Returning to the Father - Spiritual Reflection

 

Spiritual Reflection - Monday June 14, 2021

Thomas Merton writes, 

“One thing above all is important: “the return to the Father.”

The Son came into the world and died for us and rose and ascended to the Father; sent us His Spirit, that in Him and with Him we might return to the Father… to God who loves and knows, to the Silent, to the Merciful, to the Holy, to God Who is All.” (K. Deignan, “Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours” p. 166-167, Sorin Books, Notre Dame)

Each day as we continue our journey encountering and loving our brothers and sisters, inspired by those Vincentians who have gone before us, we are returning to the Father, allowing God to live in us more and more, until one day when our journey is complete, we will hopefully experience in all its fullness that communion with our Lord. 

The mission of St. Vincent de Paul Society members, the feeding of and caring for our brothers and sisters, and more important, listening and being present to them, hopefully restoring some of their dignity as persons who are created in the image of God, is not a mission that the world appreciates or even sees, for it is carried out mostly away from the main stream of life, at night and out of sight and in places where society would rather not go or even care to know about.

This quiet service is done in such a manner so as to not draw attention to our work and, more importantly, so as to not cause any discomfort to those whom we visit by drawing attention to their situation or condition. In this way we offer respect and dignity and so love people as Christ loves them.

In loving people as Christ loves them we in turn grow in our love of Christ, which opens us to the love of the Father, allowing God to live in us and us to live in God.

And all of this is to be carried out in the deepest humility and simplicity.

Blessed Rosalie Rendu was for all of us as Christians and Vincentians a wonderful example of this. 

A story is told of a visitor who came to see Blessed Rosalie Rendu because of her “fame” in the hope of seeing “something very extraordinary.”

“He was received by Sister Rosalie, who spoke to him in her usual politeness and simplicity, and pursued her accustomed occupations in his presence. After some time, he went to another Sister of the house and he asked to be introduced to the superior, Sister Rosalie. 

On being told that he had just seen her, he exclaimed, “What… is Sr. Rosalie nothing more than that?” 

He had in fact seen nothing in her to distinguish her from others; and could not understand the apparent disproportion between the person and her reputation.” (J.M. Rendu, “The Life of Souer Rosalie”, p. 83-84, London)

The world like this visitor, as we know, does not understand because of the way it measures greatness.

Gene Bowles, whom we recently lost, was a wonderful example of the humble, quiet, peaceful and compassionate way that Vincentians carry out their mission and the fruits that result thanks to God’s grace.

May he and all of our Vincentian sisters and brothers, and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen

(Spiritual reflection by Deacon Steve.)

“... and forgive us the wrong we have done as we forgive those who wrong us.” Matthew 6:12

Spiritual reflection by Denise Bondy, reproduced from the Spirituality Corner of the Ontario Regional Council.

I was baptized and received the Eucharist for the first time at the age of 18, at an Easter vigil, so long ago that it pre-dated RCIA. Although I missed out on many things by not growing up in the Church, I am blessed to remember vividly the details of my sacraments of initiation and to appreciate them with my whole heart. For me the Church is home, shelter, joy and love. I came to this home during the celebratory days of Vatican II. The windows were thrown open. All were welcome. Anything was possible. We sang and danced joyously.

As the years passed the Church and I have experienced some difficult times. There was push-back to progress. Scandal bruised and tarnished the institution that I had entered wide eyed. I was no longer a carefree young woman as I experienced the realities of marriage, work, children, illness and loss. Through it all, faith sustained me. My Vincentian calling and my Vincentian family have sustained me too.

Vincentians are blessed to be called by the God of do-overs. No matter what happens, no matter what our failings, we can return like the prodigal son. When we express sorrow our ‘do-over God’ welcomes us. All is forgiven and we have a fresh start. Because God allows us as many do-overs as we need in our lifetime we must treat others in the same way. God doesn’t put limits on how many times love is given, nor should we.

Our Society’s motto is Serviens in spe – We serve in hope. Knowing our loving, forgiving, do-over God gives us hope. It’s up to us to share our hope with those we serve. We may not express our faith as teachers or preachers but we show our faith as we maintain hope for every household we visit, every meal we serve, every caring deed we perform. Instead of asking “How many times will we help?” we remember that Jesus said we must forgive and allow do-overs “seventy times seven”. We live our hope as we keep doing Home Visits, keep serving and keep loving in Jesus’ name.

Loving God, we ask your forgiveness; we forgive others freely, as you forgive. Amen

Saint Marguerite d’Youville, PATRON SAINT OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL IN CANADA

 

Saint Marguerite d’Youville

Saint Marguerite d’Youville, PATRON SAINT OF THE SOCIETY OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL IN CANADA. An ordinary woman who became an extraordinarily strong woman and SUPER-HERO in the crucible of personal tragedy, suffering and service to the poor.

Read an illustrated story of her life here.

The National Spirituality Committee invited members to submit nominations of Canadian Saints to be considered the Patron Saint of the Society in Canada. Four wonderful nominees were put forward and members made the decision by ballot.

The National Spirituality Committee are pleased to announce that the Patron Saint of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in Canada is Saint Marguerite d’Youville.

An Easter Reflection by Deacon Steve

 

“Why was the Easter proclamation “good news”? What did it mean to those who first heard the message?” Does it still pack the same punch today as it did Easter morning? If not why not?

These are questions that we must always bring to our celebration of Easter, for so often it is merely another feast on the liturgical calendar with little practical impact on individual lives. Peter relates the original proclamation with a sense of joyful wonder. The story is about this incredible God-filled man named Jesus… [and how] what could have been a crushing and tragic end was transformed by the hand of God who raised Jesus from the dead. And now Jesus stands astride all human history as its life-giving power and final judge.”

“…humankind is discovering in Jesus that God is impartial. Rather than being the property of any person or group, God offers grace and mercy to all. We need fear nothing-not even death itself. God was showing humanity not a way to escape the miseries and struggles of the human condition, but how to pass through them transformed.”

- Lewis, SJ, Scott, “ God’s Word on Sunday Year B” Catholic Register Books, Toronto, 2011, p51

Each time we are present to the people who request our services we bring our Lord’s grace and mercy to the people and they experience hope. In turn our Lord’s abundant grace and mercy transform’s us.

May you and your families and loved ones be transformed by the grace and mercy of our Lord as you celebrate the Easter mysteries together or apart! May Christ‘s Easter hope, peace and joy fill your hearts.

God bless

Steve

Blessed Rosalie Rendu - February 7, 2021

This Sunday February 7th, is the feast of Blessed Rosalie Rendu, who was a member of the Daughters of Charity, an order co-founded by St. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac. 

They were founded in 1633, when Louise de Marillac began systematic training of the women, particularly for the care of the sick. The sisters lived in community in order to better develop the spiritual life so as to more effectively carry out their mission of service. The Daughters of Charity differed from other religious congregations of that time in that they were not cloistered. They maintained the necessary mobility and availability, and lived among those whom they served.

It was this congregation of nuns that Jeanne Marie joined at the age of 16, and a few years later received the habit, taking on the name of Sr. Rosalie. Over the years Sr. Rosalie became known for her creative, relentless and effective work in some of the worst conditions, such as revolutions and epidemics, not to mention the horrible poverty and destitution in which the people whom they served were living.

But it was Bl. Sr. Rosalie’s guidance combined with the dedication of the students of the History Conference formed by Bl. Frederic Ozanam that led to the creation of the Conference of Charity, which eventually became the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

This guidance included her gathering the students together after their visits and discuss with her their immediate experiences, motivations and insights; always open to her advice. She would ask them to think and pray about the following questions:

How did I speak with/listen to this family? 

Did I help with an attitude of respect, without being patronising? 

How did my actions and attitudes reflect those of the Gospel? 

Where was God in this experience? For me? For the persons I visited? 

What were my reasons for becoming involved in the first place? 

What connections or otherwise reflected the life of St. Vincent de Paul?

She counselled patience, attentive listening and politeness as values which the young students should honour. 

These meetings contributed to the formation of a solid foundation for the Conferences in practice and in Faith. Rosalie welcomed these enthusiastic young men, and often would say to her Sisters: “How good these young people are. Oh, how good they are.” (Sullivan L. P. 209) 

(Taken from “Our Story, Our Mission: Blessed Frederic Ozanam and Blessed Rosalie Rendu” Prepared by Sr. Margaret Armstrong, Vincentian Leadership Program, Orientation, June 15th, 2015)

As we celebrate Bl. Sr. Rosalie Rendu’s feast, let us also reflect on these questions each time we are out on calls, or even take one question each day when we are praying to our Lord so as to draw closer to the Source, who is Love and who gives us the grace to do the work of the St. Vincent de Paul Society. 

 Blessed Rosalie Rendu, pray for us. 

May she say of us, “How good these young people are! Oh, how good they are.” To all you “young people”!!!!

- Deacon Steve Pitre, Conference Spiritual Advisor

A Special Solidarity - Fratelli Tutti of Pope Francis

 

Here is an excerpt from 'Fratelli Tutti', the latest encyclical letter of Pope Francis on fraternity and social friendship. This excerpt speaks directly to the values and mission of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Indeed, our Society is one of the 'popular movements' referred to at the end of this except. The numbers are paragraph numbers in the encyclical.

I recommend reading this excerpt a number of times - at least three or four times - slowly, silently and aloud. Set aside some time to reflect and pray over these words from a pope who clearly has a heart for the poor. There are a few technical or 'key' words to consider as you reflect: solidarity, service, vulnerability, community.

115. At a time when everything seems to disintegrate and lose consistency, it is good for us to appeal to the “solidity” born of the consciousness that we are responsible for the fragility of others as we strive to build a common future. Solidarity finds concrete expression in service, which can take a variety of forms in an effort to care for others. And service in great part means “caring for vulnerability, for the vulnerable members of our families, our society, our people”. In offering such service, individuals learn to “set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, before the concrete gaze of those who are most vulnerable… Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, ‘suffers’ that closeness and tries to help them. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people”.

116. The needy generally “practice the special solidarity that exists among those who are poor and suffering, and which our civilization seems to have forgotten or would prefer in fact to forget. Solidarity is a word that is not always well received; in certain situations, it has become a dirty word, a word that dare not be said. Solidarity means much more than engaging in sporadic acts of generosity. It means thinking and acting in terms of community. It means that the lives of all are prior to the appropriation of goods by a few. It also means combatting the structural causes of poverty, inequality, the lack of work, land and housing, the denial of social and labour rights. It means confronting the destructive effects of the empire of money… Solidarity, understood in its most profound meaning, is a way of making history, and this is what popular movements are doing”.

How does King Jesus want to be served?

 

Christ of the Breadlines - Fritz Eichenberg

Today's parable tells us that the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, chose once and for all to be in solidarity and identify himself with the lowliest people. Maybe it's time to relegate the Sistine Chapel, awe-inspiring icons, and portraits of the royal redeemer to museums. If we want to respect Jesus' self-portrait, we would do better to contemplate Fritz Eichenberg's "The Christ of the Breadlines," a black and white etching of a slightly stooped, racially indistinct Christ, distinguishable from the destitute women and men with whom he waits by nothing more than how his presence radiates out to them. This etching illustrates Christ's choice to identify with the vulnerable. Whereas humanity tends to envision the divine as the utmost expression of magnificent "things that matter," Jesus tells us to seek God's self-revelation at the lowest end of the scales of power and prestige.

- Sr. Mary M. McGlone, a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondelet

An extract from The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: The king of solidarity published in the National Catholic Reporter

2020 - Fourth World Day of the Poor

 

SSVP and the World Day of the Poor

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the World Day of the Poor

The WORLD DAY OF THE POOR will be held on 15 November 2020 on the theme “Stretch forth your hand to the poor” (Sir 7, 32), drawn from the message written by his Holiness Pope Francis (link to the message is provided below). The World Day of the Poor, established by the Vatican in 2016, is celebrated on the 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time.

Pope Francis published his message and called on people to “stretch forth their hand to the poor”, and warned against “cynicism” and “indifference” of those whose hands are outstretched to accumulate money by the sale of weapons and drugs. “In these months, when the whole world was prey to a virus that brought pain and death, despair and bewilderment, how many outstretched hands have we seen!” said Pope Francis, drawing attention to the actions of solidarity throughout the world to help those most affected by dire poverty.

Pope Francis laments the frenetic pace of life that leads people, who turn a blind eye on poverty, into a “whirlwind of indifference”, but praises the “generosity that supports the weak […], a condition for full human life”. Pope Francis also acknowledged that the Church certainly has no comprehensive solutions to “the silent cry of so many poor”; it’s possible, though, to do much more for the poorest.

Even in times of pandemic, we, as members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, can celebrate the WORLD DAY OF THE POOR in a creative and efficient way. One suggestion would be to get closer to lay ecclesial movements in each parish, with fund-raising campaigns for Conferences (food and hygiene kits, which are essential in these times). 

Another idea would be to offer a greater visibility of the SSVP on the parishes’ and dioceses’ media, while liaising with companies, the government and the mass media, and showcasing the social work of Conferences and Special Works. At the end of the Mass, on 15 November, it would be worthwhile for the Conference President to disseminate the Vincentian mission, vision and values, prompting new members to join the Conferences.

“In any case, the most important thing is to be witnesses of Christ’s love for the most needy, living out the Gospel message, in community, serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice and empathy. Simply with our good deeds, we can do a lot for the poor”, stressed our fellow member Renato Lima, the 16th President General.

As we ponder on 2020’s WORLD DAY OF THE POOR, amidst this health crisis, it must be acknowledged that global extreme poverty is on the rise, with people becoming unemployed and mental health cases increasing significantly. The pandemic has also been a hard blow for the world economy and countries’ wealth, having a devastating impact on families, particularly on young people. The education world has also been turned upside down, with millions of children missing out on school.

Faced with this hostile context, the WORLD DAY OF THE POOR is a great challenge for all of us, as members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Let us pray that the Good Lord will protect us and help us overcome these difficult times. “Sharing with the poor means mutual enrichment. If there are unhealthy social structures that prevent them from dreaming of the future, we must work together to heal them, to change them.” (Evangelii Gaudium: Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, 2013, no 195).

Our founders taught us that we need to reassess our actions by better reallocating our resources, avoiding hoarding, relaxing our internal rules and mobilizing our human and material heritage, to serve the poorest with joy and no complaints, and love them without judgment, bringing the “Gospel of Hope” to everyone.

Click here to read his Holiness Pope Francis’ full message.

Conference Reading - Sharing what we have been given

 

"Let the people we encounter know about God through the lives we lead..."

Conference spiritual reading selected by Deacon Steve.

“If we have to tell people about God, let us tell them about what he has done for us, about what we have personally experienced; the transformation of our fears, the freedom from the prisons of false myths, the passion of our hunger and where it has led us. That is, if we have to speak. Otherwise, let the people we encounter know about God through the lives we lead: by our willingness to bear the pain of forgiving, by our joy in the humblest of tasks, by our laughter even in the darkest moments.

“What we have been given is not only given for us. It is given to be shared. Only in that sharing do we experience what it means to be Church, and if we are truly Church, then we can transform the institutions we now have and thereby create open spaces - those temples and sanctuaries - in which God who promises to be ever with us, can dwell and in which others who are now lost and alienated and searching can dwell and fulfill themselves creatively.”

Williams, S.J., Monty. “Stepping into Mystery: Four Approaches to a Spiritual Life” Novalis Publishing Inc., Toronto 2012, P. 52

You shall not molest or oppress an alien

Following is an extract from a reflection on the Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time by Steven P Millies

The Gospel from Matthew today (Matthew 22:34-40) presents us with the most concise formulation of our relationships and their implications: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment.  The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”  It would be difficult to distill the Christian message more succinctly.  Even the Golden Rule — to love a neighbor as we love ourselves — is not sufficient, because it omits our relationship to God.  We love our neighbor as we love ourselves because God created us both, and because God loves both of us, because we both bear the image of God.  There is a reason why Jesus asserts, “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”  This is everything in one place.

It is the beginning of this week’s reading from Exodus 22:20-26 that may sound the most important note for today: it is a reminder.  “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”  It is no coincidence that reminders like this repeat throughout the first five books of the Bible.  God knows how prone we are to forget.  The covenant is here to help us remember.  We are reminded not only to remember our own bondage, but also that the God of justice knows and sees our deeds.  Justice in the community is found in this remembering and in fidelity to the God who is just and compassionate.

My personal observation and comment on the above is to say that it is surely hypocritical for people who are themselves descended from immigrants and refugees to place restrictions and obstacles in the way of new immigrants and refugees. “You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt.”

The 2020 Christmas Program

Due to the pandemic you will see some changes in how we are able to run our programs this year.  We want to continue to bring joy and ease to the many in our community who struggle throughout the year and especially at Christmas, but we must do so with the pandemic restrictions in mind. 

For the Christmas Program that serves our families, your donation will continue to go towards the purchase of grocery gift cards for parents and gift cards from a local store so that parents can purchase a gift for the children in their family.

For the Giving Tree Program we will not be able to distribute stars and accept gifts to be given to the various homes and residences due to the restrictions of the pandemic.  Instead, we will be accepting monetary donations that we will use to purchase gift cards for those living in group homes and to purchase select gifts that will be delivered to the assisted-living homes for them to wrap and distribute. This is both to keep our volunteers safe and especially those more vulnerable people living in the homes. 

You can donate via Canada Helps at www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/42029.

Even under the current pandemic situation, your gift will still make a difference in the lives of those often left out at this special time of year.  A donation of $20.00 might purchase a pair of warm pajamas or some slippers for a senior in need. A $40.00 donation might purchase a special toy for a child that hasn’t had a new toy since last Christmas.   A donation of $60.00 may go towards food in the fridge for a single mother trying to make ends meet. 

Any amount helps spread the joy and magic of Christmas to those in our community who need our help. We thank you for your continued support and prayers.

If you wish to make an online donation towards our Christmas and Giving Tree programs please click the DONATE button below.

Love and Faith Go Together

 Love and faith go together.
- a relection by Deacon Steve Pitre

"Our work to be fruitful and to be all for God, and to be beautiful, has to be built on faith - faith in Christ who has said, “I was hungry, I was naked, I was sick, and I was homeless and you did that to Me.” On these words of His all our work is based…Faith to be true has to be a giving love. Love and faith go together. They complete each other."
- Saint Teresa of Calcutta

This passage (Matt 25) was the basis for St. Teresa of Calcutta’s conviction that Jesus is present in the poor: with absolute faith in His words, she regarded her apostolate as a service done to Jesus Himself. Her faith in His presence in the “least of His brethren” was so real that every encounter with the poor meant a mystical encounter with Jesus Himself: “We are contemplatives in action right in the heart of the world, seeing and loving and serving Jesus twenty-four hours in the distressing disguise of the poorest of the poor.”

“Where There is Love, There is God” Mother Theresa, ed. Brian Kolodiejchuk, M.C. p. 141-142

Deacon Steve Pitre is Spiritual Advisor to the Newmarket Conference of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Go and Look at Misery - October Spiritual Reflection

 

An extract from the October Spiritual Reflection  by Alain Besner, National Spirituality Committee, Quebec Regional Council

What most astonished Frédéric Ozanam during his university years became a turning point in his life (as happened to Paul on the road to Damascus, Ac 9:1-19, but less dramatically). That was to run out of arguments against those who, in March 1833, were objecting that most Christians paid no attention to the misery of their contemporaries and did not even join forces to alleviate it. Let us read excerpts from his letter to Léon Curnier, Paris, February 23, 1835, where this is mentioned:

The savants have compared the state of the slaves of antiquity with the condition of our workers and proletariat and have found the latter to have more to complain of, after eighteen centuries of Christianity. Then, for a like evil, a like remedy. The earth has grown cold. It is for us Catholics to revive the vital beat to restore it, it is for us to begin over again the great work of regeneration...

The humanity of our days seems comparable to the traveller to whom the Gospel speaks; it also, although it took its way in roads marked out for it by Christ, has been attacked by the cutthroats and robbers of thought, by wicked men who have robbed it of what it possessed: the treasure of faith and love, and they have left naked and wounded and lying by the side of the road. Priests and levites have passed by, and this time, since they were true priests and levites, they have approached suffering themselves and wished to heal it. But in its delirium, it did not recognize them and repulsed them.

In our turn, weak Samaritans, worldly and people of little faith that we are, let us dare nonetheless to approach this great sick one. Perhaps it will not be frightened of us. Let us try to probe its wounds and pour in oil, soothing its ear with words of consolation and peace; then, when its eyes are opened, we will place it in the hands of those whom God has constituted as the guardians and doctors of souls, who are also, in a way, our innkeepers in our pilgrimage here below; so as to give our errant and famished spirits the holy word for nourishment and the hope of a better world for a shield.

That is what is proposed to us, the sublime vocation God has given us.

Read the full spiritual reflection here

Feast day of St. Vincent de Paul - September 27

 

A reflection by Deacon Steve

“…our Lord's work is accomplished not so much by the multitude of workers as by the fidelity of the small number whom He calls." - St. Vincent de Paul

As we celebrate the Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul (unfortunately it falls on a Sunday so it is not mentioned) let us ponder these words he wrote.

There may be times we are tempted to get discouraged or begin to doubt what we are doing in our service to the Lord. The more we give out the greater we become aware that the need dwarfs the work we have done. Somehow it may feel overwhelming. In this time of Covid-19 indeed we are hearing that the rich grow vastly richer and the poor are becoming even more numerous.

St. Vincent reminds us that we are to stay focused on our love for our Lord and our Lord’s people and allow that love to grow ever deeper. We are not to “count” the results or measure as the world does.
Instead, with God’s grace, we are to allow our Lord to open and fill our hearts with our Lord’s abundant goodness, love and mercy, and then go out and be that love for others. That is all the Lord asks of us and God will do the rest.

Deacon Steve Pitre is Spiritual Advisor to our Conference in Newmarket

The Paradox of the Cross

Spiritual Reading, Monday September 14, 2020

Deacon Steve took our spiritual reading last Monday from “The Passion and the Cross”, a book by Ron Rolheiser.

“A man, a God, hangs naked, exposed vulnerable, defenseless, silent, with his arms stretched wide, open for an embrace, and with his hands also stretched open with nails driven through them. Yet strangely, in all that, we don’t see bitterness, defeat and anger. Paradoxically, we see their opposite. This is what real trust, love, and metanoia (un-paranoia) look like.

And I say “look like” because we don’t understand this- we see it. We don’t understand intellectually how giving oneself over in betrayal teaches trust, nor how vulnerability and powerlessness are the real powers that bring about intimacy. But we see this when we look at the cross of Jesus. It is no wonder that so many people - millions, literally – wear a cross as a symbol of love, trust and hope. Unconsciously, they know, however dimly, what theology can never quite make clear to us: namely, that what divides us from each other can only be bridged by the cross of Christ, and that our hope for intimacy and community is not in ourselves but in an embrace that is beyond us. In a cross this is not understood, it’s seen- mystically, not rationally.”

Rolheiser, Ron, “The Passion and the Cross”, Franciscan Media, Cincinnati, 2015, p. 74

Resurrection, Not Resuscitation

Following is an extract from a reflection on last Sunday's readings by Stephen Bevans, SVD and
Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD of the Catholic Theological Union. The Gospel was Matthew 14:13-21, the feeding of the multitude.

It is the generous extravagance and abundance of “the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” that we need to keep in mind in this trying, difficult, almost unbearable time in our lives. We are in that “deserted place” and it is “already late.” If you are like me, it’s not just the COVID-19 pandemic that is terrifying — and that is terrifying enough. It is the racism and hatred that has revealed itself, the shocking individualism that is prolonging the agony of these months, the painful call (for some of us — liberating for others!) to revise our history and our heroes, the dangerous disregard for science and real wisdom that is harming an entire generation. It is the disregard for human lives, especially Black lives today, that is making us pant with thirst. It is a refusal to see the harm we are causing to our planet, and to future generations of plants and animals and human children, that is making us faint with hunger. We desperately need the love of God in Jesus to feed us with hope, with compassion, with patience, with perseverance.

He Had Compassion

Here is an extract from the Pope's noonday Angelus comments on todays's Gospel about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes:

The compassion and tenderness that Jesus showed towards the crowds is not sentimentality, but rather the concrete manifestation of the love that cares for the people’s needs.

Why does God Let this Happen?

Dorothy Day in 1934

Why does God Let this Happen?

(Covid 19 Reflection #5)

This reflection, written by Denise Bondy, Chair of the ONRC Spirituality Committee, is curated from the SSVP Ontario member site "Spirituality Corner"
 https://members.ssvp.on.ca/en/thoughts.php

God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good.
(Genesis 1:31)

The poor you will always have with you.
(Matthew 26: 11)

As I write this, some of Ontario is in Stage 3 of the covid 19 re-opening plan while the rest of us remain in Stage 2. It’s becoming a long, long summer.

How can little ol' me serve other people?

Follow me...

Nowhere in Scripture does Jesus tell his followers to worship him but there are numerous places where he says or commands, "Follow me". Of course this does not mean we should not worship him but it does mean that our first and most important call is to follow him, to be disciples. How do you do that in practice?

Love covers over a multitude of sins

1 Peter 4:8    (Image credit: Zondervan.com)

Whenever I read the account of the sheep being separated from the goats in chapter 25 of the gospel of Matthew I am struck not only by what is listed in the "citation" but also by what is missing: the Ten Commandments are completely missing. The goats are not condemned for lying, cheating, stealing, adultery, fornication, homosexuality - or even murder - but for a lack of compassion! It's all about sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, assisting the sick and imprisoned. Read Matthew 25 and see for yourself.

I am reminded of 1 Peter 4:8: Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.