Believe that you are worthy (Bianca Sparacino)

   Happiness turned to me and said, It is time. It is time to forgive yourself for all of the things you did not become. It is time to exonerate yourself for all of the people you couldn’t save, for all of the fragile hearts you fumbled with in the dark of your confusion. It is time, child, to accept that you don’t have to be who you were a year ago, that you don’t have to want the same things. Above all else, it is time to believe, with reckless abandon, that you are worthy of me, for I have been waiting for years.

--Bianca Sparacino

Image source: https://everettclipper.com/13713/showcase/the-art-of-self-acceptance/
Quotation source

Something in the way Jesus looked at him (Yvonne Prowse)

   Something in the way Jesus looked at him and spoke to him, broke through all the layers of defensiveness, fear, anxiety, greed – whatever Zacchaeus was carrying – Jesus broke through it all, and reminded him of who he is. Jesus names him as a descendent of Abraham; he is the beloved of God. Jesus communicated it in such a way that Zacchaeus couldn’t miss it and was freed to turn back to the truth of who he is. And this is what’s on offer for all of us.

--Yvonne Prowse

Image source: https://hummelillustration.com/tag/zacchaeus/
Quotation source

Speaking the world into being (Bishop Robert Barron)

     We do not inhabit a chaos: we inhabit a cosmos. And the only way to make sense of that is to posit the existence of this great, intelligent creator who is continually speaking the world into being.

--Bishop Robert Barron        

Image source: Arias Fernández, Jesus Receiving the World from God the Father (1657), https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/jesus-receiving-the-world-from-god-the-father/d22f53c3-f475-4415-9bd7-a2558babbb72
Quotation source

Every human being has cosmic significance (Thomas Salerno)

   Every human being has cosmic significance. God created this vast and astonishing universe not only as an expression of his creative omnipotence, but also so that he could have a personal relationship with you and with every other person. […] Love is the fundamental law of the universe, far more than any physical law of electromagnetism, gravity, or entropy. 

--Thomas Salerno      

Image source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/was-our-universe-created-in-a-laboratory/
Quotation source

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 30, 2022: The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost...

The Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost… 

Do you believe God sent his Son to save you? 

    God’s care for God’s creation is extraordinary, isn’t it? The narrator of the Book of Wisdom marvels at the fact that God loves all things that are, for everything God created was intentional, including forgiveness and mercy: you have mercy on all because you can do all things, the narrator says. God’s imperishable spirit can be found in all things, and God’s intent is to draw all, even sinners or offenders, back to himself, that all might one day be in union with him. It is not surprising, then, that Psalm 145 extols God’s great kindness and compassion; God is gracious and merciful, faithful in all his words, and it’s up to creation itself to praise God’s name forever, recognizing God’s action at work in our lives, trusting in God’s faithful covenant with us. 

   If the Book of Wisdom affirms God’s love for all creation, Jesus’ death and rising is the very embodiment of this love, for Jesus dies for our sake entirely, not to change God but to change us and our understanding of his love for us, which has no limits. In Luke’s Gospel, the tax collector Zacchaeus is a beneficiary of that great love. Judged by his own community to be unfit for God’s mercy, lost because the world has rejected him, Zacchaeus nevertheless seeks to see who Jesus is, sensing, perhaps, that Jesus has come to save all. Zacchaeus is ripe for conversion, and ready to do whatever is required to follow Jesus: Behold, half of my possessions I shall give to the poor, he tells Jesus. Zacchaeus is worthy of his calling as a disciple of Christ, and Jesus explicitly recognizes this fact: Today, salvation has come to this house. 

    Later, Paul will express his hope that the Thessalonians may be similarly worthy of Jesus’ calling. The Thessalonians have been baptized into Christ; Paul prays that their baptism may be effective in making them one with Christ, transforming them, their lives, their focus in life, and how they understand themselves in the world. They are still in the world, but Paul exhorts them to allow all they do to flow from that identity in Christ, focused on the ultimate union they hope for without being too concerned that the day of the Lord is at hand. Jesus’ death and rising should suffice to assure them that, so long as they remain worthy, they too will know perfect union with Christ when that day comes, the ultimate manifestation of God’s extraordinary care for God’s creation. Until then, may the name of our Lord Jesus Christ be glorified in you and in all! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Risking God's mercy more (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   Early on in my ministry, I lived in a rectory with a saintly, respected old priest. One night, I asked him this question: If you had your life to live over again, would you do anything differently? From a man so full of integrity, I fully expected that there would be no regrets, so his answer surprised me. 

   Yes, he did have a major regret. He said, If I had my priesthood to do over again, I would be easier on people the next time. I wouldn’t be so stingy with God’s mercy, with the sacraments, with forgiveness. I fear I’ve been too hard on people. They have pain enough without me and the Church laying further burdens on them. I should have risked God’s mercy more!

   As I age, I am ever more inclined to the old priest’s advice: We need more to risk God’s mercy. The place of justice and truth should never be ignored, but we must risk letting the infinite, unbounded, unconditional, undeserved mercy of God flow free. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser OMI 

Facebook, February 15, 2021 

Image source: Rembrandt?, An Old Man in an Armchair (17th c.), https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/probably-by-rembrandt-an-old-man-in-an-armchair

To pray you open your whole self (Joy Harjo)

To pray you open your whole self 

To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon 

To one whole voice that is you. 

And know there is more 

That you can’t see, can’t hear; 

Can’t know except in moments 

Steadily growing, and in languages 

That aren’t always sound but other 

Circles of motion. 

Like eagle that Sunday morning 

Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky 

In wind, swept our hearts clean 

With sacred wings. 

We see you, see ourselves and know 

That we must take the utmost care 

And kindness in all things. 

Breathe in, knowing we are made of 

All this, and breathe, knowing 

We are truly blessed because we 

Were born, and die soon within a 

True circle of motion, 

Like eagle rounding out the morning 

Inside us. 

We pray that it will be done 

In beauty. 

In beauty. 

--Joy Harjo, Eagle Poem                         

Image source: https://www.crosswalk.com/faith/spiritual-life/what-does-it-mean-to-love-your-neighbor-as-yourself.html 

The bread you hold back (St. Basil the Great)

   The bread which you hold back belongs to the hungry, the coat which you guard in your closet belongs to the naked. 

--St. Basil the Great 

Image source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/602708362613785648/ 

Quotation source

O God, be merciful to me, a sinner (Bishop Robert Barron)

   In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus compares the self-centered prayer of the Pharisee with the God-centered prayer of the tax collector. 

   The Pharisee spoke his prayer to himself. This is, Jesus suggests, a fraudulent, wholly inadequate prayer, precisely because it simply confirms the man in his self-regard. And the god to which he prays is, necessarily, a false god, an idol, since it allows itself to be positioned by the ego-driven needs of the Pharisee. 

   But then Jesus invites us to meditate upon the publican’s prayer. He speaks with a simple eloquence: [He] beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.’ Though it is articulate speech, it is not language that confirms the independence and power of the speaker—just the contrary. It is more of a cry or a groan, an acknowledgement that he needs to receive something, this mysterious mercy for which he begs. 

   In the first prayer, "god" is the principal member of the audience arrayed before the ego of the Pharisee. But in this second prayer, God is the principal actor, and the publican is the audience awaiting a performance the contours of which he cannot fully foresee. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,

Gospel Reflection,

March 26, 2022 

Image source: Barent Fabritius, The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, Presented in Three Scenes (1661), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharisee_and_the_Publican#/media/File:De_Farizee%C3%ABr_en_de_tollenaar_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-2959.jpeg

Real justice (Fr. Greg Boyle)

Real justice restores 
by loving people
into their wholeness. 

--Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ

Image source: Fr. Greg Boyle, HomeBoy Industries, featured in Relevant Magazine, https://relevantmagazine.com/faith/church/watch-father-greg-boyle-share-how-ministering-to-gang-members-changed-his-life/
Quotation source

We soak in the mercy of God (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Every saint had a past, and every sinner has a future. That is key to Catholic spirituality. In the lives of every one of these heroes of the faith, there is some conversion. And every sinner—every one of us—has a future. That is why we soak in the mercy of God. 

   There is a beautiful reference in the Psalms to oil running down upon your beard, upon the collar of your robe. The divine mercy is like that: poured out upon us, poured out without reservation—and not because it’s earned, because it can’t be earned. 

   God doesn’t love us because we’re worthy. We’re worthy because he loves us. We don’t deserve his mercy, but we soak it in and thereby are transformed. 

--Bishop Robert Barron,
Gospel Reflection,
July 17, 2020 

Image source: https://mccx.medium.com/putting-on-the-precious-psalm-133-v2-f1d277bae923

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 23, 2022: O God, be merciful to me, a sinner...

O God, be merciful to me, a sinner…

Who benefits from God’s justice?

    Although the Jerusalem sage who authored the Book of Sirach states that The Lord is a God of justice who knows no favorites, what follows in the text suggests that God’s justice is not impartial, but seems to be weighted toward the poor and the weak: he hears the cry of the oppressed and is not deaf to the wail of the orphan. The Lord attends to the prayer of the lowly and to those who serve God willingly. In this context, God’s justice – and therefore God’s mercy – is extended in a special way to those who are faithful to covenant. Psalm 34 confirms this teaching: The Lord hears the cry of the poor, the psalmist writes, and no one incurs guilt who takes refuge in him. God metes out justice in the form of love and mercy, especially to the most vulnerable of society, those who should be cared for above all else: the lowly, the just and the brokenhearted. 

    In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus similarly justifies those have the humility to seek God’s mercy. The Pharisee prays praising himself, with God given only a nod in the man’s monologue, while the tax collector beats his breast and prays, O God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Do we always recognize how dependent we are on God for his mercy? Do we recognize our need for God in our prayer? The tax collector is justified by God alone; to be in right relationship with God is to know that without God’s mercy, we are lost. Nothing matters if we don’t recognize our need for and trust in God’s mercy; without it, life is an empty shell. St. Paul acknowledges this in his Second Letter to Timothy: The Lord stood by me and gave me strength, he says, and I will be rescued from the lion’s mouth. Human threats mean nothing to him because of the promise of eternal life. St. Paul trusted in the promise, trusted the Lord with his life, and was jubilant to join his sufferings with the sufferings of Christ, willing to sacrifice all for the sake of that love, for the sake of revealing the love of God. God’s Word is ultimate because the Word reveals God’s justice; we must keep the faith, trusting that we will benefit from God’s justice as we wait for the promise of perfect union to be fulfilled. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 

Image source: www.wordclouds.com

God will help us (Madeleine L'Engle)

   Like a human parent, God will help us when we ask for help, but in a way that makes us more mature, more real, not in a way that will diminish us. 

--Madeleine L’Engle      

Image source: https://godinallthings.com/2018/05/13/god-our-family-god-our-mother/ (You will notice that the woman's earring is in the form of an ankh.  The Coptic Church of Egypt respects the ankh as a form of the Christian cross, symbolizing eternal life through Christ.)

Let our cry be the cry of the widow (David Morrison)

Lord, we see the continual oppression of the world system--

It’s the unjust judge who only lives for himself

And so many times, we are him.

Have mercy on us, and transform us. 

Lord, we see the impossibilities that seem to never change in our lives--

It’s the desperate widow uncovered and undesired 

And so many times, we are her. 

Have mercy on us, and hear our cry.

Let our cry be the cry of the widow 

Let our cry be the cry of the fatherless 

Let our cry be the cry of the oppressed: 

The cry of the child… 

…of the impoverished 

…and the displaced 

Lord, plant our prayers in that secret place– 

In the drop of water that falls and freezes into the fissure of the world’s unshakable boulders—let the slow splitting begin! 

In the wind that relentlessly throws itself on the unmovable granite canyon walls of empire—let the carving of hollows begin! 

In the ocean that rakes the earth, forever devouring and returning the sands of souls—laying them all down upon your compassion again. 

So let it be… 

--David Morrison,
A Prayer Out of Poverty

Image source: https://www.audleytravel.com/us/usa/places-to-go/utah/zion-national-park 
Poem source

If it seems that no one is listening (St. Jane de Chantal)

    In prayer, one must hold fast and never let go, because the one who gives up loses all. If it seems that no one is listening to you, then cry out even louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back in by the other. 

--St. Jane de Chantal 

Image source: Ronnie Farmer Jr., The Persistent Widow, https://www.faithforjustice.org/blog/2020/4/30/prayers-of-the-people-12 
Quotation source

Opening ourselves to the infinite power of God (Bishop Robert Barron)

   Jesus tells his disciples a parable about the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary—the parable of the insistent and persistent widow. She keeps pressing her demand against the judge, and the judge—who is no saint—finally gives in to her persistence. 

    When we rely on our own powers in the spiritual struggle against darkness, hatred, and division, we fail. But when we open ourselves to the infinite power of God and we rely on the power of prayer, then the battle goes well. As the Lord says in the parable, Will not God then secure the rights of his chosen ones who call out to him day and night? Will he be slow to answer them? We must channel a power that goes infinitely beyond ourselves if we are to be successful. 

    God wants us to persist in asking for his power, his courage, and his strength. This biblical truth is repeated over and over in the Scriptures. Persistent prayer is the key to success in our spiritual combat. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, 

November 14, 2020 

Image source: https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2406-the-bothersome-widow

Perseverance (Plutarch)

    Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little. 

--Plutarch     

Image source: https://www.journeywithjesus.net/essays/2406-the-bothersome-widow 
Quotation source

Standing in God's presence with open hands (Henri Nouwen)

    Prayer requires that we stand in God's presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing. This is difficult in a climate where the predominant counsel is Do your best and God will do the rest. When life is divided into our best and God's rest, we have turned prayer into a last resort to be used only when our resources are depleted. Then even the Lord has become the victim of our impatience. Discipleship does not mean to use God when we can no longer function ourselves. On the contrary, it means to recognize that we can do nothing at all, but that God can do everything through us. As disciples, we find not some but all of our strength, hope, courage, and confidence in God. Therefore, prayer must be our first concern. 

--Henri Nouwen, Compassion 

Image source: https://hope1032.com.au/stories/faith/devotions/2021/gods-open-hands/

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 16, 2022: Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth...

Our help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth…

How do we know God is with us? 

    As the people of Israel journeyed through the desert, they were not alone, and they were not always at peace. In the Book of Exodus, not long after God causes water to come from the rock Moses strikes with his staff, the Amalekites commence an unprovoked attack against the Israelites. But the people of Israel trust in God’s power, for Moses is standing on top of the hill, with the staff of God in his hand, a sign of God’s intercession on their behalf. They know, as Psalm 121 reminds all, that their help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. So long as they go into battle in prayer and stay in prayer throughout the battle, focused on God at work in them, the people of Israel can be sure that the Lord will guard them from all evil. It is their persistence, and that of Moses, Aaron and Hur, that brings Joshua and his soldiers through the battle successfully. 

    In Luke’s Gospel, the widow who petitions a dishonest judge, calling out to him day and night, is persistent because of her faith; unlike the judge who neither feared God nor respected any human being, the widow knows she is one of God’s chosen ones, and he will see to it that justice is done for her. Jesus tells his disciples this parable so that they might recognize the necessity for them to pray always without becoming weary. Like Moses, who must keep his hands elevated in prayer for his people to be successful in their quest, Jesus’ disciples must remain open to God continuously through prayer and petition, never forgetting that God is with them. St. Paul will remind Timothy of this very same lesson: be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient. Timothy has known the sacred Scriptures from infancy, and they are to be the focus of his prayer and the source of his wisdom for salvation. He has but to remain faithful to what he has learned and believed, and to proclaim the Word, persistently, grounding himself in prayer. 

    We too have the Scriptures to serve as our source of wisdom, and we must pursue the Word with open hearts, persistently, that we might know always that God, our help, is with us, and we with him. Then when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith on earth. Our faith can and must remain persistent and patient, and it can only do so if we open ourselves to God in prayer and find our strength in him, that we too might proclaim the Word, embodying that faith on earth that reassures us that God is indeed always with us, no matter what we may be facing. 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class. 
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Touch me (Fr. Ron Rolheiser)

   For all of us who are wounded, take those wounds to the Eucharist. Every time you stand by an altar and receive communion, bring your helplessness and paralysis to God. Ask God to touch your body, your heart, your memory, your bitterness, your lack of self-confidence, your self-absorption, your weaknesses, your impotence. Bring your aching body and heart to God. Express your helplessness in simple, humble words: Touch me. Take my wounds. Take my paranoia. Make me whole. Give me forgiveness. Warm my heart. Give me the strength that I cannot give myself. 

--Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI

Facebook, October 8, 2021

Image source: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2020/07/the-chosen-season-one-episode-six.html

What are the wounded places within me? (Maria Anne McGuire)

         And so I ask myself: What are the wounded places within me that keep me separated from God’s touch? Where are my festering, infected spots? Am I willing to bring what I need healed to God? Are you? The invitation before us today is to open ourselves to God and recognize our need. Open ourselves to the one who sees us, hears us, and longs to touch and connect with us. 

   And when this happens, it changes something inside us. God’s touch opens us to see with new eyes--to see and hear those around us who feel separated--those who long to be seen, heard and touched. When we see and hear the need of those around us, we take on the mind of Christ. And the mind of Christ says this, I am yours and you are mine- imperfect, yes- but highly valued and beloved. 

--Maria Anne McGuire 

Image source: José Gutierrez Solana, The Outcasts, https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/outcasts-61847
Quotation source

Thy faith has made thee whole (Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon)

’Neath the olives of Samaria, in far-famed Galilee,
Where dark green vines are mirrored in a placid silver sea,
’Mid scenes of tranquil beauty, glowing sun-sets, rosy dawn,
The Master and disciples to the city journeyed on.

And, as they neared a valley where a sheltered hamlet lay,
A strange, portentous wailing made them pause upon their way—
Voices fraught with anguish, telling of aching heart and brow,
Which kept moaning: Jesus, Master, have mercy on us now!

Softly raised the gentle Saviour His eyes like midnight star,
And His mournful gaze soon rested on ten lepers, who, afar,
Stood motionless and suppliant, in sackcloth rudely clothed,
Poor Pariahs! by their nearest, their dearest, shunned and loathed.

Not unto Him prayed vainly those sore afflicted ten, 
No!  He yearned too fondly over the erring sons of men,
Even sharing in their sorrows, though He joined not in their feasts,—
So He kindly told the Lepers: Show yourselves unto the priests.

When, miracle of mercy! as they turned them to obey,
And towards the Holy Temple quickly took their hopeful way,
Lo! the hideous scales fell off them, health’s fountains were unsealed,
Their skin grew soft as infant’s—their leprosy was healed.

O man! so oft an ingrate, to thy thankless nature true,
Thyself see in those Lepers, who did as thou dost do;
Nine went their way rejoicing, healed in body—glad in soul—
Nor once thought of returning thanks to Him who made them whole.

One only, a Samaritan, a stranger to God’s word,
Felt his joyous, panting bosom, with gratitude deep stirred,
And without delay he hastened, in the dust, at Jesus’ feet,
To cast himself in worship, in thanksgiving, warm and meet.

Slowly questioned him the Saviour, with majesty divine:—
Ten were cleansed from their leprosy—where are the other nine?
Is there none but this one stranger—unlearned in Gods ways, 
His name and mighty power, to give word of thanks or praise?

The sunbeams’ quivering glories softly touched that God-like head,
The olives blooming round Him sweet shade and fragrance shed,
While o’er His sacred features a tender sadness stole: Rise, go thy way,
He murmured, thy faith hath made thee whole!

--Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon 

Image source: Bill Hoover, Ten Lepers, https://weybridgechurch.org/2016/10/06/this-sunday-luke-17-11-19/
Poem source

Focus on thanking God (Fr. James Martin)

   [The gospel of the healing of the ten lepers] is about more than ingratitude. Key to understanding it, as is often the case, is to see what precedes it. And right before this passage Jesus has been telling the disciples that they shouldn’t be serving him out of the expectation of thanks. It’s where he tells the disciples that they should just say, We are unworthy servants. We have only done what we were supposed to do. This is along the lines of the famous Prayer for Generosity, inspired (but not written) by St. Ignatius to labor and not to seek reward.

   Now, look, we all at some point need some reward. It’s not a crime to say to someone, Thanks. Or Well done. Or Good job. And it’s not a crime to appreciate being thanked. But I think what Jesus is getting at with the disciples is that it’s not the reason we do what we do. Mother Teresa once said our good deeds should be like stones in a pond. We throw them in and they create ripples, but they are largely unseen after they are done. Henri Nouwen said our actions should be hidden from others but known by God. 

    What’s the connection with the leper? Well, it’s a subtle one in Luke’s Gospel. The disciples should not expect thanks, but rather give thanks to the one who has saved them, as the Samaritan did: to Jesus. The disciples, and we, are indeed unworthy servants, and not masters, as Jesus often tells them. So they need to focus on thanking God rather than seeking thanks. Again, to labor and not to seek reward. 

    And the rewards come, of course, in our own lives. Jesus says elsewhere that for those who give up and sacrifice they will be rewarded a hundredfold in this life, not just in some future time, but in our lives. And we all know the rewards that we’ve been given. 

    But the reason we give up and sacrifice is not to get that hundredfold, it’s in response to the gracious gift of Jesus’s call to each of us, as well as his gift of love, of our individual vocations, and of our very lives. 

--Fr. James Martin, SJ 

Facebook, November 10, 2021

Image source: https://www.holycrossmadison.church/sermons/2017/11/22/thanksgiving-eve-jesus-heals-the-ten-lepers

Give praise! (John of Ruusbroec)

   Those who do not give praise here on earth shall be mute for all eternity. 

--14th c. Flemish mystic John of Ruusbroec 

Image source: Jesus Mafa, Healing of the Ten Lepers (Cameroon), https://m.facebook.com/115856513123263/photos/healing-of-the-ten-lepers-by-jesus-mafa-art-collaboration-out-of-cameroon-see-ht/138574824184765/
Quotation source

What do you worship? (Bishop Robert Barron)

    In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus heals ten lepers, saying, Go show yourselves to the priests. The lepers who begged for a cure were not simply concerned about their medical condition; they were Israelites in exile from the temple—and hence they were a very apt symbol of the general condition of scattered, exiled, wandering Israel. In curing them, Jesus was, symbolically speaking, gathering the tribes and bringing them back to the worship of the true God.

    That’s why he tells the lepers, Go show yourselves to the priests. In other words, go back to the temple from which you’ve been away for so long. I propose that the lepers here stand, not so much for the socially ostracized, but for the ones who have wandered away from right worship, the ones who are no longer able or willing to worship the true God. 

    What is so important about worship? Protestant theologian Paul Tillich said that the key to understanding a person was to uncover his ultimate concern, another way of saying, what he worships. What do you worship? If it’s not the living God, you’ve wandered into the land of exile. You have become, in fact, unclean. 

--Bishop Robert Barron, 

 Gospel Reflection, 

 November 11, 2020 

Image source: James Tissot, The Healing of Ten Lepers (1886-1896), https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4527

Sunday Gospel Reflection, October 9, 2022: He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him...

He fell at the feet of Jesus and thanked him…

How do we celebrate God at work in us?

   When in the Second Book of Kings, Naaman the Aramean follows the prophet Elisha’s instructions and plunges into the Jordan seven times, he is cured of his leprosy: his flesh became again like the flesh of a little child. Imagine Naaman’s joy! He wants to thank Elisha with a lavish gift, but Elisha refuses. Yet Naaman still wants to celebrate God at work in him; Naaman wants to honor and acknowledge the God of Israel, and so he asks for two mule-loads of earth on which he can properly worship the one God in all the earth. Naaman’s gratitude manifests in his turning to God, believing in the God of Israel; in his worship, he will set his heart at God’s disposal, recognizing God as the source of all that is necessary in his life. This is a key component of all worship: to come together to give witness to God’s wondrous deeds, as Psalm 98 intones. Naaman is not unique: the Lord has revealed to all the nations his saving power. Salvation is for all, and we are called to celebrate that gift.

   The ten lepers who meet Jesus as he travels through Samaria and Galilee in Luke's Gospel similarly experience the Lord’s saving power; when Jesus heals them, they can be restored to community through ritual, a form of worship described in the Book of Leviticus. But one man, a Samaritan, realizing he had been healed, returns, glorifying God in a loud voice. His faith is evidenced by his gratitude; when he falls at the feet of Jesus and thanks him, the Samaritan offers a beautiful response to the grace and salvation that is his, giving witness to all. He is thus able to celebrate God at work in his life directly and in person.

   Even in his suffering, St. Paul bears with everything for the sake of those who are chosen. In his Second Letter to Timothy, Paul reminds the young leader of the Church at Ephesus that their witness is essential to their community, that they too may obtain the salvation that is Christ Jesus. Paul exhorts Timothy to remain faithful to the Word: remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, and give witness to that Word. Even in suffering, Paul is able to celebrate God at work in him, persevering for the sake of the Gospel, for the word of God is not chained. How do we celebrate God at work in us? Do we show our gratitude through worship and ritual? Do we glorify the Lord in a loud voice? Do we persevere even through suffering? Do we remember Christ Jesus, raised from the dead, and give witness to that fact? God is at work in us at every moment – we have simply to open our eyes to see it, and then celebrate it! 

This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com

Let go (Brother Isaiah)

Let go

Let me lead, child

Let go  

Let me lead you now

In the desert of my heart

You speak to me of love

You speak to me of love

You speak to me of love

Refrain

Sweetest breeze come blow over me

Sweetest breeze come blow over me

Sweetest breeze come blow over me

And guide my feet

Refrain 

Honey from the rock to my heart’s content

You give honey from the rock to my heart’s content

You give honey from the rock to my heart’s content

To my heart’s content 

Refrain 

To hear Brother (now Father!) Isaiah sing, Let Me Lead, from his recent CD Shade, click on the video below: 

Image source: Marianne Faguy, Let Go, https://www.mariannefaguy.art/blog/2020/2/8/an-exercise-to-let-go 

Video source

What is faith? (Bishop Robert Barron)

    How often the Bible compels us to meditate on the meaning of faith! We might say that the Scriptures rest upon faith, and that they remain inspired at every turn by the spirit of faith. 

    Paul Tillich said that faith is the most misunderstood word in the religious vocabulary, and I’ve always felt that he’s right about that. What is faith? Faith is an attitude of trust in the presence of God. Faith is openness to what God will reveal, do, and invite. It should be obvious that in dealing with the infinite, all-powerful God, we are never in control. 

    This is precisely what we see in the lives of the saints: in Mother Teresa moving into the worst slum in the world in an attitude of trust; in Francis of Assisi just abandoning everything and living for God; in Rose Hawthorne deciding to take cancer sufferers into her own home; in Antony leaving everything behind and going into the desert; in Maximilian Kolbe saying, I’m a Catholic priest; take me in his place.

 --Bishop Robert Barron, 

Gospel Reflection, 

June 18, 2022 

Happy Feast of St. Francis of Assisi,

patron saint of the 

Archdiocese of San Francisco! 

Image source: Bernardo del Rincón, St. Francis (ca. 1650), polychrome, wood, glass & rope. Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco. For a meditative article on the possible sources of this remarkable sculpture, visit https://www.famsf.org/saint-francis-assisi

Place your trust in God (St. Augustine)

   Beware of despairing about yourself; you are commanded to place your trust in God, and not in yourself. 

--St. Augustine        

Image source: Auguste Rodin, Le Désespoir (ca. 1904), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Despair_%28sculpture%29#/media/File:Le_D%C3%A9sespoir_(c.1903-04)_by_Rodin_2.jpg
Quotation source

The soul's foundation (Richard Rohr)

   In the practical order, we find our Original Goodness, the image of God that we are, when we can discover and own the faith, hope, and love deeply planted within us: 

     -- A trust in inner coherence itself. “It all means something!” (Faith)  

     -- A trust that this coherence is positive and going somewhere good. (Hope) 

     -- A trust that this coherence includes me and even defines me. (Love) 

This is the soul’s foundation. That we are capable of such trust and surrender is the objective basis for human goodness and holiness, and it almost needs to be re-chosen day by day lest we continue to slide toward cynicism, victim playing and making, or self-pity. No philosophy or government, no law or reason, can fully promise or offer us this attitude, but the Gospel can and does. Healthy religion shares a compelling and attractive foundation for human goodness and dignity and shows us ways to build on that foundation. 

--Richard Rohr, Trusting the Divine Image and Likeness 

Image source: https://society6.com/product/love-faith-hope-christian-quote-black-stone-embossing_tapestry (tapestry available for purchase)

I dread losing my faith (Flannery O'Connor)

 

   I dread, oh Lord, losing my faith. My mind is not strong. It is a prey to all sorts of intellectual quackery. 

--Flannery O’Connor 

Image source: James Tissot, Habakkuk (1896-1902), https://thejewishmuseum.org/collection/26649-habakkuk Quotation source