The Friar Podcasts - preaching prayer and spiritual reflections

Advent Reflection. Life will throw you lots of curve balls. When these challenges come, and I promise you, they will, which path will you choose? I think it comes down to this...“you can either choose to trust God or freak out.” 

In listening to the meditations by Saint John Baptist de la Salle, it is necessary to place what he wrote in context. While that is not common today as we look back at people who lived in completely different times, the meditations of De La Salle still hold value for us today if we can place them in the proper context.

As the introduction to De La Salle's Meditations for the Time of Retreat, France at the time was in the grips of Jansenism, or the oft recurring heresy of pitting flesh against spirit. This led to a particularly negative world view, particularly in the very impossible task of in any way pleasing God, so great was our sinfulness.

And yet, when we consider our time today, a little exposure to the Last Judgement in Serious terms is not such a bad thing. It can seem to some today that the whole notion of sin and evil is old fashioned. And so gaining some sense of accountability for our sinful actions and coupling that with the generous outpouring of the mercy of God is not such a bad thing.

The Meditations of De La Salle hold a harsh view of the human. And yet, in dealing with the poor children whose education was made possible by De La Salle and the brothers he attracted, we see his kindness. And it is not such a bad thing that we get aroused out of our complacency, and the Mediations of De La Salle certainly do that.

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One cannot really enter into the season of Advent without seeking to meet the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah is certainly one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament, and perhaps he is even the greatest. In fact, when we gain a deeper understanding of the prophet Isaiah, I think it is then that we understand Advent more fully.

What makes the prophet Isaiah so compelling for Advent is that his life was filled with great experiences of the divine, as well as great suffering and difficulty too. He had to speak words of challenge to the people, as well as words of comfort and consolation. Also, Isaiah was able to articulate the great dilemma when it comes to faith: Will we trust in God or not?

For Isaiah, the reading today is about providing the reasons to trust in God. The greatness that awaits is not because of human efforts, our efforts, but from the work of God who will make his kingdom known. And it will be an amazing kingdom, so far beyond anything we could create or imagine.

The only way we can answer this question is to commit to entering into that silent reflection at a time that is also really one of the busiest times of the year. In fact, the season of Advent is counter cultural to the age in which we live. At a time when there is so much busy-ness, and too much focus on the business of things, Advent calls us to deeper reflection into two questions: Who are we? and Who is God?

Delving more deeply into this, it is really true we cannot really answer the question, "Who am I?" until we have a sense of an answer to the question "Who is God?" And as we listen to the prophet Isaiah, can we hear his words of challenge and comfort calling us to more deeply trust in God?

The Friar provides daily Advent reflections from students and teachers, usually based upon the readings of the day.

There is a lot of research on the value of seeking to be grateful for the things we have in life. In other words, rather than focusing on our problems, we should try to take a little time to be grateful for those things we have. In failing to do this, we can find ourselves overwhelmed.

But can we see the value of being thankful even in our difficult situations? It can be easy to thank God or to be grateful when all is going our way. But when things are not so great, what do we do? Can we be thankful for things when they do not always go our way?

I was fortunate in my seminary time to have a spiritual director who challenged me to see where it was God was being active in my life, especially in my struggles and difficulties. This Thanksgiving, maybe it is the case that you can ask yourself the same question. Where is God active in your life? And how can you see God's activity as a blessing when things are not going your way?

The Christian life makes no sense whatsoever without life after death. The resurrection of Jesus makes all of the difference. If not for the love of Jesus, why would we sacrifice? If not for the love of others, why would we reach out to help others? Deep inside of us is that amazing reality that we seek something more. At the end of time, we will either become the person Jesus has made us to be, or we will become someone else.

The most wonderful thing is that we have been given the most wonderful gift - the gift of ourselves. And what we do with it is amazing indeed. We can either choose to take the gift we are, and use that for tremendous good, or we can reject God and do something else. God will let you choose either. But he will give you boundless grace to accept him and his gift of salvation. Who will you become?

It seems today that there is a blurring of the lines between politics and religion. In other words, people can believe that their religion demands that they follow a particular political party. The temptation can be overwhelming. What is behind this desire? The feast of Christ the King provides an answer.

Jesus weeps over the fate of Jerusalem. It can be easy to see some of the apocalyptic to be harsh and demanding. But today's gospel presents a different side of things. Jesus thinks about the fate of Jerusalem and weeps. Rather than being so angry at people not accepting him, Jesus is filled with sadness. Sometimes we can view the apocalyptic warnings of Jesus to be harsh. But the truth is that we need to recognize that the powerful love of Jesus warns us so that we may listen to him and avoid danger. https://thefriar.org/2022/11/17/avoid-danger-be-ready-for-your-visitation/ #thefriar #avoiddanger #Jesusweeps #Jesusloves

Today's saint is probably not as well-known as others, and yet he is the saint for our times. I think there are three things we can learn from him. First, Saint Albert the Great can teach us many things about faith and science, the role of a teacher, and the importance of following God even when God asks us to do something we do not want to do. https://thefriar.org/2022/11/15/what-can-we-learn-saint-albert-the-great/ #thefriar #saintalbertthegreat #albertthegreat #saintalbert #faithandscience #faithandreason

Don't get too comfortable. One aspect of biblical wisdom is that we need to remember adversity in prosperity, and prosperity in adversity. And what applies to both is being on the lookout for God's presence. Do you look for God in your life, or do you think that things will always be ok?

How often do we want to know in life exactly what the plan is? In other words, we want to know what it going to happen, either good or bad, and we want to have control over how it happens. But as is often the case, the most important parts of our lives, there really is not "your plan." Husbands and wives promise to be together, but they do not really have a plan. When children arrive in the lives of a couple, they really do not know exactly how things will go. And what's more, "your plan" may in fact be something that really is not so good after all. The most important part for us is that God has the plan, and we simply need to discover it. https://thefriar.org/2022/11/10/your-plan-doesnt-really-matter/ #thefriar #yourplan #GodHasthePlan