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Today following Mass and brunch at Mt. Irenaeus I was speaking with another Secular Franciscan. Sandy McCoy is the Peace and Justice chair for the Kateri Tekawitha region of the Secular Franciscans and she is very well educated and read. As we were talking she mentioned the Jesuit Center of Concern as a well spring of Peace and Justice work. When I got home I did a little “googling” and found The Center of Concern website. Sandy is correct there is a wealth of information and direction there. I particularily enjoyed their reflection for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time. I hope you enjoy this article and continue to examine their site. Sandy told me we owed the Jesuits a lot. Peace.

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Let the rain come and wash away
the ancient grudges, the bitter hatreds
held and nurtured over generations.
Let the rain wash away the memory
of the hurt, the neglect.
Then let the sun come out and
fill the sky with rainbows.
Let the warmth of the sun heal us
wherever we are broken.
Let it burn away the fog so that
we can see each other clearly.
So that we can see beyond labels,
beyond accents, gender or skin color.
Let the warmth and brightness
of the sun melt our selfishness.
So that we can share the joys and
feel the sorrows of our neighbors.
And let the light of the sun
be so strong that we will see all
people as our neighbors.
Let the earth, nourished by rain,
bring forth flowers
to surround us with beauty.
And let the mountains teach our hearts
to reach upward to heaven.
Amen.

—Rabbi Harold S. Kushner
(Author of When Bad Things Happen to Good People)

This week I’ve felt dry and unable to express what I’ve been thinking about. It was a week when I’ve been troubled and seeking the direction of others. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our St. Irenaeus Secular Franciscan Fraternity, will be canononically recognized on October 15th of this year. It’s been a journey for all of us from an emerging fraternity to the “real deal”. Because we’re relatively small in number we wind up sharing assignments. Several years ago I volunteered to be the secretary. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the job. I’ve done it because I think that doing things I don’t like to do is good for me. Now, it’s time to for elections again. This time our fraternity has asked me to serve as local minister of the fraternity. Prior to this week I’d been doing a lot of pondering on that one. Sometimes I don’t feel worthy and other times I don’t know if I’m up to the job. I decided this week after discussions with other members of our fraternity that I will accept the responsibility. It is really a great honor to serve others. I need to remember that it’s not about me. That’s a lesson that comes to me again and again.

May the Lord bless you and keep you;
may the Lord show his face to you
and have compassion on you!
May he turn his face to you
and give you peace!–St. Francis to Brother Leo

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I came across this today in my reading and I liked what is being said here. It resonates for me.

Truly it is in the darkness that one finds the light,
so when we are in sorrow,
then this light is nearest of all to us.
~Meister Eckhart

A year ago I was going through some very dark times. At times the darkness seemed overwhelming, but it was in this darkness that I came to see the truth of my life and to value even more deeply the gift of life and of conversion. Peace.

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It’s been a busy and fulfilling week. We celebrated my wife’s birthday yesterday with dinner at one of her favorite local restaraunts. We went to the Bistro II in nearby Cuba, New York. Wednesday evening I spent at Mt. Irenaeus. I was part of the ministry team that presented the first “Evening of Re-Creation” for the summer of 2006. The evenings are special times that begin with Mass followed by a dish-to-pass supper and and evening of reflection. The theme of the evening was, “In the Beginning was the Word.” There were about 50 people there and we all enjoyed our time together. There is a poster at Mt. Irenaeus that reads, “Hungry for God and Good Food.” It was my hunger for both that led me to Mt. Irenaeus a half dozen years ago. Wednesday was a chance to share that food with others. It is better to give than to receive.

You gotta dance like nobody’s watching,
dream like you will live forever,
live like you’re going to die tomorrow,
and love like it’s never going to hurt.
~Meme Grifsters

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“Humility is perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me, and when I am blamed or despised, it is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Higher Power in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble.” – AA Grapevine, Inc., October 1945

If you’re a Linux user and you want some more information about all the varieties of Linux. I’m listening to the show now and it’s very informative and well done. Here is the link to the Linux Action News Podcast.

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Wednesday was the feast of St. Irenaeus. St. Irenaeus lived a long time ago. He was a student of Polycarp who was a student of the apostle John. There is good article about him and his life at Wikipedia. I’ve written about him a few times. I’ve mentioned a prayer attributed to him several times on this blog. I’m a Secular Franciscan and part of an emerging fraternity at Mt. Irenaeus. We are the St. Irenaeus Fraternity of the Secular Franciscan Order. In October of 2006 we will become a canononically recognized fraternity. Today was the feast day of our fraternity. Peace.

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My brother sent me a link to an interesting story on the BBC. Researchers at Brock University in Canada have recently completed a study that leads them to conclude that likelihood of a male being gay is determined in the womb. This won’t defuse the gay phobic social conservatives, but it will bring a needed scientific confirmation of the assertions of gay men that they are not espousing a deviant life style. They are according to this study programmed as it were from birth to be gay. Read more here.

There is much of God’s universe that is mystery to us still. Peace.

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I got another reflection from the Thomas Merton Foundation today. It seems particularly germane given the talk of a pullout from Iraq in the months ahead.

“It is true, political problems are not solved by love and mercy. But the world of politics is not the only world, and unless political decisions rest on a foundation of something better and higher than politics, they can never do any real good for men. When a country has to be rebuilt after war, the passions and energies of war are no longer enough. There must be a new force, the power of love, the power of understanding and human compassion, the strength of selflessness and cooperation, and the creative dynamism of the will to live and to build, and the will to forgive. The will for reconciliation.”

From Introductions East & West. The Foreign Prefaces of Thomas Merton (Unicorn Press, Inc. Greensboro, NC 1981) Page 105.

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