Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we ask God to help us set our hearts in the right direction — toward God in all things.
And we express the blessed insight that to live within God’s Law is to be favored.
Alleluia, alleluia. Incline my heart, O God, to your decrees; and favor me with your law.
Here’s the way I picture this prayer.
Life is like a rip tide. It can capture us and pull us under its breakers when we least expect it. But as any good ocean swimmer knows, when we are caught in a rip tide, we must relax, lean into it, and swim perpendicular to its force.
Our Alleluia Verse today is kind of a “rip-tide prayer”. We ask for the courage to lean into God’s power in our lives, to trust it, and to swim with it even though it contradicts a godless culture.
God promises that there is always a current of grace to carry us to the Divine Heart, but our efforts alone cannot sustain us. As in Psalm 86, we can ask God to do a little leaning toward us to help us out in a tough sea! 🙂
May we ever incline our hearts to God’s Love already leaning over us in Mercy.
Poetry: You are so weak – Rumi
You are so weak.
Give up to grace.
The ocean takes care of each wave ’til it gets to shore.
You need more help than you know.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse gives us a powerful encouragement– “Shine”. That’s it – just shine because the Word of God has charged you with Light and Life.
Alleluia, alleluia. Shine like lights in the world, as you hold on to the word of life. ( Phil. 2:15-16)
As our verse so clearly indicates, the more we absorb the beauty of the scriptures into our hearts, the more we shine.
And it’s not just about reading the Bible. It’s about sitting down with the Word just like we would with an old and dear friend. It’s listening, not only to what is said, but the immensity that is unsaid or whispered – both by the scriptures and by our own self-examination.
It is taking what our heart hears and letting it change or deepen our lives. It is letting go of so much that doesn’t matter in order to hold on the the Word that does matter.
It is becoming a sanctuary where others see that Word shining and are strengthened.
May we shine with a Holy Light that draws others to God’s Brilliant Love.
Poetry: I found this little poem on the internet, author unknown. I think it works for today’s meditation.
You don’t have to tell how you live each day; You don’t have to tell if you work or play; A tried and true barometer stands in its place— You don’t have to tell, it will shine in your face. … If you live close to God and God’s infinite grace— You won’t have to tell, it will shine in your face.
Music: Walk in the Beautiful Light
I think this video is amazing. The hymn is being sung by a German speaking choir!
(Lyrics below — I especially like those “dewdrops of mercy”)
Walk in the light, beautiful light, come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright. Oh shine all around us by day and by night, Jesus is, Jesus is the light of the world;
Oh we shall walk in the light, beautiful light, come where the dewdrops of mercy shine bright. Oh shine all around us by day and by night, Jesus is, Jesus is the light of the world;
No need to worry, no need to fret, all of my needs, the man named Jesus has met. His love protects me from hurt and from harm, Jesus is, Jesus is the light of the world.
If the gospel be hid, it’s hid from the lost, my Jesus is waiting to look past your faults. Arise and shine, your light has come, Jesus is, I know that He is the only light of this world.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse holds the complete essence of Jesus’s life. If there ever was glorious “nutshell”, this is it:
Alleluia, alleluia. I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you. (Jn. 13:34)
Our motherhouse chapel is breathtakingly beautiful. Thinking of it as a “chapel”, people who first walk through its doors are astounded at itscathedral-like dimensions. I know I certainly was as a wonder-struck eighteen-year-old on my first visit.
Our Chapel in the 1950s
For the next almost three years, I often sat in my little pew pondering the chapel’s central mural — and especially the words framing it.
The words are an invitation and a command. The painting beneath is the whole instruction on Love… “…love as I have loved you.”
After those initial years, I chose those precious words for the motto to be engraved on my ring. I have prayed ever since that it might someday be engraved on my heart. In a culture that can so misunderstand the nature of love, I always appreciate the chance to visit that altar or to look at that ring.
May we have the courage to be “Alleluia Lovers” in this love-hungry world!
Poetry: from one of the greatest poets, Paul in his letter to the Corinthians
If I speak in the tongues in human or angelic tongue but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I grew up, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our Alleluia Verse is, in a sense, a dangerous prayer. Think about it: do we really want to learn God’s ways?
Alleluia, alleluia. Teach me your paths, my God, and guide me in your truth. (Mt. 5:17-19)
I remember, as a young person, thinking that “the path of life” would be pretty straight. You know like school, job, relationships, achievements over the years, and eventually maybe I would even die, but .. you know, probably not. 🙂
In my young head, life looked something like this:
Well, now that my “golden years” are actually turning a little bit burnt orange, I look back and see that my life has been more like this:
How can we possibly find God along such swirly paths?
Our verse today from Psalm 25 offers us the answer.
We ask God to teach us how and to guide us.
It sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? And it is simple. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. Within each of life’s twists and turns, God has a wisdom to teach us. That gift opens to us as we immerse ourselves in the Truth of the Gospel, just as Jesus encourages his listeners to do in today’s reading from Matthew.
May we open our hearts and say “Yes!” to the “Alleluia Walk” to which God invites us over the course of our switchback, zigzag lives!
Poetry: “Yes” is a world – e.e. cummings
love is a place & through this place of love move (with brightness of peace) all places
yes is a world & in this world of yes live (skilfully curled) all worlds
Music: Marty Goetz – Jeremiah 29:11 which seems to fit so well with today’s Alleluia!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we come back to the shore of Ordinary Time. Fresh off the glorious voyage with Jesus through Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide and Pentecost, we arrive grace-filled for the ordinary days of our lives.
( During this next Liturgical Season, I would like to focus us on our Alleluia Verse each day. This short snippet of scripture serves like a doorman opening the way into our Gospel for the day. It helps us to focus on a truth that might be most meaningful in the sacred Word awaiting us. It alerts us that Jesus wants to speak to us, and it gives us a hint of what He might want to say.
Of course, we do not read the Alleluia Verse in isolation, but rather in the context of the lessons of our first reading and the reinforcements of our daily psalm. But it still might help us to take the small gem of the Alleluia Verse and hold it up to a longer, more reflective light.
For those who wish to meditate further on the readings or Psalm, I will try each day to give you links to earlier reflections on these readings, as you see with the buttons above.)
Today’s verse is an invitation to the light and energy of the Holy Spirit. It is a call to be like suns and stars in the world’s shadows. It is a reminder that we are satellites circling God’s Brillance … that the brightness we reflect is a sprinkling of Divinity… that no shadow can withstand our “Alleluia ”.
So if we are brave, let’s look in the mirror each morning, maybe after a cold splash and a sip of coffee and let’s tell ourselves the amazing truth: “You are called to be Light in the darkness.”
That darkness takes the form of the obvious evils of our times: war, violence, hatred, rampant militarism and all other forms of contempt for another’s life.
But it comes in subtler patterns as well that may be harder to discern in ourselves.
To name just a few – the infamous “ins” such as:
Intemperance
Ingratitude
Insincerity
Injustice
inaction
and I think, worst of all, Indifference
May we invite and welcome the “Alleluia Light” into our every darkness. Amen.
Poetry: Bearing the Light – Denise Levertov
Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appears, with considered judgement, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds - the indivisible shared out in endless abundance.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
Annunciation by Henry Ossawa Tanner
It is a day to honor Mary for giving life to Jesus for the sake of all humanity.
It is day to beg her intercession for a world so desperately in need of Christ’s continued revelation.
Mary is the Door through which Heaven visited earth to heal it from sinful fragmentation.
May Mary continue to carry her beautiful grace to broken hearts and even to the twisted souls who broke them.
Through her, may we all find healing.
Mary, Mother of Mercy, intercede for all Creation that we may embrace the Love your Son taught us.
Poetry: How Do I See Her – by Judith Evans
How do I see her? Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven, Virgin Mary: these are names that people have given her. But who is she?
When I see the mother of our Savior, I see the courage of women:
She said “yes” and stepped into the never-before, the great unknown, unfairly judged by neighbors, nearly losing her betrothed at a time when “unmarried” and “pregnant” meant banishment or death by stoning.
I see the strength of women:
A pregnant teenage girl, she rode 100 miles on a donkey, sleeping on the ground, surrounded by Roman oppression.
I see the wisdom of women:
It was time. She knew that her son was ready before he knew it. “Do as he tells you,” she told the servants at the wedding. And then there was wine, and the greatest ministry of all time began.
I see the anguish of women:
She visualized her son’s destiny as she nursed him, cleaned him, baked bread for him. Her heart nearly stopped when she couldn’t find him, and then rejoiced when he turned up discussing theology with scholars: a prelude to a future loss, that horrific afternoon at the foot of the cross.
I see women celebrating:
Beyond all human-sized hope, her son conquered death. She had dared to believe in hope, and when hope’s light seemed extinguished, she hoped one more time.
Who is she? She is each and every one of us. Whole, messy, wounded, blessed.
Bewildered by the mystery of it all, yet willing to try one more time to comprehend God’s purpose.
Learning to receive God’s mercy and grace, realizing that we are seen and loved beyond our understanding.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we celebrate the great Feast of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended to eternally enliven the Church.
We are that Church, living today in a world that sorely needs God’s renewing breath of life!
For today’s Responsorial Psalm, we pray with Psalm 104 – a fitting plea for this glorious Feast of Pentecost.
Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.
It is a bold prayer, an extravagant request. It asks for everything – a Fire of Love so complete that the whole earth is remade in its Divine Power.
It is a prayer based in mutual invitation as, in the Sequence, we invite the Holy Spirit to renew us:
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your celestial home Shed a ray of light divine!
Pentecost Sequence
And, as in any true relationship, the Spirit invites us too – to open our hearts to the infinite grace of this feast. The Book of Revelation describes this reciprocity in this profound passage:
“ I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.
Revelation 22: 16-17
On this Birthday of the Church, we pray not only for our own soul’s kindling, but for the whole People of God. May the Grace of Pentecost ignite a new fire of charity over all the earth. May that fire clear the way for the Spirit’s gifts to flower, for Her fruits to blossom, for Her power to surprise us as it bursts forth in our hearts!
Poetry: The Golden Sequence
Veni Sancte Spiritus, sometimes called the Golden Sequence, is a sequence prescribed in the Roman Liturgy for the Masses of Pentecost and its octave. It is usually attributed to either the thirteenth-century Pope Innocent III or to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Stephen Langton, although it has been attributed to others as well.
“Veni Sancte Spiritus” is one of only four medieval Sequences which were preserved in the Roman Missal published in 1570 following the Council of Trent (1545–63).
The other three occasions when we hear these beautiful ancient hymns are Easter Sunday (“Victimae Paschali Laudes”), Corpus Christi (“Lauda Sion Salvatorem”) and Our Lady of Sorrows (“Stabat Mater Dolorosa”). On Easter Sunday and Pentecost, the sequence must be sung, whereas on Corpus Christi and Our Lady of Sorrows, the sequence is optional.
Wikipedia
Come, Holy Spirit, come!
And from your celestial home
Shed a ray of light divine!
Come, Father of the poor!
Come, source of all our store!
Come, within our bosoms shine.
You, of comforters the best;
You, the soul’s most welcome guest;
Sweet refreshment here below;
In our labor, rest most sweet;
Grateful coolness in the heat;
Solace in the midst of woe.
O most blessed Light divine,
Shine within these hearts of yours,
And our inmost being fill!
Where you are not, we have naught,
Nothing good in deed or thought,
Nothing free from taint of ill.
Heal our wounds, our strength renew;
On our dryness pour your dew;
Wash the stains of guilt away:
Bend the stubborn heart and will;
Melt the frozen, warm the chill;
Guide the steps that go astray.
On the faithful, who adore
And confess you, evermore
In your sevenfold gift descend;
Give them virtue’s sure reward;
Give them your salvation, Lord;
Give them joys that never end. Amen.
Alleluia.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this day before Pentecost, we close the book on both Acts and John’s Gospel, companions we have been praying with since mid-April.
When I read a really great book, I hate it to end. The characters and their story linger in my mind. The places where I’ve pictured them seem real – as if I’ve visited there myself. And the core of their stories becomes part of me, a reference point for my own experience.
Hopefully, the same thing happens when we read and pray with scripture.
As we leave Acts today, we should feel like we know the early disciples better, especially Peter, Paul, Barnabas, Stephen, Lydia and others whose story might have touched us. We should better understand the ups and downs of the early Church, the passion for mission, and the evolution of faith – and how these speak to our own times.
Finishing John, we have a slightly different picture of Jesus from that of the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. We see a Jesus full of Light, his human existence described through the lens of his Divinity. Johannine scholar Raymond E. Brown describes the difference like this:
That Jesus is the center of John’s message is confirmed by even a hasty reading of the Gospel itself. The emphasis on the Kingdom of God, so prominent in the Synoptic Gospels, has yielded in John to an emphasis on Jesus as the embodiment of life, truth, and light. No more is the parabolic language introduced by “The kingdom of God is like,..”; rather we hear the majestic “I am ” Whereas it is the Kingdom that the Synoptic Gospels describe in terms of vineyard, wheat, shepherd and sheep, in John it is Jesus who is the vine, the bread, the shepherd, and the sheepgate.
Today, in our prayer, we might want to glance back through these books, reminding ourselves of the words, phrases and stories that touched our own experience most deeply.
Sketching such phrases – perhaps in a daily prayer journal – is a good way to let our minds turn them over and over again in prayer, discovering new depths with each turn.
Poetry: As we wait for the dawning of Pentecost, let us pray with William Blake’s powerful poem:
Unless the eye catch fire, The God will not be seen. Unless the ear catch fire The God will not be heard. Unless the tongue catch fire The God will not be named. Unless the heart catch fire, The God will not be loved. Unless the mind catch fire, The God will not be known.
William Blake (1757-1827) from Pentecost
Music: Cavalleria Rusticana: Easter Hymn – Pietro Mascagni, featuring Australian soprano Kiandra Howarth
I thought we’d close these two wonderful books, and the Easter Season, with a bang. (Lyrics below)
Lyrics: LATIN AND ENGLISH: CHORUS (within the church) Regina coeli, laetare—Alleluia! Quia, quem meruisti portare—Alleluia! Resurrexit sicut dixit—Alleluia!
CHORUS (in the square) We rejoice that our Saviour is living! He all-glorious arose from the dead; Joys of heaven the Lord to us giving, All the sorrows of darkness are fled! (The chorus goes out slowly)
ITALIAN: CORO INTERNO (dalla Chiesa.) Regina coeli, laetare—Alleluja! Quia, quem meruisti portare—Alleluja! Resurrexit sicut dixit—Alleluja!
CORO ESTERNO (sulla piazza.) Inneggiamo, il Signor non è morto. Ei fulgente ha dischiuso l’avel, inneggiamo al Signore risorto oggi asceso alla gloria del Ciel! (il Coro esce lentamente)
Picture two people, who love each other deeply, walking along a quiet beach. They may be a child and parent, committed spouses or devoted friends. They are walking, fully in each other’s presence. But at times, one or the other may wander off to study a shell or watch a sandpiper while the other continues slowly walking. Still, they are completely with each other and will often reconnect to share snatches of thought and imagination. In many ways, this image captures the meaning of the epistolary admonition, “Pray always.” On the beach of our lives, we are walking with God always.
But there are times in that walk when, for some reason, we will reach for the other’s hand. We will intensify and focus our attention to each other. The reason may be an awareness of something beautiful, poignant, frightening, joyful or overwhelming. We will remember these moments as specific experiences such as:
• “It was the time we saw the magnificent sunrise.”
• “It was the time we were frightened by the unexpected storm.”
In our lifelong walk with God, this reaching for and holding each other’s hands is a good image for the act of prayer. It may be initiated by God or by us, or perhaps by both at once. It may be vocal or silent. It is an experience which has a beginning and an end. Like the shared moments on the beach, these acts of prayer are definite moments, for example:
• “It was the time I was overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s gift of my family and prayed that gratitude as I watched them around our family table.”
• “It was the time I became aware of the call to greater generosity and service and prayed aloud for God’s guidance and support.”
These acts of prayer change us. They open us to greater depth in our journey with God. They deepen the sense of God’s presence within our total experience. They thin the veil which separates us from the Divine.
To become pray-ers like this, we must first become constant listeners. God is whispering to us in every moment and experience of our lives. As we learn to hear God in our own lives, we become better at hearing God in other’s hearts. Our prayers become a response to that Voice which first and constantly speaks to us.
Lavish Mercy 