The Kingdom takes root in time (Horizons of the Heart 22)

Published on May 26, 2023March 30, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

The grace we are asking of God: a deeply felt awareness of how God in all of history and most powerfully in the Word made flesh draws us into the unfolding of the mystery of his love which always is extravagant and which is always seeking to save us. We desire that in doing this we enter into a process of healing that we might love Jesus and follow him more intentionally, completely, and wholeheartedly.

Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022.

This is a Lectio divina or “sacred reading” of the account of the flight of into Egypt found in the Gospel of Matthew. There is a Gospel contemplation in the style of Ignatius here. LINK

Preparation:

Whenever we come together to listen to the Word of God, what we are seeking at bottom is not mental information or moral instruction or even a sentimental influence that will make us “feel” the presence and goodness of God. What we seek with all our soul, rather, is the possibility of opening ourselves up in prayer to God’s transforming action. Whether we are fully conscious of it or not, in other words, we desire a change of life, a conversion from what we presently are to a more precise embodiment of the likeness of Christ at the center of our being, radiating out from us through all our thoughts, words, and actions.

This is why the life of contemplation is the boldest and most adventuresome of undertakings, for what could be more radical, more truly earth-shattering, than the willingness to be dismantled and created anew, not once or twice in a lifetime, but day after day? “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” (2 Cor 5:17) But being created in this sense is not a passive work. Our “clay” is the spiritual stuff of our will and freedom and thoughts and feelings and desires, and all of these have to be surrendered every day anew to God’s power. We cannot become new creations without actively participating in our remaking by the Holy Spirit. (Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, The Way of the Disciple p. 18).

Leisurely reading – lectio

Lectio divina is a deep, leisurely, and penetrating ruminating on the Word of God. Picture a placid cow lying out in a field in the spring, chewing its cud. There is no sense of being rushed, of having to get anywhere. It requires that we cut ourselves off from the crowd of noises that overstimulate our senses, creating a world of pseudo-needs and desires. Simone Weil calls this attention. “Attention consists in suspending one’s thought, in making oneself available, empty, and penetrable to the object contemplated” (This quote is taken from The Way of the Disciple page 33, but can be found in Réflexions sur le bon usage des études scolaires en vue de l’Amour de Dieu, in Attente de Dieu. ).

From the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew:

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem ²and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

³When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him….

⁶“‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”…

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

¹³When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

¹⁹After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt ²⁰and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.”

Contemplative deepening of the Word – meditatio

Lectio Divina is a contemplative deepening of the Word, by which the Spirit re-creates in us the world of God. Through the spiritual attitudes of a listening heart, receptivity of spirit, and openness of the imagination, we follow the logic of the heart without pressure to produce resolutions or reach goals.

In the first two verses of the second chapter of Matthew we are introduced to three main characters that will play out their drama until the end of time:

Jesus, the power of God
Herod, the power of the world that seeks to determine on its own terms who lives and who dies, who is right and who is wrong, who has the power and who doesn’t
The Magi, who leave their own worlds to enter the world of Jesus and worship him

There are two other historical characters mentioned in this reading from Matthew:

¹⁸“A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

Those who are killed as witness to Jesus
Those who mourn the lost and bear the sorrows created by those who wield the power of the world.

The second chapter of Matthew lays out the story line that will be told again and again until the end of time as the designs of God are woven into the designs of the world, as the Kingdom takes root in the values of time.

Notice the very last verses of the Gospel of Matthew (chapter 28):

¹⁶Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. ¹⁷When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. ¹⁸Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Now the disciples worship.

Jesus claims all authority in heaven and on earth. It is an authority that is not desperately clung to. Jesus doesn’t need to eliminate anyone who could take his throne as Herod had done, even to the killing of one of his wives and three of his sons. Jesus’ authority is given to him by God.

Jesus words about his authority are peaceful and sure. All authority is his. Herod, representative of the power of the world, is described as anxious, desperate, paranoid. His is a power he is trying to keep for himself as long as he is alive. Jesus’ authority will last on this earth and in heaven, on the other hand, to the very end of the age. He maintains his authority even after his death on Calvary. Herod died a painful and gruesome death a few short years after he had ordered the murder of the innocent boys of Bethlehem.

To maintain his authority, Herod set up a spy network among the people and regularly eliminated anyone suspected of revolt. From the historian Josephus:

Herod was crowned “King of the Jews” by the Roman Senate in 40 BC in Rome. He was, however, a king without a kingdom. Upon his return to the Land of Israel, he was given a Roman army and was eventually able to capture Jerusalem. The first order of business was to eliminate his Hasmonean predecessors. Mattathias Antigonus was executed with the help of Mark Antony and Herod killed 45 leading men of Antigonus’ party in 37 BC (Antiquities 15:5-10; LCL 8:5-7). He had the elderly John Hyrcanus II strangled over an alleged plot to overthrow Herod in 30 BC (Antiquities 15:173-178; LCL 8:83-85).

Herod continued to purge the Hasmonean family. He eliminated his brother-in-law, Aristobulus, who was at the time an 18 year old High Priest. He was drowned in 35 BC by Herod’s men in the swimming pool of the winter palace in Jericho because Herod thought the Romans would favor Aristobulus as ruler of Judea instead of him (Antiquities 15:50-56; LCL 8:25-29; Netzer 2001:21-25). He also had his Hasmonean mother-in-law, Alexandra (the mother of Mariamme) executed in 28 BC (Antiquities 15:247-251; LCL 8:117-119). He even killed his second wife Miriamme in 29 BC. She was his beloved Hasmonean bride whom he loved to death [literally, no pun intended] (Antiquities 15:222-236; LCL 8:107-113).

Around 20 BC, Herod remitted one third of the people’s taxes in order to curry favor with them, however, he did set up an internal spy network and eliminated people suspected of revolt, most being taken to Hyrcania, a fortress in the Judean Desert (Antiquities 15:365-372; LCL 8:177-181).

Herod also had three of his sons killed. The first two, Alexander and Aristobulus, the sons of Mariamme, were strangled in Sebaste (Samaria) in 7 BC and buried at the Alexandrium (Antiquities 16:392-394; LCL 8:365-367; Netzer 2001:68-70). The last, only five days before Herod’s own death, was Antipater who was buried without ceremony at Hyrcania (Antiquities 17:182-187; LCL 8:457-459; Netzer 2001:75; Gutfeld 2006:46-61).

Herod the Great became extremely paranoid during the last four years of his life (8-4 BC). On one occasion, in 7 BC, he had 300 military leaders executed (Antiquities 16:393-394; LCL 8:365). On another, he had a number of Pharisees executed in the same year after it was revealed that they predicted to Pheroras’ wife [Pheroras was Herod’s youngest brother and tetrarch of Perea] “that by God’s decree Herod’s throne would be taken from him, both from himself and his descendents, and the royal power would fall to her and Pheroras and to any children they might have” (Antiquities 17:42-45; LCL 8:393). With prophecies like these circulating within his kingdom, is it any wonder Herod wanted to eliminate Jesus when the wise men revealed the new “king of the Jews” had been born (Matt. 2:1-2)?

Jesus, just moments before ascending to heaven, gives his disciples a share in his authority:

Go
Make disciples
Baptize
Teach

Probably the one most deserving of feeling anxious in this first episode of Jesus’ life is Joseph.

¹⁴So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.

Joseph shakes Mary awake, tells her quickly that they have to take off that very moment, in the middle of the night, across the desert to the land of Egypt, with a young child. No preparation. No provisions. No map. No information about what they are to do when they get there, how long they will stay, how they will know when to return. All their possessions and Joseph’s tools are left in Nazareth. They are totally dispossessed even of their country as they move through the streets of Bethlehem under cover of night to escape the decree of Herod.

While the power of the world seeks to accumulate, to determine who is in and who is out, who is right and who is wrong, who deserves to live and who doesn’t, the Word of God enters into poverty, powerlessness, and homelessness.

The Scripture simply says: Joseph got up, took the child and his mother that night and left for Egypt. No drama. No complaints. No demands for explanations or security. Simple obedience. The world of God.

Finally, we focus our eyes on the Magi.

¹²And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

¹³When they had gone…

We know nothing of the Magi before these few verses, this appearance in the story of Jesus’ birth, their few weeks on the stage of salvation history. And we know nothing of what happened in their lives after this short period of time. We don’t know because we don’t need to know. It is only tradition that gives us their number, their names, their places of origin. The Word, instead, is silent. The Magi leave Bethlehem and the stage is empty. They return to their regular life.

Biblical stories never tell the biographies of even pivotal characters. We read quietly the line, the phrase, the words they are meant to offer in the greater story of salvation. We do not know the biography of Jeremiah, Hosea, Abraham, Isaiah, beyond their part in the drama of God’s love for humankind. We do not know their ending, nor their beginning. It is similar to an orchestra in which each instrument plays their part in the overall piece of music and then falls silent. The Magi have only one thing to teach us: to worship in overwhelming joy and delight as they follow the star. Having done this they disappear from the Scriptural account, so that we remember the one thing we are to receive from their encounter with God.

ilragazzoconmoltafede-Apostolada de la Palabra-cathopic

Being with Jesus—oratio

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis asserted that one cannot truly respond to God’s plea without being attentive and willing to persevere in listening, from the center of one’s being, to what God communicates to each of us personally (Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis The Way of the Disciple. Ignatius Press, 2003, p. 33). The most precious things must be waited for. Reading the Word should never be “smooth sailing.” God ever calls us out of our comfort zone. We should be ever ready to be jolted awake by God, almost to being shocked as the Spirit leads us in ever deepening realizations to put on the mind of Christ.

Through the spiritual attitudes of a listening heart, receptivity of spirit, and openness of the imagination, we follow the logic of the heart without pressure to produce resolutions or reach goals. Being with Jesus is the condition for receiving true life. Jesus makes demands on us to leave everything to be with him, pure and simple. Only a God-man can extend such an invitation to exclusive relationship with him, a relationship that lifts us out of the power plays of the world into the authority of God and the power of his love saving us.

What has been provoked by this Word? Allow time for the new and unexpected to become clear.

What new life is Jesus speaking into your heart? Allow time for your heart to receive it.

What small step of clarity is the Word bringing to your confusions? Concerns? Choices? Or is it a huge realization?

Be with Jesus in all this. What is your response to him?

The ongoing act of faith is a transformative experience of the whole person through the experience of rebirth in Christ.

From the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation:

In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. ⁷The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. ⁸Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:

“‘Holy, holy, holy

is the Lord God Almighty,’

who was, and is, and is to come.”

⁹Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹“You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

God communicates his attributes to us—contemplatio

Lectio divina concludes with extended contemplative prayer. As St. Elizabeth of the Trinity describes it: “The soul then…allows the divine Being to reflect himself in her, and all his attributes are communicated to her…” (Élisabeth de la Trinité, Écrits spirituels, ed. P. Philipo [Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1948], 211).

St. Elizabeth of the Trinity wrote that the Creator passionately desires “to be able to contemplate himself in his creature to be able to see there all his own perfections and all his own beauty beaming forth as through a pure and flawless crystal. Is this, in a way, the extension of his own glory? The soul then…allows the divine Being to reflect himself in her, and all his attributes are communicated to her…” (Élisabeth de la Trinité, Écrits spirituels, ed. P. Philipon [Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1948], 211).

God seeks us out so he can delight in us, so that he could see his own beauty reflected in us as in a mirror, as “the extension of his glory.” As Walker Percy wrote: “Life is a mystery, love is a delight. Therefore I take it as axiomatic that one should settle for nothing less than the infinite mystery and the infinite delight, i.e. God” (“Questions They Never Asked Me,” in Humanities, 10, 3 (May/June 1989); 12).

Turn your interior vision, now, and behold Jesus. As Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis once wrote: Convert your interior vision from “its instinctual manner of viewing the world so that the person of the Savior becomes the point of convergence around which all other realities are ordered” (Communio 18, Spring 1991).

From Fire of Mercy, Heart of the World 3:

“Behold, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28:20)

The absolute manner in which this I am with you—in the emphatic present tense and coming from Jesus’ own mouth—imposes its promise without restrictions or exceptions constitutes the very core of the Good News, the literal fulfillment, through Jesus’ free commitment, of the symbolism behind his name Emmanuel (“God with us”, 1:23 = Is 7:14). The one to whom Isaiah and Gabriel referred in the distant future and in the third person has now become a burning presence who says of himself: Behold, I am with you always. Such an affirmation of presence, using the limitless verbal expression ἐγώ εἰμι (I AM), carries with it a pledge of absolute transtemporal and transspatial presence that only God himself can make. With Christ’s presence, eternity itself has invaded our world, since “eternity” is not an endless extension of time but, rather, God’s very own interior life poured out over his creatures. By referring to himself with such solemn assurance, Jesus is pledging his whole person to his listeners as only God can.

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis, Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word: Meditations on the Gospel according to Saint Matthew, Chapters 1–25, vol. 3 (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1996–2012), page 681–682.

Image Credit: Gentile da Fabriano, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

God loves me, we each can say it (John 17:10-26)

Published on May 25, 2023October 1, 2022 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

God loves you. But I don’t feel God’s love.

God loves you. But how could God love me when I’ve messed up?

God loves you. But how can I know God loves me? Really know for certain?

God loves you. But how could God say he loves me when he didn’t help me when I most needed him?

Sound familiar?

God loves us and yet we are so fearful. So insecure. We insist God needs to prove his love to us beyond a shadow of a doubt.

For many years, many more than I’d care to admit, I doubted God could love me. Why did he let me have a stroke at twenty-one? What about this weakness and that disordered attachment? How could he love me when I’m not all that I should be? How could God love me when I can’t even love myself?

I’ve also listened to the hearts of others whispering their secret fear that they were ultimately unlovable or unloved by their Father in heaven.

When I was praying with today’s Gospel passage, I was overwhelmed with how Jesus loves us. Loves me.

Pause right now and read this passage from the Gospel of John, replacing every “them” with your name. Read it slowly. Read it several times. As you eavesdrop on Jesus’ prayer to his Father, listen to what he thinks about you. What he desires for you. What he feels for you.“I pray not only for Sr Kathryn, but also for those who will believe in me through her word…. And I have given her the glory you gave me, so that she may be one [with us], as we are one, I in Sr Kathryn and you in me,…that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved her even as you loved me. Father, she is your gift to me….

God loves me, we each can say it. We may not feel his love because our emotions are caught up and “bent out of shape” by the turmoil of our inner world and the situations in which we live. The Father’s love is deeper. He loves you so much he has made of you a gift to his Son Jesus.

God loves me, we each can say it. In this passage from the Gospel of John, Jesus is praying about his apostles who had certainly messed up many times during their three years with him and were about to fail miserably as Jesus was arrested, put on trial, and crucified. Jesus knew these dear friends of his through and through. Yet Jesus prays to his Father with confidence that even as the Father loves his Son, so the Father loves them. He doesn’t say the Father loves them a little bit. Be certain that the Father loves you as he loves his own Son.

God loves me, we each can say it. You are the Father’s gift to Jesus, his beloved Son. Anyone on earth who professes love for another can be trusted more or less. Some more. Some persons less. We all know the countless reasons why we may decide that we can’t trust someone who tells us they love us. And at times we may have good reason to be wary of entrusting ourselves to them. God, however, is not a creature. He does not love us to get something from us for himself. He created, saved, and sanctifies us so that we may be one, as the Father and Jesus are one, that we may be brought to perfection as one.

God loves me, we each can say it. God’s love is not diminished when unfortunate or tragic things happen. After many years and many sorrows it is clear to me that these are the times when God’s love is multiplied and overflows in a tender compassion that far exceeds what even the most loving of mothers could show. God is so good, so great, so beautiful, so true that he can take any and every tragic moment in our life and use it to advance our ultimate glory: that the love with which the Father loved Jesus may be in you and Jesus in you.”

This may be a bit of a stretch in reading this passage of John in this way, for it is clearly addressed to all the apostles and all Jesus’ followers throughout the ages together. I can imagine, however, that each of those who heard these words from the Master’s lips heard them spoken to himself personally and to all of them together as they became a community, as they became one, immersed in the love the Father and the Son had for each other, in the confidence of their mutual love. They knew God’s love not because they felt it, deserved it, could prove it, or had evidence of it. They knew this dynamic and living love because Jesus said it was so. And so it is.

This love of God for us exists, and in that, we can put our trust more than in anything else in the world. In his extravagant forever love, Jesus has given you the glory the Father has given him from the foundation of the world.

Praying with this passage of Scripture

Lectio Divina is a way of listening to God as he speaks in his Word. It is a practice of communicating with God through Scripture and attending to God’s presence and what he wishes to tell us. In this slow and prayerful reading of the Word of God, we allow ourselves to be transformed by the Spirit who forms us into the image of Christ.
There are four movement in Lectio Divina: Read (lectio), Meditate (meditation), Pray (oratio), Contemplate (contemplation).

Begin by finding a still space to pray. Breathe deeply and become quieter within. Abandon any agenda, worries or thoughts you bring to this prayer and entrust these things to the merciful care of God. Ask for the grace to be receptive to what God will speak to you through this Scripture reading. Grant me, Jesus Divine Master, to be able to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God and your unfathomable riches. Grant that your word penetrate my soul; guide my steps, and brighten my way till the day dawns and darkness dissipates, you who live and reign forever and ever Amen.

Read (lectio)
Begin by slowly and meditatively reading your Scripture passage out loud. Listen for a particular word or phrase that speaks to you at this moment and sit with it for a time.

All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

“I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

Meditate (meditatio)
Read the passage a second time. As you re-engage the text, let the word or phrase that stood out become your invitation to speak from your heart with God who wishes to share his heart with you. Allow this word or phrase to wash over you and permeate your thoughts and feelings. You may wish to repeat this phrase quietly and gently for a period of time.

Pray (oratio)
Read the text a third time. Listen for what God is saying to you. Speak heart to heart with God. Notice the feelings that this conversation with God raises up within you. Share with God what you notice about your response to this conversation. You may wish to return to repeating the phrase quietly and gently, allowing it to permeate you more and more deeply.

Contemplate (contemplatio)
Read the text a final time. Now be still and rest in God’s embrace. Ask God to give you a gift to take with you from this prayer. You might ask God if he is inviting you to do some action, for instance, make some change in your thoughts, attitudes or reactions, in the way you speak or how you treat others. Thank God for this gift and invitation as you conclude your prayer.

Photo by Earth Minister Coke’lat “Brown” Commander via Pexels

Suffering and Forgiveness: Lessons from Corrie Ten Boom

Published on May 21, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-985ta-140edae

For us, forgiveness is a matter of becoming capable, of being given the power, to disrupt the cycle of continued wrath and suffering we experience as inevitable. Forgiveness is always going to be demanding, costly, and a freely chosen effort. Others cannot tell us when and how we must forgive. No one but we ourselves can require us to forgive.

Through the amazing story of how Corrie Ten Boom discovered that she herself still was learning how to forgive, you’ll learn what forgiveness is not, and what forgiveness is.

As we wrestle with forgiving, you’ll learn three things that will help us open to God’s grace.

I hope you stay in touch. Sign up for my newsletter here: https://touchingthesunrise.com/newsletter/

Sursum corda—Upward, hearts!

Published on May 17, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP1 Comment

My friends, look up! Look up not in imitation of the apostles who watched Jesus leave them as he was lifted into the heavens.

Look up to see his coming! The feast of the Ascension “is the ever-new ‘moment’ of Christ’s coming,” says Jean Corbon in his masterful text Wellspring of Worship.

The early Christians, who commissioned great mosaics of the ascended Lord in the apses of their ancient basilicas, knew that when they gathered to manifest and become the body of Christ in the liturgy, Jesus Christ was manifested as both present, here among them, and as coming. He, who ascended to the Father’s right hand, was constantly drawing us, his body, after him.

Translated that means, the ascended Christ brings humanity into the very heart of the Godhead.

In a recent class on liturgical theology the professor said it this way: The divine persons of the Trinity have invited created persons into the home in which they live in their perfect communion of life. Everyone’s “home address,” in a sense, will one day be the Holy Trinity.

These next few weeks we will immerse ourselves in the mysteries of the Ascension, Pentecost, the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, and the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Entering the life of the Trinity

In these day reflect upon the most momentous moment of your life: your baptism. In this sacrament you experienced an event, the action of the holy Trinity that changed the course of your life forever.

Through your baptism you were incorporated into the love of Christ and the life of the Church. In being washed by the waters of Baptism, you were forever changed and are sealed with an indelible spiritual mark, or character, that enables you to participate in a full sharing in the life of the Church.

The Catechism states that this sacrament “signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ.” (CCC 1239)

Start reflecting on your baptism here >

Sanctified and divinized by the Spirit

From the very beginning of Christian history, holy men and women have reflected on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and have taught that the sacred transformation that occurs in the eucharistic liturgy is a sign and a cause of the transformation that should occur in the lives of all those who receive this great sacrament of Christ’s love.

It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies and changes the bread and wine during the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass into the body and blood of Jesus. It is the divine Holy Spirit who sanctifies and divinizes people through the Eucharist. Cyril of Alexandria testifies to this when he wrote: “The holy body of Christ then gives life to those in whom it is […] being commingled with our body.” And also, ultimately, the aim of partaking of the Eucharist is for believers to be made partakers of the divine nature, to be made holy (On John).

Deepen your reflection on the Eucharist here >

10 ways to live a more contented life

“I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”

These are the words of Saint Josephine Bakhita, who as a young girl had been sold into slavery in the Sudan and had suffered indescribable suffering, torture, physical and psychological abuse.

Knowing that she was loved and always had been loved through her whole life led to great happiness for Bakhita. Knowing ourselves to be loved we can surrender ourselves to Love even in the unfairness of life because we are certain that Love is with us. “I am awaited by this Love.” This Love is a person who deeply cares about me. His love alone is what makes my life good.

We most probably will not live through as destructive an experience as slavery and human trafficking as did Bakhita, and yet trauma does touch in many ways our spirits and sear our souls. For some of us more than others. But all of us in some way bear wounds that bring tears to our eyes.

Often it can take many years, often well into our adult life, until we can settle into a deep awareness of being loved. Encountering Jesus in the sacraments chips away at our fears and heals our wounds so that we can so gradually begin to sense that our spirits live on the very Breath of God.

Read Josephine Bakhita’s incredible story and 10 ways to live a more contented life >

My friends, remember: Sursum corda—Upward, hearts!

Image Credit: Benjamin West, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

10 Ways to live a more contented life

Published on May 14, 2023March 30, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP3 Comments

“I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”

These are the words of Saint Josephine Bakhita, who as a young girl had been sold into slavery in the Sudan and had suffered indescribable suffering, torture, physical and psychological abuse.

In her earliest years, Bakhita was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters, living a very happy and carefree life. However when she was 7 or 8 years old, she was abducted by Arab slave traders. She who had never known suffering in her life, was forced to walk 600 miles to El-Obeid barefoot. Twice on the way she was sold and bought by a new master. She was forcibly converted to Islam. In the next twelve years she would be sold three more times before she would finally be given her freedom.

In El-Obeid, Bakhita was bought by a rich Arab who used her as a maid for her two daughters. She was treated relatively well until one day, she accidentally broke a vase, and the son of her owner beat her so severely that she spent a month unable to move from her straw bed.

She once recalled one of her most terrifying experiences when she along with other slaves were marked by a process resembling tattooing. With a razor patterns were cut into her belly, breasts, and right arm, and the wounds filled with salt. Throughout the ordeal, Bakhita would recall, she felt a mysterious strength sustaining her.

Finally at the end of 1882, Joseph Bahkita was bought by the Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani. For the first time since the day she was kidnapped she was treated in a loving and cordial way. In the Consul’s residence, Bakhita experienced peace, warmth and moments of joy. When political situations forced the Consul to leave for Italy, Bakhita made the trip with him and with a friend of his, Augusto Michieli. On arrival in Genoa, she was left with Mr. Michieli’s wife and eventually became their daughter’s nanny.

In 1988 Mr. Michielli returned to Sudan to take possession of a large hotel he had acquired, followed later by his wife. She left Bakhita with her daughter in the care of the Canossian Sisters in Venice. It was here, under the care and instruction of the Sisters, that Bakhita encountered Christianity. Here she came to know the God she had experienced in her heart as a child without knowing who he was. “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: Who could be the Master of these beautiful things? And I felt a great desire to see him, to know Him and to pay Him homage….”

When her owners returned for her in Italy, she refused to leave the sisters, and the Italian court ruled that because Italian Law had never recognized slavery as legal, Bakhita had never legally been a slave.

Bakhita remained with the Canossians, embraced Catholicism, and was baptized, taking the full name of Josephine Margaret Fortunata (the Latin translation of Bakhita). She was confirmed and received Communion on the same day, entered the novitiate of the Canossian sisters the following year and pronounced her vows in 1986 in the presence of Archbishop Guiseppe Sarto, the future Pope Saint Pius X.

During her 42 years of religious life, immensely happy years for her, Bakhita carried out the roles of cook, sacristan, and doorkeeper. She was known for her gentleness, calming voice, and her ever-present smile. She became known for her holiness by the local townspeople and among her own sisters. The first publication of her story in 1931 made her famous in Italy.

A young student once asked Bakhita: “What would you do, if you were to meet your captors?” Without hesitation, she replied: “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a religious today.”

In 2000, she was declared a saint, the first Black woman to receive the honor in the modern era.

“I am definitively loved and whatever happens to me—I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.”
Josephine Bakhita

Once Josephine Bakhita discovered this love radiating within her, she began to radiate this love to others. The simplest roles of service were assigned her: cook, doorkeeper, sacristan, and in these simple tasks she was able to give to those around her an extraordinary love.

Often it can take many years, often well into our adult life, until we can settle into a deep awareness of being loved. Like Bakhita, it may be the kindness of others that begins that journey to discovering the ever-present surrounding love of God in our lives. Encountering Jesus in the sacraments chips away at our fears and heals our wounds so that we can so gradually begin to sense that our spirits live on the very Breath of God. Let these words from the hymn Nothing Is Lost on the Breath of God by Colin Gibson wash over you:

Nothing is lost on the breath of God,
nothing is lost forever,
God’s breath is love,
and that love will remain,
holding the world forever.
No feather too light,
no hair too fine,
no flower too brief in its glory,
no drop in the ocean,
no dust in the air,
but is counted and told in God’s story.

Nothing is lost to the eyes of God,
nothing is lost forever,
God sees with love,
and that love will remain,
holding the world forever.
No journey too far,
no distance too great,
no valley of darkness too blinding;
no creature too humble,
no child too small for God to be seeking and finding.

Nothing is lost to the heart of God,
nothing is lost for ever;
God’s heart is love,
and that love will remain,
holding the world forever.
No impulse of love,
no office of care,
no moment of life in its fullness;
no beginning too late,
no ending too soon,
but is gathered and known in its goodness. (Words © 1996 Hope Publishing Company, 380 S Main Pl, Carol Stream, IL 60188)

Josephine Bakhita shows us that when we are loved we are content, and we are able to become love for others. Here are 10 simple ways to live a more contented life and radiate love to those around you that are easy enough to work into your everyday rhythm:

Gratitude: Deliver a letter of gratitude in writing or email to a person you are grateful to, but have not thanked appropriately.
Counting kindness: Count the acts of kindness you receive every day.
Three good things: Write down three things that have gone well for you this week and offer a prayer of thanks to God.
Surrender: Release one thing over which you have no control. In your imagination wrap it in a box and hand it to Jesus. Watch what he does with it.
Gift of contentment: Find five things you are already content with about your life, your appearance, your relationships, your work and family. Now try to find something you are discontent with. How can you become more content with this thing?
Offer compliments: It’s easy to criticize and complain. Rise above criticism, and see how many compliments you can offer in a day.
Shift your expectations: Write down five positive outcomes that you’re expecting throughout the day. Making these positive outcomes part of the fabric of your life is a key to combating fear and depression.
Count your blessings before your sleep: Keep a gratitude journal by your bed. Each night write at least three blessings for which you are grateful before you turn out the lights.
Let it go: See how many small things during the day you can just let go.
Love unconditionally: See others and events through gentle eyes, focus on the person and their feelings and needs rather than situations and issues.

Image Credit: Public Domain via Rawpixel

Get up, take the Child, and run! (Horizons of the Heart 21)

Published on May 12, 2023March 16, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSPLeave a comment

Horizons of the Heart is inspired by the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius and my own notes from my thirty-day Ignatian retreat in 2022.

Entering Prayer

Offer your prayer to God, desiring that in every way it will give him glory. I pour myself out in worship. You could use a few lines from the following Psalms if this helps you enter into prayer:

Psalm 100:1-5
Psalm 34:1-9
Psalm 111:1-5
Psalm 95:1-7
Psalm 92:1-8
Psalm 7:17

Ask of God what you think you need. (It could be later that God will show what you truly need and what you should be asking for, but begin now where you are.)

The flight into Egypt

Over several periods of prayer, linger imaginatively over the events narrated in Matthew 2:13-18.

The Holy Family were settled in a house (we know this because the Gospel says the Magi found Mary, Joseph and the child Jesus in a house). Since everyone of the tribe and lineage of Judah had returned to Bethlehem for the census, both Mary and Joseph may have found relatives there that they could stay with in the weeks directly after Jesus birth.

One night, Joseph is awoken by a dream. An angel prods him awake, telling him to leave right then and there and flee to Egypt. He had to run, waste no time, if he was to save the Child’s life.

One could imagine Mary and Joseph’s hopes to take Jesus back to Nazareth. After all, their home was there, a home totally prepared for Jesus’ arrival. Family and friends would have been a comfort. Joseph’s workshop and tools and unfinished jobs were in Nazareth.

But no, God’s plans were otherwise.

The Flight into Egypt by Giotto di Bondone (1304–1306, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua) via Wikimedia

“Get up, now, take the Child and flee in the middle of the night through the desert to another country and wait there until you are told it is safe to return.”

Joseph could have thought of at least a couple reasons why this might not be such a good idea. It was night. It was dangerous. They had never been there before. He didn’t have his tools and had no way of making a living. It would be hard. The child was just born.

We don’t know exactly how old Jesus would have been when Joseph shook Mary awake and urged her to gather everything quickly and come with him. Together they left the house of their guest and vanished into the night.

Imagining Yourself Present

Over several days, imagine yourself present to this story of intrique, faith, and sorrow.

In Gospel contemplation you attempt to grasp something of Jesus’ human existence and as you do this, the Spirit begins to grasp you in your existence. This prayer gives us contact with Jesus, the risen Lord, who is present now, influencing my life now. The historical events of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, his healing and his preaching, transcend time and place. The THEN of Jesus’ life becomes NOW. It is important to allow oneself to become part of the story-event.

I found myself drawn to be the woman who had hosted the Holy Family in her house.

I watched them as they gathered their things to leave. “We need to leave now,” Joseph was saying quickly as he looked around for anything they had left behind. Something about a message of angels and keeping Jesus safe.

Quietly I watched them leave. Wondering. A couple hours later I was awakened again. Thundering horses. Yelling. Screaming. The banging of doors. Torches illuminating the streets. Babies crying. I ran to the window and my heart froze. There, banging on my door, was my daughter with her lifeless son in her arms.

“We need to leave now,” Joseph was saying. Something about a message of angels and keeping Jesus safe.

Not knowing how to find the Christ Child, King Herod gave the disastrous order to kill all the children that were in Bethlehem and its surroundings from two years old and under. This type of cruelty was typical of Herod who eliminated any who opposed him, including his wife and two sons.

Herod hoped that among these children would be killed the child who was the Messiah. How many children were killed? According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “The Greek Liturgy asserts that Herod killed 14,000 boys (ton hagion id chiliadon Nepion), the Syrians speak of 64,000, [and] many medieval authors of 144,000.” Since the population of Bethlehem would have been about 300 people, that would put the number of children two years old or younger at about six or seven. However, the number of people who had travelled to Bethlehem for the census could have meant that the population at that time had grown much larger.

Jesus’ earthly life was bracketed by the maneuvering of two power-players to keep their grip on positions of power—King Herod and Pontius Pilate, the vacillating governor.

I spent a lot of time in prayer, as this woman who had hosted Joseph and Mary who had escaped the murder of their son through God’s intervention and who know rocked her own daughter who wailed in agony over the loss of her own baby boy.

This passage from the Gospel of Matthew is about faith all the way around. The faith and sacrifice of Joseph, the trust and willing cooperation of Mary, the struggle of every member of Bethlehem as they watched the Roman soldiers kill their youngest boys.

Imagining the Gospel events in the present

Over time, allow these stories in the gospel of Matthew to become current as if Mary and Joseph were fleeing with the Child Jesus to escape death. Sit with the many mothers mourning the loss of their children…. So many mourning broken dreams, a future without promise, a present in which they cannot flourish because of situations outside their control.

Sit beside fathers and mothers trying to bring their families to safety. Pray with those who are struggling to understand what God is asking of them in difficult situations.

In Gospel Contemplation, Ignatius takes advantage of the way in which spiritual growth, like so many other aspects of maturing that we experience, takes place primarily when our affectivity is engaged. It is the shift in one’s deeper emotions and feelings that leads to a change in one’s behavior. We reach these deeper levels through metaphor, image, and symbol—the work of the imagination.

Photographed during the exhibition « Rubens et son Temps » (Rubens and His Times) at the Museum of Louvre-Lens. Public Domain.

Observing attractions and resistance

Notice any interior reactions that you experience: comfort, discomfort, being lifted up, struggle, joy, sadness….

Observe the actions, words, emotions, sensitivities, attitudes of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus and to which of them you feel more attracted. Which of them arouse more negative feelings or resistance? Return to aspects of these meditations that seem more personally meaningful.

This story raises more questions than it answers, immerses us into pain and sorrow and vulnerability. We stand in awe of God himself made to flee before the pompous vanity of one of his creatures. Yet even this seems to be unable to destroy God’s plan of unfolding love and mercy.

Entering the Mystery of the story

As you begin to enter the mystery of the story more deeply, you will begin to see or hear or touch, the pain, the mystery of your own life. You will enter into the event and interact more deeply. Flee with Joseph and try to let him teach you why he left without a word, why he trusts even what he can’t understand. Sit beside Mary as she longs for home even as her little one begins to grow up in Egypt. Watch them as they face fear, danger, suffering, struggle, loneliness. Little by little you will become more present to the mystery and the mystery will be present to you.

As you become more and more involved in the event of Jesus’ mystery that you are contemplating, your life and your choices are affected. You find yourself changing and desiring to change.

Conversing as with a friend

Continue in quiet—or even silent—intimate conversation with Mary, Joseph and Jesus. Ask them what is the grace that you should be praying for. Beg this grace of the Father. Then beg this grace of the Son, your Savior and Shepherd. Finally, beg for this grace from the Holy Spirit who is the source of all holiness.

If you wholly lived this grace that you are begging for, what would your life look like? Your relationships? Your prayer? The way you work? The way you love? The way you serve? What about you would make you the most happy?

Ask Mary, Joseph and Jesus to show you one specific gift they wish to give you. Receive it and remain in stillness and quietly relaxed presence under the influence of the Holy Spirit.

Reviewing the graces of prayer

When you finish praying, write down the main gifts and discoveries from this time of intimate contemplation. What is one concrete thing you can do to solidify these gifts in your life?

Image credit: The Flight into Egypt (1647-1650) by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo via Wikimedia

Eat and Drink the Full Presence of Christ (Contemplating the Easter Mysteries IV)

Published on May 7, 2023April 19, 2023 by Sr. Kathryn J Hermes, FSP2 Comments

In the Easter season, we the baptized reflect on how we have the amazing grace at each Eucharistic celebration of being brought to the table to eat and drink the full presence of Christ. Saint Gregory of Nyssa wrote: “Faith is the womb that conceives this new life, baptism the rebirth by which it is brought forth into the light of day. The Church is its nurse; her teachings are its milk, the bread from heaven is its food” (Oratio 1 in Christi Resurrectionem),

Jesus “addressed these words to us: Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in you. Daily it is before our eyes as a representation of the passion of Christ. We hold it in our hands, we receive it in our mouths, and we accept it in our hearts” (from a sermon by Saint Gaudentiu of Brescia, Tract 2).

To break open just how amazing this is, I want to share with you an image that comes down to us from Cyril of Alexandria. In the 5^th Century he was the Patriach of Alexandria and is considered a Church Father and Doctor of the Church. This great bishop and teacher used the image of melted wax to help people understand their union with Christ through the Eucharist. Imagine that you are making homemade candles. After setting the pot over a heat source, you would add wax, sometimes different pieces of wax, and then allow the wax to melt. The resulting candle is a new piece of wax. The first piece of wax is now in the second, and the second is in the first. In the same way, when you receive holy Communion you are truly partaking of the flesh and blood of Christ. When you nourish yourself on the Eucharist you are now found in Christ and Christ is found in you, as we see in the image of the two pieces of wax that have been melted together. Saint Cyril of Alexandria said it this way: “For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who receives the flesh of our saviour Christ and drinks his precious blood, as he says, is found one with him…so that he is found in Christ, Christ again in him (On John 4.2).

One hundred years earlier, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem taught the faithful of his diocese about the Eucharist. What we believe about the Eucharist today is exactly what this great Saint taught the newly baptized in the 4^th Century. We know this because his teaching is recorded in a very important document called The Jerusalem Catecheses.

On the night he was betrayed our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said: “Take, eat: this is my body.” He took the cup, gave thanks and said: “Take, drink: this is my blood.” Since Christ himself has declared the bread to be his body, who can have any further doubt? Since he himself has said quite categorically, This is my blood, who would dare to question it and say that it is not his blood? Therefore, it is with complete assurance that we receive the bread and wine as the body and blood of Christ. His body is given to us under the symbol of bread, and his blood is given to us under the symbol of wine, in order to make us by receiving them one body and blood with him. Having his body and blood in our members, we become bearers of Christ and sharers, as Saint Peter says, in the divine nature (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, From the Jerusalem Catecheses, Cat 22 Mystagogica).

Through our partaking of Jesus’ body and blood in the Eucharist, Jesus dwells in us. The theological doctrine for this ontological change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus is transubstantiation. This word began to be used in the twelfth century and was accepted by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and approved by the Magisterium. The word transubstantiation indicates that “once the substance or nature of the bread and wine has been changed into the Body and Blood of Christ, nothing remains of the bread and the wine except the Species—beneath which Christ, whole and entire in his physical ‘reality,’ is even corporeally present” (Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, no. 47).

From the very beginning of Christian history, holy men and women have reflected on Christ’s presence in the Eucharist and have taught that the sacred transformation that occurs in the eucharistic liturgy is a sign and a cause of the transformation that should occur in the lives of all those who receive this great sacrament of Christ’s love.

We can see, then, why St Cyril of Jerusalem taught that Christians truly receive in the Eucharist a share in Christ’s body and blood, become of one body and one blood with Christ, and thus have become Christ-bearers who share in the divine nature through the Eucharist (cf. D.R. Hawk-Reinhard, “Cyril of Jerusalem’s Sacramental Theosis,” Studia Patristica, LSVI, pg. 248). Through partaking in the Eucharist we participate in life, because Christ is Life by nature.

With the concluding hymn of Mass, our attention could get captured by figuring out how we will maneuver our way out of the Church parking lot or arrive at the next event for the day on time—perhaps athletics or brunch or a project at home. Saint Gaudentius of Brescia teaches us that the heavenly sacrifice instituted by Christ, the Eucharist, “is our sustenance on life’s journey; by it we are nourished and supported along the road of life until we depart from this world and make our way to the Lord.”

The Eucharist supports us on our life’s journey through the rest of the week!

Jesus in the Eucharist teaches us how to walk through life’s maze of joys and struggles and tears. Diognetus wrote in a letter in the 2^nd or 3^rd Century state that there is something extraordinary about the lives of Christians, about our lives, yours and mine.

“And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. …Any country can be their homeland, but for them their homeland, wherever it may be, is a foreign country. … They live in the flesh, but they are not governed by the desires of the flesh. They pass their days upon earth, but they are citizens of heaven. Obedient to the laws, they yet live on a level that transcends the law. Christians love all men, but all men persecute them. Condemned because they are not understood, they are put to death, but raised to life again. They live in poverty, but enrich many; they are totally destitute, but possess an abundance of everything. They suffer dishonour, but that is their glory. They are defamed, but vindicated. A blessing is their answer to abuse, deference their response to insult. For the good they do they receive the punishment of malefactors, but even then they rejoice, as though receiving the gift of life (The Letter to Diognetus).

We are encouraged to live on this earth as if passing through. Saint Gregory the Great opens up our hearts to the joy of the heavenly feast to which we are called:

Beloved brothers, let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us. To love thus is to be already on our way. No matter what obstacles we encounter, we must not allow them to turn us aside from the joy of that heavenly feast. Anyone who is determined to reach his destination is not deterred by the roughness of the road that leads to it. Nor must we allow the charm of success to seduce us, or we shall be like a foolish traveller who is so distracted by the pleasant meadows through which he is passing that he forgets where he is going (From a homily on the Gospels by St Gregory the Great, pope).

Saint John Chrysostom, however, speaks more directly to the Eucharistic life that we are called to live after receiving Jesus in the Eucharist at Mass. He comments on St. Paul’s words: “Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread” (1 Cor. 10:17). Helping us dig more deeply into the meaning of this verse of the Bible that we hear–and even sing–often, Chrysostom explains how amazing these words of Paul are. It is true that in the Eucharist we have “communion in the body of Christ, as Paul stated in the previous verse. But now, the great Apostle goes further by stating that we are this very body of Christ. “For what is the bread?” Saint John Chrysostom asks. “It is the body of Christ. And what do the communicants become? The body of Christ. Not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consists of many grains, so united that they are no longer distinguishable, and as they still subsist, though their individuality is no longer apparent to the eye because of their intimate union, so are we united one with the other and with Christ. … And so Paul adds: ‘We all partake of the one bread.’ If therefore by eating of the same body we all become that body, why do we not manifest to one another the same charity, and become on in this respect as well?”

O charity beyond all telling!

We have been loved with an endless outpouring of God’s charity. We have become through our partaking of the Eucharist one body with Christ and with each other. And we are called to live in this world a Eucharistic charity that is also beyond all telling! The first Christians were visible to the world around them only because of their love for one another and so should we be known for this same selfless outpouring of love.

Direction for prayer this Easter Season:

At Mass, use images and phrases from this article that you have most resonated with to help you prepare more deeply for receiving the body and blood of Jesus in the Eucharist in Holy Communion and in your thanksgiving.
Reflect slowly on the words of Saint Gregory the Great: “Let us set out for these pastures where we shall keep joyful festival with so many of our fellow citizens. May the thought of their happiness urge us on! Let us stir up our hearts, rekindle our faith, and long eagerly for what heaven has in store for us.” How could your love for the amazing gift of Jesus in the Eucharist bring you greater happiness the rest of the week?
Read the challenging words of Saint John Chrysostom and ask Jesus: What more can I do? “For what is the bread?” Saint John Chrysostom asks. “It is the body of Christ. And what do the communicants become? The body of Christ. Not many bodies, but one body. For as the bread consists of many grains, so united that they are no longer distinguishable, and as they still subsist, though their individuality is no longer apparent to the eye because of their intimate union, so are we united one with the other and with Christ. … And so Paul adds: ‘We all partake of the one bread.’ If therefore by eating of the same body we all become that body, why do we not manifest to one another the same charity, and become on in this respect as well?”

Image Credit: Blessed Sacrament Chapel in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C.