Epiphany Sunday

Our readings for Epiphany Sunday are:

1. Isaiah 60: 1-6
2. Psalms 72: 1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13
3. Ephesians 3: 2-3a, 5-6
4. Matthew 2: 1-12

• How odd of God to choose the Jews
• Last week we marveled at how God came to be flesh among us in the context of a very humble, outwardly, very ordinary family.  Nothing about the circumstances of Jesus village, his lineage, ... screamed divinity.
• This Sunday, we are invited to reflect that God chose to make His home on earth with the Jewish people.  Generation after generation, God was faithful to them, in spite of seasons when His people were far from Him.
• Has there ever been a time when you wandered from God, either deliberately or by negligence?
• How did God bring you back?
• When you look back on that period in your life, what does that tell you about yourself, about God?
• If God can work through a humble nation like the Jews, what do you think He means to accomplish in you?

• Saving work
• Our God is a God of justice.  But just what does that mean?
• In your day to day work (be it for a paycheck or not, it's still work) when have you had a chance to be just to those around you.
• How did you decide what to do in that situation?
• Did that process bring you closer to God?
• Why?

• Big tent religion
• Why is it easier to relate to someone who is a lot like you?
• Why do you think that Jesus was a scandal to those around Him in His day?
• If Jesus were here today, where do you think that He would live, who He would serve, who He would upset?
• Would you really want to be seen with Him?

• What does it all mean?
• The magi from the East (notice no mention of a gender for any of them) were acutely aware of their surroundings, and saw the star at its rising, and wanted to know just what it meant.
• How can we learn the deeper meaning of what goes on in the world around us?
• Can we just go somewhere/someone and be told what all of this means?
• What sorts of influences in your life tend to make you less sensitive to the deeper meanings of what goes on in everyday life?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How has the faithfulness of God changed me lately?
2. What am I doing to be more just in my life?
3. If Jesus were here today, would I be as welcoming as He is?
4. How am I pondering my daily life, to more deeply understand its meaning?

Shalom!

Feast of the Holy Family

Our readings for Holy Family Sunday are:

1. 1 Samuel 1: 20-22, 24-28
2. Psalms 84: 2-3, 5-6, 9-10
3. 1 John 3: 1-2, 21-24
4. Luke 2: 41-52

• Avoiding attachments
• One of the central themes of Ignatian training is avoiding disordered attachments.  Essentially avoiding clinging to anything that at all.
• Have you ever had something perfectly healthy for you leave your life?  That could be a beloved friend, a job, a relative, your first Camaro.
• How did that separation make you feel?
• Why do you think that happened to you?
• Did you ever get "over" that loss?
• Should you?

• Dwelling with God
• If someone asked you to tell just who you are, where would you start?
• With your current career, your family background, where you live, ...?
• Why is it that those things define you?
• If any of them were to change, would that necessarily change you?
• Which communities, large or small, do you belong to?
• How do those define you?
• Did those connections come about because of who you are, or are you who you are because of those connections to others?

• Well I've gotten ...
• In the play The Man of La Manch, Don Quixote's loyal servant Sancho Panza is confronted by a friend who wants to know why Sancho is following this strange man.  Sancho begins to tell of all of the things that have come his way because of his devotion to Don Quixote.
• Why is it that you feel that you have a relationship with God?
• Is it because of things that you've gotten?
• Is it because of things that you feel, graces that you've received, accomplishments that God has given you ...?
• If any/all of those were to "dry up", would you abandon God?
• Why?

• What does it all mean?
• I find it funny (take that adjective in both senses if you will) that we never do anything to commemorate Jesus being found in the Temple.  After all, if they hadn't found Him, the Gospels might have been a lot shorter.
• Mary and Joseph ended up in Jerusalem to observe Passover.  What are some of the traditions that you observe in your family?
• What do those traditions mean to you these days?
• What did they mean to you when you were growing up?
• Which ones are worth passing along to the next generation?
• Why is that?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What in my life am I attached to that I should not be?
2. Where are the relationships in my life that I need to nurture more?
3. How unconditional is my love for God?
4. What traditions in my life need to be rejuvenated, passed along, abandoned?

Shalom!

4th Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the Fourth Sunday of Advent are:

1. Micah 5: 1-4a
2. Psalms 50: 2-3, 15-16, 18-19
3. Hebrews 10: 5-10
4. Luke 1: 39-45

• Returning to what?
• The Church seems to be full of folks beset with nostalgia.  Some of that nostalgia runs 7 decades deep, back to a time when the Church was sure of her role in the world, when Catholic culture was pervasive throughout entire neighborhoods, when things were simple and clear.
• What are you nostalgic for?  What do you think has been lost along the way over the decades that you have lived?
• If you could go back to an earlier time, would you?
• Do you feel that we, as Church, need to somehow dial back the clock and return to core values, core practices, devotions, ..., or somehow find a way to reinvent ourselves in light of current challenges, current needs, current culture?
• Who is going to lead us into that brave new world?
• Who is the most qualified to do that leading?

• Good to know I'm the apple of your eye, but you have a funny way of showing it ...
• Have you ever had a really good friend who had some hard words for you, or in some other way had to show you "tough love"?
• How did that experience affect your friendship?
• Have you ever had the courage to do that for someone else?
• How much courage do you think it takes for God to treat us that way?

• Consecration
• The transubstantiation of the bread and wine at Eucharist is a consecration.  In a very similar way, each of us is consecrated when we offer ourselves to God for His service.
• If you had to summarize it in as few words as possible, what would you say is the purpose of your life?
• How have you been living that out lately?
• How do you see yourself living that in the years ahead?

• What does it all mean?
• Say what you will about the Harry Potter storyline, one thing that strikes me about that saga is the two-edged sword that befalls Harry as he steps into his destiny.  He quickly gets ushered out of a miserable, though well understood, existence into a much wider sphere that he has been largely blind to.  Or take Frodo in The Lord of the Rings.  He is forcibly pushed from his comfortable existence in the Shire, and in a matter of just a few hours confronts vast and terrifying evil that he was totally ignorant of.
• What are some experiences that have made you connected?  That connection could be to other folks you have known for years that you finally understand better than you ever have, or you suddenly "get" what it means to belong to the community of saints, or maybe injustice suffered brings you into community with those through the ages who have been oppressed.
• What brought those moments on?
• How have they changed you?
• Do you look forward to more of those, or less?
• Why?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Where is God calling me to lead others closer to Him?
2. Where is God calling me to show more courage?
3. How is God consecrating me today?
4. What do I need to wake up to today?

Shalom!

2nd Sunday of Advent

Our readings for the Second Sunday of Advent are:

1. Baruch 5: 1-9
2. Psalms 126: 1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 6
3. Philippians 1: 4-6, 8-11
4. Luke 3: 1-6

• The strength of home
• Uproot a people, transport them elsewhere, and they suddenly become less of a threat.  Their cultural foundation, wrenched from their land, fails them, their social networks crumble, their strength falters, even if nothing else has been done to them.
• Who are the refugees among us today?  Those who have fled their homeland to avoid persecution, corrupt government, destitution, ...
• Where should they go?
• Why?

• Waiting for a return
• The fall of Man concludes in Genesis with humanity being banned from the Garden, condemned to be the world's first refugees, bereft, strangers in a strange land, never to return.
• What would it take for you to be more at home in your life?  Do you dream of moving somewhere that will make you happy, find that dream job, get some kids that finally listen to you, belong to a community?
• Would that move draw you closer to Jesus?
• Would that make you more comfortable?
• Do you think that all of our yearnings are meant to be satisfied in this life?

• Creation yesterday, today, and forever
• How would you define a partnership?
• Jesus told His disciples that He calls them friends.  Do you think that he would ever call us partners?
• During which parts of His life and ministry, yesterday, today, and tomorrow do you think that Jesus would most want your company?
• What can you do to be a better companion to Jesus?

• What does it all mean?
• Preachers from the desert popped up all of the time in John's day.  Someone preaching repentance was nothing new.  Recognizing that John heralded something special, that this was more than just another itinerant preacher took some sensitivity, risk-taking, courage.
• Why is it so easy to miss God's movements in our lives?
• How can we become more sensitive to those movements?
• How can we help each other to become more sensitive to those movements?

• Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What can I do for the refugees of all sorts in our midst?
2. Where is God calling me to return to Him today?
3. Where am I aiding the ongoing unfolding of Creation?
4. What action of the Holy Spirit in my life today am I aware of?

Shalom!