Seek Her Intercession

October 13, 1917.  The town of Fatima.  Portugal.  The night before, it had rained torrentially; on October 13, the people there and the ground there were thoroughly soaked.  Seventy thousand people gathered in Fatima on October 13, 1917; they had heard that three little children had seen apparitions of a Lady there that year.  The Lady had promised that a miracle would take place when she appeared there on October 13.  

There, in Fatima, exactly one hundred years ago on this date, before 70,000 people, the sun danced back and forth in the sky, defying cosmic laws.  It fell toward the earth.  When the sun returned to its usual location and remained in its place, all the people there were completely dry, even though just a short time earlier, they had been drenched.  The ground too was dry, even though it had just been saturated.  

On October 13, the Lady identified herself as the Lady of the Rosary.  The three little children were Servant of God Lucia, Saint Jacinta and Saint Francisco.  

In her apparitions to them at Fatima, Our Blessed Mother Mary told them to pray the rosary everyday for world peace and for an end to the first world war.  She explained to them that Jesus wished to establish devotion to her Immaculate Heart.  

As we show devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we welcome Jesus into our hearts, and thus are returning home to Our Heavenly Father.  When we pray seeking the intercession of Our Blessed Mother Mary, we are asking her to assist us in returning home to God.  She supports us in doing as Jesus told us to do because she loves her Son, because she loves God.  

Our Blessed Mother Mary, who is so kind and sweet and loving, who cares for us so tenderly, helps us to welcome Jesus into our hearts.  Just as she told the servants at the wedding feast in Cana, so she tells us about Jesus, "Do whatever He tells you."*  

If we beg Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we request what we need to be able to do what Jesus commands us to do.  When we ask Our Blessed Mother Mary to intercede with her Son Jesus for us, we ask her to beseech Him that we may have all we need to do God's will.  Through her Spouse, The Holy Spirit, we are empowered to do the will of God.  Through her assistance, we are given the grace we need to do the will of Our Heavenly Father.  

Let us pour out our hearts to Our Blessed Mother Mary.  Let us implore her to come to our aid.  She loves us so tenderly and sweetly--indeed her will is love, since her will is the will of God, and we know that God is love**--that she will surely love us with great love.  

Knowing that Our Blessed Mother Mary loves us so much, we come to realize that we are tremendously aided in coming home to God, who is love, when we seek her intercession.  If we wish to return home to God, we have a powerful intercessor in Our Blessed Mother Mary to help us draw back to God.  Let us entrust ourselves to the loving care of Our Blessed Mother Mary, consecrate ourselves to her, and, greatly supported by her, thus return home to God.  Amen.  

* John 2:5 
** 1 John 4:8,16 

Little Becomes Much

We can be convinced that we do nothing of any significance.  It might seem that all of the evidence shows that we are having no effect on another particular person.  

We see so little.  So much there is we do not see.  

What we do is little, yet it can matter so much.  It might seem to matter little, but out of just a little can come so much.  

What we do might matter little to us.  Yet it might matter a great deal to someone else.  

I am not speaking merely in theoretical terms here.  I have seen this truth demonstrated right in front of my very eyes.  

I am thinking of a generous person I know named Amy.  Amy likes to make desserts for people.  Recently Amy made a pie for someone who was turning 43, who said no one had ever made her a dessert for her birthday.  

We can think that we are doing something routine and normal and ordinary and therefore that what we are doing does not matter much.  However, we might find out that what we have done is much more special than we had thought, and gives much more love to a person than she has previously received.  In the little presents we give, we might be extending much more kindness, with much more of a nurturing and caring effect than we realize.  

Unlike people who do not see that little acts of love can have great effects on others, Amy recognizes that every dessert she makes is an opportunity to love her neighbor as herself,* just as Jesus taught us to do.  She bakes treats for people since she seeks to love others.  She seizes little chances to serve her neighbor.  

When we perform little acts of kindness for our neighbor, we follow the little way of Saint Therese of Lisieux, whose feast day we celebrate today.  Saint Therese sought to get to Heaven by making herself little, by making little sacrifices, by showing her love for others in a thousand little ways.  

As people choose to be content with doing little, in the end they might find that actually God is doing much through them.  If people give their assent to being humbled, to becoming less than they have been, they can come to find God doing great things through them.  

When much is accomplished through those who are little, God receives the glory due to Him, since He is performing the great works.  Through the little, God is glorified.  

When God is glorified, praised, and adored, we find the greatness for which we were made.  If you wish to become great, become little.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Dying For Others

July 1941.  Auschwitz.  A prisoner escapes.  In retribution, the Nazis condemn ten prisoners to death.  At roll call, they announce the names of the persons who they will send to their deaths.  One of the ten sentenced to death, Francis Gajowniczek, cries out that he has a wife and children.  Another inmate there at roll call, a Franciscan priest named Maximilian Kolbe, steps forward and says he would like to take the place of Gajowniczek.  

The Nazis agreed to the switch.  Kolbe and the other nine were subjected to forced starvation.  Despite dehydration and starvation, after two weeks Kolbe still had not died.  Kolbe was executed by a lethal injection on August 14, 1941.  

Gajowniczek later described how he could only thank Kolbe with his eyes.  He added that it was the first and the last time such an occurrence transpired at Auschwitz.  

Beauty and warmth and compassion can spring forth in the midst of horror and atrocities.  Kindness can be shown when brutality is all around us.  Love can be offered in reply to hate.  

Often we cannot control what happens to us.  However, we can always choose how we respond. When we are convinced that our freedom has been taken away from us, we can realize that we still have the free will that God has given to us because He loves us so much.  When we ask in disbelief and misunderstanding how God can allow such pain and suffering in the world, we can realize that God loves us so much that He gives us our free will.  God loves us so much that He will not force us.  God loves us so much that He lets us make our own decisions.  

Today as we celebrate the feast day of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, we can be led through the remembrance of the bravery of this saint to carefully consider our own choices.  We might never be given the chance to sacrifice ourselves courageously by physically dying for someone else.  However, in every fleeting moment of time, we can decide to die to ourselves so we can live for our neighbor in little ways.  Over and over again, we can put our neighbor before ourselves as we perform little acts of love for others, as Saint Therese of Lisieux did in her little way.  In every little action we do, we can decide to give away our lives for our neighbor, and thus save the life of our neighbor.  In each and every moment, we can choose to love our neighbor as ourselves,* as Jesus taught us to do.  

* Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Returning Transformed Neighbor

If we keep on loving our neighbor, the little seed of love in the heart of our neighbor can bear much fruit.  With patience, kindness and understanding, we can come to witness the transformative power of the love of God.  As Jesus comes to us and abides in us,* the love of God can come to transform our neighbor before our very eyes.  Thus in time, our faith can be strengthened, and we can come to trust in God ever more deeply.  As we trust in God and open our hearts to Him, we consent to Him loving our neighbor through us.  

I have been reminded today of these truths.  Today a particular young man who has been homeless showed up here at the Catholic Worker House.  He asked me to tell my fellow Catholic Worker Susan that he is grateful for all of the help she has given to him over the last several months.  

I've previously mentioned this particular fellow.  Once again I'll call him "Brendon."  

In a prior post I'd written of how Brendon admitted that he needed to stop taking drugs.  In another blog entry, I'd related how Brendon had been trying to enter a drug treatment program.  Today he told me that he has been in a drug rehab program.  I saw the obvious results of how he has been taking care of himself and loving himself: he seemed full of life, vibrant, eager, attentive, considerate, respectful and grateful.  He seemed focused on those around him who were listening to him and offering to help him.  

Brendon explained that in about a week, he will be moving back east.  He quickly added that to reach his destination, he needed a bus ticket which would cost between one hundred and two hundred dollars.  As he was talking about the cost of the bus ticket, someone on the front porch of the Catholic Worker House heard him and offered to help to defray the cost of his trip.  The impoverished young man had appealed for help, and he got it.  

Jesus tells us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  Jesus is in the homeless people and the other poor men and women who plead with us for help.  Who am I, that my Lord and my God comes to my doorstep?***  Jesus comes to us in those who are impoverished, who come to our door, then go away, not to be seen for weeks, and then come back.  Jesus goes away, and a short while later, He returns to us.****  Jesus shows me that He is with us always.*****  Jesus shows me that He calls us to take care of each other, especially the poor, for Jesus is in our neighbor, and especially in the impoverished.  

In coming to me in the poor young man who knocks at my door, Jesus nurtures my faith, for He keeps His promise and He comes to me.  Jesus comes to make sure I am practicing the law of love.  Jesus comes up to me to make sure I am loving Him in my neighbor.  

Seeing Jesus come to us, then we can pray confidently to Him.  We can be sure of the hope we have in His promise, for we have seen that He has not left us alone; He has come to us.******  Knowing that we have not been abandoned, seeing the proof of His transformative power that has been demonstrated in our neighbor being healed, we come to trust in God.   

When we truly have faith in God, then we come to see that God is always calling us back home to Him.  If we utterly trust in God, we realize that God is always welcoming us back home to Him with open arms.  Grasping that God is always offering us His warm loving embrace in all that happens to us, we welcome Him into our hearts.  Empowered with the love of God, God transforms us, and we are healed, and we become who God has always intended us to be.  Loving ourselves, loving our neighbor, and loving God, we become the love of God in the world.  Amen.  

* John 15:7, 9 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Luke 1:43 
**** John 16:16-17, 19 
***** Matthew 28:20 
****** John 14:18 

Little Loving Present

This morning I picked up and dropped off food donations.  When I got home, I was happily surprised to see a few of our friends on our front porch.  

One of them, who I'll call "Betty" here, asked me for a pen and paper so she could exchange contact information with someone I'll call "Jane" here.  Someone I'll call "Christy" asked me for a bag so she could more easily carry the items she had just gotten for free that had been left on our front porch.  

When I had gotten what they had requested, I came back out onto the porch to give them the seemingly insignificant items they wanted.  First I gave a pen to Betty, along with a little pad ornately decorated with colorful flowers and sparkling designs, and told her she could keep it.  Then I said to Christy something like, "And much less impressively, here is this bag."  

Immediately Jane got up and came over to me.  She embraced me.  Right away I could tell she needed comfort.  I rested my head against hers and really tried to soothe her with calm and peace as we hugged.  

Before today I had already known that Jane was homeless.  However, after I saw Jane today, someone told me that all of her possessions had just been stolen.  She had nothing.  In the context of being bereft of all she had had, she was in dire need of tenderness and kindness.  She just needed someone to do merely what they were capable of doing, showing her love.  

We do these things in life we don't even consider.  We do little things we forget.  We don't even think about them, so we wouldn't even think that they matter even if we did think about them.  

Yet tiny little moments can be windows of opportunity for great love to be shown through us. If we open ourselves up to what is happening right in front of us, we can let God love others through us.  

In each tiny fragment of time, we can be present to our neighbor to perform little acts of love for each other.  In this vein, I have been wondering if anyone has ever written about the convergence and intersection of thought amongst "The Story of a Soul" by The Little Flower, that is Saint Therese of Lisieux, and "The Sacrament of the Present Moment" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, and "The Cloud of Unknowing" by an anonymous medieval author.  

The anonymous author of "The Cloud of Unknowing" wrote of how we are responsible for even fractions of seconds.  Thus, even an instant, although it is so brief, holds much significance, since it holds the potential for great love to be expressed in it.  

Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she would get to Heaven along her little way of serving her neighbor through little loving actions.  She saw her vocation as being one of love expressed in small gestures of love for others.  

The Jesuit priest Jean-Pierre de Caussade, in his book "The Sacrament of the Present Moment," explains that we find our duty to God in the present moment.  He explained that we serve God when we embrace what the present moment requires of us.  
If we are attentive to what the current moment presents to us, then in every microscopic moment, we can realize immense potential to love through seemingly insignificant little acts of charity towards others.  Jesus told us that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed, we could move mountains.*  If love that is the size of a mustard seed is in our hearts, we can move mountains with this little love.  The mustard seed of our little loving act may bear much fruit in the heart of the person who receives the love of God that is being shown through us.  If we embrace the duty currently being presented to us, if we agree to love our neighbor** in little ways, even in fleeting instants, we can be witness to much love blooming in the hearts of others.  

Each of our little loving acts can be little flowers.  And from one little action of love, much love can be sown in the heart of another, just as from one little flower, much pollen can spread and germinate and bear much fruit.  

We can become convinced that some actions are insignificant.  How do we know this to be so?  We can assume some acts have no important impact.  How can we be sure this is so?  

Do we think that what we do makes no difference?  Maybe we think it makes no difference to us, but maybe it makes a big difference to someone else.  

* Matthew 17:20; Mark 11:23  
** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 

Love Visits Gratitude

Yesterday my fellow Catholic Worker Susan visited our homeless friend Fred who was in the hospital.  Recently Fred was riding his bicycle when a collision occurred between him and a tractor trailer truck.  

In visiting Fred, who has been recovering from his injuries, Susan practices a work of mercy.  She follows the church teaching that we should perform the works of mercy.  

Catholics, and especially Catholic Workers, practice the works of mercy.  There are seven corporal works of mercy, partly echoing the counsels of Jesus at the end of the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew.  We are to feed persons who are hungry.  We are called to give drink to those who are thirsty.  We must shelter those who are homeless.  We visit people who are sick as well as prisoners.  We bury the dead.  God calls us to give alms to impoverished individuals.  

Jesus has told us that when we care for those who are sick, we tend to Him.*  He has explained that when we do something to the least of those among us, we do it to Him.**  

Fred, our homeless friend, living on the fringes of society, is one of the least of those among us.  Jesus Our Lord is present in this vulnerable homeless man.  When we comfort this impoverished man, we are making a gesture of kindness to Jesus.  

When we love the needy person in front of us, we love Jesus.  When we love our neighbor, we love God.  

When the beggar before us is showing us gratitude, Jesus is thanking us.  When the poverty-stricken individual feels relief due to our efforts, we have gently and lovingly touched the Body of Christ.  

There in the hospital, Fred told Susan that he found it comforting to know that someone cares about him.  He was grateful for her visit.  

Susan gave the gift of her presence.  She received the gift of his gratitude.  

We love our neighbor when we visit our neighbor who is sick.  We love our neighbor when we thank our neighbor who visits us when we are sick.  When we express such love in these ways, we show the love we would want to receive if we were in the other person's position.  

We are to love each other as ourselves.***  If we consider that we would want to receive a visit while in the hospital and be showered with love there, then we can see that we are called to visit the sick.  Then we see that we are to go and do likewise.****  

* Matthew 25:35-36 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31; Luke 10:27; Leviticus 19:18; Romans 13:9; Galatians 5:14 
**** Luke 10:37 

Ray Of Hope

This morning, as the sun was rising, I was helping my fellow Catholic Worker, Susan, clean up our front porch.  We walked out onto the porch this morning and saw that, as usual, there were some items there that no one took from the previous night.  

Here at the Redwood City Catholic Worker House, our front porch is a free zone.  Anyone can come and take anything that's sitting on the porch.  Persons here in Redwood City have come to be familiar with this practice.  People have become so accustomed to coming to the porch that some of them identify this ministry of giving free goods, which happens on the porch, as being synonymous with this particular Catholic Worker House.  Many times I've heard homeless folks refer to this Catholic Worker House simply as "The Porch."   

Since so many people know that they can drop off donations on our porch, people regularly show up to give clothes, toys, and household items and leave them on the porch.  In the morning, Catholic Workers clean up the porch, and remove items no one took away the previous day.  

After Susan and I had finished straightening up the porch this morning, I was walking to the van I use so I could put an empty box in it for usage sometime in the future.  As I was walking down the sidewalk, a young woman came out of the apartment complex next door to us.  

Before I moved in here at the Catholic Worker House, in that building next door lived low-income individuals.  Then the building was renovated, rents in it were raised, and middle-income persons moved into it.  As Larry, a Catholic Worker who co-founded this house dozens of years ago, has noted, due to rising rents and changing demographics, we have been witnessing changes in who we serve and where they live.  We have seen impoverished people forced to move due to lack of funds.   What part does compassion play in determining whether rents go up?  

As rent prices rise, our neighbors change.  Neighbors move, yet we gain new neighbors.  Interpersonal dynamics shift in the neighborhood.  While we used to have closer interactions with certain neighbors and feel more of a sense of community with some people who have moved on, now we cross paths with neighbors we hadn't met.  Yet they are our neighbors and provide opportunities for exchanges between us.  

And so I was conscious of this young woman this morning when she exited the apartment complex next door and greeted me.  Often I notice that wherever I am, many people do not wish others a good morning.  Frequently I notice that numerous people do not even acknowledge the presence of someone else when crossing paths.  

We have opportunities in each and every interaction to display the qualities we wish were present in our society.  What do we want to see in the world?  As Gandhi has noted, we must be the change we want to see in the world.  Do we wish to witness love being shown in the world, hospitality, warmth, and a welcoming friendliness?  Do you like to see the warmth of such light which emerges when others let that light shine through them?  

We should not underestimate the power of such little acts of love.  Saint Therese of Lisieux wrote of how she followed a little way of getting to Heaven by performing little gestures of kindness for others.  

We define ourselves by how we choose to act not only in grand matters but also in tiny ones.  In how we respond in every instant, we articulate the approach we take to life.  We call attention to the worth of every human choice by realizing the value of every action.  And in every little gesture we make, we send little signals of hope, rays of hope which emanate outward from our souls, to the souls of those with whom we come into contact.  Arising out of a consciousness of the value of every choice we make, we can proclaim with Saint Teresa of Calcutta that it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  

It may seem insignificant, but at many moments in our day we have the opportunity to welcome the stranger.  Do we do so?  We benefit when we examine our own practices.  Are we friendly to others?  Do we acknowledge others?  To recognize the presence of someone else is to recognize the dignity of that person.  

Are you concerned by how other people treat immigrants?  Do you greet others who you hear speaking in broken English?  Do you smile at them?  Do you try to help them to feel welcome?  

At other times, at first it may be less obvious when we are strongly affirming the dignity and self-esteem of someone by such warm and kind greetings.  The woman walking down the street, whose presence you acknowledge, and thus encourage to realize her own self-worth, may have been slapped in the face earlier in the day by her husband who habitually abuses her.  I am not speaking of a hypothetical scenario here.  Here in Redwood City I have met a homeless woman who, I have been told by multiple people, is regularly beaten by her boyfriend.  When others greet her respectfully, they are tending to her with a healing salve of gentle kindness applied lovingly to the emotional wounds which have been inflicted on her.  

We do well to consider the wounds borne in our midst.  When Catholics pray the rosary, Catholics meditate at times on Jesus being scourged, or whipped, at the pillar soon before He was crucified.*  Jesus was beaten not only at the pillar.  Jesus has told us that whatever we do to the least of those among us, we do to Him.**  Jesus, present in our neighbor who has been abused, is in the person walking toward us on the street.  When we acknowledge our neighbor, we value the presence of Jesus among us.  When we tend to the wounds of our neighbor, we follow Jesus.  

Jesus explained that we are to attend to others who are suffering along our path.  In the Gospel of Luke, we hear that 

There was a scholar of the law who stood up to test Jesus and said, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  

Jesus said to him, “What is written in the law? How do you read it?”  

He said in reply, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  

He replied to him, “You have answered correctly; do this and you will live.”  

But because he wished to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  

Jesus replied, “A man fell victim to robbers as he went down from Jerusalem to Jericho. They stripped and beat him and went off leaving him half-dead.  A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  Likewise a Levite came to the place, and when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side.  But a Samaritan traveler who came upon him was moved with compassion at the sight.  He approached the victim, poured oil and wine over his wounds and bandaged them. Then he lifted him up on his own animal, took him to an inn and cared for him.  The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper with the instruction, ‘Take care of him. If you spend more than what I have given you, I shall repay you on my way back.’  Which of these three, in your opinion, was neighbor to the robbers’ victim?”  

He answered, “The one who treated him with mercy.” 

Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”*** 

In hearing the parable of the Good Samaritan, we think of this parable as conveying a duty to care for our neighbor, not necessarily involving someone literally who has been beaten and is lying by the side of the road.  However, in our lives we come into contact with people who have been abused.  We might pass them without acknowledging their presence, without affirming their dignity and worth, and thus unintentionally contribute to the mistreatment they have been suffering.  Or we can greet them respectfully, giving them support which is much more valuable to them than we realize.  

Do we want to turn a blind eye to the suffering of others, especially when such small offers of warmth and kindness are easily within our power to share with others?  Do you think that you love your neighbors by acknowledging their presence and thus showing them respect?  If so, then go, and do likewise.    

* John 19:1 
** Matthew 25:40 
*** Luke 10:25-37