29 of her <i>Life:</i><br />
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“I saw close to me toward my left side an angel in bodily form. … the angel was not large but small; he was very beautiful, and his face was so aflame that he seemed to be one of those very sublime angels that appear to be all afire. They must belong to those they call the cherubim, for they didn't tell me their names. … I saw in his hands a large golden dart and at the end of the iron tip there appeared to be a little fire. It seemed to me this angel plunged the dart several times into my heart and that it reached deep within me. When he drew it out, I thought he was carrying off with him the deepest part of me; and he left me all on fire with great love of God. The pain was so great that it made me moan, and the sweetness this greatest pain caused me was so superabundant that there is no desire capable of taking it away; nor is the soul content with less then God. The pain is not bodily but spiritual, although the body doesn't fail to share in some of it, and even a great deal. The loving exchange that takes place between the soul and God is so sweet that I beg Him in goodness to give a taste of this love to anyone who thinks I am lying.” (Life, 29.13)Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-10825295548996277092009-08-16T19:45:00.005-05:002009-08-16T20:38:24.798-05:00"Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter!"<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVe-905Nx_FXx-Aj8vpiO87FV6WpZs-2i0Kz9OfNp8PU4wOTWzj1_XYPxld1setO7VkLP2vNSpxzxFIZzajtQDXDhNH3tStXoKNByY71PdpB0ZxDhxyUIhk0xyRCxUWoiwmIU0c7JITw/s1600-h/Tizian_041.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 148px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBVe-905Nx_FXx-Aj8vpiO87FV6WpZs-2i0Kz9OfNp8PU4wOTWzj1_XYPxld1setO7VkLP2vNSpxzxFIZzajtQDXDhNH3tStXoKNByY71PdpB0ZxDhxyUIhk0xyRCxUWoiwmIU0c7JITw/s320/Tizian_041.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5370740645678086866" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Regarding the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Pope Pius XII "pronounces, declares, and defines" that "the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory" (<i>Munificentissimus Deus</i>). Deliberately left unanswered is the question of whether or not the Blessed Virgin "died." The Eastern Church has long celebrated the "Dormition" (the "falling asleep") of Our Lady.<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Without delving into the arguments of "immortalists" and "mortalists," etc., I thought it pertinent to post what St. John of the Cross writes in his commentary on the first stanza of the Living Flame of Love, regarding the experience of death in persons far advanced in their union with God.</div><div> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>He comments on the verse "tear through the veil of this sweet encounter":</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"It should be known that the natural death of persons who have reached this state [i.e., spiritual marriage] is far different in its cause and mode from the death of others, even though it is similar in natural circumstances. If the death of other people is caused by sickness or old age, the death of these persons is not so induced, in spite of their being sick or old; their soul is not wrested from them unless by some impetus and encounter of love, far more sublime than previous ones; of greater power, and more valiant, since it tears through this veil and carries off the jewel, which is the soul. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>"The death of such persons is very gentle and very sweet, sweeter and more gentle than was their whole spiritual life on earth. For they die with the most sublime impulses and delightful encounters of love ..." (LF, 1.30).</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>One might imagine the Blessed Virgin Mary experiencing such a transitus, a seamless surrender to love now consummated, a moment wherein she experiences a definitive and glorious embrace by God, her Father, her Son, and her Spouse.</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-58529391597981323852009-08-06T20:21:00.004-05:002009-08-06T21:48:17.478-05:00"In Your Light, We See Light Itself..." (Ps 36:9)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheqpjx2wUMNvZBnpIWuJwc0yoF7IjttEkx7F9RbE0ntLYuaA2xB5znHuohrGhFpsC504T1ZMi4GnS2zP0U6ekiEVJmcreogCP9PnYh_1OxgNCK71p-gsBiYqo1BDlrFCVZkVEfEeni7hI/s1600-h/00327801.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheqpjx2wUMNvZBnpIWuJwc0yoF7IjttEkx7F9RbE0ntLYuaA2xB5znHuohrGhFpsC504T1ZMi4GnS2zP0U6ekiEVJmcreogCP9PnYh_1OxgNCK71p-gsBiYqo1BDlrFCVZkVEfEeni7hI/s320/00327801.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5367032951043000370" /></a><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; ">Today we celebrated the great Feast of the Transfiguration.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal; ">I was blessed to have professed my solemn vows on this day in 2005 ... all the more significant in light of what Pope John Paul II wrote in <i>Vita Consecrata</i>, interpreting consecrated life via the icon of the Transfiguration. He wrote: "... <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">those who are called to the consecrated life have <i>a special experience of the light which shines forth from the Incarnate Word</i>. For the profession of the evangelical counsels makes them <i>a kind of sign and prophetic statement</i> for the community of the brethren and for the world; consequently they can echo in a particular way the ecstatic words spoken by Peter: 'Lord, it is well that we are here'" (#15).</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">...This glorious, timeless experience of Christ revealed as the Beloved Son radically "contextualizes" the ensuing journey to Jerusalem and to Calvary. The Word made Flesh, the Son of Man, will soon be scourged, mocked, and crucified as he foretells repeatedly to His disciples. But the intimate moment of Transfiguration mercifully serves to remind Peter, James and John (and to us) <b>WHO</b> it is that bears our humanity to Calvary ... and beyond ... and WHO bears it still in His Divine Life with the Father and the Holy Spirit.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="white-space: normal;">Christ's glorified Humanity, as St. Teresa of Jesus knew by experience, is the instrument of our own transformation. As she says in her <i>Life</i>: "And I see clearly ... that God desires that if we are going to please Him and receive His great favors, we must do so<i> through the most sacred humanity of Christ</i>, in whom He takes His delight" (22.6). Tertullian wrote, "<i>Caro cardo salutis </i>[the flesh is the hinge of our salvation]" (<i>De carnis resurrectione</i>, 8). It is the hinge because, consequent to the Incarnation, we now share this "flesh" in common with God.</span></div></span>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-5639951990266761882009-08-04T20:50:00.006-05:002011-03-21T22:09:53.269-05:00After Seattle ... Back in Milwaukee<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyWGU7PVVKKb1vTvQbSTfI9nXLaehEzqL411a3dgIiC1zNwf301qJmk5I6C0b2_gD_ZgRdRjPd67vWzGXs5vWPB-QusThFYdI5hkYu7AR0p8jo46mkIg9EyExYVHw2je9tItFAx_TIzOQ/s1600-h/IMG_0104.JPG"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyWGU7PVVKKb1vTvQbSTfI9nXLaehEzqL411a3dgIiC1zNwf301qJmk5I6C0b2_gD_ZgRdRjPd67vWzGXs5vWPB-QusThFYdI5hkYu7AR0p8jo46mkIg9EyExYVHw2je9tItFAx_TIzOQ/s320/IMG_0104.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5366299637084540178" border="0" /></a><br />Well, the vocation website <i>is</i> now online and operational at <a href="http://www.ocdfriarsvocation.org/">www.ocdfriarsvocation.org</a>.<div><br /></div><div>I had a truly grace-filled experience preaching the Novena of Masses in preparation for the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, held at the Seattle Carmel in Shoreline, WA. I was there July 5-19. The experience of the Sacraments, at the altar and in the confessional, humbled me and only deepened my gratitude for the mystery of the grace of priesthood. I met many, many people of such tremendous faith. So many stories of the Lord's power at work in people's lives.</div><div><br /></div><div>And it was a very special blessing to spend time with my sisters in Carmel at Shoreline. Every such opportunity leaves me grateful for the unique relationship, the spiritual camaraderie, which has marked the friars and nuns of the Discalced Carmel since the time of Holy Mother Teresa of Jesus and Holy Father John of the Cross.</div><div><br /></div><div>A final note ... Some very generous Secular Carmelites led me to the top of the Space Needle for lunch (photo above left--unfortunately it was overcast, but the food was marvelous).</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-56409756510462077802009-07-02T20:31:00.003-05:002009-07-02T23:40:52.858-05:00Almost online ...OK, we're still awaiting for launch from the designers. But soon and very soon (likely following the July 4th weekend), we'll be online!Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90792745583387836.post-29569344241546023052009-07-02T16:28:00.003-05:002009-07-02T16:43:32.221-05:00Picking up again ...It has been said that "the perfect is the enemy of the good." And I confess the grand expectations I had for constructing and maintaining a web site and blog--both for the vocation office and for myself--have only served to put off until tomorrow and tomorrow<i> at least something online!</i><div>Many moons after having initiated building a site for the office, we're online at <a href="http://www.ocdfriarsvocation.org">www.ocdfriarsvocation.org</a>. As they say, the journey of thousand miles begins with one step. And hopefully, we can keep taking another step forward!</div>Fr. Michael Berry, OCDhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756295551907414850noreply@blogger.com0