DO MY ASSUMPTIONS FREE ME OR BIND ME?

For many years I was privileged to have Fr. Thomas More Newbold, C.P., as my spiritual director.  He was a very wise and kind man and I loved him dearly.  A comment he made to me during one of our conversations I still remember to this day.  He said to me, “Mike, you are a highly intuitive person and you rightly trust your intuitions about people and situations.  The trouble is, sometimes you’re right!”  That was his gentle way of telling me that sometimes I’m quite wrong…so be careful about assuming too much about people or things based on your intuitions!  It was a very important and helpful insight for me.
Have you ever made an assumption or jumped to a conclusion about a situation or person only to learn later that your assumption wasn’t right?  If you haven’t done this, I want to meet you for you are very unique!
When one of my nieces was a senior in high school, she was in the process of selecting a college.  During one of our conversations about her college plans, she confided in me that she was afraid that she was going to disappoint her parents.  I asked why.  She said that her parents wanted her to choose a college that had a strong soccer program since she was such a fine soccer player.  Throughout high school she had played soccer and it was a big part of her life.  But, she told me, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to play soccer in college.  But, she didn’t want to disappoint her parents.
As we talked I suggested to her that the main reason her parents were so enthusiastic about soccer was their belief that she wanted to continue to play when she went to college.  I assured her that they would support her in whatever decision she made about soccer, and that it was highly unlikely they would be disappointed in any way.  So, she took the risk and told her parents what she really wanted.  And, of course her parents were fine with it.

Do you find that surprising?

Assumptions that aren’t accurate can really blind us to possibilities.  Remember the account in the Gospel of Luke in which the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in life after death, approached Jesus with what they believed was proof positive that such a notion as life after death was impossible.  They assumed that if such a life existed it would have the same limitations our current life has.  Jesus refused to accept their assumptions and opened a whole new vision for them.
Sometimes I wonder what possibilities we don’t see because we are limited by the assumptions we make.  In the Gospel stories Jesus always encourages us not to be limited to our ordinary assumptions.
How blinded am I to possibilities because of the assumptions I make about people or situations?
How open am I to considering points of views different to my own?

MADE BY HAND

Sitting quietly in the apartment,
the need for life-giving water is never considered,
Just assumed.

In harmony, seemingly, with nature.
The dam holds the needs of thousands,
Bottled up, collecting the gift of life,
One drop at a time.

Our need for living water being insatiable,
As love should be.

Copyright 2019 Reflection by Michael Higgins C.P.
Copyright 2019 Poem and Photography by Michael J. Cunningham O.F.S.

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 “Get Out of the Boat” 

We hear the phrase “get out of the boat” in scripture. (Mt 14:28-30) Peter sees Jesus walking on water and is invited to join him. Initially successful his trust in God fails, and then he begins to sink after an apparent few steps. Jesus saves him and brings him to safety.
This pattern is often prevalent in our own lives. We ask for proof of God’s love, but when called to trust in God we find ourselves failing and then require further rescue. It is interesting to note that while we spend much time creating a barrage of requests for God to bestow us with gifts from our prayers of intercession, we often do less when it comes to simple acts of trust or worship in our prayer life.

Perhaps we can consider some other prayer forms which don’t have us coming to God always with our shopping list of personals needs. After all, we all know how we feel about relatives and “friends” who only show up when they need something, versus those who are visiting and contact us solely because they love us, or care for us.

This week, I will try and approach God with an attitude of trust and love. Remaining open to His will with a mindset of trust, not the attitude of “prove it” which we see too frequently.
If we trust in Him, all will be good. For He is “with us always”.

How is your prayer life at this time?

TREES

Trees, awaiting the dawn again without agenda,
Today may be a cold one,
So less sunlight and moisture for our roots,
Nevertheless, we stand together,
Grateful and trusting.

That we will be nourished and stand for another season.

Reflection, Poem and Photography Copyright 2018 by Michael J. Cunningham O.F.S.

You may re-use this material and republish with permission unless used for commercial purposes. If you are using the materials for commercial purposes, please contact us.
Please feel free to forward this email to a friend to sign up for the program at www.spiritualbreak.com or at https://materdolorosa.org/spiritualbreak/

 “Get Out of the Boat” 

We hear the phrase “get out of the boat” in scripture. (Mt 14:28-30) Peter sees Jesus walking on water and is invited to join him. Initially successful his trust in God fails, and then he begins to sink after an apparent few steps. Jesus saves him and brings him to safety.
This pattern is often prevalent in our own lives. We ask for proof of God’s love, but when called to trust in God we find ourselves failing and then require further rescue. It is interesting to note that while we spend much time creating a barrage of requests for God to bestow us with gifts from our prayers of intercession, we often do less when it comes to simple acts of trust or worship in our prayer life.

Perhaps we can consider some other prayer forms which don’t have us coming to God always with our shopping list of personals needs. After all, we all know how we feel about relatives and “friends” who only show up when they need something, versus those who are visiting and contact us solely because they love us, or care for us.

This week, I will try and approach God with an attitude of trust and love. Remaining open to His will with a mindset of trust, not the attitude of “prove it” which we see too frequently.
If we trust in Him, all will be good. For He is “with us always”.

How is your prayer life at this time?

TREES

Trees, awaiting the dawn again without agenda,
Today may be a cold one,
So less sunlight and moisture for our roots,
Nevertheless, we stand together,
Grateful and trusting.

That we will be nourished and stand for another season.

Reflection, Poem and Photography Copyright 2018 by Michael J. Cunningham O.F.S.

You may re-use this material and republish with permission unless used for commercial purposes. If you are using the materials for commercial purposes, please contact us.
Please feel free to forward this email to a friend to sign up for the program at www.spiritualbreak.com or at https://materdolorosa.org/spiritualbreak/

Freedom, the Beatitudes and My Life
Our nation has a wonderful tradition of freedom. There are few examples of countries who have offered themselves up to maintain the freedom of others. Perhaps the most essential expression of the greatest love. To lay down your life for another. Many thousands of American citizens have died for the love of their fellow man. May God Bless them all.
Blessed John Duns Scotus, the thirteenth-century Franciscan theologian, expresses God’s greatest gift to us is our freedom and our free will. This is the way we can show our alignment with God in all our actions or words. Or not as the case may be. We have the option to use our free will in whatever form we want. Only to be moderated by the law.
Scotus continues to illustrate with this with blinding simplicity, if our choices are based in love, then they are from God. So, patterns of love are exercised if we align ourselves with God, and therefore do His will with this in our heart. All other actions are not of God.
This simple message is best communicated in Jesus’s words on the Sermon on the Mount, in the beatitudes. Here, and thoroughly, the Way of God is illustrated in all parts of our lives. Loving others, caring for the poor needy, surrendering to God, are all there.
This coming week we have a way of communicating His will using the beatitudes and His love in our duty to vote for those who best represent our personal values and beliefs. It is always a time for me to dig deep into these bigger questions and move beyond the sound bites and divisiveness which seems to encourage a polarizing atmosphere. I often feel, listening to the news that I am hearing “The United Hates of America” and so little of what caused me to move here, so little of what truly makes up the character of an accepting, loving, nurturing and generous nation which was the one I came to in the 1980s. While I am still optimistic, my own decisions, not just in voting, but in everyday life, continue to be informed by these guidelines in the beatitudes.
The word beatitude means “supreme blessedness.” How beautiful is that? Today, I need this blessedness to guide me during my days and weeks. And I will use them on Monday as I make decisions to determine who I feel is most aligned with those instructions from the Sermon on the Mount.

How are the beatitudes playing out in your life? Perhaps I can pick on one for the week and see how important it is to me and those around me.

I also pray the divisiveness which permeates the country, communities and even families will be dissipated soon, washed away in the Blood of Christ and the Eucharist we celebrate together today.

Oversensitive

When the pain comes in from those who dislike you,
Or what you have done,
Or seems you had done;
The fork in the road rushes up.

To vilify and engage in debate,
Shredding their argument,
And then their clothes;
Until they are left naked, and your work is done.

Or listen and pray,
Perhaps then, we might hear what is behind the words,
The critiques, the noise,
And learn what is in their heart.

Which may tell us what is in ours.

Reflection, Photography and Poem Copyright 2018 by Michael J. Cunningham O.F.S.

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RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

This past October, I attended the National Religious Vocation Conference (NRVC) Convocation in Buffalo, NY. Around 300 Priests, Sisters and Brothers from different Religious Orders gathered for four days of listening, prayer and discernment, and prophetic action on the theme of the Convocation, “Walk with me: Encounter, Accompaniment and Invitation.” Fr. Kevin DiPrinzio, an Augustinian Friar, presented the first of the four Keynote addresses on the topic, “The Vocation Ministry: Ministry at the Beautiful Gate” (Acts 3:1-10). The passage narrates the “encounter” of Peter and John with the crippled man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. Using the keyword “encounter,” he presented his keynote address as he challenged us to think about the Vocation Ministry as we invite young men and women to live our particular way of life.
At the end of the presentation, we were given some reflection questions to discuss at our table. Throughout the presentation, I was ruminating on the word “encounter” in the context of my own vocation story. Usually, when I am asked about my vocation story, I always preface it with, “Oh, my story is probably the most ordinary and boring story. I don’t recall an ‘AHA’ moment when I felt God calling me to religious life and priesthood.”
As I ponder on the word “encounter,” it suddenly struck me that I, in fact, did have an encounter. It was not an “AHA” moment. But, as Fr. DiPrinzio said, “I was in the right place and at the right time.” All three: Peter, John and the crippled man were there at the right place and time for the encounter to happen. When Fr. Chris, the then vocation promoter for the Passionists in India, came to my school to speak to the Catholic students from Grade 8-10, I was not interested in what he had to say. I was more concerned about missing the sports hour as I was constantly looking out of the window at my non-Catholic classmates enjoying their sports on the playground. But God had other plans. I was in the right place and at the right time. Even though I didn’t pay full attention to what Fr. Chris had to say, I ended up writing my name and address on a piece of paper that he passed around after his presentation and handed it to him. The rest, as they say, is history.
When we least expect (and perhaps, when we resist), God puts us in the right place at the right time. The encounter happens, and we are transformed.
So I am going to leave with the questions that we were asked to discuss at our table at the Convocation. You may too want to gather around the table, ponder on these questions and share your stories.

1. What are you encountering at this moment?
2. Recall your own story of an encounter with God. What was it like for you to be at the gate? Who or what placed you there?
3. Recall moments in your life that have been beautiful (i.e., rightly timed, opportune, etc.)
4. What questions remain for you?

The Road is Paved

The Road is Paved,
Always present, yet unknown to me,
The road was paved.

Rubbernecking in the hedgerows; searching for gleaming palaces,
Distraction and desires,
Amused for years, concealing myself with my selfishness.
And myself.

Now all is clear.
The road is paved.
It is straight,
Uncomplicated,
Simple and waiting,
For consent, intention and finally,
Desire to be aligned.

All that is left is action,
As the tractor beam of love draws me forward,
For there is no other option.

Reflection Copyright Fr. Bruno D’Souza, C.P.

Photography and Poem Copyright 2018 by Michael J. Cunningham O.F.S.

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