Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 91 from the readings for the Mass of the Guardian Angels – those magnificent beings who carry God’s Presence to us in every situation of our lives.
The Lord shall deliver you from the snare of the hunter and from the deadly pestilence. The wings of the Lord shall cover you, and you shall find refuge under them; the faithfulness of God shall be a shield and buckler.
Psalm 91:3-4
Maybe the only angels we ever think about are chubby little cherubs on Christmas cards. The cultural tendency to represent angels in that way diminishes the real power of these mighty and loving beings to inspire and guide us. Today might be a day to rethink our relationship with our Guardian Angels – to talk with them and to listen to the good things they tell us even without words.
Poem: Touched by an Angel by Maya Angelou
We, unaccustomed to courage, exiles from delight, live coiled in shells of loneliness until love leaves its high holy temple and comes into our sight to liberate us into life. Love arrives and in its train come ecstasies old memories of pleasure ancient histories of pain. Yet if we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls. We are weaned from our timidity In the flush of love's light we dare be brave And suddenly we see that love costs all we are and will ever be. Yet it is only love which sets us free
Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church Thursday, September 30, 2021
St. Jerome in His Study by Domenico Ghirlandaio
Jerome is best known for his translation of most of the Bible into Latin (the translation that became known as the Vulgate) and his commentaries on the whole Bible.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 19 which Charles Spurgeon, noted 19th century preacher, calls “the study of God’s two great books—nature and Scripture”.
Psalm 19 is a beautiful prayer for this time of year when nature erupts in unparalleled beauty. It is also perfect for this day when we celebrate Jerome who shaped our scriptures into the form we cherish today.
The psalm concludes with a wholehearted confession of faith and hope. It is a prayer all of us long to offer God in the sincerity of our hearts.
Scripture scholar James L. Mays notes that to comprehend this final expression of faith, we must pray with the whole psalm.
The psalm is divided into three parts
Creation’s testimony to the Creator (vv. 1–6),
the incomparable value of the law of the LORD (vv. 7–10),
the human need for divine forgiveness and protection (vv. 11–13).
Two poems and a song captured the flow of my prayer today.
As I pray the first part of the psalm , my spirit is opened to Creation’s power and beauty – an expression of God’s omnipotence and glory.
The heavens declare the glory of God; the firmament proclaims the works of his hands. Day unto day pours forth speech; night unto night whispers knowledge.
Psalm 19:1-3
To Autumn – William Blake
Motherhouse Front Lawn – Merion, PA
O Autumn, laden with fruit, and stain’d
With the blood of the grape, pass not, but sit
Beneath my shady roof; there thou may’st rest,
And tune thy jolly voice to my fresh pipe,
And all the daughters of the year shall dance!
Sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers.
The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.
The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.
The narrow bud opens her beauties to
The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins;
Blossoms hang round the brows of Morning, and
Flourish down the bright cheek of modest Eve,
Till clust’ring Summer breaks forth into singing,
And feather’d clouds strew flowers round her head.
The spirits of the air live in the smells
Of fruit; and Joy, with pinions light, roves round
The gardens, or sits singing in the trees.”
Thus sang the jolly Autumn as he sat,
Then rose, girded himself, and o’er the bleak
Hills fled from our sight; but left his golden load.
2. Praying the second part of Psalm 19, I think about the gift of the scriptures, and how I turn to them in all the seasons of my life.
The law of the LORD is perfect, refreshing the soul. The decree of the LORD is trustworthy, giving wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart.
Psalm 19: 8-9
After Her Death – Mary Oliver
I am trying to find the lesson for tomorrow. Matthew something. Which lectionary? I have not forgotten the Way, but, a little, the way to the Way. The trees keep whispering peace, peace, and the birds in the shallows are full of the bodies of small fish and are content. They open their wings so easily, and fly. It is still possible. I open the book which the strange, difficult, beautiful church has given me. To Matthew. Anywhere.
And praying the third part of Psalm 19, I hear this hymn echoing in my spirit.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 138 which begins with the beautiful verse:
I will praise You with my whole heart…
Abraham with the Three Angels – Rembrandt
As we celebrate the feast of the three great archangels, known to us by name because of their appearances in the Bible, we are invited to explore all the aspects of our spirituality – our whole heart.
As bodily beings, we might most often pray by using our senses:
with what we read and see with our eyes
with vocal prayer or soulful music
with the transporting aroma of incense
with the tactile assurance of a rosary over our fingertips
But we are also spiritual beings. There are dimensions of our experience that could never be put into words. There are melodies playing within us too profound to be rendered in notes.
There is a Presence within us beyond and greater than ourselves, breathed into us at our creation, and longing for the fulfillment of Heaven. Our human experience is like a shadow cast over time by the Great Light Who lives and loves in us.
The angels are beings released from that shadow. They completely dwell in and radiate the One Who breathed them forth in the fullness of Light. They are the ones who companion us to the wondrous edges of our own possibility –
as Raphael did for Tobit (Tobit 12:1-22)
as Michael did for Daniel (Daniel 10:13-21)
as Gabriel did for Mary (Luke 1:26-38)
These stories might inspire us today to speak and listen to our angels, one of whom is particularly charged to guide us.
Poetry: A Sonnet for St. Michael the Archangel – Malcolm Guite
Michaelmas gales assail the waning year, And Michael’s scale is true, his blade is bright. He strips dead leaves; and leaves the living clear To flourish in the touch and reach of light. Archangel bring your balance, help me turn Upon this turning world with you and dance In the Great Dance. Draw near, help me discern, And trace the hidden grace in change and chance. Angel of fire, Love’s fierce radiance, Drive through the deep until the steep waves part, Undo the dragon’s sinuous influence And pierce the clotted darkness in my heart. Unchain the child you find there, break the spell And overthrow the tyrannies of Hell.
Music: Confitebor Tibi Domine – Francisco Valls
Psalmus 138
Psalm 138
1 Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo quoniam audisti verba oris mei in conspectu angelorum psallam tibi
1 I will praise thee, O lord, with my whole heart: for thou hast heard the words of my mouth. I will sing praise to thee in the sight of his angels:
2 Adorabo ad templum sanctum tuum et confitebor nomini tuo super misericordia tua et veritate tua quoniam magnificasti super omne nomen sanctum tuum
2 I will worship towards thy holy temple, and I will give glory to thy name. For thy mercy, and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy holy name above all.
3 In quacumque die invocavero te exaudi me multiplicabis me in anima mea virtute
3 In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me: thou shall multiply strength in my soul.
4 Confiteantur tibi Domine omnes reges terrae quia audierunt omnia verba oris tui
4 May all the kings of the earth give glory to thee: for they have heard all the words of thy mouth.
5 Et cantent in viis Domini quoniam magna gloria Domini
5 And let them sing in the ways of the Lord: for great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Quoniam excelsus Dominus et humilia respicit et alta a longe cognos cit
6 For the Lord is high, and looketh on the low: and the high he knoweth afar off.
7 Si ambulavero in medio tribulationis vivificabis me super iram inimicorum meorum extendisti manum tuam et salvum me fecit dextera tua
7 If I shall walk in the midst of tribulation, thou wilt quicken me: and thou hast stretched forth thy hand against the wrath of my enemies: and thy right hand hath saved me.
8 Dominus retribuet propter me Domine misericordia tua in saeculum opera manuum tuarum ne dispicias
8 The Lord will repay for me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: O despise not the work of thy hands
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 149, a call to praise God in festive celebration because God will enjoy that!
Praying with that thought today, I ask myself:
Is my God a happy God?
Our psalm says “Yes!” – a Lover of song, joy, praise, dance, timbrel and harp!
Hallelujah! Sing to the Lord a new song; sing the praises of God in the company of the faithful. Let Israel rejoice in their maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their sovereign. Let them praise the name of the Lord in the dance; let them sing praise to God with timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in this people.
Psalm 149:1-4
Only a happy God could have imagined the beautiful gift of Creation we have been given. Stop today to listen, watch, and feel that happiness in sun, rain, wood scent, birdsong, cat purr, baby breath, child play, elder eyes, or the thousand other ways God will try to touch your soul today.
( Praying for the safety of all our friends in Australia with the earthquakes and for people of the Canary Islands.❤️🙏)
Poetry: The Creation of Birds – Renee Yann, RSM
O, the wonderful mood that seized You,
God, as you created birds;
you dancing there, twirling in light,
flinging your crystal arms to infinite music,
flicking your hands like magic fountains,
feathers and colors splashing out from your fingertips,
chattering, rainbowed profusions
of your Boundless Life.
Your inexhaustible, joy-filled soul laughing out
the soaring beings into the still universe,
peals of you infusing them each
to their measure with notes of your inner song.
O, I see your Holy Eyes flash color to them
as they fly, strobing their feathers
with shards of your prismed white light.
This morning, seeing only one,
free and jubilant in a thin sycamore,
I consume it as part of your Delightful Essence,
this day’s communion with you,
grey and orange wafer filling me
with mysteries of the primal dance
from which we both were born.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 100, called the “Jubilate Deo” because of its opening pronouncement:
Shout joyfully to the LORD, all you peoples; serve the Lord with gladness; come before the Lord with joyful song.
Psalm 100: 1-2
This is such a perfect prayer today for our Mercy community as we will gather to celebrate the Jubilee of many of our sisters this afternoon. It will be a huge celebration in which the Jubilarians of both 2020 and 2021 will be honored, due to last year’s Covid restrictions.
For many of us, the most moving parts of the celebration are the procession and recession. These celebratory passages are a testament to God’s faithfulness over many lifetimes, and to the women who have received and responded to God’s gifts.
Some sisters, who have been given the gift of long years, will process with a cane or walker to assist them. Some will move with an achieved maturity, and some still with the vigor of youth.
But our Mercy family, gathered in the pews, walks in Spirit with each of the Jubilarians, carrying her within a bond of mutual love. As we see each sister whom we have lived with, worked with, loved and learned from, our hearts indeed sing with them, “Jubilate!”
Poetry: The Neophyte – Alice Meynell
Who knows what days I answer for to-day:
Giving the bud I give the flower. I bow
This yet unfaded and a faded brow;
Bending these knees and feeble knees, I pray.
Thoughts yet unripe in me I bend one way,
Give one repose to pain I know not now,
One leaven to joy that comes, I guess not how.
I dedicate my fields when Spring is grey.
Oh, rash! (I smile) to pledge my hidden wheat.
I fold to-day at altars far apart
Hands trembling with what toils? In their retreat
I seal my love to-be, my folded art.
I light the tapers at my head and feet,
And lay the crucifix on this silent heart.
Some of 2021’s Sapphire/Diamond Jubilarians when they were true Neophytes
Please join us in your grateful prayers for these Sisters of Mercy:
Jubilarians 2020 80 years Sister Rita Powell
70 years Sister Mary Georgina Hasson Sister Mary Hentz Sister Kathleen Kelly Sister Marie Lynch Sister Antoinette Medori Sister Clare Miriam Schrant Sister Marianna Walsh
60 Years Sister Rosellen Bracken Sister Mary Elizabeth Burke Sister Emily Therese Connor Sister Marie Michele Donnelly Sister Patricia Anne Flynn Sister Kathleen Marie Fox Sister Mary Ann Giordano Sister Patricia Anne Kennedy Sister Barbara Ann MacWilliams Sister Kathleen McAlpin Sister Mercedes Joan McCann Sister Kathleen McGovern Sister Josephine McGrory Sister Mary Sarah McNally Sister Mary Anne Nolan Sister Stella Mary O’Brien Sister Frances Paglione Sister Rose Carmel Scalone Sister Barbara Smiley Sister Patricia Talone Sister Angela Welsh
50 years Sister Mary Beth Geraghty Sister Mary Jane Morrison Sister Katherine Bednarcik
Jubilarians 2021 75 years Sister Mary Ann Basile Sister Marie Helene Bradley Sister Mary Janet Doughty Sister Kathleen Mary Long Sister Marita Lyons Sister Catherine Rawley Sister Ethel Sweeney
70 years Sister Therese Marie Kenny Sister Alice Mary Meehan Sister Rose Morris Sister Kathleen Waugh Sister Anne Marie Berenato Sister Mary Anton Frick
60 years Sister Francis Haddow Sister Anna Marie Lesutis Sister Margery Lowry Sister Mary Mester Sister Sheila Murphy Sister Anne Marie Weisglass Sister Joanne Whitaker Sister Beverly Wilde
50 years Sister Maureen Conklin Sister Susan Myslinski
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 28, a prayer of nine succinct verses in which the psalmist rides a seesaw emotion.
My prayer is like that sometimes. I try to pray the way Jesus would pray — the “Our Father” type of goodness and all.
But to be honest, “Thy Will be done” and “as we forgive those who trespass” are not always easy sentiments for me. How about you?
Our psalmist seems to have some trouble too … but with points of light and redemption in the end:
O Lord, I call to you; my rock, do not be deaf to my cry; lest, if you do not hear me, I become like those who go down to the pit.
FEAR
Hear the voice of my prayer when I cry out to you, when I lift up my hands to your holy of holies.
PLEADING
Do not snatch me away with the wicked or with the evildoers, who speak peaceably with their neighbours, while strife is in their hearts.
JUDGEMENT
Repay them according to their deeds, and according to the wickedness of their actions. According to the work of their hands repay them, and give them their just deserts.
VENGEANCE
They have no understanding of your doings, nor of the works of your hands; therefore you will break them down and not build them up.
PRIDE
Blessed are you, O Lord! For you have heard the voice of my prayer.
FAITH
O Lord, you are my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in you, and I have been helped; therefore my heart dances for joy, and in my song will I praise you.
TRUST
You are the strength of your people, a safe refuge for your anointed.
SECURITY
Save your people and bless your inheritance; shepherd them and carry them for ever.
PRAYER
What I learn from this psalm is to tell God the truth when I pray – but the real truth -the truth that we hear back from God when we listen in our prayer. And that listening should always be done in sync with the Gospel. It is as if we cup the Gospel around our prayer the way we bend an ear to the faint but longed-for sound.
Poetry: Lost – David Whyte
Stand still. The trees ahead and the bushes beside you Are not lost.
Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes.
Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying
Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still.
The forest knows Where you are.
You must let it find you.”
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 16, complementing as it does today our first reading from 1 Timothy.
Both these scripture passages speak to us of finding – and being found by – God.
Paul, in guiding his beloved disciple Timothy, defines the phenomenon as “Grace”:
Indeed, the grace of our Lord has been abundant, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:14
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Grace is a participation in the life of God, which is poured unearned into human beings, whom it heals of sin and sanctifies.”
Paul agrees:
I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I have been mercifully treated because I acted out of ignorance in my unbelief.
1 Timothy 1:13
But how do we open ourselves do the gift of grace? How do we engage God’s desire to deepen us in holiness?
Psalm 16 offers us wisdom:
I bless the LORD who counsels me; even in the night my heart exhorts me. I set the LORD ever before me; with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed.
Psalm 16: 7-8
We invite God’s counsel
by an ardent study of scripture
by a sacramental faith
by a prayer that listens more than it speaks
by a life centered on the works of mercy
by a reverence for all Creation
by a love that loves as God loves
I have set the Lord always before me; because you are at my side I shall not fall. My heart, therefore, is glad, and my spirit rejoices; my body also shall rest in hope. For you will not abandon me to the grave, nor let your holy one see destruction. You will show me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy, and in your hand are graces for evermore.
Psalm 16: 8-11
Poetry: BELOVED IS WHERE WE BEGIN —Jan Richardson
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
If you would enter into the wilderness, do not begin without a blessing.
Do not leave without hearing who you are: Beloved, named by the One who has traveled this path before you.
Do not go without letting it echo in your ears, and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart, do not despair. That is what this journey is for.
I cannot promise this blessing will free you from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst, from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night.
But I can tell you that on this path there will be help.
I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.
I can tell you that you will know the strange graces that come to our aid only on a road such as this, that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength, that come alongside us for no other cause than to lean themselves toward our ear and with their curious insistence whisper our name:
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 150, an all-out summons to praise God.
Psalm 150, with its four predecessors, creates a rousing chorus of praise to God. As the closing piece of the Book of Psalms, Psalm 150 summons all Creation to unbounded praise.
The prayer of praise may not come as easily to us as other types of prayer. We find the prayer of supplication easy – asking God for something. Even the prayer of thanks is natural to us. But even Pope Francis says that the prayer of praise might not come so readily:
The prayer of praise is quite different than the prayer we normally raise to God, the Pope continued, when “we ask something of the Lord” or even “thank the Lord”.
“We often leave aside the prayer of praise”. It doesn’t come so easily to us, he said. Some might think that this kind of prayer is only “for those who belong to the renewal in the spirit movement, not for all Christians.
The prayer of praise is a Christian prayer for all of us. Each day during Mass, when we sing: ‘Holy, Holy…’, this is the prayer of praise. We praise God for his greatness, for he is great. And we tell him beautiful things, because we like it to be so”.
And it does not matter if we are good singers, the Pope remarked. In fact, he said, it is impossible to imagine that “you are able to shout out when your team scores a goal and you cannot sing the Lord’s praises, and leave behind your composure a little to sing.
Praising God is “totally gratuitous”, Pope Francis continued. “We do not ask, we do not thank. We praise: you are great. ‘Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit…’.
L’ Osservatore Romano
Psalm 150 calls us to a prayer of pure praise:
Hallelujah! Praise the Lord in the holy temple; praise God in the firmament of divine power. Praise the Lord for mighty acts; praise God for excellent greatness. Praise the Lord with the blast of the ram’s-horn; praise God with lyre and harp. Praise the Lord with timbrel and dance; praise God with strings and pipe. Praise the Lord with resounding cymbals; praise God with loud-clanging cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Hallelujah!
Psalm 150
By the culmination of the sequence in Psalm 150, there is a total lack of any specificity, and users of the psalm are invited to dissolve in a glad self-surrender that is to be enacted in the most lyrical way imaginable. Such praise is a recognition that the wonder and splendor of this God—known in the history of Israel and in the beauty of creation—pushes beyond our explanatory categories so that there can be only a liturgical, emotive rendering of all creatures before the creator.
Walter Brueggemann
We might try to offer this type of prayer in a simple manner, by naming God’s goodness – the goodness that we love and adore. We can do this in the same way that we tell any beloved being that we love them. Some prayer phrases might be:
You are beautiful in all Creation – in this morning’s dawn, this evening’s sunset.
You are just yet everlastingly kind.
Your power is stunningly gentle in a bird’s wing; it is overwhelming in the storm’s roar.
You are so humble to live within and among us.
You are infinitely loving through the gift of Jesus
Thoughts like these might also inspire us to a silent awe in which we offer wordless praise to our awesome God.
Music: No poem today, but two very different musical interpretations of Psalm 150 to inspire your prayer of praise
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray in the power of the Gospel:
Ephphatha! Be opened:
All minds to God’s omnipresence
All hearts to God’s infinite love
All spirits to God’s tender proposals
All eyes to God’s eternal vision
All ears to God’s cry in the poor
All mouths to speak God’s Word in justice
All plans to the rhythm of God’s freedom
All dreams to God’s dream for all.
Be opened – especially in me today. 🙏 Amen!
Poetry: Be Opened! – Malcolm Guite
Be opened. Oh if only we might be!
Speak to a heart that’s closed in on itself:
‘Be opened and the truth will set you free’,
Speak to a world imprisoned in its wealth:
'Be opened! Learn to learn from poverty’,
Speak to a church that closes and excludes,
And makes rejection its own litany:
‘Be opened, opened to the multitudes
For whom I died but whom you have dismissed
Be opened, opened, opened,’ how you sigh
And still we do not hear you. We have missed
Both cry and crisis, we make no reply.
Take us aside, for we are deaf and dumb
Spit on us Lord and touch each tongue-tied tongue.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we pray with Psalm 54, clearly described in its first two lines as a prayer of David when he was in deep trouble:
For the leader. On stringed instruments. A maskil of David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, “David is hiding among us.”
Psalm 54:1-2
You can watch the whole story here – (and it’s a good one):
Psalm 54 goes to the heart of this traumatic experience for David. It allows us to be part of his prayer for deliverance. It lays open to us the deep intimacy and trust of David’s relationship with God.
Throughout his prayer, David calls on God for protection. He does so in a tone like that of a child who, in fear and necessity, runs to a powerful parent.
David’s situation reminds me of my gang when we were kids in the old neighborhood. If Big Jimmy, the block bully, threatened any of us, we would invoke the strength of a bigger brother or uncle as protection. It always worked —- just by the power of our sheer belief that it would.
Saul Looking like Big Jimmy 🙂
David is besieged by Saul, so he makes recourse to his “bigger” protector, his God. David’s prayer is more than a request. It is an insistent plea, almost a demand:
save
defend
hear
listen
And like many prayers of desperation, it is offered with promises:
When I am delivered, I will offer you generous sacrifice and give thanks to your name, LORD, for it is good. Because it has rescued me from every trouble, and my eyes look down on my foes.
Psalm 54:9
So what does Psalm 54 teach me? That God will do what I “demand” if I pray hard enough? That if I promise God something, I will get what I want? No, not that.
What I find in this prayer is the encouragement to live always in honest and trusting relationship with God. When troubles come, we can call to God for help, and our practiced faith will allow us to discern God’s steady companionship – God’s Grace to find a deliverance for which we might not otherwise have had the courage.
God is present as my helper; the Lord sustains my life.
Psalm 54:6
Poetry: Keeping Watch – Hafiz
In the morning When I began to wake, It happened again— That feeling That you, Beloved, Had stood over me all night Keeping watch, That feeling That as soon as I began to stir You put Your lips on my forehead And lit a Holy Lamp Inside my heart.
Lavish Mercy 