Adoration

It is Sunday again, and I watched the Mass on YouTube participating as much as I am able from my living room. However, it is obviously not the same. I miss my Parish - the people, the clergy, the place itself and above all the Blessed Sacrament.

This afternoon, I went for Adoration. Of course, I could not enter the Church. I parked in the parking lot facing the church door - and beyond it the Tabernacle. I prayed the Evening Prayers from the Magnificat and just soaked in the presence of Jesus.

There is a misunderstanding among some that the Blessed Sacrament must be exposed in a Monstrance for Adoration. This may be due in part to the availability of perpetual adoration in so many churches now days. Perpetual adoration is a wonderful practice, but sometimes we forget that we can also adore Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament while he is hidden in the Tabernacle. In times passed, church doors were left unlocked around the clock and anyone could just drop in and visit and pray.

Unfortunately, in our present culture we are not able to leave the doors of churches open without the fear of theft or vandalism. Even the Perpetual Adoration Chapels are locked up tight and you have to have the key code to visit Jesus. And now, in the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, the churches and chapels are all locked up tight and never opened - we don't know for how long.

But Jesus is still there. The Blessed Sacrament is still there. I felt that while sitting in the parking lot parked cross wiles across the parking spaces so that I could face the Church. Although I could not see the Tabernacle or the Sanctuary Lamp, I knew Jesus was there. I got the image that the Church building itself was a bigger Tabernacle enclosing the Tabernacle enclosing the Sacrament. I hope to continue to visit at least once a week while the shut down lasts.

Reflection on the 6th Station Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus

I love stories of Saints. I find hope in their lives, struggles and sacrifices and help from their intercession. So today, I will share the insight that I find in the story of St. Veronica.

St. Veronica gets her own call out in the sixth station. She is a woman of action and courage. There are three actions of Veronica that we reflect on in this station:

• She stepped out from the crowd.
• She took off her veil.
• She gave comfort to Jesus by wiping his face with her veil.

In return for these actions, she was given the great gift of an image of that beautiful face.

You are probably aware that this story, and Veronica herself, appear nowhere in sacred scripture. In fact, Veronica’s story in its current form does not appear until the Middle Ages. Some people have doubts that she was even an historical person. Her name is seen as a corruption of the Latin Vera Icon - meaning “True Image”, and the story is seen as being more about the image than about the person of Veronica.

I’m not going to argue one way or the other whether Veronica was a real person in an historical sense, but whether she was (and is) real in another sense. Consider again the actions of Veronica:

• She stepped out from the crowd -- she chose not to follow what everyone else was doing, but went where she saw the need.
• She took off her veil - she made herself vulnerable by exposing herself to the stares and ridicule of the crowd.
• She offered comfort to Jesus - she was not able to stop the madness, but she could use what she had - her veil - to do what little she could to bring comfort to our Lord. She gave to Him from her weakness.

So, let me share some examples of how Veronica’s Spirit has been evident in more recent times:

I first offer you Fr. Damien De Veuster, a missionary priest from Belgium. Fr. Damien served as a missionary in the Kingdom of Hawaii in the mid 1800s. When the Hawaiian legislature passed a law that all those with Leprosy - also known as Hansen’s Disease - be quarantined on the island of Molokai, the Bishop asked for priest volunteers to minister to them. Fr. Damien stepped up. At that time, Leprosy was believed to be highly contagious and deadly, but Fr. Damien went to Molokai to be a father and friend to the quarantined people and to become one of them. He told the lepers that, no matter what the outside world thought of them, they were precious in God’s eyes. After 11 years of working with the community, Fr. Damien contracted the disease and eventually died among the people he had served so faithfully. 

St. Damien of Molokai - 

• Stepped out from the crowd - he did not give in to the fear of leprosy as most of his contemporaries did.
• He made himself vulnerable - he went where the sick people were to serve them.
• He offered comfort to the body of Christ - serving the lepers of Molokai in both their spiritual and physical needs.

St. Damien became the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in giving his life for the people God gave to him to serve.

Secondly, let us look at Fr. Maximilian Kolbe. Maximilian was a Franciscan friar in Poland in the early 20th century. During World War II, Kolbe whose father was an ethnic German, could have claimed rights similar to those of a German citizen. However, he refused to take the easy way out. He and his fellow friars provided shelter at their friary to refugees, including 2,000 Jews, whom he hid from persecution. This did not last for long, as Kolbe and others were arrested and sent to Auschwitz. When a prisoner escaped, the commander chose 10 prisoners to die in a starvation bunker to deter further escapes. Fr. Maximilian offered himself in place of one of the men who were chosen to die. He led the others in prayer as they slowly starved to death. Maximilian was the last to die, by injected with carbolic acid. 

St. Maximilian -

• Stepped out from the crowd - by refusing to take the easy way of accepting the rights of an ethnic German.
• He made himself vulnerable - by opening his friary to refugees.
• He offered comfort to the body of Christ - by offering his life for the life of a fellow prisoner and by praying with those dying with him in the starvation bunker.

St. Maximilian became the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in laying down his life for the life of another. 

A third example is Mary Teresa Bojaxhiu. Sr. Mary Teresa had joined the Sisters of Loreto at 18 and was sent to teach in their convent school in Calcutta India. She taught there for 20 years and was appointed headmistress in 1944. Shortly after this, Sr. Teresa heard the call to leave the comfort of the convent school and go into the streets of Calcutta to serve the poorest of the poor. She received Vatican permission to start the new congregation of the Missionaries of Charity, depending entirely on donations. She spent the rest of her life, until her death in 1997, trusting in the Lord for all her needs and serving the poor, the sick and the dying. 

St. Teresa of Kolkata -

• Stepped out from the crowd - by leaving her comfortable vocation as a teacher in a convent school to answer God’s call to serve the poor.
• She made herself vulnerable - by going into the streets of Calcutta to serve in total trust that God would provide the resources through donations. 
• She offered comfort to the Body of Christ by serving anyone who came to her as if she were serving Jesus Himself.

Mother Teresa was given the image of Christ (Vera Icon) in those that she served and became for them, and for the world, the image of Christ in action.

Finally, I ask how can you and I become Veronica in the world today? I ask you to reflect on the ways that you can:

• Step out from the crowd
• Make yourself vulnerable
• Offer comfort to Jesus in his mystical body here on earth

Find a way to become a True Image, a Vera Icon of Jesus in your home, your workplace and your neighborhood. 

COVID-19 Lent

How is your Lent going?

Two years ago, my Mom told me that sometimes God give you your Lent. That year, my Aunt and Uncle were looking to make the transition in to a Nursing Home. Mom and Dad spent most of Lent driving them around to many different facilities looking for the right place. This was not what Mom had planned to do for Lent, but on Easter Day when she told me about it I think she felt that she had had a good Lent. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

Last year, as Lent approached I made my plans. I felt that I really had not had a very good Lent the year before, so I wanted to be more focused. All my plans flew out the window when Mom went into Hospice on the Friday after Ash Wednesday. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

In my own mind, I say that last year I gave up my Mother for Lent. That may sound crass or even flippant, but that's not how I mean it - or how I feel it. Last year my Lent was spent in praying for and with my Mom, spending time with my Dad and my siblings and receiving love and compassion from family and friends. Although I did not mourn in the way that I would have expected to, I think that having this happen during Lent brought my loss a different perspective and gave me a new view of the Lenten season. "Sometimes God gives you your Lent."

This year I decided that I was going to have a really good Lent. I wanted this Lent to be very contemplative and take advantage of every opportunity to grow spiritually. Our Parish had scheduled so many opportunities for prayer and learning - and I wanted to do them all! In fact, in the first 17 days of Lent I was at my church or another church for at least an hour on 16 of those days. My calendar for the next few weeks was similarly full. I feel that this was working. I have spent more time in prayer and spiritual reading and have grown in my friendships with people at my Church.

However, in just a few days, we have gone from a place where the Corona virus was something that we heard about happening somewhere else to where it is turning our world upside down. So many events and activities have been cancelled or postponed that we are all reeling from the impact. While this has hit me fairly lightly in comparison to so many others, it still brings to mind what Mom told me two years ago -- "Sometimes God give you your Lent."

So, what is it that God is giving us this Lent? He is giving us a chance to slow down (more like a mandate!). He is calling us to be more contemplative - to be human beings and not human doings. He is giving families time to spend enjoying each other's company rather than rushing from one activity to another. He is also calling us to trust in Him in this unsettled time and in our fear and worry.

"Sometimes God gives you your Lent." What will you take away from Lent this year?