Weekend Reflections for 7/30/21

Each year on July 31st, the Church celebrates the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola, a rather “big deal” for those whose lives have been shaped by Jesuits and their apostolic works, including, of course, White House Retreat. 

To understand St. Ignatius, it’s helpful to begin with his core attitude, his way of looking at the world, his “spirituality.” Fortunately, since he wrote so much about this, we don’t have to work hard to know it.  Looking around the world, Ignatius perceived the footprints and handprints of God everywhere.  To his eyes the world was one big sign of God’s love, a huge love letter to humankind.  First there is creation in all its glory – yes, trees and seasons, but even more so humanity in its own splendor.  More personally, Ignatius looked at his life and was deeply thankful that God had given him so many gifts and talents, and so many loved ones.  All of these he accepted as signs of God’s glorious creative love.

But for Ignatius God is not only the giver of earthly life, God is also the giver of eternal life: redemption.  As splendid as this world is, relationships and personal gifts are nothing compared to the eternal gifts that God has already crafted for us.  Despite the fact that we are owed nothing, despite the fact that we could never merit all that has been given, God gives them to us anyway…  just because he loves us.

But there’s more: Ignatius saw God not only as the source of all that is – both earthly and eternal – but he experienced God as the constant sustainer of life. He imagined God as a happy, attentive, faithful laborer, who never calls in sick, who never takes a break, but who toils night and day, day and night, so that we and the world can flourish. It is God who sustains every living thing, and in the case of human beings, not only physically or biologically, but also spiritually.  At every moment of our lives, from conception to death, God is hard at work filling us with his light and love and urging us to grow in wisdom, in holiness, and in love… All of this, so that one day we will be ready to receive the eternal gifts that await us.

In short, Ignatius knew that he and his life were gift – pure gift.  For this reason he cultivated in his heart a constant attitude of thanksgiving.  He was a deeply grateful man.  As he wrote in the Spiritual Exercises: we gaze upon the generosity of God and one question should arise in our hearts:  What ought I do to in order to say thank you to God?  The response, of course, is to love back, to love God with a love that is itself marked with profound and eager generosity.

Wanting deeply to please God, Ignatius strove to make his entire life a huge thank-you back to God. He did so by becoming a freer, more loving person, not fixated on his own perspective and desires, but sincerely committed to what he perceived to be God’s desires and hopes for humankind. Pleasing God by living according to God’s plans is what motivated Ignatius.  And this is what allowed him to accept so many unexpected, and probably also undesired, twists and turns in his life.  

Today, Ignatius invites us to join him in being generous lovers of the One who first loves us.

Fr. Frank Reale SJ

Weekend Reflections for 7/23/21

     "[Jesus'] heart was moved with pity for them, for they were like sheep without a shepherd." These words from Sunday's Gospel speak to the heart of every ministry we undertake as Jesus' disciples. Jesus wishes to place in us his tender heart of compassion, toward all those who have little guidance in their lives.  Indeed we are meant to feel with the heart of Jesus.

     As secular values reign supreme in our world today, with many trying hard to "become as gods" as the world invites them, the thirst for truth in these same people also becomes greater.  Secular values urging us to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and determine our own identity never satisfy. Thus, as "shepherds in the Shepherd", our testimony of belonging in Christ, of supportive Church community, is all the more necessary.

     Do the people around me know that first and foremost they are beloved children of God, receiving their identity from Him? How can we communicate this essential truth to those who are trying to establish themselves in truth, and do so with a shepherd's heart?

-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 7/2/21

     In the Gospel this Sunday, Jesus is excited to return to his native village of Nazareth and show off his "haunts" to his new disciples. For the townspeople, it promises to be an occasion of great celebration--"local boy makes good" could have been an appropriate bulletin heading.

     So when the sabbath arrives, Jesus enthusiastically begins to teach the locals, from the depths of his heart, sharing profound insights regarding the goodness of his Father. But instead of being captivated by his discourse and his preceding miracles, the people "took offense"! Jesus is not fitting into the box they expected. Moreover, he is challenging them to live a life of deeper authenticity...how dare he!

     Today the most common evil spirit ravaging our country is the spirit of offense (according to wise discerners of spirits, such as Bishop Hermann). Thus, many Americans are quick to take offense at anyone who is not immediately supportive of their lifestyle choice, anyone who dares to invite them to live a life of greater authenticity in Christ.

     It would be wise for committed Catholics, before offering their all-important testimony of faith (1 Pt 3:15), to petition God to first bind those spirits of offense so quick to enter our loved ones when we speak to them. St. Paul reminds us in this regard (cf. Eph 6:12) that our battle is not against flesh and blood (particular individuals for whom truth has become a relative concept) but against principalities and powers (evil spirits motivating their defensive posture). Brandon Vogt's excellent work Return lays out the best way to further these necessary conversations.

    May the love of Christ impel you and me to break out of our comfort zones, moving beyond a "live and let live" mentality, meeting people where they're at so as to help them out of where they're at--a guiding principle of ministry from our beloved St. Ignatius. 

-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 5/7/21

Jesus's Friends

Many people come to White House wanting to improve or deepen their relationship with Jesus. Often they find that difficult because their image of Jesus, and sometimes their experience with him, is of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity or the Lord of the Universe, which of course He is. In Sunday's Gospel Jesus calls his disciples and us "friends". The human Jesus had and cherished his friendship with the sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus. Whenever he came to Jerusalem, he stayed with them at their house in Bethany. When Lazarus died, Jesus met the sisters at the tomb and joined them in shedding tears before he raised Lazarus back to life. Friends were and are very important to Jesus.

St. Ignatius wrote that prayer can be a colloquy or dialogue "as one friend speaks to another", speaking and listening and just being silently present to one another. That's how our friendships grow and deepen and it's the same in our relationship with Jesus. He always wants to tell us about his and our Father, the God who is Forgiving Love. With Jesus we are our Father's beloved sons and daughters and we ask for the grace to share that love with the others in our lives.

-Fr. Ralph Huse, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 4/30/21

God's Vineyard

In Sunday's Gospel Jesus describes our relationship with his Father as one of life giving union. He tends His vines with loving care and prunes them so that they will bear more fruit. Our God is always at work making us into the persons He wants us to be. In Sunday's first reading from the Acts of the Apostles we are reminded how the risen Lord appeared to Saul (later Paul) and God pruned him of his murderous hatred of the Christians by a humbling and debilitating blindness for several days. It is God who makes Paul into the tireless and most convincing Apostle to the Gentiles who brings thousands to an experience of Jesus Christ.

God wants to do the same with us. He wants us to grow into our deepest identity as His beloved daughters and sons. We come to know who we are through our relationships with God, family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and even strangers we meet on the way. God wants to prune away all the creative ways we have of being selfish and self-centered so that we can be more loving and compassionate to others, more Christ-like. That kind of pruning is usually slow and gradual and may take much of our life time so we need to be attentive and patient with God and ourselves. All He asks is for us to say "Yes" and then stay out of His way.

-Fr. Ralph Huse, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 4/23/21

Experiencing the Good Shepherd

During the time in which Jesus was with his disciples and friends as the risen Lord he first had to convince them that he was the Jesus they had known as the carpenter from Nazareth. But then on Golgotha they had seen him was a mangled lifeless body hanging on a cross.

But gradually over time, as he came to them, talked with them, shared food with them, and even allowed them to touch his wounds, they realized that even though different in so many wonderful ways he was indeed the same person with whom they had shared their lives for so many months or years.

One of the ways in which he was amazingly different was his ability to be with them whenever and wherever he wanted. As the risen Lord this was one of the gifts of his new manner of existence. I can well imagine them thinking of the words of Psalm 139:

"Where can I go from your spirit? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the city, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

Yes, Jesus can be with them wherever he wants. And in today's gospel reading of the parable of the good Shepherd, they are assured of the purpose and nature of his presence to them as they carried on his ministry. He will be with them as a good shepherd, one who knows them individually and intimately, who carefully leads them and guides them, a shepherd who will even lay down his life for them.  And finally he will be with them as a shepherd who will bring them to pastures of repose.

Let us pray for one another that we too can have the experience of Jesus as the good Shepherd guiding and leading us to pastures of repose.

Jim Blumeyer, S.J.

Weekend Reflections for 4/16/21

The Third Sunday of Easter

Jesus’ Death and Resurrection: The Ultimate Battle and Defeat of Evil

During the weeks following Easter Sunday the Scripture readings focus on the many different times and circumstances in which Jesus appears to his disciples, his followers and friends. It was through these appearances that they would become convinced that he had indeed been raised from the dead. They were being prepared to go out with confidence and courage to proclaim that he was indeed the Messiah, the risen Lord.

Jesus appears to them often, his manner of doing this is often dramatic as he appears in their midst even though they are behind locked doors. He allows the disciple Thomas to touch his wounds; he shares food and breaks bread with them. Often in his conversations with them he speaks of his suffering and explains that his suffering has always been a part of his message. The messianic prophets, like Isaiah, had presented the same message.

Jesus suffering is not easy or pleasant for us to accept and taken.  Suffering is an evil usually a mystery, an aspect of our lives that you and I often cannot understand.  But Jesus rather tells us that the purpose of his life is to eventually overcome and eliminate  the evils in our world.

However the evils in our world will do their utmost to overcome and frustrate any endeavor from Jesus or anyone else that tries to frustrate and eliminate them. Courage Jesus crucifixion and death is the ultimate example of evil’s endeavors.  His resurrection is the Father’s definitive answer to evil.

-Fr. Jim Blumeyer, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 4/9/21

First Sunday of the Easter season

Jesus Appears To His Disciples

Be at Peace and Believe

In the gospel for the first Sunday of Easter, Jesus, after first appearing to the women anointing his body, then appears to his disciples. They are gathered in the upper room behind locked doors. The women have told them about their encounter with the risen Jesus. The disciples do not know what to do with this information. Will what has happened to Jesus also happen to them? Is what the women are saying true or are they perhaps in shock and hallucinating this?

They may well have wondered why Jesus would first appear to them? But at the same time they could well recall how they had behaved and abandoned him when the soldiers came out to arrest him. They had seen Jesus get angry and upset at the hardness of heart of some religious leaders. They too had experienced his dismay and his being upset with them when they seem to be so slow in understanding his teachings. They had seen his disappointment when only one of the 10 lepers had returned to express gratitude at their healing.

They may well have wondered how Jesus would be with them now. They had run off when he was arrested, Judas had betrayed him and Peter had denied him. How could the 12 continue to be his special  chosen followers?

And then all of a sudden there he is in their midst! His first words are compassionate expressions of concern, a concern that he desires them to be fully at peace with him. Yes, they will continue to be his special group of followers. Without saying anything about forgiveness they can realize deeply down that they are forgiven their cowardly behavior. Even more incredibly he is now asking them to continue his role of forgiving and reconciliation. Now they are commissioned to carry on his ministry of forgiveness of sin.

And what does all of this say to you and me?  We, through our baptism and confirmation, have received that same commission. We are to carry in the unique circumstances of our lives the ministry of reconciliation which our world at this time is so dearly in need of. This is no small challenge.  But we cannot do not do this alone.  May the peace of the risen Christ be with us and give each of us the courage and strength to be His peace and forgiveness for all of those in our life world.

-Fr. Jim Blumeyer, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 3/26/21

In this holiest of all weeks, Christians are confronted with the suffering and death of a Christ who was crucified. How do we imagine the death of Jesus?

My own imagining of the death of Jesus was transformed about 12 years ago when, while living in Madrid, I had the opportunity for the first time to visit the family castle of the great Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier in the Spanish region called Navarre. In a small chapel within the castle there is a crucifix, probably dating from the 13th century. (Xavier himself lived from 1506-1552.) On that cross, the suffering of Jesus is clear: Jesus is stripped, arms outstretched, head crowned with thorns and, of course, he is nailed to the wood. But his face is unusual. Rather than pictured as wracked with pain, he is depicted as peaceful and serene.

That sculpture is known as “the smiling Christ.” Perhaps that seems shocking or even blasphemous; however, it seems to me that it points to a deep insight.

We may never be called upon to suffer and die as did Jesus Christ or the Christian martyrs. Yet the liturgies of Holy Week remind us that the cross is the only way to life. For those who are faithful, Good Friday leads to Easter Sunday. The smiling Christ points to a loving Father, who at the moment of deepest suffering reaches down in love to accept the life and work of his Beloved Son. Love triumphs over death.

The Christian life does not promise us freedom from suffering, but reveals a more significant truth... it is through suffering that we are saved. And, as Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans, nothing can separate us from the love of God that comes to us in Christ, not trial, not distress, not persecution, not death.

May the many “faces” of Christ which we observe during this holiest of weeks, lead us to the full joy and peace which came to be his own and which is meant to be ours as well because of what he has done for us.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.

Weekend Reflections for 3/19/21

Spring has come to the grounds of White House Retreat in St. Louis.  Daffodil green shoots now are topped by yellow flowers, and on many of the trees there is a subtle but colorful haze – almost like an Impressionist painting – which promises that the brown-gray “death” of a St. Louis winter must soon surrender to new color, new light, new life.

For me this year’s spring began two weeks ago when I discovered the above-pictured crocus, just emerged in an otherwise barren flower bed bordering Chiuminatto Hall.  How appropriate, it seemed, that this first flower would carry the penitential color of the Lenten Season while still teasing us with the white and gold of the great Easter Season for which we remain in preparation.

Lent is a season of preparation… it is also a season of learning.  What Jesus learned is what we too must learn, for to become fully Christ-like is to become fully human.  The author of the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews used on the Fifth Sunday of Lent reminds us that the earthly Jesus, like all human beings, grew in consciousness of what his mission was and learned through experience the full meaning of what it is to be obedient to God’s desires.  To be obedient to love – to faithfully live out the commitment to do and be what is “most loving” in all of our relationships – is to be obedient to God.  But that obedience to love inevitably entails a willingness to suffer.

Again, what Jesus learned is what we too must learn.  There is no life that does not entail suffering, and there is no life without death.  This paradox is expressed in the image of this Sunday’s Gospel… “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces great fruit.”  The dyings of Lent – especially those which help us to die to what St. Ignatius would call the narrowness of “self” – give rise to our profound sharing in the resurrected life of Easter.  Winter gives way to spring… darkness gives way to light… death gives way to life. 

Let us celebrate the reassurances – sometimes found in purple flowers with golden white centers – which these late Lenten days offer all of us of God’s love and of his ultimate victory over sin and death.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J. 

Weekend Reflections for 3/12/21

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

It was not uncommon a number of years ago – I’m not sure if it happens anymore – that when the television camera panned the crowd in televised sports one could spot a spectator holding a placard reading “John 3:16,” a reference to the Bible verse cited above.  And sometimes that “re-direction” to the fundamental truth of Christianity was proclaimed by one of the athletes on the field or court.  (I am thinking here of Tim Tebow who during his time as quarterback for the Denver Broncos would etch the numbers 3:16 into the anti-glare black grease under his eyes.)

This familiar Biblical passage is found within the Gospel passage used this year on the Fourth Sunday of Lent as part of Jesus’ crucial conversation with the Pharisee and Jewish leader Nicodemus.  It is a conversation in which Jesus draws Nicodemus, and presumably those with him who listen with open ears, from what St. John symbolically expresses as darkness-to-light.   (We are told that Nicodemus, approaching Jesus in the obscurity of night, encounters “the light that has come into the world.”)

How will Nicodemus (and we) escape the darkness of an otherwise fallen world?  The answer is to be found in Jesus’ “lifting up,” the cross.  For Jesus, the cross is his hour and his glory, the ultimate expression of how “God so loved the world.”  By making himself a total offering, he expresses the radiant light of God’s love.  His glory is in his total self-emptying; his wealth exists as a gift.

In this light I share with you words taken from a reflection by Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word of God Catholic Ministries.  In them he cautions us about what he calls a “terrible interpretation of the cross,” an interpretation that states that the bloody sacrifice of the Son on the cross was “satisfying” to the Father, as if God were infinitely angry at sinful humanity and as if the crucified Jesus were a child “hurled into the fiery mouth of a pagan divinity” in order to appease his terrible anger.   Bishop Barron counters this lie with a much different image, one he draws from the truth of John 3:16. 

“God the Father is not some pathetic divinity whose bruised personal honor needs to be restored; rather, God is a parent who burns with compassion for his children who have wandered into danger.  It is not out of anger or vengeance or a desire for retribution that the Father sends the Son but precisely out of love.  Does the Father hate sinners?  No, but he hates sin.  Does God harbor indignation at the unjust?  No, but God despises injustice.  Thus God sends his Son, not gleefully to see him suffer, but to set things right.”

During this Lenten Season, let us never fail to bask in the light and warmth of a God whose love sets things right. 

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J. 

Weekend Reflections for 3/5/21

In the former translation of the Roman Missal, the first preface for the Season of Lent referred to it as a “joyful season” when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery “with mind and heart renewed.” It is ultimately joyful, of course, because it reminds us that we belong to God. It is renewing because through our Lenten activities of prayer, fasting, sacrifice and service, we boldly ask God to “give us strength to purify our hearts, to control our desires, and so to serve” and love God and others with greater freedom. As Christians, both as individuals and as families/communities who profess, we need to periodically take stock of our attitudes and our practices both as individuals and as who profess to follow Jesus in carrying his cross. Do we find within those attitudes and practices any which in any way impede our ability to live out the two great commandments of love of God and love of others?

Lent is a great time for humbly and honestly taking a look at the relationships in our lives, be they relationships with other people or with material things, including entertainment, time, work, electronic devices, food and alcohol. Echoing the perspective of St. Ignatius, we need to ask ourselves, to what extent do these “other things on the face of the earth” aid us in our goal of developing as loving persons who want to draw closer to Christ on his mission?

Let me suggest two areas for examination, one very broad and the other more focused. First, the broad one: whether rich or poor, in the United States we live in the midst of a culture of consumerism which continues to expand relentlessly and seemingly without limit. Can we doubt that an unbridled inclination to have and collect “nice things” – and the “latest” in things – can easily render us blind and deaf to the needs of our brothers and sisters? In a world with so many needy people, how can we who embrace the Gospel justify acquiring simply for ourselves so much that is unnecessary?

Secondly... we live in a world notorious for its bombardment of sensual and sexual images – massive amounts as near as the television and computer. Can we honestly doubt the need for some contemporary expression of self-discipline that acknowledges in a realistic fashion that what we see (watch) and what we hear (listen to) can undermine our sense of what it truly means to be a human being, and can easily dilute and pollute both our desire and our ability to see Christ in others?

As we continue our Lenten journey, let us pray for the graces of insight and freedom, renewing our commitment to pray for each other, and confident that God wants to give us everything that we truly need if we only ask.

Fr. Frank Reale, S.J.

Weekend Reflections for 2/26/21

St. Joseph is the light of all the patriarchs of the Old Testament.  He lives their virtues and even amplifies them in his life.  For instance, whereas Joseph of the Old Testament protected the food source of the world in Egypt, so does Joseph of the New Testament protect Jesus, the food source of the entire world (for up to seven years in Egypt say Aquinas and Bonaventure, until the death of Herod).

Our Gospel this Sunday magnifies the Old Testament personages of Moses and Elijah at the Transfiguration.  St. Joseph surpasses Moses in his regular face-to-face conversations with God, for he did so daily with his son!  And as head of the Holy Family, Joseph led his family towards the promised land of heaven, the principal task of all fathers of families.  Greater than Elijah too, Joseph prophetically prepared both his son and his dear wife for their upcoming sacrifice, prophesied by Simeon.  After Mary, Joseph is by far the greatest of the saints, through his approximation to Christ.  This is the year of St. Joseph! 

Therefore, "Go to Joseph, and do whatever he tells you."  These inspired words from the Old Testament are meant for us today also.  If you would like to deepen your relationship with St. Joseph, my extended reflections here may be helpful:  https://vimeo.com/516746699

Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ  

Weekend Reflections for 2/19/21

Lent is our yearly opportunity to enter more deeply into the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Cognizant of our need to respond to the superabundant blessings of God, we practice inspired works of almsgiving, fasting, and prayer. 

We also need intercessors along the way. Our Holy Father has dedicated this year to the patronage of Saint Joseph. He leads us right to the heart of his son. As Jesus looked up to him, so ought we. If you desire to grow in your relationship with Saint Joseph, perhaps you may appreciate the video below. https://vimeo.com/514411413

 St Joseph be our guide this Lent! Make our heart like thine.

-Fr. Anthony Wieck SJ

Weekend Reflections for 2/5/21

"Rising very early before dawn, he left 

and went off to a deserted place, where he prayed." 

These words in the first chapter of Mark's Gospel this Sunday point us to Christ's principle focus--his Father.  Even after such an exhausting day as is narrated here, Jesus charges his batteries through prayer.  There is an invitation in this for you and me.  How do you and I deal with the stress of daily life, not to mention a pandemic on top?  Jesus' answer is to bask in the presence of his loving Father.  Prayer should be more a basking than we realize.  We surrender there our worries, doubts, and fears.  And we choose not to take them with us when we leave, because we've already entrusted them to our Good Lord, who will turn everything to good.  

-Fr. Anthony Wieck, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 1/29/21

This Sunday’s bible readings invite reflection on our prophetic calling.

There are many images of prophets in our history and culture: angry, wonderworkers, frenzied lunatics, magicians, seers, visionaries, mediators, martyrs, etc.

Many people asked Jesus "are you the prophet?" and he was ambivalent about answering this question formally. He kept on pointing to his deeds, and people learned who he was more by what he did than by what he said. He was, then, a new kind of prophet, one whose words became deeds. He spoke with power, authority to change things.

Jesus considered his mission as prophetic in this sense: he is the eschatological, prophetic proclaimer of God's reign and our ultimate mediator with the Father.

Sunday’s gospel reveals Jesus as a different type of prophet: he teaches, but his teachings are not just words. They are deeds, events of his own life. His own life of service in itself is prophetic, without a lot of words. He astonishes people with something new: words that are so true that they don’t just remain rhetoric but become deeds.

In Jesus' word, heaven breaks in and hell is destroyed. His word is deed. God's rule is at hand, evil has no ultimate power. But even Jesus' words are not so magical that they coerce or force. They still demand faith. His miracles do not cause faith, but call us to faith. His words/deeds are invitations to faith, hope, love -- service, discipleship, prophetic following.

We too have a prophetic vocation. Not with the divine power of Jesus, but certainly sharing in this mission. We see this prophetic vocation in some people today in our world: Martin Luther King, Archbishop Romero, Dorothy Day, Mother Theresa of Calcutta. Pope Francis' and our American Bishops' messages about peace and economic Justice, race and life are all challenging words which must not be just words, but become our own deeds, as Jesus's words did. May our experience of Jesus’ transforming words through the Spiritual Exercises at White House become eucharist for us and our lives and world, where words become deeds, we become Christ, bearers of his prophetic mission today.

-Fr. Ted Arroyo, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 1/8/21

Sacramental Growth through Spiritual Exercises

Over 50 years ago, Dutch Dominican theologian Edward Schillebeeckx wrote of Christ as “the Sacrament of the Encounter with God.” Indeed, the Christmas feast celebrates Jesus’ sonship, bodily, in human form. When, in turn, he is glorified and “leaves the world,” at Easter time, Christ’s incarnation continues in the world especially in the church’s sacraments.

Schillebeeckx overturns the image of sacramental grace as something “put into” us humans like some sort of medicine, maintaining that the Church’s sacraments are not “things” but encounters with the glorified human Jesus. This Sunday’s feast of Jesus’ Baptism opens the way for our own ongoing personal relationship with God in the only way in which a person is accessible to us at all, through bodily encounter.

Jesus’ Baptism invites us to recall the graces of our own sacramental experiences. For him this initiation was “once and for all,” for us, thanks be to God, our own initiation is usually an ongoing, gradual process of growth, the type of growth we can nourish through our White House Spiritual Exercises.

The three elements of Jesus’ initiation say a lot about our own process of growth. Water of Creation: dividing of the waters, Birth: your mother and mine knew we were soon to break forth -- water broke, and we were tearing part of her open to enter this world. Cleansing at birth, by water, cleansing of the blood of birth; and a different kind of cleansing at infant baptism, cleansing for initiation into Christian life, a process of continual cleansing through repentance, reconciliation.

May we regularly come back to the river of life, the waters of redemptive grace by our own sacramental life and through encounter with God, to hear God once again say “this is my beloved Son, listen to him” during our Spiritual Exercises at White House. 

-Fr. Ted Arroyo SJ

Weekend Reflections for 1/1/21

CALENDAR CONFUSION? OR SACRED LIMENALITY?
Have you noticed a good deal of calendar confusion lately, not always knowing precisely what day or date it is? In social science, “limenality” describes the disorientation, ambiguity, or confusion occurring in the middle stages of a time of passage, when people have not yet completed a transition. In many ways aren’t we in such a time of limenality here and now, in the transition from 2020 to 2021, the change of seasons, but also political transitions, as well as the disorienting plague of coronavirus along with the financial uncertainties accompanying this? All around us we may find broken boundaries in our schedules, work, personal lives, family order, even the world order.

In some ways the same is true of the church year, as we accompany the Holy Family from conception through pregnancy, birth, initiation, epiphany and transition into “ordinary time.”

Although for the time being (until we re-open on January 4, 2021) we are unable to offer the Spiritual Exercises at White House, resources such as your White House prayer book may help us through the disorientation and ambiguity we are all experiencing. The First Principle and Foundation on page 1 calls us back to the basics, while the Awareness/Consciousness Examen on pages 43-45 suggests a set of boundary-stretching exercises, new ways and contexts of praying, leading to ongoing discernment of spirits, naming the temptations and the graces inviting us to find God in all things, and let God find us more and more into the unknown ambiguities of the future.

Let us pray for the White House extended community, that each and all of us may patiently negotiate the difficulties and opportunities offered us in this potentially confusing time of sacred limenality.

To everything there is a season…

-Fr. Ted Arroyo, SJ

Weekend Reflections for 12/18/20

Fourth Week of Advent

The readings for this week complete our preparations for the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. The word made flesh has fully come into our world.  As far as Mary and Joseph were concerned the circumstances of his birth were certainly not what they wanted nor expected. They may have wondered what they had done wrong to have this baby born in this manner, in this place and so abandoned. It’s noteworthy that Scripture records no complaints or regrets.

This is the manner, the place and the circumstances that God has chosen for his son to fully enter the human scene.

This scenario reminds us of what St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians chapter 2, most likely quoting from a very ancient Christian hymn:  "Although he [the eternal Logos] was in the form of God, he did not think being equivalent to God was anything to be held onto, so he emptied himself, taking on the form of a servant and becoming like all other human beings."

Michael Himes, a renowned professor of theology at Boston College, suggests ”That this “is unquestionably the most radical statement of the dignity of the human person that has ever been made.” 

Himes goes on to explain that “the Christian tradition does not say human beings are of such immense dignity that God really loves them. It does not say that human beings are of such dignity that God has a magnificent destiny in store for them. Nor does it say alone that human beings are of such dignity that they have been fashioned in the image and likeness of God. No, the Christian tradition says something far more radical: human beings are of such dignity that God has chosen to be one. God does not think being God is anything to be grasped; God empties himself and becomes human like all other human beings.” [Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education. Fall 1995: 21-27]

Our existence as a human being is a gift of the ever creating God.  In the humanity of Jesus Christ we can begin to grasp and realize what an incredible and precious gift we have received.

A blessed Christmas to you and yours!

-Jim Blumeyer, S.J.

Weekend Reflections for 12/11/20

Third Week of Advent and the Christmas Season

A good friend of mine once said that if you truly believe that the infant born to Mary in the stable at Bethlehem  is the son of God then everything else we profess in our faith is a piece of cake. He was not being flippant, but dead serious. From the first time I heard and reflected upon this until now I've appreciated the simple truth of his statement.

The heart of the matter for me is mind-boggling and joyfully overwhelming. Our God so much wants us to be one of us and for us to be one with the Lord that Jesus comes into our world in this manner, so simply, so bereft of all human comfort, so willing to enter into very troubling time in our human history. Our world and all peoples needed him and his message then just as it most certainly does now.

The great gift of Christmas is Jesus, that the Son our God is fully one of us and with us. May he open our hearts and minds to appreciate and rejoice in this great gift of himself and his love for us.

A blessed and joyful Christmas to you and yours!

-Jim Blumeyer, S.J.