Monday, February 27, 2017

Dear Friends, I am writing on Monday evening, the 27th of February, a day and a half before Ash Wednesday. I don't have time to write a lot but want to pass on something that happened to me this morning that is so meaningful, and I hope it encourages you in your own faith walk. After breakfast each day I spend 45 minutes quietly in my room sitting in a chair while closing my eyes and trying to be quiet and attentive to the Lord in my depths. Some days I spend a fair amount of energy fending off distractions, some days a lot of distractions, but for most days my attention is in and out with my awareness of God, but on some rare occasions the attention is so steady and so rewarding. And that happened this morning. Why some days are one way and others the other way, I do not know. It is like in any long term relationship: some days are winners and many days are rather ordinary, and then some, thankfully few, are unpleasant or even bad. But this morning's was a winner. And I sensed the push of God to share something of it with you in hopes that this would encourage you in your own journey and search for a deeper, closer life with God. How fitting as we approach Lent.. . ............................................................................................................. So what happened? All I can say is that as I sat this morning in the quiet, having finished breakfast and smelling the cool air of the morning, I went down inside myself but then was taken deeper, very much inside myself to a great stillness and focus, and in this stillness I became oblivious of my body, of my room, totally unaware of everything around me except this very loving Presence deep inside. Is this what is meant by "tunnel vision" or tunnel awareness"? I witnessed no image, no picture, but at the same time I was quite aware of a Presence that was so real and attractive, so "sweet" to my spirit, so utterly beautiful and "right there," completely present to me. I knew it was very important not to speak but to be still, to be attentive, receptive, and to gaze steadily with all the love inside me at what was beyond words. The closeness with this loving Presence was beyond describing, so engaging, so capturing. I trust it was a brief taste of heaven. ......................................................................................................... As I came out of this, I had the sense that underneath all the pain that is going on now in our very polarized, conflicted world today, there is this loving Reality that is most reassuring, telling us that He is with us through it all; that deep down all is well. We are loved beyond our wildest hopes and expectations, and we only have to turn to this loving, completely welcoming Presence to gain perspective, balance, and hope, and claim this gift of His Peace and not let ourselves become afraid and then stumble into speaking with the same kind of contempt and disrespect that characterizes much of the public discourse going on today, especially in the political scene and, I notice, in some sports also (with what is called 'trash talk' that gets really demeaning and violent................................................................................................... So, that is all I have time for now. A blessed Lent to all of you. Please remember in your prayers the many poor people of this young nation who suffer so from a seemingly endless drought. So many animals, so many people are dying. These are some of those now nailed to the Cross of Christ and must feel like He did in his final hours, abandoned without any sense of the presence of His Father, our Father. Bernie Owens

Friday, February 10, 2017

Dear Friends, Friday night again, three weeks since my last post. We are having really summer-like weather here, but the drought continues except for one evening last week we had a four hour rain; it was glorious but too little. We could have non-stop rain for two weeks and then we would be back to normal. So many people in the desert-like northern part of this nation, cattle herders especially, are dying, their animals, the water sources drying up. It is quite serious and sad. In the meantime the government of Kenya is failing badly to provide basic services to its citizens (about 45 million people in this nation). The doctors' strike is still going on, two months now. The private hospitals are overwhelmed with many people rushing there to get some kind of help. Then teachers too are demanding pay when the last agreement between the teachers and government was defaulted on by the government. The government has borrowed so much money and has put the nation into tremendous debt. Tourism brings in a lot of money, but it gets siphoned off by people very high in the government. While many accusations are made, no convictions are made, no one "important" goes to prison. Until this stops, this nation will not be turned around. I am told this disaster is not unusual in most African nations. No wonder it is so difficult to build a middle class, to get basic services going and jobs being widespread. So many people are without work. It is really tough, and national elections are coming up in Kenya in early August. Much of the nation is getting desperate. There is some fear that there could be a lot of violence and some killings like 10 years ago during the national election of 2007 and the days following it. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... One of my retreatants from two weeks ago, an Irish laywoman volunteer for the last 19 years in a rural Kenyan hospital, told me the story of a 9 year old girl who stumbled into their emergency ward during a recent drought. She was scrawny, even starving and muttering, "give me bread, give me bread." The staff did so immediately, and for two days she kept saying this even after being fed bread and other food. But still she died. I am told that when parents from these very poor bush country parts of this section of the world are unable to get food for their children, they abandon them to fend on their own. Life is terribly brutal for some. I am stunned that this little girl was given one life, was born into a very poor family in the dry parts of rural Kenya, and ended her life in this very sad, painful way. How God must deeply love and show pity to children of His like these. I am sure she was given the warmest welcome and is in a joy that she could not find in this world. ............................................................................................................ Tomorrow is the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes. Lourdes is a small village (15,000 people outside of high season of tourists) in the southern part of France, in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains shared by France and Spain. This day has come to mean very much to me. First, it became something of world significance when in 1858 Mother Mary appeared to a 14 year old girl who could hardly read: Bernadette Soubirous by name. On Feb. 11 of that year she, her sister and a girl friend of her age were walking around a pig sty, a cave area not far from a very good size river called the Gave (pronounced Gahv), looking to gather wood sticks for cooking purposes. In a moment in a crevice some 50 feet up, there appeared a beautiful woman in sparkling white with a bright blue band around her waist and a yellow rose on each of her feet. She was thumbing a rosary that was also yellow in color. After Bernadette came to and realized this was not an illusion, she got the courage to make the sign of the cross with the crucifix of her own rosary and started "Hail Mary." With that the Lady disappeared but reappeared some days later. The Lady asked Bernadette to ask the priests of the area to have a chapel built on that site. Over seven month the Lady appeared to Bernadette, 18 times in all she came. Not until the 16th appearance, on March 25, did the Lady say what her name is. Yo soy Immaculad Concepciou" she said, in a dialect mixing Spanish and French, the Lady said, "I am the Immaculate Conception." Bernadette had no idea what that meant. She walked more than a mile to the local pastor's parish house to report what had happened weeks before Mother Mary told her what her name/title is. Th pastor, gruff and abrupt, dismissed Bernadette as some impressionable religious wacko until one day she was able to repeat to the pastor what Mother Mary said who she is. Until then Her mother too thought she was making this up to get attention. The police too were threatening to lock her up. the local mayor, a professed atheist mocked her until he saw with his own eyes, while in a crowd of many citizens surrounding Bernadette, her kneeling in ecstatic prayer and someone holding her hand and passing one of her fingers through the flame of a candle. she was unharmed, completely, and the mayor was shaken to his soul and months later became a believer and one of the strongest apostles of Mary's message and visitation. ........................................................................................................... For many weeks Bernadette did not know the name of this Lady but kept returning at the request of Mother Mary to be present to whatever Mary asked of her. Besides the request to build a chapel there (later numerous churches, basilicas even have been built there) Mother Mary requested a number of times that Bernadette pray for and do penance for the conversion of sinners. In the meantime at Mary's direction Bernadette discovered in the mud of the cave a spring; it began to flow from the rocky cave site, this pig sty, a symbol of the human condition without God. The water is so abundant today and pure. So many bring home Lourdes water to bless themselves each day. From that water over 65 medically verified miracles of physical healings have happened to pilgrims there, Hundreds of other miraculous physical healings have also taken place since 1858. Each year over 5 million people come there. I have been so blessed to be there four times in my life, twice for a day and a half as part of pilgrimages I was leading. Two other times in 2005 and 2009, I went there to spend two weeks and help to hear confessions of pilgrims who could speak English and wanted the healing of that sacrament. ........................................................................................................... ON my last day there I was hearing the confession of a Gypsy, a mother of four children (she told me she had six children but two had died from miscarriages; I loved it that she still was conscious of those two children who did not make it but are so real and present to her and are with God!) Her youngest, a blond beautiful daughter of about 3.5 to 4 years old, wanted to come into the room to be with her mother when her mother was making her confession. The mother asked me whether I had a problem with the girl being in the confessional. I said 'no' and said as long as she was quiet and didn't disturb her mother, we would be fine. We were face to face. The mother assured me her little one would be just fine and quiet. So when we finished celebrating the sacrament I ask the mother, "Why did you and your husband with all your children come here?" She pointed to the little one standing between her legs, speaking no word. I said, "Tell me about it, please." She said, "a year ago we drove from England, took the boat across the Channel, and drove down here to Lourdes for this little one" (pointing to her daughter) She said her little one had been for more than a year wearing braces on both legs and had some crutches. (I am not sure whether her problem was polio or something else.) The mother said, "My husband and I took her to the grotto (where Mother Mary had appeared to Bernadette and where the never-ending spring of water flows.) She said we prayed and offered anew this precious child of ours to God through our Lady of Lourdes. Then we returned home to England and a few days later we took off the crutches (apparently at the child's request) and she walked free. (Of course I am not breathing as I listened to this.) Then she added, "We had to come back here this summer to return to the grotto and speak our deep thanks, to Mary and to God for this extraordinary gift." My friends, how does anyone forget a story like that??!! It is one of my prayers that before I die I may have one more opportunity to return to that very beautiful place and be part of the team of priests hearing confessions there. That place is so profound. The procession of the thousands of sick everyday at 5 PM, the Benediction following prayers and singing in most of the languages of the world, and then the rosary procession each evening once the sun goes down and hearing decades of the rosary in various languages of the world is so moving. Again, over 5 million people come there every year. ................................................................................................................... I need to add that on Feb 11 in 1981, 36 years ago, when my father was full of cancer and had nine more weeks to live, he was praying the rosary by himself. At 4 PM that afternoon he stunned my mother who was in another room but within hearing distance. He said with excitement, "Chum, Chum, come here. Come here quickly!" My mother came right away, and my father, a church going man but certainly not one to espouse the glories of Mary at all, said, "She was right here, right here!" It turned out that he was so comforted from her presence (no words at all) and from that day was able to die in peace over the remaining weeks. He had fought and was so restless about his cancer and discomfort up to then. He had often complained that too much attention is given to Mother Mary at the expense of Jesus. He said after this, apologetically, "I was wrong. Not enough attention is given to her." ................................................................................................................................................................. the message of Lourdes comes down to this: First, it is the gift of poverty--reflecting the manner of how God came to us in Jesus and keeps coming in the poor of our day and to our own self, not in spite of but precisely in and through our own experiences of human poverty, our own needs and powerlessness, our inability to control and with it a call to let go and let God. We are called to let go and let God provide, to lead and guide, to empower, to love us as we are, if only we will accept ourselves according to this truth and learn to receive. Lourdes is also the story of Bernadette and tens of thousands of cripples and sick who come there every year--a very special providence of God, showing what is involved in letting go and letting God. This day is a special day in the Church honoring the gift the sick are to us if we will look and receive them as gift. Their lives remind us on the Man-God who hangs on the Cross for us and blessed us beyond all blessings when He was so helpless and vulnerable. ............................................................................................................Second, we discover true, authentic prayer through the message of Lourdes. Bernadette's experience reveals a God of love and tenderness, a God searching to embrace and converse with us in a heart-to-heart encounter. True prayer is to go beyond the mere recitation of words and to discover the smile of God who loves us, to discover ourselves in loving company with a God of tenderness.................................................................................................. Third, Lourdes means the call to conversion, to realize the true nature of sin and the ugliness of evil and courageously seek a true conversion of heart and be more compassionate toward each other as we realize our common spiritual misery, our need for God, and that we are all loved sinners........................................................................................................ Last, Lourdes means we all together are a very human Church and each of us has a role to play in it, simply, bravely, and lovingly. We are never meant to be just spectators. And it was Mary as the Immaculate Conception who came to Lourdes to remind us all of the Gospel and of a new humanity being established through her Son, a new creation in the making that has already begun with the woman blessed among all others. ............................................................................................................ I close wishing you all a happy Valentine's Day and a strong sense of the gift and love of those you call friends and beloved in your life. May she who is the Immaculate Conception, the patroness of the USA to whom we were as a nation dedicated many years ago and placed under her protection, bless us with her prayers and friendship during this time when when we as a nation are very conflicted and troubled with a spirit of violence and disrespect coming from both the highest levels of government and from many members of the press and other media who cannot, who do not seem to want, to rise above such shameful, demeaning behavior. Bernie Owens