Hello friends,
In an effort to keep this week leading up to Easter simple yet reflective, I leave you with four words and a quote for you to reflect upon. Ask yourself, "To what depth do I believe in each of these, and how readily do I live them out?" God bless you all.
Emmanuel (meaning God-with-us)
Love
Forgiveness
Compassion
"Into your hands I commend my spirit."
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Friday, March 22, 2013
Reflection on March Madness
Well, here we are once again engulfed in "March Madness." Whether or not you are a sports fan, it can be hard to move through the month of March without hearing someone somewhere mention the March Madness NCAA Basketball Tournaments. All of the attention is certainly exhilarating if we choose to invest ourselves inside the madness. With this in mind, let me pose several questions for reflection:
1. How invested are you in March Madness? (If you are not invested much at all, skip to question 4.)
2. What might people say about your investment in this sports madness?
3. What do you think of people who seem to be more invested in it than you?
4. What are other aspects of your life that seem to carry their own madness?
5. How do you tend to handle this madness?
6. Are your modes of handling this madness genuinely productive for your physical, emotional, and spiritual welfare?
7. If your answer to #6 is "Yes," than the challenge for you is to share those modes with someone else going through his or her own madness.
8. If your answer to #7 is "No," than the challenge for you is ask someone you admire for help in handling your madness.
We should not have to undergo our madness alone. The world sends us a lot of madness sometimes and not just in the month of March, so remember, we are all in this together. There is no madness too great for the Spirit to subdue if we allow the Spirit to transform us.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
1. How invested are you in March Madness? (If you are not invested much at all, skip to question 4.)
2. What might people say about your investment in this sports madness?
3. What do you think of people who seem to be more invested in it than you?
4. What are other aspects of your life that seem to carry their own madness?
5. How do you tend to handle this madness?
6. Are your modes of handling this madness genuinely productive for your physical, emotional, and spiritual welfare?
7. If your answer to #6 is "Yes," than the challenge for you is to share those modes with someone else going through his or her own madness.
8. If your answer to #7 is "No," than the challenge for you is ask someone you admire for help in handling your madness.
We should not have to undergo our madness alone. The world sends us a lot of madness sometimes and not just in the month of March, so remember, we are all in this together. There is no madness too great for the Spirit to subdue if we allow the Spirit to transform us.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
A Spirit of Service and Protection
For those of you have been following my blog, you know that I am a Catholic Christian who often writes about things in light of the Catholic tradition. However, I hope that my tone is always one of love and openness to any and all people. We, as humans, all long for joy and meaning in our lives, and I try to focus my posts on this in some way for the benefit of all of us. I believe we are all brothers and sisters regardless of our affiliations. This being said, I've been very intrigued so far by the comments of the new elected Pope Francis. I recommend this article based on his homily (or sermon) from his inauguration mass today. I know we all can appreciate his call "to serve and protect."
http://catholicmoraltheology.com/to-serve-and-protect/
Also, given how I feel about our universality as a human community, I thought this quote from Pope Francis fits quite well. As he was leaving a group of people, he was apt to leave them with a blessing, so this is what he said:
I told you I was cordially imparting my blessing. Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give this blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!
I hope you all have a blessed day, and remember to follow me on Twitter @DrewHaro, on Facebook, or through Feedfinder.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
http://catholicmoraltheology.com/to-serve-and-protect/
Also, given how I feel about our universality as a human community, I thought this quote from Pope Francis fits quite well. As he was leaving a group of people, he was apt to leave them with a blessing, so this is what he said:
I told you I was cordially imparting my blessing. Since many of you are not members of the Catholic Church, and others are not believers, I cordially give this blessing silently, to each of you, respecting the conscience of each, but in the knowledge that each of you is a child of God. May God bless you!
I hope you all have a blessed day, and remember to follow me on Twitter @DrewHaro, on Facebook, or through Feedfinder.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
A New Papal Spirit
Hey Yall,
As you may know by now, the Catholic Church has a new pope. The college of cardinals has elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina as the new Bishop of Rome. Cardinal Bergoglio has chosen the name Francis in honor of St. Francis Assisi. This time is a great opportunity for us to renew ourselves in our commitment to faith just as the new pope will likely renew his own faith as he takes the next step in his and our own faith lives.
What I like best about this papal election is that it seems to bring the church a much needed balance. Being a bishop and cardinal, Bergoglio represents the hierarchical element of the church. As a Jesuit priest, he represents the many religious communities in constant pursuit of God through lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience. And through his humble living and strong care for the poor, he has a very direct relationship with those of us who sit in the pews each week looking for guidance amid the harsh realities our world shows us sometimes. I look forward to seeing where his leadership brings the church, but let's also remember that we are just as important and necessary contributors to the development of the church as our new pope is. We may have a new Vicar of Christ (representative of Christ) in Rome, but we are also called to be our vicars of Christ to our own communities.
We are the Body of Christ so let us also be the church! In light of today, let us cherish the understanding that the Spirit moves where it will but is always guiding us toward the love of God through joy and peace.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
As you may know by now, the Catholic Church has a new pope. The college of cardinals has elected Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina as the new Bishop of Rome. Cardinal Bergoglio has chosen the name Francis in honor of St. Francis Assisi. This time is a great opportunity for us to renew ourselves in our commitment to faith just as the new pope will likely renew his own faith as he takes the next step in his and our own faith lives.
What I like best about this papal election is that it seems to bring the church a much needed balance. Being a bishop and cardinal, Bergoglio represents the hierarchical element of the church. As a Jesuit priest, he represents the many religious communities in constant pursuit of God through lives of poverty, chastity, and obedience. And through his humble living and strong care for the poor, he has a very direct relationship with those of us who sit in the pews each week looking for guidance amid the harsh realities our world shows us sometimes. I look forward to seeing where his leadership brings the church, but let's also remember that we are just as important and necessary contributors to the development of the church as our new pope is. We may have a new Vicar of Christ (representative of Christ) in Rome, but we are also called to be our vicars of Christ to our own communities.
We are the Body of Christ so let us also be the church! In light of today, let us cherish the understanding that the Spirit moves where it will but is always guiding us toward the love of God through joy and peace.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Hope from the Rough
Over the last couple of days, I have been reminded of a very important fact of life: It can be messy! We might even go as far as to say that sometimes life just sucks. I know we all have faced rough patches in our lives that leave us wondering, "Why me?" Well, while I wish I could say that this post would provide the right answer to this question, I can not. However, what I can say is that in the midst of all of our "mess" we can always find a glimmer of something that points us toward hope. A story:
The other day, I ventured out to play a round of golf. The day was beautiful! While I would not claim to be a good golfer by any means, I enjoy being out on the course and experiencing the rhythm of the game. Well after finishing the round, I took some time to look back over my score card. Upon doing this, I recalled the all too numerous "rough patches" I faced throughout the 18-hole round (multiple bunker shots, errant drives, slices, dribblers, hunting for lost balls in thick woods and grass, etc). One hole in particular, though, was about as bad as it gets in golf -- I shot a 9 on a par 4. I did not think I would ever find the hole the way I was hitting the ball. Feeling terribly dejected at this point, I moved on to the next hole trying to shake off what was in the past with the hope that things might turn around. Well, in this case, they did. I wound up having the best hole of the day with a birdie on one of the toughest holes of the course! My confidence was back. This glimmer of hope reminded me why I keep coming back to this sport. Over the rest of the round I settle back into a state of normalcy, but at least now I had regained my hope that better things would come in the future if I just kept playing.
Now, I know this golf story is simply a metaphor for life. However, I believe metaphors and anecdotes like this one can be just what we need when looking for strength amid the seriousness of real life. As a Christian, I can use the glimmer of hope from Jesus' example of sacrificial love on the cross to help me along. Wherever you find your glimmer of hope there, too, you will find the Spirit.
"All shall be well and all shall be well. In every manner of things, all shall be well." - St. Julian of Norwich
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
The other day, I ventured out to play a round of golf. The day was beautiful! While I would not claim to be a good golfer by any means, I enjoy being out on the course and experiencing the rhythm of the game. Well after finishing the round, I took some time to look back over my score card. Upon doing this, I recalled the all too numerous "rough patches" I faced throughout the 18-hole round (multiple bunker shots, errant drives, slices, dribblers, hunting for lost balls in thick woods and grass, etc). One hole in particular, though, was about as bad as it gets in golf -- I shot a 9 on a par 4. I did not think I would ever find the hole the way I was hitting the ball. Feeling terribly dejected at this point, I moved on to the next hole trying to shake off what was in the past with the hope that things might turn around. Well, in this case, they did. I wound up having the best hole of the day with a birdie on one of the toughest holes of the course! My confidence was back. This glimmer of hope reminded me why I keep coming back to this sport. Over the rest of the round I settle back into a state of normalcy, but at least now I had regained my hope that better things would come in the future if I just kept playing.
Now, I know this golf story is simply a metaphor for life. However, I believe metaphors and anecdotes like this one can be just what we need when looking for strength amid the seriousness of real life. As a Christian, I can use the glimmer of hope from Jesus' example of sacrificial love on the cross to help me along. Wherever you find your glimmer of hope there, too, you will find the Spirit.
"All shall be well and all shall be well. In every manner of things, all shall be well." - St. Julian of Norwich
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
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