Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6
(The readings I used for today’s reflection are for the Mass for St. Ignatius of Antioch who lived in the century after Jesus. He is not the same person as Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who lived in the 15th century.)
The passage from Ephesians, so beautifully expressed, encapsulates the character of a true disciple: called by God to holiness, expressing gratitude through a life of praise and mercy.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to receive God’s blessing and call with grateful hearts, and to live a life reflecting God’s Mercy.
Quote: from Ignatius of Antioch
We recognize a tree by its fruit, and we ought to be able to recognize a Christian by his action. The fruit of faith should be evident in our lives, for being a Christian is more than making sound professions of faith. It should reveal itself in practical and visible ways. Indeed it is better to keep quiet about our beliefs, and live them out, than to talk eloquently about what we believe, but fail to live by it.
The Lord said: “Woe to you Pharisees! You pay tithes of mint and of rue and of every garden herb, but you pay no attention to judgment and to love for God. Luke 11:42
Jesus got fed up with those who lived a loveless law. The Pharisees were meticulous in their outward observation of the Law of Moses, but they failed its core test to love their neighbor as themselves as written in Leviticus.
Thought:
The only love of God that has any substance is the love of God enacted as love of neighbor.
Walter Brueggemann
Music: Love God, Love Your Neighbor – Dale Sechrest
The Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit intercedes with inexpressible groanings. And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, Who intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will. Romans 8:26-27
Our readings for the Feast of St. Teresa reflect the power which inspired her holy life. She lived deeply in the Spirit of God, sharing that infinite blessing with the world in her inspiring writings.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask St. Teresa to intercede for us in our desire to grow in holiness.
Poetry: If, Lord, Thy Love Is Strong – St. Teresa of Avila
If, Lord, Thy love for me is strong As this which binds me unto thee, What holds me from thee Lord so long, What holds thee Lord so long from me?
O soul, what then desirest thou? Lord I would see thee, who thus choose thee. What fears can yet assail thee now? All that I fear is but lose thee.
Love’s whole possession I entreat, Lor make my soul thine own abode, And I will build a nest so sweet It may not be too poor for God.
A sould in God hidden from sin, What more desires for thee remain, Save but to love again, And all on flame with love within, Love on, and turn to love again.
Music: Adoro Te Devote – Carmelite Sisters of the Most Sacred Heart
While still more people gathered in the crowd, Jesus said to them, “This generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it, except the sign of Jonah. Just as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will the Son of Man be to this generation….
At the judgment the men of Nineveh will arise with this generation and condemn it, because at the preaching of Jonah they repented, and there is something greater than Jonah here.” Luke 11:29-30;32
In our Gospel, Jesus invokes the story of Jonah to encourage repentance in his listeners. Through Jonah’s second-effort, whale-prompted preaching, the Ninevites were awakened from their lack-luster faith. Jesus calls his followers to come out of the “whale’s belly”, so to speak – to repent and to live with a courageous faith.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Have you ever behaved like Jonah – hearing the call to live a deeper faith but swallowed instead in a cavern of indecision?
We pray for the grace to hear and to respond to the call to ever-deepening relationship with God.
Poetry: from Thomas Merton’s The Sign of Jonas: In this passage, Merton imagines God speaking to Jonas, and to himself and us. Jonas is a sign of the Resurrection. We move from old life to new by the Mercy of God.
The Voice of God is heard in Paradise:
What was vile has become precious. What is now precious was never vile. I have always known the vile as precious: for what is vile I know not at all.
What was cruel has become merciful. What is now merciful was never cruel. I have always overshadowed Jonas with My mercy, and cruelty I know not at all.
Have you had sight of Me, Jonas, My child? Mercy within mercy within mercy. I have forgiven the universe without end, because I have never known sin.
What was poor has become infinite. What is infinite was never poor. I have always known poverty as infinite: riches I love not at all.
Prisons within prisons within prisons. Do not lay up for yourselves ecstasies upon earth, where time and space corrupt, where the minutes break in and steal.
No more lay hold on time, Jonas, My son, lest the rivers bear you away. What was fragile has become powerful.
I loved what was most frail. I looked upon what was nothing. I touched what was without substance, and within what was not, I am.
Music: Jonah and the Whale – Louis Armstrong
Jonah was a man who got a word from the Lord “Go and preach the Gospel to the sinful land” But he got on a ship and he tried to get away And he ran into a storm in the middle of the sea
Now the Lord, He made the waves just roll so high The ship begin to sink and they all begin to cry So they pulled ole Jonah out of the hole And they jumped him in the water just to lighten up the load
Now the Lord made a whale, long and wide Lord, Lord waddnat a fish And he swallowed up Jonah, hair and hide Lord, Lord waddnat a fish Mmm, Lord, mmm, Lord
Now Jonah started to pray in the belly of the whale Lord, Lord waddnat a fish He repented of his sins like a man in jail Lord, Lord waddnat a fish Mmm, Lord, mmm, Lord
Now Jonah must o’ been a bad man, he must o’ been a sinner Lord, Lord waddnat a fish ‘Cos when the whale got him down, he didn’t like his dinner Lord, Lord waddnat a fish Mmm, Lord, mmm, Lord
I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her, nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire. Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, and I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep. Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands. Wisdom 7:7-11
This lyrical passage personifies Wisdom, carrier of the Presence of God. While often attributed to King Solomon, the book was written by an unknown but gifted poet.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We, too, pray for the gift of Wisdom, and reflect on the many times in our lives that she has accompanied us with the spirit of God.
Poetry: The Beginning of Wisdom – Denise Levertov
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. (Proverbs 9:10)
You have brought me so far.
I know so much. Names, verbs, images. My mind overflows, a drawer that can’t close
Unscathed among the tortured. Ignorant parchment uninscribed, light strokes only, where a scribe tried out a pen.
I am so small, a speck of dust moving across the huge world. The world a speck of dust in the universe.
Are you holding the universe? You hold only my smallness. How do you grasp it, how does it not slip away?
For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28
The faith we share with other Christians makes us one in Christ. If someone has become “the other” for us, the integrity our faith is damaged in some way.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We pray to truly be clothed in Christ – to so espouse his Gospel that we live in charity and reverence for all Creation.
Thought: from St. Augustine
O Sacrament of Love! O sign of Unity! O bond of Charity! They who would have Life find here indeed a Life to live in and a Life to live by.
I will give thanks to the LORD with all my heart in the company and assembly of the just. Great are the works of the LORD, exquisite in all their delights.
Psalm 111:1-2
Today’s Responsorial Psalm is a humble, beautiful prayer which places our heart in God’s awesome Presence. The passing events of this life, whether happy of sad, shrink in the realization of God’s generous Mercy.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We bring into God’s Presence our present circumstances, with their hopes, worries, regrets, and joys. We place them there, silence our hearts, and let the Mercy of God speak to us.
Poetry: The Garments of God – Jessica Powers
God sits on a chair of darkness in my soul. He is God alone, supreme in His majesty. I sit at His feet, a child in the dark beside Him; my joy is aware of His glance and my sorrow is tempted to nest on the thought that His face is turned from me. He is clothed in the robes of His mercy, voluminous garments— not velvet or silk and affable to the touch, but fabric strong for a frantic hand to clutch, and I hold to it fast with the fingers of my will. Here is my cry of faith, my deep avowal to the Divinity that I am dust. Here is the loud profession of my trust. I need not go abroad to the hills of speech or the hinterlands of music for a crier to walk in my soul where all is still. I have this potent prayer through good or ill: here in the dark I clutch the garments of God.
Music: Bach Cantata 156 – performed by Baroque oboist Leo Duarte
Jesus said to his disciples: “Suppose one of you has a friend to whom he goes at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived at my house from a journey and I have nothing to offer him,’ and he says in reply from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked and my children and I are already in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’ I tell you, if he does not get up to give him the loaves because of their friendship, he will get up to give him whatever he needs because of his persistence.
“And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Luke 11:5-11
In our Gospel today, Jesus describes the meaning of friendship and invites his disciples to receive that gift from God.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We ask God to show us the profound beauty of Divine Friendship. We are grateful and humbled to be offered such a gift.
William Barry, SJ – one of my top ten spiritual writers – has written an inspiring book about friendship with God. Barry believes, as I do, that the concept of friendship best describes one’s deepening relationship with God.
What does God want in creating us? My stand is that what God wants is friendship. To forestall immediate objections, let me say that I do not mean that God is lonely and therefore needs our friendship. This is a romantic and quite unorthodox notion that makes God ultimately unbelievable. No, I maintain that God—out of the abundance of divine relational life, not any need for us—desires humans into existence for the sake of friendship.
Music: I’ve Found a Friend – J. G. Small (1866)
Although this hymn echoes some revival tones of the 19th century, I think is still a beautiful and unexpectedtribute to Divine Friendship.
Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us, and do not subject us to the final test.” Luke 11:1-4
Today’s Gospel shows us the centrality of prayer in the life of Jesus and his disciples. The prayer Jesus leaves us in this passage is a prayer of presence, an intimate conversation with the God who supplies our needs.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: Like the disciples, we ask Jesus to teach us how to pray – to move from recitation to presence; to move from timed practice to timeless oneness.
Thoughts – from Thomas Merton
First of all, prayer is a spiritual activity. This activity engages the highest faculties of our soul, our mind and our will. To be valid, prayer must be intelligent and it must be an act of sincere love. Already we can see that prayer is one of the most perfect actions a man can perform. When we pray properly we are exercising our intelligence and we are working with our will. This cannot be done without interior discipline. The more we practice prayer the stronger do these higher faculties become, and so they regain their lost control over the passions which are the root of all prejudice and of all error. Thus, in the natural order alone, the true practice of prayer would be sufficient to elevate and purify the soul to some extent. But this presupposes that prayer is really prayer and not pious automatism, or mere exterior formalism, or, worse still, an act of blind superstition. These dangers mustall be obviated by the constant striving for intelligent attention and for a sincere, earnest and fervent intention of the will.
Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed him. She had a sister named Mary who sat beside the Lord at his feet listening to him speak. Martha, burdened with much serving, came to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me by myself to do the serving? Tell her to help me.” The Lord said to her in reply, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her.” Luke 10:38-42
What is the sacred balance between prayer and action? How do we acieve the sweet point where prayer and action infuse each other in mutual inspiration? In this Gospel, Jesus indicates that one element has precedence over the other — there is a “better part”.
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy: We seek to deepen our prayer life while employing it to inspire our merciful service to Creation.
Poetry: Martha and Mary by John Newton (1725-1807)
Martha her love and joy expressed By care to entertain her guest; While Mary sat to hear her Lord, And could not bear to lose a word.
The principle in both the same, Produced in each a different aim; The one to feast the Lord was led, The other waited to be fed.
But Mary chose the better part, Her Saviour’s words refreshed her heart; While busy Martha angry grew, And lost her time and temper too.
With warmth she to her sister spoke, But brought upon herself rebuke; One thing is needful, and but one, Why do thy thoughts on many run?
How oft are we like Martha vexed, Encumbered, hurried, and perplexed! While trifles so engross our thought, The one thing needful is forgot.
Lord teach us this one thing to choose, Which they who gain can never lose; Sufficient in itself alone, And needful, were the world our own.
Let groveling hearts the world admire, Thy love is all that I require! Gladly I may the rest resign, If the one needful thing be mine!
Lavish Mercy 