Daily HOMILY for August 15, 2012: Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cycle B -- Mother Mary: Model for Modern Time

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cycle B

St. Francis De Sales

August 15, 2012

Mother Mary: Model for Modern Time

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

 

Mother Mary

Four years ago, our Church celebrated the Year of Saint Paul.

It was the 2,000^th birthday of Saint Paul.  A priest friend and I had the wonderful opportunity of doing a tour of Turkey – a kind of footsteps of Saint Paul tour.

The guide for the group was a Turkish man named Izeet.  Izeet is a Muslim and we had a number of good conversations with him.

One of our stops was Ephesus.  As you know, in the New Testament one of Saint Paul’s letters is the Letter to the Ephesians, the people of ancient Ephesus.

Well, after touring Ephesus, our guide Izeet had the bus driver take us up a mountain next to Ephesus to the house of Mary.  Tradition says that Saint John brought the Blessed Mother here to Ephesus to live after the crucifixion and resurrection.

Tradition also says that it was here that Mary died and was assumed into heaven.  As we drew near to Mary’s house, Izeet – again, a Muslim man – very reverently spoke of the significance of this house and spoke of Mother Mary.

He referred to Mary very warmly and respectfully as Mother Mary.  It was so touching to hear him, a Muslim, speak so tenderly of Mary – Mother Mary – and of the great significance of this house.

Full of Grace

My thought is that even non-Christians recognize the absolute goodness of Mary.

Mary’s holiness and closeness to God is transparent.  I suggest this is what the angel Gabriel means at the moment of the Annunciation in telling Mary that she is “full of grace.”

Being “full of grace” means that Mary is full of God and God’s life.  It means that she is completely one with God.

And that is why from ancient times, tradition says that at the moment of her death, Mary was assumed into heaven.  She was taken body and soul into heaven to be with God for all eternity.

Hope for Us All

Mary’s Assumption into heaven is a great sign of hope for all of us.  It, or she calls us to allow God to fill us too with his life and to become as one with God as possible.

The, someday we too will be taken up into heaven at he moment of our death.  That is the hope that we celebrated today in Mary, in Mother Mary and in her being assumed into heaven.

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for August 12, 2012: Spiritual Presence for Men In Stressful Times

Summer Snippets: “Spiritual Presence for Men In Stressful Times”

            It’s time to talk about contemplative presence to the guys out there and if you’re a gal, I’d like to talk to the man in your life. The frenetic world men find themselves in today can wear you down. Responsibilities to the family, job, aging parents, volunteer commitments can all come together to get you wrapped around the axel. Not only is there no time left for yourself, but there’s no time to be alone, to be in the presence of God who continues trying to break through into our world.

Last year I was asked by the Retreat and Conference Center at Bon Secours, in Marriottsville, MD, to design a weekend workshop/retreat for men only. It would be an opportunity for men to walk an inner path that can transform the stresses, strains, and challenges at home and at work into productive encounters with the holy, the grace-filled, the center of who we really are. This I have done and I will be offering the workshop/retreat on the 3^rd weekend of September, the 21^st, 22^nd, and 23^rd. The weekend runs from Friday 5:00pm to Sunday 1:00pm.

Participants will explore specific ways for expanding our awareness of God’s ever-abiding living Presence. That Presence, which is always with us, is a source of steady wisdom, gentle guidance, and quiet strength. What emerges from that union is a partnership for compassionate healing and decisive action in the many arenas of our lives. So what can you expect from this time together with other guys all seeking a little space to pull your life together and set it in a new direction that includes God’s transforming presence? You can expect time to decompress and realign yourself with God’s transforming grace. You can expect great meals and lots of rest.  You can expect new insights in how male spirituality differs from female spirituality. You can key into how men of other cultures contact their inner selves and how it gets expressed.

Friday evening begins with a consideration of the unique stresses in men’s lives today. Saturday has us considering male spiritual energy and delving into the types of male roles through which that energy gets expressed today. The day concludes with a presentation on God’s presence as an energy that can empower your life. Sunday morning has a final session on how to keep the energy flowing in your life and the workshop/retreat ends with Mass followed by lunch. So you come after work on Friday and can be home mid-afternoon on Sunday renewed and refreshed.

            The format of the weekend is not a series of lectures, but experiential learning so it’s a bit of instruction, experience, reflection and sharing if you care to do so. What we hope to deliver by Sunday noon is a better understanding of male energy and how we can use it to decrease stress through an experience of God’s Presence. It is a Presence that can make a difference in our life as a man.

            Is there is something in you causing you to pause to consider joining us? If there is take it as an answer to the desire you have for God in your life! If you would like more information on the workshop/retreat you can email me at fathernicholasamato@gmail.com. If you would like to register, go to http://rccbonsecours.com. I hope you will consider joining us.

  Blessings,

Father Nicholas

Weekly HOMILY for August 12, 2012: 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B -- “Breads” and Our “Hungers”

19^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

St. Francis De Sales Church

August 12, 2012

“Breads” and Our “Hungers”

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

A Mother’s Love

The well-known French author Victor Hugo tells a very touching story of an incident taking place at the end of the French Revolution.  It is France, the year 1793.

In the story, a young mother and her two children are homeless and poor.  They have wandered through the woods and fields for several days foraging for food.

They are living on roots, bulbs, and any edible vegetation they can find.  One morning, they see two soldiers approaching and they hide in the underbrush.

One of the soldiers – a sergeant – spots them and orders them to come out into the open.  He then brings the malnourished mother and children before his captain.

Instantly, the captain realizes that they are on the verge of starvation.  In an extraordinary act of kindness he offers the mother a small baguette of bread.

Keeping her eyes on him, she takes it and quickly breaks it into two and gives a half to each of her children.  The children ravenously consume the bread, as the mother watches with eyes filled with contentment.

Understandably sergeant is bewildered that the mother has kept none of the bread for herself. He says to his captain, “Is it because the mother is not hungry?”  The captain replies, “No, Sergeant, it is because she is a mother.”     

 

The Story As a Metaphor

This mother’s love, in the gesture of giving her starving children the bread, is a wonderful reflection of God’s love for us.

The bread is the only thing between life and death for them and she gives it so willingly and they receive it so hungrily.

That half a baguette was for them, literally, their bread of life.

In a similar way, Jesus in today’s Gospel, tells us that God is giving himself to us as the “the bread of life.”

Yes, God is the mother in the story; and yes, we are the two starving children.

Three “Breads of Life”

So what is the bread for us? That is, what are the sustaining elements of nourishment that we can touch, feel, eat, and understand?

I would hold that Jesus does indeed provide us with the “bread of life” and that we have only to notice it and be grateful for it.

For example, has the Word you’ve heard from this ambo/pulpit, the remark of a preacher, or a line you’ve read in your bible, ever sustained you? Got you through a tough time?

Remember at that moment how hungry, famished, ready you were to hear something? And how God reached out and fed you with the bread of life that was the Word?

Or recall a time when you felt unworthy, weak or sinful, and admitting your weakness you hesitatingly came up this very aisle and received the bread of life in your cupped hands?

The taste in your mouth of the bread of angles lingered in your mouth and all was well. All was good again. You know well then the sense of satiation, the curbing of hunger that those two hungry boys felt. And here the bread of life was the Eucharist.

Finally, there is something within us that doesn’t want to have us eat alone. You rarely see someone in a restaurant asking for a table for one. We gather together as a family around a table and it is important to note that the very gathering is life giving.

But look again, the gathering is not just a group of folks hanging out at Bertucci’s or Bob Evans. It’s a group of fellow believers who have been nourished on the same bread of the Word and have eaten the same bread of the Eucharist, and have become the bread of life that is spiritual community. And that, dear friends, makes all the difference in the world!

For we have a place where we belong, a place where we receive consolation in our times of trouble and where we receive challenges in our thinking or lifestyle.

One Qualification: Hunger

Like the two starving children, the only qualification you need to be fed with the bread of heaven is hunger.

Jesus is “the bread of life,” not just for the good or the best or the perfect. Jesus is the bread of life for all of us – human, imperfect, with a mix of virtue and sin, myself included. 

Jesus himself never questions the worthiness of anyone.

Whether he feeds 5,000 on a hillside, 12 at the Last Supper, or the 250 of us here, he does not withhold the gift of bread from those lacking in virtue.  Again, the only requirement is hunger.

So, we’re left with one question to answer for ourselves: How hungry am I?

Weekly HOMILY for August 5, 2012: 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B -- Satisfying Higher and Lower Needs

18^th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

August 5, 2012

St. Francis De Sales, Abingdon, MD

Satisfying Higher and Lower Needs

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

NEEDS AS MOTIVATORS

When I was in graduate studies at Catholic University one of our authors was a social psychologist named Douglas McGregor.

McGregor’s talk a great deal about motivation in the workplace and he holds that, in the workplace and in life in general, our human needs serve as motivators.

Furthermore, our needs as human beings are the reason we move toward a higher goal.  He divides these goals into lower needs and higher needs and then draws an interesting contrast between them.

Lower needs are things like salary, food, and shelter.  Higher needs are things like self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and relationships.

The lower needs differ from the higher needs in that there is a point where the lower needs get relatively satisfied and then no longer really satisfy us.  At that point satisfaction comes only from the higher needs.

For example, money and a nice home and good food will only satisfy to a point.  Unfortunately, instead of moving to the higher needs of self-esteem, self-fulfillment and relationships, we sometimes get stuck in the lower needs.

We dupe ourselves into thinking that more of them, like more money or a bigger home, will make us happier. Unfortunately that isn’t the case because they can never satisfy as the higher need would.

JESUS: HIGHER NEEDS

Being stuck in these lower needs is precisely where Jesus finds the people who are looking for him in today’s Gospel.

Jesus says: “You are looking for me not because you see signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled” – this is a reference to Jesus’ feeding of the 5,000 that we witnessed in last week’s Gospel.  

And then Jesus says: “Do not work for food that perishes” – that is, food that satisfies a lower need.

Instead, he says, “work for food that endures for eternal life” – that is, food that satisfies a higher need. 

Then Jesus identifies three sources for this enduring or imperishable food that satisfies our higher needs.  

IMPERISHABLE FOOD

First, Jesus stresses that real satisfaction comes from relationships and not from things.  He says: “I am the bread of life.”

Underneath this statement is the truth that what is more important in life is persons and not things.  We need to put our energy into relationships because they will satisfy us in ways that material things never can.  

It might be the relationship with your spouse or best friend, with your son or daughter or parent.  Or it might be relating in a respectful and just way with someone at work.

And then, Jesus gets very specific about the relationship that is most important for satisfying our higher needs.  He says: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger.”

In other words, human relationships are important and we need to give priority to them.  But there is an even fuller satisfaction that comes from a relationship with Jesus Christ.

A relationship with him through personal prayer, Scripture, and the sacraments will bring us an inner and lasting satisfaction.  And additionally, this relationship with Jesus can positively affect and in that way enter into our other relationships and make them all the more satisfying.

The third source of imperishable bread that Jesus identifies is really the glue that holds all of them together.  The people ask, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”

And he answers, “Believe in the one he sent.”  So, faith, belief is the glue.

With faith, we live with a vision that there is a Creator who is beyond this earth, who made us and toward whom we move;

That there is a Savior who offers us the light and love and life that deep down we all want;

And that there is a Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, who is always with us, at our very core.  This faith is the glue for our earthly journey and brings us a great inner satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

To summarize, Jesus call us to see the visible bread – the miracle of the loaves and even the bread of the Eucharist – as a sign of the imperishable food that he gives us.

He calls us to seek (1) relationships and (2) himself and (3) faith as the food that will satisfy our highest human needs. 

If we do so, we are seeking “food that endures for eternal life and not food that perishes.”

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for August 5, 2012: Moving from Thought to Experience: The 5 Rests in the Mass

Moving from Thought to Experience: The 5 Rests in the Mass

Last month I had the pleasure of spending the evening with members of the parish liturgy committee. We talked of prayer and how the efforts of the committee contributed to the vibrant liturgies that are celebrated here at St. Francis De Sales. A topic we began discussing was how the Mass could be more of a spiritual experience rather than simply a series of words, prayers and songs. In other words, how could we move the celebration of Mass from a largely cerebral activity to a more deeply heart-felt one? With this great question in mind, I found the readings of the Sunday that followed the meeting perfect for preaching on this very topic. You may recall the Gospel where Jesus has his disciples “come away to an out the way place to rest a while.” I would like to suggest that the same invitation can be made to us when celebrating Mass, “to come to that inner space, that inner room of our hearts in the midst of the Mass and experience God’s special presence.”

            I began the homily that weekend by noting that in music we have what is called a rest. The rest is simply a slight pause, a space, a silence between the sounds. In itself, the rest is nothing, however in relationship to the other notes, it is crucial. The rest provides a moment to get your breath, to reflect, or to highlight.  It makes the music a beautiful composition instead of just a series of notes.

Jesus invites the apostles to rest a while from their busyness.  He does this because he knows that a prayerful rest, first of all, helps us to appreciate and place in perspective what we have been doing. And second, a prayerful rest prepares us to say and do what comes next in our lives.  In other words, as in the case of a musical piece, life and prayer can be just a series of words and actions without these rests. The prayerful rest brings wholeness and a certain beauty to our life and our prayer. Yes, it does much the same as the musical rest does for a piece of music.

There are times for such a prayerful rest within our celebration of Mass. For example, right at the beginning of Mass, the priest asks us to recall our human need for healing, our sinfulness.  As soon as he invites us to do this, there is a rest. And we have a moment, a few seconds, of silence.  This brief space puts us in touch with our need for forgiveness. The words asking for God’s forgiveness or mercy that follow can only make sense after this rest.

Then after we sing the Glory to God the priest says, “Let us pray.”  And again, there is a pause, a rest. In this rest, we silently open our minds and our hearts to God and express our intention to have God come to us here in the Mass.  This prepares us for the prayer that concludes the silence. It’s called the Collect because it collects together the silent prayers that we have all just offered.

After the homily, there is yet another pause, space, or rest.  By this time, we have listened to three passages from Scripture and to the homily on them by the priest or deacon. Here we pause and let the words sink into our minds and then into our hearts a bit or to ask what idea or cluster of words speak to me. The Profession of Faith, which follows, feels right and makes sense, if we have first had this moment of rest.

During the Eucharistic Prayer, there are actually two rests.  After the priest pronounces the words of consecration over the bread and then over the wine, there is a pause, a silence as the bread and then the wine are shown us. Here the rest awakens us to what is happening, something beyond words.  It enables us to realize that we are actually repeating what Jesus did at the Last Supper.

And finally, there is a rest after all have received Communion and the hymn is completed.  This silence makes us aware that we have received the Lord Jesus himself, that we have actually consumed his Body and Blood under the forms of bread and wine. This pause is there to help us sink into God’s presence within us at that moment, with the taste of wine still on our lips and of bread still in our mouths.  It also helps us to live with that awareness as we leave church and go about our everyday lives.

So, much like a musical rest in a glorious piece of music, the rests in our celebration of the Eucharist makes this “masterpiece” more than just a series of words, gestures, and song either of our speaking to God or God speaking to us. The rest helps us to experience and revel in what is being proclaimed or what is about to be proclaimed.  It makes our prayer a direct experience of union with God. I look forward to seeing you again next Sunday when you can “come away and rest a while.”

Fondly, 

Father Nicholas                                             

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for July 22, 2012: Why Some Fall While Others Have It All

Summer Snippets: Why Some Fall While Others Have It All

Did you ever wonder why some people stumble and fall, while others seem to have it all? I have! What I have also noticed is that as I grow older and hopefully a bit wiser I begin to realize how much I truly have received by God and in the very simple act of noticing, even more becomes available. It’s a bit like poking a hole in a rising batch of dough and instead of the mound deflating it rises all the more. And what comes to mind are the words of Jesus, “Whoever has, will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.” I believe the parable has to do with what you do with what God has given you. The important thing is to note it, see it, acknowledge it. The second is to give thanks for it. Let’s take a look at each of these little nuggets.

Noticing and giving thanks in a regular consistent way is to acquire the habit of gratitude, for the sake of remembering it, let’s call it acquiring an “attitude of gratitude.” In recent years I have been able to do this and it wasn’t a difficult habit to form. Every night before retiring I simply take a few minutes to give thanks to God, making a mental list of five things that I can recall from that day for which I am grateful. They don’t have to be big things. They can be as ordinary and simple as having a nice chat with the young person at the checkout counter at the Giant, or that a rescheduled appointment gave me an extra hour to work at my desk, or I had enough leftover meatloaf from this evening to make a sandwich tomorrow for work. In addition, the items may be things that initially were not seen as a blessing, but now are. For example, it could be a fellow worker’s outburst at work has really cleared the air and created at atmosphere that is helping us to work things out or that sprained ankle has really slowed me down a bit and the past few days I’ve been able to smell the roses.

Do this noting of five blessings consistently and possibly in 21 days three things begin to happen. First you will begin to notice more and more of God’s blessings to you, blessings that previously didn’t even show up on the radar, so to speak. Second, you will begin to see some things that at first were not perceived as blessings, can now be considered so. Third, you begin to experience the blessings as they are taking place, that is, in the moment rather than solely as a memory of them after they have occurred. An additional note on this point: isn’t it a bit odd how the memory of the vacation or the memory of the wonderful dinner in that new restaurant, or the memory of the excitement over the first ride in the new car all bring more joy and satisfaction in remembering them than in the original experience of them? They say that’s true because we go through our lives living each day as if we are sleepwalking. This remembering of five things each evening will help you “wake up” to the gifts of God that surround us every moment.

So if you wonder why some people stumble and fall, while others seem to have it all, check out their “attitude of gratitude.” You could have it all as well. All it takes is noticing and giving thanks.

Fondly,

Father Nicholas

PS. Several have asked for past Summer Snippets. Weekly Snippets and homilies can all be found on FaceBook. Simply search for Father Nicholas Amato.

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for July 22, 2012: Seeing with Your 3rd Eye

Summer Snippets: Seeing with Your 3^rd Eye

You don’t have to spend hours in silent prayer to experience contemplative presence. That is not to say that 10 or 15 minutes every day in silence before the Lord cannot be a wonderful way of recharging your batteries and receiving the grace to live a rewarding day.

This week I would like to look at how some summertime activities can make a big difference in your transformation, simple things like a stroll after supper, watering the garden, or walking the dog. I would like to look at a very practical way that can help you notice lots of things you’ve been missing, things that can be understood to be a sort of private revelation of God to you in the ordinariness of things. The practice is Seeing with your 3^rd eye.  Yes, I realize we only have two eyes, but it’s the third eye or way of seeing that will take you into a whole new dimension of seeing and believing. Stay with me.

Richard Rohr, a contemporary and well-known author in the area of contemplative presence, speaks of seeing with three eyes. To explain it he tells a story of three men who stand before a large oak tree with the afternoon sun casting its shadow through the layers of leaves. One man sees the immense physical dimensions of the mighty oak: its height, enormous trunk and grand canopy of leaves. This man is the “sensate” type who, like 80 percent of the world, deals with what he can see, feel, touch, move, and fix. This is enough reality for him, for he has little interest in larger ideas, intuitions, or the grand scheme of things. He sees the mighty oak with his 1^st eye and this is good.

A second man, however, sees the same tree a bit differently. He enjoys the sun shading each series of leaves differently and the gentle breeze turning each leaf a different shade of green. He delights in all the beauty that the first man does, but like all lovers of thought, technology, and science, he also enjoys his ability to make sense of plant life and explain what he sees. So he thinks about the nurturing roots that feed the tree, the leaves that will soon be changing into the many shades of autumn color. Through his imagination, intuition, and reason, he sees with his 2^nd eye, which is even better.

The third man, however, sees the sun dappling the hundreds of leaves, knowing and enjoying all that the first and the second men do. But in his ability to progress from seeing to explaining to “tasting,” he remains in awe before an underlying mystery of life that flows between him and the tree, a flowing that connects him with the tree, making him physically part of it, receiving its nutrients, luxuriating in the sunlight, bearing fruit with it. After all, the same creator made them both from the same matter. Both were nurtured on the same water and nutrients. And both were in a unique relationship of interdependence. Without the tree’s ability to take sun energy and convert it through photosynthesis to a different form of energy, without animals eating its fruits or returning its decayed leaves to the ground to replenish nutrients, he would not be standing there. He uses his 3^rd eye, which is the full goal of all seeing and all knowing. This seeing is the best.

What sort of reality between him and his followers was Jesus seeing when he tries to explain the mystery of their relationship by using the comparison of the vine? Recall in John 15, where he says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit —fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. This is my command: Love each other.”

This sort of reality cannot be seen much less understood and lived out with the 1^st or 2^nd eye. It really takes your 3^rd eye! Imagine what is out there waiting to be revealed? All it takes is seeing properly.

Fondly,

Father Nicholas

Weekly HOMILY for July 22, 2012: 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B -- The Musical Rest

16^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

July 22, 2012 / 9:00 and 11:00am

St. Francis De Sales Parish, Abingdon

The Musical Rest

(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

The Musical Rest

Most of us probably know that in music, we have what is called a rest.

The rest is simply a slight pause, a space, a silence between the sounds.  For example, Debbie, would you please illustrate this by playing a few notes from the hymn Holy God, we Praise Thy Name – first with the rest, and then without the rest.

I think we can easily hear the difference.  In itself, the rest is nothing, but in relationship to the other notes, it is crucial.

The rest provides a moment to get your breath, to reflect, or to highlight.  It makes the music a beautiful composition instead of just a series of notes.

The Prayerful Rest

In today’s gospel, Jesus invites the apostles to “come to an out-of-the-way place and rest a while.”

He invites them to a rest, a pause, a space, a silence from their busyness.  He does this because he knows that a prayerful rest, first of all, helps us to appreciate and place in perspective what we have been doing.

And second, a prayerful rest prepares us to say and do what comes next in our lives.  In other words, life and prayer can be just a series of words and actions without this rest.

The prayerful rest brings wholeness and a certain beauty to our life and our prayer. 

It does much the same as the musical rest does for a piece of music.

The Rests in Mass

There are times for such a prayerful rest right within our celebration of Mass.

For example, right at the (1) beginning of Mass, the priest asks us to recall our human need for healing, in other words, our sinfulness.  As soon as the priest invites us to do this, there is a rest.

And we have a moment, a few seconds, of silence.  This brief space puts us in touch with our need for forgiveness. The words asking for God’s forgiveness or mercy can only make sense after this rest.

Then, after we sing the Glory to God, the priest says, (2) “Let us pray.”  And again, there is a pause, a rest.

In this rest, we silently open our minds and our hearts to God and express our intention to have God come to us here in the Mass.  This prepares us for the prayer with which the priest lead concludes that silence. It’s called the Collect because it collects together the silent prayers that we have all just offered.

(3) After the homily, there is another pause or space or rest.  By this time, we have listened to three passages from Scripture and to the homily on them by the priest or deacon.

Here we pause and let the words sink into our minds and then into our hearts a bit or to ask what idea or cluster of words speak to me? The Profession of Faith, which follows, feels right and makes sense if we have first had these seconds of rest.

During the Eucharistic Prayer, there are actually two rests.  (4) After the priest pronounces the words of consecration first of the bread and then of the wine, there is a pause, a silence as the bread and then the wine are shown us.

Here the rest awakens us to what is happening, something beyond words.  It enables us to realize that we are actually repeating what Jesus did at the Last Supper.

And finally, there is a rest (5) after we receive Communion, usually after all have received and the hymn is completed.  This silence makes us aware that we have received the Lord Jesus himself, that we have actually consumed his body and blood under the forms of bread and wine. 

This pause is to sing into God’s presence within us at that moment.  It also helps us to live with that awareness as we leave church and go about our everyday lives.

Conclusion

So, much like a musical rest, in a glorious piece of music, the rests in our celebration of the Eucharist makes this masterpiece more than just a series of words, either our speaking to God or God speaking to us.

The rest helps us to experience and revel in what is being proclaimed or what is about to be proclaimed.

It makes our prayer a direct experience of union with God. 

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for July 15, 2012: Putting the Presence into Practice

Summer Snippets: Putting the Presence into Practice

The old saying, “You can’t give what you don’t have” applies equally as well with things in the realm of the spirit, the important intangibles like love, affection, faithfulness, and presence. And when you do have them and are able to give them, what a difference they make in our lives!

I have been talking in this weekly column about contemplative prayer or sitting-in-silence and experiencing God’s presence. A way to do this is to sit in a straight-backed chair with feet on the floor and simply breathe in and out slowly at your own pace. Once you have quieted yourself having breathed in and out five or six times, read a short passage from scripture two times slowly, letting the words sink in. After the second time, take a phrase of 3 or 4 words that shimmer for you, words that stand out as having some special meaning at this moment. Synchronize the 3-4 words to your breathing in and out. When you no longer need the words or awareness of the breathing, simply place yourself in God’s arms and relax. Rest there relishing and savoring the presence. Whenever you are distracted or begin thinking, return to the words in sync with the breathing. The goal is to remain simply aware and delighting in God’s presence. In this state there are no prayer requests, no listening to God’s response. It is pure and simply the state of being before the Beloved. It’s like resting in the eyes and the smile of someone you love dearly and knowing they love you. Remain in that presence for five or ten minutes. You’ll find the time flies by.

When you come out of the presence and back into the present, it is important to ask two questions: What was the experience like and how can what I experienced make a different with a particular person or situation I shall encounter today? This minute or two of reflection is very important, because now it’s fine to think and deliberate. As you look back on the experience of presence you may say, “It was a profound peacefulness I felt” or “My phrase was I will love you always” or “I felt like Jesus was drawing me to himself and holding me close.” Everyone’s experience will be different and unique. But only half the job has been accomplished. The second question is how can my experience make a difference for someone I will encounter today or regarding a situation in which I will find myself. So the profound peacefulness I felt I might share with someone who is a bit upset or rattled by something in their life that happened. My phrase from Jesus, “I will love you always” may have humbled me a bit and now I’m willing to forgive someone who’s wronged me and has never even apologized. I will have the grace to do that to the degree the words of Jesus touched me in the depth of my soul. Or finally, my feeling of being drawn to Jesus and being held close will give me a clear and powerful ability to do that for someone I will be meeting today with whom I may find that difficult to do.

We know all too well from the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountaintop before Peter, James and John that their seeing him in glory was not just for themselves. It was to bond them to him and to strengthen them in their love and service to others. That is why Jesus ignored Peter’s blustery statement about building three tents one for Jesus, one for Moses and one for Elijah. He wanted the wonderful moment of presence to the Lord in glory to continue. Jesus on the other hand said the presence was to strengthen them and they must come down off the mountaintop and get back among the people changed by what they’d seen and prepared to be different with others because of it.

The same is true of our presence to God in contemplation. What happened and how will it make a difference are key points of reflection. What I find helpful is to jot both statements down in a small spiral bound; they’re easy to write in. Don’t spend lots of time on this, rather write one sentence describing the experience and a second stating how it will be used in a concrete situation. My guess is that as you collect these statements over the course of a month and read them over after a while, you’ll begin to see how contemplative presence is making a difference in your life. It will clearly be a case of prayer with muscle, prayer that is transforming and transforming not only you but others in your life.

Fondly,

Father Nicholas

P.S.      To get past copies of weekly Summer Snippets or Sunday homilies simply type “FaceBook Father Nicholas Amato” to get to FaceBook or Blogspot. There are posted both the weekly Summer Snippet and the homily I’ll be delivering that coming Sunday.

Weekly HOMILY for July 15, 2012: 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B -- Maturity Moments

15^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

St. Francis De Sales, Abingdon

July 15, 2012 5:pm and 7:30am

Maturity Moments

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

Zits: A Maturity Moment

Some of us are probably familiar with the newspaper comic strip called Zits.

Zits is about the upsets of a teenager and the challenges of a parent trying to guide one. 

In one episode, 15-year-old Sarah is having a bad hair day. Sarah screams, “I hate my hair.  I should just cut it off and start all over.”

Sarah’s mother calmly suggests, “That’s a good idea, Sarah.  I know some people who would love to have it.”

Sarah responds, “Are you kidding?  Who would want to be stuck with a whole head of this stuff?”

Mom then leaves the room and comes back with a brochure that she hands to Sarah. It’s about an organization called Locks of Love.  Locks of Love makes wigs for children who have lost their hair from chemotherapy.

Sarah peruses the brochure and asks, “So this Locks of Love organization would use my hair to make wigs for kids with cancer?”  Her mom explains, “Yes, and that way your problem becomes somebody else’s solution.”

Sarah just sits there in silence until finally her mom asks, “Are you okay, Sarah?”  And Sarah says quietly, “I think I’m having a maturity moment.” 

the seedbed for Maturity moments

I see today’s Scripture readings as calling us to embrace similar maturity moments. In fact, they call us to a fuller life of personal and spiritual maturity. 

In the gospel, Jesus sends the apostles on a mission. He instructs them to take very few personal belongings.  In other words, they are not to be preoccupied with themselves.

Instead, they are to guide others to what is good and bring personal healing and wholeness wherever possible. 

In our first reading, the prophet Amos is also focused beyond himself.

Amos is trying to persuade government leaders to take better care of the needy.  He does this even to the point of being disliked and unwanted.

Saint Paul in our second reading says that our overall focus is to become holy and giving persons. 

Once again, he calls us not to be self-absorbed, but to be looking beyond ourselves at the bigger picture of life – much as Sarah’s mom was trying to get Sarah to do in the comic strip.

Maturity Moments and Maturity

So the Word of God today calls us to maturity moments and through them to fuller maturity.

Maturity moments are those experiences when we manage to put aside our own personal needs and problems and desires for the sake of someone else.

An example here might be, I may give up going to a concert or a movie or a ballgame to visit someone who is in the hospital.

Maturity moments are those breakthroughs when we realize that we are not the center of the world but only a part of a much larger world. 

Thus, as an American, I may realize that we who have so much are really lessened or diminished when billions of people in Third World countries are dying because they lack potable water and enough food and medical care.

And maturity moments are those holy times when our disappointment at what life has handed us gets transformed into gratitude simply for the gift of life itself. 

Here, instead of going under when things at work aren’t going well, we can thank God for life, health and the ability to work in the first place.

Conclusion

Let our prayer today be that the Lord opens our minds to recognize maturity moments when they come and to open our hearts to embrace them rather than pass them by.

And that once there are embraced, these moments may build into a lifestyle of maturity characterized by Love of God and a genuine caring for others.

Weekly SUMMER SNIPPETS for July 9, 2012: The Ice Cream Wars

Summer Snippets: The Ice Cream Wars

Growing up as children we called them the “Ice Cream Wars.” They took place after we had eaten our supper and my mother, on one or two nights a week, would have ice cream for dessert. Most evenings we had fruit and on Sundays dessert was special: cheesecake from the Custom Bakers in Island Park Long Island, NY.

Each ice cream war would begin the same way, “Paul, I have ice cream tonight. Which would you like, vanilla or chocolate.” “Whatever you have, Mary,” would come the quick response. “I have both, which would you like?” “It doesn’t matter, Mary.” “You’re eating it, Paul, which would you like?” “Whatever is easier for you.” “They are both in the freezer, Paul, which would you like?” The exchanges became increasingly charged with emotion, hand gesticulations, and voice volume. It wasn’t until years later that I referred back to the weekly displays and asked my father why he just didn’t give in and say vanilla whether he liked it or not. His response? “Because it really didn’t matter.” He was just happy and grateful to have the ice cream.

We’re not used to things not mattering. Folks always seem to have preferences and today’s marketing techniques really capitalize on that desire. So what do you get? Try going through the 30 varieties Crest toothpaste and deciding on a single tube to purchase!

St. Ignatius would have loved my father for the saint speaks of a “holy indifference” – not having a preference for one thing or another – when trying to discern God’s will for us. By indifference Ignatius doesn’t mean disinterest. He means being as free as possible by giving up any preference, so God can show me what he has in mind for me. It clears the chatter and considerations from my mind and opens up space to have God “speak.”

What Ignatius meant by indifference was freedom. It is the freedom to approach alternatives for each decision I make with openness, freshness, and freedom. It is the ability to be detached from my own initial biases and to step back. It’s the willingness to carefully balance all the alternatives God may want to set before me. In no way does it mean unconcerned or unimportant. It implies interior freedom.

Every big decision we make carries some baggage with it. Questions like “Should I change my job?” or “Should I take this course?” or “Should we buy a new car?” will have beneath them individuals or circumstances pressuring us one way or the other. Ignatius simply asks us to begin the process of knowing God’s will for us by having a sense of holy indifference so the space for clear thinking and discerning can be created.

Ignatius used a famous image to make his point. Remember the old metal scales that hung in butcher shops? The butcher would put the meat on a sheet of butcher paper and into the large pan and the pointer on the dial pointed straight up to zero when the scale was empty and at rest. There was nothing weighing on either side. Ignatius says that when we trying to make a decision, we should be like the metal pointer, not leaning to the left or to the right of the zero. You don’t want to model the unscrupulous butcher who sticks his thumb on the scale to increase the weight so you pay more for the pot roast. Beginning by assuming that you should go one way or the other could unwittingly cheat yourself out of a good choice.

I began and I end with my father and the Ice Cream Wars. Because he was open to whatever my mother would give him, he would often be surprised to find that she had some strawberry left in the back of the freezer. Whether it’s ice cream or more important decisions before us, try to be as free as possible in approaching the alternatives so God may urge, disclose, or draw you to an alternative you had not previously considered. Holy indifference is the result of God’s grace in us and it is there for the asking.

Fondly,

                        Father Nicholas

Weekly HOMILY for July 8, 2012: 14th Sun in Ordinary Time -- "When it comes to power and weakness, which is stronger?"

14^th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B

St. Francis De Sales Parish

July 8, 2012

When it comes to Power and Weakness, which is stronger?

By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato

 

Lincoln’s Thistle

President Abraham Lincoln was asked on several occasions why he kept an advisor who was a constant critic.

Lincoln told this story.  He said that years ago he had seen a man attempting to plow his field with an old horse. 

The horse had a huge thistle in its side.  Lincoln pointed out the thistle to the farmer and offered to remove it.

But the farmer said, “Don’t remove that thistle!  If not for it, this old horse wouldn’t move an inch.”

Paul’s Thorn

Lincoln’s story helps us to appreciate Saint Paul’s words today.

Paul says that he has a “thorn in the flesh.”  He never says what the thorn is.

Scripture scholars speculate that the “thorn” might have been a chronic physical condition like stuttering, maybe an emotional problem, or some moral fault.  We do know that is was a disturbance for Paul says he begged the Lord to be freed of this “thorn,” but no such luck – it remained.

We may be like Paul in wanting to be freed of the “thorn in our side.”  It might be loneliness, depression, an intestinal disorder, migraine headaches, a bad temper, and on it can go. 

We too can have these “thorns” in ourselves.  And sometimes, maybe often, we just can’t get rid of them and they just won’t leave us.

Power/Perfection/Weakness

Paul goes on to give us an insight into why we have these “thorns.”

He says that God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”  “Power is made perfect in weakness.”

This is a great insight.  Each of us has a certain amount of power – of self-sufficiency, self-determination, even control or influence over others. 

Paul’s insight is that with this power, we can grow complacent.  This is why the farmer did not want Lincoln to remove the thistle from the old horse – the thistle kept him moving!

So, if we are aware of the “thorn” in ourselves, we will not get complacent.  Instead, we will use whatever “power” we have to keep growing.

Also, if we remain aware of our “thorn,” we will be much more inclined to be empathetic with others and their weaknesses.  We will be less quick to judge, condemn, put down, be harsh with others or talk about others.

God says to Paul, “Power is made perfect in weakness.”  Our human power is made perfect in and through our own weakness.

Divine Power

God also says to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.”

So, human “power is made perfect in weakness,” and now divine power or grace helps us to deal with our “thorns.”  It may sound amazing, but divine energy, love, and power flow through our human weakness.

Here is a great irony of our human condition.  When we feel the most broken, divine power is potentially at its greatest.

When we feel weak and vulnerable, we come into touch with the transforming presence of God that is an enormous strength for us.  I have listened to many folks who have shared that they are members of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And I have learned that AA and these individuals really understand what Paul is saying here.  In our human weakness, whatever it is, we need to turn to the Higher Power – to the divine power.

The divine power can help us in our weakness like nothing or no one else.  And with this divine power, with God, death can lead to life.

The cross can lead to an empty tomb. Personal weakness can lead to newfound strength.

And all of this can happen because we realize that we cannot do it by ourselves.  When we are aware of that “thorn,” when we are weak, broken, or frustrated, we yield to the divine.

We turn to the only place we can go.  We let go of self and yield to our Higher Power – to God, to the Lord Jesus, and then great things can happen.

Conclusion

What insight Paul gives us today! “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’” 

For this reason, Paul could say, “I will boast of my weakness, in order that the power of Christ may dwell with me.”