20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 20th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Jeremiah 38: 4-6, 8-10
2. Psalms 40: 2, 3, 4, 18
3. Hebrews 12: 1-4
4. Luke 12: 49-53

• Speaking up for those who speak up
• Do you think that we can ever have enough prophets in our midst?
• What are some of the traits that you would look for in someone to serve God as a prophet?
• How should we, as God's people nurture and support those with a prophetic gift?
• Do you think that a prophet could be a musician, an artist, a poet, ...?

• The shape of victory
• Do you think that God is actively working on your behalf, day in, day out?
• How would you go about proving that to someone?
• What form does that help and support take?
• Based on your experience, what does it really mean to say that God is victorious in our lives?

• Freedom can be a very lonely thing
• What do you spend the bulk of your time thinking about, talking about, taking care of?
• Is that in any way related to an eternal priority, something that will last?
• What are some ways that you could simplify your life?
• Do you think that such simplification would sharpen your focus, free you from distractions?
• Is such a "leaning down" worth it?

• "In spite of" peace
• How do you tell when you're on the right track?  Often, for the tough questions we often seek the advice of others, maybe read the lives of great men and women for inspiration, pray through the Scriptures, or even ask ourselves what a sane, sensible person might do in our situation.
• What role do your feelings play in your decision making?
• If you found yourself utterly alone in terms of a decision that you had made, would that be a clear sign to you that you had strayed?
• Do you think that Jesus can meet you there in such loneliness?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to say what needs to be said, without thought for the consequences?
2. Where do I go for the good news that is happening in the world around me?
3. How am I drawing strength and encouragement from the saints who have gone before me, the saints around me, the saints who are to come?
4. Am I willing to be alone for Jesus?

Go Big or Go Home

used to be a battle cry among the folks I worked with at Boeing.
We would unsheath that sentiment when someone wavered,
Uncertain whether to take a risk or not for fear of the response.
It was meant to convey a wealth of sentiments all in one package.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
You have to break some eggs to make an omelette.
No pain, no gain.
There is magic in boldness.

And behind such determination must lie something stronger, and quieter.
A realization that what is at hazard in any decision is far greater,
Greater than embarrassment, loss of stature, loss of fame.
Rather it is loss of the true self.

Paths chosen because they are easy, comfortable, consistent with the past
Or radically creative traces through the wilderness,
The path less taken, the road less traveled
Are a gateway to our future, the emerging me at once becoming.

A true friend is the voice, daring you to be ineffably yourself
In spite of the fear, the risks, the potential disappointments.
We all need such friends in our lives.
Being that prophetic voice for another is perhaps our highest calling.

Not all such friends are alive with us today.
Some have gone before us.
Some have yet to be born.
Yet all of us witness to each other, and journey together.

Shalom!

19th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 19th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Wisdom 18: 6-9
2. Psalms 33: 1, 12, 18-19, 20-22
3. Hebrews 11: 1-2, 8-19
4. Luke 12: 32-48

• Wait for it, wait for it ...
• What are some promises that God has made to us that you cherish?
• How have those promises changed your outlook, your actions?
• How are you preparing for the fulfillment of those promises.

• The chosen
• Do you feel that you choose your work, or that your work chooses you?
• Have you ever felt chosen for some particular purpose/role/destiny?
• If not, how might that change your attitude and actions?
• How can we find that calling?

• Indifference versus "whatever"
• Have you ever gotten frustrated with God, with your relationship to God?
• Did you talk with God about that frustration?
• What's the difference between faith that it will all work out somehow in the end, and a "whatever" attitude that basically just disengages and waits for what's to come without getting involved?

• Holding down the fort
• T-shirts with the question "what would Jesus do?" were popular at one point in time.  How far do you think that question will take us in the face of questions that we face today?
• If Jesus were alive and in our midst today, where in our society do you think he'd be?  Maybe a CEO of some corporate where He could benefit the employees, customers and stockholders?  Would he be some Church official?
• What do you think Jesus might want to say to us, today, if He were here right now?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How am I showing God my trust in Him?
2. What am I waiting for in my life?
3. What am I willing to risk to follow Jesus more closely?
4. Where is my treasure?

In it for the long haul

So what's the difference between a distraction and a calling?
How do you tell when a person or a community,
Have lost sight of their ultimate purpose
And traded it away for security, predictability, safety?

Are all of us called to be ultimately creative?
What does creativity look like?
Is it inherently predictable, steady, arrives on schedule?
Is the muse intrinsically rational, or intuitive?

A project manager hates nothing more than the phrase:
"It will get done when it gets done."  Or worse:
"We have nailed down the known unknowns,
But the unknown unknowns are still emerging."

I somehow doubt that Jesus worked to a schedule
Or had a secret Day Planner tucked in his robes.
Ghandi was known to wait for months at a time
For the inspiration that led to his next flurry of action.

Lord, grant me the ear to hear you through the day to day,
Let the routine, the predictable, the consistent,
Be the strings which you pluck, to call me to my center,
Where I can find your next move for me, day in, day out.

Shalom!

18th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Ecclesiastes 1:2, 2:21-23
2. Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
3. Colossians 3: 1-5, 9-11
4. Luke 12: 13-21

• Let it go

• We've all said to ourselves "if I knew then what I know now, ...".  When were some times that you would have done things differently, or done different things, had you known how it was all going to turn out in the end?
• How do you really know if/whether something that you put your time and energy into is a waste of time?
• Do you think that we are always going to know the full extent of the impact of our actions and words?

• Counting the days - Philip James Bailey perhaps says it best:

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
And he whose heart beats quickest lives the longest:
Lives in one hour more than in years do some
Whose fat blood sleeps as it slips along their veins.
Life’s but a means unto an end; that end,
Beginning, mean, and end to all things—God.
The dead have all the glory of the world.

• By what yardstick do you measure your accomplishments in this life, by what means do you judge yourself?
• What makes for a successful existence in your view of life?

• So what's so bad about passion

• What are some things that you are decidedly passionate about?
• Where do you think that those passions came from?
• Do you think that God can use those passions to guide us?

• One man's riches are another man's rags

• Do you consider yourself rich in one way or another?
• To what degree do you think that you can share those riches with others?
• Would those riches be diminished, or multiplied in the sharing?
• Do you think that, at some level, God calls each of us to be rich in the same way, or is it the case that we each have a different destiny, and different path that defines us?
• Does that have to be an either/or?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to let go of the outcomes of my life?
2. Even though I may have dedicated my life to God, am I still listening for that still small voice?
3. Have I listened to my passions lately?
4. Am I willing to simplify my life to get closer to God?

At Your Service

I'm told that Itzhak Perlman, the great violinist, lives a simple life.
Each day he gets up pretty much at the same time.
Has a light breakfast.
Gets some exercise.
Then settles in for a day of practice.

Everything is at the service of his art, his craft, his destiny.
When contemplating whether to go with the cheesecake or the cobbler,
His first question is "how will this make me a better violinist?"
He exercises because he knows that his craft is best served by a fit body.
And he knows that the world is a better place because he practices.

Call it what you will, your life lodestone, your muse, Dharma or destiny,
Each of us has a center, a genius, a calling.
It is better to fail colossally at our own calling
Than to succeed miserably at someone else's.
The cardinal virtue then becomes integrity to that calling.

As a practicing Catholic, just what is it that you practice?
Are any of us better at living today than we were twenty years ago?
Today, as we arise, do we meet life with twenty more years of experience?
Or one year of experience repeated twenty times?
Were we to meet ourselves from twenty years ago, would they be excited or disappointed?

Shalom!

16th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Genesis 18: 1-10a
2. Psalms 15: 2-3, 3-4, 5
3. Colossians 1: 24-28
4. Luke 10: 38-42

1. The art of being flexible
• How do you tell whether some unplanned for event/person/thing is God breaking into your life, or just another distraction?
• Do you think that you are getting better at telling the difference?
• How can we cultivate that sort of humility?
2. Disturbing trends
• As we grow older, the world around us changes, it seems that things make less and less sense, and it's easy to miss the good that is going on.
• Jesus offered His disciples peace.  How can we be at peace in light of all that is going on around us?
• Do you think that peace comes of writing this age off as hopelessly corrupt?
• Or maybe peace comes of disengaging from this life, this world and turning off the 6:00 news altogether?
• What then might peace be built on?
3. Sharing in the suffering
• It has been said that the last great gift that we can give the world is our own death.
• How can we transform that process into a means of grace?
• How can we prepare for that eventual process?
• When does it start?
4. The one thing
• The Gospel speaks of focus.  Do you think that your life is focused, that everything that you do is in service to that "one thing?"
• How do you find the "one thing" that God is calling you to in your life?
• Does that "one thing" shift over the decades?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Are my plans more important to me than God's grace coming into my life?
2. What have I done this week to be more peaceful?
3. Am I willing to let God be transformative in my life, to make good from the bad?
4. Am I willing to simplify my life to get closer to God?

The meaning of meaning

"So, how did that work out for you?" seems an innocent enough question.
Behind it lurks the attitude that good results betoken good efforts.
Which, in turn, implies that it is a waste of time to start on something
Something that is not likely to end well.

I wonder what people would say if the answer to that question came out:
"Wonderful.  The in the end, I learned humility,
I learned trust
I gained freedom."

At which point the follow up question might be:
"freedom from what?"
And our newly aware disciple might get a distant look in their eye and say:
"Freedom from the need for success."

Shalom!

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. Deuteronomy 30: 10-14
2. Psalms 69: 14, 17, 30-31, 33-34, 36, 37
3. Colossians 1: 15-20
4. Luke 10: 25-37

1. You know what you are to do
• Have you ever had a point in life when you were desperately seeking guidance, feeling trapped by circumstances, and looking for a way out?
• At that time, what sort of help did you receive?
• Did someone tell you flat out what the solution was, or did you have to puzzle it out for yourself to one extent or another?
• Why do you think that is?
2. Yielding it to God
• When you pray to God about some trying situation, what immediately changes as far as how you are relating to that problem?
• Do you ever have trouble trusting God for a solution?
• How do you get back on track when there is a crisis of faith?
• How do you think that makes God feel?
3. Peace, perfect peace
• How would you define peace?
• Do you think that Jesus always had peace in His life?
• How about more recent folks like Mother Theresa, Dorothy Day, Archbishop Ramiro?
• How do you think that they achieved that peace?
• What's the hardest part about achieving peace in life?
• Is peace worth it?
• Why?
4. Owning the need
• Needy people come in all shapes and sizes.  It was something of a mental adjustment for me to realize that the Confirmation students at St. Cyprian came from good homes, were raised with all of the benefits of a middle-class lifestyle, yet were, often, desperately needing guidance, and assurance that there was more to life than what they could see and touch.
• What are some of the other urgent needs around you today?
• How are those going to get met?
• What is your responsibility here?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I listening to what God has already revealed to me?
2. How am I growing in trust of God?
3. How much am I willing to sacrifice for real peace?
4. Am I willing to be healing to someone that I've not even met yet?

Pay It Forward

They told me the roads weren't safe for a lone peddler at this time of day.
But I knew that if I didn't get moving, I would miss out in Jericho.

So I set out, making the best speed that I could, hoping the bandits would be gone
And I make my way safely without a hitch.

A rustle before me, cries behind me, steep hillsides to the right and the left
And I know that the trap has snapped shut, with me and my poor donkey in its jaws.

I cried as they stripped away all my goods, everything that I had saved for.
Killed my beloved Sophia and then, as if that were not enough, turned on me.

Soon the blows stopped hurting, I hoped that I had no unfinished business.
Then the darkness came over me and I lay there, all but dead.

I dimly saw the others go by, too week to cry for help, the sun blazing down on me.
Until a kind stranger saw me, gasped in surprise, and tended my wounds most carefully.

Somehow he got me to an inn, and the innkeeper himself tended me.
I tried to pay him, and all that he would say was that it was all covered.

Eventually, I was back on my feet.  I never met the one who saved my life.
The innkeeper told me that he had been a Samaritan, and I wondered what he saw in me.

He must have been able to tell me for a Jew, my clothes would have given me away.
Yet he touched me, not knowing how or why I had been beaten, not knowing what he was getting into.

I was desperate to thank him properly, resolve my debt, and then I realized.
There was no way to "settle" such a debt, but the best that I could do was to do the same.

I heard of a handful of saints living among the lepers, tending their wounds.
At first I was frightened at the prospect, but I met with them anyway.

They told me this work was not for everyone, that few thought it necessary.
But I felt such a peace in their presence, and felt so at home, that I knew.

I wanted to thank that Samaritan for saving my life from death.
Now I want to thank him for saving my life for giving.

The lepers that I serve have dignity knowing that someone cares for them, about them.
I have dignity in the humility of having found what I was born to do.

All it took was coming within a hair's breath of death,
And being pulled back by someone I never knew.
Shalom!

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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

1. Isaiah 66: 10-14c
2. Psalms 66: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
3. Galatians 6: 14-18
4. Luke 10: 1-12, 17-20

1. Mourning creatively
• What are you mourning today?  Maybe it's the loss of a loved one, a job, or some treasured ability, like being able to put away a load of ice cream and not have it show.
• Do you think that Jesus is morning those same things with and through you?
• Where are you looking for comfort for what you mourn?
• When and how do you see that comfort coming to you?
2. Sharing the joy
• Who are some of the people in your life who have shared a truly joyous event with you?
• Why do you think that they wanted to share that with you?
• How can we be better at sharing with one another, with listening, with being present?
3. Transformation
• Do you think that God experiments, or is it the case that everything that happens has a ultimate goal, an ultimate meaning and it's all part of the plan?
• If there is a plan, why do you think we so often don't figure it out/find out about it until all of the shouting is done?
• What is the difference between faith and fatalism?
4. Owning the results
• Ignatian indifference is a theme that St. Ignatius writes on frequently.  One thing that we are particularly challenged to be indifferent to the outcome of our actions.
• If the disciples were surely going to meet abject failure in various towns and villages, why wouldn't the Holy Spirit just direct them elsewhere and save the trip?
• Have you had episodes in your life, your career, communities that you have belonged to where you look back and say "there's some time I wish I could have back"?
• How do you think God sees those episodes in your life?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Who in my life needs comforting?
2. Who in my life needs someone to share their joy with?
3. Am I willing to fail for Jesus?
4. When was the last time that I thanked those who labor with me in God's vineyards at home, school, in the office, at Church?

Trust Walk

"Well Naomi, that's the twelfth city that we've visited that has thrown us out summarily."
"Jacob, you're not actually counting the number of times we're rejected, are you?"

"Bet your bottom dollar!  When we get back to the others, I'm going to compare notes."
"I can't believe you!  Men, you make a competition out of everything!"

"Uh, well, I just want to find out who used which techniques for evangelization, and how they worked."
"Somehow, I don't think that's the point.  We're just supposed to get the Word out there."

"What, and not care about the results?!?  Why bother then?"
"Life is a journey, not a destination.  We cannot gauge our actions by their outcomes."

"Fine, then I'll just start walking in circles, and see where that gets me!"
"You just do that.  I don't know why I put up with you.  You're so stubborn!"

"Well, if you walk away from me, you won't be following the Master's instructions to go in twos."
"But if I stay with you, I go nowhere!"

And that boys and girls, is why you never heard about Naomi and Jacob in the Gospels.
Shalom!

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time are:

1. 1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21
2. Psalms 16: 1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
3. Galatians 5: 1, 13-18
4. Luke 9: 51-62

1. Anointing
• Each of us has greatness within us, planted there by God.  What is your greatness, how would you name your anointing?
• What did you leave behind to pursue that destiny?
• What are some of the things that you've never been able to pursue, in order to be true to that destiny?
2. Life can be so over rated ...
• How would you define "the good life" in general?
• How would you define "the good life" for yourself?
• How does God contribute to achieving that "good life"?
3. Freedom from something, or freedom to something?
• What would you like to be free of?  Maybe it's worry about your future, freedom from the demands of a daily grind that threatens to obliterate your soul, maybe it's freedom from a relationship that has somehow gone toxic.
• What would you like to be free to, or for?  Maybe deep down in side you have always wanted to be a stage actor, but went into insurance because it paid better, or you secretly harbor a desire to teach philosophy at some small private university, but you can find no way out of the job that you now have because you put in so much to get there.  What sort of answer does freedom provide you?
• What makes you think that Jesus cares about those sorts of freedom?
4. Deciding once and for all
• Do you think that our decision to follow Jesus happens all at once or by degrees?
• When we make decisions to leave something behind, should we burn our bridges behind us?
• Do you think that it's possible to "stay right where you are" but transform it somehow, into a place where God can dwell where He could not previously?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I actively preparing the next generation to take up the ministries that I am performing today?
2. Do I know the next step in the path of life that God holds out before me?
3. Am I willing to pay the price for my freedom to be closer to God?
4. Am I willing to follow wherever Jesus goes?

Trust Walk

"Relax" he said, it's just a walk.
"But I cannot see anything." I said "all I have to go on is the sound of your voice."

"Trust me, trust the process, trust yourself."
"But where are we going?  Why are we going there?"

"Remember, the idea here is to practice trust.  That's really the destination."
"But you could just leave me here, and then what would I do?"

"Trust me, I'm not going to leave you until we're done."
"At least keep up a steady stream of chatter so that I know you're there."

"Not necessary.  If you don't hear from me, just keep going.  I'm here, always will be here for you."
"We've never done this before, not quite, how do I know I can trust you?"

"You just do.  Now, just be present to the moment and let the destination emerge in its own time."
"I don't feel comfortable with this at all.  And furthermore, I think you actually enjoy this."

"What if I do.  Does that make me a bad person?"
"Will I ever learn to let go of being comfortable?"

"I don't want to spoil the journey for you."

Shalom!