Human Formation #2

I concluded last week by proclaiming that God really loves us!  But let me begin this week's reflection by stating that in addition to the fact that He loves us, He actually likes us!  I use the word “like” because that gives an affective, personal dimension to God’s love.  God’s love for us is not general.  It is specific and individual.  It is personal delight.  He delights in us; He delights in you!  How else do we explain the above words?

How else do we explain ourselves?  God’s love for me is the answer to the question “who am I?”  Blessed John Paul II wrote in Redemptor Hominis:  "Man cannot live without love. He remains a being that is incomprehensible for himself; his life is meaningless, if love is not revealed to him, if he does not encounter love, if he does not experience it and make it his own, if he does not participate intimately in it.”

God is love (1 Jn 4:8) and He loves us (1 Jn 4:10; Rom 5:8; Gal 2:20).  And His love is so powerful that it makes us His children, it makes us His sons (1 Jn 3:1-2).  But, do we believe in this reality?  Are we really aware of it?  Do we feel it and live from it?  The answer to these questions will determine our ability to discern, choose and live out our vocations in joy and peace; in a word, the answer to these questions will determine our happiness!

God desires that we would believe in His love and yes, He also desires that we would feel it.  We are created to share in His happiness and in order to do so we need more than a merely general, intellectual knowledge of His love.  We need an emotional, experiential, heart-knowledge of it.  Really the same goes for our relationship with others; it’s not enough to know in our heads that we’re loved, we need to know in our hearts.  God made us so that the heart has primacy over the head.  The heart is supposed to lead the head; the head is supposed to serve the heart, because the heart is the place of loving-encounter--with God and others--the seat of true happiness.

While God’s love is certainly not reducible to an emotional experience, He does want it to touch us on that level.  Our experience of an emotional love for God can actually lead us to a deeper and lasting faith and the higher, sacrificial love that Jesus ultimately calls all of His disciples to.  The Saints and Mystics often speak of their union with God in personal, passionate, emotionally charged and poetic language.  The Bible itself, especially in the Song of Songs, uses powerful, romantic and even sensual imagery to describe God’s passionate love for us and our response to that love. 

Brothers, the beginning and end of all formation—human and spiritual—is the personal love of God for us.  We are loved!  The Christian life has been described as a passage from being loved by God without knowing it to being loved by God and knowing it.  Knowing His love is a must for both discerning and answering God’s call.  And proper development and maturation of our emotional lives is a must for knowing His love.  Therefore,  our series on human formation by exploring God’s plan for our emotional growth.  Stay tuned… 

God bless you all,

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR

St. Joseph Friary

Harlem, NY

Human Formation #1

Finally, the promised series on human formation is here.  As I mentioned a couple of months ago in our last reflection on the Creed, “in the coming weeks and months, I will be offering reflections on human formation and how the necessary healing and development of our human nature helps us to believe in and live everything we have been reflecting on in our Series on the Creed.  Human formation is an indispensable part of every vocation and it is my hope that these reflections will in some way help all of us to open our nature more and more to God’s grace.”

Human formation is indispensable because God’s grace, which is His very life, builds on our human nature.  Put another way, our human nature was made for the grace of God.  The Church teaches “the desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself.  Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for…” (CCC, 27).

We’re created “by God and for God”.  Our study of humanity in general and human formation specifically must start with God because He is our origin and goal!  That’s why I began with some reflections on the Apostles Creed.  The truth about man is relative to the truth about God!  And the truth about God is that He loves us!  Human formation is about preparing our nature to receive this Love, which is the foundation of every vocation.

As we reflected on the first two articles of the Creed we read:

“You have a Father in heaven, God, who created you. Even before the world began to exist, God your eternal Father thought of you, knew you, loved you, wanted you, and brought you into being. Your life is from Him. Although you need not have existed, He wanted you to exist, and therefore you do exist. Your life was given to you so that you might come to know how much He loves you and to love him in return…. Although you do not comprehend how much he loves you and adores you, He has provided a way for you to come to know His incredible love for you….[That way] is Jesus of Nazareth, the eternal Son. He is looking for you. He sees you, he knows you through and through, and he loves you. He reveals his love to you in a special way.

God really does love us!  Ponder that and stay tuned for the second part of our series.

God bless you all,

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR

St. Joseph Friary

Harlem, NY

Summer Greetings

Brothers,

I hope your summers have been restful, prayerful and fun!  Here in NYC, our summer has been action-packed.   Recently, four of our brother professed temporary vows and five professed perpetual vows.  These professions are a boost for the whole community and a reminder to all of us that God delights in us and that we are made for glory.  In the fall we look forward to welcoming three new postulants!  Please pray for Ben, Joseph and Joshua as they prepare to take the next stage in their discernment.  And stay tuned, the promised series on human formation is delayed, but on its way!

May God bless you all!

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR
St. Joseph Friary
Harlem, NY







 

The Apostles Creed - Part 12

Hello all!  Here is the twelfth (kind of significant, huh?) and final installment of our reflections on the Apostles Creed.  We end on a very hopeful note:  with that hope in our hearts, let us "risk everything on his mercy", everything!  Enjoy!

To be clear, the resurrection-life inside of you will always be invisible in this life. But it will be real. It will grow gradually. Provided you do not resist its action, it will heal you and purify you until you become utterly what God wants you to be. The resurrection-life is nothing less than the Presence of the Holy Trinity living and active in the depths of your being.

If you have faith in his mercy, and if you take advantage of all of these gifts in the Church, and if you do so until the end of your days, they will change you into a saint. Gradually, through these many gifts, Jesus will fill you with all the fullness of God. You will come to know your heavenly Father, and you will learn to love him back with ease and joy. And you will not be alone. You will be in the Church. There will be people of all nations, races, and tongues who will be living through it with you. Some, like you, will still be on the way to becoming saints. Others, living or dead, will already be there. But regardless of whether it is you or others, already there or still on the way, all that belongs to the saints belongs to you. All is yours, and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.

And on the last day, when the last trumpet blasts, and when all generations of men and women come forth together to meet our Maker, you will rise with a new and immortal and glorious body. And your new and immortal and glorious body will reveal to everyone the victory of love in your life. For grace has come to you. You have found Christ and his Church. You risked everything on his mercy. And even though the accuser, Satan, prowled around you, and always reminded you of every weakness, sin, and failure of both you and your Church, still you believed his mercy would never fail us. And so the last word on your life, the sentence handed down in the tribunal of love, the pure and simple truth on the last day will be this:

“You are my beloved in whom I am well pleased.”

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series, these reflections are not mine.   They were born in the heart of a wonderful priest I only recently met face to face.  Thank you Fr. James for your inspiring words, for feeding us with the fruit of your prayer and study.  In the coming weeks and months I will be offering reflections on human formation and how the necessary healing and development of our human nature helps us to believe in and live everything we have been reflecting on in our Series on the Creed.  Human formation is an indispensable part of every vocation and it is my hope that these reflections will in some way help all of us to open our nature more and more to God's grace.

May God bless you all!

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR

St. Joseph Friary

Harlem, NY 

The Apostles Creed - Part 11

Hello Everybody!  Peace be with you!  Again, I apologize for the hiatus due to a very busy June!  So, picking up where we last left off, we continue to reflect on the great gift of the sacraments.  We finished last time with confirmation and we begin this time with the sacrament of reconciliation:


In reconciliation, he restores this resurrection-life to you if you should weaken it or throw it away by personal sin. His mercy is always there for you. There is no need to fear the impending tribunal of love so long as you believe in his healing love and mercy and put all your trust in him. In marriage, he transforms the resurrection-life into something you live together with a spouse and children. In holy orders, he makes a man into a minister in the Church of these seven great gifts. And in the anointing of the sick, he comes to you when you are in a state of serious illness, seals you again with oil and prayer, and thereby heals you of sin and fortifies your resurrection-life in the midst of your illness and suffering. There are many other gifts in the Church. There is Scripture – the book by which God speaks to you even now. There is prayer – the loving conversation with God in friendship. There are works of love and mercy to carry out for others. And there are more – too many to mention here. All of these things serve to build up and strengthen the resurrection-life within you. These are the ways that Christ, by his mercy, heals you and prepares you for the glorious day of judgment.

May God bless you all!

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR
St. Joseph Friary
Harlem, NY

The Apostles Creed - Part 10

Hello all!  Please forgive the two-and-a-half week hiatus.  I had the privilege of visiting our brothers down in Comayagua, Honduras.  I am edified by these brothers and their desire to respond to the challenge of Pope Francis to go out and preach the good news to the poor.  I encountered many people who, while poor in the things of this world, are rich in the things of God; namely, humility, long-suffering, generosity and joy!  Please remember them in your prayer.

This week we continue reflecting on the following words from the Creed:

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
 
In the Church you will find God’s seven great gifts to you. God has given the Church seven ways by which you can personally interact with the risen Lord Jesus and be filled to overflowing with his resurrection-life. In each one of these seven great gifts, we call them ‘sacraments’, the living and true God, Jesus of Nazareth, reaches out and touches you in some way or another. In baptism, he touches you with oil and water and prayer and by that gesture fills you with an initial influx of his resurrection-life. In the eucharist, he reaches out and feeds you with heavenly food, and this heavenly food nourishes and grows and revitalizes the resurrection life within you. In confirmation, he reaches out and seals you with oil and prayer and by that gesture fortifies the resurrection-life within you and makes you ready to give testimony before the world.

Next week we will continue reflecting on "God's seven great gifts" to us.  Until then, God bless you all!

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR
St. Joseph Friary
Harlem, NY

The Apostles Creed - Part 9

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

Love unites us. Love unites people with God and with each other. But the Holy Spirit is love – the eternal love between the Father and the Son. And the Holy Spirit is now at work in the world. It stands to reason, therefore, that the Holy Spirit is now uniting people with God and with each other. If we look for this unification, where do we find it happening? It is happening in the Church. The Holy Spirit is uniting men and women of every nation, race, and tongue in the Church. The international, intercultural, multimillenial unity of the Church is therefore a sign to you that eternal love really is at work in the world. In the Church, the same love can go to work in you and through you. Next week we'll discuss how this happens...

God bless you all,

Fr. Isaac Spinharney, CFR

St. Joseph Friary

Harlem, NY