May 11, 2022
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings have a global, even universal, feel to them. By the power of God, the Apostles begin to go out and preach to the whole world.
Acts tells us that:
… the Holy Spirit said,
Acts 13:2-3
“Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul
for the work to which I have called them.”
Then, completing their fasting and prayer,
they laid hands on them and sent them off.
Our Responsorial Psalm gives us this universal prayer:
May God have pity on us and bless us;
Psalm 67:2-3
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
And Jesus assures us in the Gospel:
I came into the world as light,
John 12:45
so that everyone who believes in me
might not remain in darkness.
For our prayer, we might want to place before God’s Radiance all those places in the world, and within ourselves, which long for Light. The whole world shares at least one dark shadow in the global pandemic. That shadow has emphasized some of the tenebrous corners in our own hearts where fear, loneliness, loss, and doubt cower and now want to creep out in our required isolation.
And, spread across our world, there are so many other darknesses famished for Light! War, gun violence, gender violence, economic oppression, a global sacrilegious inhumanity to other human beings.
Together, let us give all of these shadows to God’s power as we pray. May that power release us and all our sisters and brothers into its glorious resplendence. Like the Apostles, may a brilliant, steady energy go out from our hearts, convinced of and empowered by the Light of the Gospel.
Music: Two lovely pieces of music suggested themselves today. I hope you enjoy them.
- Eric Whitaker – Lux Aurumque (“Light and Gold”) is a choral composition in one movement. It is a Christmas piece based on a Latin poem of the same name.
Lux,
Calida gravisque pura velut aurum
Et canunt angeli molliter
modo natum.
Light,
warm and heavy as pure gold
and angels sing softly
to the new-born babe.
Edward Esch, b.1970
(Translated to Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
2. Spirit Seeking Light and Beauty – Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ
Spirit seeking Light and Beauty,
Hearts that longeth for Thy rest,
Soul that asketh understanding, only thus can you be blest.
Through the vastness of creation though your restless heart may roam,
God is all that you may long for,
God is all His creatures’ home.
Taste and see it, feel and hear it,
Hope and grasp His unseen Hand.
Though the darkness seems to hide Him,
Faith and love can understand
God Who loveth all His creatures,
All our hearts are known to Thee.
Lead us through the Land of Shadows
To Your vast eternity
Lavish Mercy 