Cura Animarum - Care For Your Soul

For the Lord, Your Maker, Is Your Husband

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 17:53:00 +0000

We get a lot of flak for our Christian perspective on marriage. Thing is, the idea that marriage is something beyond a mere human institution isn't something that Christian just made up. From the time of the exile and onward, God has used the image of marriage as a model of exactly the kind of loving communion he intended for our human family from the beginning. Later, when Jesus comes on the scene we will see the perfect marriage between humanity and divinity...

Reading 4 - Isaiah 54.5-14

Through His prophet, God reiterates the great and abiding love that He has had for Israel from the beginning. A love that is compared to a husband for his wife. Though she has been unfaithful, God's faithfulness has never wavered.

He is speaking to a people whose unfaithfulness to God and the covenant relationship they had with Him has resulted in not just exile, but the total destruction of their Temple, the once place in all of Israel where God's people could come close to their God. The sign, for all of the People of Israel of their God's presence among them.

In the midst of this great loss, they begin to wonder if God has forgotten about them completely, if God has abandoned them and forgotten the covenant He had. Through Isaiah, God assures them that they have not been forgotten. We encounter again the eternal nature of God's fidelity. He will start anew with them as in the days of Noah. God intends a new creation.

Isaiah presents us with an image of God that is filled with tender compassion, a God who, as loving husband, feels nothing but mercy, care and concern for his lost bride. While his people are concerned that their God has abandoned them in their sin and disobedience, God's response is a promise of restoration and renewal. God will adorn his bride with jewels and precious stones and will himself teach them and their children.

This is the restoration of that intimate and loving communion lost on the Garden. A restoration of the sabbath rest in the garden where God and His beloved meet. In the midst of their fear and the sense of loss and isolation, God the loving husband reaches out to His bride to comfort and console.

This husband and wife imagery simultaneously echos imagery found in the Garden of Genesis – it is Adam and Eve living as husband and wife that fully image God in the World – and also lifts up and intensifies the kind of relationship God desires. Now it is not simply that marriage is a metaphor for the kind of relationship God desires, as Adam and Eve together point to some aspect of the divine nature, but through the prophet God tells his people explicitly “your maker isyour husband”.

This is a remarkable intensifying of intimacy made all the more remarkable given that (though this should be no surprise now) this language begins to be used at a time where the separation between God and his people has never been more acute.

Peace and God Bless,

"Why do you cry out to me?"

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 17:19:00 +0000

The Easter Vigil has a way of drawing you into the story of our faith like no other celebration in our Church. Besides the Exsultet, the readings of the Vigil are what I look forward to most each year. That's why I was so excited when one of our assignments for my diaconate program was a reflection on each of the readings with an eye towards just how these stories from our ancient Israelite past paved the way for the Incarnation of Jesus Christ and his Passion, death and resurrection.

In the first two from Genesis I had zeroed in on the theme of communion within separation that was set in the Genesis creation account. That theme continues in the third reading as God parts waters for His people and continues to ask them to trust in His providential care and concern...

Reading 3 - Exodus 14.15-15.1

“Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Why do you cry out to me?” (Ex 14:15)

God's question at the start of this passage touches on the need to trust once again. God has already led his people out of Egypt and they begin to cry out at the banks of the sea, worried that God has abandoned them.

In this passage from Exodus, God not only proves himself worthy of trust once again, but through the act of displaying just how faithful He is, also invites His people to be re-created. God divides water and makes dry land appear for Israel. A new thing is being created here, a new family for God. As at the dawn of creation, God once more works through division to bring about a new creation, a re-birthing of a people.

This re-creation motif, become the means by which God continues to demonstrate his faithfulness and his desire for true communion. This is the end of an old life of bondage to fear in the midst of separation from God and the beginning of a new relationship of communion between God and His people.

Through this saving action, God underscores the fact that there needs to be a willingness on the part of humanity to be re-created, a messy and often scary prospect. It is an action that again requires sacrifice and a willingness to step into a situation that seems as though it may end us.

This is the kind of radical trust that God is seeking and that we were made for.

I hear God asking me the same question in my life "Why do you cry out to me?". I don't hear it as an admonishment in the face of asking for help. God our loving Father encourages us to to ask for help whenever we need it;

"‘Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened." - Matt 7:7-8

No, the question from God is directed more at despair. It forces me to examine my reaction to the trials and challenges in my life. Do I face them with hopefulness or do I despair? It challenges me to enter into those messy, frightening times of re-creation in trust and faith in a providential Father who will never leave my side.

Peace and God Bless,

Flannery O'Connor and The Sacrifice of Isaac

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 21:57:00 +0000

Continuing my reflections on the readings of Easter Vigil, today I'm looking at the second reading from the book of Genesis, the introduction of Abram and the (almost) sacrifice of Isaac. It's an intriguing reading whose subject matter always gets an emotional rise out of people. It sounds monstrous and barbaric to believe in a god who would demand the sacrifice of children. Of course today we engage in the sacrifice of children on an almost daily basis to no god at all so there's that.

I think passages like this are supposed to knock us back a bit. The visuals they present to our imaginations and the stirrings they make in our hearts force us off our game a bit, something that we need from time to time. Flannery O'Connor (whose short stories I've been enjoying throughout this Lent) got this. When asked about the hard, dark character of her tales she once replied "The stories are hard, but they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism. When I see these stories described as horror stories, I am always amused because the reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror."

We can do this with the Genesis tale of the sacrifice of Isaac, grab hold of the wrong horror. Outraged at the monster we perceive God to be, we forget to see the true horror...that Abram doesn't bat an eye. He lives in a world where this kind of thing is the norm. And in true Flannery O'Connor style, God actively works to shock him out of his world view.

Here's what I wrote about it...

Reading 2 - Genesis 22:1-18

As Genesis chapter 12 opens we are introduced to the figure of Abram, a merchant from Ur of the Chaldees, know as Iraq today and as Babylon to the scribes who eventually wrote these stories down. Abram to some extent is a product of his culture, a culture which, since the Fall of Genesis 3 has been suffering greatly from the growing separation between God and humanity.

Though separation was to have provided a space in which loving communion between God and humanity could occur, the result of the Fall has been the creation of a seemingly insurmountable distance rather than the coming together of creation and divinity that God had hoped for and intended. This is seen most specifically in the human creation of whole pantheons of alternate gods of worship.

Yet God is not content to allow this distance to remain and grow worse, instead He steps in to 're-introduce' Himself to his Creation through the person of Abram. As part of this 'introduction', God tests Abraham by asking him to do something that other gods were asking the people to do - sacrifice his child.

God desires a willingness to sacrifice as the heart of love. Sacrifice is what God did at the dawn of creation. The act of creating separateness between God and his creation – truly a sacrifice on God's part - opened the way for loving communion, but also the opportunity for rejection of that communion. In this 'get-to-know-each other' phase of their relationship God needs to help Abraham become aware of a few things; that God is not like any of the other 'gods' Abraham knows about, that God can be trusted completely and that God is entirely worthy of Abraham's trust, even when it seems as though God is reneging on a promise.

From the start of the story God has asked his people for their trust. Adam, who was charged with protecting the Garden and all that was in it in Genesis 2, is not willing to sacrifice his own self to protect either the garden or his wife. This drastically hampers our ability to enter into the kind of loving communion that God desired from the beginning as love demands both trust and a willingness to sacrifice.

The restoration that God has in mind hinges entirely on humanity being able to re-learn these two essential aspects of the loving God we have been created in the image and likeness of. Only through this re-discovery of this capacity to trust and sacrifice in love can the relationship of loving communion between the human and Divine that God intended in the beginning take place.

A couple of other things are striking about this reading: On the way, Isaac asks about the Lamb for sacrifice only to be told that "God will provide the lamb for sacrifice". Later on, when his hand is stayed, a sacrifice is provided...but it is a ram, not a lamb as we were led to expect. I checked the words in the Hebrew. Isaac indeed asks about a lamb while the animal in the bushed is in fact a ram. We're left hanging then with respect to the sacrifice. As the story ends, we're still waiting for a lamb from God. That's not an accident.

The other thing is my own personal approach. This reading always presents me with a challenge to identify what my own Isaac's might be. What are those things in my life that I cling to and am reluctant to place, with full trust and confidence, into my Father's loving hands? Usually when I hear this reading, I find myself in the days that follow inspired to take stock, to identify and to pray for the grace I need to let go.

Peace and God Bless,

A Communion of Love

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 21:52:00 +0000

To say my postings over these past few years have been sporadic would be an understatement. There have been times when I seriously considered, for the millionth time, turfing the blog altogether due to my inability to be consistent with content.

In the end, I just couldn't bear to throw it all away with the click of a button. Lucky for me (and perhaps you, faithful reader) my diaconate program is forcing me to create scads of content over these past few months and with another three and a half years yet to go I may actually get a bit more consistent in posting things!

With this in mind, I present to you the first of a series of posts I'm calling 'A Communion of Love' based on a paper I put together around Christmas time on the readings of the Easter Vigil. In this series I will walk through the readings of the Vigil with an eye towards just how these particular readings from the Hebrew Scriptures prepare the way for the incarnation of Jesus Christ and the culmination of his mission in his Passion, death and Resurrection.

We begin 'In the Beginning' with the first chapter of Genesis;

Reading 1 - Genesis 1.1-2.2

As the story of salvation history begins, we are given an image of the universe that is formless, empty and dark. Waters are mentioned but I do not believe the intention is that water pre-existed all things. It seems to me that water here represents not much more than the cold, unfathomable depths of the emptiness of the void, an easily recognizable image of the state of things as God began creating.

Having been written later than most of our other texts of scripture, and in response to other popular creation myths at the time of their exile in Babylon, the creation account in Genesis chapter 1 provides very clear understandings of who God is as compared to the claims of the Babylonians and even other cultures that Israel would have encountered during the course of their exiles.

Rather than a battle between the gods, this account includes no war, no violence, no tearing apart of other gods. There is no necessity to creation here, no evil gods that must be vanquished, no need to be served in order to rationalize the creation of people and a world for them to live in. Rather, God simply begins to speak and in an utterly non-violent way, give rise to creation out of simple desire.

There is also no 'divinizing' of creation. Light and dark, sun, moon, stars, water and earth, plants and animals all are created 'things' that are distinct from God and not themselves gods in any sense of the word.

This brings us to what I have found to be one of the most fascinating aspects of this first chapter. In this creation account God creates through a process of separation, separating light from dark, night from day, water from land, sky from ground, humans from animals. What is most intriguing here is that, in the midst of all of this separation, God declares repeatedly that all is good, good and very good.

Though creation and creatures are separate from God, this separation from the start is good, indeed, very good. Even the separation of the sexes in the form of man and woman. This particular point of separation is, in fact shown as the height of goodness;

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,

the birds of the air, and the cattle,

and over all the wild animals

and all the creatures that crawl on the ground.”

God created man in his image;

in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them.

God blessed them, saying:

“Be fertile and multiply;

fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air,

and all the living things that move on the earth.”

This height of separation simultaneously presents us with the height of the human and divine condition. But how can this be? If human destiny is union with the Divine, how is it that such separation from the oneness of God, can be so 'very good'?

I believe that what this goodness of separation is hinting at is, in fact the purpose for God's creative act in the first place. Separation between creation and God, and especially humanity and God and humanity and each other presents a unique opportunity for free, willing, loving communion.

Man and woman, being separate and distinct from each other now have the opportunity to choose to live in loving communion with each other. Being separated from creation, they now have the opportunity to freely live in loving communion with all of creation. Being separated from God, they now have the opportunity to freely enter into a relationship of loving communion with God, sharing the totally of themselves with God in the same way that God shared his own Self with them. The great surprise is that, in choosing to do this, they become sharers in the divine nature of God, capable of imaging God to each other and the rest of creation.

The commission to dominance then is filtered through this idea of sharing God's own divinity. They are given dominion as the image of God and so their dominion is to be a reflection of God's dominion - non violent, prodigally fruitful, a dominion of communion with each other and with all of creation.

This opening chapter provides an essential foundation for the rest of salvation history to follow. It tells us who God is, the source of all that is. It tells us what God has done, given form to formlessness, bringing order to disorder and providing an opportunity for loving communion to exist. And it tells us why God has done all of this, a sheer act of grace, a reflection of a prodigally generous nature that simply desires to share His own goodness with creation and with us and to provide his children with the opportunity to exist as God exists, in a relationship of loving communion with each other, with Creation and with God.

The Sabbath rest becomes the climax of all of this. It is the place where the human and divine meet and sums up the ultimate desire of God, this free bringing together of that which is separate, this loving communion between the human and the divine.

I really love this first reading and the rhythmic poetry within which the scriptures present the creation of the universe. I can't ever listen to it's opening lines without rushing back to that very first Vigil, 18 years ago when Christ welcomed me and my wife to share this blessed Sabbath life, a life of loving communion, forever!

Peace and God Bless,

Hidden Graces In The Lenten Desert

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 06 Feb 2015 14:13:00 +0000

Perhaps I'm the only one this ever happens to. You've just returned from an amazing retreat experience, Bible Study, or even the Mass and, hot on the heels of your spiritual 'high' comes a rush of self-doubt, spiritual deflation, or perhaps anxiety and you begin to wonder if the experience you just had was all it was cracked up to be.

This spiritual roller-coaster was such an integral part of St. Ignatius' own spiritual life that it became a corner-stone of his Rules for the Discernment of Spirits.

With #Lent just a few weeks away, my latest article at Joe Proprocki's Catechist's Journey takes a look at just what Ignatius' Rules have to say about these times of spiritual dryness and gives some insight into how the hidden graces of our spiritual deserts might be turned into opportunities for spiritual growth and maturity.

I hope you enjoy it!

Holy Thursday's Hidden Graces

Peace and God Bless,

CA

The Long Quiet...And Breaking News

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 01:59:00 +0000

It's been a little over a year since my last post. Pretty sure that wins me the 'Worst Blogger Of The Year Award'. I've had good reasons; a parish whose energy and activity has flipped into over-drive, much work at repairing valuable family relationships, two grown-up kids moving back home, and a year spent in deep discernment regarding where God may be calling me next.

It's not as though things have slowed down much, but the writing bug has continued to nip at my heels throughout and my sporadic journalling has only been able to keep it marginally at bay. My continued work with Loyola Press and their DRE Connect has perhaps been the greatest blessing in that respect. Not only has it given me an ongoing creative outlet, but it's helped me to grow more intentional as a writer. Something I have truly appreciated!

As mentioned, in the midst of all of this, I have been engaged in a period of intense prayer and discernment. Over the past few years I have been struggling with a deepening restlessness, a sense that there is something more to come, something more for me to do, but not having a clue what that something might be. Over the past few months, it has finally become clear, or at least as clear as it's probably going to get for right now.

I have spent a year in nearly constant prayer, survived roller coaster meetings with my Spiritual Director, and a seemingly endless and intense series of interviews and psychiatric exams (ok just one of those but it took over an hour!). All of this leading up to my having received a formal invitation this June to participate in our Archdiocese's first ever formation program for the Permanent Diaconate.

Last weekend was the first formation weekend for Melissa and I, the first of 40 spread over the next four years. We are very blessed to be journeying with nine other candidates and their spouses along a road that we never expected to be on.

I find myself a little intimidated by the additional commitment of time and energy. At the same time I'm so excited about this call to deeper service to Christ and His Church and so blessed by His deep faith in me.

In all of this I want to really try to be more faithful to the blog; to share this next part of my faith journey, to grow in faith and share my faith, and to ask continually for your prayers.

Please, pray for me, for my wonderful wife and kids, and my brother candidates and their families. We're sure going to need them!

Peace and God Bless,

CA

#FindIggy - The Gift Of Imagination

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sat, 27 Jul 2013 17:16:00 +0000

Iggy Always Chooses the Standard of Christ!

Iggy and I are at it again and really having a great time with the whole #FindIggy Campaign (which you can read about here if you haven't a clue as to what I'm talking about). Today's mission is to discover God in the midst of one's imagination.

Ignatius was a great fan of imagination as an essential gift for growing closer to God. From the creative gifts of art, poetry and writing which can act as outward expressions of faith, to the interior imagination that, while important for giving birth to these external art forms, is capable of it self to draw one into a deeper experience of God's activity and will.

Some of my favorite parts of the Spiritual Exercises are those mental imaginations that he uses to encourage us to reflect on aspects of our relationship with Christ that we wouldn't otherwise think of. For example, in the mediation on the Two Standards, Ignatius invites us to imagine;

"...a great plain in the region of Jerusalem, where the supreme commander of the good people is Christ our Lord; then another plain in the region of Babylon, where the leader of the enemy is Lucifer...Imagine the leader of all the enemy in that great plain of Babylon. He is seated on a throne of fire and smoke, in aspect horrible and terrifying.

Consider how he summons uncountable devils, disperses some to one city and others to another, and thus throughout the whole world, without missing any provinces, places, states, or individual persons." (Exercises 138-141)

I have always found the imagery conjured by this imaginative meditation to be powerful, intriguing and exceedingly revealing. I am always struck by the insidious nature of the evil I am invited to witness, sneaking forth like thieves in the night, minions infecting all my relationships, all my activities, all of my actions, hopes, desires. Thankfully, Ignatius does not leave us there, but invites us to shift our gaze away from these fields of Babylon with their potential for hopelessness and despair, towards the opposite, opposing plain where we are invited to;

"In contrast, gaze in imagination on the supreme and true leader, who is Christ our Lord.

Consider how Christ our Lord takes his place in that great plain near Jerusalem, in an area which is lowly, beautiful, and attractive.

Consider how the Lord of all the world chooses so many persons, apostles, disciples, and the like. He sends them through the whole world, to spread his doctrine among people of every state and condition." (Exercises 143-145)

From the "throne of fire and smoke, in aspect horrible and terrifying" to the place of the rightful King "Lowly, beautiful and attractive". My imagination, which has run wild since I was three years old and sat in the dark of my room so very certain that the rocking chair across from my bed was slowly, and terribly moving back and forth, now leads me to the source of all goodness, all beauty, all light, all hope. I am strengthened and encouraged as I see how my Lord, my Beloved responds to all of these threats to my spiritual safety and how equally insidious are his "persons, apostles, disciples and the like". In my mind's eye and picture is painted, an epic battle on the plains of my ministry, my family, and the community in which I live. I see the lines drawn, I see the tactics of the enemy and I see the great, hope-filled light that shines forth from my Lord and i Know, beyond all knowing, that I never fight alone.

One of the dangers of living in a world that demands attention be paid only to those concrete realities we can see and touch and feel is the loss of imagination. Whether it be art, music, dreaming, pottery, poetry - however it manifests in your life, it is a gift Ignatius saw as central to deepening our awareness of the great power and love of God, and of our own response to that love.

If you'd like more examples of how others experience God through their creative gifts, I'd encourage you to check out a new feature through Loyola Press called "Arts and Faith". I'd also invite you to take some time to think about, the ways might God be inviting you to discover him through the gift of imagination today.

Finding Your Inner Iggy

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 19:16:00 +0000

One of the things I have loved most about the spirituality of St. Ignatius of Loyola is his emphasis on being able to find God in all things. It is the heart of the Examen and the underlying principle of both his Spiritual Exercises and the accompanying Rules for the Discernment of Spirits.

It's not something that is always easy to do, this kind of on-going awareness of God, others, and self. Like a muscle never used, our awareness of God's activity in our lives and the world around us can atrophy and grow flabby.

This is why I'm so excited about the #FindIggy campaign launched this week by my friends at Loyola Press. In the days leading up to the July 31st celebration of Ignatius' feast day, this campaign is a playful, spirit-filled encouragement to not only be aware how and where the various aspects of Ignatius' spirituality, but the deeper call within all he taught, to exercise a more active and intentional awareness of God in all things.

Even in the days leading up to the kick-off, I found myself not just sweating over the intricate design of my own personal 'Iggy Bobble' (pictured below), but also Beginning to think about all those places and activities I might invite him into to highlight the presence of God. The funny thing is, and I believe this was exactly Iggy's intention, the more time you spend exercising intentional awareness, the more intentionally aware you become.

I hope you decide to in some way take part in this week-long adventure of discovery. It is a wonderful encouragement to not only grow in relationship with God, but to celebrate the great spiritual and creative gifts with which he has blessed us all.

Following the week and participating is easy using the #FindIggy tag on Twitter, Facebook, Vine, or Pinterest or via their website at findyourinneriggy.com

Below are a few ways Iggy's has helped open my eyes today...how about you?

I'm blessed that my parish ministry work introduces me to God in surprising places every day!

As we head off to lunch, Iggy tells me that he doesn't need a seatbelt because God's grace is sufficient. I hope he's right, he hasn't seen my driving yet!

We're having wild blueberry and banana smoothies for lunch because Iggy says everything is a gift from God, including my body...so I need to take care of it. I'll try not to take offense Iggy!

Peace and God Bless,

CA

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

We Are Beams of Light

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Tue, 16 Jul 2013 16:06:00 +0000

I woke up today with four or five faith and science-based links in my Facebook and Twitter streams. It must be a science kind of day. One particular video caught my imagination and truly inspired my faith today. The premise put forth by Dr. Gerald Schroeder touched my Ignatian sensibilities deeply and already today has become the source of much fruitful and faith-filled contemplation.

His reasoning is beautiful, simple and deeply moving. He highlights the reality that we were all present at the creation of the Universe, not in bodily form, but as beams of light. These light beams not only came to life, but became cognizant of life, became aware that they were alive; light beams that laugh and feel joy light beams that sing, light beams that love. It is either a freakish accident that light beams became alive, or it is the very nature of light itself to live, to laugh, to love and no accident at all...

"Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light
from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning,
the first day." - Genesis 1:3-4

‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.’ - John 8:12

I hope you enjoy his talk as much as I did:

Faith, Hope and Love

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 15:11:00 +0000

I heard part of this quote the other day on my newest favorite radio station Relevant Radio - a wonderful source of good, Catholic talk radio;

"Love means to love that which is unloveable, or it is no virtue at all; forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all; faith means believing the unbelievable, or it is no virtue at all; and to hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all."

G.K. Chesterton

It can be a challenge to live these virtues authentically all of the time. But, as Chesterton suggests, it is in the challenge that they truly become virtues worthy of attaining. Through my experience with the Spiritual Exercises I've grown used to 'walking boldly into the fray' and actively seeking the kinds of challenges to virtue that will help me to grow more profoundly into the person God created me to be.

This is found most specifically in the graces for each week of the Exercises which find one asking for things like 'shame and confusion' in the face of sinfulness, or tears, or interior suffering with Christ in his passion...intense! Yet I found such amazing opportunities for growth in the midst of these bold, counter-intuitive kinds of requests that I have really tried to continue asking for challenging graces; opportunities to grow in forgiveness, for a deeper conversion of heart, for the kinds of challenges that will help me to grow more deeply in faith. The kinds of challenges to virtue that will help me to acquire another of my favorite graces from the Exercises "To know Christ more intimately, to love him more intensely, so to follow him more closely."

Have you ever outright asked God for a particular challenge to help you to grow in one of these virtues? Would you? If you did, which one would you choose?

Faith Formation For Parents: Bruce's Story

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 17:08:00 +0000

Just in time for Father's Day, my latest article has just gone up at Loyola Press' DRE Connect. In it I recall my encounter this past year with a member of our parish whom I had met a few times during the course of his kids' sacramental preparations. His story really became, for me, a powerful confirmation from God that I was indeed on the right track with respect to the emphasis we had begun to place on helping the parents grow in their own faith.

I had been telling parents for years how important their own relationship with God was for their children's faith lives. It's pretty hard to introduce someone to a person you don't know yourself harder still to convince your child how vital a relationship with Christ is for them if they can plainly see that it isn't important to you. Kids always know the truth behind your words.

This particular story began with a man who was just going through the motions. I remember him at that first meeting in the fall, I remember praying for him specifically afterwards and I remember how powerfully his transformation affected me at our Confirmation and Eucharist celebration this spring. If there's one thing that I should have included in the article, but didn't (the 500 max word count is killing me, but making me a better writer at the same time!) it would have to be my own prayer component. 'Bruce's* story' taught me in a very explicit way, just how vital my own prayerful support of the parents and families in our formation programs is.

I hope you enjoy the story as I wrote it out. I certainly am thankful to God for gracing me with the opportunity to live it;

Faith Formation for Parents: Bruce’s Story

*Name changed to protect privacy

Help Me To See

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 20:39:00 +0000

The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius are a hidden jewel in the treasury of our Church. For those who may not know much about them, the Spiritual Exercises are a series of prayerful contemplations both on the Word of God, and on a variety of additional themes that help to deepen our awareness of God's continuing activity in our lives, our love of God, and our desire and willingness to follow Him.

One of the key threads that runs through the Exercises is that of awareness. That particular activity of paying attention to what is happening within, and what is happening without and through that awareness, developing an deeper understanding of who God is, how God works, and what God is inviting one to do. It's about seeing. Refining and focussing our vision.

As the Exercises draw to a close, Ignatius begins to encourage that vision to move out from one's own self and into the world. To look and see and experience in the world around us, how and where this God whom we've come to know continues to sustain all of creation, all people, and ourselves through His great love. It is an invitation to become profoundly aware of God's on-going, sustaining grace in the wonders of the created world, and in the lives of our brothers and sisters, friends and neighbours.

This too takes vision. It takes a particular kind of seeing that we do not readily engage in. Too often my days breeze by without much thought at all given to the sweeping variety of wonders and glories of creation that God has placed before me. I don't often stop to pay attention to how God continues to sustain all of His works, how He provides for the needs of all creatures, or the great blessing of a warm sunbeam on my face, or the sounds of rain pattering on the ground outside my window. I don't easily see God's hand in my relationships, both those grace-filled ones, and the challenging ones.

I don't see. I need help.

This is another thread that runs through the Spiritual Exercises, the invitation to ask for help. Each Exercise begins with a request for grace, a particular grace. It is an action that forces me to identify what, exactly I need. It gets me used to placing my particular needs before God, and paying attention to how God answers those needs.

This whole spiritual process of growing in awareness, and growing closer to Christ is summed up beautifully in Jesus' encounter with poor, blind Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52). Jesus meets Bartimaeus in Jericho, always an interesting place in the Bible. Jericho just happens to be, the lowest piece of real estate on the planet. At least on dry ground. At 800 or so feet below sea level, Jericho is the lowest place you can stand without getting your feet wet. So here is Jesus in Jericho, the lowest place on the planet, and he meets a man who lives there, who is blind.

Bartimaeus has been blind his whole life, living in Jericho which is not only the lowest place, but also one of the richest. In a valley fed by both surface and underground streams, on a crossroad of trade. It was pretty flush. Here is Bartimaeus and in the midst of all this material wealth he is blind and poor. He's been like this his whole life but today something different happens. Today some small bit of grace breaks in. He hears that Jesus is near and, suddenly aware of the gravity of his need, he cries out "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!". Voices nearby (we all have voices like this when we're looking for a way out of our poverty and blindness) try to get him to shut up.

Just accept that you'll never see. Accept that this isn't for you. Deal with it.

Here is grace again. How many times in his life did he want to cry out, but silenced himself? We don't know. But today he cries again, "Son of David, have mercy on me!". And Jesus hears and he draws the man to him, this poor, blind beggar who has summed up the courage to cry out. He draws Bartimaeus to him and he asks him a question, "What is it you want of me?"

Does Jesus really not know what Bartimaeus might want? Does God really not know what I want? What I need? We're told that God knows all our needs, even before we give them voice. Jesus knows its not enough. Its not enough that He knows what Bartimaeus needs. It is not enough that He knows what we need. We need to know it, and we need to say it. We need to look our need head on an admit we are in need. "Blessed are the poor" Jesus proclaimed on the mount. Blessed are those who know they are in need.

Its not even enough that Bartimaeus has already recognized that he needs Jesus, this son of David. It is not enough that we say, 'I just need you Jesus. Come on...work your magic!' As Ignatius encourages in his Exercises, we need to be specific, to ask for exactly what we need, not for Jesus' sake, but for our own.

"Master, I want to see."

"Master, Jesus, I am blind. I have been blind and in this lowest of places for so long. I have been surrounded by bounty and riches for so long, surrounded by goodness, and your sustaining grace for so long...but I can't see it. I want to see!"

How many days, months, years have our eyes longed to see all of the goodness and glory, all of the wonder and majesty of God? How long have I lived poor and blind to the multitude of ways that God has and continues to sustain my life and my soul?

In the second point of his 'Contemplation on the Love of God' Ignatius invites the pilgrim who has been walking ever closer to God and becoming ever more aware of the active presence of God in her life "...to look how God dwells in creatures, in the elements, giving them being, in the plants vegetating, in the animals feeling in them, in people giving them to understand: and so in me, giving me being, animating me, giving me sensation and making me to understand; likewise making a temple of me, being created to the likeness and image of His Divine Majesty..." and then he invites us to ask, "How am I to respond? What am I to do?"

Bartemaus knew the only thing he could do, the only response that makes any sense at all in light of the great, life and love sustaining graces of our God, "Immediately he regained his sight and followed him on the way."

Lord, grant me today, the grace of vision. Grant me to be deeply and profoundly aware of your loving, creative activity in the world around me, and the world within me and grant me the courage, the strength and the irresistible desire, to follow you, and you alone on your way. Amen.

Peace and God Bless,

Sustaining Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Tue, 28 May 2013 15:40:00 +0000

What else have I in heaven but you?
Apart from you I want nothing on earth.
My body and my heart faint for joy;
God is my possession for ever. - Ps 73

"'If we have received good from the hand of the Lord, why should we not endure evil?' (Job 2:10) It is a great comfort in tribulation if, in times of adversity, we recall the gifts our Creator has given us. Nor will overwhelming sorrow break us, if we quickly call to mind the gifts which have sustained us." - St Gregory the Great

These two lines were kind of like a double whammy from the Lord this week in prayer. There seems to be a dissonant dichotomy between God as the source of all joy, and the invitation from St. Gregory via Job to also be willing to 'endure evil'. I've been hearing that call a lot lately. Who doesn't I suppose?

As I pray, my initial reaction to Gregory is one of suspicion. It sounds like a platitude, 'count your blessings'. I've been in times of tribulation and adversity, when all Hell is almost literally breaking loose and the world seems to be falling apart around you. Tearing a page out of a 'Gratitude Journal' sounds like some cruel joke in times like those. Just more fuel for the fire.

Yet it strikes me that what Gregory speaks about is not a simple, pedantic list of nice things. My eyes are drawn to the key he gives "quickly call to mind the gifts which have sustained us"

There are gifts and then there are gifts. There are passing things which have brought me passing pleasure and then there are those true gifts which bring lasting peace, hope, love...gifts which sustain.

There is a sign on my office wall intricately carved in wood, carefully stained and hung where I will see it every day. It has hung on the wall for the last 12 years. Over the last two weeks four different people have drawn my attention to it, asked about it and remarked on it's appropriateness. It was gifted to me by my father before things fell apart. Sometimes it seems to look on it and still feel comfort and peace, still feel hope. But mostly it feels exactly right;

"Today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday, and all is well"

Lord, help me to never forget your constant blessings and the myriad of ways your graces sustain me, even in the midst of sufferings. Amen.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

Finding God In The Details

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Wed, 22 May 2013 23:43:00 +0000

We got a new toy a few weeks ago, a new Canon Rebel T3i and it has been a lot of fun. One of the things that has surprised me, is how much the exercise of looking for that 'perfect' shot has affected how I view the world in general. As Melissa and I walked through Wascana Park this past weekend, on the hunt for 'curves' as a result of this week's challenge via Digital Photography School's wonderful site, not only did I find myself increasingly aware or how beautifully curvaceous our world is, but of all the other amazing details that surround us.

It was truly an exercise in the kind of awareness that St. Ignatius invites and challenges us to develop through his Spiritual Exercises as a whole and the Daily Examen in particular.

Photography, even in these exciting early stages of this new-found hobby, has already begun to change the way I look at the world around me. I find I am noticing little details of this great and awe-inspiring creation that would previously pass beneath my notice, little gems, joys, beauties, and surprising perspectives formerly unseen and unsung.

I feel so greatly blessed by the overflowing cup of grace-filled invitations God has brought my way. This new lesson in contemplative vision is simply another in a string of soul-expanding and gratitude-creating gifts.

I know you've been hearing this so often from me Lord, but thank-you so much for continuing to lovingly urge me to grow ever more close to you and for helping me find you in the wonderfully surprising details of this amazing world!

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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Pentecost Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sun, 19 May 2013 16:25:00 +0000

"Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created; and you will renew the face of the earth, alleluia."

O God,
who by the mystery of today’s great feast
sanctify your whole Church in every people and nation,
pour out, we pray, the gifts of the Holy Spirit
across the face of the earth
and, with the divine grace that was at work
when the Gospel was first proclaimed,
fill now once more the hearts of believers.
Through our Lord jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
– Amen.

May the world you move through be wholly and entirely sanctified by the gifts of the Spirit you bear. Have a blessed, grace-filled Pentecost!

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A Morning Prayer

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:12:00 +0000

I want to give this day to you Lord. The entirety of my day. From its beginning to its end.

I want to give my family to you Lord, my wife, my son, my daughter. All of the love and hope and all of the dreams I have for them. I place them into your hands, for I know your love for them outshines any love I hold in my frail and weakened heart.

I want to give you all of the talents and gifts you have blessed me with, to lay them at your feet, offer them in your service. I don't know what you can or will do with them Lord, but I am so excited to find out!

Be my companion today, my shepherd, my guide. Though there are times I am afraid of falling, with you, I know no fear.

Amen.

May you have a wonderfully grace-filled day!

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Life Within

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sun, 12 May 2013 17:23:00 +0000

I thought this was a wonderfully touching prayer for mother's and children on Mother's Day. Moms help us all to see the great gift that life truly is;

Prayer to Mary, Mother of the Life Within

O Mary, Mother of the Life Within,
all life we entrust to you;
The life of every expectant mother
and the child within her womb:
The life of every human body,
the life of every human soul;
The life of every newborn child
and the life of all grown old.
You held the Lord to your own heart
and drew Him so close in.
So draw us now in all our needs,
O Mother of the Life Within.
Amen.

Blessings to all moms, moms to be, and especially those who find themselves to be unexpected moms.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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A Pretty Good Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 10 May 2013 15:46:00 +0000

For those who have stuck by this blog over the years, you will be very well aware of my hunger for writing...it's kind of why I started a blog in the first place. A few of you will be even more familiar with the desire, the frustrations, the self-doubts, and the hopes in trying to find anyone interested enough in what you have to say to actually publish what you've written.

All that being said, I'm extremely excited today to let the world know about the acceptance of my very first freelance article by the wonderful people at Loyola Press, especially Denise Gorss and specifically their DRE Connect site. No only were they happy to accept and publish this first effort; "Where Have You Been, Lord?: Praying the Examen with Your Families", but they've also commission another 6 throughout the year (Yes, that's a total of 7 and I'm taking it for all of the biblical 'New Beginnings', 'New Creation', and 'Covenant' intimations it contains)!

I journalled a few weeks ago about the over-flowing graces that I have been experiencing and been made more deeply aware of over this past Lent and Easter season. I am in such awe, and filled with sure grateful joy at the amazing things God is inviting me to grow into, and the great courage and wisdom He continues to grant me to both discern His will, and discover the inner, spiritual freedom to respond.

So yeah...it's a pretty good day!

Peace and God Bless,

CA

Renewed by Grace

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Thu, 09 May 2013 03:26:00 +0000

This past year and more has been one of amazing spiritual growth for me. Not one, obviously, of a lot of blogging. I suppose when one has to make a choice between blogging and listening to your maker's urgings to spend time and focus energy in other areas, you're always better off going with God.

It has been a time of challenge and a time of true, and unabashed grace. A time of deepening commitment to those things that truly matter; prayer, family, and ministry. It has been a time of renewal, reawakening and above all, a deepening of faith and trust.

If I try to put a finger on where it all began, I would have to start with the commitment I made, over a year ago, to as fully and completely as possible, incorporate a regular praying of the Liturgy of the Hours into my life. Ever since my discovery of this regime of scheduled, regular, ritual prayer, I've fostered a deep desire to make it a part of my spiritual life. Unfortunately, although the desire was there, the discipline has been severely lacking.

Last year during Lent, I made the commitment to pray at least one of the Offices every day. In particular, I would pray Matins, or the Office of Readings every single morning before doing anything else. Though this meant a complete re-ordering of my morning routine, for Lent I was willing to give it. Go.

You might wonder why I chose to focus on the Office of Readings rather than Morning prayer as would perhaps seem to be a more logical choice. In all honesty, it was the second reading that did it. Unlike the other offices of the day, the Office of Readings, or Matins - which means 'morning' or 'beginning of the day' and has been traditionally prayed sometime after midnight as the first office of the day - contains not one brief scripture reading but a much longer scripture passage that is followed by a second reading in the form of excerpts from the writings of the Early Church Fathers, the saints, and Church Documents and Enclyclicals.

It was love at first prayer.

I had discovered, hidden in the midst of this centuries-old liturgical prayer that all members of this grand Body of Christ, the Church, are invited to share, a treasure trove of some of the most spiritually uplifting and inspirational writings I had ever been exposed to. Augustine, Ambrose, Chrysostom, Origen, Bede, an inexhaustible fount of wonderful, spiritual vignettes that fed my soul on a level I have never really experienced before.

Their wisdom has helped me to deepen my faith, my trust in Christ. They have brought a deeper appreciation for this great Church I have been baptized into. They have counseled and guided me through some pretty challenging personal situations. Above all, they have become constant, much needed companions who remain at my side throughout the day.

Two years ago, while journeying through the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, I was struck by one of the grand, visionary meditations his Exercises contains. It was an invitation to meditate on the reality of the whole of the heavenly hosts; all of the angels, saints and martyrs who continuously direct their prayers and their actions to serving, praying for and protecting us. It was a much needed gift and one I had treasured throughout the remainder of the Exercises and beyond. Now, in the Office of Readings, I have finally begun to meet them, these members of the heavenly army of my Lord.

They greet me on my rising, they guide me through my day, and they guard me as I rest in sleep.

The Office of Readings alone hasn't been responsible for the whole of the past year of spiritual renewal, there have been a few other additions to this new, much more monastic life that I have been seeking and finding, additions I will be sure to touch on in future posts. Still, it has become the constant companion in all of my days, that firm foundation I have so sorely hungered for, and, by the grace of God, finally found.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

PS:
If you're interested in learning more about the Liturgy of the Hours, one of the very best resources I have found on-line has to be at www.divineoffice.org. The format they have adopted stays so wonderfully true to the liturgical norms of our Church while also making the often daunting task of figuring out what offices to pray, when and how a breeze by doing all the work for you. You can even listen and pray along with their community through podcasts of all of the prayers, something I've found I absolutely love to do! The materials and podcasts are offered through their site for free but my favorite way of participating is through the very slick apps for iPad and iPhone.

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Gaudete Sunday - The voice is John, the Word is Christ

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:31:00 +0000

I woke up to this wonderful reflection by St. Augustine on the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist, the voice and the Word. I love how Augustine moves his reflections from what we experience and know of our own world, lives and physical being, and shows what they can teach us about the things of God;

From a sermon by Saint Augustine, bishop

The voice is John, the Word is Christ

John is the voice, but the Lord is the Word who was in the beginning. John is the voice that lasts for a time; from the beginning Christ is the Word who lives for ever.

Take away the word, the meaning, and what is the voice? Where there is no understanding, there is only a meaningless sound. The voice without the word strikes the ear but does not build up the heart.

However, let us observe what happens when we first seek to build up our hearts. When I think about what I am going to say, the word or message is already in my heart. When I want to speak to you, I look for a way to share with your heart what is already in mine.

In my search for a way to let this message reach you, so that the word already in my heart may find place also in yours, I use my voice to speak to you. The sound of my voice brings the meaning of the word to you and then passes away. The word which the sound has brought to you is now in your heart, and yet it is still also in mine.

When the word has been conveyed to you, does not the sound seem to say: The word ought to grow, and I should diminish? The sound of the voice has made itself heard in the service of the word, and has gone away, as though it were saying: My joy is complete. Let us hold on to the word; we must not lose the word conceived inwardly in our hearts.

Do you need proof that the voice passes away but the divine Word remains? Where is John’s baptism today? It served its purpose, and it went away. Now it is Christ’s baptism that we celebrate. It is in Christ that we all believe; we hope for salvation in him. This is the message the voice cried out.

Because it is hard to distinguish word from voice, even John himself was thought to be the Christ. The voice was thought to be the word. But the voice acknowledged what it was, anxious not to give offense to the word. I am not the Christ, he said, nor Elijah, nor the prophet. And the question came: Who are you, then? He replied: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way for the Lord.

The voice of one crying in the wilderness is the voice of one breaking the silence. Prepare the way for the Lord, he says, as though he were saying: “I speak out in order to lead him into your hearts, but he does not choose to come where I lead him unless you prepare the way for him.”

To prepare the way means to pray well; it means thinking humbly of oneself. We should take our lesson from John the Baptist. He is thought to be the Christ; he declares he is not what they think. He does not take advantage of their mistake to further his own glory.

If he had said, “I am the Christ,” you can imagine how readily he would have been believed, since they believed he was the Christ even before he spoke. But he did not say it; he acknowledged what he was. He pointed out clearly who he was; he humbled himself.

He saw where his salvation lay. He understood that he was a lamp, and his fear was that it might be blown out by the wind of pride.

O God, who see how your people

faithfully await the feast of the Lord’s Nativity,

enable us, we pray,

to attain the joys of so great a salvation,

and to celebrate them always

with solemn worship and glad rejoicing.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.

– Amen.

Peace and God Bless

The World Is A Prayerful Space

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 19:54:00 +0000

One of my favorite things is taking time each day to walk my dogs: Oliver, our 6 year-old beagle and Piper, who's a year and three month-old black lab/border collie cross.

I (almost) never fail to be amazed at the wonderful, prayerful spaces God has gifted us with in the world. Sometimes I like to stand as still as I can in one spot with my eyes closed and just revel in all the sounds of the world as it moves in, with and through me, and I in, with and through it.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

O Eternal Light!

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sun, 29 Jul 2012 16:32:00 +0000

O Eternal Light,
Shine into our hearts;
Eternal Goodness,
Deliver us from despair;
Eternal Power,
Be our support;
Eternal Wisdom,
Scatter our ignorance.

- Alcuin of York (c735-804)

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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Companion In Prayer - A Haiku

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sat, 28 Jul 2012 14:37:00 +0000

In sunshine's soft light
Lying with your silent prayers
Gift of peace and grace

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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Re-Discovering My Inner Blogger

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:31:00 +0000

It's been more than a year since I've posted anything. At serveral points I had almost decided to walk away from blogging altogether, was even a click or two away from sending the whole thing into the internet void.

I just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Turns out I really like having a space of my own to express my thoughts, dreams, feelings and life experiences. I love the record it holds of my life and all of it's joys and struggles and I love the whole process of writing it all down.

As I've looked deeper at my reasons for not wanting to give it up, it's truly the writing that sits at the heart. I've loved writing and telling stories ever since I was eight years old. I remember very clearly the day my Grade Two teacher, Mrs. Davies, handed us all a double-ruled notebook filled with blank pages. She told us to pick up our pencils and write one word on the subject line - Compositions. After printing it in large block letters across the chalkboard for us to diligently copy, she informed us with great excitement that we would be spending the rest of the year filling them up with stories of our own creation. I loved it!

The book is long since gone, but I still remember my two favourite tales. One was about a snowman who came to life one day...and grew into a terrifying snow monster rampaging through the town destroying everything in sight! In the other, I built a time machine that took me back to the "time of the dinosaurs" where I was chased by an enormous and hungry T-rex and only just barely made it back to my time machine and home safe and sound. Fun times!

A month of summer vacation starts for me today. Among all of the other plans we may have, I really want to make a pledge to myself to post here as faithfully as possible. The thoughts, articles and stories I share now may or may not involve destructive snowmen and hungry dinosaurs, but they will continue to be parts of me none-the-less. This is a promise I'm making to myself and no one else, but I would love for any faithful readers who remain to join me for the ride.

Just be sure to keep the time machine in sight and hold on to your hat.

Peace and God Bless,

CA

To You, O God, We Turn For Peace

noreply@blogger.com (Cura Animarum) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:06:00 +0000

"To you, O God, we turn
for peace...But grant us
too the blessed assurance
that nothing shall
deprive us of that peace,
neither ourselves,
nor our foolish
earthly desires."

- Soren Kierkegaard

Peace and God Bless,

CA

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