SPIRITUALITY 2005

What is spirituality? It’s a long answer and a short space. That’s why this topic will become a series in our Parish Newsletter.

Spirituality is a blending of ones relationship with God and the actions which flow from that relationship. According to Meister Echkhart, "Spirituality is waking up". He has applied Jesus’ teaching, "Stay watchful," (Luke 12:37) to growing in one’s faith.

We are born into the presence of God and baptized as a child of God, but we become present to God only by our consent. As a child we project onto God the models of authority we see around us—parent, teacher, scout leader, coach, etc. Those images help us to see God as loving or scary, as nourishing or judging. How we image God determines the manner in which our spirituality is lived out. As we grow in age, hopefully we also grow in our relationship with God. As we become more aware, our capacity to enter into relationship with God also grows.

We were created to know God and to love God and neighbor. Happiness happens when our purpose is fulfilled. It’s as simple as that, but we know that in the living, that equation sometimes seems complicated and nebulous. There is a natural hunger within each of us for God, although it takes some of us a long time to realize that God is the object of our most basic hunger. We learn slowly.

We live from our center. Therefore it is important to ask, "What is my center?" If God is your center, then spirituality is at the center of every day. If we "stay awake" we will take advantage of every event, every object and every one that touches our lives to draw us to God.

There are many ways to grow spiritually. Different people are attracted by different means. Upcoming articles in this series will probe a variety of spiritual paths.

Maria Hill, csj

If a person desires to grow spiritually, he or she will go to God in prayer. William Berry, SJ describes prayer as "a conscious relationship with God". A relationship with God, like any relationship, grows through presence, spending quality time with that person. A growing relationship with God depends on effective prayer.

"The remarkable thing about God is that he will not force himself on us. He continually tries to arouse our interest in him, to invite us to awareness and a deeper relationship, but he leaves us free to blind ourselves to his presence if we wish, or to refuse to respond even if we are aware of his presence." (Berry) God is always present to us, as in the beauty of a sunset, the awe of a new-born baby, the sadness of a world at war, but we must consciously be aware of God present to us and be moved to respond in some way.

If we think of prayer in this way, any time of the day or night can be prayer time. This is what is meant by the invitation to "pray always".

Often we think of prayer as "saying prayers". But prayer can be silent weeping while conscious of God’s presence, or admiring the beauty of nature. We can pray in the form of petition or thanksgiving or reflection on scripture or saying the rosary or any traditional prayer or worshiping with members of the parish or sitting in God’s presence or examining our conscience at the end of a day. Different ways of praying will appeal to different people and the same person may find different ways of praying more satisfying at different times in his or her life.

When the fruit of prayer is peace, or loving action or a clearer focus of daily activities or a deeper relationship with God, we know that the prayer has been effective, even if it didn’t feel productive at the time we were praying. The end result of our prayer is a desire to be like Jesus, the object of our love.

Maria Hill, csj

Everyone does discernment because everyone makes choices. That daily skill of making choices can be translated to things spiritual, i.e. noticing how and where God is present in one’s life and then responding to the inner promptings of God. That is one way to describe discernment. Another is to say that "discernment is the art of choosing well" (Pierre Wolff )in the significant areas of our lives.

Church parlance sometimes calls it "doing the will of God." One might ask, how do we know the will of God? Ignatian discernment offers a three-step approach:

In true discernment we find ourselves free enough to experience our will as one with God’s will. The process begins with openness and ends with deep interior peace.

Maria Hill, csj

Is the Mass, the Eucharistic Liturgy, an event you treasure or one that you wish you could avoid in favor of a more entertaining activity? If the latter is your most truthful response, then perhaps this article is written for you.

If the Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy can say that the Eucharistic Liturgy is "the fountain from which all her (Church) power flows." And it does. Then if we don’t experience the power, there must be something more we could learn about the Mass or how to celebrate it.

The Mass is the action of the whole body of Christ—the priest, you and me and every Catholic individual. It is only when each person does his or her part that we can create a liturgy worthy of a God who loves us. It isn’t just the celebrant, the homilist, the readers, the communion distributors or the musicians that pray and give thanks, but the whole church. We are all called to participate fully, i.e. to pray together, to listen to the Word of God in the scripture readings and the homily, to reflect on the Word during the silent times, to receive communion that we might be united to God and neighbor, to sing and not just listen to the singing, to pray with our bodies as in the sign of the cross, the greeting of peace, processing, standing, kneeling and sitting at the appropriate times.

The word Eucharist means thanksgiving. We thank God for the gift of Jesus, our Savior. And in the receiving of Jesus in the Eucharist we are untied to God and to one another. The very life of Jesus is within each of us.

The term Mass comes from the Latin words spoken at dismissal, "Ite missa est.", which mean, "Go, you are sent." A priest friend told me once that when he was teaching a class to high school students on the symbols of the church, he asked the group what was the most important symbol in the church. One boy said, "The exit sign." The priest thought the boy was trying to be funny, but he gave him the benefit of the doubt and asked him to explain his answer. The boy responded, "You told us once that the most important thing about the Mass was what we did with our lives when we left the church, i.e. exited through the doors."

That "something we can do" mentioned above might be to prepare better to participate in the Mass. Let me mention two ways: 1) Read and reflect on the scripture passages of each week prior to celebrating the liturgy. The Parish Bulletin always gives the readings for the following weekend. 2) Pray before Mass, as Matthew Kelly suggests, "Lord, show me one way I can become a better person this week." You might share the specifics of that prayer with a member of your family or a friend. When you get home you might journal that one point that God revealed to you and talk with God during the week about how you are applying that hope to your daily life.

If we each participated fully in the Eucharistic Liturgy we could change the world.

Maria Hill, csj

Sacred Scripture

Spirituality Series 5

The Bible is an all-time best seller. It is a unique record of God’s dealings with people over the ages. The Old Testament sets forth the call of a special people to enter into a covenant relationship with the God of justice and steadfast love. The New Testament records the life and works of Jesus Christ, the one whom we as Christians follow. Sacred Scripture has been called our instruction book for living.

We listen to Words from Scripture every weekend. We hear a priest, or someone else share his/her interpretation of these Words. But what about our own understanding and appreciation of this gift from God? Do you read and reflect and pray the words of scripture outside of the Sunday Liturgy?

Many of the Words of Sacred Scripture can be compared to receiving a love letter. What do you do when you receive a love letter from a spouse, a friend, a child, etc.? Most likely you read the letter immediately, then re-read it and probably read it again before you retire for the evening, as well as those times when you feel "down". As you read it you are aware of the words and their significance for you; you experience the feelings those words invoke. It is as if you are in the presence of the one whom you love.

Such is the power of the word whether it is spoken or written. Words have the power to touch us into life, to give buoyancy and a sense of well being. If this is true among us as frail human beings, how much more it is true of the Words of our God.

Each time we open the Scriptures, we open ourselves to God’s own Word, waiting for us with all the power of the word of the greatest friend or lover. When we read or pray the scriptures we are saying by that action that we desire to grow spiritually and God is pleased with our longing.

This is what meditation on the Word of God is about – allowing God’s Word to seep deeply within, to fill our inner being and to bring with it a fullness of God’s presence. That assurance of God’s love nurtures us and moves us to want to want to live as Jesus lived, to make the Word of God, the Good News, manifest in our actions.

Maria Hill, csj

Everyone does discernment because everyone makes choices. That daily skill of making choices can be translated to things spiritual, i.e. noticing how and where God is present in one’s life and then responding to the inner promptings of God. That is one way to describe discernment. Another is to say that "discernment is the art of choosing well" (Pierre Wolff ) in the significant areas of our lives.

Church parlance sometimes calls it "doing the will of God." One might ask, how do we know the will of God? Ignatian discernment offers a three-step approach:

In true discernment we find ourselves free enough to experience our will as one with God’s will. The process begins with openness and ends with deep interior peace.

Maria Hill, csj

"The path of prayer/love and the path of suffering seem to be the two Great Paths of transformation." (Richard Rohr) This is a basic truth born of Christian faith and our personal life experience. We don’t like to admit its truth because suffering is not something we seek or enjoy experiencing.

However, as followers of Jesus, our teacher and model, we must take up our cross and follow Him, who said, "Unless the grain of wheat dies, it remains just a grain of wheat." (John 12:24)

Jesus shows us in His own life, as well as in His Word, that joy and sorrow can be one. True joy is often hidden in the midst of pain. Ask a woman who has given birth, if the pain of child birth isn’t supplanted by her joy in the new life that has been created, the child of her womb.

The cross is symbol of death and life, of suffering and joy. That is symbolically obvious in the cross above Our Lady of Lourdes’ altar. We see there the union of pain and joy, of the cross and the resurrection. Jesus gives us the strength and the grace to accept our own reality, which at any given time has some parts joy and some parts sorrow. We grow in maturity and holiness as we embrace our strengths and limitations, our joys and our sorrows. In other words, when we willingly accept what life offers and respond in a positive manner, we are in the process of being transformed.

The burden of accepting our pain is made easier as we learn about how Jesus carried His cross. We do this through reflection and prayer. Another gift of God that lightens our load is the person or people God places in our lives who stand with us as we suffer. We honor a friend when we entrust our struggles to him or her.

As we age, as we reflect on our life experiences in the light of the Gospel, we learn to live with struggles, with unanswered questions, with paradox. We cannot remove the human condition life hands us, but we can choose how we respond. "There is a Persian proverb that sums it up well: ‘If life throws a knife at you, you can catch it by the blade or by the handle.’" (Riding the Dragon, by Robert J. Wicks)

Maria Hill, csj

I love to read! I always have several books going—a novel, a professional book or article and a spiritual book. The spiritual book takes longer to read than other types of books and I could have the same one on my reading shelf for an entire year, reading only a small portion of it each day or several times a week. No really good spiritual book is a fast read! The words, the concepts are to be read slowly, reflected upon and savored like a fine, well-aged wine, enhanced by time. The ideas are internalized; they become part of us and inform our actions.

To read in a spiritual way is to desire to draw closer to God. "Spiritual reading is reading with an inner attentiveness to the movement of God’s Spirit in our outer and inner lives." (Henri Nouwen) As we read we ask how God speaks to us in the words. If they touch our lives, we are moved to make some sort of fitting response.

Ever since books became available for common consumption, after the invention of the printing press, people have used them to gain knowledge, to satisfy their curiosity or to be entertained. We know that when St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, was ill and recuperating, he turned out of boredom to the only books available to him, a fourteenth-century life of Christ and the lives of the saints. His spiritual reading was the beginning of his conversion.

Spiritual reading gives meaning to our lives. There are many good books about the spiritual life or about people who lived exemplary lives—many more than even a voracious reader could consume in a long lifetime. Some popular spiritual writers are Henri Nouwen, quoted in this article, Joyce Rupp, Ron Rohlheiser. Christmas is coming. It is a wonderful time to gift yourself or someone else with a good spiritual book that will feed the mind and nourish the spirit and be treasured now and for a lifetime.

Maria Hill, csj

Traditionally the New Year has been a time for reflecting on the past with gratitude and looking to the future with resolve. Because of our humanness we often fail to fulfill our new year’s resolutions after a few weeks of promise and success.

When one is serious about personal and spiritual growth, that person finds a way to continually monitor his/her commitment to be the best person he/she can be. One way to "stay the course" is to avail oneself of spiritual direction.

What is spiritual direction? One description of spiritual direction is an opportunity to talk with another person about ones relationship with God and how it impacts ones life (joys and struggles, dreams and fears) for the purpose of growing spiritually. A trained spiritual director will listen and ask questions that can move a person to the depths of oneself. Pat Bergen, CSJ, an experienced spiritual director says that "with spiritual direction a person can move from unconscious living to conscious living. A spiritual director knows that people are much more than they think they are."

Two people, serious about growing spiritually, can accompany one another on their faith journey. Spiritual companions are valuable. But a spiritual director is one trained to listen actively, to question and help the directee to love God more deeply, to integrate the aspects on one’s life and to grow in clarity about his/her purpose in life.

I am a trained spiritual director and would be happy to receive any parishioner serious about growing spiritually by explaining more about the process or by beginning to engage in the process of spiritual direction. I can also suggest other trained directors in the Cincinnati area.

No matter what means you choose to grow spiritually, may your new beginnings enliven you and make 2005 memorable for yourself and all those you love.

Maria Hill, csj

We all like good news and there hasn’t been much of lately in our newscasts and newspapers. However, for people of faith, there is good news every day. It’s the good news, i.e. the Gospel, wherein we are reminded in every chapter that we are loved by God. Love is our most basic need, the most powerful human emotion and the greatest commandment. The Ten Commandments can be summarized by that one word, love. The first three commandments tell us to love God; the remaining seven tell us to love our neighbor. True happiness is found in doing just that.

God loved us first and God will love us always. Our most significant relationship is with God. However, most of us first learned to love by receiving the love of our parents and experiencing unity and a feeling of belonging within a loving family. We were created to be inter-relational beings. We do not live in isolation; we live in relationship to family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and communities like a parish community. We learn from our relationships how to grow spiritually and become what God calls us to be—holy people, who make a difference in our wounded world.

When our relationships are mutual and growing, as with a spouse or a close friend, we share at a very deep level. A really good friend will listen sensitively, forgive any failing and offer support without projecting his/her own needs upon the other or expecting anything in return. Each person experiences a boost in self esteem and a growing trust. A positive relationship with one person gives high motivation for reaching out to others, to make sacrifices for the good of another. That sort of friendship is pure gift! Experiencing such a relationship can only lead to personal and spiritual growth and a more loving relationship with God. As we grow in love with a human person, we grow in love with God and the human family is strengthened. May all of our relationships bring out the best in us and call us beyond ourselves.

Maria Hill, csj

DISCERNMENT

Spirituality Series – 3

Everyone does discernment because everyone makes choices.  That daily skill of making choices can be translated to things spiritual, i.e. noticing how and where God is present in one’s life and then responding to the inner promptings of God.  That is one way to describe discernment.  Another is to say that “discernment is the art of choosing well”  (Pierre Wolff )in the significant areas of our lives.

Church parlance sometimes calls it “doing the will of God.”  One might ask, how do we know the will of God?  Ignatian discernment offers a three-step approach:

1. Movement into the presence and power of God

Prayer is absolutely essential to be truly open to the Spirit.  One must be free within and be able to let go of the need to control the outcome, i.e. allow God to be God.  This is difficult unless we see God as one whose name is Love.

2. Assessment of the data

All possible data must be gathered and critically observed.  One must experience all the accompanying feelings, look honestly at obstacles and blind spots, and join head and heart, i.e. data and feelings.

3. Decision and confirmation

If God’s Word was heard, deep interior peace will be the result when a decision is made based on that Word.  However, peace does not always mean comfort and it never means contentment at having one’s way.  In Thomas Hart’s words, “our deepest want and God’s purpose become one” when we hear God’s Word and act on it.

In true discernment we find ourselves free enough to experience our will as one with God’s will.  The process begins with openness and ends with deep interior peace.

  Maria Hill, csj

ADULT FAITH FORMATION

“For adults to fulfill their roles in this new era of the church, their faith formation must be lifelong, just as they must continue to learn to keep up in the changing world.”  (Our Hearts Were Burning Within Us: Statement of the U.S. Catholic Bishops)

Our Lady of Lourdes offers many ways to accomplish this, as do many other parishes in Cincinnati.

For the 28^th consecutive summer “Make Straight the Way of the Lord” offers enrichment sessions for adults.  This effort is sponsored by the Cincinnati Religious Educators Association and the Office of Religious Education in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.  These summer workshops or courses are offered to spark growth in the faith life of the participants.  They are valuable for parish catechists, as well as for any adult who desires to grow in his or her faith.

Courses are offered at four different parishes in Cincinnati (Corpus Christi, Good Shepherd, Immaculate Heart of Mary, St. Ignatius.  We list here those taking place at St. Ignatius for your information.

 + June 30; 7-9 p.m.                             Coloring the Seasons (Jeanne Hunt)               $15

 + July 7, 8; 7-9:45 p.m.                       Introduction to Scripture (Fr. Shappelle)        $15

 + July 19, 20, 21, 22; 9-11 a.m.          Jesus (Al Cucchetti)                                        $25

 + July 26, 27, 28, 29; 9-11:45 a.m.     Christian Morality (Gerald Barney)                $25

 + July 26, 28; 7-9:45 p.m.                   Basic Beliefs (Patricia Douglas)                      $15

 + July 27, 29, Aug. 3, 5; 7-9:45 p.m.   Catechetical Process (Carolyn Meyers)         $25

If you desire further information, i.e. offerings at other churches, course description, etc., please contact Maria Hill, csj, at the POC (922-0715, mhill@lourdes.org).

SPIRITUALITY ARTICLE

SERVICE

During the Holy Thursday service we at Our Lady of Lourdes reenacted the washing of the feet at the Last Supper, recalling Jesus’ action.  The New Testament is full of incidents where Jesus acted out of love.  In addition, there are over 250 times that the word love is used in the New Testament.  Every Christian knows that love is Jesus’ message in word and action.  We are called to love God and neighbor.  Loving our neighbor is the way we know that we love God

Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, is celebrated May 15 this year.  The disciples of Jesus received Jesus’ Spirit of Love on that first Pentecost and it empowered them to go out and share in the Mission of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is a fire moving Christians to reach out to those in need, to continue the work of Jesus on this earth.

Many Our Lady of Lourdes parishioners are involved in outreach activities through the St. Vincent de Paul Society, jail ministry, bringing communion to the homebound, or at places like Tender Mercies, Our Daily Bread or St. Michael Supper Club.  Others serve through Meals on Wheels, Habitat for Humanity or Community Land Cooperative of Cincinnati to name a few. 

Doing outreach helps people grow in their ability to respond to the call to “love one another”, to live out the Christian life concretely.  Our call to love begins with true love of self and those closest to us, i.e. various communities to which we belong (family, friends, co-workers, and parishioners).  The call of love also invites us to bring “good news to the poor, sight to the blind, liberty to captives”, and to reach beyond our natural relationships to those who have great needs that aren’t being met.  We are all one family, all God’s creatures.  It is a privilege to serve any part of the Body of Christ.  In doing so we minister to the whole body of which we are a part.

We are grateful for all the “foot washing” going on at Our Lady of Lourdes.  There are always more feet to be washed.  If you are feeling called to be involved in a way you aren’t already involved, please contact Sister Maria at the POC (922-0715) or mhill@lourdes.org

The last week in April (seven full days) I made a retreat. I took time away from the office to rest, to pray, to reflect on the life and words of Jesus, to review the past year and to fall more deeply in love with God. Annually you will find most men and women religious making a retreat of a significant number of days. But retreats are not just for religious; they are for all serious Christians.

When those unfamiliar with the practice ask me why I make a retreat or what I do during all that time, I find it difficult to describe the experience in a few short sentences. But I will attempt to do that here.

Why would a person want to take time to make a retreat? There is barely enough time to do what absolutely needs to be done during the course of any one day. In a retreat one can revisit the meaning of life and experience peace in the silence that results when one is apart from the normal daily activities and demands. The space created is a fruitful place to renew and deepen one’s relationship with God. There is a hunger for God deep inside each one of us; God created us with that longing, and as St. Augustine so succinctly stated, "Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee".

Without an atmosphere of silence, we cannot hear the whisperings of the Spirit. Daily prayer times allow that; however, occasionally it is necessary to spend more time to take the long view, put the circumstances of our lives in proper perspective and integrate all aspects of life. The Holy Spirit is our guide.

Retreats can be anywhere from a half day to 30 days according to possibility and desire. They can be directed (seeing a spiritual director on a regular basis, usually once a day), preached (listening to a speaker share thoughts on a specific topic two to three times a day), private (orchestrating one’s own retreat with, perhaps, the help of a book). There are also retreats online (e.g. www.creighton.edu/collaborativeministry/cmo_retreat.html). On their website it says, "Welcome to an experience of God’s grace in the midst of our busy lives."

Jesus is our model in this as in all things. "He withdrew into the wilderness and prayed." (Luke 5:16) He told his disciples, and therefore each of us, "Learn from me . . . and you will find rest for your souls." (Mt. 11:29) I was gifted during those April retreat days with "rest" and renewal and greater energy to serve the people of OLL upon my return.

NEWSLETTER SPIRITUALITY ARTICLE

Beauty

“I don’t watch the evening news anymore; it is so depressing.”  You have probably heard that comment or made it yourself.  The news that the major networks choose to broadcast and the daily newspapers decide to print is mostly depressing, yet I continue to watch it and occasionally there is good news sprinkled in with the bad.

There is a great deal of ugliness portrayed in the media.  We have, for the most part, substituted our desire for beauty by skin deep beauty.  Many “mistake glamour for beauty.” . . . and “glamour is highly fickle and commercially driven.”  (John O’Donohue)  The lack of beauty in the media has become the dominant condition in our nation; it is threatening to become the dominant condition in our minds.

Beauty surrounds us wherever we are if we will but see.  However, for many of us, or for all of us some of the time, we cannot see or we hardly notice.  Think of the first time you realized you were loved by one or both of your parents, or by your spouse or a really good friend.  A selfless relationship is a thing of beauty.

Think of that thin green of the new leaves in early spring, or a garden painstakingly attended, in full bloom, or a sunset with intense colors, changing with each passing moment until it appears to rest below the horizon, followed by the darkness awaiting a new day, or a piece of music whose rhythm, melody and masterful rendering, touch the very depths of your soul.

Even in the midst of pain and emptiness a person can (and must) find beauty.  O’Donohue says, “The graced eye can glimpse beauty anywhere, for beauty does not reserve itself for special elite moments or instances; it does not wait for perfection but is present already secretly in everything.  . . . To experience beauty is to have your life enlarged.”

When one experiences beauty the response is reverence or kindness.  Seeing beauty causes a person to want to relate out of his or her best self.  Beauty begets beauty.  Think of the power a reverent attitude can elicit.  By eliciting such power each of us can contribute to good news, to beauty.  And would that beauty would take over the world, as it was in the beginning . . .

Maria Hill, csj

NEWSLETTER SPIRITUALITY ARTICLE

THE EXAMEN

“This prayer process, The Examen, is both simple and profound.  People of all ages can benefit greatly from its practice”  That’s a strong endorsement!  The name examen may cause you to think I am speaking of the examination of conscience used prior to receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Rather, the examen is a simple prayer that keeps us open to God’s love and in touch with the movements of our daily lives, so that we live consciously.  It is a prayer for people who are seeking to hear the voice of God.

St. Ignatius, the founder of the Jesuits, did not invent the prayer, but he is attributed with making it popular.  When the Jesuits at the Council of Trent found themselves really busy, they asked Ignatius if they could skip the examen.  He said that they could skip anything but the examen!

There are many different ways to do the examen and a person could spend anywhere from five to twenty minutes praying in this way.  Following is one simple process.

1. Recall that you are in the presence of God.
   • You might want to light a candle.
   • Be aware of God’s unconditional love for you.
2. Remember your day.
   • Ask God to bring to your mind and heart the moment during the day for which you are most grateful; for which you are least grateful. 
   • There are many different ways to ask the question: When was I most able to give and receive love?  When was I least able to give and receive love?  OR, When did I feel most alive?  When did I feel the life draining out of me?  OR, When was I happiest?  When was I saddest?
   • Allow yourself to experience the memories that come without condemning yourself or planning how you will make changes.  A desire to respond similarly or differently to life the next day may fill you.  Simply let it be.