Peace be with you!

In this video, Fr. Freeh revisits last week’s theme of “unity and variety” in the spiritual life.

Unity can be found in our acceptance of God’s love, in our shared belief in a Trinitarian God, Who doesn’t just love us as objects, but Who desires an intimate relationship with us. We are loved, and love in return.

Now we turn to variety. As you might imagine, in a Church of more than one billion souls on the planet right now–and countless more in the two millenia since our founding–this is a wide and deep subject. Here, Fr. Freeh will hit just a few highlights.

The word Fr. Freeh is looking for is “cursive”–a kind of writing that is still taught. (At least in Catholic schools!) The point he’s making is don’t get caught up in the pursuit of perfection in trivialities…thus lies the path of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder! Put first things first, strive for excellence…let the details fall where they may.

The examples Fr. Freeh gives of the different forms of spirituality can seem daunting to an ordinary layperson. In case you missed it:

St. Frances Xavier “Mother” Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, pioneer of Catholic education in the US. St. Benedict, the father of Western monasticism. St. Francis of Assisi, whom God entrusted with the mission to rebuild His Church. St. Dominic, on fire to spread the good news of God’s saving love. St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, author of the Ignatian spiritual exercises…

Wow.

Before we pack up our tents and creep quietly away from these spiritual giants, let’s remember we are united with the communion of saints in a common goal. As Fr. Freeh put it, the challenge is to live “in an awareness of God’s love for us, ready to make a loving response.”

While our goal is the same…the paths to it are very different. The “variety” comes from the “applied spirituality” of our everyday lives. No saint is ever a replica of any other, because each saint lives in a different time and place. Each saint has a heart shaped to love God and neighbor, to meet a particular need in a particular way.

None of these men and women began in perfection. But they began. And with patience, repentance, and persistence, they lived the love of God in their daily lives. As a great priest once quoted in a homily: “I truly believe every saint has a past, every sinner a future.” How will you begin? Where will your future take you?

God meets us where we are, in every moment of our lives. In the people around us. In our circumstances. In the hopes and anxieties of our hearts. He’s looking for our loving response, in a world bereft of love.

We need to ask ourselves some hard questions. How is God calling me? Am I open to the Holy Spirit, willing to make a loving response? Am I ready to acquire a spirituality that makes a difference, not just to myself, but to the world?

Are you having trouble discerning the answers to those questions? I’d like to return to St. Ignatius’s spiritual exercises just long enough to give you a link that might help. And another.

Authentic spirituality is for the here and now, responding to the needs of the time. If you look at our times, you can’t help but know just how great the need is.

The important thing is to put first things first, strive for excellence…and put the results in God’s hands.

Read this Sunday’s Scriptures.