I wanted to offer something extra to celebrate the Summer/Winter Solstice. Here are two reflections I recorded last year for our Mercy Associates during their retreat. I hope you enjoy whichever video works for you.
For our Northern Hemisphere readers:
Summer
For our Southern Hemisphere readers:
Winter
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062122.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse illumines us — in every sense of that magical word!
After negotiating the melodic polysyllabic names (Sennacherib and Hezekiah) of our first readings, and their accompanying drama, our verse comes as a welcome assurance
Jesus is both the Light to guide us, and as our Gospel assures us, the Way we are looking for.
Have you ever arrived someplace in the dark, unsure of the terrain or the footpath to the front door? Maybe, like me, you have a flashlight on your cellphone that you use to guide your way.
Well, no disrespect or diminution intended, but Jesus and the Gospel are that flashlight!
And it turns out that, in one of those twists of faith, Jesus and the Gospel are also the path we are searching for.
As we pray with this verse today, we are all somewhere on the sometimes shadowy path. Friends, let’s use the flashlight that faith has given us. Let’s walk the path that will reveal itself in our faithful trust.
Poetry: Ode to Enchanted Light – Pablo Neruda
Under the trees light
has dropped from the top of the sky,
light
like a green
latticework of branches,
shining
on every leaf,
drifting down like clean
white sand.
A cicada sends
its sawing song
high into the empty air.
The world is
a glass overflowing
with water.
Music: You Light the Way – Matt Maher
Today’s Readings
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062022.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our verse reminds us that God knows us completely, better than we know ourselves.
If we want to align ourselves with the truth that God sees and loves in us, there is a simple way. We can immerse ourselves in scriptural prayer, bathing our hearts in the Word. Within that wash of grace, our true selves are revealed and released into the gentle love and mercy of God.
As our Gospel indicates, when we deepen in that core integrity, we become more like God Who does not judge, but instead always loves. As Matthew said in a chapter preceding today’s:
Be perfect (compassionate)
Matthew 5:48
as your Heavenly Father is perfect (compassionate).
Prose – Rev. Vima Dasan, SJ
The word “perfect” represents the Hebrew word for “whole” or “integral”. This verse is conflated from Dt 18:13 where the word “holy” is used. It is the love of one’s enemies that assures the integrity of Christian morality distinguishing it from merely ethical morality. It is by this love of one’s enemies that we come nearer to the perfection of God’s own compassion. The special aspect of perfection in this verse therefore is not moral perfection so much as perfection in kindness, sympathy and generosity.
If someone does some good to me, I do him or her some good in return. This is conventional. But Jesus’ followers are not to remain content with conventional standards of goodness. Jesus expects us to go still further. Even if one does harm to me, I must do that person good in turn. It is only after saying, “If you confine your good deeds to your own kith and kin, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Mt 5:47), that Jesus adds, “You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Why should the disciples of Jesus repay evil with good? Because, God himself sets us an example in this regard, by bestowing his gifts both on the just and the unjust. It is in this respect, we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Vima Dasan, SJ – His Word Challenges
Music: Word of God Speak – Mercy Me
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061922.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the most intimate and sacred feast of “Corpus Christi”, as we called it in our Latinized “old days”. In those days, we tried very hard to celebrate the feast in the best way we knew how — processions, hymns, exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. Yet nothing did, nor ever will, come close to capturing the mystery we honor on this holy day.
The items of faith contained in this short verse are earth-shattering. We are asked to believe that Jesus
The mystery of the Body of Christ/Living Bread is infinite and profound. Great minds such as Pierre Teilhard deChardin spent entire lives plumbing its depths.
When one understands how physical and immediate is the omni-influence of Christ, the vigor assumed by every detail of the Christian life is quite astonishing; it gains an emphasis never dreamt of by those who are frightened of the realistic view of the mystery of the Incarnation.
Take charity, for example, that complete change of attitude so insistently taught by Christ. It has nothing in common with our colorless philanthropy, but represents the essential affinity which brings human beings closer together, not in the superficial sphere of sensible affections or earthly interests, but in building up the pleroma (the fullness of God in Creation.).
The possibility, and even the obligation of doing everything for God are no longer based solely on the virtue of obedience, or solely on the moral value of intention; they can be explained, in short, only by the marvelous grace, instilled into every human effort, no matter how material, of effectively cooperating, through its physical result, in the fulfillment of the body of Christ.
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in Christianity and Evolution
As I pray this rather heady passage from de Chardin, I reflect on these thoughts:
No poetry today. Slowly read and re-read the passage from de Chardin. Find it’s message for you … perhaps just a word or a phrase:
Music: Benedictus – Karl Jenkins
Today’s readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061822.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse tells us a secret: there is a greater wealth than this world would have us believe. It is a wealth contradicted by human definitions but proven in the Resurrection of Christ.
This secret doesn’t make sense to one without faith. But if we observe the Iives of those with faith, we will discover their accumulating riches: peace, joy, trust, enthusiasm, hope, gratitude, wisdom, courage….
The Gospel to which our verse leads describes such a faithful life:
Look at the birds in the sky;
Matthew 6: 26-27
they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
Can any of you by worrying add a single moment to your life-span?
Why are you anxious about clothes?
Learn from the way the wild flowers grow.
They do not work or spin.
But I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor
was clothed like one of them.
Does this all mean we won’t have challenges in our lives, or disappointment, or suffering? No, I don’t think so.
What is does mean is that we will know what is truly important and precious in our lives – those things that “money can’t buy”. And we will honor them, work for them, share them. Hopefully, people can look at us and find that kind of wealth.
Poetry: Worry About Money – Kathleen Raine
Wearing worry about money like a hair shirt
I lie down in my bed and wrestle with my angel.
My bank-manager could not sanction my continuance for another day
But life itself wakes me each morning, and love
Urges me to give although I have no money
In the bank at this moment, and ought properly
To cease to exist in a world where poverty
Is a shameful and ridiculous offence.
Having no one to advise me, I open the Bible
And shut my eyes and put my finger on a text
And read that the widow with the young son
Must give first to the prophetic genius
From the little there is in the bin of flour and the cruse of oil.
Music: two songs today – one for reflection and one for fun
The Glory Way – Badnarik
Side by Side – Brenda Lee
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061722.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse blesses us with one of the Beatitudes
Poverty of spirit! The concept presents all kinds of questions:
Michael Crosby wrote a book – decades ago now – that touched me deeply. It’s one of the signature books of my spiritual life. Here is a quote from it about being poor in spirit:
The Kingdom of God can only be received by empty hands. Jesus warns against
(a) worldly self-sufficiency: you trust yourself and your own resources and don’t need God;
(b) religious self-sufficiency: you trust your religious attitude and moral life and don’t need Jesus.
Michael H. Crosby, Spirituality of the Beatitudes: Matthew’s Vision for the Church in an Unjust World
Our verse today leads to one of the most profound lines of the Gospel:
Let’s think on these simple yet power-packed encouragements as we examine our own possessions and poverties.
Poetry: from Augustine of Hippo
Music: St. Augustine’s Prayer – Ed Conlin
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061622.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our verse affirms the wonder of our spiritual bloodline:
After the Biblical theatrics of our first reading about Elijah and Elisha, our heads might be full of fiery miracles and restorations to life! Perhaps our Alleluia Verse seems mild by comparison. But it is not!
Think of it! You are God’s child! You are made of Divinity!
Oh, if we only fully believed this about ourselves, what would our lives be like?
Instead, we sometimes behave like lonely orphans in this world, making choices that alienate us from our true nature.
Today as we pray this verse from Romans, and relish the beautiful Gospel which gives us the Our Father, let’s rekindle our sacred heritage as God’s beloved child.
We can speak to God in greatest security and confidence about all that is most central in our lives. Let God hold you and hum to you, a loving Parent Who cherishes your nearness and your trust.
Letting God listen to us, we also listen to ourselves. We may be surprised at what we learn.
Poetry: The Creation (closing stanzas) – James Weldon Johnson
Then God walked around,
And God looked around
On all that he had made.
He looked at his sun,
And he looked at his moon,
And he looked at his little stars;
He looked on his world
With all its living things,
And God said: I’m lonely still.
Then God sat down—
On the side of a hill where he could think;
By a deep, wide river he sat down;
With his head in his hands,
God thought and thought,
Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!
Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in is his own image;
Then into it he blew the breath of life,
And man became a living soul.
Amen. Amen.
Music: from Songs for the Inner Child – Shaina Noll
Peace be with you, oh my dear one
Peace be with you, precious child.
Peace be with you, oh my dear one
Peace be with you precious child.
Angels hover all about you
They protect you night and day
Angels hover all about you
They will guide you on your way.
God is with you, oh my dear one
God is with you, precious child.
God is with you, oh my dear one
God is with you, precious child.
You are blessed and you are holy
Precious gift god gave to me
You are blessed and you are holy
You’re an angel I can see.
Peace be with you, oh my dear one
Peace be with you, precious child.
Peace be with you, oh my dear one
Peace be with you precious child.
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061522.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we listen to Jesus’s instruction and promise about how to live at one with God.
What wonderful assurance! We don’t have to labor to find God, or worry about searching for God.
God will come to us – will blossom in our hearts like a sacred flower, – if we love Jesus and keep his Word.
In the opening sentence of her book “Too Deep for Words”, Thelma Hall, r.c. says this:
There is an inner dynamic in the evolution of all true love that leads to a communication too deep for words. There the lover becomes inarticulate, falls silent, and the beloved receives the silence as eloquence.
Our verse today carries
that same, exquisite mystery,
the silent and complete unity
that comes from mutual love.
Our Gospel elaborates on the invitation.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,
Matthew 6:6
and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
Let us savor these promises in our prayer today.
Poetry: in the silence – Rumi
In the silence
between your heartbeat
bides a summons
from Love.
Do you hear it?
Name it if you must,
or leave it forever nameless,
but why pretend it is not there?
Music: The God of Silence – Bukas Palau
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
June 14, 2022
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with a very diverse set of readings.
The current passages from 1 Kings probably aren’t doing a lot to enhance your spiritual life right now. Life in Elijah’s times was pretty harsh, and applying its harsh descriptions to our own life may take a real stretch.
But our verse for the day and the Gospel to which it leads, offer an easier path to prayer.
This verse opens our Responsorial Psalm, the ardent “Miserere” which begs God for mercy. (I chose it because we prayed with the Alleluia Verse just the other day.)
It may be rare for us to feel such an impassioned need for mercy. Hopefully our lives are not as fraught with angst as were Ahab’s and Jezebel’s. But, let’s face it, neither our lives, nor the way we live them, is perfect.
Those of you who know me won’t need this disclaimer because you know better. But for other readers who don’t know me personally, let me tell you this. Despite my mother’s belief and constant proclamation, I am not perfect either.
I have hard edges, ingrained meannesses, and unacknowledged shadows that thirst for God’s Mercy and Light.
I think it’s safe to say that we all do. No canonized saints are reading this blog!
Today’s verse and entire psalm help us to open our hearts to any harbored sinfulness and to receive the transforming grace of insight, forgiveness, and intention to change.
May we pray our plea for mercy
with sincerity and hope.
May God’s response lead us closer
to the perfect compassion
described in today’s Gospel.
Poetry: To Live in the Mercy of God – Denise Levertov
To lie back under the tallest
oldest trees. How far the stems
rise, rise
before ribs of shelter
open!
To live in the mercy of God. The complete
sentence too adequate, has no give.
Awe, not comfort. Stone, elbows of
stony wood beneath lenient
moss bed.
And awe suddenly
passing beyond itself. Becomes
a form of comfort.
Becomes the steady
air you glide on, arms
stretched like the wings of flying foxes.
To hear the multiple silence
of trees, the rainy
forest depths of their listening.
To float, upheld,
as salt water
would hold you,
once you dared.
To live in the mercy of God.
To feel vibrate the enraptured
waterfall flinging itself
unabating down and down
to clenched fists of rock.
Swiftness of plunge,
hour after year after century,
O or Ah
uninterrupted, voice
many-stranded.
To breathe
spray. The smoke of it.
Arcs
of steelwhite foam, glissades
of fugitive jade barely perceptible. Such passion—
rage or joy?
Thus, not mild, not temperate,
God’s love for the world. Vast
flood of mercy
flung on resistance.
Music: Miserere – Gregorio Allegri
Memorial of Saint Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor of the Church
June 13, 2022
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/061322.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy. we thank God for lighting our path.
I know each one of us has come home late at night, maybe in a heavy rain. The way home is dark and we are unsure of ourselves in the gloom. Depending on how far we’re coming from, the journey can be harrowing. We can’t wait to see that light in our very familiar and cozy front window.
This feeling is so universal that one hotel chain has capitalized upon it:
Our Alleluia Verse today recognizes that God has, and always will “leave the light on for us”. Grace awaits us in every circumstance if we turn our hearts to God.
The tough part is doing that when we feel a little bit panicky in the dark. It takes courage to be still and let God’s Light find us. We can become better and stronger by gratefully remembering all the times God has already brought us home to wholeness.
God has not failed us in the past and will not fail us now, or in the future.
Poetry: At a Window – Carl Sandburg
Give me hunger,
O you gods that sit and give
The world its orders.
Give me hunger, pain and want,
Shut me out with shame and failure
From your doors of gold and fame,
Give me your shabbiest, weariest hunger!
But leave me a little love,
A voice to speak to me in the day end,
A hand to touch me in the dark room
Breaking the long loneliness.
In the dusk of day-shapes
Blurring the sunset,
One little wandering, western star
Thrust out from the changing shores of shadow.
Let me go to the window,
Watch there the day-shapes of dusk
And wait and know the coming
Of a little love.
Music: Guiding Light – Alan Scott
Lavish Mercy 