open up within me the gate to awareness of you

O name of Jesus,

key to all gifts,

open up for me the great door to your treasurehouse

so that I may enter and praise you

with the praise that comes the heart

in return for your mercies

which I have experienced in latter days;

for you came and renewed me

with an awareness of the New World…

Gather my mind into the silence of prayer,

so that all my wandering thoughts

may be silenced within me

during that luminous converse

of supplication and mystery-filled wonder.

O Sun of righteousness

by which the righteous beheld their own selves

and became a mirror for their generations,

open up within me 

the gate to awareness of you.

~Isaac of Nineveh, †late 7^th century

as published in Magnificat magazine,

May 2015

Vol. 17, No. 3, pp262-3

[Photos: top, Mont-Sainte Michel, France;

bottom, Mission La Purísima Concepción, California

all photos © Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda]

It is Midday: a poem

Amiens, France, 2013

San Diego, CA

"It is Midday"

It is midday. I see the church

open. I must enter.

Mother of Jesus Christ, I do

not come to pray.

I have nothing to ask

and nothing to offer.

I come only, Mother, to look at

you.

To look at you, to cry for joy,

to know that I am your son

and that you are there. Only

for a moment while everything 

stops. Midday!

To be yours, Mary in this

place where you are.

Saying nothing, but looking at

you and letting my heart sing

in its own language....

Because it is midday, because

we are here today, because

you are always there, simply

because you are Mary, simply

because you exist, Mother of

Jesus, be thanked.

                                  ~Jean-Pierre Prévost,

                                                                as published in Magnificat, 

                                              February 7, 2015

Cane, France, 2013

Guatemala, 2011

San Alfonso Retreat House, NJ

Rome

the Little Flower and me

St Thérèse at Amiens Cathedral

"[Y]ou know my weakness, Lord. Every mornng I make a resolution to practice humility and in the evening I recognize that I have committed again many faults of pride. And I am tempted to become discouraged but I know that discouragement is also pride. Therefore, O my God, I want to base my hope in You alone. Since you can do everything, deign to bring in my soul the virtue I desire. To obtain this grace of your infinite mercy I will very often repeat: 'O Jesus, gentle and humble of heart, make my heart like yours!'"

~St. Thérèse of Lisieux (†1897), 

The Prayers ofSaint Thérèse of Lisieux (ICS Publications)

Although completely out of our way, the visit to Lisieux was one of the highlights of our French pilgrimage earlier this year. 

Set deep in northwest France, the town of Lisieux is generally uninteresting—and not highlighted or recommended in any of our tour books! That’s because two-thirds of the town was destroyed in 1944 by allied bombs and few of its historical monuments and landmarks remain.

But the visit to Thérèse's Carmel was well worth the effort to get there. Much in the spirit of the Little Flower, the Carmel chapel, her grave, and the adjacent display on Saint Thérèse and her life was simple, reverent, and exceptionally inspiring.

"The Imitation of Christ," book of devotion in the Lammenais translation that Thérèse knew by heart

Last picture painted by Thérèse

"It is confidence and nothing but confidence 

that must lead us to love"

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Note: If you want to learn more about her, I highly recommend Heather King's book, "Shirt of Flame: a year with St. Thérèse of Lisieux"-- a powerful and provocative contemporary reflection on this timeless saint! 

holy Mary, Mother of God...

Notre Dame la Grande, Poitiers, France

Pondering today's feast, Mary's assumption into heaven:

I like thinking of Mary as a Warrior. I propose that all of you consider what your image of this Virgin might be – so that again she might excite our imaginations and provide us with an example of what a woman can do. She has done so in the past. Her weapons are always prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. Time and time again these weapons have overcome the mighty and pulled them down from their thrones. I wonder how it is that the evil of an oppressive Communist empire finally collapsed on itself almost without one shot being fired by men. Could it not possibly be that countless prayers in her name were stronger than bombs and sabers, warheads and tanks? Behind all that fluffy lace and golden pillows, their hides the strength of mother, the strength of prayer, and the promise of victory from a loud voice in heaven that says: “Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.”

  

This is what we celebrate today: God’s affirmation of a woman, God’s affirmation that there is power in a mother’s love to defeat every evil and right every wrong, to pull down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly. The Assumption is not just God’s exaltation of faithfulness and discipleship, but our own as well.

~Fr. Tom Boyer,

2012 homily at St. Mark's, Norman

St Pierre Church, Caen, France 

By praying both with our voices and our thoughts, we shall experience in ourselves how the Immaculate gradually takes possession of our souls, how we shall belong to her every day more in every aspect of our lives, how our sins shall disappear and our faults weaken, how smoothly and powerfully we shall be drawn always closer to God.

~Maximilian Kolbe

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
 For today the Virgin Mother of God
was assumed into heaven
as the beginning and image
of your Church’s coming to perfection
and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people;
right you would not allow her
to see the corruption of the tomb
since from her own body she marvelously brought forth your incarnate Son, the Author of all life.

~Communion Preface, Mass for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Guido Reni

[A]t first I had no idea where the lovely Magnificat we sang every night was from: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior’ [Luke 1:46]. When I eventually found it in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, I was startled but glad to see that it was one pregnant woman’s response to a blessing from another… 

 The song is praise of the God who has blessed two insignificant women in an insignificant region of ancient Judea, and in so doing ‘has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly: [who] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty’ [Luke 1:52-53]. . They are a poetic rendering of a theme that pervades the entire biblical narrative—when God comes into our midst, it is to upset the status quo.The Magnificat’s message is so subversive that for a period during the 1980s the government of Guatemala banned its public recitation (a sanction that I’m sure the monasteries of that country violated daily)…  

I treasure Mary as a biblical interpreter, one who heard and believed what God told her, and who pondered God’s promise in her heart, even when, as the Gospel of Luke describes it, it pierced her soul like a sword.

~Kathleen Norris [Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith]

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Note: 

Tried to find a video for you, but alas, it was not to be found... 

click here for a special treat: a song by Austin blues singer Margo Valiante titled, "I shall Not Walk Alone"

my labyrinth pilgrimage: surprised by grace at Chartres

Visiting Chartres Cathedral was one of the highlights of our French pilgrimage last month. I expected our visit to be grand and momentous. I even expected it to be spectacular, and it was.

What I didn’t expect was to be surprised by the encounter. 

One of the first things I noticed when we walked inside this majestic grand dame of Cathedrals is that its legendary labyrinth was uncovered, and people were quietly making their way.  I was instinctively drawn in, called to silently follow the path that pilgrims have walked in this holy place for almost 1,000 years.

I love being surprised by God’s graces…

I wrote about walking a labyrinth as a beautiful tool for prayer--a unique personal prayer experience--in our book, “The Journey” published by Loyola Press:

“Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. A labyrinth is not a maze or a puzzle to be solved. It does not require logical, sequential, analytical activity aimed at finding a correct path. A labyrinth is unicursal, has only one path. The way in is also the way out. There is no right or wrong way to walk a labyrinth. You can walk as fast or as slow as you want. You can stop along the way or dance your way through the path. Once at the center, you can stay as short or as long as you want  before following the same path to walk out… At its most basic level, the labyrinth is an ancient metaphor representing a journey towards our personal, deepest center, and then back out into the world––hopefully, with a broadened understanding of the journey and/or of the self. 

 During the Middles Ages, labyrinth designs in various forms were often found in Gothic cathedrals. The most famous of these remaining labyrinths is found on the nave of Chartres Cathedral, about 60 miles southwest of Paris. Built around 1200, the Chartres labyrinth is laid on the floor in a style sometimes referred to as a pavement maze, with four meandering quadrants that lead to the center. At the center of the labyrinth there is a rosette design, a Medieval symbol of enlightenment… 

[W]alking a labyrinth serves as a centering tool for me. It reminds me that when I am tired of walking this life journey and I feel like the way is too long, there is only ONE path that I must follow, the path to the One who is my center. It suggests to me that if life feels like too much work, I may be acting like my pilgrimage is a maze or a puzzle to be solved. My call is… to simply stay on the path. I breathe in the Spirit as I walk and allow the way of the labyrinth to take me home to Him who is my Life and my Love. The only choice that I must make is whether or not to walk. This, too, is a metaphor for Christ’s call to discipleship. Will I begin or continue the journey? Will I choose to stay on the path? Will I let Him lead me home?“

~The Journey: a Guide for the Modern Pilgrim 

The nave of the Chartres cathedral is normally lined with chairs that cover most of the labyrinth, making it unaccesible. Yet in recent years the Cathedral has set up a program of regularly uncovering the labyrinth every Friday during the summer months.

But we did not know about this until after the fact. 

We came back the next morning for a more thorough tour of the Cathedral (which I'll write about at a later date) -- but-- my labyrinth was covered by lines and lines of chairs.

the poetry of food

WARNING:
don't read this blog post on an empty stomach!

"Poetry leads us to the unstructured sources of our beings, / to the unknown, / and returns us to our rational, structured selves refreshed" 

~AR Ammons

On our pilgrimage last month, one thing became very evident to me--something I long suspected about France, but had to verify with my own eyes... er, mouth! 

The French make food beautiful! 

Whether breads--sweets--or sit down meals, astounding beauty surrounded us every single day.

Even a simple croque-monsieur--a grilled ham and cheese sandwich--ordered at a bar, was served with care and beauty!

praying through the cracks

Beauvais

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,

my memory, my understanding,

and my entire will,

All I have and call my own.

You have given all to me.

To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.

Give me only your love and your grace,

that is enough for me.

 ~St. Ignatius of Loyola, 

Suscipe prayer

At Medieval Chauvigny

 Besides the fields of yellow, on our recent pilgrimage of the French countryside and its astonishing Cathedrals, I became obsessed with doors.

In particular, the juxtaposition of doors, or openings, and light. I was fascinated by the fusion and separation, whether the door was wide open or there was light pouring through the gaps, the door’s cracks.

windows and door at our French farm home

I feel full of questions about my writing projects and what, if anything, I have to offer. But my physical tiredness doesn’t help me think very clearly these days.

Keeping everyone’s intentions in my heart. And from here, praying to have a heart that is an open door—one that allows the Christ Light to shine, even through my cracks.

at Mont-St-Michel