I will send to you the Spirit of truth Who will guide you to all truth.
John 16: 7, 13
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
This Saturday morning, we stand at the threshold of the great Feast of Pentecost. Let us simply take quiet time to prepare our hearts for the Gift of the Holy Spirit. We each know the places where we, and our suffering world, most need the awakening touch of God’s Life. Let’s ask for it!
(Over the next few days, you are invited to pray with lovely videos shared with me by my dear and creative friend, Sister Mary Kay Eichman. Here is one for the Vigil of Pentecost.)
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. John 17:20-21
Over several Gospel readings, we have been blessed to pray with the prayers of Jesus. Just before today’s passage, Jesus has consecrated those sitting around him who are his friends. In today’s extraordinary moment, Jesus blesses us – and all those down through the ages – who will to believe in Him.
Of course, faith is a gift we cannot acquire through our own effort. The consolation of faith, the feeling of faith, is something that sometimes evaded even the greatest saints. St. John of the Cross writes extensively about the “dark night of the soul” during which he had no emotional awareness of faith. At times, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Mother Theresa and even Jesus himself suffered a sense of isolation from God:
Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Matthew 27:46
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Even when we find ourselves in a spiritual desert, we still can will to believe by opening our heart and experience to the grace God offers us – by our trust, our perseverance in prayer, and our patience with our own uncertainty.
Spiritual darkness, received as a gift, can reveal an otherwise undiscovered dimension of God’s Love for us.
Poetry: The Uses of Sorrow – Mary Oliver
Someone I loved once gave me a box full of darkness.
It took me years to understand that this, too, was a gift.
Music: One Dark Night – John Michael Talbot
In this beautiful music, Talbot recants lines based on the Song of Songs and the writings of St. John of the Cross – poetic imagery that strives to describe encounter with God.
One dark night Fired with love’s urgent longings Ah, the sheer grace In the darkness I went out unseen My house being all now still
In the darkness Secured by love’s secret ladder Disguised Oh, the sheer grace In the darkness And in my concealment My house being all now still
On that glad night In the secret, for no one saw me Nor did I see any other thing at all With no other light to guide me Than the light burning in my heart
And this light guided me More surely than the light of the noon To where he lay waiting for me Waiting for me Him I knew so well In a place where no one else appeared
Oh guiding night A light more lovely than the dawn A night that has united Ever now The Lover now with his beloved Transforming two now into one
Upon my flowering breast There he lay sleeping Which I kept for him alone And I embraced him And I caressed him In a breeze blowing from the forest
And when this breeze blew in from the forest Blowing back our hair He wounded my soul With his gentle hand Suspending all my senses
I abandoned, forgetting myself Laying my face on my Beloved All things ceasing, I went out from myself To leave cares Forgotten with the lilies of the field
And now I commend you to God and to that gracious word of his that can build you up and give you the inheritance among all who are consecrated. Acts 20:32
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth. John 17: 17-19
Both our readings today describe the act of consecration. In Acts, Paul blesses the presbyters in Ephesus, anointing them for Gospel ministry. In John 17, Jesus prays to the Father for his disciples – that they may be blessed and confirmed in the Word which is Truth.
At some point in our lives, each one of us has been consecrated in that same Truth. We may have been baptized, confirmed, blessed, ordained, and professed. Through those consecrations, the Holy Spirit has been breathed into our hearts to form us in Truth which is God’s Word.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let’s gratefully remember the fullness of our consecration. By the grace of God, we embody the Divine Power of truth, love, and mercy. How often do we remember to call on this Power when life threatens to overwhelm or confuse us?
Poetry: A Blessing for Wedding – Jane Hirshfield While Hirshfield’s poem is directed toward the marriage vow, it is clearly applicable to all consecrations in which God is the sacred partner.
Today when persimmons ripen Today when fox-kits come out of their den into snow Today when the spotted egg releases its wren song Today when the maple sets down its red leaves Today when windows keep their promise to open Today when fire keeps its promise to warm Today when someone you love has died or someone you never met has died Today when someone you love has been born or someone you will not meet has been born Today when rain leaps to the waiting of roots in their dryness Today when starlight bends to the roofs of the hungry and tired Today when someone sits long inside his last sorrow Today when someone steps into the heat of her first embrace Today, let this light bless you With these friends let it bless you With snow-scent and lavender bless you Let the vow of this day keep itself wildly and wholly Spoken and silent, surprise you inside your ears Sleeping and waking, unfold itself inside your eyes Let its fierceness and tenderness hold you Let its vastness be undisguised in all your days
Music: Sanctus – Jessye Norman
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt cæli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.
Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying: “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one just as we are one. When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you. I speak this in the world so that they may share my joy completely. I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one. John 17:11-15
In today’s Gospel, Jesus prays with great tenderness for his beloved disciples. He asks the Father to “keep” his friends, the way we keep precious things in our hearts, our prayers, and our memories.
I have prayed like this for the people I love, haven’t you? We ask God to protect them the way we would protect them. We don’t ask for miracles, but simply that they be delivered from the evils of “this world”.
We want them to have the courage to live good lives, and to be blessed by that goodness. We want them to find joy in the immense blessings God offers us, yes, in “this world” as God created it.
This is the prayer Jesus offers for his disciples … and for each one of us.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Rest in Jesus’s prayer for those who love him that we may be one with him in Trinitarian Love. Let it convince your heart of the joy, hope, love, and mercy God has for each of us.
Poetry: May They Be One – Bob Hartman
And Jesus said:
This is my prayer. My prayer for the disciples who follow me now. And my prayer for all the disciples to come.
One. May they be One. As I am One with you, Father. As you are One with me. May they be One. One with us. So the world will believe that you have sent me.
One. May they be One. For you have given me your glory, and that's why I have passed it on to them. That they might be like you and me. That they might be One.
One. May they be One. Completely One. I in them. You in me. One. So the world will know you sent me, and that you love them, just like you love me…
When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.” Acts 1: 6-12
Our Gospel today recounts how Jesus ultimately left his disciples to reassume his fullest self in heaven. There are many lessons in this reading but one strikes me particularly on this Ascension Thursday.
Just as Jesus returned to heaven so will each of us – to assume the fullness of ourselves as we were created to be; to be folded completely into the Eternal Love of the Trinity.
In the meantime, like the disciples, we have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit to become Christ’s witnesses in our time.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
We stand beside those who love Jesus as he ascends from their midst. We feel their sadness, joy, amazement, anxiety, and hope. We feel their confidence that, in the power of the Holy Spirit, all good things are possible in their yet uncharted future.
Let’s talk to Jesus about this special moment, and what graces it might waken in our own hearts.
Poetry: At Burgos – Arthur Symons
On Ascension Day, Symons reflects at the beautiful St. Mary’s Cathedral in Burgos, Spain
Miraculous silver-work in stone Against the blue miraculous skies, The belfry towers and turrets rise Out of the arches that enthrone That airy wonder of the skies.
Softly against the burning sun The great cathedral spreads its wings; High up, the lyric belfry sings.
Behold Ascension Day begun Under the shadow of those wings!
Jesus said to his disciples: “I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. John 16:12-13
In this passage, Jesus indicates that the “Truth” can be overwhelming. He tells the disciples that they cannot bear it all just now. But the Holy Spirit will guide them to receive the Truth.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Isn’t that a fact for all of us? Don’t we need to grow into the Truth rather than comprehend it all at once?
At best, we live in a world of appearances and, at worst, a world of fabrication. We may be tempted to judge reality based on these thin and misleading surfaces.
To respond to the deep truths of life, we need to prayerfully follow the Spirit – to be gradually strengthened in our capacity to see the world as God sees it, to respond to the world as God would respond. – in Truth.
Poetry: Witness – Denise Levertov
Sometimes the mountain is hidden from me in veils of cloud, sometimes I am hidden from the mountain in veils of inattention, apathy, fatique, when I forget or refuse to go down to the shore or a few yards up the road, on a clear day, to reconfirm that witnessing presence.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and your joy might be complete. John 15:9-11
What would it be like if we loved as the Creator loves – eternal life flowing out from Trinitarian Love to sustain all of us for always?
Jesus says that this is how the Father loves, and how Jesus loves all of us. He says that we abide in this Love when we indeed love God above all and our Neighbor as ourselves.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Honestly, can there be a more ubiquitous word than “Love”, and yet we find so little of its true practice in our increasingly self-absorbed and violent culture!
If, when we “love”, it does not strengthen sacred life in another or in the world, then we have not truly loved. We may have desired, admired, adulated, or ingratiated, but we have not loved as God loves.
Let’s pray to be open and responsive to the gift of God’s Love flowing into our hearts.
Prose: from Embodied Love in John of the Cross – Richard P. Hardy, Ph.D.
For John of the Cross, being wholly converted into divine love means actually living God's own life: The soul lives the life of God.
And the will, which previously loved in a base and deadly way with only its natural affection, is now changed into the life of divine love, for it loves in a lofty way with divine affection, moved by the strength of the Holy Spirit in which it now lives the life of love. By means of this union God's will and the soul's will are now one.
Finally all the movements, operations, and inclinations the soul had previously from the principle and strength of its natural life are now in this union dead to what they formerly were, changed into divine movements, and alive to God.
I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the Gospel I preached to you, which you indeed received and in which you also stand. Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:1-2
In today’s passage, Paul describes the Gospel as a gift, given through his preaching, and received by his listeners.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Think of the most precious gift that has ever been placed in your hands – how carefully and tenderly you received it, handled it, cared for it. I think of the times the newborns of our family have been handed to me, and how I cherished them and vigilantly held them.
Paul, and our early leaders such as Philip and James, have handed on to us the precious Gospel as they received from Christ himself. It is the key to our eternal life. How we should treasure it, learn from it, stand in it, and hold fast to it, as Paul encourages us to do!
Prose: from John Calvin, Golden Booklet of the True Christian Life
“The Gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”
Music: Verbum Dei (Word of God) – by Voices Thules
Vocal ensemble Voces Thules was founded in 1992 and has established itself as a leading ensemble for performance and research on Icelandic medieval and traditional music in Iceland. Voces Thules perform both sacred and secular music either a-cappella or with Medieval period instruments.
Jesus said to his disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I also love you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.
“I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.” John 15: 9-11
What a joy to hear someone say, “I love you.”! What a gift to be invited to “remain” in another’s heart!
Jesus wants his disciples, and he wants us, to have that joy. He wants it so much that his own joy depends on it!
God wants our love. God wants us to remain in God’s heart!
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let yourself just sink into that amazing revelation, Beloved of God! Jesus’s declaration and invitation are specifically made to YOU!
Poetry: The Madness of Love – Hadewijch Of Antwerp
The madness of love Is a blessed fate; And if we understood this We would seek no other: It brings into unity What was divided, And this is the truth: Bitterness it makes sweet, It makes the stranger a neighbor, And what was lowly it raises on high.
Music: Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony
1 Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of love; Hearts unfold like flow’rs before You, Op’ning to the sun above. Melt the clouds of sin and sadness; Drive the dark of doubt away; Giver of immortal gladness, Fill us with the light of day!
2 All Your works with joy surround You, Earth and heav’n reflect Your rays, Stars and angels sing around You, Center of unbroken praise; Field and forest, vale and mountain, Flow’ry meadow, flashing sea, Chanting bird and flowing fountain Praising You eternally!
3 Always giving and forgiving, Ever blessing, ever blest, Well-spring of the joy of living, Ocean-depth of happy rest! Loving Father, Christ our Brother, Let Your light upon us shine; Teach us how to love each other, Lift us to the joy divine.
4 Mortals, join the mighty chorus, Which the morning stars began; God’s own love is reigning o’er us, Joining people hand in hand. Ever singing, march we onward, Victors in the midst of strife; Joyful music leads us sunward In the triumph song of life.
Jesus said to his disciples: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit. You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you. Remain in me, as I remain in you. John 15: 1-4
What a tender and comforting passage! When we are invited to “remain” somewhere ( as in, “Please stay for dinner.”), it indicates that we have already arrived into that inviting presence.
Jesus tells us that we are already living in God’s Presence and that he wants us to always remain there in God’s Love. He tells us that we are established in that Presence – that we are already “pruned” for God.
We don’t realize how holy we are. I live with almost 100 spiritually noble women. I have the joy of knowing Mercy Associates, dear family, and personal friends who enrich my life by their desire to live in God’s Light! They would probably never describe themselves as “holy”.
But they are. They have spent their lives steeping themselves in the things of God, and God has delighted in them – invited them to “remain” in Love.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy:
Let’s take time to think about our holiness, not in pride but in humble thanks for the gift God has given us. Each of our lives has “pruned” us in a particular way to reflect God’s glory. Let’s remain – let’s linger – in that blessing as we pray today.
Poetry: To Live with the Spirit of God – 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.
Lavish Mercy 