hidden in plain sight

by Rebecca Vitz Cherico, Ph. D

I am often shocked by my children's inability to find things that are in plain view. They tell me they have "looked everywhere" for something it takes me ten seconds to locate. I am also sometimes surprised at my husband's difficulty finding things in our refrigerator. His eyesight is much better than mine, but I see things that are invisible to him. Because I know they are there.

There is a story about children who are playing hide and seek. One boy hides and waits for the others. He waits and waits. But the others do not come. The story's author says God has done the same thing, challenging us to come and find him: our problem is that we don't look. Though God has revealed himself in a clear and striking way in his incarnation, we nevertheless may find him elusive in our everyday lives. We wonder where he has gone. But when a child we know disappears in hide and seek, we don't wonder about his existence - we simply start looking.

Likewise, Christ challenges us to come and find him. He invites us to trust in his continued presence, rather than being distracted by an unfounded fear that - simply because he is hidden - he has left us.

He will never leave us. We must look for him in confidence, because he is there.

source: Magnifcat Lenten Companion 2010

Walk with Jesus by Henri Nouwen

Please join us for

Prayer and Chant.

March 26, Friday

7pm - 8:15pm

In the church, led by Pax Christi, Phoenix Chapter

Inspired by the paintings of Sr. Helen David, Henri Nouwen reflected on the sufferings of the poor, the prisoners, the martyrs and the downtrodden of our world. Nouwen's reflections on the paintings "help unite our own broken humanity with the humanity of the men, women and children portrayed." Henri Nouwen's meditations are inspirational.

As Jesus walked from Gethsemane to Calvary, He walked among the people. Henri Nouwen represents the traditional Stations of the Cross through the passion and suffering of the world's poor.

Come early and join us in Piper Hall at 6pm for a simple soup supper and then come over to be a part of this inspirational journey through the Stations of the Cross here in the Our Lady of the Angels Church. Donations gratefully accepted.

At the Franciscan Renewal Center

5802 E. Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253

more info: Franciscan Renewal Center, Stations of the Cross

S... Selfishness...Self-centeredness

Lent leads us beyond the guilt, fear, and shame of our sins. We will be led from discouragement to the confidence in the prodigal, extravagant, reckless love our gracious God has for you and I. That is a choice we have to make, not each and every day, no, that choice is made each and every MOMENT. Yes, each and every, NOW moment we are going to be life-givers to ourselves, and a consequence to others. We can also, by our now decisions, be death-dealers to ourselves, and others. We will always see others through the lens of our reality, just as others do not see or cannot see us, except through their reality. That is very freeing. This brings to the Question, through what lens does God see us?

I go back to this prayer of Thomas Merton again, and again;

“Oh great God, Father of all, Whose infinite light is darkness to me, Whose immensity is to me as the void, You have called me forth out of Yourself because you love me in Yourself, and I am a transient expression of Your inexhaustible and eternal reality. If I could not know You, I would be lost in this darkness, I would fall away from You into this void and if You did not hold me to Yourself in the Heart Your only begotten son. Father I love You whom I do not know, and I embrace You whom I do not see, and I abandon myself to You…because Your love in me Your only begotten son. You see Him in me, You embrace Him in me, because He has willed to identify Himself completely with me by that love which has brought Him to death, for me, on the cross…You have willed to see me only in Him, but in willing this You have willed to see me more really as I am for the sinful self is not my real self, it is not the self You have wanted for me, only the self that I have wanted for myself. And, I no longer want this false self. But now Father, I come to You in your Son’s self for it is in His Sacred Heart that He has taken possession of me and destroyed my sins and it is He who presents me to you. And where? In the sanctuary of His own Heart.?”

Read the entire post


source: excerpt from Fr. Joe Hennessy, Aisling on Earth, 3/6/2010

Mount of Perfection

a sketch made by St. John of the Cross from "Ascent of Mount Carmel"

Illustrates the three different paths but only one leads up to "Ivge Convivium" - the heavenly feast.

from "Ascent of Mount Carmel", General Introduction to the works of St. John of the Cross, E. Allison Peers

E...Encounter

Lent is a season of grace. In the season, we will be offered the grace we need to face, and name the lie. We will be given the strength to reject the lie, about face and follow the truth, no matter how difficult it is. As someone once said, “the truth will set you free, but first, it will tee you off”. The truth will have to become bad news, before it can, under grace, become good news for us, as well as for others. The good news is ALWAYS given, to be shared. Life, God, will present us with the person, or persons, that needs that particular gift we have just been given. The ways of God are truly mysterious.

On our Lenten journey, we have to pay special attention to the commands, "You are to love your neighbor, as you love yourself”, "love your enemy" [Jesus Chris], "kiss the leper within", St. Francis. On the desert journey we will discover parts of ourselves, we wish were not there. We will say, “how can something like that be really part of me?”. In the desert we will have to face, within us, every sin another can commit. Blessed Mother Teresa, discovered, above all people, Hitler, to be alive and well within her. What humility she had to have to, first of all - to admit, and then reveal, such a reality. William Johnson in one of his books, warns us as we journey within, we encounter within ourselves each any every sin another human being can commit. We are then led to pray with what one saint said "there go I, but for the grace of God”. This is real death and resurrection work. It is here, that the rubber really hits the road. This is where one of the great movements of the spiritual life takes place; we move from hostility to hospitality [the other two are from loneliness to solitude, illusion to prayer]. That is taken from Henri Nouwen’s book “REACHING OUT". This is a movement we will experience every day. We are destined not to stay in any one place...

source: excerpt from Aisling on Earth, Fr. Joe Hennessy