A plea.

What a week.

H and I have been on a working vacation this past week, getting ready for the renting season an old Victorian beach house we have on Martha's Vineyard. We bought it 12 years ago with money H's Dad left her. Turned out to be a good investment. It's old, 1930's or so, (no one really knows) so it always needs lots of work. Imagine leaving your house on November 1st and not seeing it again until April. And then you only see it for one or two Saturdays a month, until you take a week off in June to make it spit spot for your first renters on July 1st. Tons of stuff to do, you can just imagine. But whatever, no big deal, we do it every spring. But being on vacation means each day starts out with Mass, with Rosary before and after Mass. Monday thru Thursday. (No Mass on Friday.) For me, who isn't able to go to Mass during the week this is a real blessing. A good friend of ours on the island, Margaret, is the founder of Little Children of Mary, a group led by her that brings relief supplies to Haiti. This is her 15th year doing this great service, and since the quake her efforts have been doubled. A very spiritual woman, very Marian and a very devoted to Our Lady of Medjugorje. She leads the second Rosary, which is very attuned to Our Blessed Mother. It is a great gift from God that He has surrounded me with such prayer-filled and spiritual women. But no men. In my parish here in CT for men to show their spirituality in anything more than Evening Prayer once a week is rare. In our Secular Franciscan community we have only five men in a group of over thirty. It's just the way it is. Men, at times have a lot of baggage that we just keep piling up on top of ourselves, so much until we cannot move or think straight. And then the crushing weight of the world chokes out the voice of Our Lord. It is so sad.
Isaiah: 55, 6
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call Him while he is near.
I know that I was like the men whom I speak about once. Most of my life was like that. Hearing the Voice but never listening. Never acting on what I heard. Not knowing it but being chained to the world around me, the world of man and not the world of God. Not knowing that they were the same! God is all around us, they say, well, why can't I see Him? Because I failed to look for Him. If I hadn't let go of my inner chains (and they were chains, believe me!) hadn't asked God to just be closer to me, to open my ears to Him, if I hadn't been touched by his Grace I would still be carrying around the weight of my world, instead of God carrying me. What I'm trying to say is brothers, let go of this world, the sports channels, the ambitions for power, the darkness of lust. That's not what we're here for. When you hear His voice, harden not your heart. If you think you hear Him in the sounds of nature, talk a walk and listen. Look closely at everyone you meet, Jesus our Brother is there, return the love that He showed us on the Cross.
Love is the key,
Love is the key.
Oh my Lord and my God,
hear my prayers of nothingness
as I plead for my brothers,
trapped as I once was,
lost in the smoke of this world.
Lord, give them the strength
as you gave me,
to cast off the heavy burden,
to take on the yoke that is light.