3rd Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Third Sunday of Lent Cycle A are:

1. Exodus 17: 3-7
2. Psalm 95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8
4. John 4: 5-42

1. I never promised you a rose garden
• Slavery is not so much how hard you work but why you do it.  Someone will willingly perform heroic amounts of work if it achieves something that is important to them.  Oppression is not so much about hardship as it is about why you are enduring it.  The hardship of the early settlers of the United States seems mind-boggling to us to day, but to them, it was the price you paid for opportunity.
• What do you want to be free of?
• What are you willing to pay to achieve that freedom?
• Do you think that you'll be a better person when you're free of those shackles?
• Do you think that there might be things that are binding you that you are unaware of?
2. Don't temp me
• What sorts of emotions do you think that God has?
• What sorts of things do you think make Him angry with us, disappointed, just sad?
• If you could see God's face, know how your actions affect Him, would that change you in any way?
3. Living in the Presence
• A popular Catholic devotion is to pray in the presence of the Presence on a first Friday.
• If you could go somewhere, and in that place and time, know just exactly how God feels about you at that very moment, would you go there?
• How often?
• How would that encounter change you?
4. Gently, gently
• Jesus brought the woman at the well to faith in stages, gently leading her, stretching her perceptions just a bit at a time.  Do you feel that's a fairly typical pattern with God?
• When was the last time that God gently led you past your comfort level to a place that you didn't know existed?
• As we try to show God to others, how can we be gradual, kind, merciful?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to listen to God and let that listening carry me to new places?
2. Am I willing to give up my ideas, my plans in order to draw closer to God?
3. What am I willing to give up for true peace?
4. When was the last time that I had a prayer experience that I was excited to share with someone else?

Tabernacle of the Forgotten Water Jar

Local legend has it that this is the water jar left by the woman at the well.
One little boy in the tour group asked "Why would she leave her jar?"
"Well now," said the tour guide, "she had met Jesus, and she was excited."
"But He knows everything.  He know that jar was important to her, why didn't He remind her?"

The old tour guide chewed on that question for a long while.
No one had ever put it to him quite like that before.
"I recon that sometimes, when you love someone a great deal,
You can tell when they have turned a corner, crested a hill in their lives,

And you know that nothing is ever going to be the same for them.
You know that everything that they had up until that point has served its purpose,
And it's just not that important anymore because everything is new.
I guess this little shrine is a monument to transformation."

"It's like growing up.  One day, you look at something precious,
And you realize that it's time to give it away to someone who will appreciate it.
You hope that the fact that it's been in your hands all this time,
Will somehow be a benefit to the next person, and you just give it away."

The little boy was clutching a favorite bear of his, and he looked at it a long time.
"Mister, does it hurt to grow up?" he asked.
"Son, the only thing more painful, is the little deaths you die
When you don't grow up and it's time."

"How do you know when it's time?" came the question.
"Your heart just tells you, and you know."
"When do you stop growing up?" came the question.
"I think when you die, but don't quote me on that one, 'cause I'm not 100% sure."

The boy turned to go as the tour group started toward their next stop.
He turned to the guide again and asked "I want to come back.  Will you be here?"
The old guide looked deep into his eyes and said:
"I'll be here, but hopefully a better version of me.  You'll be back, but the boy in you will be gone forever."

Shalom!

2nd Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Second Sunday of Lent are:

1. Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18
2. Psalm 27: 1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
3. Philippians 3: 17-4:1
4. Luke 9: 28-36

1. Name it and claim it
• Believing is more than mental assent to some statement, it's living a life based on that.  Abram was able to accept that God was going to give his heirs an inheritance, that Abram's line was going to continue, that he was going to leave a legacy, and live a life that reflected that profound faith.
• When you choose to believe a promise of God, how do you move the experience of that promise from your head to your heart?
• Do you think that the heart can "know" things that our minds are unable to fathom?
• How can we live our lives such that the head and the heart support and illuminate each other?
2. I'm here for you ...
• When going through tough times, it's a great comfort to have company.  But in some ways, we always travel this life alone, or do we?
• Why is it hard to relate to someone in real pain, regardless of the reason for their pain?
• Short of simply making that pain go away, how can any of us really support someone in great need?
• How does God support us in our need?
• Aren't we always in need in one way or another?
3. Choose wisely
• Matthew Kelly makes a great emphasis on choosing your heroes carefully, and then getting the most possible from their example: study their lives, find out what makes them so good at what they do best, and above all, practice what they do so that you too might enjoy success.
• Who are your heroes?
• What have you done to become more like them?
• Would you wish that your son or daughter had the same heroes?
4. Let's do that again!
• I'm going to bet that, as they got older, the disciples got more and more thoughtful, spent more and more time remembering, and trying to get more and more meaning from those many experiences that they shared with Jesus.
• Do you have any pivotal experiences that changed you, changed the way that you look at things, changed your attitude?
• What was so profound about those experiences?
• How are you being faithful to what was shown you in those events?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I believing in God for today?
2. How am I actively making myself available to/for others?
3. Who is helping me become more Christlike by their example?
4. What am I doing to learn the most from what I experience?

Sacred Memory

They're all gone now, some longer than others.
The original company of Jesus, dead and gone,
Their ashes scattered across the land and beyond.

I, I alone, here on the island of Patmos remember
The bite of the night air when Jesus came to us
Came across the water against all odds.

I'm the only one who remembers the tang of the air
Wafting out of Lazarus' tomb when we moved the stone,
And the sweetness that warned of resurrection emerging.

I remember the taste of the fish that he had cooking for us
That wonderful morning after He had raised from the dead,
And our hearts were still in the deepest grave of hopelessness.

The crackle of the fire that He had made among the rocks,
The aroma of the cooking fish, and the sound of His voice.
That always reminded us that there was more than met the eye.

I tried to share the earthiness of those memories,
Their bitter sweet texture that only comes first hand,
But this generation mistakes knowledge for understanding

And looses the essence of His life in looking to understand
Something that never really can be understood.
That He was real -- flesh -- and blood right in our midst.

And with a well-worn wonder, I look at my haggard hands,
And realize that He's still here today, as long as we keep sharing
What and where He's moving in our midst.

Shalom!

1st Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the first Sunday of Lent are:

1. Deuteronomy 26: 4-10
2. Psalm 91: 1-2, 10-11, 12-13, 14-15
3. Romans 10: 8-13
4. Luke 4: 1-13

1. All good gifts ...
• What do you thank God for most?
• What do you thank God for the most often?
• Do you ever congratulate yourself?  For instance you might think that you're unusually fit for a person your age, and you congratulate yourself on all of the healthy habits you adhere to, no matter how tempting the occasional lapse might be.
• What do you think God thinks about those self-congratulatory moments?
• How can we become more humble?
2. Leading a sheltered life
• Things could always be worse, always get worse.  Given that, do you feel that you've led a sheltered life, do you feel that you've managed to get along without suffering any or all of the consequences of your mistakes?
• Have you ever asked God for shelter?
• How did you try to convince Him that he should shelter you?
• What, ultimately, do you want shelter from?
3. We believe
• If you were going to build a new religion, where would you start?
• What would you try to fix about the faith tradition that you have?
• How exclusive would that new religion be?  What would be the entry requirements?
• Do you think that Jesus would be that careful about who He let in?
4. One does not live on bread alone ... but a little now and again would be nice
• More and more it seems to me that temptation boils down to an offer of something that is good in its own time and place, but just not right now, not right here.
• How do you think that we can come to resist such temptations to try to shortcut God's will?
• Where do you find the strength to persevere in the face of the same temptation that comes up over and over?
• How many times do you think that Jesus faced various temptations?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. When was the last time that I thanked God for something that I had never thought to thank Him for?
2. Am I willing to trust God to take care of me, no matter what?
3. Who is there in my life that I care about so much, that I'd be willing to talk with them about my faith?
4. Am I defined by what I worry about?

What Tempts You

The sure thing is the hardest to resist.
On the one hand, we like to live as though there's no tomorrow,
No reason to hold back, no cause to wait.

And at the same time, we act as though this life that we're in
Is going to last forever, that health will always be there,
That we'll always have the strength and vitality to do whatever we want.

Oddly, both are wrong.

A life well lived is one of waiting on the Lord
Always prepared for His time and circumstances to ripen fully
Knowing that when it comes, we'll be told.

At the same time, change is always in the wind.
This very moment is sacred, and to be savored,
Because we will never pass this way again.

Fear is blinding.

Fear of missing out, of blinking at just the wrong moment,
Makes me want to take what I think is coming before it arrives,
Just to make sure that I don't miss out.

At the same time, fear of change makes me want to cling
To all that is comfortable, safe and warm,
And miss out on that still small voice urging me onward.

Pray for me, for all of us -

That our eyes will be opened to the miracle of now.
And never miss a chance to inhale deeply
And smell the richness of right here.

And yet, and yet, eyeing the horizon for that next step
That can change everything,
Even if it all looks the same.

Shalom!