St. Isidore

 

I grew up in Blue Island, Illinois, attending St. Isidore’s church and elementary school, taught by the Felician Sisters.  With the passing of time, that church and school have been closed, but I will never forget the lessons I learned there, on how to live as a Catholic, and as a man of God.

St. Isidore’s feast day is celebrated on April 4^th.  He was a bishop of Seville, Spain in the early 6^th century, and was named a doctor of the Catholic Church for his astute wisdom and holiness.  In my readings for that day, I read these words from the Book of Maxims by Saint Isidore; they are worth reading again:

 

Prayer purifies us, reading instructs us.  Both are good when both are possible.
 Otherwise prayer is better than reading.

If a man wants to be always in God’s company, he must pray regularly and read regularly.  When we pray, we talk to God, when we read, God talks to us.

All spiritual growth comes from reading and reflection.  By reading we learn what we did not know; by reflection we retain what we have learned.

Reading the holy Scriptures confers two benefits.  It trains the mind to understand them; it turns man’s attention from the follies of the world and leads him to the love of God.

Two kinds of study are called for here.  We must first learn how the Scriptures are to be understood, and then see how to expound them with profit and in a manner worthy of them.  A man must first be eager to understand what he is reading before he is fit to proclaim what he has learned.

The conscientious reader will be more concerned to carry out what he has read than merely to acquire knowledge of it.  For it is a less serious fault to be ignorant of an objective than it is to fail to carry out what we do know.  In reading we aim at knowing, but we must put into practice what we have learned in our course of study.

No one can understand holy Scripture without constant reading, according to the words: Love her and she will exalt you.  Embrace her and she will glorify you.

The more you devote yourself to a study of the sacred utterances, the richer will be your understanding of them, just as the more the soil is tilled, the richer the harvest.

Some people have great mental powers but cannot be bothered with reading; what reading could have taught them is devalued by their neglect.  Others have a desire to know but are hampered by their slow mental processes; yet application to reading will teach them things which the clever fail to learn through laziness.

The man who is slow to grasp things but who really tries hard is rewarded; equally he who does not cultivate his God-given intellectual ability is condemned for despising his gifts and sinning by sloth.

Learning unsupported by grace may get into our ears; it never reaches the heart.  It makes a great noise outside but serves no inner purpose.  But when God’s grace touches our innermost minds to bring understanding, his word which has been received by the ear sinks deep into the heart.

 

I don’t have to say, but obviously the underlines are mine, as in my prayer book.  And it was only minutes after I read the above that I read this also:  I shall place my law in their hearts; I shall be their God, and they will be my people.

I had much to reflect upon that night in the chapel.  And I prayed to St. Isidore.

How I Love Thee

 

 

O Deus Ego Amo Te

O God, I love Thee, I love Thee ---
Not out of hope of heaven for me
Nor fearing not to love,
 and be In the everlasting burning.

Thou, Thou, my Jesus, after me
Didst reach Thine arms out dying,
For my sake sufferedst nails and lance,
Mocked and marred countenance,

Sorrows passing number,
Sweat and care and cumber,
Yea and death, and this for ME
And Thou couldst see me sinning !!!

Then I, why should not I love Thee,
Jesu, so much in love with me?
Not for heaven’s sake; not to be
Out of hell by loving Thee;

Not for any gain I see;
But just the way that Thou didst me
I do love and I WILL love Thee;
What must I love Thee, Lord, for then?
For being my King and God.  Amen.

 

--- Gerard Manley Hopkins

 

 

It’s amazing how you can read things 1000 times, and then suddenly you read it again and it hits you with new meaning.  The Bible is like that, but the above prayer in my breviary, which I glanced at, at least 100 times over the years, suddenly hit me yesterday, and I underlined some of the words as above.  I guess Lent and reflections on the Passion will do that.  I’ve been reading some deep reflections on the Passion this Lent.

This morning, however, I listened to Deacon Tom Lowe on Notes From Above, on the local Catholic Radio station.  In recent weeks his show, with Sr. Sarah, has had some wonderful music and reflections.  Dcn Tom spoke about Judas, and his betrayal, and looked at it deeply in a way I’m not sure I’ve reflected upon, or at least not recently.  He posited on what Judas was thinking when he betrayed Jesus.

He and the other apostles likely accepted that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, but their expectations on what the Messiah would do upon his arrival were not what Jesus was doing.  And after the triumphant arrival in Jerusalem and the large crowds singing hosannah they may have thought this was the time.  This was the time for the Messiah to take charge of his people and cast out the Romans.  He had spoken to them of suffering and dying for them, but they likely thought that was what a warrior leader would say, but it confused them somewhat.  Perhaps, Dcn Tom mused, it confused Judas more.  Why wasn’t Jesus leading the charge?  Perhaps Judas thought that Jesus was too humble, and he didn’t appreciate what the Messiah should do, to take charge and lead his people.  So perhaps the betrayal was just a nudge to get him to take action.  Judas had seen all the miracles, huge miracles, Jesus had done.  If the Romans came to arrest him, would THAT be the thing which finally triggered him to action?  Despite what Jesus said, perhaps Judas really didn’t have any idea what Jesus meant.  Maybe he betrayed Jesus to trigger him to start his kingship reign on earth.  “Surely,” he may have thought, “he will never allow himself to be arrested.  I’ve seen all his miracles.  And what a big one it will be when these Roman idiots try to arrest him.”  Maybe Judas thought his kiss of Jesus was that of a friend --- “I’m doing this for you, to trigger you to action.  You’ll thank me for doing this, just wait.” 

And maybe when Judas saw what was happening, what Jesus was letting happen ---- and Judas knew Jesus could stop it if he wanted to --- then, then finally, Judas got it.  And now he was more than embarrassed for having tried to trigger Jesus to action, action Judas thought He was meant to do.  Maybe that’s why Judas tossed the coins back at the Romans saying, in effect, this is not what I thought would happen.  And when he saw it carried out to the end, perhaps only then did he realize that it was HE who had betrayed the Messiah and the Jewish people he loved.  And then he committed Suicide.

That reflection on Judas’ motives were striking to me.  Maybe he thought he was just doing what was right??  And then I thought how many times I act that way. O Deus ego amo te.

Review: Conversion

      

     Fear not that thy life shall come to an end, but rather fear that it shall never have a beginning.              
        -- Blessed John Henry Newman

    Never look down on a person unless you are picking him up.
                                   --- Mother Teresa of Calcutta

    What does it profit you if Christ comes in the flesh,  unless he also comes to your soul?
                                    --- Origen

 Fr. Haggerty is a man of deep prayer and thoughts.  This book’s subtitle “Spiritual Insights Into an Essential Encounter with God” says this well.  But even before his words, the start of each chapter has a few quotes, like those above, which are in themselves great insights.

I found the adoration chapel to be an absolutely wonderful place to read and reflect on Fr. Haggerty’s words of this book, --- and talk to Jesus about them.  Although the book has topic-focused chapters, every point he makes is done in only a paragraph or two, then there is a space in the book, indicating that this might be a point at which the reader might pause and reflect.  I had many underlines in the text, often done during my reflections.  They are things I want to come back to, and spend more time thinking about, like this one:

The poor … leave a mark on our soul, often for a reason we understand only later or perhaps only at final judgment.  Every turning aside from a poor person remains with us even if the contact is momentary.

In the final chapter Fr. Haggerty writes about conversion --- or perhaps re-conversion would better describe his point.  He gives many examples to strengthen our understanding of how this might come about.  I know I am an example of the following words he wrote:

“God meets a soul at a crossroad of life, and in some unexpected way makes his real presence known.  A personal encounter with the real mystery of a personal God is at the heart of every great conversion.

As He dragged me to Medjugorje in 1987, THE major crossroad of my life.

Music to my Ears

 

It’s sometimes happened, that when I turned on my car I hear words on the radio that it seems are meant for me, said on the Catholic radio station I usually am tuned to.  On rarer occasions, it seems I am tuned to another station, and a similar event happens.  This morning was one of those mornings.

I started my car to leave for church and I heard a song being sung that was obviously country music (I rarely listen to that country music station; I don’t know why my radio went there).  I reached to turn the radio channel, but then I listened to the song words, and they touched my heart, as I headed out to talk with Jesus:

 

You do something to me that I can't explain
Hold me closer and I feel no pain
Every beat of my heart
We got something going on

… Tender love is blind
It requires a dedication
All this love we feel needs no conversation
We ride it together, ah ha
Making love with each other, ah ha
… Islands in the stream

That is what we are
No one in between
How can we be wrong?
Sail away with me
To another world
And we rely on each other, ah ha
From one lover to another, ah ha
… Islands in the stream
That is what we are
No one in between

 

 The song was titled: From One Lover to Another.  It seemed appropriate to sing, as I drove this morning to be with Jesus.  And as it ended, the station commercial mentioned God and the importance of prayer.  Hmmmmmm.  Perhaps I will turn to this station (WYCD – Detroit Country 99.5 FM) more often.