Attention, New Creation, Pilgrims of Hope

Talk for the Woman’s Guild at St. Ignatius Loyola Cathedral. 6 October 2025Outline:AttentivenessThis is WaterWhat is there just under out noses that we miss?So how do we cultivate awareness?Not HOW but What?Entering Seminary - going through life. Year by year. What are the important things that have happened to us? What has led us to this moment today?As a kid getting my hair cut - saw a guy with long hair in the back: “I want my hair pulled back like his.”Rat TailMatthew Widlansky - started watching the weather channel at age 2 - no cartoons. All business.Things happen to us and they catch our attention - they make desire be born in our hearts, cause us to move.Love for Life - St. Augustine - How do you know someone is in love? Because their feet move. They MOVE - toward what? Toward what they love.Discovering that there is more there. What else could I be missing?Movies:Class on drama and ministry.Elements of Drama2001 A Space Odyssey - Stanley Kubrick 1968 (We landed on the moon in 69’)Reading movie reviews.Watching movies with friends.ChristianityWhat does Christianity bring to the world that is new?God - the Face of God - the Name of God - the Particular Presence of God - the Order of Grace - A New CreationChristianity is another world within this worldWhat does God change about our humanity? What happens when God enters into humanity, in order to take us up into his divinity?I.e., what is the relationship between grace and nature?Grace perfects - does not eliminate it.Faith, Hope, Love - there is both a human, natural sense and a divine, grace sense.Pilgrims of HopeThe Ceiling of the CathedralWinds of the Holy Spirit - John 3:8 - "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit”.Acknowledging that the Spirit is mysteriously at work even outside of the Church, since God has made all men for himself, not just the baptized.The Barque of Peter - Certainty of SalvationMaximilian Kolbe“Whenever you feel guilty, even if it is because you have consciously committed a sin, a serious sin, something you have kept doing many, many times, never let the devil deceive you by allowing him to discourage you. Whenever you feel guilty, offer all your guilt to the Immaculate, without analyzing it or examining it, as something that belongs to her…My beloved, may every fall, even if it is serious and habitual sin, always become for us a small step toward a higher degree of perfection. In fact, the only reason why the Immaculate permits us to fall is to cure us from our self-conceit, from our pride, to make us humble and thus make us docile to the divine graces. The devil, instead, tries to inject in us discouragement and internal depression in those circumstances, which is, in fact, nothing else than our pride surfacing again. If we knew the depth of our poverty, we would not be at all surprised by our falls, but rather astonished, and we would thank God, after sinning, for not allowing us to fall even deeper and still more frequently.”St. Therese “If I had committed all possible crimes, I would always have the same confidence; I feel that this whole multitude of offenses would be like a drop of water thrown into a fiery furnace”