6th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the sixth Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 8: 5-8, 14-17
2. Psalms 66: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20
3. 1 Peter 3: 15-18
4. John 14: 15-21

• What is and is not a sacrament
• It has been said that a sacrament is "an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace."
• If that is true, when might Christ have instituted the sacrament of Confirmation?
• Is that the only occasion in which God anoints with His Spirit?
• What is the best way to continue to celebrate our Confirmation in our day to day lives?

• Be careful what you ask for
• Think of a time when a person came into your life, and you thought of them as an answer to prayer.
• In the most general sense, what are we really looking for from God when we pray?
• How does God answer those prayers?
• How can you be an answer to someone's prayer?
• How can we be preparing to be that answer to someone's prayers?

• Suffering redeemed
• Just what does it mean to "give your suffering up to Christ".
• How can our suffering possibly benefit Christ?
• How is it that the Mass can be described as an eternal unbloody sacrifice?
• In what sense is that sacrifice still being offered?
• How can we participate in that offering?
• Or - Following Jesus
• What are some things in your life that have had to be put to death/lost as you drew closer to God?
• When you faced that loss, was it abrupt and harsh, or gentle and merciful?
• How do you know that it is God who is asking you to give these things up, and not just cruel fate, bad luck, or rotten karma?
• Why do you think that God asked you to give that up?

• Without seeing You, we love You
• Moses gave the children of Israel ten commandments, how many did Jesus give us?
• How does our love for Jesus strengthen us in obedience to His commandments?
• How does our obedience strengthen our love for Jesus?
• How are you growing in your love for Jesus?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. A sacramental is some object in this world that points to God.  Has my life been at all sacramental this week?
2. What drives my prayer life, and why?
3. How am I better for having been to Mass this week?
4. How am I getting to know Jesus better?

Belonging

In Death of the Hired Man Robert Frost tells us
"Home is where, when you go there, they have to take you in"

To the one with no home, no kith, no kin who cares enough to take them in
Homelessness slinks along the road ahead of them

Like the stench of leprosy
Cutting them off from the rest of us with an invisible curtain.

Such abandoned and forgotten find a friend in Jesus
So often shunned, ignored, abandoned in His life.

Jesus walks among the orphaned, clothed in mercy, kindness, love
Unafraid of the rejection clinging to them, for He too knows rejection.

Jesus tells us that He will never leave us abandoned, orphaned, alone
If only we follow Him.

Touch the leper, pierce the curtain of hopelessness
Tell the marginalized that they are important, have dignity, are loved.

How very odd that the best way to find ourselves
Is to seek those who are lost, who have lost all hope, lost their true identity.

Shalom!

5th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the fifth Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 6: 1-7
2. Psalms 33: 1-2, 4-5, 18-19
3. 1 Peter 2: 4-9
4. John 14: 1-12

• Delegation
• Renewal movements come along from time to time, and often they look to the genesis stories to find the unvarnished meaning of their community, to once again lay claim to their ultimate identity.
• How would you describe the Church to someone who had never heard anything about us?
• How would you explain our local church to that same person?
• What truly sets us apart from the rest?

• Kindness personified
• How would you define kindness?
• Have you ever found it hard to be kind to someone in your life?
• When has God been kind to you in the past?
• What do you think that kindness cost God?

• Claiming your inner priesthood
• Do you feel chosen?
• And what have you been chosen to?
• How does that affect your daily life?
• Does anyone else know that you're chosen?

• Without seeing You, we love You
• When you think of someone in your life who illustrates Jesus, who might that be?
• How does their life show you Jesus?
• What have you learned from them?
• How might you pass that along to someone else?
• How might that relate to apostolic succession?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. How is my life serving Christ by serving others?
2. Would anyone describe me as kind?
3. How am I living out God's call in my life this week?
4. What am I passing along to others in my life?

Not in my job description

Somehow, Jesus was never frustrated that things kept popping up in life

That were not on the agenda for the day.

You never see Him tapping His watch and telling His disciples

Telling them it was time to go, time to be to the next appointment

Instead, Jesus always seemed able to surf the chaos, ride the wave

Of events as they came His way, regardless whether they were planned in advance.

Of course, that must have been tough for His advance team.

But they seemed to have learned, eventually, to roll with the punches.

And they learned humility when things didn't turn out the way that they had hoped.

And best of all, they learned what's genuinely important.

Maybe Jesus knew it would all get done eventually,

Maybe He felt that attitude was more crucial than checking boxes on a list.

I only wish I could see His Day Planner.

Shalom!

4th Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the fourth Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 2: 14a, 36-41
2. Psalms 23: 1-3a, 3b-43, 5, 6
3. 1 Peter 2: 20b-25
4. John 10: 1-10

• Corruption
• What do you think is the most attractive aspect about our parish community, your family, your own life?
• Would you say that's because of Jesus?
• Is that attractive aspect enough to make others try to follow Jesus so that they can experience that grace themselves?

• Want vs. want vs. need
• Like most of the English language, the word want has evolved to mean merely a desire, no matter how ill-founded or petty.  It used to mean a poverty.
• Is want all relative?
• How would you define enough in your life?
• What would it take to make you feel secure?
• What are the odds that Jesus feels the same way that you do about security?

• Deep humility
• The Jesuits distinguish three types of humility.  The deepest seeks to set aside anything that is not bringing them closer to Jesus, no matter what the cost.  There is a certain passion that carries this sort of humility, few live this way.
• The hard part is to suffer for Christ, rather than make a martyr of ourselves.  Have you ever seen someone with a martyr complex?
• What is the difference between such a person and a "real martyr"?
• How can we best keep our suffering real?

• Hearing God's voice
• When are some times that God's voice in your life changed your perspective, your actions?
• How did you figure out that it was God?
• What makes it hard for us to hear that voice?
• What can we do to become more attuned to that voice?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What about my life this past week would draw others to Jesus?
2. Am I willing/able to trust Christ for all of my wants?
3. Does my love for Jesus run deep enough to compel me to walk with Him, no matter the cost?
4. Where is God calling me today?

Shalom!

Third Sunday of Easter

Our readings for the third Sunday of Easter are:

1. Acts 2: 14, 22-33
2. Psalms 15: 1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
3. 1 Peter 1: 17-21
4. Luke 24: 13-35

• Dynasty of another sort
• Dynasties have ever been our answer to mortality.  As long as there is an unbroken line of ancestors back to the founder, we feel secure that essential elements of the kingdom, the order, the parish are intact, because of that continuity.
• Do you think that we tend to try to create dynasties today, maybe without literal bloodlines to hold the generations together, but other ways?
• Are all of those dynasties good, or bad?
• How can you tell when a dynasty has outlived its usefulness?

• The path of life seems buried under the debris of life ...
• Think of a time when you were really moving in the Spirit.
• How did that feel at the time?
• How did you get into that state?
• What keeps you from getting into that state, that feeling again?

• Legacy or ball and chain
• What are some of the real assets that you feel have been handed on to you from your parents, earlier generations, your culture, the Church?
• Are those assets best preserved by keeping them just the way that they have always been, without ever changing them?
• What are some of the liabilities, limitations, false goals that you have inherited from those same folks?
• How do you tell the assets from the liabilities?

• Transformation
• Jesus didn't change the Scripture, but He did show those early disciples another way of looking at those Scriptures.
• Who are some of the folks doing the same thing today for Scripture and Tradition?
• How do they get the ability and authority to transform our thinking about God's revelation in our lives?
• Who is it that is tasked with testing and certifying such folks?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to be an agent for change in the world around me?
2. How much closer to God do I really want to get?
3. Am I willing to give up what is futile in my life?
4. What are some of the things in my life that prevent me from seeing Jesus?

Trading my sorrows

The brotherhood of grief can be an intimate embrace.
A cozy fellowship of the hopeless can feel so secure -
Secure in the knowledge that we have jointly hit bottom
And we're staying here for the duration.

But to hope, to dream again of transformation
To see new vistas opening up on the other side
Of this present desolation, ah, that takes more than vision
It takes courage, and the ability to be alone.

Far more sensible to give up, settle for the status quo
Succumb to the inevitable,
Than dare to dream of a better day, a resurrected existence
In which God takes our dashed hopes and forges them

Forges the ashes of our previous hopes into something new
That calls forth from us something radically alive
And at the same time transcendently ancient
If only we're willing to let go of what has long been dead.

Lord Jesus, give me, give us, give all of us, eyes, your eyes
To see the possible emerging from the tomb of our fears.
Grant us the courage to hope anew, with strength we never knew we had
And in so doing, let your transformation, your resurrection ignite us.

Shalom!

Divine Mercy Sunday

Our readings for the second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday) are:

1. Acts 2: 42-47
2. Psalms 118: 2-4, 13-15, 22-24
3. 1 Peter 1: 3-9
4. John 20: 19-31

• Communal living at its best
• Clearly, the early disciples enjoyed a deep sense of purpose.  If you were to get a moment with one of those first apostles, and asked them what their purpose was, what do you think they would say?
• How would you answer that question?  What is your purpose?
• What do you think has changed about the purpose of the Church at large since those days?
• Is that all good?

• Mercy identified
• Mercy comes to us in the form of forgiveness for our sins.  But that mercy is hard to appreciate, unless you get a good appreciation for what your sin has done to you.
• Where has God healed and restored you in your life?
• What would you be like today had you not experienced that healing?
• What can you do to be that healing presence to others?

• Keeping your eye on the prize
• In the business world, the phrase "keep your eye on the prize" encourages you to focus, don't be distracted by secondary matters, and thus accomplish great things.
• Do you think that your community(ies) have ever lost sight of the truly important and become obsessed with things that are merely there to serve a higher purpose?
• Why is it that we do that?
• Who/what is there to guard us from losing sight of the really important?

• Transformation
• Do you think that the infilling of the Holy Spirit is an event, a transition, a journey, a sacrament, all of the above, ...?
• Do you think that we are filled with the Spirit once and always, more so at sometimes than others, as the situation demands it, when we pray for that Presence, all of the above, ...?
• If you had to identify your anointing, how would you describe it?
• Why should you care?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I generous/generative to the communities to which I belong?
2. Where have I shown mercy in this past week?
3. What am I doing to better discern where God is taking me?
4. Which fears have I shed this last week?

Trading my sorrows

The alchemist's stone was supposed to allow those skilled in such arts
To transform base, common, metals into gold.
Certainly not as impressive as creating something from nothing,
But none the less impressive.

Picture Jesus standing before that angry crowd.
All of them armed with stones, and self righteousness.
Arrayed against Jesus, and one lonely woman caught in adultery.
Ready to purge her from their midst, ensure their purity.

Had I been there, I would have tried to reason with them.
And probably gotten stoned as well in the bargain.
But Jesus, in just a few words,
Turned that anger around, allowed them time for self-examination.

Then, one by one, they dropped their stones, suddenly irrelevant.
Embarrassing almost.
And they walked away, each deep in their own prayer
Leaving the mercy to Jesus.

Jesus never tried to deflect hatred, fear, anger.
Neither did He merely absorb it, deflected it, reflect it back.
But He transformed all of that into a gateway to the sacred,
An opportunity to meet God.

Which may be the truest sacrament of all,
The most amazing alchemy every attempted,
A daring place to stand for His far flung followers.
If only we dare.

Transformation is more than merely a catalog
Of nifty questions and sayings,
One for every occasion.
But a hope, a prayer, an insurrection

To change the world,
All of our attitude and ideas
About what comes our way in life
One heart at a time.

Shalom!

Easter Sunday

Our readings for Easter Sunday (from the Mass during the day) are:

1. Acts 10:34a, 37-43
2. Psalms 118: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23
3. Philippians Colossians 3: 1-4
4. John 20: 1-9

• Anointing, visible and invisible
• Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism in a public way.  We continue to anoint at baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, Healing of the Sick.
• Why do you think that God chose to send His spirit into Jesus at His baptism?
• Since Jesus is the incarnation of God Himself, why would He need some sort of "extra" dose of the Holy Spirit?
• When we anoint within the Church, is that a prayer to God to send his Holy Spirit, a recognition of something that's already happened, does that anointing cause something to happen, so some combination of the above?
• Should we, as a people, do more formal commissioning/anointing for missions large and small?

• God is more than merciful, He is mercy
• What makes you believe God to be a God of mercy?
• How has that mercy touched your life?
• How can we be more merciful, as God's children?

• God's presence is everywhere
• What has reminded you of God's presence in your life this past week?
• How do you celebrate/meditate/savor that presence usually?
• Do you think that you are more or less sensitive to that Presence than you were 5 years ago?

• One step at a time
• One thing that I really like about the new RCIA rite is that we celebrate Lent with the three great Gospels of the Woman at the Well, the Man Born Blind and finally the Raising of Lazarus.  In each of these stories, belief in Jesus is a process.
• How is your faith in Jesus deepening lately?
• Where do you think your faith will take you in the years to come?
• Who are some of the "other disciples" that you are journeying with, who help you in your faith walk?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What has God commissioned me for in life?  Am I living that commission?
2. Am I willing/able to accept God's Presence, no matter how that Presence comes to me?
3. How am I setting my priorities, for the immediate future, or eternity?
4. Where is God revealing Himself to me today?

Shalom!

Palm Sunday

Our readings for the 5th Sunday in Lent are:

1. Isaiah 50: 4-7
2. Psalms 22:8-9, 17-18, 19-20, 23, 24
3. Philippians 2" 6-11
4. Matthew 26: 14-27:66

• Persecution possible?
• Have you ever felt that your Christianity put you at some sort of a disadvantage?
• How did that make you feel?
• If someone were going to persecute you for your beliefs, what would you want for them to accuse you of believing?

• Vaya con Dios
• Do you feel that God is with you in all that you do?
• What difference has that Presence made in your life?
• How do you keep from wandering from God?

• Humble is so hard to do
• What things in your life humble you?
• Do you think that God gave those to you?
• Are you a better person for experiencing those things?

• The imitation of Christ
• Jesus calls us to follow in His footsteps.  Just how does that work in practice?
• Is it just a matter of avoiding what we know Jesus does not want for us?
• Or is it something deeper, that you actively seek what Jesus wants for you, no matter where that might lead?
• Or is it something deeper yet, in which you abandon all that is not from God, out of a supreme desire to be close to Jesus?
• What sort of character traits/personality lives that way?
• We have names for such people.  What are some of them?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I truly living out my Christian values?
2. Does God's presence in my life fill me with hope?
3. Am I willing to embrace Jesus' humility?
4. How am I showing the glory of God to those around me?

Alone

It's easy to share the good things in life with those around you.
The vacation plans, that income tax rebate, an unexpected inheritance.
It's easy to bond with others over shared experiences of plenty.

But what of the suffering?  What gateway is there
For the widow who is still lonely after years of waking up to a quiet house
Or the cancer patient going through one round of therapy after another.

Reaching out to such is hard to do, especially when you've not been there.
Better to leave that sort of contact to the professionals, you tell yourself.
I'll just make them feel bad for all that they don't have going for them.

I wouldn't know what to say, how to act, how to be in their presence.
And maybe the reason reaching out to someone in need is so hard,
Is that we're all hard wired to come up with a fix, the silver bullet.

That will make their lives better in a matter of hours,
Cure their problems, give them joy again.
Maybe I just need to learn how to listen, to be with the poor.

Maybe I just need to learn to be with them in their life,
And not try to fix everything that's wrong around me,
And learn to give myself away, even if there's no way to measure the effects.

Shalom!