The Path of Life

The Path of Life

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

URGENT: Jesus is coming


When the “holiday season” kicks off each year—which used to happen around late November, although it now seems to be much earlier—much of the world makes a mad dash toward December 25. Along with ordinary tasks, the days are filled with decorating, buying, celebrating, buying, fretting, buying, baking, buying—in search of some nostalgic, yet vague sense of hope that, all too often, fails to satisfy and is kicked to the curb on Dec. 26.

By contrast, Christians (in theory, at least) profess this period as Advent (from the Latin term adventus, or coming).

Whose coming do we await? In faith, hope, and love, we await the coming of Christ—God among us—who comes to save humanity from the state that it has itself rendered. Jesus has come once to take on our humanity and redeem it. He will come again to fulfill God’s promise and take all things to himself. And he is coming now, at this very moment—whatever season it is. Eternity will emerge from how we respond daily to God’s eternal presence in the mystical Body of Christ.

Eternity will be what each of us makes of today.

While it’s fine to engage in a little holiday cheer when the time comes, we do well to remember that Advent calls for a joyful anticipation of the Kingdom of God—yesterday, today, and forever. We must recall that the celebration of Christmas (which actually begins Dec. 25 and runs for many days thereafter) evokes that mystical event when God became man in the person of Jesus, whose name in Hebrew means “God saves.” That should indeed bring us great joy—but not the fleeting, superficial, artificial joy so often peddled in the month of December. It is a daily joy tempered by the reality of the crucifixion, a wonderful paradox that gives rise to rejoicing with the psalmist: Lord, “there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered” (130:4).

Advent and Christmas, then, are solemn occasions steeped in true, everlasting joy as we await throughout all our days the full coming of the Kingdom of God. As author Alice Camille points out in her booklet Waiting for God: The Grace of Advent, there is more to it than a cute baby in a manger. It’s serious business. Advent, she says, is a state of spiritual emergency.

Advent involves a different type of urgency than the festal fretting that so often surrounds us before Christmas even begins. We are reminded of this throughout the year at each Mass after the Lord’s Prayer, when the priest says, “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days, that by the help of your mercy, we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress, as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ.”

For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours now and forever.

From the Abbey Press book

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Communion prayer



Lord Jesus,
You are
love,
mercy,
grace,
and peace.

You are the
resurrection
and the
life.

Help me
to become
who I
receive
in you.

Amen.

Thursday, November 3, 2016

Back in 1908 ...


The first Model T is introduced by Henry Ford.

Construction of the Titanic begins in Belfast, Ireland.

The IV Olympic Games are held in London and women compete for the first time. Among the 24 sports: tug of war, rugby and polo.

William Howard Taft defeats William Jennings Bryan for the U.S. presidency.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, two longtime bank robbers, are reported killed in Bolivia.

The following notable people are born: baseball announcer Red Barber, actor Rex Harrison, author Louis L'Amour, actor Buddy Ebsen, actress Bette Davis, journalist Edward R. Murrow, actor James Stewart, author Ian Fleming, comedian Milton Berle, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson.

Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz is published by Frank L. Baum

U.S. unemployment: 8 percent

U.S. population: 88.7 million

Cost of a first-class stamp: 2 cents

Eggs: 14 cents a dozen

U.S. flag: 45 stars

Population of Las Vegas: 30

Average wage (not minimum): 22 cents per hour

U.S. homes with a telephone: 8 percent

U.S. homes with a bathtub: 14 percent

And in the world of baseball, the statistical leaders were:

Batting average
Ty Cobb, Detroit .324 in American League
Honus Wagner, Pittsburgh .354 in National League

Home runs
Sam Crawford, Detroit 7 in AL
Tim Jordan, Brooklyn 12 in NL

Strikeouts
Ed Walsh, White Sox 269 in AL
Christy Mathewson N.Y. Giants 259 in NL

World Series champion

Chicago Cubs – who did not win again for another 108 years—until last night’s exciting 10-inning, 8-7 victory in Game 7 against the Cleveland Indians.

(The image at the top of this post was the official Chicago Cubs logo in 1908.)

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Joy of the souls in purgatory

“Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.”


There is no joy save that in paradise to be compared with the joy of the souls in purgatory. As the rust of sin is consumed, the soul is more and more open to God's love. Just as a covered object left out in the sun cannot be penetrated by the sun's rays, in the same way, once the covering of the soul is removed, the soul opens itself fully to the rays of the sun.

Having become one with God's will, these souls, to the extent that he grants it to them, see into God. Joy in God, oneness with him, is the end of these souls, an instinct implanted in them at their creation.

All that I have said is as nothing compared to what I feel within, the witnessed correspondence of love between God and the soul; for when God sees the soul pure as it was in its origins, he tugs at it with a glance, draws it and binds it to himself with a fiery love.

God so transforms the soul in himself that it knows nothing other than God. He will not cease until he has brought the soul to perfection. That is why the soul seeks to cast off any and all impediments, so that it can be lifted up to God; and such impediments are the cause of the suffering of the souls in purgatory. Not that the souls dwell on their suffering; they dwell, rather, on the resistance they feel in themselves against the will of God, against his intense and pure love bent on nothing but drawing them up to him.

And I see rays of lightning darting from that divine love to the creature, so intense and fiery as to annihilate not the body alone but, were it possible, the soul. The soul becomes like gold that becomes purer as it is fired, all dross being cast out.

The last stage of love is that which does it work without human doing. If humans were to be aware of the many hidden flaws in them, they would despair. These flaws are burned away in the last stage of love. God then shows the soul its weakness, so that the soul may see the workings of God.

If we are to become perfect, change must be brought about in us and without us; that is, change is to be the work not of human beings but of God. This, the last stage of love, is the pure and intense love of God alone.

The overwhelming love of God gives the soul a joy beyond words. In purgatory great joy and great suffering do not exclude one another.

St. Catherine of Genoa
Purgation and Purgatory