“Preparing to Receive the Lord with Lectio Divina (Sacred Reading)” Part 1: Lectio (Reading) On this, the First Sunday of Advent, we welcome the beginning of a whole new liturgical season in our Church: the expectation of Christ coming to visit us again. Do we feel exhilarated and joyful, or maybe just content and pleased with what we have contributed to God, our Faith journey, and our communities? Or perhaps we actually feel anxious, wary, maybe even fearful after doing a self-examination? Whatever our personal responses might be, clearly this is a time for preparation, preparation for him who told us: “Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when [I] will come.” Have we adopted his gospel just as he adopted us, his children? Therefore, preparation to receive the Lord, to meet the Lord, to see the Lord, and to walk with the Lord is indeed what these coming weeks are all about. But we are not left to our own devices. The Church has given us many tools, guides, and gifts to know and prepare for Christ’s second coming. Chief among these is “prayer”. The Our Father, Christ’s own gift to us, is of course the greatest prayer of all time. But perhaps the next greatest prayer, the next most profound gift the Church gave us, is the Prayer of Contemplation. It is this prayer which the Desert Fathers instituted, which the great saints – St John of the Cross, St Teresa of Avila, St Therese of Lisieux – said was critical to the very life and being of a Christian, because it was the prayer which removes us from the challenges and monotony of the world, sets us apart from our daily commerce and turmoil, and takes us to a place where we leave the outer world and enter the inner world where, once our minds are at rest and our hearts are opened, we are ready to receive Christ, to meet him, to see him, to hear him, feel his presence, and walk with him where time stands still and nothing else matters except the love which surrounds and embraces us. Can we imagine having such an experience? Or do we doubt it? “I’ve tried before.” But we can! It is in our DNA. And we’re going to look at how we do this! This past week, I had the great honour of being asked to teach a class on-line to students at St Peter’s Seminary in London, Ontario – my own ‘alma-mater’ – on this particular subject of Contemplative Prayer. So, I thought certainly I should offer some of this same learning opportunity perhaps as a gift to our parish, right here at St. Joseph’s. Therefore, over these next four Sundays, including today, we are going to look at the earliest, definitive form of this great prayer: Lectio Divina or “Sacred Reading”. We focus on this prayer form, because it is still to this day used by the Benedictine community, as well as where all other, derived contemplation forms come from. This decisive form was compiled by a Carthusian monk at the Grande Chartreuse monastery in the late 2nd C, named Guigo II, or ‘Guy’. He would have been well versed in the many forms contemplative prayer had taken over the centuries. For the sake of training his novitiates, Guigo, the 9th prior of his community, put the prayer, critical to his brother’s spiritual development, into a distinctive, step by step form. Referencing Jacob's vision in Genesis 28.12 in which angels are ascending and descending a ladder to God, bringing human prayers to heaven and returning to earth with God's responses, Guigo wrote his now famous book, Scala Claustralium or “The Ladder of Monks”, sometimes called, the Scala Paradisi or “The Ladder of Paradise” with the subtitle, the Epistola de vita contemplativa or “Letter on the Contemplative Life”. Using this image of the ladder which allowed humanity to climb into the heavens to interact with God, who in turn interacted with them, Guigo compiled and solidified all the prayerful thoughts and incentives of the previous fathers of the Faith into one straightforward guideline of 4 distinct stages: 1) Lectio or “Read”: reading a scriptural text; 2) Meditatio or “Meditate”: pondering upon the text; 3) Oratio or “Address”: appealing to God for feedback; 4) Contemplatio or “Contemplate”: dissolving into silent awareness God is in control. This week, we will focus only on Stage 1: Lectio. Select a passage from one of the gospels, either a personal favourite, or open to the gospels and see what Holy Spirit presents to us. Normally one reads the text for about 5 or 10 mins, but take as long as we wish to read the text, slowly, gently, over and over again. Maybe read it once a day. Do not analyze its meaning, theologize, or look at it historically. Simply read it. Let the text speak to us. If certain words or phrases resonate, make note of them. We will use what we find and experience in the following week, Stage 2: Meditatio. Meanwhile, let us prepare by living Christ’s gospel of salvation and light with our every thought, deed and word as we go about our daily work these coming weeks. – Rev Fr Christopher Tracey, Saint Joseph Parish, Saugeen Shores, Ontario
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“The King of Kings” Today we celebrate the end of our liturgical church season with a Sunday mass dedicated to our Blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings! And it is with additional great joy we salute the now honourable Fr Wayne Lobsinger who has just been assigned by Pope Francis as our new Auxiliary Bishop. Fr Lobsinger is indeed a very good man whom we can expect many years of compassionate, careful, and kind leadership in the Diocese of Hamilton. ‘Congratulations, to Fr Wayne!’
With all the turmoil the Covid Pandemic has caused us globally, and its disruption of anticipated holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, I began to wax nostalgic about traditional gatherings my own family have had through the past years, which I am sure are familiar to most of us. There were in fact three traditions we celebrated at the end of the church season: one at home, one at school, and one at church. The 1927 B&W silent movie, ‘The King of Kings’, the first Hollywood feature film to honour the life of Christ, was originally conceived by legendary producer and director, Cecil B. DeMille, probably best remembered for two versions of ‘The Ten Commandments’, one B&W silent, the other in colour, another perennial favourite. But it was the highly acclaimed colour version of ‘The King of Kings’ made in 1961 which our family watched every year with rapt attention on a Sunday afternoon with our bowls of popcorn and soda. Jeffrey Hunter, as many agreed then, was considered the penultimate representation of what Jesus must have looked like. The second traditional activity was at school. Odd as it might sound in today’s world of apps and electronic gaming, Nicholson Catholic College had a ‘Chess Club’, a group of students who met in the library after school every Tuesday night for a few competitive rounds. To celebrate ‘Christ the King’, we would honour the winner with a religious article, perhaps a rosary, or what was very popular, a ‘glow in the dark’ Jesus figurine. Our local newspaper took a picture of myself and my classmate, John, for a community article about how the local Catholic school kids celebrated the ‘King of Kings’ by challenging each other in a duel of their ‘kings’ on the chess board. Belleville was a very small place then of only 16K people. The third tradition was at church where a special bazaar was organized to put into action the call of Christ to assemble food and goods, in order to feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, and clothe the naked. Some made special trips to Belleville General Hospital to spend some time with the sick, and others would even visit prisoners in our local county jail. My friend, Susan, and I would be there carrying boxes into the hall, handing out coffee, cookies, and sandwiches. It was a different world then, but not better than our world today – just different. My parents and oldest brother have since passed away, and siblings are living in far away places. Even John and Susan sadly died a few years ago from cancer. But life is a circle of important learning and critical experience. We must engage it! And the most significant part of life is living for others as Christ has called us to. The pandemic is perhaps the perfect motivation for us to help each other, especially those in greatest need of support: those who have lost their jobs, those who cannot pay their rent or afford to buy food, those who are sick and struggling with fatigue, those who await pending surgeries to relieve their pain, those who are in prison. If we want to help, we will find a way. If we want to contribute, there are many avenues in our parish and town, one of them our own Saint Vincent de Paul. Donations of funds are always needed. Donations of time are also greatly needed. One group is simply making a few calls a week to people in our parish who are alone at home or living in retirement or nursing homes with no family near with no communications like the internet. They love receiving these brief, but sincere calls just to see how they are doing. Just call our office, if this might interest you. If there is a will, there is a way. And if we search for a way, we will find someone very special. We will find Christ himself, the King of Kings. “Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.” Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “Tuning-In To God-Given Talents” Today’s gospel is all about us, you and I, who we are, and what we have been blessed with to contribute to the world we live in. The word ‘talents’ says it all, perhaps even more clearly than it did in Christ’s time, since the word talent has become synonymous today with personal gifts, skills, and noteworthy abilities.
We might ask what does the use of our God-given gifts look like? Are we expected to perform great feats of human endeavour, accomplish momentous things, change the history of humankind? Sherry Weddell, the author of the landmark book on rebuilding the Church, called, “Forming Intentional Disciples: The Path to Knowing and Following Jesus”, invites us to recognize our ‘talents’, and then apply them for the good of our Faith, both inside and outside the doors of our places of worship. After one of Sherry’s training sessions, a lady confessed to her she was at a loss, because she was convinced she had nothing to offer, that she was essentially just an ordinary wife and mother whose children were now off on their own life journeys. She didn’t have any particular skills or special gifts. She really felt at a loss with nothing noteworthy to offer. She was also feeling her age, tired easily, had a few health issues, and didn’t feel she had the energy to offer anything of substance. But Sherry sat her down and with some key questions and a lot of listening and delving into this woman’s history, they both discovered there was one thing she loved to do, and was actually exceptional at: shopping! Grocery shopping! And comical as it might sound, within a few weeks, this ‘talented’ woman became the key director of the purchasing division for a soup kitchen and second-hand goods shop for her parish. She didn’t seem to feel her age anymore. Energy poured out of her. She had not felt this alive in years. Her gift of grace was giving ten-fold! Indeed, Proverbs points out there is no gift which multiplies itself more generously and fruitfully than the gifts a mother, and a father or guardian, use even in the humblest way to protect, nourish, love, and prepare their children for the world. But Christ warns us: if we do not use our gifts, for the sake of others, and for ourselves, also with sincere gratitude to God for giving them to us, and giving us the chance to use them; in other words, if we do not apply ourselves to our world, we will be lost in darkness. Yet, God doesn’t toss us into this darkness. We toss ourselves. We encounter this darkness when we bury our gifts from God in the backyards of our hearts. But this dark, hidden place is also from where we can begin to mature, find relief from the despair and depression we might be feeling, and tap into who God intended us to be. This experience of the darkness, strange as it might sound, can be a gift in itself. And we can begin addressing this dark place by asking, why did we bury our gifts, our talents, hide them away, even from ourselves? Charles DeGroat, pastor and psychologist, suggests the hiding of our gifts – who we are, our true personalities, the dreams our true inner selves yearn for – most often begins in our childhood. We arrive crying for the safety, warmth, and nourishment which has just been taken from us. Hopefully, we enter the arms of our mothers, accepted with joy, loved and coddled unconditionally, and begin the slow process of revealing who we are, taking the risk of being ourselves, and with care and nurturing from parents and others, we learn to tackle life with our gifts, grasping the value of applying ourselves responsibly, and growing our gifts while making the world a better place. This is what we hope, the ideal beginning of a Christian life. But sometimes we are not received into loving arms. Sometimes we are criticized for having ‘odd’ personalities or behaviours, chastised for being ‘showing offs’, or our gifts and skills are simply not even noticed, neglected, or discouraged by those we seek approval from. We begin the burying early in life. But this is not what God wants. If we feel we are not using our talents or are unsure of them, ask a friend for feedback, or perhaps ask a counsellor to help unearth them. Most importantly, ask Jesus during daily chats with him: “Jesus, can you help me determine what gifts I can bring to our community table?” With the help of God, we can invest in who we were meant to be, revive our dreams, and restore our true Christian natures and purpose in life. Invest in the talents God gave us. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “A Heavenly Attitude” Many of us will say, the parable of the wedding invitation, the bridesmaids and their lamps and oil, those who brought extra, and those who did not and were turned away, is easy to understand. We get the point. We need to ‘prepare’ ourselves for when the Lord, our Bridegroom, comes to invite us into his banquet hall, heaven.
If we are not prepared, we will be turned away. End of story. But if we examine the parable more closely, we might realize the message goes deeper than the obvious unpreparedness of the rejected bridesmaids. Why were they unprepared? Were they just careless? Lackadaisical? Maybe even self-righteous? “If they want me at this banquet, they should be providing us with oil. I only have so much time and money for this. They should be pleased I’m even coming.” In fact, this ‘self-righteous’ tone is perhaps leading us to the real issue behind Christ’s message: our ‘attitude’. If the rejected bridesmaids had been more thoughtful, responsible, even more interested, they would have arrived well prepared with a positive, joyful attitude as they made their way to the feast. Would each of us be able to say right now we have a positive attitude about our life, about our work, loved ones, friends, neighbours, our community, the world at large? Do we have a positive attitude about our Faith journey, about God? Or are we ill-at-ease, discouraged with ‘the cards we’ve been dealt in life’, angry, frustrated, fed-up, bitter, sad, melancholy, or maybe even just complacent, letting our negative ‘attitude’ take us to a place where we ultimately just decide to give up. “Why put all this effort into preparing for the wedding? What’s the point? After all, who cares if I even go to the wedding or not. No one would miss me anyway.” Or, “I’m tired of all the expectations I’m asked to meet day after day. God is just asking too much of me. He’ll just have to take me as I am.” But there is a big difference between preparing for a wedding, and preparing for our final place at God’s table. So, how do we address this real concern re ‘attitude’? Oxford Dictionary: Attitude: a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically reflected in behavior – uncooperative, resentful, antagonistic. The great Canadian poet, Al Purdy, might have looked up this definition himself. Credited with being “the poet who heard and wrote about the voice of the land”, he felt our attitude in life was essential to our existence, like the ground we walked on, either firm and secure, or soft, rocky, or treacherous, hard to navigate. The key is to learn to stand and move on it regardless of difficult terrain with a positive attitude. He might have even reflected on Isaiah 40.3-5: “A voice cries out in the wilderness: prepare for the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” In a CBC interview, he said earnestly to the reporter, “Life is brief! It goes quickly. We should ask ourselves, what are we going to do with it?” He disliked people squandering life with buying things, working themselves to death to get them, then building security fences around them, and making war outside to protect them. Philosopher, Solzhenitsyn, said, “We pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” The bridesmaids were not rejected simply because they were not prepared for this one single event, but because they did not prepare for the unexpected their entire lives, thus making flawed decisions, because of an overall poor, negative attitude. It will serve us well and give us peace, if we can work hard establishing a positive attitude about all ‘the cards we’ve been dealt’, especially toward God and each other. This positive attitude will emerge out of preparing ourselves, first by caring for our own well-being, perhaps through exercise, diet, hobbies, volunteering. Others may find help along the way from their pastor, counsellors, coaches, or medical professionals. Daily prayer time is the greatest self-care tool of all. But ultimately, we can do this by making Christ, the Bridegroom, our constant companion. Talk to him throughout the day. Tell him your troubles, your joys, express your gratitude. When you wake up in the morning, say, “Good morning, Jesus! Thanks for another day.” And when you go to bed, say, “Good night, Jesus, and Thank you for a wonderful day.” Then, his final coming will not be a surprise at all. You’ve already been with him the day before. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ontario “Blessed Are You” In many ways, the Sermon on the Mount, is the highest point in Christ’s active ministry, with the Beatitudes his greatest instruction for all humanity, before his sacrificial journey to Calvary. We might wonder: did Christ simply make these profound statements live ‘on-the-spot’, or did he prepare his words ahead of time?
Perhaps when he went to pray through those long nights, he contemplated and organized his thoughts for us in those hours, with help from his Father in Heaven. In any case, Christ would certainly have known the impact the Beatitudes would have on the world. Although the Ten Commandments provide the classic guidance for Christian living, they are mainly expressed in firm, commanding statements; whereas Christ’s Beatitudes deliver their meaning in a gentle manner, complementing the Ten Commandments, showing their intent in further detail. We are mainly taught, not so much what ‘not’ to do, but what ‘to’ do: to comfort others, be merciful, live meekly and humbly, bring peace to disharmony around us. He also promises those who suffer poverty in body and spirit, and those who seek righteousness, will be fully satisfied and beautifully rewarded in the next. Christ was in essence giving us guidelines to become Saints. According to historical records, the first feast to honour ‘all the saints’ was actually an early 4th C celebration of all the ‘martyrs’. Later, in the 7th C, following many invasions of the Christian catacombs, Pope Boniface IV loaded approx. 28 wagons of bones of these martyrs, and buried them beneath the Pantheon, a Roman Temple to the Gods. He would rededicate the temple as a Shrine to the Christian Church. However, this rededication took place in May, when still today, the Eastern Church commemorates the Saints, often during Easter or soon after Pentecost. Although it is not clear to historians and academics why the Western Church celebrates this Feast on Nov 1st, we do know the Anglo-Saxon theologian, Alcuin, and his friend, Arno, Bishop of Salzburg, chose this day, Nov 1st, 800, to celebrate all the Saints. Once Christians were free to worship, the Church honoured other paths to holiness. Such early saints were normally acclaimed by the people themselves, even before the bishop’s final word. This is why many very early saints have strange, even exaggerated accounts about them, though still saintly icons. The first formal canonization took was in 993. But the lengthy process of ‘beatification’, then ‘canonization’, involving the verification of miracles etc., which we know of today, evolved over the past 500 hundred years. In fact, this weekend we are observing the highly anticipated ‘beatification’ of the founder of the KofC, Fr. M. J. McGivney. But it is important to know we also celebrate today the saints living among us. We might even know them personally. So, we must not be like many who thought the saints were odd, or disturbed or even crazy in their own life times. St. John of the Cross was imprisoned in a bare room with only bread and water for three months by his fellow monks, on the premise he was encouraging too harsh a rule on his own community. Luckily, he escaped. But during his imprisonment he wrote what is considered the greatest triumph of Spanish poetry and mystical thought ever written in their country. After his death, his relics were sought with a frenzy, many prayed earnestly to him for healing and intercession, while others took and treasured his possessions. This was surely all done with good intentions, but there is also something wrong with this picture: too much adulation and devotion for the man, and not enough for what he stood for – his imitation of Christ. Saint Francis once said, “Don’t imitate me, imitate Christ. He is the original.” Thomas Merton was struggling with what his true purpose in life was, and whether to enter the Trappists, when his friend told him it was obvious – ‘to become a saint’. Let us learn how to live like the saints from the saints. Read about them. Their lives are entertaining and enriching. Many do not realize this until we pick up a book on them as St. Francis himself did. There are multi-volume sets like Butler’s, Lives of the Saints; Bert Ghezzi’s, Voices of the Saints, deserves its acclaim; Saint of the Day, by O.F.M.’s, Foley and McCloskey, is excellent. Of course, there is internet. Remember: Blessed are those who try to live as the saints, as well as honour them. Rev Fr Christopher Tracey Saint Joseph Parish Saugeen Shores, Ont. |
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Rev. Fr. Christopher Tracey
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