Redemptorist News

‘Outrageous Grace’

What Crazy God would do

such crazy thing

as, knowing what would come, still

sent a Son

to those who in their time

and times

would cast him out,

make fun of him,

spit in his face,

neglect him and

at last, and always,

hang him from a beam

until the very last of him

was gone -

to God.

How crazy has God been?

Just so he did,

still does,

and still he lives who died

with such great love.

Who now is ‘crazy’ in this Great Affair?

 ————–

(On hearing ‘Outrageous Grace’ on CD by Godfrey Birtill, and remembering a saying by Alphonsus Liguori about our ‘crazy God’- our God who is ‘crazy’ with love for us, or ‘crazy’ about us!- ‘pazzo per amore’)

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

“A never-ending ocean, bottomless and shoreless”,-

his passion and his dying,

instead of us,

for us.

‘Ours…he was bearing.’ (‘bearting‘)*

                                           ’Ours…he was carrying’                            (Isaiah 53)

‘for our rebellions…’

‘because of our guilt’

‘We’   replaced by   ‘He’

‘Us’   replaced by   ‘Him’:

Who can fathom this bottomless ocean?

I stand on the shore of a shoreless sea,

dip my soul as if my toe;-

who can fathom the heart of God,

crushed?

He  ‘became sin’:

the Holiness of Holiness

          is ‘transformed’ into Sin, (2 Cor.5:21)

that I and we and you

be transformed into ( a pure gift!)

Holiness, – the Holy of Him

 who is the Holy One.

Steeped to my every fibre,-

it has been done!

Now will I follow in

to where Sin is no longer Sin

in me, because of

Him.

He took it, he became it, -it crushed his

Man-God heart to flour, grounded,

that I might eat new bread, new grace,

baked in the heat of the Cross,

and broken now, like Him, for all, for me.

I cannot fathom,

but I will eat no less.

——– 

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

(on reading R. Cantalamessa “Life in the Lordship of Christ”, Chapter 4)

*’bearting’ derives from the Irish word ‘beart’, a bundle you carry on your back.

UNINVITED GRACE 

The call to open up

some depth of heart

to so-long uninvited

Grace

let in at last-

the holiness of God

unuttered

calls to see

my bin

of sin-

those places, more,

those thoughts

that I have hid

from Him,

my blindness, chosen,

blinding me

to all that He already

sees.

Come HOLY Spirit

to this

so-sullied heart of me.

Buy back again this self I stole from you

and sold into my chosen slaveries.

AMEN. So let it be.

Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.

Our Player-Manager’?

‘Lord’

is the word we use,-

‘Our Lord’-

have used this long time past:

‘Lord’ has these other words

that speak to us today;-

our

‘Coach‘

our

‘Manager‘,

-on the field with us-

our

‘Governor‘

of each day’s life,

the training, discipline,

and ways of being

that are His

in us:

We listen keenly for we want

His heart

in us,-

to be his Team

upon the field of life,

he by our side,

involved.

When we are pressed, we try the harder still:

when we are down, we gather to a force,

with him as

Manager:

we hear his every word,

we watch his ways,

we look into his face,

and then we play the game of all our lives.

Lead Leader, and we will be led, by You!

 —————-

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

JOCKEYS:

We all are ‘jockeys’

in our ways

of seeking to be loved

and honoured:

we jockey with each other

to be First in some acceptance

that has its own importance for our hearts.

While we forget

that we have each arrived,

first

in that Love,

and

first

in that Importance,

-I’m Special in myself

as you are too!

There is no Second Place,-

we all have passed the post

  together

    at the Cross! -

and each is First, in Love:

we have, each one of us,

the Gold Cup of

   Most Honoured Place

with Him!

 Gospel of the Banquet Guests, Luke 14:1,7-14

“My God and my (Most) !”

‘God’  and  ‘All’,

two so-close words

yet still so far apart-

a tension there,

unsure

un-given All

to Him

who asks for All.

What if I give

this bit

and that,-

the most of me, perhaps,

but still

not All?

I want to hold some back

to feel secure,

that I am in control.

He waits, he looks, he quietly

insistently

pervasively

oh so thoroughly

wants nothing less

than All.

And so, each day, he comes to me again

and sits by my Well

and asks—– for All.

“If you but knew who it is who says ‘Give me—’            (John 4:10)

you would have asked him and he would have given you…”

All.

(Just do it!)

Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.

ABBA  now,

at last,-

Abba always in my past

but now allowed

within:

I let my Self be loved

of you.

Opening this shuttered heart

just one small bit

that love may enter in,-

I fear a burst of it,

I cannot face the open furnace door,

nor dam that bursts upon me.

And so I drink today

just this day’s cup:

then having tasted it,

the thirst you put in me

may grow

and I may crave for you.

But now, for now

a taste is what I want.

My finite mind portrays a finite heart,

that has not grasped,

that has not let itself be grasped,

 by Love.

Abba! Abba! God of tenderness,

my Abba-God,

this door is opening now

and nothing will come between us,-

Enter in.

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

(Reflection on Chapter Eight of the Letter of Paul to the Romans)

(‘Abba’ is the intimate Hebrew and Arabic word for one’s father)

TRUST HIM ABSOLUTELY

this Jesus,

Lord

and Son of Light,

of Holiness.

He is alive,

He is great beyond my

spirit’s grasping.

He, this Man, is the Creator God,

in whom,

for whom

all things were made.

‘My Father works until now,

and I work!’

Trust me

Be calm

Be still

Let inner storms of fear

die down.

O You of little faith,

Come, follow me,

absolutely,

freely.

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

(after Young Adult Prayer Meeting)

Three Times….

Can you hear the ‘Holy……’?

Three times Holy

to a depth

beyond…

Three times the deeper

listening

by a habit entered on:

be still and

ponder-weigh

the truth,- of God.

Be there- in adoration

without utter,-

Be.

Be captured.

Be.

Seamus Devitt, C.Ss.R.

NIAGARA

of joy

awaits our opening up

to God who floods

the thirsting hearts

with love.

 To thirst, to seek, to bring

the emptied vessel of the emptied heart

to One who longs for us,

to make a home in us:

 Only this emptied, readied heart

can hold

the Infinite.

                                           Repent with opened door,-          (Revelations 3:20)

believe the love that

is being poured on us,

-the Christ.

Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.