The Communion of Saints

"We’ve got to give the material world back its power, its importance, its soul, and its sacredness. This whole earth is indeed a “land of enchantment” as we here call New Mexico. St. Francis would not step on a little worm knowingly, but would pick it up and place it by the side of the road.

Francis of Assisi is the first known Christian to openly address creatures with the relational titles of “brother” and “sister.” Animals, sun, moon, plants and the very air were soulful and mutual subjects for him and not just objects for his use. One cannot overemphasize the importance of this to a world that severely suffers from what Richard Louv calls NDD, “nature deficit disorder.” We forgot how to read and reverence the first Bible of God.

Such reverential seeing will lead to the beginnings of true enlightenment, love for that tree, joy in that animal, awareness in that breeze, God in that pain. Soon you yourself wonder what this communion is that is passing back and forth between you and everything else. I will tell you. It is the largest and the very best 'communion of saints.'"


~Fr. Richard Rohr, ofm .... Adapted from the Medicine and Ministry conference
(out of print)

Walking in Victory

If I rely on the flesh, I will yield.
If I rely on the Spirit, I will walk in victory.

Calvary Road

Calvary Road

"Our central job is not to solve the world's problems. Our job is to draw our entire life from Christ and manifest that life to others. Nothing could be simpler—and nothing could be more challenging. Perhaps this partly explains why we allow ourselves to be so thoroughly co-opted by the world. It's hard to communicate to a prostitute her unsurpassable worth by taking up a cross for her, serving her for years, gradually changing her on the inside, and slowly winning the trust to speak into her life (and let her speak into our life, for we too are sinners). Indeed, that sort of Calvary-like love requires one to die to self. It is much easier, and more gratifying, to assume a morally superior stance and feel good about doing our Christian duty to vote against "the sin of prostitution." Perhaps this explains why many [Christians] spend more time fighting against certain sinners in the political arena than they do sacrificing for those sinners. But Jesus calls us and empowers us to follow his example by taking the more difficult, less obvious, much slower, and more painful road—the Calvary road. It is the road of self-sacrificial love." ~ Rev. Greg Boyd, Ph.D.

Mystery, Not Answers

"Our faith is not in words. Our faith is in a person and a real relationship. Our faith is in God, who is revealing the divine self to us in everything that happens to us. As Paula D’Arcy says, “God comes to us disguised as our life.” Mature faith calls us into a personal dialogue with Life as it is, not a slavish attachment to ideas or words. Words are not reality itself. Mere attachment to words leads to fundamentalist religion, which is invariably exclusionary and elitist, and lacking in real experience.

The Scriptures call us into a personal struggle with the angels of Yahweh, like Jacob who “struggled with God and won” (Genesis 32:24-31). In our necessary wrestling match with God, we come to an open and free space called faith. Faith is not just another competing ideology with other world views or religions. It is more a process than a conclusion, more a way of relating than a way of explaining, more a wrestling match than a classroom lesson. More love and acceptance of mystery than a demand for answers." ~Fr. Richard Rohr, ofm

Dear Reader, may you come to know you are being held in the Sacred Heart of Mystery.
~Friar Rex

Let There Be Light!

"All of you are children of the light." (1 Thes. 5:5)

"We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men [and women] are afraid of the light." ~Plato

May we walk this day in the Light Who is Christ. More, may we be beams of that Light which comes into the dark places of the world bringing the healing rays of love.

I hold you in my heart,
~Friar Rex

Recently I came across a quote from the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr.. I tucked it away, sure that it would come in handy some day. Today is that day. I'm posting this reflection just prior to attending Mass where I will hear Jesus say to me "Eat my flesh. Drink my blood." He will also ask me if I, too, want to leave Him because of what He says. And I will reply, "But where can I go, Lord? You have the words of eternal life."

"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meaning can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."

Dear Reader, today may you experience at least one moment of "unutterable fulfillment."

Holding you in my heart,
Friar Rex

Acceptance + Surrender = Faith

"Faith is not just the acceptance of abstract propositions about God; it is the total surrender of ourselves to God. In baptism, our false self is put to death and the victory won by Christ is at our disposal. The dynamic set off in baptism is meant to increase continuously during the course of our chronological lives and lead to the experience of the risen life of Christ within us. In the Christian view, death is thus an integral part of living. Dying to the false self is the movement from a lower form of life to a higher one; from a lower state of consciousness to a higher state of consciousness; from a weak faith to a faith that is strong, penetrating, and unifying." ~An excerpt from The Heart of the World: An introduction To Contemplative Christianity by Fr. Thomas Keating, OCSO

Holding you in my heart,
Friar Rex