A reflection by Sr. La Donna Pinkelman:
Anxious, heavy-hearted, thirsting, yearning,
Expecting, wanting to be open, tired, uptight,
Fearful, yet hopeful, searching for a deep walk
With God, with myself.
Probing, getting in touch, drained,
Excited, amazed, awed, presence of the deepest kind,
constantly with me, dialoguing, communing,
Unlocking, emptying, freeing, healing.
Body, mind, spirit, touching, embracing, loving and
Being loved, with inward amazement,
New life penetrating, releasing, accepting,
My God, You deeply entered my life,
Renewed and cleansed and gifted me.
With new eyes, body, and heart, I praise and glorify,
Thank and acknowledge You, my companion, friend, spouse;
My life’s energy and source, continue to abide with me
As I journey with You; following Your lead,
Receiving Your healing, living Your life
As You send it to me in joy and in peace.
by Sister La Donna Pinkelman, OSF Sylvania, Ohio
Reflection on The Fifth Station: Simon the Cyrene helps Jesus carry His Cross.
Who can understand the humility of God who holds power over the whole universe and yet enlists the help of a Simon to help Him carry His Cross. Richard Garnaut says:
I imagine Simon was reluctant to take part in your shame. He had no idea at all (that those)who watched and jeered at him would pass into oblivion, while his name would go down in history and eternity as the one who helped his God in need.
Is it not so with me, dear Jesus? Even when I carry my cross reluctantly as Simon did it benefits my soul. If I keep my eyes on you and watch how you suffered, I will be able to bear my cross with greater fortitude.
You bore the Cross and looked on it and held it fondly before you passed it on to me. You watch me and give me strength just as you did Simon. When I enter your kingdom, I shall know just as Simon knows, what marvels your Cross has wrought in my soul.
Os Guinness in his discourse “Addressing the Question of Evil In An Age of Genocide and Terror” dialogues on the questions of evil: “Where on earth does evil come from? How are we to understand evil?” Guinness asks us to consider the possibility of magnifying evil in modern times:
“The dreadful evil of the Final Solution was not carried out by monsters. Hitler was a monster. Goring was a monster. Goebbels… They were monstrous. They didn’t carry any of it out. It was carried out by millions, and millions and millions of “good ordinary people.”
“You could see how in a world of bureaucracy with division of labor and diffusion of responsibility and a distancing,.. people don’t actually see the effects of the decisions they make. You can see how a modern world and its procedures and its way of doing things has made possible evil on a scale the world never imagined. (paraphrased)
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.- Edmund Burke
Nine ways of participating in the sin of another:
1. by counsel
2. by command
3. by consent (“I’m personally opposed to it but” )
4. by provocation
5. by praise or flattery
6. by concealment
7. by being an accomplice
8. by partaking
9. by Silence!
Once you snuff out a child in its mother’s womb you have crossed the line and there is no sin off-limits to you. Society can’t hide behind our laws and our complicit politicians. Yes those in positions of authority bear the greater responsibility but their accountability does not set us free! How deafening the silence. Silence in our churches, our schools, our universities, our laboratories and the halls of government.
The fact that a law was passed to enable the atrocity of abortion, does not pour clean water over the scarlet decision. It simply makes our culpablility national and places our country in the cross hairs of retribution. You can declare a human being a non-person, but the DNA, the blood and the flesh, the substance and the soul witness against our immoral “Law.” Relativism may allow our society to lie to itself, but the law written on our hearts will condemn us. We do have freedom of choice, provides it is the right choice!
“I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live” – Deuteronomy 30:19
This sin too was nailed in Christ to the Cross. It is time to leave the darkness and live in the Light.
The Anchoress writes about the World’s Tiniest Hair Shirt, her scapular, which after hanging for years on her bedpost, now hangs about her neck as a “discipline.” I can relate.
Wearing the cloth scapular has been an on and off battle which I believe my scapular is now winning. From the stand point of pure convenience, I argued with Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, that wearing the medal was better and would make this devotion easier for me to undertake. So I wore the medal, but the cloth scapular glared at me from between socks, peeked through the clutter in my dresser drawer, or from wherever I last left it. Mary wasn’t buying my arguments. The Anchoress is right. It is a “discipline” – before it turns to love.
I finally found one I can wear with a minimum of hassle, though each morning, I still wake up with it intertwined with the chain of my Miraculous Medal. I used to grumble. Now I just smile. I think I owe the change in my motus primo primi (firstly first movement) to the efficacy of the scapular. It wraps me in the love of Mary and weaves the movements of her heart with mine. Does that make any sense?
Be Holy! 