Back from retreat

Today in the Roman Catholic Church we celebrate the feast of Our Lady of the Most Holy Rosary.
This feast harkens back to an earlier time when there was, as today, the horror of war between peoples of differing faith and culture.

What is it with we human beings that we resist so much simply seeing each other as persons, loving one another, caring for one another?

We are one family on one planet in the midst of a vast universe – each and everyone of us created by God who is love to be His beloved little ones.

Each day  I pray the Holy Rosary and meditate upon the mysteries of Joy – which take us into the mystery of His becoming a man, a human being that we might have hope. Or the Sorrowful mysteries which take us into the cost of redemption from sin, paid by Him because He loves us.
There are the mysteries of Light which take us into the depths of His tender presence among us and  the Glorious mysteries which take us into the reality of the eternity of love for which we have been created and where He invites us.

The older I get and meditate upon the mysteries of the Holy Rosary each day, the less I understand why we human beings fail to love one another.

Having just returned from the retreat with my brother priests I can tell you we prayed daily for the whole human family that we might love one another.

Now that I am back and resuming the daily routine as an urban priest-hermit my heart  turns in particular to the Holy Mother of God pleading for her intercession that we stop hating and begin loving one another, stop being so greedy and learn to serve one another.

I urge all Catholics to rediscover, contemplate the mysteries of, pray, the Holy Rosary that we His children might love one another.