Pray With Us - Archives January-June 2007

Epiphany is from the Greek, meaning a showing. Mary shows Jesus to foreigners.
The author of Ephesians, however, says that no one is a foreigner since through Jesus all have become heirs to God’s love, members of one Body, sharers in the promise. All nations will indeed adore this child. Nations are coming into the light, Isaiah cries. Such a great ingathering, and all are welcome. Isaiah promises that we shall be radiant, full of light, that our hearts will thrill and rejoice.

How can you be sure that all are welcome? Can you imagine all the nations of the world in their native dress and with their customs being gathered together around this baby? See Mary showing the infant to Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, hardened atheists, and anyone whom we might think unwelcome. Let this baby melt hearts today, including your own.

Fill us, all of humanity, with your light, Jesus, that all hearts may melt, thrill at your presence and rejoice as members of one Body. Gather us in, loving God.

Monday, January 8, 2007 - Feast of the Baptism of the Lord
Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11 (or Titus 2:11-14; 3-4-7); Psalm 104; Luke 3: 15-16, 21-22

While we all know the story of Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan, what we have here is another “showing,” a manifestation of God’s son with whom God is well pleased. A second Epiphany, and a second go at two readings important to Advent (Isaiah’s “Comfort ye”) and Christmas (the assurance in Titus that not by any works of justice that we have done but according to God’s mercy, God has saved us). What is new today is the psalm, a song of creation with the verse: “When you send forth your spirit, all is created, and you renew the face of the earth.” The psalmist tells, and Luke shows the Spirit beginning such a renewal through Jesus.

As we in the northern hemisphere look around it does not look like the earth is being renewed. Yet imagine all the life under the earth, waiting. What in your life needs renewal, needs the new energy of the Spirit, needs a re-creation. Share that with the Spirit and let God, not your works, save (set free), comfort and renew you.

Send out your Spirit to the whole world, God of grace, and save us, energize us for loving and serving whomever we meet today. Recreate our hearts and plunge them more deeply into the love of Jesus.

Technically Christmas season does not end until February 2, but when we begin continuous readings, this year from Hebrews and Mark, we know that some ordinary time has begun. Another possible resolution when the readings are continuous: keep a Bible by your computer and a marker in Hebrews and Mark so that you may read the whole passage.

Hebrews calls Jesus our pioneer, the pioneer of our salvation. He has gone first, first born in every way, scouting the path, noting the pitfalls, where the enemy might lurk, blazing the way with his radiant light. Jesus is proud to call us his sisters and brothers. Hebrews tells; Mark shows. A brother in the gospel is being tormented by an unclean spirit. Jesus, teaching with authority, commands the demon to come out.

He is our pioneer in teaching with authority. What do you believe so strongly that you can teach it with authority? How do you do that? What unclean spirits have you and Jesus wrestled with together in your past life? What in your life do you want Jesus to command right now? Tell him.

Jesus, our pioneer, please make your convictions our convictions, and give us the courage of our convictions. Grant us the courage and creativity to change what we can.

Jesus “had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest…tempted by what he suffered, he is able to help those being tempted.” Hebrews tells; Mark shows Jesus possibly tempted by the fame his healing brings. “Everyone is searching for you,” Peter tells him, finding him in the early morning in a deserted place, praying. Jesus responds, “Let’s get going.”

What is it that tempts you? Remember that temptation is not sin, just a decision time. Has Jesus, your pioneer, been tempted as you are? Ask him. Wait. Listen. He is able to help, if you can show him what troubles you now.

Our faithful and compassionate high priest, you alone are holy! Yet you struggle, you are tempted. Help us to accept our weak humanity, knowing that you rejoice to share our weakness.

Hebrews quotes God as being angry during the exodus. Mark shows Jesus being angry with a leper. The leper approaches, falls to his knees and says, “If you want to, you can make me clean.” Moved with____, Jesus replies, “I do want to!” Later manuscripts have in that blank spot “Moved with pity.” Earlier manuscripts have “Moved with anger.” Why clean up the anger? Jesus may be angry that this man has been ostracized by his religion for any kind of discharge; all such were called “leprosy.” Or perhaps he is angry, as he might be with us, with that hesitation when we pray and ask, “If you want to, Jesus, you could____.” Fill in your own blank. Today’s passage from Hebrews ends with “We have become partners with Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.”

Show Jesus what needs healing in your life, your family, your country, our world.
Tell him, with confidence, I KNOW YOU WANT TO_______. Rest in the courage of that conviction, that confidence in him. When you have rested, tell Jesus that you want to be his partner today, and act with confidence.

Thank you, Jesus, for your anger, for all of your emotions, for caring so deeply. We do believe. Help our unbelief. Let us be moved with pity for any “lepers” we might meet today.

The author of Hebrews invites us to enter into God’s rest. Jesus gets no rest, teaching in his own home so crowded that the door is blocked. Enter four people carrying a paralyzed friend. They “dug through the roof” and let down the mat. “When Jesus saw THEIR faith….” First, Jesus offers forgiveness, the greatest healing; then a restoration of the paralytic’s body. Imagine the party the man and his four friends enjoy afterwards….

Who loves you so much that they bring you to Jesus? Whom do you love? For whom would you “dig through the roof?” Pray for those who are alone, who have no one to love them, those widowed or orphaned, those rejected, those paralyzed by sin, addiction, or other disease.

There is so much paralysis in our world, and you both see it and feel it, Jesus. We need forgiveness, reconciliation, unity and peace so much. Forgive us! Make us one!

Psalm 19 can be difficult for Christians because it is praise of God’s Law. As Paul insists, the Law is for the Jews, and the Spirit is our new “Law.” We can change law, precepts, statutes and such words to Word. The Law was God’s self-expression formerly, but for Christians the Word make flesh is God’s self-expression. Hebrews lauds the Word which gets into our marrow and helps us discern. This Word is our “high priest, able to sympathize with our weakness” and so we can “approach the throne of grace with boldness.” Jesus approaches sinners with boldness and confidence, inviting Matthew to come with him. Matthew prepares a dinner, and surrounded by sinners, Jesus announces: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do. I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

Let’s do an Ignatian contemplation and picture a grand party, hosted by Matthew to which all the sinners whom we scorn are invited. Who will they be? Someone in your family or from your workplace? Some in government? Some Iraqis or Osama bin Laden? Will you be seated? Or are you just watching, a wait-person perhaps? Catch the smells of a banquet, the clink of glasses, the tastes, but keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. How is he? He cleans his plate, stands to embrace Matthew, and turns to leave. You hurry to go out with him. What will you say? What will he say?

Your words are spirit and life, Jesus. Help us to receive you more deeply into our hearts where you sift our desires and feelings. Make us one with you, Word of God!

Sunday, January 14, 2007 - Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 62: 1-5; Psalm 96; 1 Corinthians 12: 4-11; John 2: 1-12

In this year of Luke, why a reading from John? Once we celebrated three epiphanies of Jesus: the showing to the wise men, the baptism, and the first of Jesus’ signs, at Cana, today’s gospel. First, Isaiah proclaims that all of us are married to God (and we all can be so joined, since God has no gender). No longer called “Desolate” or “Forsaken,” God rejoices over us. The result of our union with God is the fullness of the Spirit, gifting us and working through us (I Cor 12). Finally, at Cana 180 gallons of wine! Such abondanza! John’s is the gospel in which Jesus tells us that he comes that we might have life in abundance. Jesus not only tells but in this first of his signs, he shows the abundance.

If it is a new idea, consider what it means to be married to God. Or perhaps you could sit quietly and let the Spirit bubble up from deep within you just what specific gifts flow from your union with the Spirit. Or you could set the scene for another Ignatian contemplation. Perhaps today you would like to speak with Mary.

Thank you for a new covenant in your blood, Jesus, a sign of your life given so abundantly, so continuously, so freely. Thank you for your Spirit.

If human beings had not sinned, would God have sent Jesus? According to many New Testament authors, Jesus came to save us from sin, as even his name, yesh, implies. Francis of Assisi, Bonaventure and John Duns Scotus would disagree. They believe that the incarnation is not sin-o-centric but Christocentric, all creation made in the image of Christ. We find that “Christ all in all” in Colossians, Ephesians, Hebrews, John and Matthew who quotes Isaiah to call Jesus “ Emmanuel.” God would be with us, among us, within us not because of sin but because of God’s overwhelming generosity and humility embodied in Jesus. Today’s reading from Hebrews gives us a glimpse into the terror Jesus felt in Gethsemane. With loud cries and tears he begged to be saved from death. Loud cries in Greek means the screams of a wild animal that is trapped. He was heard. He was? Yes, in God’s raising him Jesus was himself saved, set free, becoming the source of our salvation, a word which from the Latin means health and wholeness. We have the bridegroom always with us, we have health and wholeness and God’s own self already.

Why do you fast? “Wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them”. Examine your motives for fasting, for doing “hard things.” Does your fast try to win God over, bribe God, or is it a response to God’s call to be in solidarity with those who have nothing? If doing “hard things” is a response to another’s need, “this is the fast that God wants” (Isaiah). Who might need your response today?

Thank you, God, for sending Jesus, like us in all things. We worship him in his humility, his terror, his obedience to the gospel no matter the cost. Thank you that he is always with us.

Today’s theme is hope. Hope, Hebrews consoles us, keeps us from growing sluggish. Hope is based on God’s promises, the covenant. Hope is a sure and steady anchor for us. Hope keeps our eyes fixed on Jesus who is our pioneer, having entered the very heart of God. The Alleluia verse hymns hope. Jesus reminds us that hope frees us from commandments, for “the Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath.” Instead of trusting our own keeping the law, we can trust only God, throwing ourselves on God’s mercy.

Imagine yourself bobbing in the ocean, at the mercy of the waves, but anchored so that you are not subject to drifting away. How does Jesus anchor you in God? How does the Sabbath refresh you and anchor your week? It is God’s gift to you for your rest and enjoyment. How shall you respond?

Let us pray the Alleluia verse: “May you, God of our Lord Jesus Christ, enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we might see how great is the hope to which we are called.”

Hebrews reminds us that high priests stem from a line of physical descent. Jesus becomes our faithful and compassionate high priest “through the power of an indestructible life.” Yet the gospel shows the Pharisees watching Jesus’ every move “so that they might accuse him.” As Jesus looks at them, he is grieved by their hardness of heart. Their keeping the law is more important than the healing of a man with a withered hand. It is the Sabbath and yet Jesus is faithful to God’s deeper law of love. His enemies immediately began to conspire with the Herodians “how to destroy him.”

What is withered in your life? Show Jesus what needs healing and new life. What is grieving Jesus today? Ask him. Listen. To what and to whom are you faithful?
Ask Jesus for the grace to join him in his grief and his fidelity to God’s law of love.

Your life, Jesus, is more than just indestructible. Your life is the source of all life, all power, all love, all faithfulness. Thank you for sharing your life with us.

Hebrews asserts: Jesus continues forever. What is he doing? “He lives to make intercession for us.” The psalmist tells us that he and we “come to do your will, O God….we tell the good news of salvation.” Jesus alive is constantly praying for us, with us, and within us. Jesus is continually doing God’s will, that is shalom. He is always and everywhere handing on the good news through the likes of us, our lives, our work, our love, our service. Crowds in the gospel are almost crushing him. The needs of our world continue to crush him, and yet he is peace-maker, healer, evangelizer, intercessor – through us.

Ask the Spirit to show you in what specific ways you continue the mission and ministry of Jesus. He continues to live and work through us. How might you be an attractive sign of his presence and mission today?

Here we are, O Christ! We come to do God’s will for shalom, and to let your passionate desire for peace and unity flow through us today.

These readings nourish an apostolic spirituality. In the gospel, Jesus appoints twelve, and continues to appoint us through our Baptism as apostles, those who are sent.
Not only are we sent to proclaim and to heal (not with miracles but with a listening heart to all who hurt). The psalm calls us, as it does Christ, to embody God’s faithful love. “Justice and peace shall kiss; faithfulness will spring up from the earth, and justice from heaven.” How? Through us who embody Christ who embodies God. He is the sacrament of God, and we are his body, sacraments of his presence and power in our world. Listen to the Alleluia verse from 2 Corinthians: “God was in Christ
to reconcile the world to God’s own self, and the good news of reconciliation God has entrusted to us.”

Peace, justice, faithfulness, reconciliation, unity—all these undergird an apostolic spirituality. Pray for these gifts to be active in your own life. Pray for the peacemakers, the reconcilers, the unifiers whom you know, both in gratitude and that their love might remain steadfast.

Take our flesh, Jesus, and let your life shine through it. Let us enflesh your faithful love and kindness, your own peaceful heart and unifying spirit.

Jesus is our high priest of the good things, claims Hebrews, and in another place calls him our “faithful and compassionate high priest.” The psalm exalts God with music and clapping, songs and trumpets. God is “kin” of all the earth. The gospel speaks of Jesus’ kin, his family who want to bring him home because people in Nazareth were saying he was out of his mind. Next Tuesday we will hear how Jesus claims us as kin, anyone who “does the will of God.” Of course, the psalm calls God “king” but Jesus reverses our notions of power so the king can become kin, and the master does become footwasher.

How is God kin of all the earth? Reflect on our earth, its elements, its beauty, its majesty and power. God is kin to the smallest diatom, the highest mountain. Pray for a deepening of your kinship with every creature of this planet, even the myriad galaxies. Imagine as much as you can, and love each one.

We sing praise to you, our God and kin, and our hearts trumpet your glory. Open us to see your glory in every creature, and to praise you, alive in all things.

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Sunday, January 21, 2007 - Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Begins
World Day of Migrants and Refugees
Nehemiah 8:1-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12: 12-30; Luke 1:1-4, 4:14-21

We hear in our first reading of the proclamation of the Law by the priest, scribe, and secretary of Jewish affairs in the Persian court, Ezra. This event, which rallied the people after the return from Babylon, took at least two days. The Torah gave these refugees their identity. So today’s long reading from Paul gives us our identity. We are the body of Christ. In the gospel, Jesus proclaims his mission, his identity as one who offers good news, who heals, gives sight and sets free. This is a fine way to begin a week dedicated to Christian unity. All Christians continue Christ’s mission, as we hear it from Luke. All Christians have a particular part and function in the Body, which includes us all. Can the Lutherans say to the Baptists “I have no need of you.” Can the evangelicals say to the Catholics, “I have no need of you.” No. And “if one member suffers, all suffer together with it.” If migrants and refugees are suffering, and they are, we suffer with them.

How shall we hear the cries of the poor, the migrants, the refugees, for they too are members of the one Body? How shall we honor those in differing Christian traditions? Pray for our unity, “Jews and Greeks, slave and free,” the settled and the displaced for we “all drink of one Spirit.” Imagine the Spirit, the breath of God, the wind, the atmosphere surrounding the earth, imagine the Spirit healing, unifying, giving freedom and peace.

In you, Christ our kin, there is no male nor female, no Jew nor Greek, but all are one in you. Melt the barriers that separate us, women from men, rich from poor, varying nationalities and religions. Make us one.

Monday, January 22, 2007
Hebrews 9: 15, 24-28; Psalm 98; Mark 3: 22-30

Jesus is attacked on all sides. When we left our continuous reading of Mark on Saturday his family had come to take him home because people were saying he was out of his mind. Now the scribes say he “has Beezelul” and casts out demons by the power of Satan. This man who radiates holiness is supposedly Satan in the flesh. Jesus tries a logical argument but we readers know the persecution will only mushroom in the pages ahead. Hebrews tells us the meaning of it, Christ’s offering of himself. Not that God needed the death of an innocent man, but God’s will is shalom, also meaning integrity. God needed someone to proclaim good news with such integrity that he would be willing to die for that message.

For what are you willing to die, or be imprisoned, or be excommunicated (as Jesus was)? Who are those who have misunderstood you, persecuted you? Breathe the saving name of Jesus on them. “Father, you forgive them,” he prayed. Not ready yet perhaps? Can you ask God to forgive? Pray for Christian unity.

“You are our light and our salvation. Whom should we fear?” God of wisdom and love, send your Spirit to teach us truth and guide our actions in the way of peace.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Hebrews 10: 1-10; Psalm 40; Mark 3: 31-35

Hebrews quotes Psalm 40: “Here I am! I come to do your will.” When Mary responded, “Be it done to me according to your will,” she got no blueprint for her life. Some of us act as if there were such a blueprint for us. Not so. Mary is free, reflective, discerning. She is like us in all things, growing in wisdom, growing in faith. God’s will is shalom, but in today’s gospel Mary, like so many parents of adult children, probably has little peace. She is part of the family, afraid that Jesus is out of his mind (Mk 3:21), who has come to take him home. She hears him pointing out a whole crowd as his brothers, sisters and mother. What must she feel?

The crowd drifts away, but Mary tenaciously stays to confront her son. They are finally alone, and she says…. He says…. You say….
Who says “I have told the good news of salvation to the whole assembly” (Ps 40)?

Here we are, O God! We come to live and move and have our being in your will, your passionate desire for shalom. Deepen our devotion to your desires for us and for the world.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hebrews 10: 11-18; Psalm 110; Mark 4: 1-20

Hebrews tells good news of salvation: “By a single offering he [Christ] has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” We need not strive to be perfect. That is Christ’s work. We need instead to trust that good news. In the gospel, Jesus begins a series of parables with a foundational story: a sower goes out to plant seed. The seed is God’s word, which even as you read this now, you are receiving. As the communion antiphon assures us: “You have not chosen me. I have chosen you to bear fruit that will last.” It is all Christ’s work, if we want him to grow and bear fruit in us and through us.

What do you want? Share all your desires with Jesus. What will you let him do for you and in you and through you? Ask to the trust the salvation he –and only he-- has begun to grow in us. Pray for the unity of all peoples.

Holy Spirit, teach us to be compassionate as Jesus is compassionate. Help us trust his work of salvation in us, his perfecting us. Give us the desire to cooperate with him in every way.

Thursday, January 25, 2007 - Feast of Paul’s conversion
Acts 22: 3-16; Psalm 117; Mark 16: 15-18

“Who are you, Lord?” cries Paul in blinded agony, using Adonai, the way Jews addressed God. When Jesus responds he plants in Paul’s heart the great mystery of the Body of Christ: that when any member suffers or rejoices, all suffer, and all rejoice. “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.” This experience opens Paul’s eyes and heart to the value of Gentiles, of women, of slaves. “In Christ,” he writes to the Galatians, “There is no Jew nor Gentile, no male nor female, no slave nor free, for all are one in Christ.” Paul is not converted from sin, nor violence nor from Judaism. He is converted to Christ, present in all his members, and who alone can save Paul from his righteous perfectionism.

Ask Jesus today: “Who are you, Lord?” and listen to the Spirit bubble up from deep within you. Contemplate the Body of Christ around the world, held together as one by the enveloping Spirit of Christ.

May we all be one, for we are already one, Lord Jesus. Thank you for your unifying Spirit. Open our eyes and hearts to the community your Spirit has already called into being.

Friday, January 26, 2007
2 Timothy 1:1-8; Psalm 96; Luke 10: 1-9

Although the theology, language and literary style of the Pastor’s letters differ significantly from the seven authentic Pauline letters, we do honor Titus and Timothy as his companions in mission, and we do revere the three letters of the Pastor as scripture. “Rekindle the gift of God that is within you,” the Pastor urges, and rely on the power of God. Our gospel is Jesus’ commission to 70 disciples, who are to go without possessions, and to depend on the hospitality of others. As we (for we continue the mission of these 70) enter a house we are to say, “Peace to this house.” Jesus continues, “Say that the kin-dom of God has come near to you.” After Vatican II some feel that the Catholic church has lost its missionary zeal. If that means to convert “pagans,” perhaps so, for we realize that all are children of God. But to bless people with peace and show them the nearness of God’s kin-dom is still our call, our daily mission.

What “houses” will you enter today, what people will you meet? Visualize them and bless them with peace. Rely on the power of God to rekindle your zeal for peace and unity, close to home and around the world.

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of all people and rekindle in us the fire of your love. Come and renew the face and the heart of the earth!

Saturday, January 27, 2007
Hebrews 11:1-2,8-19; Luke 1; Mark 4: 35-41

Hebrews hymns faith, a trust in God’s promises, in God’s covenant love. Luke’s canticle of Zechariah, the “Benedictus,” is probably chosen as response because of the
“mercy shown our ancestors… the oath God swore to Abraham.” The gospel speaks not only of God’s trustworthy love in the past but of trusting Jesus in the present. Mark tells the story of the storm at sea which Jesus slept through. That is true exhaustion! The boat is swamped and he is still asleep “on the cushion.” How many people today wonder if God is asleep while the storms of war, famine, natural disasters and human evil swirl around us and swamp our faith. “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” is a question that even we sometimes may hurl at Jesus. Jesus can take our anger, our rage at helplessness. He asks, “Why are you afraid?”

After you respond to Jesus’ question about fear, hear him say, not to waves in the sea, but directly to you: “Peace be still.” How is his voice, how are his eyes? Rest in his promise, in his love and peace.

Jesus, so many in our world are perishing because of war and violence, migrating across borders, even displaced within their own countries. Comfort them, we beg you, and quiet their fears.

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Sunday, January 28, 2007 - Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19; Psalm 71; 1 Corinthians12: 31-13:13; Luke 4: 21-30

The prophetic call, which we like Jeremiah and Jesus, receive from our mother’s womb calls us to a life of discernment, grounded in the love of which Paul writes. Prophets are so close to the mind and heart of God that they dare to speak in God’s name. Thus our first call is to contemplation, to union, followed closely by daring to speak God’s word despite the consequences. Whether to console or to challenge? The touchstone for our discernment (which one when?) is love. Not codependence, not fear of offending, not angry retorts. Why did Jesus have to rile his listeners by adding, when all were applauding him, that his mission extends to Gentiles like the widow of Zarephath and Namaan the Syrian? Could it be that in his integrity, right from the start, he is teaching his co-religionists that God belongs to all people? Isn’t that love?

When you are moved to affirm or challenge, correct or praise your children, spouse, co-workers, sometimes even friends, what is your criterion to decide whether this is God’s word or your own? Check Paul’s list of love’s signs. Is your word springing from jealousy, pomposity, a quick temper, brooding, or rudeness? Discuss this with Jesus.

Open us, Holy Spirit, to such a deep, close union with you that we speak only truth, only that which builds up the Body. Renew the gift of prophecy in our church today. Help us to see and critique injustice and exclusion wherever you show it to us.

Monday, January 29, 2007
Hebrews 11:32-40; Psalm 31; Mark 5:1-20

Today’s reading from Hebrews details the tortures the true prophets and witnesses to God’s justice have endured. As Jesus promised yesterday, they are not only not accepted, prophets are ridiculed and rejected by their own. “Yet out of weakness, they were made powerful…” Jesus in the gospel encounters a tortured, mad man who is chained by his townspeople among the rocks and tombs on the shore. Jesus has a shouting match with the legion of demons and sends them into swine who hurl themselves into the sea.

As you read the whole passage, see in vivid color the shore, the boat from which Jesus has just jumped ashore, hear the man screaming as he runs, bruising himself with rocks. Smell the sea, the stink of the man. What does Jesus do? What does he say? Can you see Jesus clothing the man once the demons have left him? How is his touch? And you? What demons torment you? Is there anything now in your life that makes you despise your self (hurting your self with rocks)? What do you want from Jesus? Tell him.
He wants to clothe you. With what? Tell him what you need. If you are fairly healed at this point in your life, you can a) just rest in gratitude); b) remember your torment and pray for all those tormented now by war, violence, addiction, self-loathing, etc.

Jesus, out of your weakness on the cross, we are healed. Thank you for offering yourself again and again to those who are tormented, who need your touch, your love.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Hebrews 12: 1-4; Psalm 22; Mark 5: 21-43

These readings are rich. First Jesus is called our pioneer (“the leader and perfecter of our faith”) and we are called to keep our eyes fixed on him. He endured so much that we might not grow weary and lose heart. Psalm 22 is used on Good Friday, but like all laments, it ends on a note of hope; today’s selection offers us that hope. In the gospel we see two people with hope. Jesus, even when word reaches him that Jairus’ daughter has died, endures the ridicule of the crowd to raise the child. He has hope, as does the woman who interrupts his urgent walk to Jairus’ house. This woman has been consulting doctor after doctor for 12 years, trying to stem a flow of uterine blood that would have made her “unclean” in the Jewish religion. That designation would ostracize her, perhaps even from her own family. No wonder “she had spent all she had.” No wonder Jesus praises her faith (and hope) and sends her away in peace.

What have you been suffering for 12 years (or seven or 36 years)? When has human medicine and psychotherapy helped? When and how has Jesus helped? What part did hope play in your healing? Where did you keep your eyes fixed as you suffered physically or emotionally? Fix your eyes on Jesus now, and don’t let him go until he sends you away in peace.

Thank you, Jesus, for being like us in all things, for needing to hope, for believing
in God and in people, for leading us and deepening our faith day by day for all these years! Thanks to you, we will not lose heart!

Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Hebrews 12: 4-7, 11-15; Psalm 103; Mark 6: 1-6

The gospel is Mark’s version of Jesus’ rejection in Nazareth that we heard from Luke on Sunday. Hebrews takes up the experience we have of discipline. We may have had too much or too little discipline growing up. As we rear or teach youngsters, we are always discerning when and how to discipline. Many of us fear discipline as harsh, even cruel, so our liturgists have us respond with Psalm 103 that lauds God’s compassion. “As a father has compassion on his children, so God has compassion on us. God knows how we are formed. God remembers that we are dust.” If we have been severely “disciplined” by our parents when we were helpless, re-frame the word as “disciple-making activity.” Let no bitter root spring up, Hebrews warns, but “strive for peace with everyone.”

In your prayer today, ask the Spirit to remind you of the parents, priests, teachers, other adults who have disciplined you. Did they remember that you are dust? In order to “strive for peace with everyone,” is there anyone in this group, perhaps already dead, who needs your forgiveness? Ask the Spirit to teach you about disciple-making activity.
Then look at how God may have disciplined you throughout your life. How does that seem now?

Father and Mother of all compassion, give us the gift of rejoicing in our dustiness which you so well understand. Give us the gift of forgiveness that we may be at peace with everyone and instruments o f peace and forgiveness in our world.

Thursday, February 1, 2007
Hebrews 12: 18-19, 21-24; Psalm 48; Mark 6: 7-13

The Alleluia verse proclaims: the kin-dom of God is near! The author of Hebrews gives us two descriptions of that reign of God. The first revelation of who God is and what God wants was transmitted with blazing fire, darkness and gloom: the handing on of the Torah on Mt. Sinai. The second self-revelation of God, completely made full in the person of Jesus, wipes out the fear that even Moses had experienced. We discover in this new covenant a festive banquet with angels and saints; we come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and the one who totally reveals all that God is, the kin-dom of God.

What does the kin-dom, the reign of God mean to you? Where do you find it already among us? What are the signs of the kin-dom’s nearness in your own life? Instead of formulating an “answer,” ask the Spirit to show you how the kin-dom of God is near.

Let us pray with the entrance antiphon: “We shall see your face, O God. When your glory appears, our joy will be full.” Let us see your glory in the events of this ordinary day.

Friday, February 2, 2007 - Feast of the Presentation of the Lord
Hebrews 2:10-11, 13-18; Psalm 24; Luke 2: 22-40

Today the Christmas season ends with the Advent psalm: “Lift up your gates, that the king of glory may come in.” Today the incarnation is hymned again in the language of Hebrews. Jesus shares everything with us, our flesh and blood, and God’s own life and love. He puts a body on the two qualities most characteristic of God in the Jewish scriptures: mercy and faithfulness. He is a compassionate and faithful high priest who has set us free (the Hebrew meaning of salvation) from the fear of death. He is bringing many children to glory as he, first born and our pioneer, grows in wisdom, age and grace.

How does Jesus continue to grow in wisdom and grace in your life? What persons and events opened you yesterday to a deepening of wisdom and an expansion of grace? Express your gratitude. Tell him from what today you need him to set you free.

By your growing in wisdom and grace, you have set us free. You are the savior of the world. Set us all free, Jesus, especially from hatred, violence and disunity.

Saturday, February 3, 2007
Hebrews 13: 15-17, 20-21; Psalm 23; Mark 6:30-34

Hebrews concludes with a prayer to “the God of peace who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep.” The psalm takes us the good shepherd theme, but also reminds us that we are led to restful waters to revive our drooping spirits. Jesus puts that call to rest into action, inviting his friends (and us) to “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest awhile.” Then when Jesus sees the crowds, he is moved with compassion because they are milling around “like sheep without a shepherd.”

What would most refresh you? Are you milling around without much focus, or perhaps too much focus on work, tasks, responsibilities? Jesus invites you to find your friends and go “all by yourselves” to a place of rest. During this prayer time, imagine, sense the green grass warmed by the sun, the trickle of a clear cool stream, a banquet spread picnic fashion by your good shepherd. Whom will you invite to come with you, not only in your imagination now, but for a meal together in the near future?

“How wonderfully you have made me cherish the holy ones who are in your land”

(Ps 16). Thank you for our friends and companions, Jesus, and your invitation to enjoy their company.

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Sunday, February 4, 2007
Isaiah 6: 1-8; Psalm 138; 1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Luke 5: 1-11

What could be more different? The vocation, the call of Isaiah, is a religious experience of the highest order complete with angels, smoke and glory. The call of Peter doesn’t look at all religious. Peter is at work, and doesn’t even seem to be engaged “in pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God.” Perhaps our call comes in our workaday world, our most ordinary life. Both Isaiah and Peter recognize their sinfulness in the presence of glory, however. It seems the closer we too come to God the more we recognize our sinfulness (not specific acts of sin), and the more we trust Christ’s saving power rather than our own goodness, works, or religious experiences.

How do you experience the glory of God? How do you hear the word of God?
What do you desire? Share your desires with Jesus.

Help us, Jesus, to press in on you all day long, in work and in play, in solitude and in company, to hear your word, your call, your unconditional acceptance of us.

Monday, February 5, 2007
Genesis 1: 1-19; Psalm 104; Mark 6:53-56

Abondanza! God’s fruitfulness floods the original emptiness with light, water, vegetation of every kind, sun, moon and billions of stars. The psalmist cries: “How manifold are your works, O God! In wisdom you have made them all!” In the gospel, Jesus is alert to an abundance of human needs. In Judy Cannato’s Radical Amazement,
she writes that our sun gives four million tons of its energy, never to be recaptured, to us each second. God’s son gives us even more: healing energy, energy for unity and peace and love, energy whose name is Spirit.

Return to a sentence above and savor it. Repeat it. Let it sink into your heart, your imagination. Let it rouse your feelings. Then share your feelings with the Creator, Jesus or the Spirit.

You give life in abundance, Jesus, abundance to the billions of galaxies and the tiniest microbe. Thank you! Help us to give out of abundance, to give joyfully.

Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Genesis 1:20-2:4; Psalm 8; Mark 7: 1-13

God creates living creatures to fill the sea, the air, the land, and then makes human beings “in the image of God…male and female” God created them. Notice: females are in the image of God. “Thus the heavens and earth were finished, and all their multitude…” and God saw that “it was very good.” Not perfect but very good. In the gospel, Jesus rails against the Pharisees with their multiple washings and rituals of purification, saying. “You make void the word of God through your tradition…you do many things like this.”

Abundance, many things, multitudes of galaxies, and microbes invisible to the eye. What “many things” do you enjoy? What “many things” do you cling to? What many things do you want to offer God today?

God of abundance, free us from any addiction, even our religion. Thank you for finding us very good, all of us in your image, and for giving us the perfect ikon of yourself, to whom we do cling today: Jesus.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17; Psalm 104; Mark 7: 14-23

There are two creation stories in Genesis, and although this is chapter two, this account is actually the first version penned. It depicts a world without plants because God had not yet created rain. Then a stream sprang up, there was a human, a garden and growth. “You may freely eat,” God tells the man. Then God commands only the man, for woman was not yet formed, not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Jesus instructs us further on good and evil, pure and impure foods, “declaring all foods clean.” For, Jesus insists, it is what comes out of the heart that defiles us: fornication, theft, murder, adultery…

What is coming out of your heart these days? What do you want to flow from your heart? Share your desires with Jesus. Listen to his desires. Then join Jesus in praying for all those places that are desperate for rain, for all those who barely survive in the desert.

Thank you, Jesus, for growing in wisdom and grace, and for leading us in our growth. Thank you for transforming our hearts moment by moment into your great heart!

Thursday, February 8, 2007
Genesis 2: 18-25; Psalm 128; Mark 7:24-30

The man (adam is not his name but the word for “man” in Hebrew) names all the creatures and is given a wife from his own body. In the gospel Jesus names a Gentile woman a dog. He is on his way to the Mediterranean, perhaps to a beach house he has been lent for the weekend (sound familiar?) and some woman, a foreigner, wants a healing. He scorns her, but she reminds him that dogs eat the crumbs under the table. A remarkable response from Jesus: “Woman, for saying that…” Matthew changes it to “Woman, for your great faith,” and Luke who has a Gentile audience skips the story entirely. Mary and Joseph never taught Jesus to be bigoted, but his culture was bigoted and as any person will, he imbibed the culture unconsciously. This woman speaks up to him and raises his consciousness. He realizes that she is in no way a dog. Woman created from man in our first story; woman re-creating man in this gospel narrative.

Ask the Spirit to show you where you may have imbibed the culture, whether its bigotry or mild prejudice, whether sex-saturated or laissez-faire, whether…. Let the Spirit teach you, re-create you.

Jesus, we long to be set us free from our unconscious and un-Christlike attitudes and values. Take our hearts and make them yours. Open us to all creation.

Friday, February 9, 2007
Genesis 3: 1-8; Psalm 32; Mark 7: 31-37

Some will say the serpent/Satan tempts the woman because she is weaker, more gullible. We can respond: she never heard the command directly. The point is, this is a tree that “was desired to make one wise.” And who does not desire that? We are not dealing with an apple here but a fruit that “when you eat of it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Jesus preached that we cannot judge good from evil. Do not judge; let wheat and weeds grow together lest pulling up “weeds” we may damage the wheat, etc. We are not God but bodily, mortal creatures of the earth. To demonstrate how we are earthy, in the gospel today Jesus put his fingers into a deaf man’s ears, spat and touched the man’s tongue.

Are there ways in which you play God? Judge motives? Root out even in your own life what you think ugly and imperfect which may be in God’s eyes your beauty? The original and everlasting sin is not sex, not disobedience but pretending to be God and
making judgments on motives, your own or others.

O God, we do desire to be wise, to make wise and discerning judgments when our responsibilities call for it, and to leave all other judging to you. Help us!

Saturday, February 10, 2007
Genesis 3: 9-24; Psalm 90; Mark 8: 1-10

The man and woman hide from God. God asks, “Who told you that you were naked?” For those who find shame an issue there is a wonderful book of that title by John Jacob Raub, a Trappist brother who writes simply about healing from shame. God is sensitive to our shame; Jesus is sensitive to our various hungers. He notices how long the crowd has been listening and has compassion on them, feeding them with seven loaves and a few small fish. No wonder Psalm 90 begins: “O God, you have always been our home.” God and Jesus let us be who we are: naked, hungry, weary, and love us just that way.

When have you hidden from God? How were you lured out of hiding? What are you hiding from God right now? Savor the fresh translation of “you are our refuge” to “you are always our home.” How does that feel to you? Sink into it. Repeat it often during the day.

God, when you call to us: “Where are you?”, help us to hear you searching for us, not in anger, but to feed us, clothe us, love us into more authentic being. Thank you!

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Sunday, February 11, 2007 - Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Jeremiah 17: 5-8; Psalm 1; 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20; Luke 6: 17, 20-26

Jeremiah reminds us that when we turn away from the fullness of God we are like shrubs in the desert, living in a parched wilderness. Receiving all that God wants to lavish on us roots us by living streams, so that “in a year of drought [the tree] is not anxious,” and does “not cease to bear fruit.” Paul tells us that not only is Jesus fruitful but he is the “first fruits of those who have died.” Luke’s gospel offers only four beatitudes, and adds four woes. Jesus is not a killjoy, for he himself was called a drunkard and a glutton. His woes give us pause, if we are rich, full, laughing and/or well thought of. What to do? Throw ourselves on the mercy of God, ask to be freed from any clinging to these ways of being “full,” and ask for the gift of feeling with, solidarity with those who are blessed: the poor, the hungry, the weeping, and those who are hated, excluded, reviled and defamed. Jesus is our pioneer, the “first fruits” of all that we can offer to God.

So offer to God today your poverty and your riches, your fullness and your hungers, your weeping and your laughing, your good reputation and your feelings of exclusion and rejection. To bless is to exchange life and all its goods. Ask God to fill and comfort and include the poverty stricken, the marginalized, the wounded of this world, and to give you eyes to see and a heart to respond to their needs.

We do throw ourselves on your mercy, God, for you alone can free us, save us, open our hearts to all who suffer. Bless us, God, and lavish your very self on us.

Monday, February 12, 2007
Genesis 4:1-15, 25; Psalm 50; Mark 8: 11-13

In the gospel, Jesus is tempted by the Pharisees to give them a sign. How disappointed he is at their arguing and lack of belief. “He sighed from the depth of his spirit.” In the Genesis story of Cain, Cain too is being tempted. God says to him, noticing Cain’s resentment and disappointment, “If you do well, you can hold up your head. But if not, there is a demon lurking at your door. His urge is toward you, but you can overcome him.” We know that Cain followed that urge and killed Abel, and then blustered to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The psalm warns us against speaking against our brothers and sisters, and spreading rumors. Catholics sometimes confuse feelings with sin, temptation with sinful action. Disappointment with those we love, resentment and jealousy are all normal emotions, but to act on them is where the sin lies.

What people have provoked what feelings in your lately—last week, yesterday? How did you treat those feelings? Against whom did you speak, or what rumor did you spread? Ask for the gift of loving well, of accepting differences. Speak with Jesus about what causes his sighing today.

Free us from evil intentions, forgiving God, and help us to welcome all feelings as your gifts. Help us discern wisely what to do with whatever feeling arises in us.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Genesis 6: 5-8, 7:1-5, 10; Psalm 29; Mark 8: 14-21

There is on the books still a “heresy” -- that God does not suffer. This does not spring from the God of the Jewish scriptures, and even less from Jesus, who puts flesh on the sighs, tears, pain and suffering of God. It stems from the Stoic philosophy that was prevalent in the Mediterranean when Paul and Barnabas brought the gospel. Stoics had reasoned to the notion of a single supreme being whose qualities were omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence etc. The highest attribute of this God was a-patheia, the Greek word for “without passion.” For 1900 years this Stoic God influenced Christian spirituality. Yet today (and frequently throughout the Jewish scriptures) “God regretted
making human beings on the earth, and God’s heart was grieved.” And now begins the story of the flood.

What causes Jesus to sigh today? What grieves God’s heart today? Will you share God’s pain, God’s tears over the evils of war, violence, greed, arrogance? If you can believe that God wants your compassion (literally suffering-with), will you join God’s sighs and be in solidarity with those who suffer from evil?

Free us from evil intentions, forgiving God, and from any conscious or unconscious involvement in those evils aimed at your poor and helpless ones.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Genesis 8:6-13, 20-22; Psalm 116; Mark 8: 22-26

Our secular culture is spending lavishly on Valentine’s day. We quietly celebrate Cyril and Methodius who brought the gospel to Ukraine and devised an alphabet for translating it for the Slavic people. In Genesis, the flood waters recede, the psalmist asks what return we can make for all the good God gives us, and in the gospel, Jesus has to heal twice. The blind man on whose eyes Jesus puts his spittle at first sees people like trees walking. “He laid his hands on the man’s eyes a second time and the man saw clearly.” What if this man had not been direct with Jesus? Love, which we celebrate today, is founded on truth in dialogue.

When have you needed a second healing? Can you be honest with Jesus that you need more? What do you need? Next time you are annoyed that God doesn’t answer your prayer as you want, remember to speak your heart with directness.

Thank you, Jesus, for continuing to work with us, for continuing to heal us, for accepting our disappointments even with you. Teach us to speak truth, especially to you.

Thursday, February 15, 2007
Genesis 9: 1-13; Psalm 102; Mark 8: 27-33

We humans are a violent group. In Genesis God first warns us about acting violently, but then offers us the sign of reconciliation, the rainbow. The psalmist tells us that God hears the groaning of prisoners. In the gospel, Jesus starts gently enough, asking who people think he is. After Peter gives the correct response, Jesus warns the
disciples about his impending death. Peter takes Jesus aside and begins to scold him. Then Jesus acts perhaps even more violently than in the temple cleansing. He calls his best friend “Satan”. Often when we are frightened our anger turns violent. Jesus is tempted by Peter. Of course he is frightened to be killed in Jerusalem. How easy to return to the carpenter’s shop. So Jesus rejects Peter’s tempting him with rage.

Examine the violence in your own heart. What makes you angry? How do you feel it? How do you express it? Unless we are caught off guard as Jesus was (or as we might be when a speeding car cuts us off), our anger need not be violent, loud, or abusive. Talk about anger with Jesus, not in the abstract, but your anger and his.

Thank you, creating God, for all the passions of our hearts. Thank you that we can feel anger when our persons or your poor are disrespected. Help us to express anger rightly. Keep us from grudges, and thank you for your rainbow of reconciliation.

Friday, February 16, 2007
Genesis 11: 1-9; Psalm 33; Mark 8: 34-9

Genesis offers us the story of the tower of Babel where people who were once united “wanted to make a name for themselves.” Babel is Babylon that lies on the left bank of the Euphrates, just a bit south of today’s Baghdad. The psalmist underscores the futility of playing God: “God brings to nothing the plans of nations.” In the gospel, Jesus has just reamed out Peter and then says to the others that to follow him is to shoulder the cross. If we think we are saving our life we are really losing it, and “whoever loses his or her life for the my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” Since tomorrow we will have Peter invited to the mountain of the transfiguration, what might be going on in the hearts of Jesus and Peter?

Baghdad. Where we are losing life and taking life, and God brings to nothing the plans of nations. Pray for those killed, maimed, homeless, refugees and those who grieve because of this U.S. invasion. Pray for God’s forgiveness of our arrogance, “wanting to make a name for ourselves.” If Jesus and Peter could be reconciled, pray for reconciliation throughout the Arab nations.

Please, God, warrior on behalf of the little ones and yet God of peace, foil the plans of all nations who want war, and forgive all those who support it. Gentle the hearts of us all, for we cannot cast any stones.

Saturday, February 17, 2007
Hebrews 11: 1-7; Psalm 145; Mark 9: 2-13

Most startling in today’s readings may be that the one just called “Satan” is chosen to accompany Jesus as he is transfigured. And with his usual spontaneous enthusiasm, Peter cries, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here!” God’s voice sobers Peter: “This is my beloved son. Listen to him.” Hebrews offers us three heroes who “by faith”
were made righteous. The psalm relates to both readings: “Let your faithful ones bless you. Let them discourse on the glory of your kin-dom and speak of your power.”

Paul has written that out of sin, “grace more abounds,” and so it seems in Peter’s case. What about your case? When has the “Satan” in you been reconciled, chosen, and gifted? Listen to your own history and accept all of it. “It is good to be here.” Tell someone today of how being with Jesus is helping to transfigure you.

Whomever we meet today, Jesus, let them look up and see no longer us, but only you! Let our lives speak of your faithfulness, your glory, your power.

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Sunday, February 18, 2007 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Psalm 103;
1 Corinthians 15: 45-49; Luke 6: 27-38

We open with a dramatic story. David’s has King Saul in his power and yet does not abuse that power by killing a sleeping man, no matter how Saul had hunted and abused his once favorite, David. He calls out to Saul “at a great distance” to tell him that justice and faithfulness triumph over revenge: “Today, though God delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm God’s anointed.” The psalm refrain offers us David’s motivation: “Our God is kind and merciful,” and so would David be. “Not according to our sins does God treat us.” Yes, we can be like God, we can continue Jesus’ mission of enfleshing God’s mercy. In Luke we are told to be merciful as our Father is merciful, and in Paul “just as we have borne the image of the earthly [ancestor] so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one [Jesus]."

As you talked over anger and violence this week with Jesus, now talk over with him your feelings of revenge and your feelings of mercy. What melts your heart with tenderness? What enrages you to wanting revenge? Remember, this is temptation unless you act on it.

Only you can gift us, Jesus, with God’s own compassion, kindness, mercy, tenderness, gentleness, inner peace. How much we need all these fruits of your Spirit!

Monday, February 19, 2007
Sirach 1:1-10; Psalm 93; Mark 9:14-29

God pours out wisdom upon all God’s works and “lavished her upon those who love God.” Lavish is a verb that certainly fits God’s creativity and goodness. Jesus has just been lavished upon by God on Mount Tabor. He returns to find his disciples trying to cast a demon out of a convulsing boy. The child’s father cries: “I believe! Help my unbelief!” Jesus’ teaches his disciples that some demons can only “come out through prayer and fasting.” Jesus has not been praying or fasting. Or has he? Prayer can be the undercurrent of his life; fasting can be his “poverty of spirit,” a realization that God does the lavishing. Jesus is open to every gift of God, even casting out demons.

How is prayer the undercurrent of your life? How do you fast, receiving everything as God’s gift? Tell Jesus what you want. Listen to all that he wants for you, especially to share his gifts of prayer and fasting.

We do believe, Jesus! Help our unbelief! Help us to appreciate God’s wisdom at work in all of creation and to stay open to God’s lavishing on us.

Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Sirach 2: 1-11; Psalm 37; Mark 9:30-37

Sirach, one of the wisdom books, advises us to “cling to God.” That is the biblical meaning of faith. The author continues: “Accept whatever befalls you and in times of humiliation, be patient…for God is compassionate and merciful…” In the gospel, the disciples are silenced twice, first because they are afraid to ask for further explanation of Jesus’ passion and secondly, because they are ashamed of arguing over who was the greatest among them. Jesus puts a child in their midst and tells them (and us) to welcome and to serve.

What did “faith” mean to you once? Now? How did your understanding and experience change? Clinging, accepting, welcoming, serving – how do these attitudes and actions deepen faith? Tell Jesus what you want.

O God, grant us the serenity and trust to accept the things we cannot change; the courage and creativity to change the things we can; and the wisdom to know the difference.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007 - Ash Wednesday
Joel 2:12-18; Psalm 51; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2; Matthew 6: 1-6, 16-18

“Be reconciled to God,” Paul cries to us. “For our sake, God made Christ to be sin…” This is the ultimate emptying of Jesus, the deepest poverty of spirit, the most
painful humiliation. In order to transform all the sin of the world into the justice (for that is what “righteousness” means in scripture) of God, Jesus did not cling to being divine but emptied himself and took the nature of a slave. Our slave, our servant, our footwasher. Now God has made us ambassadors of reconciliation. Not enough that we should just wear ashes. We are called to nourish, foster, perhaps create unity and reconciliation wherever we find ourselves this Lent.

Let us begin with ourselves. Is there any one with whom you need reconciliation (literally, talking again)? Ask for the courage and creativity to begin to talk. Ask the Spirit to teach you how you can be an ambassador of reconciliation, unity and peace. Just for today. Just for this Lent.

Create in us a clean heart, O God, and put a faithful spirit within us. Give us back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit, a reconciling spirit deepen within us.

Thursday, February 22, 2007 - Feast of the Chair of Peter
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