26th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Numbers 11: 25-29
   
2. Psalms 19: 8, 10, 12-13, 14
   
3. James 5: 1-6
   
4. Mark 9: 38-43
   

• Being sensitive to the Spirit
  
• Years ago, when I was still teaching Confirmation, Mary Rutz and Chris McGinnis led a prayer service for the Confirmation students that were ready to be Confirmed.  Mary put down a sheet in the sanctuary, laid out some sand, and rocks, and made a worship space there that was the stage for an amazing experience.  I never would have thought to do that.
• If someone were to tell you that you are sacramental: an outward sign, instituted by Christ, to give grace." what would you say?
  
• If you think that notion is sacrilegious, why do you feel that way?
• If you feel that notion is appropriate, why do you feel that way?
• Can we have too many sacraments in our lives?
  

• Letting joy find me
  
• True joy depends upon just two things: who Jesus is to me and who I am to Jesus.  Once I get those two landmarks firmly in view, everything else falls into place.
• What do you think that Jesus wants more for you than anything else?
• How is He offering that to you today?
• How are you growing in acceptance of that gift?
• What is slowing you down in that acceptance?
  

• Giving it away
  
• The world we live in is full of competition.  We constantly feel the urge to prove ourselves worthy of recognition, attention, care.  We measure ourselves by what we're able to acquire, be it a lovely house, great job, fame, or fortune.
• What truly makes you happy?
• Is that which makes you happy about something that you give away, or something that you received?
• How are you caring for what makes you happy?  How are you cultivating that?
• How do you express thanks to God for that blessing?
  

• Angels in our midst
  
• Maybe the challenge before is not to crowd yet more good deeds into our lives, but that we do that good more deliberately.
• Think of the last time that you offered a kindness to someone.
• Why did you do that?
• What do you think would happen if the next time you expressed kindness, support, affirmation to another person, you said in your heart: "The spark of the Divine in me recognizes, celebrates, and salutes the spark of the Divine in you.  Accept this small token of the joy I find because you are here."
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God calling me to greater trust?
• Where is the Joy of the Lord knocking at my door and I'm not hearing?
  
• What am I doing to be more generous?
  
• Where is God calling me to live my destiny more deeply?

Morning Prayer

As the sun paints the sky to celebrate a new day

A day like no other before or hence

A day full of opportunity -

I visualize all those that I will touch today.

Those encounters both planned and unplanned.

With folks that I rejoice in, and those that I don't.

I ask you Jesus to give me your eyes to see with -

To know that you walk in and among us all

As you walk within those that you bring to me today.

Help me to see your face Lord -

In those eyes.

Help me feel Your touch Lord in their hands.

 

Give me the grace to glory in your Presence.

No matter how it comes to me.

Grant me the grace to be Your presence to them.

 

Make my life a prayer to you.

That my voice, eyes, touch 

Be a sacrament of Your love to those around me.

 

That together, we might inspire each other

To truly live out our destiny in you.

To bring our flesh to your ongoing incarnation with, in, and through us.

Shalom!

25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20
   
2. Psalms 54: 3-4, 5, 6, 8
   
3. James 3: 16-4: 3
   
4. Mark 9: 30-37
   

• Victory through defeat
  
• God defends us, nurtures us, cares for us, all in ways that we often fail to see during the heat of the moment.  The fact that we are treasured may come as a surprise to those around us.
• What is your image of God?
• What is on His face/in His eyes when He looks at you?
• What do you think God protects us from?  Would it be poverty, ill health, a bad hair day, death, ...?
• How does that protection make you feel?
• Do you feel as though you are precious in His eyes?
  

• Quid pro quo
  
• We know that virtue is its own reward, that serving God and neighbor brings blessings all out of proportion to the work that we put in.  And yet, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing that we are somehow entitled to a break at least once in a while in recognition of our own faithfulness.
• If you're honest with yourself, what do you feel would be a legitimate expectation that you might put on God as recognition for all that you've done for Him thorough the years?
• Have you ever prayed about that?
• What was God's answer?
  

• Whatever
  
• I agree with Matthew Kelly that our deepest desires and longings come from God Himself, and that listening to those longings is part of discernment and hence part of prayer itself.
• If you are honest with yourself, what are one or two of your deepest longings?
• If you have done nothing to achieve those, why not?
• What are you afraid of?
• Do you ever pray about those?
  

• Earning points
  
• We all look for affirmation - that gentle confirmation that we have made the right decisions, put our energies into the right thing, become the right sort of person.  And perhaps most of all, done all of that at about the right pace.  Not rushing things unnecessarily, yet always moving forward in our love affair with God.
• What do you think that you are great at?
• Does that make you any greater than anyone else?
• Does that feature about you make you better than most people?
• Why or why not?
• Do you think that Jesus likes that about you?
• With all of that greatness going on, can you still be humble?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God calling me to greater trust?
• Do I feel entitled??
  
• What am I doing to achieve God's deepest desires for me?
  
• Where is God calling me to live my destiny more deeply?

Making Mom Proud

My mother Rachel never did understand this life of a wandering disciple.
"Simon," she says "where are you going to meet a nice girl on the road?

You'll bring your old mother to her grave with worry hanging around this preacher.
What's wrong with setting into the family weaving business with your brother Sidney?
At least that way you will know where your next meal comes from

And where you're going to sleep that night."

At one time I thought that Jesus would be crowned, 

My brother disciples and I would be ushered into greatness,

We would finally show all of them that this Jesus was the real thing,

And that all of us had made a sound choice in following Him,

No matter how unlikely that was,

Or how foolish we have sometimes felt.

Then, I slowly learned that Jesus was not destined for a crown.

At least not on this side of eternity.

Worse, the shame that He sees in his future will surely taint us.

Poisoning our relationships with family, friends, synagogues,

Everyone who ever cared for, or about us, who won't understand

The sad shameful end that Jesus tells use is in store for Him.

Fear nearly drove wild.

I had no where else to go.

Nowhere to turn.

I could not imagine turning my back on these my brothers,

On Jesus who somehow knows me better than I know myself.

On Jesus who always brings out the best in me in spite of my fear.

Fear has gradually given way to resignation.

And now resignation has made room for hope.

Not hope that Jesus will somehow dodge this shameful destiny.

Rather, hope that I will find joy in that shame.

Hope that I will have the strength to persevere.

Hope that I will never forget who Jesus has showed me that I am.

Shalom!

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 24th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 50: 4-9a
   
2. Psalms 116: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9
   
3. James 2: 14-19
   
4. Mark 8: 27-35
   

• Caring about the important stuff
  
• I think that it's a natural consequence of maturation that things that once were so important dim in significance, life becomes simpler, and despite the fact that the prescription on our trifocals becomes ever stronger, our inner vision becomes clearer.
• What is something that used to be very urgent for you that no longer matters very much?
• How did that change in your attitude come about?
• Do you wish that you did not have to go through that transition?
• Maybe you wish that transition had come about much earlier?
  

• Brought low
  
• We want to triumph in life.  Losing is for losers.  If you cannot score at least the occasional triumph, maybe it's because you're not trying hard enough, you're not smart enough, or you're just trying the wrong things.
• When was a time in your life when you felt as though you could not hang on any longer, as though you were caught in the perfect storm with no way out?
• Obviously, you made it.  How?
• Where was God in all of that?
• How did you come to find Him in your perfect storm?
  

• Doing the next needed thing
  
• Ministry has ragged edges.  I remember Fr. Greg Boyle relating a story in Tattoos On the Heart about a homey who's refrigerator broke down.  The refrigerator was old, not worth repairing, and the homey in question was barely making ends meet.  When Fr. Boyle heard that, he dropped what he was doing, and went shopping with that young man to find a replacement refrigerator that he could afford.
• What is a touch that you have given someone, or that they have given you, that was totally outside of any "normal" ministry that either of you were involved in?
• Why do you think that happened?
• How did you respond?  Were you fearful, excited, honored, repelled, ...?
• Why do you think that you reacted that way?
• How could you be more open to such encounters?
  

• Asking the right questions
  
• The Bible is full of mighty heroes who got it mighty wrong.  It has to make you wonder what God was really looking for in that situation.  We think that we have God figured out, that we know His essence, and then He goes and does something totally unexpected.
• Has God ever shocked, even offended you?
• How did you respond?
• How did God respond to your response?
• What did you learn from that experience?
• Do you think that there might be yet more learning ahead for you from that experience?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where is God inviting me into more freedom?
• Am I willing to hit rock bottom to serve God?
  
• Where is God waiting for me to touch or be touched outside my comfort zone?
  
• Where is God calling me to be bold in following Him?

Looking Out for Jesus

Jesus can do some pretty scandalous things.

Talking to a Samaritan woman

Touching a leper

Healing on the Sabbath

Eating with tax collectors.

Makes you wonder whether He goes out of his way

To go where no one else will go for fear.

Fear of what will be said of them

Fear of how their family will respond

Fear of the reactions of the local village.

You wonder what Jesus might say

If you asked Him to dial it back just a little.

Try to do something conventional

Just once.

Keep everyone else on their toes.

But no, He goes charging off into the unknown.

No looking back, no second-guessing.

Eyes flashing resolute

Pace quickening in anticipation

Hands open to receive whatever comes His way.

He's so vulnerable that way.

Rejection is often all that He receives.

Word makes its way back to his family.

And you wonder whether He makes them weep -

The same way that He makes you weep.

Jesus, free me from trying to protect you.

Free me from my fear that shackles me.

Give me your lion heart.

That I may follow you with boldness.

Wherever that may be.

Shalom!

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 23nd Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Isaiah 35: 4-7a
   
2. Psalms 146: 6-7, 8-9a, 9bc-10
   
3. James 2: 1-5
   
4. Mark 7: 31-37
   

• Open my eyes Lord
  
• True meaning probably needs to be searched for.  A Far Side cartoon that I like shows two fishermen in a boat.  Mushroom clouds are rising in the background.  One of them says to the other "I'll tell you what it means Norm: no size limitations and screw the limit!"  The speaker was not wrong, but I would argue that he missed some more important meaning.
• Think of an event or occurrence in your life that had a profound impact on you.
• How did that occurrence come to make such a change in your life?  How did you process that occurrence?
• How did you decide how to respond to that occurrence?
  
• Do you think that you might get more out of life if you put that much time and thought into all of your responses?
• How would you create the space in your day for that sort of reflection?
  

• Who/what do you praise?
  
• Most of us find things to be grateful for.  Some of us even find individual people or things worthy of praise to the extent that we express that praise to ourselves or even others.
• What are the sorts of things that you praise?  Are they rather mundane, like the quality of your neighbor's lawn, or are they sublime, like the very gift of life that God grants us?
• Do you think that our choice of the things that we praise could change us?
• Do you think that the people whom we share that praise with could change us?
• What would you rather be praising?
• Whom would you rather share that praise with you?
  

• Getting past the obvious
  
• In his later years, my grandfather could not be bothered much with personal hygiene.  He felt such concerns were for people who didn't have more important things to do.  Yet Sunday after Sunday, Dad would go pick grandpa up, bring him to church, and by doing so, make everyone around them feel uncomfortable.  Dad definitely had the courage of his convictions.
• We all have people in our lives who make us uncomfortable.  Who are some of yours?
• Why is it that they make you uncomfortable?  Is it because they are different, needy, outspoken about unpopular views, have some physical disability, ...?
• What do you think that person needs most from you?  Certainly not indifference or pity.
• What prevents you from meeting that need?
• What can you, need you, do about that part of you?
  

• Speaking plainly
  
• Speaking can be transformative.  Sharing our heart with another is more than just helping them to understand where we are at the moment.  Sharing from our depths invites that other to companion us on our journey, to help us see our existence in a broader context, to help us see and celebrate our story as part of the great story of Jesus Himself.
• Have you ever had anything that impeded your sharing of yourself with others?  Perhaps it was fear of how you would be received, inability to put into words what you wanted to convey, an absence of anyone that you felt close to, grief over a loss, ...?
• How did you become aware of that impediment?
• How did you eventually resolve it?
• How do you think that you might invite others to resolve any speech impediments that they might have?
  

• Preparation for Reconciliation
• Where do I make time for reflection in my life?
• Do I truly appreciate God's hand in my life?
  
• Where is God calling me beyond my fears?
  
• Where is God calling me to speak clearly and boldly?

Open my Ears Lord

 Lord, give me ears to listen, and the time for silence.
Teach me to ponder, rather than react, to what I hear.
Teach me to heed the still, small, voice of your Spirit.
That I might find peace in the midst of the rest of the voices.

That I might feel your gentle nudging at the edge of my attention -
When you call me to greater kindness, deeper empathy -
More intention toward my fellow journeyers on this path.
That I may truly walk your way in gentleness and healing.

Shalom!