Oh Jesus!
April 18, 2021 1 Comment
Oh Jesus, the One who can walk through closed doors, yet you knock, that we may open our doors to you and choose you of our own free will, thus participating in your love and grace!
Contemplation on Spiritual Banquets
November 7, 2020 Leave a comment
Contemplation on Spiritual Banquets…
(A Spiritual Exercise)
I make a gesture of reverence like a bow, folded hands in prayer, or the Sign of the Cross.
I enter a period of silence and meditation…
I think about what I desire, that I desire to be invited to and share in a Spiritual Banquet…
I take an item or symbol of life giving food, touching it, like a piece of bread, rice, or whatever I have to offer, and hold it in my hands. I remember a special family meal where all family members gathered in harmony.
I enter into silent meditation for two minutes, holding the item and if I am in a group, sharing the item I am holding with others. If what I hold is consumable, I break off a portion and give it to another and we eat together.
I read the Prayer Texts below:
Luke 14: 15-24
15 When someone sitting at table with him had heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the kingdom of God.”
16 So he said to him: “A certain man prepared a great feast, and he invited many.
17 And he sent his servant, at the hour of the feast, to tell the invited to come; for now everything was ready.
18 And at once they all began to make excuses. The first said to him: ‘I bought a farm, and I need to go out and see it. I ask you to excuse me.’
19 And another said: ‘I bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to examine them. I ask you to excuse me.’
20 And another said, ‘I have taken a wife, and therefore I am not able to go.’
21 And returning, the servant reported these things to his lord. Then the father of the family, becoming angry, said to his servant: ‘Go out quickly into the streets and neighborhoods of the city. And lead here the poor, and the disabled, and the blind, and the lame.’
22 And the servant said: ‘It has been done, just as you ordered, lord, and there is still room.’
23 And the lord said to the servant: ‘Go out to the highways and hedges, and compel them to enter, so that my house may be filled.
24 For I tell you, that none of those men who were invited will taste of my feast.’ ” (CPDV)
I meditate in silence, thinking about the prayer texts above.
- If doing this exercise in a group, (for instance, a Zoom interreligious on-line Spiritual banquet) I gently share my thoughts and express my love for a person of another culture, race, or religion, saying, out loud: “I love you!” I share any spiritual or other needs I have as appropriate. I ask to be included in the other person’s thoughts and prayers, and I ask out loud, “Will you please pray for me?”
- I am silent again, this time hoping to enter a state of thoughtless contemplation, allowing God to do His work silently and passively in my heart and mind and satisfy my spiritual needs…
- I and others, if I am in a group, express thanks for this Spiritual Banquet, saying “Thank You, God!” I breathe in the Spirit of thankfulness and breathe out the Spirit of thankfulness and satisfaction for others to receive…
- I read the prayer, the Suscipe, from Spiritual The Exercises of St. Ignatius, (234) myself or in my group in communion with others:
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, all that I have and possess. Thou hast given all to me. To Thee, O Lord, I return it. All is Thine, dispose of it wholly according to Thy will. Give me Thy love and Thy grace, for this is sufficient for me.
- I am silent, slowly breathing in the Spirit of thankfulness without comments or additional discussion, but I will if needed, discuss what I have experienced with my Spiritual Director, Pastor, or counselor or friends and I resolve to take this exercise again as often as needed and share it with others as appropriate in person or via electronic means.
Go in Peace, take time out of your life to receive this Exercise, as well as taking additional time to enter ino thoughtless silence, to connect yourself with the inner image of God present in all mankind. When you see three dots…, it means to pause at that part of the Exercise in reflection.
John Cooper
Tuscaloosa, AL
We are Not Alone
April 10, 2019 Leave a comment
We are Not Alone
I went to Mass today, Wednesday before Psalm Sunday, 2019 and experienced what I believe to be a consolation without prior cause. As a little background, I pray with the daily readings each morning (See: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041019.cfm) and condense what I think is most important to me for this day into a short phrase to remember throughout the day and try to live out in daily life. My condensations for the last three days are:
I am not alone!
Again, I AM, is in ME, I am not alone.
I am not alone in fiery trials!
These phrases stem from parts of the readings from April 8th, 9th, and 10th, 2019,
“And even if I should judge, my judgment is valid,
because I am not alone,
but it is I and the Father who sent me.” [1]
“”When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,”[2]
“”Did we not cast three men bound into the fire?”
“Assuredly, O king,” they answered.
“But,” he replied, “I see four men unfettered and unhurt,
walking in the fire, and the fourth looks like a son of God.””[3]
We often feel alone, even in our own families which may be experiencing times of alienation and stress. We often feel alone in our national identities when rampant unchristian injustices like racism, nationalism, prejudice against immigrants and asylum seekers and peoples of other faiths, such as the Muslims, which desolations rear their ugly heads against our deep desires for peace and harmony and our deepest desire for God. We can feel all alone in our own church groups, even with hundreds of people surrounding us, some of whom we know by name but with whom we may have only a superficial spiritual relationship. We can feel alone when vices of financial or health difficulties tighten around us.
I wanted to tell someone at church today about this matter, to go out to eat with someone and to just talk about spiritual matters, but the occasion did not arise so I thought I would come in and tell you, the reader, about this matter:
We are NOT all alone!
We may be facing religious Pharisees, who want to judge and condemn us, but God is with us, and in us. Even if we face our death, our little daily dying’s, or walk in fiery trials, we are not alone! To begin with, God is in everything, we can find Him in all things, so we are never far from God in whom we live and breathe and have our being.[4] If we are Roman Catholic we may believe God is in the Eucharist in a special way, so God is with us and is in us in that way also, as well as in all in the congregation and in the Communion of Saints with whom we are also joined in a special and mysterious way. We are NOT alone!
I am a Spiritual Director in the Jesuit tradition and it is my job to help others connect directly to the Creator, who will work directly with the Creature, you, that is. A big part of being a Spiritual Director is to listen, not just to the directee, but to listen to God too. Let us listen for God in each other, in the wind, in the trees, in the birds, in animals, in children, in those we have been told are our enemies, in those of other Faiths, and in refugees and asylum seekers, in the poor, and in those of other races besides our own. There are plenty of places NOT to be alone if one can listen like this. Listen and silence are spelled with the same letters. Maybe a little silent reflection on the daily readings will help us to listen to God speaking to us, to hear His voice, His call and His cry from the Cross where even the human side of Jesus thought he was all alone and forsaken, but it turned out He was not all alone, at least not for long. No man is an island. No man is all alone.
John Cooper
Tuscaloosa, AL
[1] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040819.cfm
[2] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/040919.cfm
[3] http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/041019.cfm
[4] 1 Cor 8:6; Acts 17: 28-30
Jesus, You Here?
November 4, 2017 Leave a comment
Jesus, You Here?
It was a beautiful day yesterday, a fall day at the end of October in 2017. Leaves are changing and I am at St. Ignatius House in Atlanta, GA, for a class in Spiritual Direction. I arose very early this morning intending, I thought, to do my daily reflections with Scripture and do some review of material for the class, but I didn’t.
It came to me to go first into the Adoration Chapel to just sit with the Host and Jesus (Catholics believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist). I did some centering prayer, trying not to think of anything, just breathing in, “Yah” and out “weh” or “Yahweh.” I did that a while and since I was very close to the Monstrance,[i] I got up just to be sure the Host was actually in there.
Now I believe that God is in all things and all things are in God. The Apostle Paul noted a Greek poet, “In Him you live and move and have being.”[ii] I believe that, but some theologians don’t believe Paul really believed what he quoted. I recently talked to one of them who does not believe that. But I do.
I was reminded while I sat in meditation of the last complete sentence my Uncle, Bill McCulley, said to me as I, my wife, Wink, my sister Janelle Deblois, and I heard as we put him to bed toward the end of his life and Bill looked up in a fleeting glimpse of his old self and asked, “John, you here?” Bill soon died of Alzheimer’s, an insidious disease. Bill didn’t know anything much, even most of the time what his name was. Of course I “know” a lot more how to talk, how to add and subtract, how to read and write, etc. Bill did not know anything. It was like he was in a vast cloud of unknowing[iii] But as I looked down on him and heard the words, “John, you here,” it was so precious to me. I hope to remember those words all my life. Maybe he is looking down on me now as a part of the vast cloud of witnesses or the Communion of Saints.[iv] Maybe he will welcome me again when we meet again and I arrive wherever he is, in God, in heaven, wherever, and Bill greets me in a loving voice, with the words, “John, you here.”
Now I was not supposed to be thinking of anything in my centering prayer, attempting to enter the vast cloud of unknowing, the Divine union with the Mystery, the One God, but my prayer turned into meditation and I went up to the Monstrance and looked closely, knowing not to touch it, and looked to be sure the Host was present there, it was, and I asked, “Jesus, You here?”
I sat back down and wept silently since other people here are in a silent retreat, although I was all alone in the Adoration Chapel, excepting with Jesus, of course. Jesus was there too. If you don’t believe that, believe Jesus was is in me and He is in you, at least the image of the Divine and Mysterious One is in us all. I thought that as little as I know, and all the religions and religious institutions of the world know, including Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic, if all poured together in a bucket, would know nothing, being just be a drop in the ocean compared to what God knows. God knows how to talk in all languages including Angelic ones, He knows how to read and write in all languages too, and how to order and create the whole universe, how to create life and how to take life, just at the right time, like he took my uncle Bill’s life and received him unto Himself.
I know God heard me when I asked, “Jesus, You here?” I know He was looking down when I asked Him that, thinking I am precious in His sight, that I am a beloved sinner and He knows all of my sins since He lives in me, and I live in Him. I love you Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Divine One, and you too, Bill McCulley, and you too, the reader whom God loves, and is in, at least by His image inside of you.
Please ask yourself, if you do not believe, or if you do believe, “Jesus, You here?”
John Cooper
[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monstrance
[ii] Acts 17:28
Yes, I am a Catholic!
February 21, 2016 Leave a comment
Yes, I am a Catholic!
I had intended to do some other things today, these thoughts have come upon me…..
Per my regular routine, I rose early, today just after 5 AM, to enter into my morning meditations. I have been using the Catholic Liturgical Calendar as a basis for my morning meditations. There is an App for that, there are Apps for nearly everything. The one I use is on my tablet and phone, but here is a link to another: http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/022116.cfm, except this one is computer based. You can look up the name, CatholicApp.org on your tablet, I believe.
Today’s Liturgy and my meditations were about God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants, and also about our imitation of Christ, in so many words, when the heritage of those who have imitated him before us is passed down to us, until the end of time. Moses and Elijah, even appeared to the Apostles, and God advised them that Jesus is God’s Son, listen to him. The Apostle Paul wanted his followers to imitate him as he, Paul, followed and imitated Jesus. In view of my morning meditations, and my admiration of Pope Francis’ comments about Mr. Trump, if he believed in building walls to keep the immigrants out of the United States, not being a Christian, (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/19/world/americas/pope-francis-donald-trump-christian.html?_r=0) I decided to go to the local Catholic Church. I happen to be out of town, in Wetumpka, AL and the local Pastor, Fr. Albert Kelly, does not know me.
It was a wonderful worship time, and the music was wonderful. They have a praise and worship band signing the traditional Catholic hymns with a live choir too! The Homily was great too, and very meaningful, an exposition on the Liturgy for the day, which I just mentioned having meditated and prayed with this morning. The Homily was about how parents pass on their genes and teaching to their children, just as Abraham’s heritage and genes have been passed down according to God’s promise for generation after generation, until the end of time. Also mentioned was even if one does not have children, how one’s character and belief is passed down to others who are affected by it. During the mass, I regularly thought of how I grew up Catholic, and I am in many ways still Catholic, due to my upbringing. I regularly attended the Catholic Church, receiving all the rites of passage, until I was 18 and began attending another church because of my beliefs at that time in observing the Sabbath on the 7th Day of the week and my beliefs in peace and non-violence, which I did not know were accepted at that time in the late 1960’s to my knowledge. (There were some beliefs in non-violence in Dorothy Day’s Catholic Worker Movement, and Thomas Merton was a kindred Spirit to me, but I did not know of these things until much later.)
Being there today, at this mass, even though I do not regularly attend the Catholic Church, I went right up to receive communion. I was in a little state of contemplation, and apparently I was not holding my hands just quite right, although I know how to, when one receives communion. Fr. Albert Kelly asked me, “Are you Catholic?” I realized I was not doing it quite right, too late though, and I said “Yes, I am a Catholic.” So, he gave me the host, and I drank the wine. You may say, “Liar, liar, pants on fire,” but I say, in the context of the situation, and the liturgy of the day, “Once a Catholic, always a Catholic.” It is in the genes. It is in the heritage of my soul and being. In many ways, although I also believe in and have a heritage in other sides of the Christian family too, Yes, I am a Catholic. This happens to be the week I already wrote about our common heritage as human beings created in the image of God, an article, “Cooper White – Cooper Black” which some loved, and some did not appreciate so much….. https://jcooperforpeace.org/. I don’t mind a bit if my physical makeup is a little mixed, or my religious heritage somewhat mixed, or if some of my family members were crazy, just like me… I am who I am!
So, after mass, in place of eating doughnuts and coffee, as I have done before when I have been to this church, I spoke to a few people, and left to go about what I had planned to do, which was not to write this article, but I ran directly into Fr. Kelly, having changed his cloths and coming back into the Sanctuary. I shook his hand and told him I wanted to explain something to him I did not have time to in the communion line. I told him I grew up Catholic, and this year, for the first time in 49 years, I was observing Lent and that I sometimes do attend a Catholic Church. (This year for Lent I am giving up one drink per day, limiting my lunches to about $5, giving up meat, except for fish on Fridays, and sending the savings to help the refugees, which is the important thing to me, what I can give, not give up. Also, I am trying to give up more of my conceit and vanity and pride, and other sins…, although I did not tell him all of that.) He was very kind. He asked who the priest was in my town when I told him I was not from Wetumpka. I told him it was Father Deasy, whom he knew and had gone to school with, along with Fr. Deasy’s brother.
Anyway, it is good to be a part of one big worldwide family, the human race, or still have in my being the heritage of the Catholic Church, or the Worldwide Church of God, or Grace Church, where I now mostly attend. It is good to be an American, to be a Christian, but it is not so good, in my view, to build up our walls and exclude the needy from fellowship with us, just because they are different. Yes, I know the Vatican has a wall around it, but I don’t think Pope Francis built it, it has been there many years before. Maybe we can tear it down, if it matters so much, which it doesn’t. Yes, I am Catholic. It came to me today, just how Catholic I still am..
Peace,
John Cooper
One Cup
March 23, 2015 Leave a comment
One Cup
In asking for the grace to understand and appreciate the Eucharist’s as Jesus’ self-gift, my meditations today were on Matt. 26: 26-29. This is where Jesus instituted the symbols that are elements of this observance.
“Take, eat, this is my body”. ..….
“Drink of it, all of you.”…..
Jesus stated “this is the blood of the covenant”.
I thought of ways people are remembered after they die, tombstones, pictures, stories, buildings, etc., but none of these things last like the living symbols and an ordinance or Sacrament Jesus gave us by which to remember Him. I thought back to Psalm 22, which has been on my mind this week. The Psalm which starts “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”, this Psalm was on Jesus’ mind too as he died on the cross. Some think, and I have heard Fr. Joseph Tetlow say, that Jesus recited the whole Psalm on the cross.
The final verses of this Psalm are (v. 30-31).
“Posterity shall serve Him;
men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,
and proclaim His deliverance to a people yet unborn,
that He has wrought it.”
I do not think these symbols, the Eucharist; this Sacrament should be closed to anyone. It should be shared with all who want and need Spirituality, and want to hear of this living story. The Eucharist is exactly how Christians have told Jesus’ story as a living memorial for thousands of years to the coming generations. Also I think there should be one cup, and we all drink out of it. I am about tired of those little plastic Protestant types of cups 🙂 🙂 Oh, and for me, make that “real wine” 🙂 🙂
In addition to the above, which was a part of my St. Ignatius, 19th Annotation, Exercises today, I think these thoughts fit into the theme of Peace… I understand that Islam is a religion of Peace, that it is really bad if a Muslim does not show hospitality to a stranger or a friend. One of my Muslim friends, a Sunni, (one of those Pharisee types,) in fact, came with me to eat at a Hooligan’s , a Mediterranean restaurant here in Tuscaloosa, and brought his own tea, and cups, in a little kit with a thermos to keep it hot, and we drank together, and ate together. He even attempted to evangelize me to the Muslim way. I appreciated that he cared for me… If it were up to me, which mostly it isn’t, but it used to be, and I were serving the Eucharist, I would offer the bread and the wine to him, but warn him first, if you take out of this One Cup, unworthily, you might die… I think he would respect my beliefs, as I respected his, and we would continue to be friends, not enemies…
Love & Peace,
John Cooper
John Cooper was born in Paris, Illinois in January, 1949. He was born Roman Catholic and grew up on his father’s and uncles’ farms. After graduating from Marshall, IL High School he attended Samford University in Birmingham, AL. He left college and became a cabinet maker, having his own business for about 45 years. About 7 years ago he returned to the Catholic Church of his youth. Having recently passed along his business to a younger person, John attended Spring Hill College in Mobile, AL and obtained his CSD degree in Spiritual Direction.
jcooperFORpeace 