Tuesday of the First Week of Lent

We say the Lord’s Prayer so often that we usually do not pay attention to what we are
saying, but each word is carefully chosen and filled with meaning. I know a man who,
faced with imminent death from cancer, decided to go through the Lord’s Prayer word
by word. A week later he was still on the first two words, as if he had all the time in the
world.
 
Here is a short summary of what he said:
 
Look at the word “father.” God created us and takes care of us. He is a good and loving
father. Now consider the word “our.” Who does this include? Well, God created the
whole universe, even the tiniest particles so far away that the strongest telescope can’t
detect them. Since God created all of us, then everyone and even everything in the
universe has God for its heavenly father. That makes these my brothers and sisters. Not
only are everyone on this planet, but even the rocks on the farthest planet are my kin.
Yes, even the rocks are my brothers. We are all connected by God, our Father. We are
all family. How wonderful is this? Knowing this brings a profound peace and joy.

Wouldn’t it be a blessing to reflect prayerfully on each word in the Lord’s Prayer this
Lenten season, listening to the nuances and implications?

reflected by Sharon Sullivan

Monday, 1st Week: Choose Love By Taking Small Steps Daily

“You shall not hate in your heart anyone of your kin; you shall reprove your neighbor, or you will incur guilt yourself. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” - Leviticus 19:17-18

Often we speak of love as if it were a feeling. Rather, it is a choice. A continual choice: a commitment to nurture the spiritual growth of ourselves or another. Yes, it is difficult to choose love when we have experienced so little of it. Nevertheless, we can choose love by taking small steps of self-giving love. A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a card, an embrace, a kind greeting, a gesture of support, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a present, a financial contribution, a visit – all these are little steps toward love. It may even involve taking more rest or better self-care so that we can better care for others.

St Thérèse of Lisieux reminds us that love lies not in the magnitude of the deed but in the totality of the self-giving. Mother Teresa puts it similarly: “We can do no great deeds, only small deeds with great love.” In choosing to love through simple self-giving deeds, we are acting into a new way of being. These small steps ground our love in the One who is Love, beyond our feelings.

“O Lord, help me to take the small steps of love I need to take today.”

inspired by Henri Nouwen

First Sunday of Lent: From Loneliness to a Deeper Connection

“Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the desert for forty days, to be tempted by the devil.” - Lk 4:1

“Because he clings to me in love, I will deliver him.” - Ps 91:14

We never talk about loneliness; yet, it is prevalent. It visits us all. Yet, conventional wisdom frowns upon it. It is bad to feel lonely. However, loneliness affects us all, so much that some of us are paralyzed by fear; and many of us throw ourselves into a maelstrom of activities in an ineffective escape from loneliness.

We never talk about loneliness; yet, it is prevalent. It visits us all. Yet, conventional wisdom frowns upon it. It is bad to feel lonely. However, loneliness affects us all. It paralyzes some of us with fear and throws many of us into a maelstrom of activities, especially when we deny the feelings that accompany loneliness.

Jesus allowed the Spirit to lead him into the desert. There, he faced his suffocating loneliness and its temptations. He clung to God in love and was delivered. Through it, he grew more radically dependent on God_Abba; he came to a deeper realization of who he was and who he was called to be – the Beloved called to reconcile others with God. Like him, when we are open to our loneliness - our particular kind of suffering - something creative happens. Illusions are exposed and truths emerge, allowing us to stand with others who suffer their particular loneliness. And even though ours and theirs are not the same loneliness, solidarity is born. Compassion grows. Moreover, we come to know and love Jesus more intimately. Mysteriously, we grow in greater intimacy with ourselves, others, and Jesus. On the way, our heart becomes more tender and closer to the heart of God.

Embracing loneliness sounds much better than it feels. Recently, the flu left me bedridden for over two weeks. It happened at a very importune time when many people depended on me. I was tempted to focus on myself, to allow self-blame and self-judgment significant real estate in my mind and heart. Yet, somehow, that did not happen. Grace happened instead: I became gentler with myself. I let Christ hold me, rest with me, sleep with me, and cared for me through my family. My siblings and their spouses were unforgettably kind and sweet, nursing me with food and tender love. Through the long sickness with its share of loneliness, I grew in connection with others, with God, and with myself.

“Jesus, help us to enter our loneliness with you and cling to God.”

Saturday after Ash Wednesday: Human Love Reflects God’s Love

Jesus answered, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance." - Luke 5:31-32

It is not easy for us to accept that we are sick, broken, in need of healing. Some of our wounds come from longing to be loved unconditionally by other people. While our parents, brothers, sisters, teachers, friends, or spouses can love us in deep and meaningful ways, their love cannot fully satisfy our deep longing. While human loves can reflect God’s love without condition, they are limited and broken. No human love fulfills our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognize it as love.

When our broken love is the only love we experience, we are easily thrown into despair. But when we live our broken love as a partial reflection of God's perfect, unconditional love, we can forgive one another and enjoy the love we have to offer. When we acknowledge ourselves as sinners who expect people to love us perfectly as God loves, we make space in for God. We allow God’s indwelling Spirit to heal our wounds, purifies our desires, and unites us with God, whose personal and abiding love surpasses our wildest imaginations.

“O God, help me to seek in You more than in others the perfect love they cannot give.”

               

inspired by Henri Nouwen

Friday after Ash Wednesday: Drawing Closer

Jesus answered them, “Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast.” - Matthew 9:14-15

Hungering for God and fasting for his kingdom go hand in hand. When asked why he and his disciples did not fast, Jesus used the story of a wedding feast to illustrate the nature of his relationship with his disciples. He considered himself as the bridegroom and the disciples as his friends celebrating in the feast. He alludes how God takes delight in his people and experiencing God’s presence is pure joy and happiness. But Jesus also mentions to his followers that there is a time to rejoice in the Lord’s goodness and a time to seek Him with humility, fasting, and mourning for a sin.

Lent is a somber time for remembering and reflection. Quite the opposite is true of birthdays. It has been over a year since my husband’s grandmother passed away. The feeling of happiness when remembering her and somberness of recalling her illness and death would commingle in this Lenten season. For many months, it seemed as if there was no illness at all. Our visits were punctuated by joyous laughter in celebrating her life. It was not until late October 2011, where we received a phone call from our cousin and left to Toronto immediately to be by her side. The sleepless nights weakened our energy and we found ourselves leaning and resting in God’s trust through prayer. Our conversations became more focused on what was most important in each of our lives.

On every Friday of Lent, we abstain from meat as a sign of common penance. It is a way of marking the memory of Jesus and creating space in ourselves to focus on Him. When we set aside our cravings to concentrate on prayer, we are seeking God with all our heart...humbling and weakening ourselves before Him and leaning on His strength. Fasting, however, is not just food. It could be anything to grow in our hunger for God. True fasting will lead us into acting justly and caring for those who are most in need.

Do I seek the Lord with confident trust and allow his Holy Spirit to transform my life?

Lord, help me to use your love as a way to persevere in my Lenten intentions and draw closer to you...

reflected by Tam Lontok

Thursday after Ash Wednesday: Allowing Ourselves to be Uncomfortable

“He instructed them to take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money in their belts.” – Mark 6:8

It’s that time of year again. We’ve gotten our ashes, perhaps thought about what we want to give up during Lent, or what we might try to do during this time. Basically, it’s time to get uncomfortable. And I’m not sure I like that idea right now. In fact, I’m not sure I ever have. Sure, growth and change are noble endeavors, but when it comes down to it that means a lot of hard work. A lot of moments of doubt and questioning: Am I doing the right thing? Is this really meant for me? Can I really do this?

Yet it’s precisely that discomfort – and allowing myself many times to sit with it – that creates space for God. Actually, it makes space for me to become more aware of God already at work in my life. In that uneasiness, I’m reminded of my inability to control, to know, and in some cases to even understand. There’s an invitation to let go of my way of thinking to make space for something new. Somehow in embracing the fog, clarity appears. I just have to show up to see it.

Recent changes echo this very deeply for me. Among other things, I just started a new job. It’s a turn I wasn’t expecting. My fear of going in circles again surfaced. Yet the invitation to take the walking stick was there, in terms of continuing to let go of what made sense to me, and embracing the journey itself. And I can say without a doubt that I have never felt so happy and fulfilled without understanding how or why at all. Only God. Those uncomfortable moments have turned into incredible ones, even now. Only God. 

What might God be inviting me to leave behind this Lent? What might He be inviting me to make more space for?

As we celebrate Valentine’s Day today, may the grace of God’s unique love for each of us find us in a deeper way.

reflected by Quyen Ngo

Ash Wednesday: Toward New Life & Joy

“Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” – 2 Cor 6:2

The recent baptism of my nephew Joaquin was a joyous event.  He was smiling the entire time.  He usually does, but even more so on that day.  More with his eyes.  His godfather Vu and godmother Anna were beaming as well, especially as Joaquin was being lifted up and presented to God like Jesus in the temple. (Or was it like Simba in the Lion King?)

During the baptism, all of us present reveled in this realization during the rite of anointing with the chrism of salvation:  “As Christ was anointed priest, prophet, and king, so may you live always as a member of this body, sharing everlasting life.”  Our joy, to a large extent, comes from realizing that Joaquin is a child a God.  Moreover, he is God’s Beloved, like the revelation of Jesus during his baptism at the River Jordan. He shares Christ’s everlasting life.

Joaquin’s baptism points me toward this journey of Lent – a passage to new life and joy.  The journey of Lent takes us towards this central and radical truth of our spiritual identity. Through the Paschal Mystery – Jesus’ passion, death, and resurrection – we are irrevocably transformed to new life and joy as God’s Beloved.  The Lenten call to repent (change of heart) is an invitation to embrace hope, life, and new life by embracing ourselves (and others) as Beloved of God.  

Ashes are not just a sign of our mortality and penitence.  It is also a sign of our hope as we begin a journey from ashes to an Easter of new life and joy.  The Lenten disciplines are helps on this journey: (1) Prayer can help us to let God be renewed as the center of our lives. (2) Fasting can help us trust God in reordering of our bodies, minds, and hearts to healthier, more integrated ways (3) Almsgiving can help us realize that we belong to one another, to the Body of Christ, in solidarity an service.

What practice of “giving up” a vice or “picking up” a virtue can you and I adopt to better help us journey toward new life and joy in God?

Befriending God Series: Session 4 - Listening

God draws each of us into friendship. St Ignatius of Loyola believes that each of us can discover the unique way we respond to this invitation, even in the midst of our busy lives. “Befriending God: An Ignatian Way” is an eight-week experience of prayer and community that fosters 8 habits of this pathway to closer relationship with God.

This podcast is the audio recording of the presentation given at the fourth session of this prayer series, “Listening: What Am I Listening For?”

Click here for the handout in pdf.

Befriending God Series: Session 3 - Remembering

God draws each of us into friendship. St Ignatius of Loyola believes that each of us can discover the unique way we respond to this invitation, even in the midst of our busy lives. “Befriending God: An Ignatian Way” is an eight-week experience of prayer, worship, and community that fosters 8 habits of this pathway to closer relationship with God.

This podcast is the audio recording of the presentation given at the third session of this prayer series, “Remembering: Am I living in the past?”

St Ignatius recommends this way of praying to help cultivate gratitude and awareness of God’s friendship: An Examen Video

Click here for the handout in pdf.

Recorded Ignatian Contemplations

The recorded Ignatian Contemplations can be accessed via this page. Thank you.