“Saint Mary Magdalene: Apostle to the Apostles”: Pencil, Ronald Raab, CSC

But go to my brothers and tell them, “I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” John 20

We celebrate Saint Mary Magdalene today. We honor her as the “Apostle to the Apostles”. Mary peered into the empty tomb. She saw and believed. She proclaimed the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection to many people and towns. She also believed because Jesus cured her of seven demons. Mary believed in Jesus’ mercy, forgiveness and healing powers.

Mary Magdalene is often portrayed holding a red egg. One legend tells the story of Mary going to Pilate and proclaiming the Resurrection of Jesus. He told her as he faced a bowl of eggs that he would only believe in the Resurrection if one of those eggs turned red. She went to the bowl of eggs and picked up one and held it…and it turned red.

Mary is one of my favorite saints. I admire her transformation.  She boldly proclaimed the Resurrection to the disciples when fear had seized them. She courageously lived from the healing that Jesus offered her.

Mary’s  witness extends throughout the ages. She is a model for all of us who search for change in our lives. She is a disciple to our fear. She is a believer even when we do not think life could be different. I long to believe as she believed.  I want one of those eggs.

Dear Believers in Jesus,

We listen to very familiar story in Luke’s (10:38-42) gospel today. Martha and Mary vey for Jesus’ attention. Martha is anxious about getting household chores finished since Jesus is their guest. Mary wants simply to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to his life and wisdom.

This story has always been a witness to the contemplative life, that a life of prayer is greater than an active life. This story has in the history of the Church guided people to monastic life rather than an apostolic community. However, this story really is the combination of prayer and service for all Christians.

I have written and spoken many times about the link of prayer and service. This is the mission of the Church. There is no way to unlink these two elements of common, liturgical prayer and the people of God being sent into the world to make something happen.

I was taught in graduate school to always link the two, to move out into the world and do something. I still hold on to this teaching that this story tries to link together. Our prayer becomes limp and lifeless if we do not put into practice our call to help people. The real needs of people become the mission of our prayer to put love, forgiveness and hope into practice.

Martha and Mary are icons of the mission of the Church. Especially in this Year of Mercy, we listen attentively to the words of Jesus, to find the consolation and healing of Jesus’ Real Presence. We also go out into our lives, to put this love to work, to offer others the consolation and forgiveness into practice. The world needs God’s love. The world needs the mercy that we put into practice in our workplaces, schools and homes.

In these summer months, I hope you will have time to sit at the feet of Jesus. Rest awhile. Pray in silence. Contemplate your place in the love Jesus has for you. Make sure rest in part of these hot, summer days. Find a place along a hillside to rest. Pray in your back yard. Hike and pray. Sit. Be. Offer your life to God in the silence of your heart.

Also, I hope that you may reflect upon how you serve God. Reflect on your gifts and talents and see how you can offer those gifts to people in our world, neighborhood and family. Be in the Church. Do something. Live something. Offer something. Witness to God and let your life be lived for the good.

In your prayer time this week, here is a litany to help you sit at the feet of Jesus and to put his mercy into practice.

LITANY OF MARTHA AND MARY:

Reflection on Mary:

Response: Help me sit at your feet, O Lord.

Jesus, I sit at your feet longing for your presence…

Jesus, I sit at your feet and hope you will listen to me…

Jesus, I sit at your feet and offer you my pain and disappointments…

Jesus, I sit at your feet and speak the truth of my life…

Jesus, I sit at your feet and feel your consolation in my heart…

Jesus, I rest my suffering in your love…

Jesus, I rest my stubbornness in your gaze toward me…

Jesus, I rest my fear in your saving heart…

Jesus, I rest my grief in your passion and death…

Jesus, I rest my guilt in your kind words for me…

Jesus, I pray in silence and you hear me…

Jesus, I pray in stillness and you care for me…

Jesus, I pray in calm and you give me rest…

Jesus, I pray in quiet and you give me hope…

Jesus, I pray in peace and you offer me healing…

Reflection on Martha:

Response: Help me serve you, O Lord

 Jesus, you send me into a live of service…

Jesus, you send me to mend relationships…

Jesus, you send me to heal the past…

Jesus, you send me to offer my life to others…

Jesus, you send me to offer peace…

Jesus, you call me to serve those most in need…

Jesus, you call me to heal the sick…

Jesus, you call me to proclaim freedom to captives…

Jesus you call me to live the message of love to all…

Jesus, you call me to bring hope to the downtrodden…

Jesus, you challenge me to proclaim Good News…

Jesus, you challenge me to attend to people in poverty…

Jesus, you challenge me to serve without cost…

Jesus, you challenge me to risk my life and faith for other people…

Jesus, you challenge me to extend my heart and hands in a service of love…

Blessings to you all this week,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 17, 2016

Luke 10: 38-42

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We learn how to rest in the presence of Jesus and we learn how to serve people. This connection of prayer and service is the key to this passage about Mary and Martha.

“The Bewildered Wise”

Gospel Mt 11:25-27

At that time Jesus exclaimed:
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth,
for although you have hidden these things
from the wise and the learned
you have revealed them to the childlike.
Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
No one knows the Son except the Father,
and no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.”

Prayer from today’s gospel

Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth:

I stand before you today somewhere between childlike and wise.

My face holds the tension of what the world lives and what you ask of me.

The worldly wise:

Hold guns and sling accusations across high moral grounds.

Hold attitudes of superiority and certainty and entitlement.

Hold the attention of the rich and the powerful.

The spiritual child:

Lets go of violence and trusts in your presence.

Lets go of selfishness and runs toward holiness.

Lets go of possession and enters true humility.

Father, help and save us.

Reveal to us a new way of living and loving.

Reveal to us a childlike peace and non-violence.

Reveal to us a trust that washes hatred away.

Amen

July 10, 2016

Dear Believers in Jesus,

The gospel today (Luke 10:25-37) challenges us to love God and our neighbor. People ask me all the time in our parish why I preach on serving people in poverty.

First of all, I do not know what else to preach about. This is my experience of working with people as a priest. No matter how much money, power, prestigious, education, wealth, admiration, control, or selfishness we possesses, we all need God.

When push comes to shove, our own personal poverty is the place where Jesus lives. We need a crack in our own human hearts to understand that we cannot control life, that we do not possess all the answers, that we need something greater than ourselves. This opening in our heart is a place of faith, the place where God’s mercy and forgiveness can find a home.

The gospel teaches us that we not only need to love God, but also people. This is the greatest of all commandments. This is also the one commandment we first walk away from. It is easy to sit in silent prayer and live in the illusion that we are holy. This gospel challenges that notion, that real holiness is the ability to role up our sleeves and to live our relationship with people who really need God.

When we serve people in need, we are not on a power trip. We cannot look to ourselves and say what great people we are because we are living the Spiritual and Corporal works of mercy. In fact, we begin to learn from people who need God, from people who are honest about their lives, from people who live with pain, suffering and loss. Humility is a great place for grace to grow.

Faith is a tool to educate us about how God loves us but also we learn from people’s suffering. We learn how to extend our lives beyond our comfort; we learn to pray from our common brokenness. This is the way God invites us into these two commandments. These are not legal sentences to memorize, but these sentences are lived as the real mission of the Church.

We live in a society that says, “ I have my stuff and other people can get a job and work for their stuff as well.” We learn from serving God in our neighbor that not everyone has the mental and emotional capacity to apply for a job or to keep a job if they were really able to get one on their own. We cannot be people who listen to this gospel on one hand and hold on to judgment, condemnation and arrogance on the other. This gospel challenges us in our core, to love God and our neighbor as well. In fact our salvation depends on it.

We live with many gifts, talents and opportunities. We are called to be grateful for what we are in God and what we have. We live out of the abundance of God’s grace and mercy. We also learn, the more we pray, to serve people who hurt, people who are afraid, people who seem lost and forgotten. We implement our pray in the world by learning how to serve.

This is the mission of the Church; to put into practice toward others the love that God has given us. The Good Samaritan in today’s gospel teaches us all to go the extra mile for people, to be challenged by Jesus’ teaching and to not be satisfied until people’s lives are healthy, loving and peace filled.

The Church teaches that life matters. We do not limit our service to certain lives. People are people no matter their backgrounds or no matter how they have complicated their lives with sex, drugs, alcohol or power. Real life is the life we reverence as the Church. We live our lives in order to serve. This is the mission of the Church.

This is why I speak about poverty all the time; because we are all poor, and in our common poverty, Jesus heals and loves us.

Some questions to consider this week:

How can I pray and reflect more deeply on my own life experience?

How can I image the needs of people differently than I have in the past?

What stories in my own life can I point toward to show that I am not in control of my own life or situations?

How can I better pray and serve in the heartbreaking stories of other people?

How can I be more grateful for the mercy of God?

 I will be away on retreat this week. Please pray for me.

Blessings to you all,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 10, 2016

Luke 10:25-37

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Loving God and our neighbor are forever linked. This is the mission of the Church.

Gospel Mt 10:7-15

Ellie Wiesel: 1928-2016, Impression by: Ronald Raab, CSC

Auschwitz Prisoner and Orphan. Moral Voice. Leader. Prophetic Witness to the Dignity of Life. Author. Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Believer in Humanity.

Here is a simple impression of Elie Wiesel who died on Saturday.

Rosemary Raab: July 8, 1921-July 3,2004

My mother, Rosemary Raab, died on this date in 2004. I painted this image this afternoon after Masses. Today’s first Scripture at Mass was a profound reflection for me, to allow my heart to remember the early days of life.