Category: Franciscan Footprint

 

(a PDF copy for printing is attached)

 

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

October 27 – November 2

 

1 – “Draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.” (Eph 6:10)

…Do I?

 

 

2 – “Jesus spent the night in prayer to God.” (Lk 6:12)**

…I should set up a program of prayer for each day.

 

 

3 – “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one humbles himself will be exalted.” (Lk 14:11)**

…Humility is a virtue that is difficult to learn.

 

 

4 – The Beatitudes (Mt 5:1-12a)**

a. Jesus addresses the words to the crowds and therefore to me. Do I truly listen to all of the words that the Lord gives me?

b. Poor in spirit: do I allow material things to dominate my life?

c. Mourn: there is pain in my life, but Jesus and what he teaches is the answer to that pain.

d. Meek: this is a direct statement against power and the people who want more power. Do I try to be more important than others?

e. Righteousness: do I really work at prayer and closeness to the Lord, and desire to be a holy person?

f. Mercy: do I reach out to the hurting people around me and help them if I can?

g. Clean of heart: am I honest, sincere, chaste, and do I lie to protect myself?

h. Peacemakers: do I really try to reconcile the factions that divide us?

i. Suffer insult: I should expect criticism for trying to be a good person, but I should be a good person anyway.

 

5. – ”I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” (Jn 6:37)**

…Do I thank the Lord enough for this great privilege?

 

 

**one of the most important passages in the Gospels

Oct-la-eek.pdf

(a PDF copy for printing is attached)

 

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

October 19 – October 26

 

1
– “Live in a manner worthy of the call you have received.” (Eph 4:1)

…I have made profession as
a Secular Franciscan: that is my “call.”

 

 

2
– “Why do you not know how to interpret the present time? (Lk 12:56)**

Extended meditation:

There was a convention
of athletic coaches, athletic directors and some accomplished athletes at Estes
Park, CO in the mid-70’s. The presence
of God is usually not a topic at such gatherings; most of the talk deals with
strong schedules, great athletes and coaches and great sports stories. The main speaker for the event was marked on
the program “to be announced.”

When
it came time for him to speak, the lights were turned off and a movie projector
began. It was a film of 1963
super-athlete Brian Sternberg (University of Washington, died in 2013) as he
was executing a pole vault that turned out to be the world record for pole
vaulting at that time with a commentary by one of the network sports people. As a result of that, Brian Sternberg was
recognized at that moment, literally, as the world’s greatest pole vaulter.

That’s
all that was shown, took about a minute.
Then a spotlight came on stage centered on an empty chair. Someone carried out an obviously handicapped
human being and placed him on the chair in the spotlight and gave him a
microphone. The handicapped person began
to speak in a raspy voice. He said: Hi,
I’m Brian Sternberg. And he told his
story.

He called
himself a selfish person. He knew he was
a great pole vaulter. He did most of his
practicing on the trampoline as was common with pole vaulting. Not needing others, since he was a natural
athlete, he didn’t have much use for others.
He worked out alone away from the rest of the young people in the gym. Gradually, he became quite cocky with what he
could do. One day he was doing a double
somersault twist on the trampoline and he came down off center, landing dangerously
on the trampoline, hitting his head in an awkward way.

He
was paralyzed him immediately, confined to a wheelchair forever, and quite bitter
about life. With the help of a
girlfriend, he only gradually came to understand some things.

In
his speech, then, he paused so that it became deathly quiet in the auditorium,
and said:

“My friends, I pray to God that what has happened to me will never
happen to one of you. I pray that you’ll
never know the humiliation, the shame of not being able to perform one human
act. I pray to God that you will never
know the pain that I live with daily…

Then he paused again. And finally continued

“…unless,
my friends, that’s what it takes for you to put God in the center of your
life.”

Brian
Sternberg went on to explain how he had neglected the important things in
life. And now he had come to see that
God was the only important thing.

 

 

3
– “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)**

…Once again, we need to look
at ourselves and our desire for power over others.

 

 

4 — Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. (Eph 4:32)

…Am I kind,
compassionate and forgiving?

 

 

5 — “Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” (Lk 13:34)**

…How strong is my own spiritual life?

 

**indicates one of the most important passages of the Gospels

10-19-22.pdf

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Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

October 13 – October 19

 

1 — “Beware of the
leaven–that is, the hypocrisy–of the Pharisees.” (Lk 12:1)**

…Am
I hypocritical in my speech or actions?

 

 

2 – “But when the Son of Man comes, will
he find faith on earth?” (Lk 18:8)**

…A resolution today:
pray the Nicene Creed slowly.

Extended meditation
[see Matthew 15:28]

She
had reason to dislike, hate almost, the people who had settled in her
area. Never really agreeing with the
religion they taught, she had more than enough to do to keep her family healthy
without calling on any god. Her husband
had passed away early, and her daughter had something wrong with her. She didn’t really know what it was, but she
almost thought that the devil himself had possessed her at times. She had tried the so-called professional
people who try to heal such things, but was not able to find any help for her.

Then
she heard about this man who had the power to heal. He was of that faith of many of the people
around her, although she didn’t really believe it. After she heard of him and found that he was
near where she lived, she had followed him around, and watched what he was
capable of doing.

So,
with a feeling that it couldn’t hurt anything, she brought her daughter to him,
but he and his school of followers refused to listen to her. She was discouraged, but finally had a chance
to speak to him directly. Her
conversation with him was at first hostile.
He had called her a name, but she answered back with her usual
straightforward way of speaking, demanding almost that he listen to her.

He
finally did, and he healed her daughter.
She immediately saw what kind of man he was, and what kind of faith he
was asking of others. She accepted what
he said, becoming one of the many people who were accepting what he said. He even complimented her on her faith in him.

 

 

3 — “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.” (Lk 12:15)**

…Are
there some possessions that I should give away?

 

 

4 — “The Kingdom of
God is at hand for you.” (Lk 10:9)**

…Do
I act as though I am proclaiming the Kingdom of God?

 

 

5 – “Much will be
required of the person entrusted with much, and still more will be demanded of the person
entrusted with more.” (Lk 12:48)**

…God
has given me so much; can I name an area in particular in which I am giving
back to God?

 

**one of the most important passages of the Gospels

 

(a PDF copy for printing is attached)

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

October 6 – October 12

 

 

1 — “Ask and you
will receive, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Lk 11:9)

…When I pray the prayer of petition, do I ask with the belief that the Lord truly will answer in the way He wants?

 

 

2 – “Then it goes
and brings back seven other spirits more wicked than itself who move in and dwell there.” (Lk 11:26)

…a frightening thought from Jesus: evil will never give up.

 

 

3 — “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Lk 11:28)

…An extended meditation:

What would you feel like?

We were gullible teenagers in a high school designed to help us discern whether we
had a vocation to the priesthood or not.
Our spiritual director, a kind man that every one
of us trusted was giving his usual Wednesday evening talk in our chapel. He came into the chapel and walked slower than
usual up to the front, turned to us, very slowly, paused for a long time, it
was an uncomfortable silence, and said: “I know something that I wish I didn’t
know.” We were interested, to say the least. He paused with more silence. Then he continued: “When I finish this talk, I
know that one of you is going to leave chapel like he always does, walk through
those doors back there, and fall over dead.”

He paused, again for a long time. Now,
what do you think of at a time like that—the man’s crazy, but he is holy—he
wouldn’t be wrong; I hope the man’s crazy; who is the person that will die;
what if it’s me. It really upset a
number of us, and you wonder whether he really should have got our attention
that way. To this day, I remember well having a very uncomfortable feeling. He did not say anything for the longest time. Finally, he continued: “Now what if that were
true. What would you do about it?” And he went on to say that we should be
prepared, and he wanted us to read a spiritual magazine. I remember everything about that moment,
especially when we were leaving the chapel and going through the doors very
cautiously. He got our attention, and I have
never forgotten it.

In many ways, Jesus’s whole life was a
way of getting our attention. He calls
us to “listen” to him often throughout the Scriptures.

Listening is among the most important
virtues that we can have as a human being. Actually it is the most important
part of communication which I believe to be the most important principle of
leadership for anyone. One of the songs
of not too long ago by a group called The Fray was about communication and
listening; it was cleverly named “How to Save a Life.” In general, the song said that the way to save
a life is by communication, and the most important part of communication is to
listen.

We do not listen well. What we tend to
do is what has been called “selective hearing” or “hearing what we want to
hear.”

What we are interested in, of course,
is “listening to Jesus.” I believe that
we have the same problem as listening on a human level: we “hear what we want
to hear” or “selective listening.” There
are certain things that we know that the Lord says to us in the Gospels
especially, and we often hear only a part of it. We know what Jesus has said
about how we treat others—all others. We
know what Jesus’ words and actions are concerning prayer—and the need for more
of it. We all know the basics of what
Jesus says in the Scriptures. Often we
simply do not want to follow through with what we have heard.

One of the skills that is taught to
anyone in a caring profession is the skill of active listening which involves
four steps: stop, look, listen and respond. Applied to our listening to Jesus,
it means:

– stop – what you are doing—do only one thing—pay attention to the words of Jesus;

– look – at the person directly—study the words that Jesus says;

– listen—as though nothing else mattered at this moment than what Jesus is saying;

– respond—do what you can to move yourself to what the other has said.

God is talking to us. We should be actively listening to what God is
saying, as well as what God is trying to say to us in particular.

 

 

4 – “Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” (Lk 17:18)

…Do I say “thank you” enough to God and to the people who help me?

 

 

5 — But as to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.” (Lk 11:41)

… I must remember my Franciscan charism. Am I giving enough of what I have to others?

 

ff-sept-28-oct-5

(a pdf copy of this article is attached for printing)

Five Important Spiritual Thoughts from the Liturgy of the Word

…and follow up for the Secular Franciscan

September 28 – October 5

 

1 — “Here is a true
child of Israel. There
is no duplicity in him.” (Jn 1:47)**

…No
duplicity means that Nathanael was “real” and not “fake.” Is my commitment to Jesus as strong as it
should be?

 

 

2 – ”I have dealt
with great things that I do not understand; things too wonderful for me, which
I cannot know.” (Job
42:3)

…When
I don’t understand the Lord’s way…

 

 

3 – “When
you have done all you have been commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants;
we have done what we were obliged to do.’” (LK 17:10)**

…Am I conducting my
life as if I were a servant to others?

 

 

4 — “And who is my
neighbor?” (The Good Samaritan) (Lk 10:29)**

…Go
and do likewise, Jesus says

Extended meditation:

Jesus cared about people.
The fact is documented throughout the Gospels. One time in Matthew’s Gospel, he
had retreated a while to mourn the loss of a friend. But when he saw how the
crowds seemed to be searching for something, he left his meditation in order to
help them.

Jesus’s
care is often translated as “pity” or “compassion.” The derivation of the word “compassion”
presents a learning possibility. It
comes from the Latin cum patio, meaning
a feeling with the pain of someone else.
The person who possesses such a virtue, as Jesus certainly did, studies
the painful situation of another and desires to do something about it.

In
real life, compassion is expressed in various ways. One notable way was exemplified by a football
coach and his words of “Maybe I can help.”
Coach Jack Lengyel was enjoying a good career as head football coach at
the College of Wooster in Northeast Ohio, and he heard about a disaster of
monumental proportions in nearby Huntington, West Virginia. The complete football team and coaches of
Marshall University in that city were killed in a tragic air accident as they
were returning from an away football game.

When
Coach Lengyel read of the tragedy, he thought of the pain of the people left
behind and the pain of the University personnel in particular. Knowing that he could accomplish something,
he wrote to the University president volunteering his services, saying “Maybe I
can help.” He probably had some idea of
what it would take to carry out his words, but he was to discover great
personal cost, great resistance from the city and University, and the pains of
beginning with absolutely nothing and building a complete football
program. But he cared; he had
compassion. (Movie: “We Are
Marshall”)

A
Christian generally speaking will not have the opportunity to show such care or
compassion, to be sure. But if she or he
truly understands Jesus’s words, then Coach Lengyel’s words will ring true in
their minds, “Maybe I can help.”

It
is interesting to note that Jack Lengyel about 40 years later, lent his
expertise to a school in Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada who suffered a similar
tragedy.

Indeed,
the Christian may not know what to do, may have no idea of the amount of work
it will take, not even know where to begin.
But a true Christian will have the attitude of wanting to help
others.

Wanting
to help or simply trying to care can accomplish great things.

 

 

5 — Mary has chosen
the better part and
it will not be taken from her.” (Lk 10:42)**

…Have
I established a good prayer pattern in my daily life?

 

**
denotes one of the most important passages of the Gospel

 

Fr.
Mike’s website: www.frmikescully.com