Saturday of the Thirty-third Week in Ordinary Time
November 23, 2024

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/112324.cfm

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Blessed be the LORD, my Rock,
who trains my hands against temptation,
my fingers for the struggle.

My mercy and my fortress,
my stronghold, my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I trust,
who brings me to
right relationship with all Creation

O God, I will sing a new song to you;
with a ten stringed lyre
I will chant your praise,
-You who raise us up in mutual peace
and deliver your servant from evil.
~ interpretation of Psalm 144

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David, likely author of Psalm 144, had a few nicknames for God. By exploring these names, David deepened his understanding of God’s Presence in his life, and personalized his prayer in a meaningful way.

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We consider the intimacy and power of our relationship with God – how it has changed over the years, how it is at this point in our lives. Do we, like David, have special names for God, reflecting those places in our hearts that are most vulnerable to grace? Perhaps we wouldn’t have a reason to call God “my Rock”. But maybe we might call God my Poet, my Song, my Patient One, my Confidence or my Beloved.

How is God most needed or most present to you today, and how do you name that awareness?

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Poetry: Prayer Poem to the Names of God – Richard M. Fewkes

How shall we address thee who art
the One of a thousand names yet ever nameless?

O Vishnu, Maya, Kali, Ishtar, Athene, Isis…
Great Mother of Creation, Womb of the universe,
The Feminine Divine….
Blessed art thou who hast given life to all
And receiveth us at the end, forever thine…

Jupiter, Zeus, Apollo, Dionysius…
Lord of creation, the masculine divine,
In quest of the golden apples of Hesperides,
God of ecstasy and wine, and reason sublime…

Amen, Horus, Aten, Ra…
God of beginnings and endings, the soul, the ka,
Soaring like a bird
To the life-giving, light-giving power of the sun,
All life is one…

Shiva-Shakti, Yin and Yang…
The dance of life and death from hand to hand,
In perfect balance the movement of forces,
As the earth turns ‘neath the stars in their courses…

Rama, Krishna, Varuna, Bramah…
God of the Upanishads and Rig Veda, mystic priests and
the Bhagavadgita, Om Shanti, the lotus, a holy vow,
Creating our own karma and reincarnation, here and now,
And the ever present realization, that art Thou…

Buddha, Nirvana, the Enlightened One…
Liberation sought and won, in daily life begun,
Under a tree, in the sun,
To a state of being indescribable, comparable to none…

Allah-Akbar and Ahura Mazda…
There is no god but God, the All, Ah! the One,
The Righteous One, purity of Fire.
Goodness and Truth to inspire,
Fight fire with fire, quench the evil desire,
Let the call ring forth from minaret to spire…

El Shaddai, Adonai, Yahweh, Elohim
The God of Peace be with you, Shalom Haveyreem
Ten Commandments and the Law for Gentile and Jew
The birth of conscience and a Day of Atonement
To confess, to forgive, to begin anew…

Abba, Spiritus, Logos-Son… God in Three Persons, God in One,
God in all persons: prophets, teachers, daughters and sons,
The Kingdom of Heaven is within us, O let thy Kingdom come…
How shall we address thee who art Alpha and Omega,
The stars in their courses from Denib and Altair to Sirius and Vega?

Thou of a thousand names and yet ever nameless,
Let us confess the mystery of thy holiness,
Let us proclaim the wonder of One without a name,
Let the silence praise thee,
And the nine billion stars of thy namelessness.

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Music: God Beyond All Names – Bernadette Farrell