Tuesday in the Octave of Easter
April 2, 2024
Today’s Readings:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040224.cfm
Mary said to the angels, “They have taken my Lord,
John 20:13-16
and I don’t know where they laid him.”
When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus there,
but did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you looking for?”
She thought it was the gardener and said to him,
“Sir, if you carried him away,
tell me where you laid him,
and I will take him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni,”….
It is not until He says her name that Mary recognizes Jesus. Earlier, when He simply calls her “Woman”, she is still confused about who He is. But the speaking of her name clears her vision and she names Him, lovingly, in return.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let us listen to God’s names for us. They will be beyond the Baptismal or nicknames by which everyone knows us. God’s names for us are infinite, changing as we grow in knowledge of ourselves. They are wordless invitations to ever-deeper intimacy as we discover ourselves in God’s heart.
And let us pray with our own names for God. These too may be beyond the common catalog of “Lord” and “Father”. Plumb your soul for your own deepest – perhaps even silent – names for God.
Poetry: Thom Satterlee – One Hundred and Eight Names for God (based on Hal M. Helms translation of The Confessions)
Some of them we’ve heard before–
Lord, Almighty, Omnipotent One.
And others turn God into a pedant,
even if that wasn’t always a bad thing to be:
Power That Weds My Mind with My Inmost Thought.
But many, the best, are like a new birdcall:
Beauty of All Things Beautiful,
The One by Whom I Have Been Apprehended.
They remind me of the unsteady joy
in learning a foreign language: God, Light
of My Eyes in Secret, Inmost Physician,
Exaltation of My Humility. What impresses me most is
his trying again and again to name what he loves,
and how the attempt at once shows
and grows his love.
So what shall we call him,
This Most Effusive Saint? He is An Eloquent
Lover of the Divine, One Holy
Word Hoarder, God’s Appellation Artist.
He is One Who Shows Us
What a Name Can Mean, An Alphabet
That Ends with the Letter for God.
When I found Thom Satterlee’s poem on the internet, there was a link to this wonderful article for anyone who loves to write. Some of you may enjoy it. I think it’s really beautiful.
Music: In the Garden – Anne Murray
Lavish Mercy 