Albert Haase OFM

Review: Sundays on the Go Year B

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Sundays on the Go Year B, Albert Haase, OFM. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2023.

Summary: Taking the lectionary readings for each Sunday in liturgical year B, offers a brief reflection, prayer, and question to ponder, also including readings for solemnities and special feasts.

Year B in the liturgical cycle begins on the first Sunday of Advent, which is December 3 in 2023. Paraclete has released this timely little devotional just in time for the beginning of the new litirgical year. Teacher and spiritual director Albert Haase, OFM has authored this pithy collection subtitled “90 Seconds with the Weekly Gospel.”

This is one instance in which there is truth in advertising. Father Haase makes few words do the work of many. In his introduction, he says he sets himself a limit of 170-180 words, which if one includes the gospel text should easily be readable by the average reader in under 90 seconds. Here is an example from the First Sunday in Advent for which the Gospel reading is Mark 13:33-37:

Be Faithful and Awake

Jesus tells a parable about the master of a household leaving his servants with specific work while he travels abroad. The servants are to do their tasks while keeping watch for their master’s return. Like the servants, each one of us has been given a specific responsibility to help foster the reign of God. It’s so easy to become weary or even bored as we fulfill our duties as a spouse, parent, grandparent, godparent, office clerk, salesperson, writer, or web designer. We faithfully carry out our work right now, right here, knowing full well the master could return at any given moment. A popular bumper sticker gets it partially correct as it proclaims, “Jesus is coming soon. Look busy!”

Pray

Lord Jesus, We have been blessed with the responsibility to help prepare for your Second Coming. May we remain faithful and vigilant in fulfilling our duties. May our hearts be on fire with the joyful anticipation of your return. Amen.

Ponder

With what specific duties and responsibilities has God blessed me?

[Copied from online excerpt, pages 11-12]

As you can see from this example, the reflection makes one simple point and the prayer is brief, three short sentences. Then Haase gives a question to ponder that one may carry in meditation throughout the weekend.

I especially loved these questions, which gently probe into our lives. Considering Mary’s “yes” to God, Haase asks, “What do I selfishly cling to and refuse to give to God?” Considering the lowly animals of the stable, he asks, “Why do I think I am unworthy to be in the presence of the Christ Child?” After a reflection on the extravagant anointing of Jesus by an unnamed woman (Mark 14:1f), he asks, “When have my gestures of love been lavish and extravagant.”

These short reflections are best read before Sunday Eucharist as preparation. Both the prayer and the question to ponder might be used throughout the week to carry God’s gospel word throughout the week.

There are also readings for the solemnities and special feasts on the church calendar. Sundays on the Go Year A has also been published and I suspect a volume for Year C is in the works.

This is a wonderful aid for those whose churches follow the liturgical year. My church does not but many of us from such backgrounds find ourselves longing for a richer rhythm through the year than just Christmas and Easter. This book is a wonderful introduction into a rhythm many of our fellow saints have followed for centuries, one that allows us to read, pray, and reflect with much of the global church.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Catching Fire, Becoming Flame

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Catching Fire, Becoming Flame (Revised and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition), Albert Haase, OFM. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2023.

Summary: If God is the fire and spark who sets our lives aflame, how do we prepare the kindling for the transforming and empowering work of God?

The premise of this rich study in spiritual transformation is that “it starts with God throwing a divine spark on the tinder of the heart.” The rest of book explores the nature of that spark from God, how we may prepare the kindling, how through prayer we catch fire, the practices of discernment that fan the flames in our lives, and the ongoing commitments that over the course of our lives cause the flame to burn even brighter until we become “all flame.”

Albert Haase, OFM has been a guide to many along the path of spiritual transformation, even as he has traveled this road himself. In a work with short chapters, simply written, Haase offers brief lessons describing the process by which God sets our lives aflame with his love.

The work is divided into five parts. It begins with the initiative of God, his spark in our lives, working through his Spirit, forming us in the image of Christ, a lifetime process. It starts as God awakens desire in us. We go through three stages: purgation, in which the CPR of community, prayer, and repentance orients our lives toward God, arranging the kindling; illumination, in which we realize God is closer than we ever imagined and surrender to the presence of God; and union, in which God’s desires become ours. We recognize our weaknesses and sins and bring them to God. Likewise, we grow in awareness of bad habits, understand their triggers, and learn to short circuit those triggers. We see the evidence of progress not merely in obeying commands but in the kindling in our lives of growing love for God and others.

In the second part, Haase discusses the spiritual concepts that provide excellent kindling for God’s spark. He begins with our images of God and how they may hinder or help his spark to catch. We consider the nature of prayer and praying as we can and from where we are, and progressing from words to silence. We learn the importance of a grateful heart and obstacles to gratitude. He explores the divine milieu in which we encounter God in word and sacrament, in creation and “thin” places. The false self and its energy centers are distinguished from the true self that rests in Christ. Haase concludes this section with the experience of suffering and our responses of crying out and surrender.

Part three explores with greater focus how we are set afire through various practices of prayer including the examen, meditation and contemplation, the Jesus prayer, lectio divina, imaginative prayer, wonder-ing with creation, praying the stations of the cross, and praying the Lord’s prayer. He offers very practical instructions for each, a discussion of the heart issues involved in the practice, and with the Lord’s prayer, explications of each phrase.

Discerning the desires of God to further fan the flames is the focus of part four. He begins with the discernment of good and evil spirits in our experiences of consolation and desolation (although I wonder if one can always make this correlation). He speaks of the place of our past, present, potential and our passions in discerning God’s will. He discusses the experiences of dryness, darkness, and depression and what we might make of these. He describes spiritual direction and the qualities of good directees and directors, including the idea that a director may be helpful for a season and then someone else may better serve. He encourages self-care of mind, body, heart, and spirit saying “blessed are the balanced.” He urges the value of a rule of life, offering an example.

The final part of this work speaks of the dynamic commitments by which we “become all flame.” He commends the self-reflective work of the examination of conscience–different from the daily examen. He speaks of the practice of forgiving ourselves and others. He discusses how we might experience inner healing from past hurtful events in our lives in the presence of Christ. Haase explores how we go about resisting various types of temptation, eight of which he identifies from scripture. He teaches us about surrender and abandonment to God and revealing all to God through journalling. Another chapter encourages the regular practice of retreats and the different types of retreats one might take. There are chapters on sabbath, hospitality, living in the present moment, and soul training.

Following his metaphor of fire and flame, he concludes with an encouragement:

“Catching fire and becoming flame require more than the spark of the Spirit and our well-chosen kindling. They also demand an ongoing perseverance and a long-term patience forged from the awareness that God fervently desires to see us blaze with godly enthusiasm. That enthusiasm flares up as we willingly surrender to the communal process of being transformed by the Spirit of God sent to lovingly respond to the unmet need or required duty of the present moment.”

Albert Haase, OFM has described for us the process by which God set our lives aflame with his holy love. He’s encouraged us the wonderful news that God is present and wants to do this in our lives, the God takes the initiative. He offers the wonderful analogy of our spiritual practices as “arranging the kindlng” as one does in preparing to set a fire and instructed us how we may keep on burning, ever brighter and more purely. This is a book to carry with one for a lifetime. Have it handy in times of review and reflection for the questions it poses. Take it on retreat. Discuss it in community and with a director. While not scripture, it is founded in the initiative of God, soaked with biblical reflection, and reflects centuries of wisdom. I’m glad to have this companion on the journey.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher.

Review: Becoming an Ordinary Mystic

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Becoming an Ordinary Mystic

Becoming an Ordinary Mystic, Albert Haase, OFM. Downers Grove: IVP/Formatio, 2019.

Summary: Explores what it means to be a friend of God, to walk in an awareness of God’s grace, in the ordinary of life.

From the time the author’s mother defined a mystic as “a friend of God,” Albert Haase wanted to be one of those friends. Years later he found himself frustrated, feeling he was walking in circles, wondering:

  • I should be further along on the spiritual journey.
  • Why don’t I see any progress?
  • What am I doing wrong?

His spiritual director observed that many of the great mystics felt like this, and that the fact that he felt like this signaled that he was a mystic as well, an ordinary mystic. Instead of striving, he began to learn what it means to be open to God’s grace. In this book, he shares some of the practices by which he learned that awareness of God and God’s grace through his days.

It begins with a mindfulness of the present of stopping to recollect, looking to attend, listening to reflect, and then going in response. In the first of the exercises that conclude each chapter, he urges this practice several times a day. He then moves on to the examination of conscience, a ruthless review of our sins and the ego obsessions that underlie them, opening us even more to the grace of God. He explores how meditation on the Sermon on the Mount can re-wire our thinking and ego obsessions. He invites us into the cardiac spirituality of love that is at the heart of the law. He teaches us to be transparent through the Welcoming Prayer, a prayer in which we welcome the unseemly emotions.

He moves into our experiences of the absence of God, the times of doubt and darkness, where all we can do is to surrender to we know not what. There is the struggle of forgiveness–of God, of ourselves, and others. He commends the practice of CPR: Confession, Pressing the “stop” button on our memories when they arise, and Relaxation that acknowledges what frail creatures we are and trusts God’s transformative work on his timetable. He draws us into exploring our inadequate images of God and the images of God we see in the life of Jesus.

He tackles the challenges we have with prayer and suggests we begin with the “Come as you are” prayer. He helps us to recognize prayer both as words and the silences between them, much like the notes and rests in music. He proposes that our life experiences are God’s megaphone and the question is not whether God’s speaking, or even whether can we hear him, but what is he saying so loudly in our experiences?

Perhaps some of the best counsel in the book are the principles he outlines regarding various spiritual practices:

  1. They are our response to God’s ardent longing for us, inviting us to go deeper with him.
  2. Whatever the discipline, it should foster a heightened awareness of God’s grace.
  3. This, in turn ought lead to our surrender to the will of God.
  4. One size does not fit all. Traditional practices are not helpful for every person.
  5. Any practice that makes us mindful of God’s ardent longing is acceptable.

He concludes with describing the practice of spiritual direction and how such a person can be a help in becoming aware of God and gives practical recommendations for finding direction.

I found much to commend in this encouraging little book. I found myself identifying again and again with Haase–the glimpses of grace, the profound awareness of sin’s depths in my life, the moments of perplexity, the times where God seems distant, and dealing with and welcoming into God’s presence my unseemly emotions. This is a book that may be taken on retreat, or read and used as a group. And it just may be that we will discuss that God ardently desires us, that we may also be “friends of God,” ordinary mystics.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.