Shema Yisrael

On By Renee Yann, RSMIn spirituality

Saturday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
August 12, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081223.cfm

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our reading from Deuteronomy presents us with the central prayer of the Jewish faith and a key component of the Christian tradition. The prayer is called the Shema (pronounced Schma), and it captures the essence of what our faith is about.

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!

Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!
Therefore, you shall love the LORD, your God,
with all your heart,
and with all your soul,
and with all your strength.
Take to heart these words which I enjoin on you today.
Drill them into your children.
Speak of them at home and abroad, whether you are busy or at rest.
Bind them at your wrist as a sign
and let them be as a pendant on your forehead.
Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Shema Yisrael is a Jewish prayer that serves as a centerpiece of the morning and evening Jewish prayer services. Its first verse encapsulates the monotheistic essence of Judaism: “Hear, O Israel: YHWH is our God, YHWH is one” found in Deuteronomy 6:4.

Observant Jews consider the Shema to be the most important part of the prayer service in Judaism, and its twice-daily recitation as a mitzvah (religious commandment). Also, it is traditional for Jews to say the Shema as their last words, and for parents to teach their children to say it before they go to sleep at night.

Wikipedia

In our prayer today, we might consider three key components of Shema for our personal faith life:

  1. “Hear” – The Presence and Voice of God is central to and inspires all my life
  2. “our God” – It is my choice to live in covenantal relationship with God
  3. “the Lord alone” – There will be no other gods in my heart.

We could unpack any of these three elements to reflect extensively on the vitality of our relationship with God. For example:

“Hear”

  • How do I open my mind and heart to God?
  • What spiritual practices keep me focused on God’s Presence in my daily circumstances?
  • When I am confused or spiritually inert, how do I invite the inspiriting Voice of God into my consciousness?

Answering these questions does not have to lead us through a big theological maze. It can be as simple as waking up and saying, 

"Dear God, good morning. 
Thank you for my life. 
Please be with me throughout this day."

Or before we close our eyes at night:

"Holy One, thank you for this day.
I am sorry for any chance I missed to serve You.
As I sleep, please refresh my love for You and Your Creation."

The essence of the Shema is this: God is not simply a part of my life. God is my life. And every thread of my life should be woven into that wondrous Truth.

For those who might be interested in a more in depth study of the Shema, I found this article very helpful.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0008429819828670

Poetry: To Live With the Spirit – Jessica Powers

To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the wind’s will. 
The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows
turns like a wandering weather vane toward love.
It may lament like Job or Jeremiah,
echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove.
It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow
that emulates the freedom of the sky.
Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing;
it has cast down forever from its hand
the compass of the whither and the why.
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures:
fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind’s whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul.

Music: Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana, Pietro Mascagni– played by the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

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