Blue Eyed Ennis: Pentecost 2010

Showing posts with label Pentecost 2010. Show all posts

Prepare for Pentecost

There is a candle in your heart,
ready to be kindled.
There is a void in your soul,
ready to be filled.
You feel it, don't you?
You feel the separation
from the Beloved.
Invite Him to fill you up,
Embrace the fire.
Remind those who tell you otherwise that
Love
comes to you of its own accord,
and the yearning for it
cannot be learned in any school.

Rumi

Don't forget to check out the beautiful Novena prayers and wonderful reflections at
Concord Pastor's Blog.

Day Seven's is reproduced here with thanks to Fr.Austin.

Pentecost Novena to the Holy Spirit - Day 7

From scripture:
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.

Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence;
Because you will not abandon my soul to the nether world,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption.

You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever.

Psalm 16:1-2, 5, 7--11

For reflection...• When my heart is restless, burdened, anxious,
do I turn to the Spirit for joy?
• When I lack confidence in myself or others
do I turn to the Spirit to strengthen my faith?

• When I lose my way or stumble on my path
do I turn to the Spirit to guide me and lift me up?

• What will I pray for the Church today?

• The Gifts of the Holy Spirit (as they are named in the Rite of Confirmation) include: wisdom... the spirit of understanding and right judgment... courage... the spirit of knowledge and reverence... and the spirit of wonder and awe in God's presence... For which of the Spirit's gifts will I pray today?

Let us pray...
Come, Holy Spirit of God!
Calm our restless hearts with the peace
that you alone can give.
Soothe and comfort us
when we are troubled in mind and heart
and let serenity be your gift to us.
Grant us sound sleep and dreams
that lead to morning's dawn.
Mend our broken trust and promises
and with your Spirit's strength
make firm our faith when we doubt.

Give us your wisdom and counsel
when we are confused
and don't know where to turn.
When we stumble on the path of holiness,
let your fiery presence light our path.
Teach us to delight in your Word
and to hunger for its truth.Give us joy in our sorrow
and gently wipe every tear from our eyes.
Come, Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your people
and kindle in us the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created
and you will renew the face of the earth.

Our Father.... Hail Mary.......Glory be to the Father

Every Monday Morning Fr Austin Fleming, a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston here at A Concord Pastor Comments posts a wonderful prayer offering that articulates clearly what our hearts often feel but often cannot put into words.
I recommend a visit . The logo to look out for is a great steaming cup of coffee.
So if you are grounded somewhere in Europe underneath a cloud of volcanic ash why not take a moment to pay a visit.

This Monday morning, Lord,
I offer you the prayer that rolls around in my gut,
searching for words, groaning to be expressed,
not yet coming to speech...

I offer you the prayer that haunts my heart,
seeking a place to call home, searching out a corner
where longings and desires long unfulfilled
look for the respite of a soul's restful harbor
where hope might be refreshed...

I offer you the prayer that's on the tip of my tongue
but for which any words of mine seem inadequate,
unworthy, not up to the burden
of bearing a soul's cry from its secret depths
to the heights of your glory...

I offer you the prayers I deem selfish or foolish;
the prayers I think too small to matter
or too large to be answered...

I offer you the prayers I've neglected,
the ones I find difficult to speak
even when the words are at hand
and I need to use them...

I offer you the prayers
your Spirit longs to speak within me:
thoughts, intuitions, words planted long ago,
still waiting to bud, to bloom, to blurt from my heart,
breaking the silence that doubt and fear impose...

I offer you the prayers that lie within me,
living to be whispered, spoken, cried
and shouted from my heart to yours...

Teach me, Lord, to know
that trusting you have heard my prayer with love
is greater than your answering my prayer
as I would have it answered...

Teach my heart to speak to your heart, Lord
and teach my heart to hear
what your heart speaks to mine...

Teach me to trust that when I have no words to pray
it is still a prayer to say,
"Lord, I have no words to pray..."
Teach me to pray that way
and to ask for your help...

Teach me to trust that simply to sit in your presence
in silence,
without a word to say,
is to sit in your presence in prayer...

Make me mindful that I am not alone in this, Lord,
that all who cross my path this day
wait for prayer within to take shape
until a heart's wordless prayer
becomes the prayer of one's lips...

Lord, teach me to pray
when my prayers have words
and when they don't...

Amen.

Gospel John 3 16-21 Reflection

Jesus condemned by Michael D. O'Brien Source

God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son,

so that everyone who believes in him might not perish

but might have eternal life.

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,

but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,

because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come toward the light,

so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.

American poet George Santayana said “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it”.

This very wise statement is true for every generation, and today’s Scripture readings are a call for us to remember our past and correct our mistakes.

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More from Seamus Heaney

“History says, Don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime,
The longest-for tidal wave of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.
So hope for a great sea change
On the far side of revenge
Believe in miracles....”

“The aim of poetry and the poet is finally to be of service, to ply the effort of the individual into the larger work of the community as a whole.” ―

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

and five more......

On his inspiration: 'The completely solitary self: that's where poetry comes from, and it gets isolated by crisis”

On which animal he'd prefer to be: "I might enjoy being an albatross, being able to glide for days and daydream for hundreds of miles along the thermals. And then being able to hang like an affliction round some people's necks."

On fame: "The gift of writing is to be self-forgetful, to get a surge of inner life or inner supply or unexpected sense of empowerment, to be afloat, to be out of yourself. The prizes can’t help you at all.”

On becoming a poet: "My quest for precision and definition, while it may lead backward, is conducted in the living speech of a landscape and a language that I was born with. If you like, I began as a poet when my roots were crossed with my reading."

On authority "At home in Ireland, there's a habit of avoidance, an ironical attitude towards the authority figure. "

Easter Hope All Year Round

Celestial spirit that doth roll
The heart's sepulchral stone away,
Be this our resurrection day,
The singing Easter of the soul -
O gentle Master of the Wise,
Teach us to say: "I will arise." ~
Richard Le Gallienne

"The great gift of Easter is hope - Christian hope which makes us have that confidence in God, in his ultimate triumph, and in his goodness and love, which nothing can shake."
-- Basil C. Hume

Celtic Christianity may offer us a lifeline in the form of an approach to faith which is rooted in the imagination...[Celts] excelled at expressing their faith in symbols, metaphors and images, both visual and poetic.
They had the ability to invest the ordinary and commonplace with sacramental significance, to find glimpses of God’s glory throughout creation and to paint pictures in words, signs and music that acted as icons opening windows on heaven and pathways to eternity
Ian Bradley The Celtic Way

Favourite Quotes from Pope Francis

“Thanks to magnanimity, we can always look at the horizon from the position where we are. That means being able to do the little things of every day with a big heart open to God and to others. That means being able to appreciate the small things inside large horizons, those of the kingdom of God.

This offers parameters to assume a correct position for discernment, in order to hear the things of God from God’s ‘point of view.’ … However the risk in seeking and finding God in all things, then, is the willingness to explain too much, to say with human certainty and arrogance: ‘God is here.’ We will find only a god that fits our measure. The correct attitude is that of St. Augustine: seek God to find him, and find God to keep searching for God forever.”

-- Pope Francis

Carlo Caretto's Love Letter to His Church

How much I much criticise you my church and yet how much I love you !

You have made me suffer more than anyone and yet I owe you more than I owe anyone. I should like to see you destroyed and yet I need your presence.

You have given me much scandal and yet you alone have made me understand holiness. Never in the world have I seen anything more obscurantist, more compromised, more false, yet never have I touched anything more pure, more generous or more beautiful.

Countless times I have felt like slamming the door of my soul in your face – and yet, every night, I have prayed that I might die in your arms!

No, I cannot be free of you, for I am one with you, even if not completely you.
Then too – where should I go? To build another church?

But I cannot build another church without the same defects, for they are my own defects. And again, if I were to build another church, it would be my church, not Christ’s church. No, I am old enough. I know better!"

Did the Woman Say ?

Great Quotes

A blank piece of paper is God's way of telling us how hard it is to be God.

Sidney Sheldon

There are things you can’t reach. But
you can reach out to them, and all day long.
The wind, the bird flying away. The idea of God.
And it can keep you as busy as anything else, and happier.

Mary Oliver

“A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.”

– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person."

~Rumer Godden, A House with Four Rooms, 1989

“And

"
"You can get all A's and still flunk life."

"Lost in the mystery of finding myself alive."

Walker Percy

"The day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom”

A tough life needs a tough language-and that's what poetry is. That's what literature offers- a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place.
Jeanette Winterson

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”

- C.S. Lewis

The independent hearts of Celtic descendents everywhere still yearn for the solitary place, still rejoice in the goodness of creation, still see the Lord beside them as they walk, still see Him in the face of friend and stranger. The gospel light with its eastern fire still gleams. The truth still lingers in the heart.
Pat Robson – The Celtic Heart

People are itchy and lost and bored and quick to jump at any fix. Why is there such a vast self-help industry in this country? Why do all these selves need help?

They have been deprived of something by our psychological culture. They have been deprived of the sense that there is something else in life, some purpose that has come with them into the world."

-- James Hillman

Loyalty to the country always. Loyalty to the government only when it deserves it.
--Mark Twain

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
--George Orwell

We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice: - we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.
-- George Orwell

Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your own experience or convictions.
--Dag Hammarskjöld

If you want to build a ship don't herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
— Antoine de Saint-Exupery

For what are we, without hope in our hearts, that someday we'll drink from God's blessed waters?"
-Bruce Springsteen

"Sometimes grace works like waterwings when you feel you are sinking."
-Anne Lamott

"A prayer may be a wordless inner longing, a sudden outpouring of love, a yearning within the soul to be for a moment united within the infinite and the good, a humbleness that needs no abasement or speech to express it, a cry in the darkness for help when all seems lost, a song, a poem, a kind deed, a reaching for beauty, or the strong, quiet inner reaffirmation of faith. A prayer in fact can be anything that is created by God that turns to God."

Paul Gallico

"God does not die when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illuminated by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason."

Dag Hammarskjold

When asked if I am pessimistic or optimistic about the future, my answer is always the same: If you look at the science about what is happening on earth and aren’t pessimistic, you don’t understand the data. But if you meet the people who are working to restore this earth and the lives of the poor, and you aren’t optimistic, you haven’t got a pulse. What I see everywhere in the world are ordinary people willing to confront despair, power, and incalculable odds in order to restore some semblance of grace, justice, and beauty to this world.”

― Paul Hawken

The greatest religious challenge of our age is to hold together social action and spiritual disciplines. This is not just a theological necessity, dictated by the need to integrate all of life around the reality of the living God. It is a matter of sheer survival. The evils we confront are so massive, so inhuman, so impervious to appeals and dead to compassion, that those who struggle against them face the real possibility of being overwhelmed by them.”

~ Theologian Walter Wink

One day you will ask me which is more important? My life or yours?
I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life.

~ Khalil Gibran

Blue Eyed Ennis

Prepare for Pentecost

Gospel John 3 16-21 Reflection

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