Gaudete!

Yesterday, Gaudete Sunday, the Advent Sunday of Joy, I had been wonderfully filled with both spiritual and “secular” joy, thanks to a friend from the Venerable English College here in Rome.
I was invited to their 2-part Advent presentation: the first featured Advent and Christmas musical pieces in prayer setting sung by their Schola Cantorum; the second, an entertainment package entitled “A Venerable Christmas Cracker” which displayed the wide-range of artistic talents of the students and staff of the College.

What did I bring with me after the event?
First, the spirit of friendship which was lavishly poured on me.
Second, this piece from St. Bernard’s homily in praise of the Virgin Mother (the Fifth Reading in the First part) which I choose to accompany me in these days of the Christmas novena.
“You have heard, O Virgin, the announcement of the great mystery; the means designed for its fulfillment have been unfolded to you, each wondrous, each replete with joy. “Rejoice, O daughter of Sion, and exult exceedingly, O virgin daughter of Jerusalem."
And because to you has been given joy and gladness, allow us to hear from your lips the answer and the good tidings which we desire, that the bones that have been humbled may rejoice. You have heard the fact, and have believed; believe also in the means which have been explained to you. You have heard that you are to conceive and bring forth a Son, and that it will not be through the power of man, but by the virtue of the Holy Ghost.
The angel awaits your reply, for it is time that he should return to God, Who sent him. We, too, are waiting, O Lady, for a word of mercy we, who are groaning under the sentence of condemnation. See, the price of our salvation is offered to you; if you consent, we shall at once be delivered. By the Eternal Word of God we were all created, and behold we die. By your short answer we shall be refreshed and recalled to life. Adam, with all his race Adam, a weeping exile from Paradise, implores it of you. Abraham entreats you, David beseeches you. This is the object of the burning desires of the holy fathers, of your fathers, who are still dwelling in the region of the shades of death. Behold the entire human race prostrate at your feet in expectation.
And rightly, for on your word depend the consolation of the wretched, the redemption of the captive, the freedom of the condemned, the salvation of your entire race, of all the children of Adam. Hasten, then, O Lady, to give your answer; hasten to speak the word so longed for by all on earth, in limbo, and in heaven. Yea, the King and Lord of all things, who has greatly desired your beauty, desires as eagerly your word of consent, by which He has purposed to save the world. He whom you have pleased by your silence will now be more gratified by your reply.
Hark! He calls to you from heaven: "most beautiful among women, give me to hear your voice." If you let Him hear your voice, He will enable you to see our salvation. And is not this what you have sought for, what you have prayed for night and day with sighs and tears ? Why, then, delay? Are you the happy one to whom it has been promised, or "look we for another"? Yes, you indeed are that most fortunate one. You are the promised virgin, the expected virgin, the much- longed-for virgin, through whom your holy father Jacob, when about to die, rested his hope of eternal life, saying: "I will look for thy salvation, O Lord."
You, O Mary, are that virgin in whom and by whom God Himself, our King before all ages, determined to operate our salvation in the midst of the earth. Why do you humbly expect from another what is offered to you, and will soon be manifested through yourself if you will but yield your consent and speak the word? Answer, then, quickly to the angel yes, through the angel give your consent to your God. Answer the word, receive the Word. Utter yours, conceive the Divine. Speak the word that is transitory, and embrace the Word that is everlasting.
Why do you delay? Why are you fearful? Believe, confess, receive. Let humility put on courage, and timidity confidence. It is certainly by no means fitting that virginal simplicity should forget prudence. Yet in this one case only the prudent virgin need not fear presumption, because, though modesty shone forth in her silence, it is now more necessary that her devotion and obedience should be revealed by her speech.
Open, Blessed Virgin, your heart to faith, your lips to compliance, your bosom to your Creator. Behold, the desired of all nations stands at the gate and knocks. Oh, suppose He were to pass by while you delay! How would you begin again with sorrow to seek Him whom your soul loveth! Arise run open! Arise by faith, run by devotion, open by acceptance.
Mary speaks. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done unto me according to thy word."

And last, but not the least, the fun and laughter. The grand finale, Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus, was the part which delighted me most. It was an imitation of this “piece” – though in a smaller scale - but equally amusing and truly entertaining. Click here and see for yourself.

Advent Attention!

I can’t believe we’re in the beginning of another Liturgical Year, but surely we are. Tomorrow, 30 November, is the First Sunday of Advent. As I prepare to enter this season of preparation for Christmas, the Italian word “attendere” continues to resound inside me. It means “to wait.” I did a little word play of the same in French (attend) and got the same meaning. It’s interesting though to consider the seemingly similar word in English. “Attend” here is more active. It means being present, not only mentally, spiritually, but also physically. To “attend” something is “to be there with one’s whole self (usually); to “attend to” something or to someone is to suspend other things for awhile and put one’s whole attention to that thing or that person.
This is the call I hear as I start the Advent journey. It’s a call to “re-awaken my spiritual senses” and attend to the special signs of our Saviour’s coming. Like it or not, despite all seeming contradictions, serendipity is everywhere. There are always signs of life even amidst the daily deaths we hear and bear. There are thousand signs of growth, in nature, in persons, even if these happen silently, beyond our common perception. And that is why, it is important to “attend to” each moment and each movement.
Even as I reflect on this, a dear friend from the Philippines sent me a write-up of one of my favorite song-makers during my college years, “Humming in my Universe” by Jim Paredes. I’d like to quote some excerpts here connected to the same theme of “staying awake” to one’s moment of transitions, and accepting the ongoing cycle of life and death as the only path to real growth. Jim writes:
(…) In such moments of great change when one is in the process of leaving one state to go to another, the challenge is not to look back, although the temptation to do so is great. One must continue to walk on the path even though it is unsure, dark and often bleak. (…) This process of dying and awakening into something new requires a new mindset. The worst attitude to have is to leave one place and go to another only to expect to live the exact same old life one had, rejecting new things that will surely come along. It's a sure prescription for unhappiness, like insisting on experiencing summer in a winter setting!
I admire people who go through life's stages almost seamlessly, who are able to pick up the pieces after a tragedy, like those who are able to find a new love and marry after the death of a spouse, or the end of a long standing relationship. Or former addicts who are able to have functional happy lives after rehab. Or people who leave jobs they have been in forever and boldly move on to new careers. There is something light and nimble about their ability to drop what has stopped working and leave it behind regardless of sentimental ties in order to embrace the new wave that can make one bigger.
Have you ever realized that many times, we may be putting more effort into preventing growth than simply allowing it to happen unimpeded? Yes, it does take effort (often unconscious) to be lonely just as it takes effort to be happy. It takes effort to maintain our biases, defend our views, feed our fears, and argue in defense of our shallower convictions that keep changing.
Being unconscious can bring us to lonely, sad places in our lives that are actually prisons where our spirits die. From time to time, all of us do in fact live there, but there are those who, tragically, do not know any other home. Life, I believe, is a cycle of birth, death, acquisition and loss, a dance marathon of opposites. Wherever we find ourselves, its opposite will manifest after a while if our life is to be completely lived. To awaken is to consciously accept what has died in us, to mourn it and move on to something where we can have a greater experience of being alive. Being awake allows us to choose being happy and free. For roughly the same effort, where would we rather invest our time and resources and our lives, in consciously choosing joy or unconsciously choosing fear?
The following quote from Rumi, one of my favorite poets, never fails to soothe my fears about any transition I must go through. He wrote: "I died a mineral, and became a plant. I died a plant and rose an animal. I died an animal and I was man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?"

Bartholomew I in Rome

One of the main highlights of the ongoing Synod of Bishops in the Vatican is the presence of the Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, together with other ecumenical figures. I’d like to share here some excerpts of the Patriarch’s reflection during the celebration of vespers in the Sistine Chapel last Saturday, October 18. He spoke on the theme of using one's spiritual senses to perceive the Word of God by: listening to God’s Word, beholding God’s Word, and touching God’s Word.

On hearing and speaking the Word of God, he affirms, "the Christian Church is, above all, a scriptural Church. Scripture is the living testimony of a lived history about the relationship of a living God with a living people." Then he voices out the challenge: "Christians must provide a unique perspective -- beyond the social, political, or economic -- on the need to eradicate poverty, to provide balance in a global world, to combat fundamentalism or racism, and to develop religious tolerance in a world of conflict."

Secondly, he spoke about beholding God’s Word in art and nature. He reflects, “the Word of God can be seen in nature and above all in the beauty of the icons: Nowhere is the invisible rendered more visible than in the beauty of iconography and the wonder of creation.(…) Icons are a visible reminder of our heavenly vocation, (...) underlining the Church’s fundamental mission to recognize that all people and all things are created and called to be 'good' and 'beautiful.” Regarding nature, he affirms, "All genuine 'deep ecology' is inextricably linked with deep theology. Even a stone bears the mark of God’s Word (St. Basil the Great). This is true of an ant, a bee and a mosquito, the smallest of creatures. For he spread the wide heavens and laid the immense seas; and He created the tiny hollow shaft of the bee’s sting.” And hence the challenge: Recalling our minuteness in God’s wide and wonderful creation only underlines our central role in God’s plan for the salvation of the whole world.

Lastly, how do we touch the Word of God? Bartholomew I said that God’s Word which receives his full embodiment in the sacrament of the Eucharist, can be touched and shared in the communion of saints and the sacramental life of the Church. "In the Eucharist," he explained, "the Word becomes flesh and allows us not simply to hear or see him, but to touch him with our own hands. Word and sacrament become one reality. The word ceases to be 'words' and becomes a Person, embodying in himself all human beings and all creation."

And hence the challenge for us too. Bartholomew I exhorts, "Each of us is called to 'become like fire,' to touch the world with the mystical force of God’s Word, so that -- as the extended Body of Christ -- the world, too, might say: 'Someone touched me!'
He adds, "Evil, is only eradicated by holiness, not by harshness. And holiness introduces into society a seed that heals and transforms. It is like the tectonic plates of the earth’s crust. The deepest layers need only shift a few millimeters to shatter the world’s surface.”

The presupposition for this spiritual revolution to occur is no other than radical 'metanoia' -- a conversion of attitudes, habits and practices -- for ways that we have misused or abused God’s Word, God’s gifts and God’s creation. The patriarch added: "The challenge before us is the discernment of God’s Word in the face of evil, the transfiguration of every last detail and speck of this world in the light of Resurrection. The victory is already present in the depths of the Church, whenever we experience the grace of reconciliation and communion."

Full Immersion!

The Word of God this Sunday, Mt 22:1-14, talks about God’s continuous invitation to Jews and pagans alike to participate in the banquet of love prepared for his Son. This reminded me of one of the most significant things (if not the most significant) that happened to me in my pilgrimage to Jerusalem last September.
During that pilgrimage, actually a gift for my Silver Jubilee of Religious Profession, I “secretly wished” (=prayed) that I could meet and talk to a full-blooded Jew! I wanted to know a bit more of this people, from whom my Lord and husband Jesus came. But it seemed to be an impossible feat. I asked our guide, Fr. Pio, a Franciscan friar from Italy, if there were any Jewish believers of Jesus Christ. He said, a few hundred, but in secret. Walking along the Jewish quarters of Jerusalem, he even made us note how the conservative Jews avoided looking at us, Christian pilgrims. So I said that’s that… end of my “secret desire.”
On September 14, a Sunday, due to the insistent request of the group, Fr. Pio had to give in and allowed us an hour or so to take a dip in the Dead Sea. I wasn’t really prepared for that but there was a nagging feeling that pushed me to improvise and go. Guess what followed!
For those who know these salty waters, there was really no way you’d drown here but just the same it was very tricky since it was actually all mud under. Time and again, I found myself “sinking” until I decided to stay put in one place and immerse myself. And lo and behold – a middle-aged man struck a conversation with me! It started with – “where are you from?” I immediately sensed I was talking to a full-blooded Jew, yes, right there at the Dead Sea, while we were both floating!!
We went quite far in the presentation until he asked me, “What do you know about the Jews? What do you think was our greatest contribution to humanity?” And I dared – “Oh, you’re almost always the best in everything but the best contribution? Your co-national Jesus Christ! I’m just sorry you don’t believe in him!” And from that statement he brought me to some painful parts of Christian-Jewish history- persecution-holocaust, etc. At any rate, I pointed out to him how many Christians helped save the Jews too.
Then came his challenge: “Okay, let me test you. If you were to introduce Jesus to me, a Jew, how would you do it? Where would you start? How can you me make me jealous of what you have?” At that point, I sensed he already knew something about our Christian scriptures – he was practically quoting St. Paul to me (Rom 9-11).
I started with the synthesis of Jesus’ teaching – Love. He was sent for that. He spent all his life for that. The Jewish “stranger” protested, “that’s too general.” I need to tell him more. I hesitated, asking if he knew the Scriptures enough. And he assured me, he knows as much is needed to be able to follow me. And I told him about forgiveness, the best proof of love. Has he experienced real forgiveness in his life? Will he be able to forgive all those things we mentioned earlier about the Christian persecution of the Jews, etc…?
I was getting too immersed, not only on the salty water but also on this discussion that I was afraid my pilgrim friends would leave me behind. I started excusing myself. But he won’t let me go. Instead he took up the topic again and said—“let me show you how you can present Jesus to me. First, yes—you have to say that he came because of love. God loves the Jews so much, that’s why he came, not in another land, but in this land, here in Palestine. That no matter how much we have rejected him, he continues to offer forgiveness, peace. God wants to embrace his people, the Jews, by sending Jesus Christ.”
“Aha! You are a believer, then!” I shouted as I started to move towards the beach, throwing him a flying kiss, and added: “I will pray for you… that you stop waiting for the Messiah.” And he shouted back: “He has come, and will come again!”
As I reached the beach, two ladies approached me and said, “We could overhear your conversation. Jacob could not help himself. It’s just too strong—his need to talk about the Messiah.” And I asked, “but who is he?” And they replied, “He is our founder. We are from all parts of the world, carrying out this special mission to present Jesus Christ to the Jews!” Before long, he was behind me saying, “if you want to know more about us, see our website, trumpetofsalvation.org.
Whoever said God does not answer our prayers nor heed the secret desires of our hearts? Whoever thought that God has given up on his people?