15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 14th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 55: 10-11
   
2. Psalms 65: 10, 11, 12-13, 14
   
3. Romans 8: 18-23
   
4. Matthew 13: 1-23
   

• I'd like a word with you
  
• Being a man of many words, sometimes the most meaningful thing that I can say to someone is "words fail me".  The word of God comes to us in many ways, many forms, and I think that is because we need all of them to adequately experience God.
• What are some ways that God comes you you to be with you, to share Himself with you?
• Are all of those revelations verbal?
• Are the non verbal revelations any less important or inspiring?
• Is it worth the effort to try to put some of those non-verbal revelations into words?
  

• Learning from the grapes
  
• When we celebrate the Eucharist it is with bread and wine, not grain and grapes.  Grain and grapes are edible by themselves, they can sustain in their original form, yet we transform them to bread and wine before offering them to God in the Eucharist.
• What are some things that God has gifted you with, that you have transformed into something new, nurturing, life-giving?
• How did you know that God had a calling for you in that capacity?
  
• How did that experience change you?
  

• Revealing God
  
• Revelation might be a string of events.  But I think that more often, it comes as a process.  We as God's children are called to be His Presence here on earth.
• Who are some folks who are a living revelation of God?
• What do they teach you about God?
• What do these people teach you about being a disciple of God?
• How have they inspired you?
  

• Growing together
• Our ministries are seldom a solo process.  Instead, we find ourselves working with others, ministering with, and through them, and growing with them.
• Who are some folks who have helped you in your ministries in years past?
• How have they helped you to grow, deepen in your faith?
• Why do you think that God sent them into your life?
• Why do you think that God sent you into their life?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
  

1. Where and how am I revealing God in my life?
2. How is God drawing me into creating with Him today?
3. Where is God calling me to reveal Him more deeply, with greater courage?
   
4. Where is God calling me to bring His Kingdom with someone new?

Can You Help Me Be Me? 

We all take it for granted that the young grow with time.
Taking on more responsibility
Shouldering burdens large and small
With steadily more strength and willingness.

But somehow, we act as though that growth ends.
Maybe when we get married, or land that first big job.
Maybe when we buy our first home,
But we all act as though creation grinds to a halt in our lives.

Maybe adolescence is too hard,
We desperately want to find a steady direction,

Steady pace,

Steady purpose in life rather than pushing our limits.

When I was young, I stuck to the familiar and comfortable

Out of fear of failure.

Out of fear of wasting my time with something I could never be good at.

Out of fear of being inadequate, lost, purposeless.

Lately, I cling to the familiar

Out of fear of success -

Finding out that all my adult life, I harbored 

An inner sculptor, poet, or elephant trainer.

And that I have never had the courage to hear that voice

That anthem welling up within me.

And maybe now it's too late.

Too late to make a difference in a different way.

Please, take my hand.

Draw me out onto the ice of uncharted possibilities,

Reassure me that it's better to fall and rise again -

Than to have never fallen at all.

Whisper that you'll be there to help

Even if the ice is as thin as I fear it is.

Show me that's not the point in this life.

Venture does not require boldness, it begets it.

Shalom!