Gratitude Is The Smile Of Love!

I just love this quote and thought I would share.  Blessed Thanksgiving to all!

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow." – Melody Beattie

Counting Grace, Finding Joy, Sharing Love

I remember a story that I heard about five people who froze to death around a campfire on a particularly cold night.  The fire was dying out and each of them had a stick of wood which they can put in to keep the fire going.  However, all of them refused to give what they had.  The woman would not give her stick of wood because there was a man in the circle.  The homeless man did not give his because there was a rich man there.  The rich man did not offer his stick because it would have warmed someone who he thought was lazy and undeserving.  The Christian did not contribute his stick of wood because he saw a Muslim in the group.  And the African American clung onto his piece of wood to get even with the white people present.  The fire eventually died out and all of them froze to death holding onto to their sticks of wood that could have saved them.  “They did not die from the cold outside, but the cold from within” is how the story ended. 

I like to remember Thanksgiving as a reason so that we won’t all freeze to death.  It is the reason to enkindle that fire to warm our frozen hearts and be thankful for our sticks of wood. 

There is always something that we can be thankful for and sometimes it takes a specific holiday or time of the year to remind us that.  It often seems easier to come up with a list of our needs and desires than a list of things which we are grateful for.  Thanksgiving Day helps us express our thanks and blessings that we have received over the past year.  It reminds us that all that we have are not so much of our merits, but a free and generous gift from God who gave us the gift of life itself.  That is why to be truly people of thanksgiving, we have to know how to use our blessings and extend the grace we receive onto others.  Selfishness and ingratitude are not necessarily opposites of thanksgiving, greed is.  The need to have more, the need for self-interest, and the need to satisfy the feeling of never having enough.  When greed takes over, we become people who are too busy looking for more.  We clutch tightly onto our possessions, but in reality, they are holding onto us.  They have possession of us.  We don’t have time to enjoy those gifts let alone share them with others.  So to be a people of thanksgiving, we must be able to count our grace, find joy in them, and share them lovingly with open hands.

May God’s grace find us and our families this Thanksgiving.  And may our world become a joyful, warm and thankful place for all to feel welcome in.  Amen.

Modern-Day Beatitudes

Blessed are the strange, the weird, the people we laugh at, those who do not fit our mold, especially the socially wretched and despised. By their presence in our lives, their mission is to expand our reality — on our part, reluctantly and on theirs, so painfully — by forcing us to look at them in the hope that we see God in them.

Blessed are the depressed and the addicted for they are called upon to demonstrate the healing miracles of God through their own awakening and liberation.

Blessed are the broken, those who fail, those who fall below our expectations for they are asked to show the rest of us that not being perfect is part of the human condition — that accepting our imperfection is the first step in our realization of the divine perfection of all that is, as is.

Blessed are the nameless, the faceless the dispossessed — the refugees, the homeless and the poor, for they point us to the way to compassion. By their sheer numbers, they tell us that, ultimately, the experience of compassion is inescapable.

Blessed are the cruel, the calloused and uncaring, for on some deep unconscious level, they choose to delay their own liberation so that others, strangely enough, may be “enlightened” by their example.

Blessed are those who constantly arouse us to anger, who bring out the worst in us, for they force us out of the denial that we harbor within — that we are hooked on them, that they resonate with something hidden inside us, and to break free, we must let go of our misguided moral superiority.

Blessed are those who cause us to suffer repeatedly by their mistakes, for they are our tutors who spend valuable time so that, in their failures, we may learn our lessons well.

Blessed are those who do not seem to have a life, and especially those who do not have a choice — those who are physically debilitated, paralyzed or in a coma and cannot move, for they bring us a message that is lost in this age of frenzy — that to be worthy of God’s love, we need not strive to do or achieve anything, but simply be.

Blessed are all of us, for whatever condition we find ourselves in, we can choose to remember our true nature, our original blessing, our timeless grace — anytime, any place, and always — and be happy in our Oneness.


By Jim Paredes

God is ELIKYA

Elikya means hope.
 

Whether last night was a cause for disappointment or celebration, it was indeed a cause for an historical witness of our country. More and more young people are tuned into politics and voicing their beliefs and opinions. The rhetoric however, turned ugly fast when the election came to an end. It was truly troubling from the reactions of both sides. Hate and anger were on the lips or fingers of many, believers and non-believers alike. Whether you are for or against President Obama, one thing should be clear, there is neither room for despair nor much for celebration because there is still much to do. It is not the time to draw more lines between one another. Rather, we must learn to work together to move the country forward. As Obama says, it doesn’t and it shouldn’t matter if “you’re black or white, or Hispanic or Asian, or Native American, or young or old or rich or poor, able, disabled, gay or straight,” you can make it if you’re willing to try. As the U.S. continues to fall further down on the global ranking in education and economics, let us hope this is a wake-up call for the change that is much needed.

Last night also showed some interesting numbers between the “Catholic vote.” Fox News’ exit poll (I watch Fox News for entertainment purposes but sometimes they are useful) shows that 42% of Catholics who attended weekly mass voted for Obama compared to 56% who do not attend weekly. 57% and 42% are the numbers for Romney voters. There is certainly a shift among younger Catholics who do not have the same sense of attachment on the key issues as their elders did. I am no expert, but speaking from being one myself, it is irresponsible to perceive of our civic duties in narrow terms such as abortion rights and same sex marriage. The rising generation is becoming more tolerant and welcoming to diversity. It is being shaped by the longest economic recession since the Great Depression and a war lasting for more than a decade. Unfortunately, it is also drifting away from organized religion and becoming more secular. The “Nones” now make up the second largest religious grouping after the 22% Catholics in the population. These numbers are appalling and it is time to ask, how can the Church respond?

I think one thing for sure is that there is a struggle of how to balance one’s conscience. The Church teaches that abortion and gay marriage are intrinsically evil and must be opposed. But what about cutting taxes for the rich and slashing social spending which hurts the poor? These are also intrinsically evil and must be opposed. How does one weigh these two issues on the scale of truth? One less appreciated aspect of the Church is its social teachings. It is something that the Church cannot afford to ignore in the midst of the growing and rising younger generation.

I began with God is Elikya and I will end with that sense of hope. This year is the 50^th anniversary of Vatican II and I continue to hold the belief that the Church is the bearer of the message for universal salvation for all. We are called to open the windows to see the signs of the time and respond to it. As the Jesuit’s motto suggests, we need to find God in all things and at all times. There is no doubt at times I struggle with the Church. But there is no doubt, I love my Church. The Church over the course of time has shown again that it is not a museum where saints are displayed. It is rather a hospital for sinners, but more importantly beloved sinners. Among the sinners are home to extraordinary people like Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, Saint Francis of Assisi, Pope John XXIII, Padre Pio, Dorothy Day, and the many good people and charities that aid the poor, needy, orphans, sick and widows today. Looking at Peter in the gospels gives me some comfort in knowing that I do not need to be the best disciple to do great work. Despite his shortcomings, he could still be useful to God and in which Jesus entrusts his sheep.

God definitely is Elikya. This hope calls us to not forget as Cardinal Dolan calls, the ‘uns’: “the un-employed, un-insured, un-wanted, un-wed mother and her innocent, fragile un-born baby in her womb, the un-documented, the un-housed, the un-fed, and the under-educated.” We cannot run away from our mission and the mission of Jesus.

May we remember that there is still much to do. And may the God of Elikya be always with us as we continue to humble ourselves, bend over, and wash the feet of our sisters and brothers.

 

 

Post-Election Reflection

Congratulations to President Barack Obama on winning his second term. As Stephen Colbert says, “America has elected its first black president for an historic first second time.” Although there may be issues we don’t agree upon, I think all of us have a similar goal of making America a better place for all. Like many other faithful Catholics, I followed the election with deep concerns ranging from life issues to poverty to wars. No candidates to my knowledge fully reflected the social teachings of the Church. In the document, “Faithful Citizenship: A Catholic Call to Political Responsibility,” the U.S. Catholic bishops highlighted our moral priorities of protecting human life, promoting family life, pursuing social justice and practicing global solidarity. Unfortunately, ideology rather than principle is the reality of the political world, and special interests and big contributors govern the presidential ambitions.

In this 2012 election, I have seen some voters emphasize abortion and traditional marriage as their reasons for supporting Romney. However, the exclusion of other moral considerations does not exhaust one’s responsibility toward the common good. Life is a complex issue and it cannot rely solely on the focus of the birth of a child. Rather, our moral responsibilities include life at the moment of conception to the moment of a person’s last breath. Human life today is attacked not only by abortion, but by poverty, hunger, violence, wars, the death penalty and a lack of knowledge in the Gospels. As Catholics, we are called and obliged to make a stand on the common good no matter who is president. As the Church, we are responsible to respect the immigrants, the migrant workers, the working class, and the most vulnerable and marginalized in society.  It is our duty to alleviate not just poverty in the United States but global poverty. We are called to care for all creation so that the generations after us can enjoy. “No matter who is president, Jesus is king.” No matter who is president, the fight for human life continues.