With the dawning of spring comes many wonderful things: warmer weather, beautiful flowers, sunshine, outdoor track and field, baseball, swimming pool fun, and a host of many other pleasant things. Yet, something else tends to permeate the air this time of year and turn everything an interesting tint of greenish yellow. Yep, you got it: pollen. I think the southern United States seems to accumulate more of this colorful dust than other areas. Pollen seems to create more and more frustration for people every year. As a runner, I know pollen frustrates me as I must go through a transition period of getting acclimated to breathing in this yellow air. Ugh. What does this have to do with a blog about sensing the Spirit? Keep reading.
As we do each year, we will eventually get through this period of allergenic transition, but what are we to do in the meantime? Look for meaning in it! As I was reflecting this morning, I got to thinking about how the rhythm of the seasons is often reflection of the rhythm of life. If this is the case, then even the most aggravating pollen could shed some meaning on life for me. Now, from what I know about pollen, it's primary reason for existence is to help begin the life-giving process of plant fertilization. However, I have a hard time appreciating this life-giving quality when I'm blinded by yellow dust, driving in a yellow car that is supposed to be silver, and sneezing so much that I lose my voice (slight exaggeration, but you get it). In trying to set this frustration aside, I thought about the natural purpose of pollen and began contemplating my natural purpose. As a result, I asked myself two questions. Do I live my life in a manner that is life-giving to others? Or, do I live my life in a manner that blinds others, covers up their true colors, or gives them "allergic" reactions to my presence making them want to avoid me? Either way, I've realized that I have a gift to give others. This gift can either be one of healing or one of sickening.
Questions for reflection:
1. What kind of pollen are you in the lives of others?
2. Are you able to recognize that even some of the smallest particles in nature can teach you some of the biggest lessons in life? If not, how can you begin let this happen?
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Easter Flip
Hello everyone,
In these first few days after Easter, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the weekend and what exactly Easter means to me. This weekend at mass Fr. Tom reminded us that although bunnies, chocolate, pastel colors, and other sugar-loaded items are nice, cute, and pleasant, this is not the point. In order to recall the point, we must be willing to flip this springtime "hoppy-ness" on its head and realize that at it's core Easter should encourage within us a counter-cultural spirit. After all, I don't think that rising from the dead was Jesus' way of conforming to the culture of his day. A more recent example might be Pope Francis. Anyone who has been following the events of his early days as pope has seen him reflecting this counter-cultural spirit for us. He has, in a sense, flipped the visible image of the papacy on it's head. Through his actions, he seems to be reconnecting us to the core mission of Easter and Jesus' ministry: to show us what is means to serve others rather than being served by others (Matthew 20: 26-28). In light of all of this and my own experiences, I've come to believe that this is the point of Easter. In order to fully experience the resurrection of Jesus in our lives, we must be willing to resurrect ourselves out of cultural conformity for the bigger cause of loving service to our friends, relatives, and enemies. If we can do this, we can better understand the love God showed us and continues to show us through the Paschal Mystery (life, death, and resurrection of Jesus).
Now, it' your turn...
What does Easter mean to you?
I would love for you to share your Easter thoughts with me and other readers in the comments section below. Thanks.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful!
In these first few days after Easter, I have had the opportunity to reflect on the weekend and what exactly Easter means to me. This weekend at mass Fr. Tom reminded us that although bunnies, chocolate, pastel colors, and other sugar-loaded items are nice, cute, and pleasant, this is not the point. In order to recall the point, we must be willing to flip this springtime "hoppy-ness" on its head and realize that at it's core Easter should encourage within us a counter-cultural spirit. After all, I don't think that rising from the dead was Jesus' way of conforming to the culture of his day. A more recent example might be Pope Francis. Anyone who has been following the events of his early days as pope has seen him reflecting this counter-cultural spirit for us. He has, in a sense, flipped the visible image of the papacy on it's head. Through his actions, he seems to be reconnecting us to the core mission of Easter and Jesus' ministry: to show us what is means to serve others rather than being served by others (Matthew 20: 26-28). In light of all of this and my own experiences, I've come to believe that this is the point of Easter. In order to fully experience the resurrection of Jesus in our lives, we must be willing to resurrect ourselves out of cultural conformity for the bigger cause of loving service to our friends, relatives, and enemies. If we can do this, we can better understand the love God showed us and continues to show us through the Paschal Mystery (life, death, and resurrection of Jesus).
Now, it' your turn...
What does Easter mean to you?
I would love for you to share your Easter thoughts with me and other readers in the comments section below. Thanks.
May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful!
Thursday, March 28, 2013
A Holy Week Reflection
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.
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.
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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