Herod's Voice and the Year of Mercy

Matthew 2: 1 – 3, 7 – 8, 10 – 12

. . . Then Herod secretly called the magi and determined from them the exact time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the Child; and when you have found him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship him.” . . . [But] having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the magi left for their own country by another way.

                                                                  *

The way of the world tends to be self-centered. It’s basic human nature to look out for myself; to put my own wants and needs ahead of others; to see my opinion and worldview as being the only correct one. It’s kind of like original sin. But as followers of Jesus, we, like the Magi in the Gospel for the Feast of the Epiphany, are called to go home by another way.

King Herod, the villain in today’s Gospel, represents self-centeredness and the pull of the world. There’s a little echo of Herod’s voice in all of us. Call it my own personal Herod. And this basic human tendency is an obstacle to following Jesus and to becoming an instrument of compassion, forgiveness and mercy for our world. It’s an obstacle to going home.

For us, like the Magi, the only way back home is through the manger. But to enter we need to leave our baggage at the door because the manger is small, there’s only room enough for a compassionate, forgiving and merciful heart.

Our own personal Herod lies and tries to trick us like he tried to trick the Magi. He wants us to hold onto our baggage: to any hurt, bitterness, prejudice or selfishness that we’ve been carrying. He tells us that our opinion is the only correct one.

He tells us that there are certain people – living or dead – whom we can never forgive, never show mercy to, never accept: people who may have hurt us deeply, people or groups of people we feel morally superior to. He wants us to ignore Jesus’ call to unconditional compassion, forgiveness and mercy. He wants to keep us out of that manger and to stop us from getting home.

Where the Magi had a dream to lead them safely home, we have the example of Jesus in the gospel. No one had to grovel for forgiveness in the New Testament. Jesus embraced lepers; he sat down to eat with tax cheats and prostitutes; he didn’t tell the woman at the well to stay away until she fixed her multiple marriages. The things that brought out anger in Jesus were hypocrisy and self-righteousness.

We also have the Church’s call to live the Corporal and Spiritual Acts of Mercy. And in a very special way our Holy Father Pope Francis has set off an alarm clock to remind us of this: he has given us this Jubilee Year of Mercy.

As we come to the end of this Christmas season and continue to journey through this Year of Mercy, let us examine our hearts. Are we compassionate, forgiving and merciful, or do we carry a grudge? Are our doors and telephones always open, or are there family members and friends we have shut out? Are we inclusive and non-judgmental, or do we exclude others because they are different or don’t measure up to our moral standards? Are we present to the poor, the sick, and those held captive in many different kinds of prisons? Are we welcoming the stranger and those fleeing violence, persecution and disaster?

Let us pray for the grace to open any closed chambers of our hearts. Let us offer not just one Year of Mercy, but rather a lifetime of compassion, forgiveness and mercy to all our sisters and brothers, without exception. And let us leave our baggage at the door of the manger and go home by another way.

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. All are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

The Gospel of You, The Gospel of Me: Making Christ Present in Everyday Life

Just Practicing

One of the many, many nice things about being a deacon in the Catholic Church is that we can be married and have a family. Anyone who knows me knows how incredibly fortunate and blessed I am to be married to Wanda, my sweetheart and best friend for almost 50 years. And they know how blessed we both have been with our four children, our daughter-in-law and son-in-law, and our two grandsons.

When our older daughter, Julie, was a medical student doing her clinical rotation at a Level 1 trauma center in Brooklyn, she shared a powerful experience with us. Wanda saw its relevance to our faith and encouraged me to share it with the parish.

Julie was on call in the ER when an elderly lady was brought in by ambulance from a nursing home. The lady’s name was Linda and she was having difficulty breathing. But in addition to her physical problem, Linda’s chart showed a diagnosis of schizophrenia. This poor woman’s internal world was a terrifying place.

Julie was assigned to Linda to do a work-up that included drawing blood and listening to her heart rate. Linda was fearful of the needle, but Julie’s calming presence reassured her. With one gentle stick, Julie was able to draw the necessary blood without causing Linda any pain. Linda felt safe with my daughter and asked her name. ‘Julie,’ she gently answered.

In listening to Linda’s heartbeat, Julie discovered something irregular. The resident who was supervising her confirmed the irregularity and asked Julie to sit by Linda for the duration of her on call shift, and to watch her heart rhythms on the bedside monitor.

As she sat down in front of the monitor, Julie gently held Linda’s hand. She told Linda that she would be right there just in case she needed her for anything. Linda lay back and was calm.

Less than two minutes went by when Linda appeared agitated and called out,

          ‘Julie.’

         ‘Yes, Linda. I’m right here. What do you need?’

         ‘Just practicing,’ Linda said and lay back peacefully.

Another two minutes went by.

         ‘Julie.’

         ‘Yes, Linda.’

         ‘Just practicing.’

And another.

         ‘Julie.’

         ‘Yes, Linda’, 

         ‘Just practicing’.

Her interior world being filled with terror, Linda needed to constantly call out to reassure herself that Julie was there. This cycle of calling out and reassurance went for hours, until Linda was moved from the chaos of the ER and admitted to a room on the elder care unit.

So, how is this relevant to our faith?

Life is a gift and it is beautiful, but the world outside and inside our head can at times be painful and frightening. And we live each day with the existential knowledge that our time on earth is limited. But God is always by our side. God will never abandon us. And when our time on earth is through, God will be there to take away our fear, to embrace us and welcome us home.

We believe this with faith and someday we will experience it with certainty. But in the meantime, we, like Linda, practice to reassure ourselves that God is there; we practice by calling out to God in prayer.

And God answers in the darkness,

          ‘I am here, my child, I am with you.’

That answer comes to us in the depths of our hearts, in the love and compassion we receive from others, in the grace of the sacraments; and it come to us in those unexplained meaningful coincidences, those synchronicities, that God uses to tell us he’s there. God always answers; we just have to be listening.

There have been times in my life when I was scared and felt lost in the universe: times when my back was to the wall and there was no way out. But I called out in the darkness and God always answered and made a window in that wall and pulled me through.

God has been there in the darkness for all of us or we wouldn’t be here in this room today.

Let us go through this day, this Advent season, and the rest of our lives at peace knowing that God is always by our side; and let us keep practicing by calling out to God in prayer. God always answers. It may not be the answer we expect, but God always answers – we just have to be listening.

As I have grown in my faith I have come to realize that one of the strongest forms of prayer and the clearest way to listen for God’s answer is to be an instrument of love, forgiveness and mercy for others. Our Holy Father Pope Francis has designated this new Church Year beginning with the first Sunday in Advent to be a Year of Mercy. Let us journey through this special year, and all the years that follow, by practicing, listening and being an instrument of love, forgiveness and mercy to all of our sisters and brothers – all of God’s children – without exception.

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Postscript to 'Saint Fox' Post (1994 Funeral Homily for My Friend Fox)

God sends each one of us into the world with some very special work to do. We may never know what that work is during our life here on earth but God will surely tell us in the next.

To accomplish this work God plants us within a vineyard. There are rich vineyards and poor vineyards, loving family vineyards and lonely homeless vineyards. But regardless of the vineyard, we are sent here to bear fruit for our loving Father in heaven.

We are all called to be saints regardless of the vineyard in which we live out our life on earth. And there are great saints in every vineyard. My friend Fox lived in one of God’s vineyards. It was different from the one we live in here in Tenafly but God was still the landlord.

     

About eight years ago [in 1986] I was searching real hard to find Jesus, to understand what faith in Jesus really meant to me. To my surprise I found Jesus in a wheelchair. He didn’t look like any of his pictures though. He had one leg, was African American and kept his hair in dreadlocks. But it was Jesus. That little piece of Christ within Fox reached out and touched that little piece of Christ within me – and there was recognition.

     

When I first met Fox he was sleeping at the George Washington Bridge bus terminal. I offered him coffee and a sandwich and asked him his name. He said ‘Fox’. A few weeks later I saw him again, asleep in a cardboard box outside the terminal. I poured him a cup of coffee and gently woke him up. ‘Fox, Fox,’ I called. He opened his eyes, smiled at me and said, ‘You remembered my name.’

Over the years we became friends. But I always left Fox with sadness and conflict: I was going home to my family and my home in Tenafly but my friend would be spending another night in a cardboard box.

     

Fox cared about other people and he cared about me. My friend Carol, from our outreach team, reminded me how we offered Fox an extra sandwich, our last one, one morning last winter; and how he told us that there was another homeless person sleeping in a corner of the terminal that we had missed who needed it more than he did. One day last year I was dragging myself up the subway ramp after work. Fox looked at me and said that he was worried about me because I looked so burnt out. Fox who had nothing but a squeaky wheelchair, a taped-up Walkman and a plastic bag was worried about me who had so much.

     

I really loved Fox. There will be an emptiness in my life now that he’s gone. But I truly believe that I will see him again – in a place where neither he nor I nor anyone could ever be homeless.

     

If any of us had been in the tunnel leading from the subway exit up to the bus terminal early on the morning of April 16 we might have heard a squeaky clatter. And if we looked up that tunnel, we might have caught a glimpse of Fox wheeling his chair along side of Jesus as they made their way to the escalator. And if we looked through the eyes of our hearts, we might have seen Jesus lift Fox out of his wheelchair as they made their way up the escalator to catch a bus for heaven. Fox isn't homeless anymore.

May 25, 1994

Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Tenafly, NJ

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

Saint Fox

            On November 1^st we will celebrate the Feast of All Saints. For many years I had deeply believed that we are all destined to be saints – without exception. That regardless of the circumstances of our life or our death, and even in our darkest moment of brokenness, God embraces us and finds a way, either in this life or the next, to heal us and bring us home. 

            But in the early years of my ministry as a deacon, I witnessed a lot of pain and suffering. There were suicides, a murder and lives destroyed and taken by drugs. And I began to struggle with doubts that the individual soul can survive tragedy and untimely death, and be reunited with God and at peace for all eternity. Then one day, almost twenty years ago, I experienced something very powerful. So powerful that it erased those doubts. This powerful experience involved a dream I had shortly after the death of a friend named ‘Fox’.

            Fox was a 45 year-old homeless man who lived for nine years at the George Washington Bridge Bus Terminal. He had lost a leg and survived each day by spinning his wheelchair in and out of traffic and up and down subway ramps, begging for loose change.

            I first met Fox early one Sunday morning while I was bringing coffee and sandwiches to homeless people living alongside the bus terminal. I spotted a man bundled up in a blanket and asleep in a big cardboard box. I tapped on the box, introduced myself and offered him some coffee. He thanked me and I asked his name. He said, “Fox.”

            Two weeks later I was bringing breakfast to the same place and saw him again. He was sleeping and I gently woke him by calling his name, “Fox, Fox.” He woke up, smiled and said in amazement, “You remembered my name.

            Over the years Fox had become a dear friend to me and to many members of our parish Outreach Team. We would often see him on Sunday mornings as we distributed food and clothing around the terminal. I would see him on weekday mornings as I went to work, and often brought him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from home.

            Sometimes after a long day at work I would drag myself up the subway ramp leading into the bus terminal. Fox would see me and say he was worried about me because I looked so tired. This man who had so little was worried about me who had so much.

            One day I learned that Fox had died in the streets near the terminal of an apparent drug overdose. With the help of the NYPD detectives I was able to locate Fox’s body at the City Morgue where it had been for a month, an unidentified casualty of the streets. His body had been scheduled for cremation a few days prior to my arrival, and the coroner was baffled as to why it was still there — as if it were waiting for something or someone.

            With the kindness of Barrett’s Funeral Home and the generosity of our Carmelite Fathers, I was able to bring Fox’s body to Tenafly to be buried with dignity. Father Kurt, our pastor at the time, celebrated a memorial Mass and 35 adults and young people from the Parish Outreach Team were present. Fox’s body is buried here in Mount Carmel Cemetery.

            An Episcopal Church near the bus terminal permitted me to hold a memorial service for Fox and to invite all the homeless men and women who knew him. At the service, one of Fox’s friends shared an emotional eulogy. He told us how ‘Brother Fox’ had given his friends courage and inspiration to take responsibility for building a better life for themselves; how he had been a loving, caring friend; and how much he was loved.

            Several months after Fox’s death I had an amazing dream. I was walking in a beautiful sunlit meadow and heard someone calling my name. In the distance I saw Fox waving to me from his wheelchair. He had a blanket over his lap.

            As I got closer I heard him shouting, “Lex, Lex, come here. I got something I want to show you!” As I approached, Fox pulled the blanket off his lap, stood up and danced around with joy. He had two legs and he was whole. I woke up with the most wonderful, peaceful, joyful feeling I have ever experienced.

            I believe Fox really came to me in that dream to thank me and to give me a gift. It was the gift of showing me how much he was loved by God; and the knowledge that despite the circumstances of his death, God had healed Fox and welcomed him home. And maybe it was the Holy Spirit’s way of telling me, through Fox, that everything I had believed is really true. That we are all destined to be saints – without exception.

            Be at peace if there is a loved one in your life who left this world under tragic or untimely circumstances. For even in our darkest moment of brokenness, our loving God heals us and makes us whole. Just like he did for my friend Fox.

November 2015

All Saints Day

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

The Gospel of You

We are writing a gospel little by little, day by day. It’s the gospel of you, the gospel of me. What kind of gospel will it be?

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The gospels were written to tell the world about Jesus and to spread the good news that God loves us and calls us to love and take care of one another. Officially the Church recognizes only four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But in reality there are many, many gospels. Just at our 10:00 AM Sunday Mass alone there are over 200 gospels in the making.

One of my teachers in diaconal formation made a point that has stayed with me over the years: each of us is writing a gospel, little by little, day by day. It is the gospel of you; the gospel of me — for each of our lives is a living gospel.

And by writing our gospel we are making Jesus present in our world. We are doing with our lives and our actions what Father will do with his hands when he consecrates and elevates the Eucharist.

In the end, our gospel can be truly beautiful. But how it turns out depends on our understanding of what Jesus wants from us, and how we translate that understanding into the way we interact with others and live out our lives.

So, what kind of gospel are we writing today?

Are we writing a gospel that shows by our actions that the quality of our Catholic faith is measured not by how well we celebrate our liturgies, but by how – as Saint James tells us in his New Testament letter – we care for and stand with those on the fringes of society: the poor, the vulnerable, the unlovable, the disenfranchised? For that is where we find Christ.

Are we writing a gospel that shows by our actions that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God, and that all human life is sacred – from womb to tomb, from unborn child to the terminally ill; from prisoners of war to the prisoner on death row?

Are we writing a gospel that shows by our actions that each and every person is a beloved child of God and deserves to be treated with dignity, respect, kindness and love - regardless of race, religion, gender, economic status, or sexual orientation?

Are we writing a gospel that shows by our actions that God has entrusted this planet to us; that we are not owners of the earth but rather stewards — caretakers, of God’s creation?

When we look around, when we read the papers or watch the news, we can see a world that is hungry for the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. That good news, that gospel can come alive in our little corner of the world through our lives, our actions and our love.

We are writing a gospel little by little, day by day. It is the gospel of you, the gospel of me. What kind of a gospel will it be?

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

You and Me and the Loaves and the Fishes

“So the people reclined on the grass, about five thousand in number. Then Jesus took the five barley loaves and the two fish, gave thanks and distributed them to those who were reclining . . . [and] they had their fill.”

                                                                                                   John 6: 1-15

Miracles aren’t always what we expect them to be. Miracles are happening every day all around us; miracles are happening every day within us.

Jesus was filled with unconditional love. While he walked the hills and shores of Galilee, he called those around him to acts of love and selflessness. He brought out the best in others just by being in his presence.

In the above gospel, Jesus works a wonderful miracle. But what was that miracle? Was it an act of magic that awed the crowd and defied the laws of physical nature? Or was it an act of collective love that defied the laws of human nature?

Was the real miracle in this story not the reproduction of five barley loaves and two small fish, but Jesus’ ability to get the people in the crowd to share what little food they had; and the discovery that once they opened their hearts and their lunch baskets, there was more than enough food for everyone? Knowing what we do about human nature, the second possibility seems the greater miracle.

We all come into the world with the basic human tendency to be self-centered; to put our own wants and needs before the love of God and the needs of others. It’s human nature; we might think of it as a kind of original sin.

But while we all possess this basic human tendency to be self-centered, there is a light that shines within our soul. That light is the presence of Christ within us.

And the Christ within calls each of us forth like Lazarus from the tomb, to emerge from the prison of self-centeredness with acts of service and heroic love for our sisters and brothers. Each time we answer ‘yes’ to this call, a miracle happens.

I have witnessed many miracles in my life. I have seen children and adults from our parish carry food and clothing into Central Park on freezing winter mornings to comfort the homeless.

I have seen a frail young homeless woman, shivering in the snow, hand back a blanket and tell us about a man sleeping in a cardboard box on the next street who was sick and needed it more.

I have seen our young people spend their weekends cleaning and painting a shelter for unwed mothers in the Bronx,

I have seen successful executives share their struggles with addiction and mental illness to help encourage others locked in similar struggles.

I have seen victims of violence and racism reach out with unconditional love and forgiveness.

These are the kinds of miracles that Jesus brings about each day; not spectacular events that defy the laws of nature, but acts of love that defy the laws of self-interest.

Miracles aren’t always what we expect them to be. Miracles are happening every day all around us; miracles are happening every day within us.

My sisters and brothers, let us go forth today to live the gospel and to be miracle workers for our own little corner of the world.

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

The Cross is a Love Letter from God

“The storm ceased and there was great calm. Then Jesus asked them, ‘Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?’”

                                                            Mark 4: 39 - 41

If you enter our church between Easter Sunday and Pentecost Sunday you'll see a very different image above the altar. Instead of the cross with the image of the Crucified Christ, beaten and broken and in the arms of death, you'll see the Risen Christ, triumphant and ascending in all his glory. 

For many years I preferred that image of the Risen Christ. I wished that we would keep it up there all year long. But as I grew in my faith I came to see and appreciate the powerful message of the cross.

It tells us that we are not alone; that God is by our side through every storm, just like he was for his friends in the boat in Sunday’s Gospel. And yet, like those friends, we sometimes get terrified and our faith is tested.

Some times life doesn’t make sense. There is chaos, there is darkness; bad things, inexplicable things happen. As an individual, as a family, maybe even as a parish community, we suffer great losses, deep wounds, even contradictions to our faith. The symbol of our Christian faith is itself a contradiction: the cross, two opposing beams of wood made from the tree of life, yet used to torture and destroy life. And in the center of the contradiction, we find God in human form.

But the message of the cross is hope. It tells us that we are not alone; that God is with us in the chaos and the darkness; he is present in the pain, the loss, the suffering; he is there at the center of the contradiction, at the center of the cross.

And some day once we are free of the constraints of human existence and the limits of human understanding, it will all make sense. There will be no more loss, no more wounds, no more contradictions; just God’s love for all eternity.

The cross with the image of the Crucified Christ is a love letter from God. As we go through the storms of life, let us keep reading that love letter and listening to the message it contains. With the cross God is saying to us:

     “I am with you in the chaos and the darkness.

      I am here at the center of your cross.

      I love you and am with you for always.”

http://www.deaconlex.blogspot.com

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/

The Trinity: the Unbroken Cycle of God's Love

Next Sunday is Trinity Sunday. The Trinity is the unbroken cycle of God’s love; we are part of that cycle.

When God made you and me God embraced us like a mother would bundle up a beloved child to go out into the cold for the very first time. And like a parent might slip a little identification note into a child’s pocket, just in case he or she should get lost, God put a little piece of Godself inside of each of us. That little piece of God is our immortal soul; it is the presence of Christ within us. Life is the journey of our soul back home to God.

‘God’ is a word that we use to describe an indefinable reality. Because our minds and bodies operate in time and space, we are only comfortable thinking and speaking with intellectual constructs. We make our Creator into our own image and likeness. We paint pictures, cut stained-glass images, and sing songs about a transcendent reality that cannot be packaged into the limited box of human understanding. 

But what the intellect struggles to grasp, the soul already knows. I intuitively know that there is a central, loving, and personal source of all creation. I know this because God embraced me before I was born. 

In the New Testament Saint John tells us that, “God is Love.” Back in the 1970s, Carole King wrote a song entitled: ‘Only Love is Real, Everything Else An Illusion’. For me this song speaks of God.

God is love, a pure love that permeates the universe; a love that draws us home. We Christians use an intellectual construct in attempting to describe the dynamic of that pure Love. That construct is the Trinity. 

The Benedictine theologian Kilian McDonnell gave us a model he calls the Trinitarian Cycle of Life. Father McDonnell uses this analogy to describe the underlying Trinitarian dynamic that flows throughout the universe. In this dynamic God as Father reaches through God as Son and in God as Holy Spirit to touch and transform the world and the church and to lead us back home.

We are part of that dynamic. God sent each of us into life to be a conduit of God’s love; to help that love permeate our world. The Trinity is the unbroken cycle of God’s love.

On Trinity Sunday, and everyday, let us remember and rejoice, really rejoice, that we are part of that cycle.

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Readers of this blog might enjoy these books by Deacon Lex. Both are available on Amazon.com:

Just to Follow My Friend: Experiencing God’s Presence in Everyday Life

http://www.amazon.com/Just-Follow-My-Friend-Experiencing/dp/1456360728/

Synchronicity as the Work of the Holy Spirit: Jungian Insights for Spiritual Direction and Pastoral Ministry

http://www.amazon.com/Synchronicity-Work-Holy-Spirit-Spiritual/dp/1463518781/