Divine Mercy Sunday

Our readings for Divine Mercy Sunday:

1. Acts 5: 12-16
2. Psalm 118: 2-4, 13-15, 22-24
3. Revelations 1: 9-11a, 12-13, 17-19
4. John 20: 19-31

1. Keeping the faith
• We make fun of the question "what would Jesus do?" but I have to believe that very thought ran through the minds of those first generation Christians a great deal.
• Does that question always have an answer?
• Is the answer to that question going to be the same through time, or does that answer evolve through the generations?
• How do we know what Jesus would really do in a set of circumstances?
2. Being the mercy of Christ
• If God has made this day, what did He make it for?
• One of my favorite Poets is David Whyte.  He has a poem called Everything is Waiting for You that he reads at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hq2NfrNt9EU.
• How can we better step into this day, this moment, and not only make it ours, but give ourselves utterly and ineffably over to this very day?
3. Forever is a long time
• John was exiled to Patmos to remove him from the mainstream, cut him off from civilization, yet he felt a unity with the believers under persecution.
• How is such oneness possible, even without Facebook?
• What does that sort of oneness cost us as individuals?
• Is it worth it?
4. Peace give I to thee
• What is peace?
• When was the last time that you felt at peace?
• Do you think that it's totally random, or is there a way to achieve a deep peace?
• Do you think that peace is the absence of disturbance in our lives, or something deeper?
• What is peace worth to you?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What about my life would ever draw another to God?
2. How have I been the mercy of God to another this week?
3. Where am I finding myself these days, and where have I been looking?
4. What am I hiding from of late?

Why am I Still Here?

is a question for the living when they lose a dear loved one.
When an emotional amputation, unheralded, unsought for
Rips away a part of your soul from you, the best part perhaps,
And leaves you there, disfigured and dying, looking just the same.

I've never found a satisfactory answer to that question,
But I've learned to let it teach me things along the way.
I've apprenticed myself to it to see what I could learn
From profound emptiness, silence, and stillness.

I've learned that life is precious, privileged and precarious.
Precious in that this moment will never occur again for all time.
Privileged because it will never be better than this, only different.
Precarious precisely because it's so easy to live on the surface.

I've wondered, if I had the ability to stop time, just once,
Which moment would I hang onto, immortalize which second?
And I gradually came to realize that each moment grows
From the ashes of the ones before it, so that the future may flourish.

To clutch at a given season, drag the present with me into tomorrow
Is to take a swan from water, send it waddling awkwardly ashore
When it instinctively knows that its element is the water that bears it.
Each moment finds its fulfillment in dissolving into the next.

Absence has challenged me to savor presence, to be present
To listen, to ponder, and to share with others.
Not to try to recreate what has come and gone,
But to learn from it, to grow, to meet today head on.

Knowing full well from whence I came, and in that knowing
Be able to listen for the emerging mission, the new horizons
Opening before me as I speak them into being.
Maranatha!

Shalom!

Easter Sunday

Our readings for Easter Sunday:

1. Acts 10: 34a, 37-43
2. Psalm 118: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23
3. 1 Corinthians 5: 6b-8
4. John 20: 1-9

1. Shades of oppression
• How do you define healing?
• Is it purely physical?
• Is healing meant to make something just go away?
• How do you define oppression?
• Do you think that oppression can be carried out unintentionally?
• Do you think that an institution, a culture, a society can be oppressive?
• How can we be healing for those who have been oppressed?
2. Being the mercy of Christ
• One of the spiritual works of mercy is forgiving others.  Is there anyone in your life that you're having trouble forgiving?
• Sometimes, forgiveness isn't about a single solitary person, but an institution, a culture, a value system.  Can we, should we forgive such amorphous entities?
• What good does it do for us to forgive?
• How does forgiving others change us?
3. Being made new
• What in your life needs to be renewed, besides those old magazine subscriptions?
• Renewal often involves refounding: a deliberate process of finding the ultimate point of origin for a given movement and re examining what has happened since that founding in light of the renewed understanding of the foundations.
• What about your life needs to be renewed/refounded?
• Do you feel that those institutions that you have joined were perfectly aligned with their stated purpose?
• What to do about that?
4. Mercy above all else
• Have you ever had God lead you from one place to another in a process, rather than a sudden jump?
• Why do you think that God does that?  Wouldn't it be less error-prone if He just got these sorts of transitions over with sooner?
• Thinking about the raising of Lazarus, that was pretty dramatic.  But Jesus raised the expectations, and the faith of his disciples, Martha & Mary bit by bit.  How can we show that sort of mercy to others?
• Who has the time?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. If I am a witness for Jesus, what is it that my life is giving witness to?
2. Can I open myself up to all of God's possibilities for me and those that I love today?
3. What do I need to be made free of, that I might rejoice more fully during this season of Easter?
4. What is holding me back from hoping for the miracles in my life that Jesus has for me?

Tomb for rent, lightly used, inquire within

The thing about the Passion narrative that struck me this year is that Jesus gets so few lines.
After all, it was His words and His actions that got him crosswise with His world to begin with.
You would think that he would be bold, do bold, speak bold and show them who He really was.

Instead, He invited those around Him to ponder his life, relive what had happened, meditate,
And so come to understand what He had been saying in ways that mere words could never convey.
As if, by the time He was apprehended, everything needful had happened, and it was up to us.

Even though it often feels as though there must be some pieces missing,
Like trying to rebuild an old carburetor and coming up with parts left over.
Something that happened, something said, that never got recorded, leaving us lacking.

Maybe the missing piece is attentiveness, and time.
Attentiveness to the voices of the moments that we drive through.
Giving them their time to speak to us lovingly of the Father of Love.

Maybe the Gospel stories speak better when read slowly,
Letting them unfold in their own time, their own way.
Maybe the time to take time is now, always now, especially -

Especially in this time of rejoicing.

Shalom!

Passion Sunday

Our readings for Passion Sunday of Lent Cycle A are:

1. Ezekiel 37: 12-14
2. Psalm 130: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
3. Romans 8: 8-11
4. Luke 22: 14-23:56

1. What are you ashamed of?
• Do you think that each of us is called to speak up in the face of wrong-doing?
• Do you think that there is any room for a "so so" or mediocre prophet, or does one have to rate at least 4 stars as a prophet before God is interested in calling on them?
• What do you think it might do to you if you do have something that needs to be said, cries to be said, and you remain silent?
• Do words really have power?
• Why?
2. Exciting reverence
• If you were put in charge of God's advertising, what might you change about His apparent approach?
• At least on the surface, what about your life would be a good endorsement for God?
• What are the sorts of folks who would be good spokespersons for a "come home to Jesus campaign?"
• Why not you?
3. Killer obedience
• Have you ever done something, thinking, hoping that it was in obedience to God's will, only to find out otherwise?
• How did you make that discernment?
• Are you getting better at finding God's will in your life?
• Are you getting more courageous about acting on that will?
4. Lived and died a Jew
• Notice that Joseph of Arimathea does well to show respect for the broken body of Jesus upon his death.
• What are some things, relationships, circumstances, places, experiences that have died in your life because you were called to move on?
• Have you ever properly buried them?
• Do they still have a hold on you in any way?  Perhaps some grief that you've never taken the time to process, anger over what could have been and didn't have a chance, or just a numb feeling of unreality about the whole thing?
• If Jesus were here today, right in front of you, what might He say about those dead, broken elements within?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I courageous enough to hope?
2. If someone were to ask me why I'm Christian, what would I tell them?
3. What can I empty myself of this week?
4. What in me needs to be given a decent burial?

Jesus has left the building

The Roman soldiers are the only ones who seem to know what to do at the foot of the cross.
I clearly came over dressed, and the hors d'oeuvres that I brought are getting scant attention.

I can't reach Jesus to mop His brow.  I left my ibuprofen at home, and He's shivering in the breeze.
For my part, there are a million things to do to get ready for tomorrow's Sabbath.

Yet there is a ragged sort of peace that peeks out at me from behind the grief.
Beckoning me into prayer, for myself, for humanity, for Jesus.

I realize that I don't have to make a statement, I don't have to fix anything, or help anyone.
Just being here is enough for now, just giving my full, conscious and active participation.

Pondering these moments, each one subtly different from the last,
All of them steps on a pilgrimage to a yet emerging destination.

Shedding my burdens in the face of the burden of my weakness and fear,
Gazing on the face of my own failures etching themselves there on the cross.

And I realize that the pain that I'm enduring at this moment, in this my offering of myself
Is a blessing that will sustain me all of the rest of my life.

Shalom!

5th Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Fifth Sunday of Lent Cycle A are:

1. Ezekiel 37: 12-14
2. Psalm 130: 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8
3. Romans 8: 8-11
4. John 11: 1-45

1. I give you my spirit
• We hear of someone "passing their mantle" on to a successor, or "passing the baton" to someone else.  How do we do that as ministers?
• In many families, over time, a division of labor develops and one household gets Christmas, another Easter, and so forth so that no one family has to host everyone else all of the time.  How do you hand on traditions, roles within the family when the time comes?
• Dignified work is a great blessing and gift.  How would you like to hand on your work to another, or to others when the time comes?
• How are are you planning to give your life away when the time comes?
2. Our past is written in us
• How would you define redemption?
• What have you been redeemed from?
• If we are the product of our decisions, and we are held accountable for our actions, what then difference does God's forgiveness and redemption really make?
3. A lively faith
• Have you ever known someone who was lively?
• How would you describe the way that they lived their life?
• What changed in their approach as they grew old?
• If we, as God's children, are called to grow more lively as we mature, how would you expect your life to grow/mature in your golden years?
4. Timing is everything
• How do you think that Jesus knew when to move on, when to stay?
• Was it a feeling, a restlessness that told Him to move on?
• Did those movements come to him in prayer?
• How much and by what means can we become more Christ like in knowing when and in which direction to move?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I courageous enough to hope?
2. When was the last time that I really felt my need for God's mercy?
3. What am I doing today to strengthen my spiritual life?
4. What in me has died and needs a resurrection?

Rolling Away the Stones

Jesus finds ways for the rest of us to participate in His miracles so many times.
The blind man washing at the pool of Siloam, loaves and fishes at the feeding of the five thousand,
Even just stopping the funeral procession for the son of the widow of Nain

All of these, all of these and more called for cooperation, involvement from us.
As though the power of God could not come without a hand from our side
Our side of eternity, reaching out to grasp that abundance and accept it.

Where are the stones in my life, laying between me and God's glory?
Is it attachment to the familiar, a need for success, a yearning for security?
Maybe fear of letting go, fear of having nothing in hand, fear of freedom.

I prayed for fearlessness, and God told me to pray for strength to overcome my fears.
I prayed for vision to see the future and God told me to pray for trust in Him,
I prayed for might and strength, and God asked me to pray for humility.

I nearly prayed for guidance, but then I realized I already had it in abundance,
All I need now is the will to follow what guidance I have
To roll away the stones of my heart, and see the glory of God.

Shalom!

4th Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Fourth Sunday of Lent Cycle A are:

1. 1st Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a
2. Psalms 23: 1-3a, 3b-4, 5, 6
3. Ephesians 5: 8-14
4. John 9: 1-41

1. Chosen
• You never hear whether there was any sort of a discussion about whether Jesse was willing to sacrifice his son to serve the Jewish people as king, or whether David was keen on leaving hearth and home for a palace that he'd probably never seen before.
• Have you ever felt chosen of God for some role to play, some vocation?
• How did you hear that call?
• How did you come to terms with the changes, the demands of that call?
• How did your response change you?
2. What I want is ...
• Each phase in life has its own imperatives, drives.  What would you say are the biggest drivers in your life today?
• Now, where do you spend your time in an average week?
• How have those drives changed through the years?
• How do you think that they will change in the years to come?
• Does that sound like a welcome transition?
3. Lighten up
• At Boeing there was a slogan (large corporations have found that the best way to influence people's behavior is to tell them something snappy that they are not likely to forget) "if you see something, say something" which was aimed at getting everyone to report security violations.
• A prophet is possibly the ultimate example of "see something, say something" at several levels.  Have you ever had someone in your life who was not afraid to speak up when they thought that something needed to be said?
• If you're morally certain that saying something about a given injustice, evil practice, act of oppression is going to do more harm than good, are you still bound to say it?
• When trying to be prophetic, does it pay to be diplomatic?
• Should we look to provide some sort of prophetic immunity to registered prophets?
4. I think I see what you're saying now ...
• I notice that Jesus didn't approach the blind man until the blind man had been thrown out of the temple.  I'm thinking the blind man may have started to wonder if this whole sight thing was worth the bother.  At least while he was blind, he could attend family gatherings.  Now, maybe not so much.
• Have you had an occasion when God's guidance seemed to wait until you had hit bottom?
• Why do you think that is?  Maybe God wants us to appreciate Him more, or He waits until we're no longer distracted by other options?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to see the way that God sees, even if it is painful?
2. Am I willing to trust God in and with my life?
3. Do I have the courage to be a voice for the voiceless?
4. Am I willing to give up old ways of looking at things so that I can see truly?

What I want is

Peace that passes understanding
A peace that defies circumstances,
Laughs in the face of turmoil
Finds hope where others see despair.

Joy that endures
Even while engaged in the wide world
A joy that see beneath the surface
To a celebration of God's Presence.

Contentment that sustains
Finding all that I want
In all that is given me
Finding abundance in the here and now.

Love in generosity
Opportunities each day to give away
All that I am, all that I have
To those abandoned by everyone else.

Somehow I'm sure
As long as these blessings are what I want
That my shepherd will provide them
With overflowing abundance.

Shalom!

3rd Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Third Sunday of Lent Cycle A are:

1. Exodus 17: 3-7
2. Psalm 95: 1-2, 6-7, 8-9
3. Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8
4. John 4: 5-42

1. I never promised you a rose garden
• Slavery is not so much how hard you work but why you do it.  Someone will willingly perform heroic amounts of work if it achieves something that is important to them.  Oppression is not so much about hardship as it is about why you are enduring it.  The hardship of the early settlers of the United States seems mind-boggling to us to day, but to them, it was the price you paid for opportunity.
• What do you want to be free of?
• What are you willing to pay to achieve that freedom?
• Do you think that you'll be a better person when you're free of those shackles?
• Do you think that there might be things that are binding you that you are unaware of?
2. Don't temp me
• What sorts of emotions do you think that God has?
• What sorts of things do you think make Him angry with us, disappointed, just sad?
• If you could see God's face, know how your actions affect Him, would that change you in any way?
3. Living in the Presence
• A popular Catholic devotion is to pray in the presence of the Presence on a first Friday.
• If you could go somewhere, and in that place and time, know just exactly how God feels about you at that very moment, would you go there?
• How often?
• How would that encounter change you?
4. Gently, gently
• Jesus brought the woman at the well to faith in stages, gently leading her, stretching her perceptions just a bit at a time.  Do you feel that's a fairly typical pattern with God?
• When was the last time that God gently led you past your comfort level to a place that you didn't know existed?
• As we try to show God to others, how can we be gradual, kind, merciful?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. Am I willing to listen to God and let that listening carry me to new places?
2. Am I willing to give up my ideas, my plans in order to draw closer to God?
3. What am I willing to give up for true peace?
4. When was the last time that I had a prayer experience that I was excited to share with someone else?

Tabernacle of the Forgotten Water Jar

Local legend has it that this is the water jar left by the woman at the well.
One little boy in the tour group asked "Why would she leave her jar?"
"Well now," said the tour guide, "she had met Jesus, and she was excited."
"But He knows everything.  He know that jar was important to her, why didn't He remind her?"

The old tour guide chewed on that question for a long while.
No one had ever put it to him quite like that before.
"I recon that sometimes, when you love someone a great deal,
You can tell when they have turned a corner, crested a hill in their lives,

And you know that nothing is ever going to be the same for them.
You know that everything that they had up until that point has served its purpose,
And it's just not that important anymore because everything is new.
I guess this little shrine is a monument to transformation."

"It's like growing up.  One day, you look at something precious,
And you realize that it's time to give it away to someone who will appreciate it.
You hope that the fact that it's been in your hands all this time,
Will somehow be a benefit to the next person, and you just give it away."

The little boy was clutching a favorite bear of his, and he looked at it a long time.
"Mister, does it hurt to grow up?" he asked.
"Son, the only thing more painful, is the little deaths you die
When you don't grow up and it's time."

"How do you know when it's time?" came the question.
"Your heart just tells you, and you know."
"When do you stop growing up?" came the question.
"I think when you die, but don't quote me on that one, 'cause I'm not 100% sure."

The boy turned to go as the tour group started toward their next stop.
He turned to the guide again and asked "I want to come back.  Will you be here?"
The old guide looked deep into his eyes and said:
"I'll be here, but hopefully a better version of me.  You'll be back, but the boy in you will be gone forever."

Shalom!

2nd Sunday of Lent

Our readings for the Second Sunday of Lent are:

1. Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18
2. Psalm 27: 1, 7-8, 8-9, 13-14
3. Philippians 3: 17-4:1
4. Luke 9: 28-36

1. Name it and claim it
• Believing is more than mental assent to some statement, it's living a life based on that.  Abram was able to accept that God was going to give his heirs an inheritance, that Abram's line was going to continue, that he was going to leave a legacy, and live a life that reflected that profound faith.
• When you choose to believe a promise of God, how do you move the experience of that promise from your head to your heart?
• Do you think that the heart can "know" things that our minds are unable to fathom?
• How can we live our lives such that the head and the heart support and illuminate each other?
2. I'm here for you ...
• When going through tough times, it's a great comfort to have company.  But in some ways, we always travel this life alone, or do we?
• Why is it hard to relate to someone in real pain, regardless of the reason for their pain?
• Short of simply making that pain go away, how can any of us really support someone in great need?
• How does God support us in our need?
• Aren't we always in need in one way or another?
3. Choose wisely
• Matthew Kelly makes a great emphasis on choosing your heroes carefully, and then getting the most possible from their example: study their lives, find out what makes them so good at what they do best, and above all, practice what they do so that you too might enjoy success.
• Who are your heroes?
• What have you done to become more like them?
• Would you wish that your son or daughter had the same heroes?
4. Let's do that again!
• I'm going to bet that, as they got older, the disciples got more and more thoughtful, spent more and more time remembering, and trying to get more and more meaning from those many experiences that they shared with Jesus.
• Do you have any pivotal experiences that changed you, changed the way that you look at things, changed your attitude?
• What was so profound about those experiences?
• How are you being faithful to what was shown you in those events?

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I believing in God for today?
2. How am I actively making myself available to/for others?
3. Who is helping me become more Christlike by their example?
4. What am I doing to learn the most from what I experience?

Sacred Memory

They're all gone now, some longer than others.
The original company of Jesus, dead and gone,
Their ashes scattered across the land and beyond.

I, I alone, here on the island of Patmos remember
The bite of the night air when Jesus came to us
Came across the water against all odds.

I'm the only one who remembers the tang of the air
Wafting out of Lazarus' tomb when we moved the stone,
And the sweetness that warned of resurrection emerging.

I remember the taste of the fish that he had cooking for us
That wonderful morning after He had raised from the dead,
And our hearts were still in the deepest grave of hopelessness.

The crackle of the fire that He had made among the rocks,
The aroma of the cooking fish, and the sound of His voice.
That always reminded us that there was more than met the eye.

I tried to share the earthiness of those memories,
Their bitter sweet texture that only comes first hand,
But this generation mistakes knowledge for understanding

And looses the essence of His life in looking to understand
Something that never really can be understood.
That He was real -- flesh -- and blood right in our midst.

And with a well-worn wonder, I look at my haggard hands,
And realize that He's still here today, as long as we keep sharing
What and where He's moving in our midst.

Shalom!