"So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven because she has shown great love." (Luke 7:47)
Everyone sins. Even the seemingly most holy people among us sin. King David, God's Anointed One, sinned by killing Uriah the Hittite so that he could have uriah's wife, Bathsheba, as his own wife.
As humans, we often make wrong judgments, bad choices, usually out of pride, which is at the root of most of the patterns of evil thought (more commonly known in the Roman Catholic arena as the seven deadly sins.) We naturally want the best for ourselves, and sometimes what we think is the best for us leads us into temptation and sin.
Despite our tendency to sin, God continues to love us. God became human in the person of Jesus in order to show us and tell us that sin isn't the end, God will forgive us if we just ask for forgiveness. Today's readings remind us of this wonderful gift of God's forgiveness and unconditional love.
I believe that Jesus' statement about the woman's sins being forgiven "because she has shown great love" is the key to forgiveness. If we do not love others, we cannot forgive them; if we do not love ourselves, we cannot accept forgiveness. Forgiveness is an expression of love.
This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation can be such a powerful experience. When we vocalize our sins and ask for forgiveness, we are opening up our hearts to be filled with God's love. If we have a good confessor, he will give us a penance that reflects an act of love, which will fill us and others with more love.
Forgiving and loving are not always easy. As we practice forgiveness, though, we will develop patterns of unconditional love in our lives and in our world.
Faith Chat Question: For what do you want God to forgive you? Whom do you need to forgive?
Faith Response: Practice forgiveness this week. Be quick to say "I'm sorry" and "I forgive you."
Pray: Loving God, thank you for the gift of forgiveness. Amen.
On June 11th, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus.
In 1673 at Paray-le-Monial, France, Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690) began sharing private revelations that she received from God regarding the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In these revelations, Christ asked her to be His instrument to spread devotion to His Sacred Heart.
Despite skepticism when she first began to reveal her visions, St. Margaret Mary Alacoque stayed faithtul to the instructions she received from Christ. As Novice Mistress at Visitation convent in Paray-le-Monial, she developed this devotion in her convent and in 1688 a chapel devoted to the Sacred Heart of Jesus was built. The devotion spread to other Visitation convents.
St. John Eudes also promoted the devotion to the Sacred Heart, and by 1672, all of the seminaries of his order were celebrating the feast to the Sacred Heart. In 1765, at the request of the bishops of Poland, Pope Clement XIII officially approved the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. In 1856, Blessed Pius IX extended this feast to the universal Church.
In the early 1900's, with the approval of Pope St. Pius X, Fr. Mateo Crawley-Boevey, a priest of the Fathers of the Sacred Heart, began a campaign to bring the "entire world, home by home, family by family, to the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. For Fr. Mateo, the family was key to sharing Christ's love with the world through the devotion to the Sacred Heart.
There are five elements to the devotion of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque communicated twelve promises from Christ for persons who practiced a devotion to the Sacred Heart. They are
Click here for some beautiful prayers to the Sacred Heart of Jesus: http://www.sacredheart.com/SacredHeartPrayers.htm
Sources of information:
I planted some flowers and vegetable seeds over Memorial Day weekend. For some reason, I'm more excited about planting this year than I have ever been in the past. It may have something to do with reading about saints who loved to garden and enjoyed nature.
There is something about digging in the dirt that connects us to the earth and God's creation. Feeling and inhaling the aroma of the dirt can be a deeply spiritual experience. Whether we recognize it or not, we are connected to the earth. Our human bodies reflect the elements of earth: soil, water, air. When we die, we are interred in the earth.
We are connected with God's creative Spirit when we help to nurture plants and flowers to grow. Watering, pruning, and plucking off dead heads and leaves can remind us of how God nurtures us to grow. Just as we water plants to moisturize and feed them, God gives us what we need to survive. Just as we prune plants to help them to grow more full, God prunes us by opening us to challenges that help us to learn and grow.
As flowers are nurtured, they grow beautiful blooms that decorate our yards and homes. As we look on these bright blooms, we are filled with wonder and joy. Beautiful flowers have the ability to make us happy, to brighten gloomy and difficult days.
As garden plants are nurtured, they grow and ripen to provide us with nourishment. Eating the fruits and vegetables that we planted, nurtured, picked, and prepared with our own hands is not only physically nourishing, but also spiritually nourishing.
I am looking forward to a summer of continued gardening and will count the days until I can pick and eat the vegetables in my garden. In the meantime, I share the following Blessing Prayer for a Garden with you. This prayer comes from Prayers for the Domestic Church by Edward Hays (1979).
Lord of Creation, who planted Your own garden called Eden, come and bless this soil which is to be our garden. All that dies becomes earth, and so it lives again. May this garden soil be both womb and tomb, a home for death and life, so that seeds of living things - of plants, of food and flowers - may die and resurrect here in our garden. Ancient earth, our mystical mother, teach us, your children, that all things die to nourish life. Gentle earth, be blessed with our love as we work in you. Make us mindful that one day you will be our final bed of love and ecstasy. Amen.
The garden may be sprinkled with water, and a simple cross of sticks or some other religious symbol may be placed in the soil.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid. (John 14:27)
Do we not long for peace? We want peace in our families, in our schools and places of work, in our neighborhoods and communities, and in our world. It sometimes seems, though, that in our world true peace is elusive. How can we experience true peace when war rages on and people hurt other people with words and actions?
What do you think of when you hear the word "peace"? My initial thought is "aah, quiet." You might think that peace means not having to deal with any problems or challenges or that peace means the absence of war and violence. It is true that peace is all of this. But this passage from the Gospel of John reminds us that Jesus promises us a peace that is different from the world's peace. In fact, Jesus not only promises us peace, but He gives us His peace now; we just need to be open to welcoming it. Jesus even gives us the key to true peace: Forgiveness.
Why do we have war? We have war because people want something that someone else has or because another group of people did something against them and they feel the need to retaliate. We have war because people are greedy and want power over others.
Why do we have unrest in our communities and in our families? We have unrest in our communities and our families because people have been hurt by the words and actions of others, they are discontent, and they are carrying grudges against others.
Jesus' key to true peace is embedded in the act of forgiveness. Forgiveness seems unattainable in the global sphere because of the sins of greed and pride. The unrest of our world seems to big to even comprehend possible peace. If we begin practicing forgiveness in our own lives, in our families and communities, we can begin to shift energy from negativity and grudges to forgiveness and peace.
Jesus shares His peace with us through the Holy Spirit and forgiveness. In turn, He sends us forth to share that same peace through forgiveness. We can make a difference, we can bring about peace if we begin to forgive ourselves and those around us. As we forgive others, the Holy Spirit will fill those whom we forgive and empower them to forgive. If more of us begin the practice of forgiveness, our children, our future world leaders, will grow up with the Spirit of forgiveness. We can shift our world from unrest to peace one act of forgiveness at a time.
Faith Chat Questions: Is there a grudge you've been holding on to for a while? What might you need to do to forgive and let go of that grudge in order to experience the peace of Christ?
for Children: Name one way you can forgive a family member, friend, or anyone else you know.
Faith Response: Write each of the Fruits of the Holy Spirit (from Galatians 5:22-23) on a slip of paper: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Generosity, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-control. Put the slips of paper in a jar or bowl on your kitchen/prayer table. Each morning, draw a slip from the jar and tell all household members to practice that Fruit of the Spirit throughout the day. At dinner or bedtime, have each family member tell how they shared or experienced that Fruit of the Spirit throughout the day.
Pray: Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created, and You shall renew the face of the earth. O God, Who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy the Spirit's consolations, through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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