Ash Wednesday

 It’s about 4 degrees with about 10 inches of snow visible through the dining room window.  Driveway is clear and later on I will be off to pray, distribute ashes and the Eucharist and then prep a few classes. 

For sometime, I’ve discerned coming back to this.  Amidst the winter surge, I think I hear a “do it.”  

This is a place for quiet reflection.  It was started with Elijah in mind, and the broom tree where he took his “retreat” and was prepared for the next step in the journey.  It was started as a part of my own grief work after the loss of my children in a car crash, followed by the death of my brother in the WTC on 9/11.  After all that, I needed a broom tree.  Everybody needs a broom tree.

On this Ash Wednesday, in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus instructs us how to live our lives in His love. When it comes to prayer, he urges to go to our “inner room” and pray to the Father “in secret” and the Father will hear us “in secret.”  

In short, go to your broom tree.  Stop.  Breathe.  Rest.  Pray.  Listen.  Be still. Know the Lord. 

This blog is not meant to be your broom tree.  It is meant to maybe help you along in coming to know the Father while in that “inner room” or under the broom tree.    Elijah would leave the broom tree to go to Mt. Horeb, where he would have his encounter with the Lord.   Where are you headed.  

Ash Wednesday is a good broom tree day.  Take some time to go to the secret room today. 

St. Martin of Tours

 Today is the memorial of St. Martin of Tours, fourth century monk, priest, bishop who worked tirelessly as a servant of God up to the time of his death in the year 397.  He is/was the first saint who was not a martyr, so I understand.  More so, he was a model pastor.   

St. Martin simply gave his life for Christ.  We are called to do so as well, in the way Jesus calls each of us to do.  We tend to want to ignore that or forget that, and live a “Catholic life” based on what we decide that will be.  St. Martin simply followed Christ completely.  He allowed Christ to lead.

Today, we are called to live the baptismal promise of  “priest,” not the sacramental but the evangelical.  As  disciples sent to all corners of...if not the world, then our neighborhood.  Or maybe within our own four walls.  It depends.  It is not an easy call to follow, especially in our country.  

I’ve found St. Martin to be an example of discipleship.  On call 24-7. Go where needed, do what is called for.  You really can’t plan this because it is Christ who will send you.  It’s a matter of prayer and humility...being open to God’s call in your life and willing to go where sent when you hear it.  Not an easy task, but one that brings peace to one’s heart.   

St. Martin of Tours, pray for us.

Changes

 Yesterday, I noticed the changing of the seasons slipping into our lives.  The sun begins it’s descent  and the shadows are a bit longer, the sunlight a bit softer.  The trees are in late summer green.  Green, looking tired, not as fresh as May or June.  Daylight is noticeably shorter.  The last moments of a pandemic summer.  Thought it would be a good time to jump back in here again.  Have been avoiding it.  When I left radio for the last time, I reached a point where I wanted nothing to do with media.  Instead, I wanted to get away and follow the call of a parish deacon.  Which is just what I have been doing.  Except this blog kept popping up in prayer.  And I kept trying to avoid it, until this morning.   Over a very early breakfast (I have a full slate of Masses this morning,)  I returned for the first time in ages to Sister Anne Flanagan’s “Nunblog” to see that the “media nun” is still at it.  Still at it, because that’s her call.  Well, I’ve been a “media whatever” most of my life.  So here I am again.  And I think this is the medium where I belong right now.  So we go forward.  Prayers, please.  Always needed.

The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan in Luke's Gospel passage today.  It stays with me as I begin to move through the day.

Who is the Good Samaritan?   Jesus Christ.  Who is the robbery victim lying along the road?  Those who have been deeply wounded by their sins and by the tragedies of life.  This road between Jerusalem and Jericho goes through rugged desert country.  It is not an easy trek.

The Good Samaritan comes to heal all, no exceptions.   The victim is all of us.

But is that all?   No.  Just as we can be the priest and Levine, too concerned with their own issues, we can also be the Samaritan when we live in Christ.   When we live in Christ, we become his icon, his tool.   Our love of Christ leads us to act in loving mercy of...all.   All.   To be a disciple, you cannot pick and choose.  All.

In the Office of Readings today, Ambrose writes that when we pray we should be praying for others first and foremost.  Do you not think that Christ will know and serve the needs of the disciples who follow him by giving of themselves first?   To those who give, much will be given.

Walking with this today.  May you all find true peace in your lives.

Off In Your Boats...

The daily Gospel tells of those who were moved by Jesus'  miracle of the loaves and fishes, and took up to find him afterwards.   They took to their boats, and from both the location of the miracle and from Tiberias they set out to find him.  They did eventually find him in Capaernum.

These people remind me of our daily Mass regulars.  Instead of getting into their boats, they get up at half-past dark and drive to our parish church for the early Mass.  After awhile you get to know them by sight, if not by name.  

What these two groups of people have in common is a thirst for God.  Why else would they do what they don't have to do in order to find Jesus?  The difference between the two groups is that those in Capernaum had yet to experience the full revelation of God's plan of salvation.  The band of early Mass goers has.

Both however, have experienced being able to be closer to Christ. In their own ways they move closer and closer to Him.  When I talk about this with them, I urge them not to try to understand God, because it just won't happen.  Instead, I suggest they simply be still and listen.

In both cases, they experience the Eucharist. The people who were fed with the loaves and fishes got a preview.  The early morning Mass crew experience the whole gift.  In both cases, when the heart is open the urge is for more.

This blog is called "Under the Broom Tree" because of the story of Elijah under the broom tree in Kings 1:19.  My initial trip to the broom tree occured after the death of my children.  Since then, I visit frequently.  It seemed like now is a good time to return to the blog and its original purpose.  In the midst of suffering and sorrow we can find ourselves falling in love...for the first time, or once again...with God.  In the midst of what modern life offers us, sometimes we do need time at a place where all that stuff is checked at the door.   If this can be one of those places for you, fine.  Grab a seat.  The Broom Tree is big enough for many.

Holy Innocents

December 28 is the day in the Church calendar when we remember in prayer the children killed due to the insane jealousy of Herod.  Deathly afraid of the potential of the new born Messiaiah, he figure that if he simply kill every two year old or younger male child, his future would be secured.  Thus, the first martyrs...all helpless, all under two.

On this day, as a parent who has lost children, I think of the parents of those children and the parents of all children who have lost their lives due to the violent, selfish, prideful, envy rigged actioctions of others.  Those murdered.  Those persecuted.  Those who took their lives because of the actions of others.  Those killed in war or acts of terrorism.    There is no pain like the pain of loosing a your child.

For our children today, we pray for the intercession of those first martyrs.

Listen...

It is the Fourth Sunday of  Easter.  Last week, we heard the story of Jesus appearing to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus.   There was a key passage in there for us.  It was when the two invited Jesus to stay with them.   This is how we are to respond to Jesus' love in our life...invite him to stay with us.  If we don't, we will sit in the pew each Sunday, wondering why we don't get anything out of Mass.   We become passive and hope for the magic tricks of the sacraments, which will not come because that's not what will happen.  We have to actively invite Jesus into our hearts.

This week, we are faced with another call to action.  This time it is to listen.  We are the sheep, and as the Good Shepherd explains to us, the sheep know his voice and follow him  while rejecting the voice of the stranger.

If you ask me, listening is not easy for most Americans.  We live in a culture that is designed to fill every minute with some sort of activity.  We cannot be quiet.  We cannot be still.  This will make listening, well, impossible.  If we don't listen, how can we respond as the two disciples responded in last week's gospel?  How can we actively welcome Christ into our hearts if we cannot listen  and hear his call.

Being still is a challenge.  It is also an action.  It takes conscious effort to be still, to learn how to listen.  To quiet our restless hearts while we pray.  To be still and know the Lord.  How can we hear the Shepher's call if we can't dial out the rest of the cacophony?  Do you think the two disciples who broke bread with Christ would have recognized him if their minds were elsewhere?  Do you think we will recognize Him if our minds are elsewhere.

A discipline of prayer will lead us to silencing of the mind and heart.  Silence leads to stillness and in the stillness of our heart we invite Jesus to be with us and are able to hear and recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd.