Holy Ground

Every person that we meet is holy ground, where we meet the Divine.

Wings

To look up is to recognize that there is a higher power, God.
People of faith are people of hope, because they know that this present moment is not all that there is to life.
Trust God. He will give you wings, not to escape life but to discover new paths that lead to seeing life's meaning.

Because you believed!

You didn't seek fame or greatness, but now every generation calls you blessed.
You said yes even if it was not easy for you to imagine how it could be possible, and your faith was strengthened to the point of saying to others "Do whatever he tells you!"
You gave up your only son to be about his Father's business, and now you are invoked as "Mother" of people from all races, from generation to generation.
What was your dream, o Mary, when you were a little girl? I bet it wasn't like how your life turned out to be. God, indeed, is infinitely more creative than us. God has done great things in your life. Blessed are you who believed!

Is it lawful? Is it kind?

In today's Gospel, we hear the same question we often ask ourselves when we are in a dilemma: "Is it lawful?".
Personally, I realize that I ask this question when something within me, an intuition, an inner voice, makes me doubt the course of action I am about to take. It is as if an affirmative response to the question would appease my doubt or the nagging feeling I have.
So much has been said against deciding on the basis of our feelings; that maturity means being able to make a logical decision. But I believe that it is important to listen to our feelings.
There is something raw, something sincere about our initial feelings. To listen to them is important in enabling us to own responsibility for our choices. Then we will not hide behind and take comfort in legalism or in being right.
The voice that comes from the core of our being is not self-centered or egoistic, because what is at the core of our being is something that unites us with the rest of humankind. And the only question that remains to be asked is, "Is it kind?"

To gather the pieces and form the puzzle

Prayer is a necessary ingredient, like air, itself, to life. Without prayer, life is a collection of pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without any hope of discovering the picture that they form

Come down and let me in!

For the concluding Mass of the World Youth Day in Krakow, the Gospel passage of Zaccheus' encounter with Jesus was chosen. As always Pope Francis gave a very interesting homily and he invited the young people to see in Zaccheus a journey of conversion that is very similar to our own journey of conversion. 

Zaccheus had to overcome three obstacles:

First, his short stature, which was why Zaccheus climbed a tree to have a better look of Jesus. Shortness of stature is not only physical. It is actually our feeling of inadequacy, almost incredulity that leads us to believe that we are not loveable, that even God cannot love us.

Second, the paralysis of shame. What would people say? It is the tendency to follow what the crowd does and says. Often we live paralyzed lives because of fear to make a mistake, to cut a bad figure, to be bullied and humiliated.

Third, the grumbling crowd, the voices around us that tell us that there is no way out or it is not worth the fight. These are the voices that lead us to always choose what is safe instead of opening a trail.

In the end, what will make us overcome these obstacles is what Pope Francis says towards the end of his homily: Jesus calls us by name. He wants to stay with us. He wants to be a part of our life. Only in this way can we overcome the voices of inadequacy, shame, and mediocrity.

God's patience

One of the Gospel passages that clearly express God's patience is: "No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them" (Mt 13:24).
Faced with the world's current situation, a lot of people favor drastic solutions. I remember what one Sister shared with us a few days ago, that there is no such thing as a "just war". War is always violence and always begets further violence. To respond to violence with violence is to knowingly enter into the spiral of violence.
So what do we do?
I think the call for me is to willingly pay the price so that the chain of violence stops in me. This is not something that I do once and for all. An action in this direction is made possible by a journey of purifying myself from everything that is selfish that leads me to horde and to accumulate, to defend myself and to look at people as threats, to use and to exploit, to humiliate and to discard. All of these cause violence.
Yes, in my own body I need to pay the price. It may even cost me my life, but this is the only way. In fact, this is the way of Jesus.