The Processing Cats of the Optina Monastery

This short video went viral in Russia last year. The monks of the Optina Kozelsk Monastery have adopted ten stray cats, which in exchange for monastic hospitality keep vermin away. Every morning, Father Sergei walks the borders of the monastery property with candle and blessing cross, sending up prayers of gratitude and asking for protection and safety. But as we see here, the cats seem to enjoy participating in this tradition of monastic life.

A group of American middle-school students watched the video and afterwords mused along with their teacher: "Do you think the cats know they are receiving Father Sergei's blessing? Does Father Sergei have food with him? Or maybe the cats know he feeds them at the end of the procession and we don't get to see? Maybe he gives them warm milk?" Doesn't matter really, whatever the reason, be delighted!

P.S. The video is best enjoyed full screen with the happy music turned up a bit.

In Turbulent Times: The Fifth Luminous Mystery ~ The Gift of the Eucharist

Here's the fifth of the Luminous (Light) Mysteries. Thanks to the Pope who gave them to us. Thanks to the Pope who has asked us to lean into this prayer, these days when the peace is disturbed. And thanks to you for joining the prayer.

Our Father...

Eucharist: A God who is not content to walk alongside us - before or behind us - but whose love is so permeating it wants to get inside us, where we need the most help.

Hail Mary...

Jesus did not say, "take and understand," nor "take and define," nor "take and preserve as your own property," but "Take and eat." Like a great Mother who still serves a Sunday supper.

Hail Mary...

When crusty bread is broken, crumbs fly round and about. Actually, bread-breaking can be kind of messy. Some priests obsess about keeping every crumb safe and contained, but they miss the bigger significance: Christ, desiring to be with us far and wide in the unpredictability, messiness and variability of human living.

Hail Mary...

Pope Francis cautions us about becoming so distracted by the rules that can be called upon to keep the Eucharist away from the unworthy - a kind of prize for the pure. We risk forgetting that the Eucharist is medicinal for strugglers.

Hail Mary...

At Mass, we are indeed at Calvary. But we are not re-enacting Calvary as simply a historical moment from two millennia ago. Somehow we give that impression to many. But Calvary is the love of God searching out the lost one. And that lost one is every one of us, everywhere and in every time. Mass effects this divine search. That means it makes it apparent and an experience for human kind.

Hail Mary...

"I once was lost, but now am found." Have I ever had a personal experience of this as I step along the Communion bread line, my hand's outstretched, my cup, empty. Lost in our contradictions, fears, planet threatening mistakes and folly. And in that condition, God is always looking for me, long before I had a thought of God. Like the father of the prodigal, who stands on tip-toe, scanning the horizon for us.

Hail Mary...

Ours is a religion that has food as its centerpiece. I can imagine myself beneath Calvary's cross: the blood of Christ. That would be life changing for me. I could never again be the same. Eating the Eucharist every Sunday should change me. Maybe they should say of us: "Catholics? Aren't they the ones who see to it that everyone on the planet is fed?"

Hail Mary...

Notice that at Mass everyone gets the same: the same little wafer, the same little sip. There are no distinctions. This is an important message for a world that fights to preserve distinctions. The very thought of sameness and in childish terror we start hurling words like socialist and communist at each other. Maybe for starters, there should be no title in the Church higher than brother and sister.

Hail Mary...

For Latin Rite Catholics, First Communion is generally received at age seven - the age of reason. This is supposed to be the age when we can think it out a bit. Really? In the East, the baby is given Holy Communion immediately after Baptism. The East puts the emphasis on the understandings of the heart over the figuring out of the mind. "The heart has its reasons, that reason knows not of." 

Hail Mary...

Jesus washed the feet of the disciples at the supper. Maybe they couldn't afford a foot washer servant, or maybe the guy they hired just never showed up. Doesn't matter - Jesus took up the apron, basin and towel. Maybe "foot washing" should be a kind of 8th sacrament. That would really get the world's attention.

Hail Mary...

Glory be to the Father...

Prayer with the Pope: The Fourth Luminous Mystery - The Transfiguration

Pope Francis has invited us to pray the rosary with him during the month of October: a holy antidote to the devil's stirring things up. We join this global prayer for renewal, strength and healing. 

Our Father...

St. Richard, the 13th century bishop of Chichester, England, has given us this prayer. Perfect thoughts:

Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults thou has borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly, and follow thee more nearly, day by day. Amen.

Hail Mary...

Jesus has just told the disciples of his impending passion. Now in great kindness, he gives them this window into Easter's joy. The planet is weary with the untimely deaths of so many young people, so much destruction and waste - even faces made ugly by hate and lies. We might keep this icon of light and reassurance close at hand.

Hail Mary...

The Gospels are not newspaper accounts. What happened on the mount was beyond optical sight, and so the evangelist stretches, using word images. It is the best he can do: "his face shone like the sun," "his garments became white as light," "glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them." God has shared divine energies with us. The scene is for our contemplating.

Hail Mary...

As at the Lord's Baptism in the River Jordan, where the Holy Trinity was revealed, so here as well, "A bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, 'This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.'" Matthew 17:5. But I don't want to be just an admire-r or spectator, but a participant.

Hail Mary...

This icon shows Peter, James and John hurtling down the mountain, "They fell on their faces, and were filled with awe." Has God's presence, God's splendor, God's energies ever knocked me off my feet?

Hail Mary...

Moses and Elijah are part of the mountaintop vision. Moses is on the right with his book representing God's law. Elijah is on the left representing the ancient prophets. Both had secret visions of God. I want a secret vision of God too - not to dazzle me or for God to put a stamp of approval on me, but only that further grounds me in God's justice and love. 

Hail Mary...

Jesus stands inside two symbolic shapes. The five-point star is called a pentacle, representing the bright cloud from which the Father's voice of delight was heard. The round circle of light and brightness (an aureole) repeats the theme - perhaps even enhancing or stretching the idea, as this luminous circle contains cosmic stars.

Hail Mary...

One author writes of the church at Mount Tabor, "On this mountain one can encounter God and his revelation." Why would I doubt that? But in our religion one needn't travel to Mount Tabor, or any mountain for that matter, to encounter God. God's Holy Spirit isn't bound or limited in any way. The holy mountain is wherever I step. And God's revelation? Any time; any place.

Hail Mary...

Do we notice that even the rocks of the mountain sparkle, reflecting the divine energies of the Transfiguration? While some nations are pressing ahead from the undeniable and dire signs of our planet's warming and poisoning, in other places, black toxins are still being spewed into the sky and the ocean is clogged with degrading plastic, killing the sea animals and even getting into the food chain. "Earth's crammed with heaven." Why can't we treasure our planet-gift which is meant to sparkle?

Hail Mary...

August 6 is the Summertime Feast of the Transfiguration: Jesus, in the flash of white light. But it is also Hiroshima Day. The morning Masses had just finished. The new weapon: city-buster bombs. "No such thing as coincidences" it's said. What does this mean?

Hail Mary...

Glory be to the Father...