Opportunities for gratitude - Looking Up

I generally forget about this moment in Lent - when we stop reading about the movement towards a covenant sealed in sacrifice.  Standing with the apostles bathed in the glory of God in a transfigured Christ, I have to look up. 

I can pause, and remember the joy that the transfiguration foretells of the glory of Easter.

I have often said that when I am old, or sooner if possible,  I want to have the same expression that I have witnessed on the faces of old religious sisters that I have met here in the US and around the world.  There is often a serene smile from a life well lived, but there is something more, and I have always believed it is true joy.  Most missionaries I have known have had moments that they retell where they have felt richer than any king.  They tell of a child, or a family, or a kindness, or an occasion when they truly felt the presence of this transfigured Christ, the beloved Son.

This weekend we had the tremendous blessing of being at the Religious Education Congress in Los Angeles where there is truly an abundance of faith and joy. For this opportunity to be here with more than 40,000 Catholics and for the opportunity to reflect on these moments of joy on the journey, I am grateful.

Easter

In your resurrection, O Christ, let heaven and earth rejoice!

My husband and I attended sunrise Easter Mass at San Gabriel Mission – a parish that was established as part of the California Missions in 1771. 

As I reflect on the meaning of Easter I am reminded that Christ came and is risen, not only for the peoples who have celebrated here for more than 200 years – but for all people in all time; those who came before and those yet to be born;  for all people in all places; those in Africa, Asia and Latin America.   In your resurrection, O Christ, let heaven and all the earth rejoice!

A Holy Week for the Whole World

One of the great joys of being in the missions is the opportunity to celebrate our Catholic celebrations with both the familiar and the new. Everything from a 5 hour Chrism Mass with offertory gifts that include chickens and goats in Cameroon to the elaborate, beautiful and temporary decorations on the plaza in front of the Church in Guatemala.

Offertory Procession at Chrism Mass in Cameroon

“alfombras” or carpets made of 

colored saw dust in Guatemal

In parishes around the world our Holy Week celebrates the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus whose suffering and death was indeed for the whole world.

Every Eucharist is the opportunity to re-live the last supper. Holy Thursday also reminds, with the washing of the feet, that we are all called to be servants; called to share our very lives with each other.

On the Friday we call good we find ourselves again on the path and at the foot of the cross. How is it that the creator of universes embraces our humanity even to suffering this seemingly ignoble death?

The answer is always that we may be redeemed, that we may live, that we may serve, that we will love as Christ has shown us. We too are called to give our lives to others.

Today, Mission Doctors and their families are doing just that. They serve that others may live.

Please keep them and their families in your prayers this Holy Week.