tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26276786553157739322024-03-13T06:58:26.318-06:00Beginning to PrayWords of Encouragement for Spiritual PilgrimsAnthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.comBlogger779125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-69561678198768502182023-10-10T09:56:00.001-06:002023-10-29T13:57:56.911-06:00Papal Power and the Obedience of the Faithful<p>Follow the link to a very important article by Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap. </p><p>https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2023/10/91409/ </p><p>I agree with Archbishop about all the wonderful gifts Pope Francis has given the Church. In particular, I appreciate his love for the poor, his defense of life, and his admonitions against wasteful materialism. I also agree with the Archbishop that the Holy Father is heavy handed and relies too much on Jesuit authorities in his own pastoral discernment. He has been harsh in his judgments toward Americans and Traditional Mass Catholics. He has also been derogatory toward those who disagree with him. While he has not behaved as poorly as did the Renaissance Popes, his papacy is a departure from the professionalism and competency of recent pontificates. Sadly, this has undermined his leadership of the Church at a time where we need a true spiritual father who cares for all his spiritual children. </p><p>Obedience is never supposed to be blind. Fideism is a grave sin against the faith. Christ demands that we open the eyes of our hearts and discern how the Holy Spirit is working and respond with the fullness of mature freedom in love. This means the faithful are to exercise a pious thoughtfulness guided by an interior sense of the faith. This means time spent in prayer, in deep silence, baptizing the intellect and imagination in the Word as we discern difficult to receive teachings and even pastoral directions in the Church. Such prayer is necessary to render right obedience to Christ in responding to the contemporary efforts of synodality no less than it has to all the other efforts of the magisterium through history. If, after careful study, prayer and discernment, a teaching seems wrong, it probably is, and one should not feel bound to it -- if the teaching is gravely wrong and a source of scandal (as was Arianism), the faithful should even feel bound to repudiate it.</p><p>The Holy Father needs our prayers and gratitude for the many good things God has accomplished through his courage and diligence. He also needs us to take responsibility for our faith. The magisterium has the responsibility to persuade us in truth and charity if our judgment is wrong. Belittling or attempting to manipulate thoughtful people is not very persuasive - and the effort is gravely misplaced during a time of severe crisis in the world. So when these tactics are employed, we must not allow the Evil One to stir up contention in our hearts. Instead, we must pray for our persecutors, do good to those who despise us, and hold fast to our faith.</p><p><br /></p><p><b><i>Additional Reflection in Response to a Comment:</i></b> One comment asks what happens when two people pray over something and come up with two different (even opposing) conclusions. Sometimes, there are simply legitimate disagreements and so we respect each other's positions even if the disagreement is fierce. Yet, we should strive to be of one heart and one mind to each other. We should not write each other off but we should reach out and explore if some shared understanding can be arrived at. This does not always happen even on important matters, but it pleases the Lord when we strive for it. </p><p>Even more, when the matter is serious, meaning a mistake puts another's salvation on the line, we must fast and pray for each other. Only as we are converted can we correct, admonish, and rebuke in a way that gives glory to God -- and sometimes all these actions are necessary too. If we feel we must correct another, ask in your heart what in your own life must be converted to the truth if you are to help your friend see the truth. </p><p>We must continually fast and pray also for our own understanding that it might deepen and the judgments we have reached might be further purified. The Holy Spirit will guide us to all truth and He can overcome even a hardened heart - so we trust in the Spirit of Truth. He will provide what is necessary for salvation with we persevere in seeking him in sincerity and truth. Because of pride is such a widespread problem, we must all humbly admit that we too can be privy to obstinacy when it comes to erroneously held judgments, and so we fast and pray that the Lord protect us and deliver us from an obstinate heart. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving dispose us to humility and truth. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-25479380269704354802023-10-08T02:28:00.002-06:002023-10-08T16:52:22.870-06:00Our Lady and the Battle for Blessings<p>A battle is being fought for blessings. Instead of the blessing that the world actually needs when war and atrocities abound, some ponder how to condone sin by cheapening sacred formulas into the jargon of a comfortable religious industry.While some want to abuse sacred power in an effort to bless what cannot be blessed, others fight for blessings of peace with their own blood. While some promote unchaste and, therefore, unholy alliances, others hold fast to all that is noble and sacred about humanity even at terrible price. </p><p>Our Lady is not indifferent. She has taken the side of her Son. As she aided Christendom when all seemed lost, she is at work today. In secret, she has formed armies of prayer warriors. Apostles of her love, their countless sacrifices have made space in the world for the glory of God to shine again. And they are not going to stop no matter the cacophony and confusion of those who have betrayed their offices as teachers. If only a single flash of this glory can end wars, what will happen when its splendor completely envelops all human affairs? The Immaculate Heart of Mary will triumph because the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot grasp it. </p><p>We need her prayers, and we need to join our prayers to hers for peace and truth. War grips the world even as many Church leaders lose hold of solid teaching. The elite grasp for power, pleasure and prestige, while the least of our neighbors are in the grip of thugs. These are dark shadows but if we allow the light of truth to shine, our biting consciences will help us come to our senses. Such is the victory of the Mother of God.</p><p>More than once visionaries reminded us that peace is a gift from heaven and but for prayer, it is easily lost. Provocations, invasions, treacheries, bloodlust, cowardice, greed, and vengeance; today all of this has overshadowed the noble self-restraint and prayerful reverence of God by which alone the blessing of peace is protected. Yet, oversexed talking heads dare to point baby-blood stained fingers at precisely the moment hands need to be folded in prayer. So, the Handmaid of Nazareth teaches the humble and the poor to fold their hands. And with her, they will triumph.</p><p>Do not think that the Mother of the Church stands by passively while evil deeds threaten the most vulnerable believers. She sees those false shepherds who, instead of crying out in prayer and fasting, concoct all kinds of manipulative confusion. Her maternal concern works fiercely even as the sacred institution of marriage is chipped away at. Her heart is pierced again not merely because this attack is waged by fierce forces intoxicated with progressive idealism (such forces will end by spending themselves on their own impotence) but above all because unchaste and troubled ecclesial leaders are given to wicked principalities and powers. When they slyly propose moral equivalencies between what God has instituted and man perverted, she boldly intercedes for those who dare to stand firm with the truth. And this woman who stood under the Cross will triumph.</p><p>She who magnifies the Lord remembers how, in Ancient Israel, false prophets and wicked priests attempted to bless what was evil. She is not ignorant of the fact that those who did not repent brought destruction on themselves and Israel. Icon of the Church, her very presence reveals that every effort to bless sin is no more than scandalous sacrilege before the One whose Name is holy. So she blesses what is good and declares the proud, mighty and self-satisfied cast down. And in the end, Her Son will not deny his Mother's prayers.</p><p>The whole Church is under the mantle of the Virgin who declared, "Let it be done to me." Every minister of the Gospel, of whatever rank, must bear this in mind when discerning whether to give a blessing. When they step away from reverence, awe and fear of the Lord , they step out of her maternal protection. In her shadow, neither violence nor perversion can be blessed for God's will is for peace and purity. But under this mantle, how blessed are those who suffer for justice and defend innocence! What beatitude awaits the pure of heart! And in the end, this ever-virgin Heart will triumph.</p><p>The One who is blessed among women knows that a blessing does more than stir up a sense of belonging and security. If done well, a blessing unleashes the glory of God on humanity and brings the structure of being into new harmony: time is touched with eternity, earth with heaven, the human heart with the Heart of God. If done poorly, the proclamation obscures the vision of God and robs even the most valiant of the strength needed in the face of death. So against every false blessing, the Virgin Mary is the maternal defender of the Church, the terror of demons, the tower of truth. And, over every evil, this Lady of Perpetual Help will triumph. </p><p>As she gratefully receives each "Hail Mary" of every rosary from prayerful lips, she remembers how a blessing is a kind of sacred speech - and all speech must be true or it is meaningless. Oh, how dangerous is meaningless words and how powerful meaningful speech! To approve perversion leads to heartless resentment and anxiety because the heart can only rest in truth. But for those who defend chastity, true love quells aggression, even if it is at the price of blood. To this end, the rosary is a weapon of love and truth, a ladder to mystical wisdom, a conduit for the mercy the world most needs. And in the end, those who declare her blessed will, with her Immaculate Heart, triumph. </p><p>So the Queen of Martyrs, Virgins, Saints and Angels gathers the heavenly hosts to follow the Lamb that was slain into battle. Let every minister today heed this Queen of the Rosary! Her virginity warns ministers that the blessing of sinful liaisons is a sacrilege that brings only woe, millstone and fire. Her obedience to God warns ecclesial leaders to humbly serve the truth. Her faithfulness unto the Cross warns them against wasting time on elaborate plots when war looms over the earth. </p><p>Christ gains nothing when souls are lost and so His Mother calls them to repentance. It is long past time to help her with prayer and sacrifice, vigil and fast. This loving Mother of the Redeemer blesses families who dare to enthrone her Son's Sacred Heart in their households, together with her own, for keeping marriage holy for man and woman, keeping the home sacred for life and innocence, such acts of courage open up, in the end, to whole new horizons of peace, blessings, triumph for all.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-7571262145729730392023-09-24T16:22:00.001-06:002023-09-24T16:24:30.970-06:00Changes Coming Soon <p> Dear Readers,</p><p>Thank you for reading this blog and for the encouragement through the years. It has been nearly twenty years since the blog Beginning to Pray began -- and you have been a blessing for my life. This is to let you know that I will continue this blog for many more years, God willing, but in a different format. In the coming weeks, as details are confirmed, I will pass them on to you. </p><p>Anthony Lilles </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-55256226027562640442023-09-17T11:31:00.002-06:002023-09-17T11:31:41.304-06:00Truth, the Heart and the Sacred<p>"Lord, you love truth in the heart. In the secret of my heart, teach me wisdom." David prayed these words after he repented of committing adultery with Uriah's wife and then killing him. Through his sin, he discovered that his heart lacked wisdom and without the truth, he was given over to grave evil. He knew that he was worthy of punishment. He knew he had caused such damage that he could never undo or heal what he had caused. Yet what shattered him was that he was cut off from the sacred, unable to offer acceptable worship to God, without standing before the Lord - whose love was more precious to him than life. Yet God takes no delight in the misery of a sinner and yearned for his son to come to his senses. That beautiful prayer "teach me wisdom" reveals a man who has chosen to rise up from the pigpen and to set his chin for the Father's house. </p><p>The Church and the world need this wisdom today. Wisdom is a vision of the whole and a taste for the sacred. Without wisdom, the heart only sees broken fragments of the truth that excite a storm of passion but never provide ground firm enough for a man's existence. Without wisdom, without truth the heart lacks an orientation point, a banner around which it might rally its forces. So the heart drifts from the sacred to the profane into chaos. Standing on the truth, there is stability. The specific gravity of such ground is holiness - the only ground on which God deals with man face to face. Without it, life goes into a free fall. This is exactly what David experienced -- and this deadly confusion is what we are also experiencing in the world and in the Church today.</p><p>Conversations in the Church that call into question fidelity and chastity can only lead to murder and the suffering of the most vulnerable. This was St. Paul VI's basic insight in <i>Humanae Vitae</i>, a document that might have protected human life if only the faithful were helped to receive it. He said that the practice of contraception is opposed to the conjugal act and would contribute to a contraceptive mentality among the faithful. He reasoned that contraception violated the chastity proper to matrimony and robbed of chastity, a dark mentality would open to greater evils among believers. He prophesied an increase in divorce and abortion. </p><p>This prophetic word is fulfilled in our hearing, and yet few leaders have the wisdom of heart to call us to conversion. The rejection of Saint Paul VI's teaching contributes even now to a culture of death and this culture robs us of the courage we need for life. It is a mistake to believe that this rejection is first and foremost the reality of married couples. Those of us who teach must look in the mirror. There has been an abuse of the authority we have from Christ to teach the truth. Ecclesial leaders are entrusted with authority to teach and pass on the deposit of faith, and failure to do so is a grave abuse that causes scandal ... and these are indeed scandalous times, times in which the lives of the most vulnerable are at stake. Those whose duty it is to teach have squandered the riches of Christ and chosen a pigpen. </p><p>Recognizing the pigpen that into which too many leaders have led us is not for the sake of wallowing in self-pity. It is precisely in a time of terrible scandal that we must beg Christ to teach us wisdom. It is precisely when his apostles betrayed, denied and abandoned Him that He revealed in the most poignant and powerful way the wisdom of God. So, today, when ecclesial leaders have followed the ways of their fathers, we must draw close to the Cross with the Christ's Mother and Beloved disciple. </p><p>To stand under the shadow of the Cross in this way means not being naive about wolves who prey on the faithful. We must draw close to the Good Shepherd so that He can deal with the wolves. We must decry those who rip at the womb of the Church because of their own heartless lack of wisdom and cry for help. To draw near to Christ crucified, we must reject every form of falsehood. We must have the courage to constantly speak the truth with love until our grammar includes Spirit-filled embodied actions of tongues, lips and hands. </p><p>No one can declare the truth of our faith with enough boldness, but boldness comes through a return to personal prayer, to fasting and to works of mercy. We must again take up the Bible and read. We must again grab hold of those Rosary beads with the determination of the saints. We must again find the hardness of earth with our knees. We must again embrace the Cross, practice self-denial and die to ourselves. We must begin again to confess our sins, to do penance, to make restitution, to offer sacrifice and to adore the Lord for His Eucharistic presence is filled with power.</p><p>In these ways, Christ will open the eyes of my heart to the goodness of the Father until I see enough to help others open their eyes too. If only by yanking out the plank that blinds me do I help my brother see, then it is well past time that I yank it out. This means renunciation and self-denial: turning off the media, the entertainment, the gossip, the detraction. This means turning the heart to solitude, to silence, to the Lord who waits for us in the dessert. If such radical conversion of life requires trodding the narrow path of determination, humility and patient endurance, it also opens passage out of the pigpen of anxiety and resentment, a road to hope, a future filled with blessing, a journey to the Father's house. When suffering comes, and it will, this faithfulness to the wisdom of the saints makes space for the Lord to do something beautiful, to renew His whole mystery, and in the secret of our hearts, He will teach us wisdom. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-54735675455615042352023-07-02T11:06:00.002-06:002023-07-02T11:06:35.730-06:00Entering into Contemplative Prayer<p>Contemplative prayer is best begun under the Sign of the Cross. This physical action together with the words that recall our baptism opens access to the heart of God and protects from irrational powers that would otherwise oppose this holy effort. The words of this simple prayer orient me to the Holy of Holies - Father, Son and Holy Spirit whose life bears me up and carries me into the Sanctuary not made by human hands. The gesture puts me under the banner of Crucified love, and reveals the spiritual Seal of my heart. As the Sign is traced on my body, my spirit bows before the Presence of the Lord. My awareness is filled, and my heart stilled. Now I am ready to wait upon the Word. </p><p>As the Presence of God dawns in my heart, the light of truth shines on its labyrinthian ways. The still small voice of conscience cries out and this prayer allows it to echo until compunction. Finally, my feet find the firmness needed to bear the weight of my soul.</p><p>Contemplative prayer accessed by the Cross suffers the truth and discovers the humility of God. His gentle kindness calms storms of wrath and self-pity. The warmth of His love ignites the heart -- and the words of the Word resound in great canticles - for He calls me to stand before His Face. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-54506760160125637172023-06-18T10:58:00.000-06:002023-09-24T11:24:31.252-06:00Spiritual Fatherhood and Elijah<p>A spiritual father is someone who serves the Lord and ministers God's word to another. This is what Elijah did for King Abab of Isread. Ahab, for his part, rejected this fatherhood at first. Under the enchantment of a destructive marriage and idolatry, the king refused to believe. Instead, he pitted himself against the Lord. The role of Elijah is to bring Ahab to a place where he might be fathered by God, where he might learn to be a son before the mystery of the Lord. The project took years but finally, Ahab briefly came into obedience, and in that brief moment of obedience he found the blessing of God and true freedom. This spiritual liberty of being a son was short-lived. The deadly relationship with Jezebel stoled away the blessing that could have been his. His life would go on to end tragically. As far as Elijah, he too had to face death. Anyone who is father to another in deadly peril knows that he too must face death with his son, even when his son refuses to be fathered. Yet, the story does not end here and neither does spiritual fatherhood. Rejected by Ahab, hunted by Jezebel, afraid for his life and wanting to die, Elijah was invited into an even deeper intimacy with the Lord. He discovered in the face of disaster the still small voice of hope, and through faith built a new future. The death others wished on him was thwarted and the power of God was revealed - when this spiritual father sustained himself on the bread of angels and dared to stand in prayer on the Mountain of the Lord. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-9524551689923264052023-03-12T11:48:00.002-06:002023-09-24T11:24:31.251-06:00The Bread of Life and the Need of the Human Heart<p>Even earthly bread, if received with thanksgiving, is food for the heart. It joins us in fellowship and sustains not just our bodies, but something of our spirits too because of the love that it expresses. Yes - bread reveals the love of the one who provided it. This love is more important than the nutrients it contains. If this is true of earthly gifts, how much more heavenly bread? </p><p>God told Adam that he would need to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow among the thorns and thistles. Adam for his part suffered the labor for love of Eve and their children. So too God loves us - and suffers for us. God rained down manna for heaven when his people found themselves most in need of his providence. Christ said that man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. His bread was to do the will of the Father. He also declared that He himself is the bread of life. The Word of the Father is given as food for the heart.</p><p>From ancient times, the father of a family would break the bread and give it to the members of the household around his table. The offering of Melchizedek is a revelation of divine fatherhood, the paternal love that God has for humanity. This is what this mysterious priest mediated to Abraham, father of many nations, when he made that ancient sacrificial bread offering. Christ fulfills this mediation and endows these ancient cultic acts of taking, blessing, breaking, and distributing. He foreshadows this mystery in the multiplication of the loaves, He discloses its significance in his Bread of Life discourse. He establishes these actions in Him the night before He died. He seals their meaning with the offering of his body and blood on the Cross. The power of what he has entrusted to humanity opens eyes on the road to Emmaus. Hearts filled with fear and doubt are set ablaze with love.</p><p>The Eucharist, the great thanksgiving, feeds the heart what it most needs. Without hope, the heart shrivels. The inevitability of death haunts our existence and crushing circumstances can cause us to lose our way. Something in us goads against death even as its alienating power threatens all that is most dear to us. How do we find our standing when our hearts are weak? Yet, God does not wish us to perish - so He feeds us with the Word of the Father, and our hearts, filled with new and eternal meaning, find strength to love again.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-27827034483309187122023-03-09T18:18:00.001-07:002023-09-24T11:24:31.251-06:00Through the Wounds of Christ the Father Transforms our Wounds<p>To be a Christian is to be plunged into the mystery of the Trinity. This mystery is one of both primordial and eschatological love for humanity. Just how radical this love is defies any attempt to articulate. Yet the Word of the Father has spoken it once and for all in the silence that followed his last wordless cry. The eternal meaning of this love confronts the ancient hostility that man has taken against God. This hostility overshadows all that is good in the human heart, but this man-made could not hold back the light of God's uncreated love. This light is the life of humanity. It shines on us through the Cross because on the Cross, the Word of the Father reveals a love that no sin, or weakness, no wound or imperfection, no power under the earth, on it or over it can ever overcome. </p><p>Since the definitive triumph of good over evil is revealed in the Cross of Christ, then Christian prayer that is under the seal of that Cross also knows this victory. Put another way, participation in divine life and love flows through the sufferings of Christ. Christian prayer dares to enter those suffering depths. </p><p>The reason such access could only only be given at the price of Christ's blood pertains to the whole reality of sin. We have in our hearts a hostility to the Lord that prevents us from entering into communion with Him. Contrary to some who accuse God, He is not the stumbling block. Our own indifference attempts to impede His mercy. His justice and righteousness is not the scandal. The scandal is our own hostility. We, by our own actions, close the door to the One who has come to us out of love. He suffers our lack of hospitality even as it is expressed in betrayal, denial, abandonment, the abuse of power, humiliation, and violent aggression. As prayer enters into this mystery of suffering, it discovers the life that he yearns to give. When the Word became flesh, he took into himself our hostility and suffered it in his obedient love. </p>Thus, the wounds of Christ, wounds our own hostility has caused, have become sources of grace. For the love of the Father revealed by Christ is not overcome by the chaos in our hearts. In prayer, we find this chaos and if we humbly beg, the Father pours his mercy through it. The Father touches the misery, the absence of love in us, through the suffering of His Son, and when He touches our wounds He transforms them from storms of hostility and darkness into sources of divine kindness and light. Such is the power of the Cross. The wounds of Christ heal our wounds and transform them into new vessels of his love. <div><br />If the Father touches us through his Son, the touch of Christ leaves us the Gift of the Holy Spirit. With the presence of the Holy Spirit, a taste for eternity lingers in the soul even where misery once robbed it of hope. We find in ourselves not only the desire but the ability to rise above the limits of the present circumstances and see the possibility of a greater freedom and truer love. A confidence, a freedom is ours because God's own strength floods through our veins. We have partaken of the body and blood of Christ. In this way, the Holy Spirit lives in the wound of love God grants us - a wound that heals us and helps us realize the great dignity for which we are made. <br /><br /></div>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-57567994167580569162023-02-24T16:13:00.004-07:002023-02-24T16:13:58.732-07:00Predestination and Spiritual Revival<p>At the heart of every revival is the eternal plan of the Father that has predestined us in Christ for every spiritual blessing. There is such wisdom and goodness in this plan that it can move the coldest of hearts into prayer. It is this grace that stands behind the revival of our own times - the Eucharistic revival is a grace that the Father has predestined us to receive. Will we open the eyes of our hearts and welcome the gift? </p><p>Some use sacred doctrine to distract themselves from the power with which God moves. One doctrine that ought especially evoke tears of compunction and gratitude is predestination. Instead, it is often proposed in a way that stirs up bewilderment and confusion. Yet, if approached correctly, predestination can draw us into contemplation and lead to spiritual renewal. </p><p>Predestination is sometimes used to mask anxiety and smugness before the mysteries of grace and freewill, God's plan and human freedom, who will get into heaven and who will not. The mystery is approached as if it only concerns the particular future of this soul or that one. Yet the Fathers of the Church and mystics like Saint Elisabeth of the Trinity considered this mystery from another standpoint. For these great contemplatives, predestination was a doctrine about the wonderful possibility to live by the love that the Father has blessed us with in Christ Jesus. </p><p>St. Augustine and St. Thomas took great pains to help us wonder over the freedom of the children of God in the shadow of the grace of Christ. They did not intend to limit the scope of human freedom in the narrowness of despair or presumption. They had no desire to discourage a generous response to the Lord. They had personally been touched by the unexpected liberty of Divine love liberating their own human love, creating in it new capacities, moving their own hearts across new and yet to be explored frontiers. This hope they wanted to hand on through their teachings. </p><p>To understand them, we must respect their purpose and holiness. Instead of a discouraging mental puzzle riddled with presumption or despair, they saw true hope rooted in the victory of good over evil already realized on the Cross. For them, this free decision of God in his loving plan means that nobody's life is an accident or the result of chance, that by God's grace a soul is granted the true freedom to stand with God who has taken his stand with us. In humility, they knew that such freedom was not their own doing but the grace of Christ in them. So did they find their place under the Cross of Christ and stand with Him. Correct interpretation of their development of the doctrine of predestination can only be done from this vantage point. </p><p>The saints saw themselves not as innovating but as protecting the Biblical vision, the vision of the Fathers and Doctors of the Church who preceded them. This is the vision of St. Elisabeth of the Trinity. This is the vision of St. Paul. In fact, she believed that through the biblical passages that she committed to heart, St. Paul taught her this message in a very personal way, as one soul to another. Relational wisdom can only be transmitted relationally - so the Father sent the Son, and so the Son sends us to one another, and so we enter into one another hearts with the wisdom that is from above.</p><p>In this vision, every human person is foreknown by God in a gaze of pure goodness, meaning and beauty. From the vantage point of pure gratuitous love, wonder grips the heart over just how much God has chosen to bless us in Christ. Such a vision of predestination ought to evoke determined bold confidence, a firm resolve to receive the gift that God has so freely offered. It ought also evoke humble gratitude and reverence for such an undeserved gift. Here, from the ground of fear of the Lord and love of the Father, we can discover a new willingness to avail ourselves to everything that God has in store for our lives. </p><p>We are invited with the saints to open our eyes. When we do we discover another gazing on us with an ever incomprehensible and inexhaustible love. To look into the eyes of Christ who longs for us in love, to rest in that gaze, in the love that one finds there one discovers that answers to all the most difficult questions of life. For just such an encounter, the Father sent His Son into the world - and the Word waited until the moment under that kindly movement of the Holy Spirit our eyes were finally awake. </p><p>Predestination challenges us to open our eyes. Its resounding echo resonates deep into our hearts with primordial and eschatological reverberations. Only the eyes of faith can behold the fire of sacred love igniting the whole cosmos until the heart itself burns with the same fire. To contemplate, to behold, to ponder, to yearn, to be amazed, to be astonished, to let the Word of the Father into our innermost heart - this is what it means to open our eyes. If we but open our eyes, all the blessings given us in Him transform us into pure praise. Then we become a perfect offering in which the glory of God is revealed in the world. </p><p>Predestination is catholic - universal for every time and place in the life of the Church because such is the love of the Father. Blessed Elisabeth of the Trinity offers her vision of predestination to her sister Marguerite, a young mother with two daughters. She proposed predestination in Christ to help her sister open her eyes. She believes that even those with busy family lives and overwhelming responsibilities can become the praise of God's glory. So we who have been predestined in Christ must open our eyes today and behold the goodness of the Father who gives every good gift in Him - for a great gift is given us today, an immense outpouring of the blessing of the Father, and this gift of revival reveals His goodness and love for us.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-59590730146624874052023-01-04T22:19:00.003-07:002023-01-04T22:41:47.422-07:00Pope Benedict - rest in peace <div>Some thoughts on Pope Benedict</div><div><br /></div><a href="https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/the-spirituality-of-benedict-xvi?fbclid=IwAR2FAbw__esP_gP8vH4u_Ht4sYKZxL2eEn7x7gZteOxiqqxMewgIl5OQxBg">https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/the-spirituality-of-benedict-xvi?fbclid=IwAR2FAbw__esP_gP8vH4u_Ht4sYKZxL2eEn7x7gZteOxiqqxMewgIl5OQxBg</a>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-59087771045373723392023-01-01T08:16:00.003-07:002023-01-01T08:16:44.251-07:00Eucharistic Revival - the Invasion of the Word<p> <b style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;">The Invasion of the Eucharistic Word </b></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The Eucharistic Word invades</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the solemn mirth</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Of this very moment,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Under a multitude of veils,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Rejected but undaunted,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Resounding with meaning - faith’s secret orientation point</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Amidst the rush of change, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Through the profane, Light blazes its trail of glory. </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In the beginning, we hear these silent</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Magnitudes of majesty,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In hidden untold splendor,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bursting forth the more</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Betrayed, denied, abandoned,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Suffering to be suffered,</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By a surrendered heart, that patiently </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bears his love lavished soft on </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Beatitude's breathing.</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 15px;"><br /></p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Before this fulness of life, </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">a soul can ache with</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Such sadness and joy in adoration - </p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">At once enkindled, overflowed, overwhelmed</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">By those harmonies</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">As still remain to be heard:</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Throw down your crown, fall on your knees - ah those</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hymns, anthems, canticles becoming</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That heart, who raises whole creation into</p>
<p style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Dawn's brightness.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-54140948972876348802022-12-24T11:12:00.002-07:002022-12-24T11:13:52.649-07:00Spiritual Fatherhood in Northern California<p><br />Faith comes by hearing, but who are we listening to? On my own first visit to Holy Transfiguration, this question rang through me. After a difficult experience in formation with another community, I was looking for someone I could trust. Abbot Boniface had founded a Byzantine Monastery in Redwood Valley, California, and someone suggested that I meet with him and seek his counsel. I wondered whether this would be a man I could trust and deeply hoped it was.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9KADEJ3QQyOdSutlAuPm4774O1MFt-TZF5vE1_aODo2hDSjamMOljszsd2BPmlE3LGlmqv2ZirzNK1F70SA6Sw5CGggfJGsOtwcwRb5jGIuck6PP4Nw0J4ygJ_61M-PRp15vgcSWHnMdrolTuutQacogfiHVuLcoAnXfESk0qhUGQ3Zgx3LCTcrh/s4032/IMG_6244.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhN9KADEJ3QQyOdSutlAuPm4774O1MFt-TZF5vE1_aODo2hDSjamMOljszsd2BPmlE3LGlmqv2ZirzNK1F70SA6Sw5CGggfJGsOtwcwRb5jGIuck6PP4Nw0J4ygJ_61M-PRp15vgcSWHnMdrolTuutQacogfiHVuLcoAnXfESk0qhUGQ3Zgx3LCTcrh/s320/IMG_6244.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>There is a crisis of fatherhood in the Church today, and our young people are paying the price. In a culture where fatherhood is mocked and men are not encouraged to be strong, it is countercultural and even counter-intuitive to make such an observation. Because we do not cultivate or honor fatherhood, the body of Christ is often lacking this essential gift, an irreplaceable mediation of the grace of Christ. Many ecclesial personalities suggest that they know Christ and may really believe that they do, but few know how to be spiritual fathers. There is little in our culture that encourages the cultivation of such manhood. So many, often without realizing it, project their own fancies onto Jesus instead - blind to true Light, we do not see rightly - and this is especially true of men who lack the courage that real fatherhood requires, who lack the conviction required for sacrificial love. Because they have never learned to be sons, they do not know how to be fathers. Blind themselves, at best they can offer only inaccurate guesses about God's will and uncertain encouragement to vague ideals. <p></p><p>A true spiritual father, on the other hand, is able to see. Having learned to be a son, he knows how to contemplate, how to behold reality with confidence. He is able to listen in a manner that makes his whole being vulnerable to God - humble trust and obedience to the heavenly Father opens up such contemplation. He lives in gratitude because he knows that such vision has been bought for him at the price of Christ's blood, and the freedom he now has to see is something he refuses to take for granted. </p><p>Because Jesus is the Word of the Father, we need men, such as these spiritual fathers, who will help us find the Lord so that we might learn how to live. We need another to help us welcome "the Light" who was "from the beginning." Someone beyond ourselves needs to speak the Word into the whole of our humanity until everything human about us - our entire image and likeness to God - is translucent with the Light of Christ. Such is the role of a spiritual father: this man listens souls into being because he himself "keeps" the Word in his heart. Because he has welcomed the Light that shines in the darkness, he can listen to the suffering ache in this particular son or daughter. He can listen until he enters the aching truth of another - and because he yearns to unveil to them what they cannot see on their own. The light of Christ is mediated through a spiritual father who listens. </p><p>When a soul humbly seeks help, a true spiritual father tunes into this particular “end point” in eternity and carefully discerns this soul’s unrepeatable role the great symphony of creation. In order to realize such greatness - a soul needs to be taught to see, needs to be listened to, needs to manifest its pain to someone who will fight for it, protect it, and help it become what it is meant to be. In the order of nature, this is the work of a father - in the order of grace, this is the completely unmerited privilege of a spiritual father. In my case, I was encouraged to study theology in Rome and to become a teacher, but to do it as an act of faith. This was just the word I needed at the time, a spiritual direction even as I felt I was wondering aimlessly. I had a sense for how to serve God and confidence in the goodness of His work in the world.</p><p>Confidence, purpose and sense of identity is what Abbot Boniface offered me when I came to first came to Mt. Tabor. It is the very purpose that he founded Mt. Tabor - and when he offered it, the stream of spiritual fatherhood he chose to sanctify this mountain flowed from the caves of Kyiv. Indeed, as is the case of Ukraine, this monastery is at the head waters of the Russian river, looking out over lands once claimed by Russia. Just as faith flowed from those caves of Kyiv into Russia, so too does faith flow into California from this vantage point. The caves of Kyiv received the grace of monastic mysticism from Constantinople - and this heritage drew from the deep dug wells of desert fathers in Egypt. This great heritage found expression in the life of St. Symeon the Studite - who in turn formed St. Symeon the New Theologian. This happened at about the same time that Ukraine was first accepting the Gospel of Christ - and through this acceptance, the Russian people were evangelized by a monastic Church - a Church of spiritual Fathers. California in all its rejection of fatherhood and hatred for actual men needs a new evangelization - one that can only flow from spiritual fathers and the monastic tradition.</p><p>The great calling for Mt. Tabor is not simply to be a shelter in the storm of secularism - but, as were the monasteries of Egypt, Constantinople and Kyiv, a school of spiritual fatherhood, a place where one can be a spiritual son, a place where men show one another the Light as brothers. It is not an ideal of "Prayer and work" but of "prayer and family" - of sobernost, solidarity, a union of hearts forged for the glory of God. Glory waits to be revealed by those who will seek the Son of the Father. For St. Symeon the New Theologian, one learns to see the Light of Christ through the mediation of a spiritual father — one needs a spiritual father to see the immaterial light of Trinitarian glory. Since the time of Abbot Boniface, Holy Transfiguration Monastery has helped form such men - and this is true even now. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-14894922642555360592022-11-13T12:01:00.003-07:002022-11-13T12:01:34.025-07:00What has primacy over war, insurrection and natural disaster? Your witness to Christ<p>Christ, the Word of the Father, commands those who believe in Him, "Do not be terrified." If we stand in the face of war and insurrection is breaking our society apart, and fires and floods and storms and earthquakes threaten at every side, "Do not be terrified." If false prophets predict utter catastrophe and declare the end of time, "Do not be terrified." To be terrified is to be so seized with fear that you are not able to do anything or think of anything. But Christ commands us not to be terrified. This is because what He reveals is more powerful than natural or manmade disasters. Whatever the catastrophe - He is Lord and nothing can impede his power. With Him there is always a future for each person and for all of humanity - no matter what happens. This is why He declares that "before" any disaster that might befall us is His saving plan. Before the worse catastrophe that we might imagine, we should expect to be imprisoned, mocked, ridiculed, humiliated in all kinds of ways. Why does the Almighty God allow his beloved to suffer in this way? Because before all the threatening circumstances and misfortunes of life - and actually into these very realities - He has sent his beloved to provide a word of hope. He has sent his disciples, his faithful followers to witness to the exceeding love of God and to declare it so that those who might need it the most can find it where and when it seems absent. With the love of God revealed by Christ, even in total disaster and insurmountable hardship, a man can stand firm with hope - because this eternal love opens to horizons the exigencies of the moment cannot hold back. God's love shatters the prison walls of rancor, strife, animosity, bitterness and disappointment. God's love opens possibilities even in the face of grave injustice and horrific evil - a life line to those who are surrounded by death. God's love sanctifies broken wombs and raises up to life those whose lives we have destroyed. God's love pricks the conscience of the hardest heart and brings to repentance those everyone assumes are set in their ways. God's love raises out of the narrow confines of the pressing moment, raises above the social conventions of every historical epoch, and breaks open the dams of human potential - for those who know this love remember what it means to be a human being. It is because of this love that Christ tells us, "Do not be terrified." </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-1133204568255034752022-09-30T10:26:00.002-06:002022-09-30T10:26:38.158-06:00Rosary Crusade on October 7, 2022 - you are invited! <p><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px;">Even in this time of worry, confusion, and darkness there are tremendous signs of hope, including a renewed devotion to Our Lady and the power of the rosary. We place our trust in her promise at Fatima that “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”</span></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">In that spirit, I’ll be helping to lead the Rosary online with the team of the Avila Foundation and thousands of other faithful from around the world on October 7, 2022, the feast of Our Lady of Rosary, beginning at 6:30 PM Central.</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 13px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I’d love to have you join us for this free live event, “The Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.” <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>You will need to register in advance to receive the link to join in. <span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span>Here’s where to sign up:<span class="gmail-Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://www.tickettailor.com/events/avilafoundation/707728/r/cc" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.tickettailor.com/events/avilafoundation/707728/r/cc</span></a> </p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Hope to see you there!</p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><br /></p><p style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 11px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Anthony</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-2629352640934022692022-09-23T03:52:00.000-06:002022-09-23T03:52:14.650-06:00Our Lady of Knock<p>Mary leads into a deep Eucharistic Silence. With the support of Joseph, she presents the mystery of Christ presence in the world - it is a real presence, a mysterious presence that communicates such glory as would transform the deepest center of humanity if only we welcomed Him. With the support of Apostolic ministry, in Knock the ministry of the Apostle John, she teaches the truth about Her Son's presence - so that we might enter into the silence that receives Him, that accepts Him, that makes a home for Him. This is why those who visit the Gable at Knock feel her presence with them when they go into adoration - she follows them into this Eucharistic moment that we might behold the Lamb.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-79122891805817289582022-09-11T16:08:00.001-06:002022-09-11T16:08:24.906-06:00The Threshold into the Heart of God<p>Christ's crucified and risen humanity is the threshold in the Heart of God. Catastrophe unfolds in all social conventions that we once relied on, but in this sacred place, we are secure. Alienated, lost and ashamed, our true homeland is just a prayer away. Through His Mystical Body, the Good Shepherd reaches out to touch us and His voice echoes in our hearts. Through His Body and Blood, the Eucharistic Lord manifests and communicates inexhaustible treasures, riches we have secretly desired but never dreamed would be suddenly lavished upon us. Knocking at the door of our hearts, the Divine Pilgrim offers real connection, true understanding, meaningful love. </p><p>Gazing at us and searching our depths, this True Friend comes to us in warmest vulnerability. Uncreated Wisdom of God, He understands us in ways that we do not understand ourselves. The Man of Sorrows, He empathizes with our weakness and offers to heal the most painful wounds. The Rejected One, He challenges us to the very core of our being. The Revelation of the Mercy of the Father, the Healer convicts us, not to shame, but to forgive and to give a new beginning. Such is the threshold into the deep things of God - not one that we cross as much as does God out of inexhaustible compassion. He opens the gate, reaches through the portal with outstretched hands, and revealing His wounds for our sake, He offers His Heart. </p><p>Even as this yet unrecognized pilgrim walks with them, there are some who seek religious experience or else attempt great feats of spiritual industry. They want results and attain what their hearts seek. These achievements provide momentary relief and a sense of accomplishment. But as accomplishments limited to space and time, they are too limited for the heart. Too far beneath its dignity, the heart aches for something that is beyond its own power to achieve, for a Someone who alone can satisfy.</p><p>Even as this mysterious stranger questions their deepest fears, there are others who turn to created spiritual forces to gain security or find power. By degrees of deception, they are trapped into the realm of created things. Whatever power we grasp for has power over us. Apart from God, the passing splendors of this life only stir lust, covetousness, and pride, fanning fires that will burn with destructive force for all eternity. Thus, the Lamb who was slain humbly calls out in harmonies that shake the foundation of the world, that shatter self-made strongholds and that cast down false altars of the heart. Like a violent earthquake, the suddenness of the truth is unveiled and the opportunity to freely choose comes with shocking clarity. Blessed are they who He has moved to tears in this moment, for such tears quench fires unworthy of the heart's greatness.</p><p>Even as this mysterious Guest breaks bread before them, there are also some who want to give their lives to the One who they love. Even these find in their hearts such attachments, grievances, wounds and burdens that they are confounded. They cry night and day over their own sins and the sins of their dearest loved ones, and they wait for their Deliverer. They know that they will be measured by their own measure, so they humbly let go. The forgive and seek forgiveness. They stop trying to measure and they surrender - for a measureless love dawns upon them. In this Uncreated Light, they know that their hope does not disappoint and they long to see His Face. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-86898319684070888322022-09-04T08:56:00.002-06:002022-09-04T08:56:50.293-06:00Prayer's Power in Human Weakness<p>In deep silences, the Lord speaks into our hearts even when everything around us falls apart. Our weakness shouts at us and all we see is failure. A cacophony of shame and accusation, fear and doubt assails us. The voices of those who disdain us would be bad enough - but our own self-accusation seems to shake our core. How might we find Him, the One for who our hearts most long, our Savior and Deliverer when we are trapped and there seems no way out? Yet His voice is not silent. It whispers in gentle patience, inviting us out of chaos and into prayer. </p><p>Loneliness haunts us and alienation from even our closest friends when all our hopes are dashed. How true it is that we discover our true friends in the midst of crisis! In such times, those who we assumed would be most steadfast disappoint us. We feel abandoned and misunderstood - or else the object of someone's misguided charity project. Some actually want to relieve the plight and really do attempt to protect the dignity of the soul steeped in such misery ... how few they are! Yet even these cannot bridge the abyss that yawns between the suffering soul and the rest of humanity. Such is death - this is what it means to be placed in the tomb.</p><p>Here, in this deepest darkness, the Word of the Father seems most absent. It is as if He let out his last wordless cry and breathed His last. At this moment, my soul and His soul are closest - united in the terrible mystery of death. This is where a new kind of whisper enters our hearts - a gentle movement so subtle that one never recognizes it until afterward. For there is a love that is stronger than death even if I cannot feel it. There is a reason for hope even if my mind cannot find it or my feel it. This is because He is with me always -- even in the shadow of death, even as waves of weakness engulf me.</p><p>Prayer's power in human weakness reaches a perfection in total disaster and complete failure. Only those who have been gripped with acute anxiety and suffer utter catastrophe know this power. It is a power Christ shares with His closest friends, those who He trusts most of all. If you are such a soul, know that your feeblest act of faith and most humble effort to love makes space for God to reveal His life giving glory in a dying world - through your smallest sacrifice, life giving splendor reaches out where it is most needed. Christ Himself accomplished his greatest work when He was annihilated on the Cross -- our salvation, and by faith your suffering is an extension of His saving work, raising up all human life in times when it is most needed.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-76596028695282189422022-08-31T14:13:00.002-06:002022-08-31T14:13:39.656-06:00God's Presence when Empires Fail<p>We need to find the gaze of Christ. His look of love changes everything - but until we find it, a whole horizon of hope is hidden when we need it most. Everything else is passing, even the great empires of our times. It is difficult to write about this gaze in the midst of political collapse, but God does not stop acting even in the midst of so much uncertainty. In the face of a whole cacophony of conflicting cultural narratives, it is easy to be distracted in curiosity: with all this bad news, is there any good news? With everyone grasping for control even as the world spins out of control, let us remain focused on what God is doing. </p><p>The Bridegroom does not grasp or enter into competition for our attention. The Eternal Son does not need to caste dispersion on those who disagree with Him. He is not limited to act by only the most sensational display of power. Instead, the Savior of the Word is solemnly present in silent hidden majesty. He prefers to act as would an artist - with delicate, painful subtly. So does He bring the work that has begun in us to perfection. His sovereignty undaunted - the Lord reigns in peace even as heaven is at war and the earth unaware of its peril. </p><p>What of evil and the calamities that surround us? The Word who holds in being all things knows that nature has turned against those He loves because they have turned against nature. No anger but regret over the plight we have brought on ourselves. But more than the disorder of nature against humanity and humanity against nature, the Bridegroom grieves over His Bride - the wolves who attack her will not avoid HIs judgment. Those are destined for mill-stones who think that He has not made her holy and immaculate. Like lighting flash He comes to shatter the safe conventions that those without reverence presume to rely on. Woe to them who playing politics and power stand in His Way. </p><p>Even still, His love is patient and does not waver. He knows that the Heart of the Father aches over how we have squandered ourselves on what is far below our dignity and He knows how the Father waits for us to come to our senses and turn towards home. Even as we take our first step, the Trinity pulls up divine robes and runs as if forgetful of all sacred dignity - to us who still reek with pigsty. God runs not to shame or scold, but to welcome and embrace, to bring home.</p><p>Thus, the Word made flesh rebukes the fever of sin and every form of diabolical praise. Out of love for the Father, the Great High Priest even gently rebukes us for wanting Him to stay where we are in our present life circumstance instead of following Him where the Father sends Him - for He leads to our true home, to the things that are above, to the Holy of Holies. Not God of the familiar, convenient and comfortable, if we will follow Him into the Heart of the Father, <i>even in times such as these,</i> we will live in such astonished amazement - flooded forever by overflowing fullnesses of meaning and exceeding goodness. Here is the true source of peace - and the only hope for our people, our children. Our Father's love, a divine love no nation's nihilism can ever overcome, is unleashed here and now in the gaze of Christ - what freedom and greatness awaits those who dare to glance into those eyes. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-48602716200462749862022-08-29T08:48:00.002-06:002022-09-03T23:44:29.614-06:00The Rosary -- threshold to Holy Mysteries <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxRTtGw1enG-S9RnxONu-s_CSQeE-N6Qhkyxpl1SLdzVyu4WsDlXKh7sK4rgUy8iEEs5pa9aPwZ8YduSspVeg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />The Rosary opens a threshold to sacred memories in the heart of the Church, mysteries from the heart of Our Lady that the whole Church should ponder with her. If you have not taken time to make this prayer part of your daily routine, it is a good time to begin. From the Sign of the Cross and the Creed through each Our Father and ten Hail Mary's, the beads of the Rosary remind your hands to surrender in prayer and the gentle repetition on the lips help the heart recall the goodness of God even in the midst of anxiety. In a secular world where active efforts are made to sideline what is sacred, the Rosary is a threshold to holy Mysteries, a portal that opens into the very heart of God. <p></p><p>For those who would like to take a course on the rosary - </p><p>click here: <a href="https://nam12.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fsfarchdiocese.org%2Frosary-course%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ctotah.fred%40sfarch.org%7C373ed0b9c7f54569a38b08da8cf04d65%7C569a3859ba3f4c0ba1716f1205685b87%7C0%7C0%7C637977260982787710%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=7ZI1oHwBIQ03s9V1KF%2Bbe9erXMbVpbSFWpFbqJJ7NRU%3D&reserved=0" originalsrc="https://sfarchdiocese.org/rosary-course/" shash="B6q+YSozsEW4sDzHVazaQ8FZ6gMvdB6GOStxs0M3LjMMsQO4naJ6ytrr9CIh5ypa2SMOYaIb91XzUivftJM862CMaoM/QyZ5IiqGzoMiFEMgarBSCislRaFEHQPeHqlMWN5gbqFgGckykwXuUg6bdwunDooytCeBSX4AOjzRR2U=">https://sfarchdiocese.org/rosary-course/</a></p><blockquote style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;" type="cite"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="auto"><div dir="auto"></div></div></div></blockquote><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" />Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-21459927113248558202022-08-27T12:03:00.000-06:002022-08-27T12:03:13.802-06:00The Doors of Silence <p>The portal into deep silence requires silencing of memories and curiosity. This is because when we enter into a sacred place, we must set aside worldly cares. It is not that the world holds us back - for indeed, God created the world to reveal his glory. But it is the case that we put the secular before the sacred and pay homage to things that are quite beneath our dignity. To silence oneself before the sacred is to allow God to raise oneself up from the concerns that are below so that we might receive His love from above. We need to unbind ourselves from things and people who bog us down so that we can raise those we love to God even as He lifts up our hearts. In this deep silence, the most noble desires of the heart, even as they die, are raised up reordered with new life, with undying joy. </p><p>This rule seems harsh - but on the Cross Jesus gave up His own Mother to achieve our salvation and the glory of the Father. Renunciation and self-denial enters this place of invincible love and keeps us there. The Cross is the portal, the threshold into this deep silence -- a stillness in which God communicates His love in such a way that not only our own life but the whole world is transformed. </p><p>In the face of all the political rancor of our time, the temptation is to believe the cultural powers and political forces have the upper hand. If people unleash aggression against their own bodies, their own sexuality, their very gender, we should not be surprised that they will also act with irrational hostility toward their own institutions, countries and even the Church. If there are such people in those the world, we should never be scandalized to find them in the Church as well. Yet there is something more powerful than the lure of power, riches and honor. A still small voice rings out above the cacophony of anxious efforts to control humble humanity and even the Church. Those who let this voice into their hearts know a freedom that cannot be oppressed, that no amount of calculation can predict or control. Under the silence of the Cross one discovers how to welcome this irresistible truth - for the renunciation that love makes goes beyond the hostility of the heart.</p><p>This renunciation is not heartless or cold. It is tender and painful and beautiful. It tastes that sacred sorrow that alone finds eternal beatitude. The love of Mary for her Son and of her Son for his Mother was not diminished by this letting go - instead, their love for one another bore fruit for the whole world. So it is with us when we subordinate all our other relationships to the plan of God for our lives. We discover a deeper silence - a place of welcome and hospitality toward God in our hearts, a sacred place that aches in great stillness for His coming. Those who find this place have entered into the deepest truth about being a man before God - about being male and female before Him. By giving the Lord the first fruits of our attention and devotion, He unleashes power in our family to pour out His love in ways we otherwise could never imagined. </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-76404143901331732702022-08-21T11:42:00.004-06:002022-08-26T18:41:14.774-06:00The Rosary <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='245' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwzViBpoDmbNnFFYG4tfEZMB6G6u2ffViO7S-RTxlMuHGTNozCIDCw-HpJjBlL4VfUnteZXwpA63YygN-Amug' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />Murmuring of voices joined before lighted candles, common whispers on fervent lips, a faith filled fingering of humble beads; in all these ways the rosary expresses the deepest cries of broken hearts and the resounding hope for a new day. Demeaned as a symbol of radical nationalism, and even a call to violence, the Rosary is actually a pathway to mature prayer and human greatness. Since believers began to substitute "Our Fathers" and "Hail Mary's" in the place of the 150 psalms, centuries of saints have found peace in the angelic and ecclesial mantra. This even in the face of war. Those who pray this summary of the psalms regularly have witnessed that it changes not only one's own heart but even the course of world events. <p></p><p>In a pharmaceutical world where many wander in aimless fear of whatever next catastrophe might shorten our lives, one needs a compass to find the truly meaningful. The Rosary is a map, a compass, a walking stick for a journey into the the heart of Jesus. The holy mysteries chart a course. Biblical words of prayer are footsteps on the pathway. The Cross around which the Rosary unfolds supports the weight of one's existence. In each of its mysteries, the riches of Christ's crucified and risen humanity are opened - joyful, luminous, sorrowful, and glorious. In these mysteries live a mother's memory of her Son and the Son's love for his mother, things that they both treasure and that they both long for every disciple to know. In the Rosary, heart speaks to heart - the heart of God into the heart of man, the heart of man into the deep things of God. This portal into greatness and glory remains relevant even in the face of impending doom. </p><p>The world needs the hope that the rosary binds fast to the heart. The most authoritative sources tell us that global temperatures and weather patterns pose an inevitable threat to human existence. The more honest voices will also admit that materially and scientifically there is very little we can do about it. It is time to turn to prayer.</p><p>To attribute the consequences of our own actions to divine justice is not to believe that we are sinners in the hands of an angry God. Having rejected God whose only desire is our good, He humbly and respectfully has delivered us into our own hands. We are the authors of our own demise - not God. Our lack of care for the world is merely a projection of our own self-hatred. Such is the mystery of sin - it hurls us back into the nothingness from which we were summoned into existence. Having made a mother's womb the most dangerous place for human life on the planet, it should not surprise us that our planet is ready to abort us too. Yet, it is through calamity that the Lord continues to hold out hope to us. Each new catastrophe is another invitation to return to prayer - and the Rosary accepts this invitation. Are not bad weather and natural calamities signs that something is out of whack and invitations for us to return to our senses? The humble beads running through our fingers by help us stand up and turn our face to the Father's House.</p><p>In the Rosary, we confront the Cross of Christ who unveils the evil in our hearts and the tender mercy of God. He knows our sin and loves us anyways, suffering our hostility even to the end. Human misery has a limit. It does not have the power to overcome Divine Mercy. This is why we discover healing from sin and conversion of life while reciting the Rosary and remembering all that Christ did and all that happened to Him. Those who stick with this prayer know that the healing and conversion ripple out from the heart and into the world. For those who desire peace, the Rosary offers not only a way out of one's own hostility but also the possibility of healing for our planet and the whole cosmos. </p><p>The Rosary is a prayer not of vain repetition but of holy remembering. This prayer is ordered to recollection, to a pondering of all things in the heart with Mary. At a time when so many have forgotten the sacred, the Rosary has us repeating over and over the prayer the Word of the Father commanded us to pray. When we are a little to occupied with passing things in the world below, the Rosary raises in us the greeting of angel Gabriel and helps us make our own the words of Mary's cousin Elisabeth. Such prayer plunges into Biblical currents over and over again. It is murmuring Scriptural truths and committing revealed standards to memory. In this, the Rosary raises our minds to the things that are above, to things that last forever. Our lips move to the rhythm of countless saints before us, and our hearts, with theirs, remember the inexhaustible treasures of Christ. </p><p>Humbly remembering holy things protects against meaningless innovations. The merely passing and sensational is raised as an altar - if we worship progress, we will become like it: blind and deaf. Not only strangers, but many of own our friends and family have been enchanted into thinking that all progress necessarily supports human thriving. Ironically, they also turn to the most unreliable conventions for security in these dangerous times. Neither faith in progress or convention can save humanity. Only God can do that and the Rosary helps us ponder what binds us to Him.</p><p>The Rosary lifts the mind to things beyond human convention or progress, a fresh newness that warms the heart in the face of fear and despair. Not all breaking with the past is good: closing the door to the sacred is followed by a step into chaos. Conversely, to turn to the holy in the midst of chaos helps us find the only footing that can support our existence. In the Rosary a soul can rediscover the loving goodness on which alone humanity thrives. Not a prayer that clings to the past - this prayer finds in saving historical events thresholds into the freshness of eternal life. In the Rosary, a new beginning for humanity, for each heart, for every heart awaits. </p><p>To pray the Rosary is to turn back to the holy - not as an escape from the profane, but as a way to sanctify it. The Rosary opens to a holiness more powerful than politics and ideology - something that reaches into the very core of human existence. The holiness that the Rosary knows comes before human history, holds up every historical moment and all of history is directed to it. This holiness is higher than the highest moment and deeper than deepest depths of life - and the Rosary opens to these heights and depths. Pondering in our hearts the things of God, the holiness into which the Rosary leads helps us live our daily lives at the pace of prayer, baptized in the prayer of God Himself, in harmonies not of this world, but without which this world is empty.</p><p>The Rosary recounts the memories of Jesus and Mary in a way that shapes how we see our lives and the world around us. Only the ancient newness of the sacred helps us find our way through profane's progressive decay. Only the newness of Christ Jesus navigates the worn out exigencies of the the current age. The merely innovative in a dying world does not prolong its life but exhausts it to death, but receiving the gift of an ancient prayer just may provide true progress of heart. If forgetting the truth about one's own existence threatens our society, the Rosary remembers a hope that evil cannot overcome. Remembering the holiness of God through the humble beads of this prayer offers continuity in the midst of the profane and opens the riches of the Church in the poverty of the world.</p><p><br /></p><div><br /></div>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-87484735243505814182022-07-10T15:53:00.004-06:002022-07-10T15:53:40.459-06:00The Science of Love - St. Elisabeth of the Trinity<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in;">St. Elisabeth of the Trinity on the Science of Love</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in;"><i><span lang="EN">He is in me, I am in Him. It is enough for me to love Him, to let myself be loved, all the time, through all things: to wake up in Love, to move in Love, to sleep in Love, my soul in His Soul, my heart in His Heart, my eyes in His eyes, so that by His touch He may purify me, free me from my misery. If you only knew how He fills me.</span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in;"> L 177 to Canon Isidore Angles, August 1903</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in;"><i>It is so simple to love: it is to surrender yourself to all His desires, just as He surrender hImself to those of the Father; it is to abide in Him, for the heart that loves lives no longer in itself but in the one who is the object of that love; it is to suffer for Him, gathering up with joy each sacrifice, each immolation that permits us to give joy to his heart. May the Lord teach you this science of love.</i> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Cambria, serif; margin: 12pt 0in 12pt 0.5in;">L 288 to her sister Marguerite, June 24, 1906</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-55830944640770447382022-06-28T14:06:00.000-06:002022-06-28T14:06:44.530-06:00The Influence of Love<p>We live in a world that has seemed to have forgotten God and without the sacred to give it orientation, it has fallen into chaos. Not only societies and communities, but families and individuals are fragmented and dismayed. Nature abhors a vacuum, and the vacuum of chaos has sucked in all kinds of magical thinking, escapism and opportunism. A deeper truth remains - for though we have forgotten God, God has not forgotten us. More powerful than ideologically driven bureaucracies, regulatory manipulation and compelling nudges is the Gospel of Christ. </p><p>If this is true, why does God seem absent from the news cycle or family arguments you ask? He is not absent - He is at work in exquisite and amazing ways. He works with irrevocable subtlety because what He does in the heart is delicate and does not admit of brute force. The news cycle and public strife are too sensational for a God who prefers what is lowly and humble - only the pure of heart can discern the immensity of His power quietly at work in our midst. Hope flows with irresistible force against despondency and anxiety - and its secret source is the cruciform still point around which the world turns. </p><p>God's Love does not need to control or force into compliance. It does not even need to defend itself against social agendas and political theories. Its power is beyond the grasp of sociology and psychology. This love has decided for humanity. This faithful love courageously enters into our plight until it is completely disguised in suffering and distress. This saving love remains above the fray even as it engages the marketplace of ideas and the public forum in search of those who need a word of hope. This gentle love speaks boldly and with freedom, yet it conducts itself as the lowly servant. Redeeming humanity, this dispossessing love has made itself the special possession of the heart that will welcome it. The Gospel of Christ is that God has revealed Himself to us by entering into our humanity and embracing all the misery it suffers so that we do not suffer alone, so that our dignity is not loss, so that we might find relief from our plight, so that we might at last find our way home.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-39124368353160250792022-06-26T10:59:00.015-06:002022-07-03T15:48:47.311-06:00Life, Liberty and America<p>American Independence is a celebration of true freedom. A gift won for us at the price of men's blood such freedom is not free. St. Paul declares that we should use our freedom "to serve one another through love" Galatians 5:13. He is also aware that we could use our freedom to "devour one another" Galatians 5:14. Indeed, a gratuitous embrace of boorishness haunts us and creates the worst forms of poverty. What we do with freedom, how we honor the sacrifices of others who won it for us, is a solemn responsibility. To serve or to consume the life of others designates the great battle unfolding before us on this Independence Day.</p><p>At stake in this battle is the sacredness of life itself. Rancor and strife in our communities is not the result of using freedom to serve the gift of life. Not the reversal of a court decision threatens our society but fifty years of reckless. Now more than ever a culture of life or death is before us. If we want a culture of life, we need to make decisions with great care. It takes no care at all to use another person, to appropriate them to a political cause or for personal gain. This is to devour them. Instead, how careful we must be if we desire to build each other up and attempt to be of some service to the neighbor God has entrusted to my care.</p><p>The the care we need to show one another is discerned only under the standard of holiness. That is, in order to find our bearings in these confusing times, we need to remember the sacred. From the very dawn of humanity, the sacred has been our orientation point to navigate our way through the chaos of life. God's holiness is not indifferent to the plight of humanity or the social challenges we now face. Instead, God, in all his transcendent otherness, has freely chosen to implicate Himself in the misery that has robbed us of true freedom. </p><p>Human freedom is sacred because it is in the image and likeness of the eternal freedom revealed by Christ crucified. The Cross reveals the freedom of the Father who sent His Son into our hostility toward holiness. The Cross reveals the freedom of the Son to embrace our hostility and suffer it unto death. The Cross reveals the freedom of the Spirit to communicate the love that overcomes death -so that we too might be free and raised up with Christ. As Saint Paul observes, this freedom needs goodness and truth or it becomes a self contradiction. This freedom needs to serve life. </p><p>If we accept it, the goodness and truth that He offers goes beyond an individual experience - it is meant to be something that we share together in an eternal friendship too great for this world to contain. Every human person and all of us together are meant to bear each other up in freedom and in the perfect liberty of love to help each other thrive as sacred beings - beings who image the very likeness of God in the visible world. With help from Above, we can help one another live lives pleasing to the Living God even here, below. This is what a great civilization does - and it could be what we has a people choose as well.</p><p>If we turn to the holiness of God revealed by Christ, we could build together a civilization of love where no one is treated as a mere means to an end. Without God in recent times, we have failed to rise above the incivility of regarding others through the eye of self-serving calculation. Moving forward, whatever we choose will either take us beyond the gravity of our own egos or else weigh us down in self occupation. </p><p>Conversely, when we lack the advantage of divine horizons, the scope of liberty cannot see beyond self-interest. Freedom easily succumbs to the merely self-serving. Within the limits of the convenient and familiar we live by herd instincts at once alienated and manipulatable. Yet something in us rebels against this and we feel in our hearts the need to go beyond where our technocracy nudges. If we call on God, He can render us vulnerable to the ability to choose what is good, holy and true, not only for oneself, but together with others. Here, horizons of greatness open before us as a people. In this solidarity, could choose to make doing something beautiful for God and neighbor our task together.</p><p>Thus, the Thrice Holy God opens up a choice between life and death. Without the Holy One, we can only choose death. With the One who makes us holy, though faced with death, we can also choose life. Such choices define us not only as individuals but as a people. </p><p>If we still desire to be a great people, it is time for us to choose life as individuals, families and a nation. Indeed, individual states will now have the freedom to debate this and to decide what sort of societies they would like to be. To choose a culture of life is to build a civilization of love. Indeed, love rebuilds what we have destroyed - the Holiness of God manifests itself precisely in such love. </p><p>Here, with the help of the Holy One, we can build a civilization that has space and courage to welcome the gift of another no matter the cost. Here, we do not need to worship at the dark altars of technology and commercialism, but we can step into the fresh air of kindness and mutual forgiveness in the light of God. Here, we might rediscover what it means to be free men and women.</p><p>Any society, no matter how affluent and powerful, damns itself when it condone that attitude that one must be deemed desirable to join club humanity. Such a society devours rather than serves life. In our country, what has this "devouring" of one another beget but a cacophony of manipulation and hatred? Treating life as if it were a mere product that we might choose or not among other material things has torn down the social fabric that genuine freedom needs. </p><p>The sacredness of life demands more. A society that ignores the sacred devolves into chaos. Unaware of the sacred, we gratuitously accuse, shame and gaslight because we are too wounded, alienated and afraid to accept the sacred truth about life. If confused about life, then we have lost clarity on sex and gender. Because we cannot freely welcome the way things are as a gift from the Holy One, we are vulnerable in a labyrinth of self-definition where everything is an unbearable burden.</p><p>Accepting life as a gift or seeing it as a burden opens either to the pathway of life or the pathway of death. The Holy One invites us we see our neighbor as a gift, even if yet in the womb unseen. The choice He unveils comes down to whether one regards life as a sacred gift or merely biological burden. It is the Holiness of God that gives us that chance to choose between these two ways, but the choice is ours.</p><p>St. Teresa of Kolkata observed to the leaders of our country that it is the greatest poverty to believe that another must die so that one might live as one wants. For those who treat life in the womb as a burden - whether personally or socially - they have already chosen this extreme spiritual poverty. It is even worse for those who treat human life as a commercial opportunity to be exploited for personal and corporate greed. Yet there is a whole industry that deals in the parts of baby's bodies that we ignore our laws to protect. </p><p>To treat life in this way is a gross monstrosity of the liberty we were meant to have. To ape freedom in this way does not increase dignity but wounds it. To choose what is beneath our dignity never builds the solidarity of a great nation but shatters it. Yet, wounded and shattered is exactly where a large portion of American Society is. </p><p>Billy Graham once observed that he could think of no problem for which Jesus was not the answer. He has called us to freedom. As we grapple with the sacredness of life and spiritual poverty as a people, God is also at work, ready to support us when we choose life. He can heal what is wounded. He can make whole what has been shattered. If we turn to Him, we will find answers to the difficult questions that vex us as a people and as individuals.</p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2627678655315773932.post-84779577079904052512022-06-04T20:05:00.001-06:002022-06-04T20:05:44.817-06:00Mother of Hidden Light<p>She remembered, </p><p>Shrouded in Faith's Night, shocked silence:</p><p>That nail splintered wood, </p><p>Those fastened hands </p><p>Dripping in pulses of Love Divine</p><p>And human heart, stretch in final </p><p>Blessing, the Word's </p><p>Wordless cry echoed </p><p>Obedient between fingers holding </p><p>Her heart even as He gives all away, </p><p>The Word's wordless agony pierced even deeper: </p><p>Oh anti-thesis of all that was promised! </p><p>She suffered that blessing, but </p><p>She stood firm. Until</p><p>Later this new steadfastness </p><p>Filled Peter and John,</p><p>Whose secret she shared as they</p><p>Witnessed to burial cloth and head coverings set</p><p>Apart in a tomb robbed of death, and</p><p>In shared memories of this emptiness</p><p>She prayed. Until</p><p>Wind moved tongues of fire, shrouded </p><p>In faith's night, splintered tongues told truth</p><p>to bind in love a still frail fellowship</p><p>born of spiritual maternity</p><p>And in hidden light,</p><p>found hope.</p><p><br /></p><p> </p>Anthony Lilleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12208767782574708168noreply@blogger.com0