Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary September 8, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090823.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on our Blessed Mother’s birthday, we pray with the beautiful final verses of Psalm 13.

These verses embody an immense shift in form from the psalm’s early lines. Early on, the psalmist cries out four times, “How long, O Lord?”.

How long: 

• Will you forget me?
• Will you hide your face from me?
• Must I carry sorrow in my soul?
• Will my enemy triumph over me?

Referring to these early verses reminds us that Mary’s life was full of sorrow as well as joy. On a feast like today, we think of Mary in her heavenly glory. But in her lifetime, Mary suffered many sorrows. She was an unwed mother, a refugee, and a widow. She was the mother of an executed “criminal” and a leader of his persecuted band.

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What was it that allowed Mary to transcend sorrow and claim joy? Our psalm verses today help us to understand. They show the psalmist turning to heartfelt prayer, trusting God’s abiding protection.

Look upon me, answer me, LORD, my God!
Give light to my eyes lest I sleep in death,
Lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed,”
lest my foes rejoice at my downfall.

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That deep trust ultimately yields not only peace,
but joy.
Mary, singer of the Magnificat,
is the quintessence of that holy joy.

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But I trust in your mercy.
Grant my heart joy in your salvation,
I will sing to the LORD,
Who has dealt bountifully with me!

Today, in our prayer, we ask Mary to love and guide us through the challenges of our lives.

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Poetry: Three Days – Madeleine L’Engle

Friday:
When you agree to be the mother of God
you make no conditions, no stipulations.
You flinch before neither cruel thorn nor rod.
You accept the tears; you endure the tribulations.
But, my God, I didn't know it would be like this.
I didn't ask for a child so different from others.
I wanted only the ordinary bliss,
to be the most mundane of mothers.

Saturday:
When I first saw the mystery of the Word
made flesh I never thought that in his side
I'd see the callous wound of Roman sword
piercing my heart on the hill where he died.
How can the Word be silenced? Where has it gone?
Where are the angel voices that sang at his birth?
My frail heart falters. I need the light of the Son.
What is this darkness over the face of the earth?

Sunday:
Dear God, He has come, the Word has come again.
There is no terror left in silence, in clouds, in gloom.
He has conquered the hate; he has overcome the pain.
Where, days ago, was death lies only an empty tomb.
The secret should have come to me with his birth,
when glory shone through darkness, peace through strife.
For every birth follows a kind of death, 
and only after pain comes life.

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Music: Magnificat – Daughters of Mary

Thursday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

September 7, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090723.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul gives us a textbook on how to pray for one another.

I don’t know about you, but when I pray for other people, it’s usually a prayer like this:

“Dear God, please let Drusilla pass her nursing exam this eighth time trying.” or

“Dear God, please help Joe get well and recover from his unfortunate fall out of the air balloon.”

In other words, I often have a specific result in mind when I pray like this. I tell God how I’d like things to turn out – especially when I pray for myself. 😉

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Paul’s prayer is different. He doesn’t pray for specific results for his Colossian friends. Rather, he prays for those spiritual gifts which will allow his friends to grow fully in grace and holiness, no matter the result of their circumstances:

• to have knowledge of God’s will
• to grow in spiritual wisdom and understanding
• to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord
• to be fully pleasing to God
• to bear fruit in every good work
• to grow in the knowledge of God
• to be strengthened with every power
• to have endurance and patience
• to joyfully give thanks to God

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As you can see, even if Drusilla fails again and Joe ends up with aerophobia, they would still be blessed beyond measure by gifts like the ones Paul prays for.

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In our Gospel, Jesus wants his friends to grow in spiritual gifts as well. To encourage that, he performs a delightful and astounding miracle to shore up his followers’ faith.

Just put yourself on that seashore that morning when two ramshackle boats nearly sank with a tsunami of magic fish! Picture Jesus enjoying his friends’ amazement as the fish tails flew up and wagged in the early morning sunlight. Imagine the profound response this miracle inspired, enough to leave everything behind to embrace its Source!

… astonishment at the catch of fish they had made seized Peter
and all those with him,
and likewise James and John, the sons of Zebedee,
who were partners of Simon.
Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;
from now on you will be catching men.”
When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.

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God’s miraculous gifts pour into our lives every day, often by virtue of our friends’ prayers and love. May we receive them with open hearts and pray for them for those whose names we speak to God.

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Poetry: excerpts from A Prayer for My Daughter by W.B. Yeats

Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.

I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.

May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend….

…. In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.

May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place…

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Music: The Prayer – written by David Foster, Carole Bayer Sager, Alberto Testa and Tony Renis

Wednesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time

September 6, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090623.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, we begin about two weeks of readings from Paul’s letters to the Colossians and to Timothy. These epistles often express personal tones not as evident in his other letters like Hebrews or Romans.

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In today’s reading we meet Paul’s beloved companions, Timothy and Epaphras. We will hear much more about Timothy later, but today let’s look at the snippets about Epaphras.

Just as in the whole world the Gospel is bearing fruit and growing,
so also among you,
from the day you heard it and came to know the grace of God in truth,
as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow slave,
who is a trustworthy minister of Christ on your behalf
and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

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Tradition holds that Paul may never have visited Colossae. He mentored and depended on Epaphras to build up the Church in that community. To report on his ministry, Epaphras visited Paul in Roman prison, and was arrested himself for a time. (Thus the reference “fellow slave”)

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Praying with Colossians this morning, I am reminded of the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child.” Paul obviously did not build up the Pauline Churches alone. His letters are filled with names of those inspired with his same passion for the Gospel. Together, they shaped the early Church which is our heritage.

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In our Gospel, Jesus ventures out on his own missionary journey. But he does so in the company of Peter and others, valued companions as was Epaphras to Paul.

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Our faith communities need each one of us, too, to invest our committed energy for the building up of the whole. As we offer our gifts to the Body of Christ, we need the blessing of holy companionship, as did Jesus and Paul.

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I pray in thanksgiving today for my Sisters, for our Associates in Mercy, for my co-ministers over many years, for my dear family and friends, for all those “trustworthy” and “beloved” companions on our journey of faith together. You may want to do the same.

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Poetry: honor the roots- by Rupi Kour

remember the body of your community 
breathe in the people
who sewed you whole
it is you who became yourself
but those before you
are a part of your fabric

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Music: walking Each Other Home – Dierks Bentley

Tuesday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time September 5, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090523.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our first reading seems so in synch with the cycle of the seasons.

Concerning times and seasons, brothers and sisters,
you have no need for anything to be written to you.

1 Thessalonians 5:1

Paul goes on to describe the rhythms of days and nights, lights and darknesses that flow through every life. Like the passing of the seasons, our life changes can inspire in us awe, wonder, and praise. But, at times, they can also leave us a little speechless, fearful, and confused.

Each season, though full of beauty, has its taxes and turns, for example:

the spring of:

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the summer of:

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the autumn of:

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the winter of:

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Paul assures us that the light of faith guides and sustains us through our life’s changes and challenges:

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness,
for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light
and children of the day.
We are not of the night or of darkness.

1 Thessalonians 5:9

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At our Baptism, an unquenchable pilot light was ignited deep in our hearts. We are fueled by the fire of God. As the earth’s phases transpire, they teach us to honor our own seasons by stilling ourselves in that Luminous Flame.

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Poetry: Twilight by Louise Glück

All day he works at his cousin’s mill,
so when he gets home at night, he always sits at this one window,
sees one time of day, twilight.
There should be more time like this, to sit and dream.
It’s as his cousin says:
Living—living takes you away from sitting.

In the window, not the world but a squared-off landscape
representing the world. The seasons change,
each visible only a few hours a day.
Green things followed by golden things followed by whiteness—
abstractions from which come intense pleasures,
like the figs on the table.

At dusk, the sun goes down in a haze of red fire between two poplars.
It goes down late in summer—sometimes it’s hard to stay awake.

Then everything falls away.
The world for a little longer
is something to see, then only something to hear,
crickets, cicadas.
Or to smell sometimes, aroma of lemon trees, of orange trees.
Then sleep takes this away also.

But it’s easy to give things up like this, experimentally,
for a matter of hours.

I open my fingers—
I let everything go.

Visual world, language,
rustling of leaves in the night,
smell of high grass, of woodsmoke.

I let it go, then I light the candle.

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Music: Wind in the Tall Autumn Grass – Kathryn Kaye

Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time September 4, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090423.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings each describe times of fulfillment.

In prose rich with imagery, Paul paints a picture of the final coming of Christ. Many early Christians had expected this Second Coming to occur very quickly after the Resurrection. When it did not, they became confused and wondered what it meant for those who died in the meantime.

To answer their concerns, Paul draws on the images Jesus himself used:

At that time people will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And he will send his angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of the heavens.

Mark 13:26-27

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In today’s Gospel, Jesus announces that the First Coming has occurred. His listeners, too, had expected the Messiah for ages. And now he was here – no clouds, no trumpets, no attending angels. Just the quiet unrolling of a scroll and the simple proclamation, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.”

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I like to pray with this passage by imagining myself somewhere in that synagogue, hearing those astounding words. Would I be the person who had longed to hear them and who responded wholeheartedly? Or would I hardly be paying attention, so distracted by my many concerns? Maybe I would be the skeptic who took any religious comment with a grain of salt and a drop of vinegar. Or maybe I would feel my heart fully embraced by that “Gracious Word” who is Jesus Christ.

And all spoke highly of him
and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.

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“Gracious” is such a beautiful word. The early Greek transcripts denote it as a word akin to “charity” or selfless love

χάριτος – charitos

As we try to imagine Jesus at this opening moment of his ministry, we might think of the most gracious person we know and multiply that by infinity.

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Poetry: Thou Gracious Power – Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thou gracious Power,
whose mercy lends
The light of home, the smile of friends,
Our families in Thine arms enfold
As in the peaceful days of old.


Wilt Thou not hear us while we raise,
In sweet accord of solemn praise,
The voices that have mingled long
In joyous flow of mirth and song?


For all the blessings life has brought,
For all its sorrowing hours have taught,
For all we mourn, for all we keep,
The hands we clasp,
the loved that sleep.


The noontide sunshine of the past,
These brief, bright
moments fading fast,
The stars that gild our darkening years,
The twilight ray from holier spheres.


We thank Thee, Father; let Thy grace
Our narrowing circle still embrace,
Thy mercy shed its heavenly store,
Thy peace be with us evermore.

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Music: How Deep, How Simple – Kathryn Kaye

Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

September 3, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090323.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, on this first Sunday in September, there is change in the air. Vacations are over. Schools are open. Autumn sale announcements are stuffed into the newspaper. Some of us are even thinking of a pumpkin latte after Sunday Mass.

We feel a change of mood in our Sunday readings too, and the mood is solemn.

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Just last Sunday, Jesus gave the “keys” over to Peter, alerting him that he would soon be driving the boat. But in today’s Gospel, Jesus gets intense about how that transition will occur. And it’s not going to be pretty.

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The angst within today’s scripture readings shouts loudly to us in the passage from Jeremiah foreshadowing the Passion of Christ. Jeremiah wrote during the downfall of Jerusalem to its Babylonian captors. When his and his community’s faith was tested beyond endurance, Jeremiah called his people to fidelity and hope. He gave expression to the deep pain of loss and failure yet holding up an unquenchable trust. The people derided him from their desolation and he let God know how he suffered:

Whenever I speak, I must cry out,
violence and outrage is my message;
the word of the LORD has brought me
derision and reproach all the day.

I say to myself, I will not mention him,
I will speak in his name no more.
But then it becomes like fire burning in my heart,
imprisoned in my bones;
I grow weary holding it in, I cannot endure it.

Jeremiah 20: 8-9

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Jesus is more subtle with his words but they too reveal a heart that is breaking because, in worldly terms, the dream appears to be untenable:

Jesus began to show his disciples
that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly
from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,
and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 16:21

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One might read today’s scriptures and ask why it had to be so hard for Jesus, so hard for the Jeremiah community. Why is it so hard for us to live a peaceful, faithful life in the world? Why doesn’t God just make it all work?

Praying with those questions, I come up with one answer: free will. God created us to choose freely to love and live in God. Programming that love into us would make the love meaningless. We have to choose it. And not everyone does. Those choices contradictory to God’s love create the kind of suffering Jesus and Jeremiah describe.

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Certainly we experience other kinds of anguish in life not controlled by our choices. These are associated with the natural life cycle of birth, growth, diminishment and death. As Christians, we believe that it is within the mystery of these joys and sorrows, lived in the pattern of Christ, that we come fully to a life resurrected in God.

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Poetry from Scripture: Psalm 63:

Seeking the gift of trust, we pray:

O God, you are my God whom I seek;
for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts
like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. 

You are my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I shout for joy.
My soul clings fast to you;
your right hand upholds me.

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Music: The Circle of Life – from The Lion King

From the day we arrive on the planet

And blinkin’, step into the sun

There’s more to see than can ever be seen

More to do than can ever be done

Some say, “Eat or be eaten”

Some say, “Live and let live”

But all are agreed as they join the stampede

You should never take more than you give

In the circle of life

It’s the wheel of fortune

It’s the leap of faith

It’s the band of hope

‘Til we find our place

On the path unwinding

In the circle, the circle of life

Some of us fall by the wayside

And some of us soar to the stars

And some of us sail through our troubles

And some have to live with the scars

There’s far too much to take in here

More to find than can ever be found

But the sun rollin’ high

Through the sapphire sky

Keeps great and small on the endless round

Saturday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time Saturday, September 2, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090223.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, both our readings offer many lessons, but I think a key one is this:

If you want to be a better person,
mind your own business!

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In Thessalonians, Paul is abundantly clear about it when he describes what fosters fraternal charity:

We urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.

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Jesus allegorizes what happens when we ignore our own responsibilities and worry about someone else’s choices:

‘Master, I knew you were a demanding person,
harvesting where you did not plant
and gathering where you did not scatter;
so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground.
Here it is back.’
His master said to him in reply, ‘You wicked, lazy servant!

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We all know people who are experts at evaluating everyone’s life but their own. Apparently, Paul and Jesus knew some too. To guide them into a more integrated life, Jesus and Paul offered these two standards: fraternal charity and practiced faithfulness to one’s own call.

I think the advice can help all of us.

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Prose: from Plato

Justice means 
minding one's own business 
and not meddling with 
other men’s concerns.

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Music: Mind Your Own Business – Hank Williams

If the wife and I are fussin’, brother that’s our right
‘Cause me and that sweet woman’s got a license to fight
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
‘Cause if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

Oh, the woman on our party line’s the nosiest thing
She picks up her receiver when she knows it’s my ring
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
Well, if you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

I got a little gal that wears her hair up high
The boys all whistle when she walks by
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
Well, if you mind your own business, you sure won’t be minding mine

If I want to honky tonk around ’til two or three
Now, brother that’s my headache, don’t you worry ’bout me
Just mind your own business
(Mind your own business)
If you mind your business, then you won’t be mindin’ mine

Mindin’ other people’s business seems to be high-toned
I got all that I can do just to mind my own
Why don’t you mind your own business?
(Mind your own business)
If you mind your own business, you’ll stay busy all the time

As we wake up today, perhaps surprised that it is already September, this descriptive poem by Helen Hunt Jackson may stir our prayerful appreciation for this glorious month.

In particular, I love the poet’s evocative final verse:

'Tis a thing which I remember;
To name it thrills me yet:
One day of one September
I never can forget.

Many of you, my dear readers, have such a memorable September day tucked in the tabernacle of time. It is, after all, a season of endings and beginnings – many of which can be life-changing, heart-changing.

As we remember , let’s lift up this first day in thanksgiving for all the blessings our Septembers have given us.

Friday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

September 1, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/090123.cfm

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Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, Paul instructs the Thessalonians on how to live a good Christian life. His teaching is strung on the tones of his time, and may fall a bit askew on our ears.

Reading Paul’s words today, I was immediately reminded of a report I read yesterday about Pope Francis’s visit with his Jesuit brothers in Portugal.

The Pope expressed his concern about what he terms “backwardism”, the intent to oppose any change in Church teaching. He said that “backwardism is useless, and it is necessary to understand that there is a correct evolution in the understanding of questions of faith and morals.”

Today’s reading offers us a good example of how we adapt our understanding of scripture according to advances in learning and the sciences.

The image of a man “acquiring” a wife for himself carries an objectification of women intolerable to a developed 21st century mind. Does that mean the teaching is invalid for us?

No. It simply alerts us that we must read all scripture with the understanding of enlightened Church teaching. The essence of this passage from Paul is not the instruction on how one finds a life companion. The essence is the call to holiness which never changes.

This is the will of God, your holiness.

The role of the Pope is to lead the Church in understanding the Word of God for or time. When asked for modern examples of these developing teachings, Francis cited these:

“Today it is a sin to possess atomic bombs; the death penalty is a sin, it cannot can be practiced, and it was not so before,” he said. “As for slavery, some pontiffs before me have tolerated it, but things are different today.”

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I found inspiration in the Pope’s continued explanation:

Francis went on to point to the writings of the fifth century monk, Vincent of Lérins, who taught that doctrine “may be consolidated by years, expanded by time, exalted by age.”

Change develops from the root upward, growing with these three criteria,” the pope told the Jesuits, noting that Lérins knew that the understanding of the human person is deepened with the passage of time.

The other sciences and their evolution also help the church in this growth in understanding,” Francis said. “The view of church doctrine as a monolith is wrong.”

from NCR: Christopher White, 8/28/2023

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Unfortunately, not all those charged with leadership and teaching exercise their role with this holy freedom. Fear, ignorance, greediness, and a lust for power can lurk behind even the most exalted title.

As today’s Gospel indicates, it takes great vigilance to remain ready for God. Over centuries for the Church, and over a lifetime for each of us, we must continue to fill our lamps with refreshed and deeper perceptions of God’s ever-unfolding, infinite Wisdom.

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Prose: about St. Augustine

You may have heard this legend, written in the Middle Ages, by Jacobus de Voragine. I remember a book similar to the one below which you too might have seen as a child recounting legends of the saints.

St. Augustine spent 30 years writing his brilliant treatise “De Trinitate”. He never completed it.

Early in the process, as the story goes, Augustine was pondering along the seashore. He saw a young boy industriously running from the ocean back to a small hole dug in the sand. Each time the boy carried a shell full of water to the hole.

When asked, he told Augustine that he was trying to transfer the entire ocean to the hole. When Augustine assured him that that was an impossible task, the child responded, “It would be easier and quicker to draw all the water out of the sea and fit it into this hole than for you to fit the mystery of the Trinity and His Divinity into your little intellect; for the Mystery of the Trinity is greater and larger in comparison with your intelligence than is this vast ocean in comparison with this little hole.”

So saying, the little boy vanished.

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Music: Fill Us with Your Love

Thursday of the Twenty-first Week in Ordinary Time

August 31, 2023

Today’s Readings:

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/thursday-twenty-first-week-ordinary-time

Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our readings speak to us about the power of witness.

We need the witness of one another’s faith to strengthen our own on life’s long journey. Even the strongest spiritual leader is encouraged by the faith and vitality of their traveling companions.

Paul was confirmed by the faithful witness of the Thessalonians to the point that his grateful prayer pours out in today’s letter.

We have been reassured about you, brothers and sisters,

in our every distress and affliction, through your faith.

For we now live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

What thanksgiving, then, can we render to God for you,

for all the joy we feel on your account before our God?

1 Thessalonians 3:7-9

In our Gospel, Jesus tells us that it takes constant vigilance to assure this kind of fidelity in our hearts. There are days when the long journey exhausts us. Sometimes one valley comes so quickly upon another that we stumble a bit in our trust or resolve.

It is at such times that the witness of those beside us is so important. When we are in the valley, we need to lifted by their light. When we are on the hilltop, we need to give that light unselfishly.

That mutuality seems to be working for Paul and the Thessalonians. We can join in Paul’s prayer, remembering when it has gifted us.

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Poetry: Thank God for Little Things – Helen Steiner Rice

Thank You, God, for little things
that often come our way—

The things we take for granted
but don’t mention when we pray—

The unexpected courtesy,
the thoughtful, kindly deed—

A hand reached out to help us
in the time of sudden need—

Oh make us more aware, dear God,
of little daily graces

That come to us with “Sweet Surprise”
from never-dreamed-of places.

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Music: I Thank My God – Frank Anderson

Chorus

I thank my God each time I think of you.

And when I pray for you I pray with joy.

1

Now there is one thing I am sure of

He who begins this work in you

Will see that it is truly finished

When the day of Jesus comes.

2

That I should feel like this towards you

Seems only natural to me.

For you have shared with me my labours;

The Gospel privilege with me.

3

Since you have borne with me my burdens,

I now bear you within my heart.

And God alone knows how I miss you.

I love you just as Christ loves me.

3

Since you have borne with me my burdens,

I now bear you in my heart.

And God alone knows how I miss you.

I love you just as Christ loves me.

4

I pray your knowledge will be deepened.

Your love be mutual and strong.

Then you will reach the perfect goodness.

Then to the Lord you will belong.