Satisfy the Hungry Heart

Dear Friends,

Hunger comes in many forms and we deal with it in many ways. We talk about the world’s hungers, dieting to control rampant hunger urges. At the end of their tether, people embark on hunger strikes to draw attention to a cause. Jesus surfaced in people the many hungers of the heart and found them to be of two kinds: the hunger for truth, love and clarity, justice and peace or the hunger for gain, the desire to be top banana. The greatest gift that Jesus offers is union with Him, His Father and their Spirit. Each week, when we participate in the Eucharist, we come to the one who “satisfies the hungry heart”, as the old  hymn goes.

Fr. Dan O’Leary has an article in the 24 August 2013 issue of THE TABLET in which he speaks the far reaching embrace of Jesus in the Eucharist through us:

“The utter humanizing of God in flesh, bread and wine sounds shocking. No other religion talks about its God in this incarnational and eucharistic way. We are not saved by doctrines, Scriptures religions, pilgrimages and rituals. God comes to feed us- people of the flesh- in the earthy and unique intimacy of food. And we do not just look at it and adore it. We touch, taste, eat and drink it…. When we sit at the table of truth, immediately after receiving Holy Communion, we hear the vital assurance: “I am the living food of your flesh. I am the vibrant wine of your energy, the power within you. In me you are made complete, and you are invincible even in your darkest winter. And when your heart is full, it will overflow into other hungry hearts.”

For now, welcome the  hunger for God developing in fresh ways within you. Treasure the hunger and learn to recognize the ways that hunger is assuaged in our daily life as we serve the hungers of the world.

Jesus, Bread of Life and Cup of our Salvation,

may our hunger for You mirror,

in our own searching way,

Your holy hunger for us.

Amen.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Learning to be less in Remote Control

Dear Friends,

The news shows last week showed a pilotless F-16 streaking across the sky. It was being flown by remote control. A driverless car is on the drawing boards. We can already buy a vacuum cleaner that moves by itself. Motion detector lights have been available for some time. Drones, now used by the military, will have uses in daily life, but remote control in the spiritual life? It offers us nothing. 

The spiritual life, i.e., our life with and in God requires attentiveness, daily practice filling our lives with light, delight, awareness that God is everywhere we are and want to be. Certainly our work offers the world the best we can do, using our skills and education. Certainly, our hearts are full of empathy for people caught up in the world’s tragedies. Certainly we are breathless when we come upon beauty in nature and tenderness in human relationships. All of these are rooted in God’s active presence in our lives. Be sure of it. We are never alone or outside the embrace of our God.

God’s presence and love are not (I repeat) are not in proportion to our attentiveness, but our inner being takes on new depth of union with God when we are attentive.

So how do we learn to be less in remote control and more mindful of God and the gifts of God? Road work ahead.  Don’t continue to read unless you have the desire to draw closer to God.

1.       Carry around with you in your heart all day long one of the many short phrases Jesus utters in the Gospel. Chew on it. See how it lives uniquely in you. Believe it. Live by it.

A few examples:  If anyone asks you to go a mile with them, go two. (Matthew 5.40)

                                 Who do you say I am?   (Luke 9.20)

                                   Do you understand what I have done for you?   (John 13.12)

There are many more. Find them. Make a list.  Go over them often.

2.       The Celtic tradition encourages each person to have an anam cara, a soul friend, a person who has a very special place in our lives. A soul friend is a person who can share the ever deepening things of God with us and we with them. Be slow to name someone your anam cara.  This person is not just a buddy, a teammate, a spouse or a family member, although (s)he could be one of these. A soul mate loves God with you.

3.       The third part of growing in attentiveness to God is to allow yourself a retreat day with God away from home once in a while. Retreats often have a person who can help direct your thinking and praying. You could do a retreat alone or with a group. One such group retreat coming up is at the SSJ motherhouse on Saturday, October 19^th. It’s open to whoever wants to come. Go to the SSJ website for details, time and fee.  It's called "Dive Deeper" under our Retreat Saturday programs.

 

Jesus. Be with me as I try to be attentive to You in my daily life. Amen

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Righting the Ship

Dear Friends,

For the last two weeks, I have been absorbed in the raising of the  Costa Concordia. This luxury liner has been lying on its side, towering over a rocky stretch on Italy’s west coast since it ran aground and tipped over in January 2012. During these last two weeks, the intricate system of equipment designed to set the boat aright was finally put into place. Would it work or wouldn’t it? It did, of course, and while many steps will follow both legally and to rehabilitate the boat, as far as I’m concerned, the engaging part of the story is over.

The Costa Concordia is a metaphor for each of us. We are each a ship, moving through the waters of life. Jesus travels with us on our ship, although He might well be asleep at times. We carry all kinds of passengers, luggage, cargo, foodstuffs. We throb with life. And like the Costa Concordia, we may tip over.

What causes us to tip over with potential loss of many kinds? The carelessness or arrogance of the captain, inattentiveness to the course, the desire to show off our navigation skills may be reasons. I think the tipped boat can also be the result of sin – the deliberate ignoring of God as our co-captain, wanting God and our own way simultaneously, not realizing we must choose one or the other.

Sin tips us over, but most of the time, not irrevocably. Like the Costa Concordia, we are righted, not by pulleys, winches and ropes, but by seeking forgiveness of God and   the one(s) we have injured and when we can, by receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The younger son in the story of the Prodigal Father was tipped over.  Only in returning to his father could he be righted.

Then, last week, Pope Francis gave a wide ranging interview to his Jesuit confrere, Fr. Antonio Spadaro, SJ which again made me think of the Costa Concordia. The Church, we know, is called the barque of Peter.  Peter’s  boat is  in danger of tipping over. Pope Francis spoke of the Church with its narrow focus and rigidity over some aspects of life. It drives some people away, instead of gathering them together into the sheepfold of Christ. His own imagery for the church is likewise colorful: “a house of cards in danger of collapse.”

These are just two ways of taking in and using for our own fruitful reflection something as apparently nonspiritual as a tipped over luxury vacation ship. So scan the newspapers and news magazines, films and computer images to see what in our world can make you see God more clearly and understand a bit more the ways that life images tell us about our fragile yet resilient relationship with God.

Two more unrelated things:

• This Wednesday evening, Sept. 25, from 7 to 8.30 pm, two people in the know come to our motherhouse (150 French Road) to talk with whoever comes about the work and uncertainty of being young and Catholic.  They are Leslie Barkin, youth minister at Saint Catherine’s, Mendon and a national writer on youth issues, and David Dowd, a thoughtful  twenty something educator and youth ministry volunteer at Our Lady of Lourdes/Saint Anne, Rochester. 7 to 8.30 pm. Come, bring a young friend and engage in the dialogue.
•  Available at the motherhouse gift shop and main entrance is my new reflection journal , a simple workbook entitled Good Morning, God. It’s written to help you think through your relationship with God at various times of the year and when certain situations arise.  I like to say “If you don’t like what I say, cross it out and write your own ‘take’ but do use the book.” Use it yourself or get it for a holiday gift.

Blessings on your week.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Realizations About the Core of Christian Faith

Dear Friends,

You and I have been taught that the center, the core of Christian faith is to believe in Jesus.

Here are some realizations about Jesus to mull over and to take to heart.

To believe in Jesus …

                … is to be faithful to who He is really and not to who we think He is.

                … is to know and embrace Jesus  as the Risen Lord.

                … is not just an intellectual thing. It has to do with the “illogical logic” of the heart.

                … is not to be solitary. Jesus calls us to be a community of believers.

                … is to know that God acts in human life only when there is human readiness/human consent.

                … is to  both rest and be restless in the faith we profess.

Still it is not enough to confess that Jesus is the Risen Christ, present in our midst here and now.

Belief, if it is true and real, propels us into action, seeing, touching, ministering  as Jesus did.

In your life, when has your belief in the Risen One moved you to action? What happened?

Was it life-giving, life-changing for you or for others? Did you come to look at and engage the world

differently because, like the disciples after the resurrection, you could say “ I have seen the Risen

Lord!”?

                Holy One, Jesus, Our Savior and God,

    We stand, walk, leap, run through this world

                With all those you have given us as

                brothers and sisters.

                Help us to be and do all that is possible and necessary

                To help Your Father’s  Reign come to fullness..

                May our strength, energy and conviction

                Begin in You and end in You.

                Amen.

May your week be blessed

~Joan Sobala, SSJ
CLICK HERE to learn more about Joan Sobala's "Fresh Wind In Our Sails" programs 

Free for Everyone's Access

Recently I’ve taken on a new ministry as temporary pastoral administrator at Nativity in Brockport, New York. The learning curve is steep and quick, and the amount of names and information to cram into my mind is very large.

You know what factor of this new time has pushed me into new lines of thinking? Codes, access numbers, PINs and passwords.  They govern our passage through so many doors. I needed to learn, retain and use at least ten new ones for garage doors, security systems, websites and specialized documents.  A friend of mine has her access list on her computer: three pages of them.

So what I have been thinking about, then, is what is free for everyone’s access? Air, the weather, the ideas, inventions  and discoveries of the centuries, library books, certainly, and most certainly God’s presence and gifts.

            Freely have you received, freely give, Jesus says in Matthew 10.8.

            You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. (Jn.8.32)

            To the thirsty I will give freely from the font of life. (Rev.21.6)

            Christ has set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the

                                             yoke of slavery. (Gal.5.1)

The freedom of God is given to us not to be kept for ourselves, but to share with others so that they may  become free as well.

Let’s think about that as we enter the world of access prohibited without a code.

Finding God

Hello, Reader!

On this Labor Day, 2013, I put out the first of my occasional blogs. My umbrella for this series is the work of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Rochester.

It’s our hope that you and I, all of us, find fresh wind in our sails, as we enter the fall season in the company of our God.

            Some of these pieces will be short, others a little longer but all with our daily relationship with God in mind. We may find that God feels elusive to us, as we are absorbed with the other in our lives.

The other person :

Having lunch with A and spending most of the time on a cell phone with B. Who is the other?

             The old man with the cane in the city square of Siena couldn’t cross over to the shops easily.  It was a combination of his disabilities (like the paralyzed man at the pool of Bethsaida) and the ferocity of the packed populace around the square in the spirit of the horse race called Il Palio. Ten minutes elapsed.  Then, as I watched from a distance, two young people noticed this hesitant old man and escorted him with delightful flourish. It made the old man smile. Others, too.  Me, too.  God was in the city square of Siena.

            Throughout his ministry, Jesus grew to be aware of the other: the person in the crowd, the child, the foreigner, the stranger within his very own disciples.

            Is the other place the fleshpots of Egypt or a big new world where grace is valued and laughter is abundant?

            Is the other time the way we always did it? Or is the other time when God saw me through and washed me with newness?

            Is the other in my present moment? In this person? This place? This time?

           

The turn into September is, for us, a new season, a new day, and perhaps, a graced new look at the other.  A new awareness of our God.

            Lord, Jesus,

            I believe You love me, and

            You are lover of the other as well.

            Let  me be conscious of the other,

            however the unexpected other comes to me.

            There, may I find you anew.              

~By Joan Sobala, SSJ