3rd Sunday of Lent (A) The Samaritan Woman

Short Reflection for the 3^rd Sunday of Lent (A): The Samaritan Woman

Readings: Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2. 5-8; John 4: 5-42

Gospel Passage:  Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4: 13-14)

Meditation:  We have drunk of the well of Jesus… We shall never be thirsty again and that water in us will become a spring welling up to eternal life. Moreover, In Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, he reminds us that “God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship, too, in Spirit and truth.” (Jn 4:24)

Often, in our worship, we are tied to a place or sanctuary, yet the true God’s sanctuary is in the heart and in living by the Truth that is Jesus Christ.  Yes, God resides in our hearts and in our deeds!  Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Sweating Blood at the Garden

SWEATING BLOOD IN THE GARDEN

When we look at the accounts of Jesus’ passion and death we see that what the gospel writers highlight is not Jesus’ physical suffering but his emotional anguish. Indeed, in the gospels, his physical sufferings are almost underplayed.

What’s emphasized instead is that Jesus was alone, abandoned, betrayed, morally lonely, hung out to dry, unanimity-minus- one.

What Jesus suffers is the emotional agony that sometimes comes on us as the price of love. The blood he was sweating was the blood of emotional crucifixion, the price of being faithful in love.

To be faithful requires that sometimes we have to enter a great loneliness: the loneliness of moral integrity, the loneliness of fidelity, the loneliness of duty, the loneliness of renouncing an overpowering desire, the loneliness of losing life so that we might find it in a higher way.

Jesus didn’t find it easy and neither do we. What love and fidelity ask will sometimes drive us to our knees in anguish and, like Jesus in Gethsemane, we will find ourselves begging God for a means to still have our own way in this, to have our cake and eat it too, to find some way around fidelity, vow, promise, and duty.

This is a lover’s anguish because the part in us that’s agonizing and resisting is that part of the heart that stewards intimacy, romance, and embrace. The lover in us is having to let go of some very precious things; it’s having to die to something for the sake of something else, and that’s emotionally crucifying.

The account of Jesus sweating blood in the Garden of Gethsemane is, among other things, a powerful mystical image that tells us it’s not enough simply to be sincere and follow the heart’s desires. Sometimes love and fidelity demand that, like Jesus, in anguish and tears, we say to God: “Much as I desperately want this, I can’t have it! Not my will, but yours, be done!”

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/sweating-blood-in-the-garden-2-of-6/#.WLgjCRiZNE4

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2nd Sunday of Lent (A)

Short Reflection for the 2^nd Sunday of Lent (A): Jesus is transfigured!

Readings: Genesis 12: 1-4; 2 Timothy 1: 8-10; Matthew 17: 1-9

Gospel Passage:  “And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, conversing with him.’ (Matthew 17: 2-3)

Meditation:  In the following of Jesus, we, too, are invited to have our lives transfigured or transformed - NOT as dramatic as Jesus’, but equally true. Our lives need to be transformed unto the image and likeness of God. We hear God’s voice in our hearts - ‘you are my BELOVED SON or DAUGHTER - whom I am well pleased.  This is our own transfiguration!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Listening to Christ's Heartbeat

LISTENING TO CHRIST’S HEARTBEAT

That’s also the secret in our relationship with Christ. We need to put a stethoscope to his heart and listen to its complex and fascinating rhythms. How do we do this?

In the Gospel of John we’re given a mystical image for this. In John’s account of the Last Supper, he has a disciple, whom he describes as “the one whom Jesus loved”, reclining on the breast of Jesus. Obviously this connotes a deep intimacy, but it’s also meant to convey something else. If you lean your ear on someone’s chest you are able to hear that person’s heartbeat and that sound eventually begins to gently reverberate throughout your own body.

As we know, “the one whom Jesus loved” in John (historically this might have been John himself) is meant to refer to every one of us. Each of us is to be the “beloved disciple”, the one who reclines on Jesus’ breast in special intimacy. For John, this constitutes the very heart of discipleship and dwarfs everything else (charism, church office, even prophecy) in terms of what’s important. Indeed, at the Last Supper, Peter cannot even talk to Jesus directly, but must ask his question through the “beloved disciple”. That’s John’s way of saying that intimacy with Jesus is more important than any charism or leadership role.

And that’s our call, to have the kind of intimacy with Christ that has us reclining on his breast, hearing his heartbeat, and looking out at the world from that perspective.

When we are listening to Christ’s heartbeat, feeling his comfort, and looking out at the world from there, we will also more easily find the strength to keep our hearts soft when everything beckons us to be hard, our tongues gentle when everything is gossip and slander, and ourselves aware of others’ gifts when all around there is jealousy.

We will more easily find the capacity to forgive despite our wounds, to live chastity inside an over-stimulated culture, to see beauty inside dram and duty, to see the sacred inside of the humdrum, and to remain aware of God’s presence inside a godlessness that sometimes overwhelms us.

Our sensitivity must be a stethoscope that hears the beat of the complex and fascinating heart of Christ.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/listening-to-christs-heartbeat-1-of-6/#.WLWQJBz8n9I
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ASH WEDNESDAY

Ash Wednesday - A Day of Fasting and Abstinence to mark the beginning of the Season of Lent.

In the rite of the imposition of ashes, we have a very sobering reminder that "we are, indeed, DUST and to dust we shall return."

Let our Lenten observance of 40 days be a season of PRAYER, PENANCE AND SHARING OF OUR TALENTS, TIME AND TREASURES with those in need!

Do this and you  shall LIVE...!

1st Sunday of Lent (A)

Short Reflection for the 1^st Sunday of Lent (A)

Readings: Genesis 2:7-9; 3: 1-7; Romans 5: 12-19; Matthew 4: 1-11

Text:  “Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him, "All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me." (Matthew 4: 8-9)

Meditation:  Bread, Wealth and Powers are very strong temptations. We have our own price tag and when the call comes… we, often, find ourselves “sold”! Jesus’ temptations speak to us this season of Lent. We need to re-affirm that we are more than bread, power and wealth!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

Seeing in a Deeper Way

SEEING IN A DEEPER WAY

We always assume that it tells us that Paul was struck blind by his vision, but I think, the text implies more. It tells us that Paul got up off the ground with his eyes wide open, seeing nothing.  That doesn’t necessarily equate with physical blindness. He may well have been seeing physically, but he wasn’t seeing the meaning of what he was getting himself into. Someone had to come and open his eyes, not just so that he could see again physically but especially that he could see more deeply into the mystery of Christ. Seeing, truly seeing, implies more than having eyes that are physically healthy and open. We all see the outer surface of things, but what’s beneath isn’t as automatically seen.

We see this most clearly at those times when Jesus heals people who are blind.  He’s giving them more than just physical sight; he’s opening their eyes so that that can see more deeply. But that’s only an image. How might it be unpackaged? How can the grace and teachings of Jesus help us to see in a deeper way? Here are some suggestions:

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through familiarity to seeing through wonder.

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through jealousy to seeing through admiration.

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through bitterness to seeing through eyes purified and softened by grief.

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through relevance to seeing through contemplation.

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through anger to seeing through forgiveness.

·        By shifting our eyes from seeing through longing and hunger to seeing through gratitude.

To read more click here or copy this address into your browser http://ronrolheiser.com/seeing-in-a-deeper-way/#.WKsNXRC31E4
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8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 8^th Sunday in the ordinary time (A)

Readings: Isaiah 49.14-15; 1 Corinthians 4.1-5; and Matthew 6.24-34.

Gospel Passage: “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

 Meditation:  Jesus invites us to “consider the birds of the air - they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds.” What holds true for food applies also to clothing and other necessities of life … “consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these” (Mt. 6: 28). The challenge for each one is to TRUST and believe that we are indeed GREATER than the birds of the air and the lilies of the field!  Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

New Platform for Muslim - Christian Relations

Muslim-Christian Relations...

There is a contemporary New Charter for Muslim Christian Relations that is contained in the Muslim Letter to the Christian Leaders of the World. The Letter was sent by 138 Muslim Scholars, Mufti, Imams, Theologians and Academicians (by far the widest consensus among the Muslim Scholars and Ulama). Today there are above 500 more doctors, theologians, and jurists and muftis that have joined the original 138 Muslim scholars. The title of the Letter is "Common Word between Us and You..." issued at the end of Ramadan in 2007.

It is the contemporary reading and interpretation of the Qur'an and the Tradition of the Prophet in the contemporary world of multi-culturalism!

The letter is a MUST read for All Muslims and Christians as well...!

The "Custodian" of the Letter is the Bayt Foundation (The House of the Prophet Foundation) under the Royal patronage of the Hashimite Kingdom of Jordan.

Friends who need to read a copy may either download it from Google by simply searching for it and type Common Word. An easy way is to give me your email address to my messenger... and I will send you the copy...

Yesterday, I launched the presentation of the Common Word at the Divine Mercy Spiritual Center in Tamontaka, Dinaig, Maguindanao. I posted the 15 slides in the power point presentation for your reflection...

I will organize a special session of people interested in Muslim-Christian Relations to reflect and study more the Letter - the Common Word between Us and You...

Paz y Bien!

Fr. Jun Mercado, OMI

Badaliyya - Philippines

February 14, 2017

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 7^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Leviticus 19: 1-2. 17-18, I Corinthians 3: 16-23; Matthew 5: 38-48

Gospel Text: “You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him. (Mt. 5: 38-41)       

Meditation:  The gospel passage tells the NEWNESS of Jesus’ message: It is NO longer an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth – the Lex Talionis of old! Jesus says NO to vengeance! Jesus is challenging his followers to ‘offer no resistance to the wicked; offer also the other cheek; give our cloak as well; and walk the extra mile.

He speaks of forgiving those who offend or injure us; to love our enemies, as well; and to walk the extra mile. This, indeed, would tell that we are followers of Christ. Walking the extra mile; giving also our coat as well; and loving our enemies is the real meaning of that ‘MORE’ that is required of Jesus’ disciples. This is th newness mof the Jesus’ Message! Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Short Reflection for the 6^th Sunday in the Ordinary Time (A)

Readings: Sirach 15: 15-20; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

Selected Passage: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5: 20)

Meditation:  The real challenge of the Christian message is not simply to perform what the Law requires but to do MORE.  This echoes what the Lord said of giving not only our shirt but our cloak as well… or walking the extra mile!  The other way of understanding what is BEYOND the virtues of the scribe and the Pharisee is to LOVE not only our friends but also our enemies, as well. And we measure our love not by words and rituals by our concrete deeds!

Visit:  www.badaliyya.blogspot.com

DHIKR SIMPLE METHOD

1st step: Write the text or Dhikr (the Arabic word for REMEMBRANCE) in your heart.

2nd step: Let the text remain always in on your lips and mind - RECITING the text silently as often as possible...

3rd step:  Be attentive to the disclosure of the meaning/s of the text in your life.