Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Michael Dubruiel: 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God 20a

     This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God by Michael DubruielThe previous are posted below among the other posts and last week's archives. Here is the twentieth step:




(20) To hold one's self aloof from worldly ways.



If you are like me, you can readily come up with a list of what "worldly ways" means, but too often this list have very little to do with what most spiritual masters mean when they use the term.



St. Benedict, again is writing these counsels for monks. Monks take a vow of obedience to an abbot. The abbot, a term that could be translated "father", watches over the monks and assigns them various tasks for the good of the monastery.



About a year ago, I visited a monastery where the abbot invited me to join the monks for dinner. During the meal taken in silence, while a monk read from one of the Fathers of the Church, several monks had to kneel in front of the abbot's table. They were being punished for some infraction of the rule that they had committed during the day (one monk told me that he had forgotten to put his napkin back in its holder).



As I sat there, in my forties, and witnessed the grown men who were around sixty years old, I momentarily thought of the ways of the world and how foolish this all seemed. But then, I remembered the counsel of Our Lord, "Unless you become like a child, you can not enter the Kingdom of God."


Michael Dubruiel

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

Michael Dubruiel: 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God - 19

     This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God by Michael Dubruiel. The previous are posted below among the other posts and last week's archives. Here is the nineteenth step:


MIchael Dubruiel

(19) To console the sorrowing.



Those who sorrow at the loss of a loved one can often seem inconsolable. In fact the Scripture passage related to the slaughter of the innocents comes to mind, "A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more (Matthew 2:18)."



It is important to remember that death is not part of God's original plan. When God creates Adam and Eve, he warns them not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil or they will die. Death, is the result of original sin and indeed there is nothing that could console Rachel at her loss when the knowledge that death was eternal separation.



But for the Christian--there is Christ!



Death no longer is the final word. Jesus has overcome death and has opened up the possibility that all of us, if we believe in him, can share in his resurrection. The key, it would seem then to consoling the sorrowing, would be to remind them of the fruit of salvation and to point them to the mercy of God.



Yet having been there, many times, during the sad losses that people suffer--this is seldom the case. Instead, what usually occurs is the arrival of many well meaning people who announce loudly that it was God's will that the child or adult die.



It is never God's will that anyone die! Death entered the world because of sin-separation from God. God desires the salvation of all people. The angel of death that passes over the Egyptians is not a "good" angel but one who reaps the evil crop that had been sown by the Egyptians in the Book of Exodus.



Francis MacNutt and his wife Judith once presented a more accurate picture of God's place in someone's death. Speaking of how to console a sorrowful mother who has lost her child, they counseled the consoler speaking the following truth, "Death has taken your child, but God will take your child from death!"



To console, we need faith. Faith that in Christ, death is not the end.





Old churches still show forth the truth of the communion of saints, those who have died but are still very much alive and present. Most people intuitively grasp that their loved one is still alive, though not physically present. To console is to bring God's truth to the situation, God's message of salvation to the horror of a world steeped in sin.

Michael Dubruiel

Monday, July 22, 2024

73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God by Michael Dubruiel - 18

     This is a continuation of the 73 Steps to Spiritual Communion with God by Michael DubruielThe previous are posted below among the other posts and last week's archives. Here is the eighteenth step:


MIchael Dubruiel

(18) To help in trouble.



St. Benedict counsels us to be “helpers” something that no doubt was implanted in most of us from our youth. How can we best help others and what might keep us from reaching out to others?



When Our Lord was thirsty he asked the woman at the well for a drink. Jesus needed help. The woman rather than just giving him a drink gave him a lot of excuses. First it was racial—“You’re a Jew.”



Funny how little our reasons for not helping others changes. Our excuse might be, “You’re not family” or “You’re not Catholic” or “You’re not American” or “You’re not the same race as I.”



If God is “Our Father” who is not our brother and sister?



Saint Benedict’s counsel is simple and indeed it is the Gospel message that we are to help those in trouble. If we use excuses as a buffer to exonerate us from our duty then we risk missing out with an encounter with Our Lord who comes to us often in the guise of the poor.





The Samaritan woman’s excuse, might have kept her from meeting Jesus, had Our Lord not persisted in his desire. If our desire is to help those in need, we will not miss meeting Our Lord throughout the day.

Sunday, July 21, 2024

St. Mary Magdalene - July 22

     Mary Magdalene's feast is July 22.



Mary Magdalene: Truth, Legends and Lies by Amy Welborn



was published by Our Sunday Visitor books some years ago, but is now out of print. A digital version is now available through Amazon Kindle. Click on cover for more information:

Are you interested in an objective examination of the life and lore of Mary Magdalene, a narrative that isn't agenda-driven or saturated with ideology?
Do you just want to learn more about Mary Magedalene's identity and role in Christian spirituality, literature and art?

I wrote this book for you.

There's a great deal of material out there on Mary Magdalene, it's true. Some of the scholarly material is really fine, but tooamy welborn many of the books for popular audiences are informed by one ideology or another, or fall completely into fantasy.

In De-coding Mary Magdalene I stick to the facts - what we know about Mary Magdalene from the Gospels, and then how Christian amy welborn tradition in both East and West continued to meditate on the figure of Mary Magdalene, seeing in her the model disciple - and weaving all kinds of fascinating legends around her as well.

Here's the bottom line: The Da Vinci Code propogates the lie that Christianity through the ages marginalized and demonized Mary Magdalene as a "whore" in order to minimize her impact.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Mary Magdalene was the second most popular saint of the Middle Ages. And do catch that word - saint - Honoring someone as a saint (feastday July 22) is a truly odd way of "demonizing" a person. Don't you think?

So - come meet Mary Magdalene - as she comes to us in the Gospels, as Christians imagined her through the ages as they contemplated her fidelity and discipleship, and how some contemporary interpreters get her so completely wrong.

Table of Contents

Mary of Magdala
"Why Are You Weeping?
The Real Mary?
Apostle to the Apostles
Which Mary?
The Golden Legend
Touching the Magdalene
To the East
The Penitent
Mary and the Mystics
The Magdalene in Art

"amy welborn"

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Eucharistic Congress 2024

    


 The How-to Book of the Mass by Michael Dubruiel not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.


"michael Dubruiel"


From the introduction:


When the apostles spied Jesus walking on the water, they were overcome with fear. 


Peter asked our Lord if it were really Him or a ghost. Our Lord told the apostles not to fear. Peter, now having regained his composure, asked if he might join Jesus for His evening walk on the water. Jesus told him to come out of the boat. And Peter did. And Peter walked on the water, too. For a few moments. Then he took account of how strong the winds were, and he sank like a rock. 


This morning when I went to Mass It was thundering outside. I wondered whether I had remembered to shut the windows at home and in my car. I thought about all the electrical appliances, the trees in our yard, and I wondered whether lightening had struck anywhere near our home. All the while, the priest was preaching his homily. Do you think I encountered the living Jesus at that moment?

 Other times It is my one-year-old son, Michael Jacob. or five-year-old son, Joseph. who are vying for my attention. They can make listening and praying difficult. But on the other hand, they often help me to notice everything in a new light. Their pointing out everything they see and asking "What is it?" has been a great aid in the formation of this book. Whatever the distractions of the day, I know that too often I am caught up with the winds and not with Jesus. If you are like me, then this book will help you. The Mass is our opportunity to meet Jesus, to listen to Him and to receive Him. There is a story in the Gospel of Luke that provides a summary of the Mass. It is the account of how the Risen Lord Jesus made Himself known to several of His disciples as they were making their way to a town called Emmaus.



A sample page:

"michael Dubruiel"


Friday, July 19, 2024

Eucharistic Congress 2024

    The How-to Book of the Mass by Michael Dubruiel not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.


"michael Dubruiel"


A sample text:

Some of us block our hearts to our Lord when we show up at Mass filled with desires that we think and believe have nothing to do with God. If that's the case, we're only nominally showing up, because our thoughts are someplace else. Sometimes we are preoccupied with our treasures, a person, or ourselves.

 We have not yet realized that at the root of whatever our heart desires is communion with God. Saint Augustine, who spent his youth seeking his heart's desires, finally realized this when he said that our hearts are restless until they rest in thee" — the "thee" retailing to God. 

There is a point in every Mass at which we can bring our desires to God. But because many of us do not see the connection, we miss it. There is also a time to hear what the Word of God has to say about our desires. It is not necessary to ignore these desires that weigh upon our hearts, but to bring them to God In the context of what God is saying to us during Mass. 

Think of those in the Gospels who came face-to-face with our Lord, but let pass an opportunity to bring their needs and desires before the very creator of the universe. They stood in the presence of the God who could answer all of their prayers, and yet because they were focused on something or someone else, they missed that opportunity! Whatever it is that we are worried about during Mass, we should avail ourselves of the Lord's Presence. 

Refusing to recognize Him as the source of all being, we are no different from those who, after meeting our Lord, told Him, "Let me first go and bury my father" (Luke 9:59). In other words, "1 like what you're saying, but I have something more Important to do right now!" We should not deny our hearts' desires, but we should bring them to God and allow Him to reveal what it is we truly desire. 


Thursday, July 18, 2024

Eucharistic Congress 2024

    The How-to Book of the Mass by Michael Dubruiel not only provides the who, what, where, when, and why of the most time-honored traditions of the Catholic Church, but also the how. All in an easy-to-read, easy-to-understand format.


"michael Dubruiel"


From the introduction:


 The Road to Emmaus:


As we look at the various parts of the Mass, we will pause to meditate on this story from Luke's Gospel. I expect that you will come to finnd in this Gospel story an excellent tool to help you refocus yourself on Christ at the various moments of every Mass you attend. I have written this book with all Catholics in mind. Whether young or old, male or female, liberal or conservative — In Christ we are one, at Mass we are one, one Body: Jesus'. 


I hope to help you rediscover the Mass as a vehicle for letting go of all that can seem to separate you in life, and to replace what seem like distractions with the deep, meaning-filled events of your daily life. Rediscover the Mass as a way to open the wounds, the scars, the needs that Jesus can heal, and to encounter the very Lord Himself, so you might leave every Mass with His peace and a deep sense of unity with God and your fellow man. 


A sample page:

"michael Dubruiel"