Reflection: The Manger of Our Hearts

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Conference Reflection by Catherine Doherty, selected by Deacon Steve.

Christ desires to be born in the manger of our hearts. Are the doors of our hearts wide open to receive the shepherds, the Magi, the stray visitors – in a word, humanity? Are they open to receive every person as Christ would receive each one of us? Are they open to receive those around us in our daily life?

Or do we think it enough to make a manger of our hearts so that we might hold Christ unto ourselves exclusively? If so, that was not what He was born for, and He might bypass the manger of our hearts.

Christ told us that, unless we become like a child, we would not enter the kingdom of heaven. We tend to associate children and Christmas in a very sentimental fashion: a newborn baby is “cute”; children are “lovable” creatures. So they are, but that is not what Christ meant. I think he wanted us to have the heart of a child.

What does it mean to have the heart of a child? A child is utterly trusting. A child is totally open, uninhibited, simple, direct, and unafraid. A child believes without reservation.

I pray that this coming New Year will be a year in which we will empty our inner “self” so as to carry the Christ Child comfortably and warmly in our heart. You know, the Child will be comfortable and warm only if we love and trust one another.

Catherine Doherty, “Donkey Bells: Advent and Christmas” p 42 – 43, Madonna House Publications, Combermere, 2000

Coats For Kids

 

Watchful Servants - Reflection by Deacon Steve

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In our lives today there is no limit to the worries we face. Whether economic or financial matters, worries about our families, or our health.  Sometimes, no matter how much we try to remain focused on the important things in our life, remaining positive in our outlook and perspectives, these worries can cause us to be doubtful and maybe even negative about what lies ahead for us in life.

In the Gospel for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time our Lord suggests that we, “Be dressed for action… be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so that they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks…”

The parable about the watchful servant tells us that our Lord will show up at times we do not expect him to. It is a reminder that the Master will surprise us “ordinary servants” while just doing the best we can. For some spiritual writers surprise is another name for grace.

And so with God’s grace opening our hearts
there will occur from time to time special moments
where we will experience the divine, albeit in small bits.

Our Lord knocks on our door in the ordinary course of our lives when we are simply fulfilling our family or job responsibilities, but especially when presented with the opportunity to serve others, including notably, the poor and the suffering.

If we are alert and open the door when our Lord knocks, we will recognize the master arriving from the wedding feast. More importantly, the Master will bring the wedding feast to us, serving us and allowing his abundant life and our life to flow into each other. 

“Blessed are those… whom the master finds alert when he comes… he will come and serve them.”

Poverty of Spirit

 

Spiritual Reading selected by Deacon Steve from
Metz, Johannes B., “Poverty of Spirit”, Paulist Press, New York, 1968, p. 25-26

“God has come to us in grace. Our Lord has endowed us with God’s life, and made our life God’s. In doing this the Lord did not mitigate or eliminate our innate poverty; God actually intensified it and outdid it. God’s grace does not cause estrangement and excess as sin does. It reveals the full depths of our destiny (resulting from God’s salvific initiative in history), which we could not have imagined by ourselves.

A person with grace is a person who has been emptied, who stands impoverished before God, who has nothing of which they can boast…Grace does not erase our poverty; it transforms it totally, allowing it to share in the poverty of Jesus’ own immolated heart.

This poverty, then, is not just another virtue – one among many. It is a necessary ingredient in any authentic Christian attitude toward life. Without it there can be no Christianity and no imitation of Christ. It is no accident that “poverty of spirit” is the first of the beatitudes. What is the sorrow of those who mourn, the suffering of the persecuted, the self-forgetfulness of the merciful, or the humility of the peacemakers- what are these if not variations of spiritual poverty? This spirit is the mother of the threefold mystery of faith, hope and charity. It is the doorway through which people must pass to become authentic human beings.

Only through poverty of spirit do people draw near to God; only through it does God draw near to people. Poverty of spirit is the meeting point of heaven and earth, the mysterious place where God and humanity encounter each other, the point where infinite mystery meets concrete existence.”

Metz, Johannes B., “Poverty of Spirit”, Paulist Press, New York, 1968, p. 25-26

Saint Francis and the Gift of Alms

 

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The following reflection is taken from the Franciscan Spirit Blog: Lent with St. Francis.

“If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” —Matthew 7:11

With passages such as we find in today’s Gospel, it’s not hard to see how Francis decided that relying on other people to provide for the brothers’ needs was a way of living out their total reliance on God.

Once when St. Francis visited Cardinal Hugolino, and the hour of dinner was at hand, he went out for alms, and returning, placed some of the scraps of black bread on the bishop’s table.…When the dinner was finished, the bishop arose and taking the man of God to an inner room, he raised his arms and embraced him. “My Brother,” he said, “why did you bring shame on me in the house that is yours and your brothers by going out for alms?”

To find out how Saint Francis responded to the bishop, read the rest of the reflection here: Lent with St. Francis: The Gift of Alms

Now Is the Time to Reset Our Economy - For Everyone

Illustration by Hurca!/Adobe Stock via YES! Magazine. All rights reserved

Reprinted from the Advocacy Newsletter of the Society of St Vincent de Paul

The pandemic has highlighted how poverty, low wage and precarious employment, a reliance on outdated technologies and a lack of investment in our physical and social infrastructure has created huge disparities in our society. We need to take this opportunity to rebuild our economy with a focus on inclusivity and opportunity for all.

Click on the link below and endorse this letter that encourages our politicians to “lay the groundwork for a strong, inclusive and sustainable economic recovery that ensures no one is left behind in this crisis.”

An Economy for Everyone

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