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
1 Peter 5:1-4; Psalm 23; Matthew 16: 13-19

This feast celebrates the succession of the bishops of Rome and thus the gospel in which Jesus gives Peter the name of Rock and “the keys of the kin-dom.” In the first reading Jesus is called the “chief shepherd,” and the Psalm is the beloved twenty-third. There is nothing we want when God shepherds us. God gives us rest, water, leadership, safety, a table and a cup, goodness and mercy, a home forever. God lavishes on us every good!

            Of the good things mentioned above, what do you personally need today? What verse from the psalm might you savor during this prayer time and keep praying all through the day:
            You are my shepherd, my leader; I shall want for nothing.
            You lead me to restful waters and refresh my spirit.
            I fear no evil for you are with me to comfort me.
            You prepare a table for me and my cup overflows.
Your mercy follows me and makes a home in me.

            O God, you have always been our home (Ps 90), and we thank you for your exquisite tending our every need. Convince our war-torn world that there is plenty of room in your green pastures.

Friday, February 23, 2007
Isaiah 58:1-9; Psalm 51; Matthew 9:14-15

Today’s theme is fasting. God’s ways are not our ways. First, let us fast from denial. “I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.” Admitting our sinfulness and need is the basic truth of being creature. According to Isaiah, God does not want Israel’s fasting when they continue to oppress their workers and use violence. God wants a fast that frees people, a fast that means sharing our bread, our homes, our clothing, and caring for our own kin as well. Then, God promises “your light shall break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring forth quickly.” Light and healing come through the bridegroom who is always with us, and so we cannot “fast” and mourn. Our fast is our clinging, accepting, welcoming and serving.

Poverty of spirit again: our sinfulness, neediness, creaturehood, dependence, all call out for God’s mercy. Tell Jesus yet again what you need. To whom will you cling? Who needs your acceptance and welcome today? Where will you serve?

Holy Spirit, do not let us deny the truth today. Help us to re-discover our total dependence on God for every thing. Give us only your love and your grace. Let that be enough.

Saturday, February 24, 2007
Isaiah 58:9-14; Psalm 86; Luke 5: 27-32

Our liturgists paraphrase the end of yesterday’s Isaiah reading to emphasize that “If you remove from yourselves the pointing finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise…” And even more promises: “…you shall be like a watered garden…your ruins be rebuilt…” God insists then that we keep the Sabbath. Jesus puts flesh on God’s promises by offering total acceptance to one despised, the tax collector Levi, who in turn gave a great banquet to honor Jesus. Jesus comes to heal those sick in sin, not the “righteous.”

Where do you stand? Do you really need the physician, the healing, the mercy Jesus offers? Where do you “point the finger?” How do you keep the Sabbath? What are your plans for tomorrow? Share them with Jesus and see how he responds to you.

You lead us to restful waters week after week. Help us to rest in you, to keep the Sabbath free from work, to consecrate our visiting, banqueting, recreating to you, our God.

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Sunday, February 25, 2007 - First Sunday of Lent
Deuteronomy 26: 4-10; Psalm 91; Romans 10: 8-13; Luke 4: 1-13

Our neediness just won’t go away! Our first three readings show us that our proper posture before God is bowing (Dt 26:10); calling out (“Be with me, God, for I am in trouble”—Ps 91); and confessing that Jesus is Lord (Rom 10). We are not Lord, not in charge, not master/mistress even of our own lives. In the desert Jesus shows us his utter dependence on God alone. He is poor in spirit, tempted like us in every way (to gluttony, greed and glory), tempted to grasp food and power.

Jesus wants to share his total dependence on God with us. For what are you grasping now? What do you really want? Tell that to Jesus now and ask for the grace to be willing to wait for God’s good time. Sit for a while in silence with your hands open to receive.

You alone are God, you alone the holy one, you alone are Lord. Help us to accept our powerlessness, our creaturehood, our poverty and dependence on you alone.

Monday, February 26, 2007
Leviticus 19: 1-2,11-18; Psalm 19; Matthew 25: 31-46

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory...all the nations will be gathered before him. He will say... I was hungry and you gave me food...a stranger and you welcomed me...in prison and you visited me...” In the only last judgment scene in the gospel, we are judged as a nation as to how we treat the hungry, the immigrants, the prisoners among us. As individuals we may be caring for the needy in our midst, but here it is our nation that will be judged. To stand over against unjust policies which work their way into our national agenda and political consciousness is also a way to care for the poor. Working to change unjust structures that keep people poor is as important as direct service.

Ask the Spirit to open your eyes to ways that you can work for the hungry, helpless and hopeless in our society. Then ask for the grace to take one small step today to alleviate poverty or its causes.

Make us holy, Jesus, as our God is holy; make us compassionate. Remove grudges and vengeance from our hearts and open us to all your people, especially the “least.”

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Isaiah 55: 10-11; Psalm 34; Matthew 6-7-15

“Look to God and be radiant with joy. Your faces need not blush with shame ...Our God is close to the brokenhearted, and those who are crushed in spirit God saves” (Ps 34). Our society can easily shame those who are crushed in spirit, the weak, the depressed, those who grieve “too long” and who “should get over it.” God is especially close to these brokenhearted, and so rather than a feeling of shame, we can share our weaknesses with God. God is always making us radiant within, even if our hearts are broken, our spirits crushed. To believe this takes faith.

Share some events or weaknesses in your life that make you feel ashamed, and ask God how God feels, looking at you. To look at Jesus looking at us, tenderly, says Teresa of Avila, is to contemplate. Look at Jesus looking at you, tenderly. If ever a feeling of shame arises, a feeling that you are not enough, change your mental image to one of Jesus looking at you, tenderly, and you will grow radiant with joy.

O, God, we do believe that you want us radiant with joy, attractive signs of your presence and work in our world. Help our unbelief. Let your word bear fruit in our hearts.

Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Jonah 3:1-10; Psalm 51; Luke 11: 29-32

God calls to us in the gospel acclamation from Joel: “With all your heart turn to me, for I am tender and compassionate.” Two qualities of God are continually mentioned in the Jewish scriptures. God is compassionate and faithful. In the New Testament, Jesus puts flesh on those qualities. He is our faithful and compassionate high priest who stands before the face of God, constantly praying for us (Hebrews). If we want to see God’s compassion and faithfulness, Jesus says, just look at him. “To see me is to see the Father.” (John 14:9)

Join your prayer with Jesus’ constant prayer. Look at him looking at you tenderly. See him praying for you faithfully, all day and all nigh before the face of God. See him hold your needs and your very self to God. Tell Jesus now for whom you want him to pray even as you go about your work and leisure and sleep.

Have mercy on us, O God, in your abundant love. Create in us clean hearts and put faithful spirits within us. Let us embody Jesus who embodies your love and fidelity.

Thursday, March 1, 2007
Esther 12, 14-16, 23-25; Psalm 138; Matthew 7: 7-12

“I give you thanks, O God, with my whole heart...I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks for your faithful love and tender kindness” (Ps 138). All through the psalms and most of the prophets we hear that God is faithful and compassionate. We also know that God’s temple is not a building, but the whole of creation. In the nations of the Far East, people bow to each other in greeting, reverencing the temple of God within each human heart.

For what are you grateful with your whole heart? Can you list 10 or 20 specific things/people? In your imagination, bow to them who contain the God whom the whole universe cannot contain! When you meet anyone today, acknowledge that person with a nod, letting it be a “bow” of blessing.

We give you thanks for the wonders of creation, for the beauty of the earth, for the awesomeness of all the galaxies and the tiniest bits of matter. You are our God and we worship you!

Friday, March 2, 2007
Ezekiel 18:21-28; Psalm 130; Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus warns us about labeling our brothers and sisters, and insists that we begin the reconciliation process if we know that someone has anything against us. If we are not in communication with those who have hurt us, we can leave our gifts at the altar. The gift that God wants is a reconciled and reconciling heart.

With whom are you out of touch? Who has hurt you? Ask the Spirit to show you. If you made attempts at reconciliation and been rebuffed, if that happened over a year ago, ask for the courage to try again. About once a year. Just a conversation about anything. Re-conciliare. To talk again. Whom do you label a “fool?” Bless that person now with God’s peace.

Forgive us as we forgive those who have trespassed against us. God, please forgive us, because so often we don’t know what we do to divide Christ’s people.

Saturday, March 3, 2007
Deuteronomy 26: 16-19; Psalm 119; Matthew 5:43-48

“Jesus said: You have heard it said, you should love your neighbor and hate your enemy. I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” Perhaps the most radical moment in Jesus’ own life was when, hanging on the cross, he prayed: “Father, forgive them.” Notice, Jesus doesn’t say to his persecutors: I forgive you. Undoubtedly in his agony, he just wasn’t ready to forgive, but he could pray. There are those who have hurt us so badly that we are not yet ready to forgive. Forgiveness is not an act of the will but a process that may even take a lifetime. Praying for the gift of being able to forgive is a good first step.

Who has hurt you, recently? In your past? Who is persecuting you even now? Again, let the Spirit show you. We don’t have to label them evil, but we might try to use Jesus’ own prayer: God, you forgive them.

Forgive us and help us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Help us to wish our enemies well. Convert all peoples to your ways of justice and peace, we beg you, our God.

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Sunday, March 4, 2007 - Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 15: 5-12, 17-18; Psalm 27; Philippians 3: 17-4:1; Luke 9: 28-36

“We behold the glory of God, shining on the face of Jesus,” is the opening line of a hymn, and the glory celebrated today. Abraham is shown the myriad of stars and watches a blazing torch split the darkness. Paul is waiting for the glory of the Risen Christ to be manifested, a glory which will transform our own bodies. Three apostles (and now all of us) are chosen to see Jesus’ face transformed as he prayed. As we plod through Lent and its various deserts, temptations and trials, Jesus brings us too to the mountaintop, to this moment of hope when all is changed and made beauty-full. Life is not only suffering and dying but offers us a rhythm of rising and joy.

Today God announces, “This is my chosen one.” Can you imagine the voice of God proclaiming: “This is my beloved, my chosen_____ (insert your name).” Those words don’t describe just one man 2000 years ago but describes each one of us, day by day. Ask to believe that. Use Cardinal Newman’s prayer, made popular again by Mother Teresa of Calcutta: “Let everyone I meet today look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus.” Prepare your day. Whom will you meet? Ask to let them see only Jesus.

Thank you for your glory, God, shining on the face of Jesus, shining in every star in billions of galaxies, shining even in us. You are our light, and we worship you!

Monday, March 5, 2007
Daniel 9: 4-10; Psalm 79; Luke 6:36-38

“Be merciful as your Father is merciful. Do not judge and you will not be judged...Give and it shall be given to you”(Luke 6). Last Saturday we heard Jesus in Matthew’s gospel invite us to be perfect as our God is perfect, but notice how Luke changes the saying. Trying to be perfect usually ties us up in knots and makes us difficult to live with. On the other hand, trying to grow in compassion makes us open, loving, non-judgmental, and giving.

Ask for the gift of compassion in your personal relationships, compassion for your “near neighbors.” Then ask God to expand your heart so that you may learn to love your far neighbors, those “foreigners” whom so many of our compatriots may fear and/or hate. If you feel your heart closing toward someone during the day, or feel some judgment arising, stop, take a deep breath, and ask for God’s compassion.

We praise and thank you, our God, for your constant mercy, your faithful compassion. Let us be instruments of your mercy and peace.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Isaiah 1:10, 16-20; Psalm 50; Matthew 23: 1-12

“Come, let us argue it out…Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall become white as snow”, God promises through Isaiah. Two pieces of good news in this verse. First, God invites us to be ourselves, say what we want, argue with God as one friend disputes with another. Being angry with God and voicing it in our prayer can help us come eventually to clarity and peace. Working through our anger with God, like working it through with a human friend, can deepen our relationship. Secondly, when God forgives our sins they are totally transformed. As St. Paul assures us, “Where sin once abounded, grace now more abounds!”

Can you remember a time when you were stuck in sin, perhaps a major sin in your life? In your memory and imagination, return to that sinful situation and invite God, Jesus, and/or the Spirit to walk with you through this relationship, misery, whatever you remember as sin. Ask the Spirit to show you how grace, peace and love gradually grew out of this sinful situation. Then sit quietly and listen.

With you, our God, there is no need to be afraid, or ashamed. We look to you that our faces may not blush with shame, but be radiant with joy (Ps 34). Thank you.

Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Jeremiah 18: 18-20; Psalm 31; Matthew 20: 17-28

“Into your hands I commend my spirit, for you will redeem me, O faithful God...My trust is in you” (Psalm 31). In John’s gospel account of Jesus’ death, these words of Psalm 31 are on Jesus’ lips. At the moment when all is lost--his work, his friends, his life--still Jesus trusts God. And what a wonderful surprise God has in store for him on resurrection day! Like us in all things, Jesus needs faith and trust, hope and love as he goes to the cross. He is not play acting the pain and feelings of abandonment. Yet he trusts, praying this verse of the psalm.

Prepare your day. What feelings might arise in you today? When a worry or an irritation or a sadness rises in your heart during the day, pray with Jesus: “In your hands, I commend______” and name that person, situation, worry, irritation or sadness as you entrust it to God.

God, grant us the serenity (and the trust) to accept the things we cannot change. We entrust our joys and sorrows, all our feelings and desires to you, faithful God.

Thursday, March 8, 2007
Jeremiah 17:5-10; Psalm 1; Luke 16: 19-31

“Jesus told this parable...There was a rich man who dressed in fine linen and feasted sumptuously every day. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores...”(Luke 16). Jesus told parables to shock his hearers into new awarenesses. Many people of his day felt that God favored the rich, and that the poor, the sick and the sore among them were sinners. Jesus spent much energy trying to overturn this misconception. The poor, the sick and the sinners were precisely the ones he wanted to welcome and eat with. The morality Jesus preached is not about personal purity but about social justice, about the arrogant way the “haves” treat the “have-nots”. God’s
kin-dom is about loving each other in right relationships, caring for the outcast, and working to change unjust structures in our government.

How from your own experience do you describe morality? How does it correspond to Jesus’ teaching? What do you want? How do you want to treat the poor, the sinner, the foreigner, those who are “other”? Ask for the grace to love as Jesus loves, to let him continue his loving through you today.

Open our eyes and hearts, Jesus, to all those whom our society and even our church scorns and whom you treasure. Help us to treasure the outcasts. And have mercy on us!

Friday, March 9, 2007
Genesis 37: 3-4,12-13,17-28; Psalm 105; Matthew 21: 33-43, 45-46

“When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe...and threw him into a pit...Then, when some traders passed by, his brothers drew Joseph out of the pit and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver...” (Genesis 37). Our first reading gives the account of Jacob’s sons who are jealous of their father’s favorite son, Joseph. Notice how their treatment resembles what Jesus’ “brothers” (Jews have a deeper sense of family than we moderns do and so brothers could mean his compatriots) did to him as their jealousy escalated. They stripped Jesus, and threw him in a pit (prisons of that day were deep pits in which the prisoner had to stand upright) after Judas sold him for 30 pieces of silver. The good news is that Joseph, after much suffering in Egypt, eventually rose to power in that country and used his power to feed the people, again much like Jesus, raised from death into power as Cosmic Christ, eager to feed people.

What suffering have you experienced at the hands of those you thought you could trust? Jesus too was betrayed. Share your memories of your hurt with him and then listen, letting him tell you of his pain at being betrayed. What shall the two of you do? How shall the two of you pray?

As Pharaoh made Joseph lord of his house, so you make Jesus Lord of the universe. Thank you, our just God, that you can and do transform persecution into glory.

Saturday, March 10, 2007
Micah 7: 14-15, 18-20; Psalm 103; Luke 15: 1-3, 11-32

“You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7). “The father said to his older son...All that is mine is yours” (Luke 15). Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son is found in anthologies of world literature, so powerful is the story of the return of the prodigal and the subtext of the older son’s “perfect” behavior. Some of us may identify with the sinful younger son; we may have squandered our gifts and graces. Others of us may cry out with the elder son: “I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command.” God does not need slaves and obedience. A modern parable illustrates the verse from Micah: God takes all our sins in a big bag, goes to the seashore, wades out as far as God can, flings the bag even farther out, returns to the beach and hammers a sign into the sand. The sign says: No fishing.

Whether we are prodigal or perfect, God says to each of us, as the father says to the elder son: “All that is mine is yours.” How deeply God desires to give a banquet for us, and more-- to share all that God is. St Paul writes (Romans 8) that if God has already given us Jesus, how much more God wants to lavish on us all that God is. Not all that we want. All that God is. Ponder that gift now and during the day listen to God remind you: “All that is mine is yours.”

How generous you are! You crown us not only with compassion but with your whole self. You plant your very self in our hearts and in our world. Thank you!

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Sunday, March 11, 2007 - Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17: 3-7; Romans 5: 1-2, 5-8; John 4: 5-42

“God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit...”(Romans 5). Jesus says: “Those who drink of the water I will give them will never be thirsty. The water I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life” (John 4).
As there are many images of God, so there are various images of the Holy Spirit in scripture. One is the love of God poured into our hearts. The Spirit is love, the motivator of all our loves, the bond between and among persons, even nations. A fourth grader explained: “The Spirit is like red jello that holds all the pieces of fruit and nuts together. All around the world, we are different shapes and colors and tastes, but we are all one in the Spirit.” Jesus offers another image: the Spirit is a spring, a fountain of living water gushing from the depths of each one of us. A reason that we quiet ourselves to pray is to be in touch with the Spirit, feel the flow of the Spirit who lives in the depths of our hearts.

Today can you set aside 10 minutes to be alone, to be quiet, to focus on your depths and all that God is doing in the deep waters of your own heart? Breathe deeply. Breathe out all that troubles you and breathe in the love of God who is Spirit. If a thought arises, take a deep breath and let the thought go. Then breathe deeply, taking in the Spirit. You might want to image a pulsing fountain as you breathe, letting the Spirit soak your deepest heart. You might “see” the Spirit of love as a bright color filling your lungs and racing through your blood stream, bathing your whole self in love.

We open ourselves to you, we believe in you, Holy Spirit, Love and giver of life. We worship you and glorify you and thank you for your work in our lives.

Monday, March 12, 2007
2 Kings 5: 1-15; Psalm 42; Luke 4: 24-30

“I am longing... As a deer yearns for flowing streams, so I am thirsting for the living God. When shall I see the face of God?” (Psalm 42). The Spirit, Jesus promised, is a flowing stream deep within us, a fountain of living water to refresh us and slake our many thirsts. Lent is a desert time, and many of us feel deserted, a bit sad, longing for the winter to be over and spring to bud forth in color and sunshine. When shall we see the face of God in the beauty of the earth? In the loveliness of our family and friends? In the situations at work or at home that still seem like desert?

For what do you yearn? What are your deepest desires? Share them with God and then image a flowing stream, the Spirit-Love, washing over your desires, your thirsts. Feel whatever is dry and dusty in the ground of your being, drinking in that Love-water. After your prayer time, look for the face of God in whomever you meet today.

We long for you, O Lord! Risen savior, God’s own glory, you come today in mystery. Let us share your death and rising until you come in majesty.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Daniel 3: 25, 34-43; Psalm 25; Matthew 18: 21-35

"Peter came to Jesus and said, ‘Lord, if a brother or sister sin against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Not seven times but seventy‑seven times’" (Matthew 18). As God’s unconditional love is a major theme of the Jewish Testament, so is God’s unconditional forgiveness a major theme of the New Testament. If we are to let God’s love which has been poured into our hearts, the Holy Spirit (Romans 5), flow freely through our lives, then we try to be alert to letting the "slings and arrows", the slights and hurts of each day wash away in God’s own love. This is not an act of the will but God’s gift. Be ready to offer forgiveness if and when it is requested. Serious and deep wounds need more work, but here Jesus is talking about those 77 pains we seem to inflict on each other day by day.

One way to forgive is to pray: "Into your hands, O God, I commend______" and name the hurt, the irritation, the misunderstanding, the slight. However, the more serious the misunderstanding, the more we may be called to "work it through" with the person who has hurt or angered us. Forgiving does not mean sweeping under the rug those situations that can be cleared up by some honest and non‑violent discussion. Reconciliation means, literally, talking again.

Only you, our God, can forgive sin, and so we offer you our desire for unity and reconciliation with all who hurt us personally, and especially all who hurt your little ones.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5-9; Psalm 147; Matthew 517-19

"Your words are spirit and life. You have the words of everlasting life" (Gospel acclamation). The word of God, the people of Israel believed, was so powerful that it did what it said. Thus, if we are reading about God’s love, we are receiving it even as we read. If we read a gospel story about Jesus healing the blind, we are being healed of our inner blindness even as we read. The word of the Lord energizes our spirit, guides our life, becomes flesh in our daily activities. Mary is not the only one in whom the word became flesh! The incarnation, the word of God, continues to take flesh in the loving actions of each of us.

Join Mary’s prayer of willingness. Say now, frequently now, sinking deeply into its meaning; and pray frequently all day today: "Be it done to me according to your word."
Give us, we ask you, the gifts of wisdom and discernment that Moses promised his people. Thank you for the Wisdom who is Jesus and for the Spirit of discernment.

Thursday, March 15, 2007
Jeremiah 7:23-28; Psalm 95; Luke 11: 14-23

"Let us come into God’s presence with shouts of joy, come in with thanksgiving. Let us worship and bow down before God, our Maker" (Psalm 95). Sometimes we can forget that we are creatures. The explosion of the Challenger exploded our arrogance. More recently, the terrorist attacks in Oklahoma City, New York and the Pentagon blared a wake‑up call to our culture. We are vulnerable. We depend on God, our Maker, for every breath, every moment of life. Our response is worship and gratitude for this one more day.

Prayer is not only mental or vocal. Our whole body is called to prayer. Why not pray today’s verse and then make a deep bow? Pray the verse again and bow, or even lie prostrate on the floor. Stay in the bow for as long as you feel the adoration and gratitude coursing through your body. Then stand straight and repeat the verse.

Today we do hear your voice, our God, and we beg you not to let our hearts be hardened toward any one, any group of people. Keep our hearts beating, one with your heart.

Friday, March 16, 2007
Hosea 14: 1-9; Psalm 81; Mark 12: 28-34

"I heard a voice say, ‘Put down your workbaskets. I free your hands from the burden. Oh, if only you would listen to me! If only you would open your mouths, I would feed you with the finest wheat and satisfy you with honey from the rock!’" (Psalm 81). God is longing for us. Often psalms are our calling out to God in our distress, crying out our longing for God. Here, however, God cries out to us: How I wish you would listen to me! God longs to relieve us of our various stresses, yearns to feed us. Too often we prefer to be self‑sufficient. Lent can be a time, not to pull ourselves up by our spiritual bootstraps, but to choose again and again to let God rest us, free us, feed us. This is God’s will, God’s passionate desire: to give to us.

If only we would open our mouths! Yet sometimes we can come to prayer so stressed that our teeth are clenched. You might pray with your hands open on your lap. Image God taking whatever stresses you, leaving your hands open, freed from the workbasket. Then you might add to this body‑prayer an open mouth, lifted up like a baby bird, longing to let God feed you whatever for you might be finest wheat and honey from the rock.

Here is all we carry in our workbasket, here is our need, our desire. Transform our desires so that we long for you ever more deeply, and rejoice in the myriad ways you do feed us.

Saturday, March 17, 2007
Hosea 5: 15-6:6; Psalm 51; Luke 18: 9-14

"Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord [who says]: I desire faithful love, not sacrifice" (Hosea 5). Jesus’ parable today is about a Pharisee who went to the front of temple to boast to God of his good works and a tax collector who stood far off, saying "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." Jesus praised the prayer of the sinner. To "know" in the Jewish scriptures means to be intimately united with. It is far more than an intellectual grasp, but rather a loving communion. God wants union with us, not our sacrifices. God doesn’t need our good works, but rather the reverent, humble admission that we depend on God’s mercy. One way God relieves us of our burdens is to invite us to the last pew where we keep calling out for mercy. We don’t have to perform for God.

As you repeat the prayer of the tax collector, how do you feel? Share those feelings with God. Ask for mercy so that you may be filled with faithful love, God’s own faithful love. Whenever a feeling of guilt or shame arises in you ‑‑ anytime ‑‑ get in that back pew and pray: God, be merciful to me a sinner. That last pew is where Jesus sits! Cast yourself on God’s mercy.

You desire, our faithful God, a response of faithful love, not sacrifice. Here is our sacrifice: a humble, contrite heart. Give us the gifts of humility and faithful love, we pray.

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Sunday, March 18, 2007 - The Fourth Sunday of Lent
Joshua 5:9 –12; Psalm 34; 2 Corinthians 5:17-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11-32

“Taste and see the goodness of the Lord” (Psalm 34). There is a theme of food in our readings. First, God “rolls away” the shame of slavery and lets Israel eat, no longer manna, but the crops of their own land. They taste the abundance of God. According to Paul, Jesus tastes the degradation of our human, sinful condition, emptying himself so completely that “God made Christ to be sin” so that we might become the glory of God.
Not just taste God’s glory, but become God’s glory, and ambassadors of this wondrous reconciliation. In the gospel parable, the younger son eats the food of pigs, and in his repentance, receives a generous banquet from his father. As the psalmist claims, his “face will not blush with shame.” When the father tells the elder son, “all I have is yours,” he is the one to be shamed.

Ponder anyone of those readings. You could focus on Jesus, “made” sin so as to be in solidarity with us. You could remember your call to be an agent of reconciliation. You could feel with the prodigal son, wasting his gifts and needing to return. You could hear God say to you: “All I have is yours,” and let the enormity of all that God has sink deeply into you. You might open your mouth in awe as you ponder.

By the mystery of the incarnation, may we come to share the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share our humanity. Thank you! Thank you!

Monday, March 19, 2007 - Feast of Joseph
2 Samuel 7:4-5, 12-14, 16; Psalm 89; Romans 4: 13,16-18; Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24

“It was not through law that the promise was made to Abraham…but through the righteousness that comes through faith….Faith is a gift” (Romans). Paul points out the universal fatherhood of Abraham who sired both Arabs and Jews, and now us. Joseph too is taken as a model of fatherhood, not through natural seed, but through the amazing faith he put in both God and Mary. In Luke’s gospelm unlike Matthew’s today, there are no dreams of angels to trust, but still Joseph takes Mary as wife, trusting.

Imagine the scene in which Mary’s father tells Joseph of her condition. Get inside his young heart (about 15 years old, not as portrayed in apocryphal gospels and so much art work) and feel what he might be feeling. Ask him to share his feelings in all their rawness: betrayal, rage, despair. Ask him how God changed his heart through the gift of faith. Listen. Share your hurts and angers with this foster father whom you share with Jesus.

Joseph, dear father, so human, so loving, so formative in Jesus’ life and in Mary’s loving—teach us to trust and to love. Guide Jews, Christians and Muslims into one new family.

A new way to pray:
The angel of the Lord declared unto Joseph,
And he took Mary to be his wife.

Hail Joseph, full of grace, the Lord is your home.
Blessed are you among all men, and blessed is your wife, Mary.
Holy Joseph, pray for us, now and at the hour of our death.

Behold the manservant of the Lord.
Be it done to me according to your word. (Hail, Joseph…)

The Word was made flesh,
And lived in the home you provided for him. (Hail, Joseph…)

Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Ezekiel 47: 1-9, 12; Psalm 46; John 5: 1-16

A man paralyzed for 38 years was lying near a pool of healing water when Jesus happened by. "Jesus saw him lying there and said to him, ‘Do you want to be made whole?’ The sick man answered, ‘Sir, I have no one to put me in the pool...someone else steps ahead of me’" (John 5). What do you notice in this conversation? Does the man answer Jesus’ question? What do you think might be going on in him? Notice how he sees his plight as someone else’s fault. Jesus is so understanding that he heals him anyway. Then the man turns on Jesus and reports him to the Pharisees for healing on the sabbath. There are people like this. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, perhaps he had to learn how to do that himself by working through the treachery of this man.

Have a conversation with Jesus about people in your life who are small‑minded, complainers, maybe even treacherous. As you share your feelings about them, be sure to listen to his feelings too. Friends talk about their feelings freely and honestly with each other. This is how friendship deepens. Jesus invites us to ever deepening intimacy. Are you willing? Do you want to be whole?

Your plans for us are plans of peace, shalom, wholeness. Open us to our own continual need for your healing, and have mercy on all our paralyzed parts.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Isaiah 49: 8-15; Psalm 145; John 5: 17-30

"Zion said, ‘God has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her nursing child or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you" (Isaiah 49). There are a few images of God as mother in the Jewish scriptures, and this one speaks to a deep fear: that we will be abandoned. Ever since we were cast out of our mother’s womb in birth we long for that security and bliss of our womb‑life. Jesus experienced that fear of abandonment when he laid out his deep desire for union, inviting us to eat his body and drink his blood. Many disciples could not stomach such an idea and walked away from him. Jesus then says to the Twelve, "Will you also go away?" (John 6) Such a poignant question. He is not play‑acting. He like us is afraid to be abandoned. God promises him and us: I will never forget you.

Look at Jesus looking at you, asking you: Will you go away? How are his eyes? What is his tone of voice? How will you respond? Then ask him: Will you go away? How does he respond? "Look at Jesus looking at you, humbly and tenderly," is Teresa of Avila’s definition of contemplation. Be together as both of you feel and fear the pain of separation, even abandonment.

You have carved us on the palms of your hands, our God, and literally on the palms of Jesus’ hands. Thank you for never abandoning us, and help us to trust that.

Thursday, March 22, 2007
Exodus 32: 7-14; Psalm 106; John 5: 31-47

"God said to Moses, ‘I have seen how stiff‑necked this people is....Now let me alone so that my wrath may burn hot against them.’.... Moses begged God, ‘Turn from your fierce wrath. Change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people....So God did change the very mind of God" (Exodus). Lent opened with the call of the gospel: Repent and believe the good news. "Repent" in the original Greek, means literally: change your mind. How could God ask us to do what God is not willing to do? God leads us in the repenting to which we are all called. All of us, like God, are called away from a life of wrath to a life of peace. "My plans for you are plans of peace, not disaster" (Jeremiah 29:11).

Pray as passionately, as desperately as Moses did for God’s peace to penetrate every nook and cranny of our world, and of each human heart. Beg God with all your heart that you and everyone who harbors any hatred or rage may be healed and be filled with peace, God’s hope for us.

You write your love on our hearts, our God. Here are our hearts, for your softening touch. Lead us to be instruments of your peace and unity.

Friday, March 23, 2007
Wisdom 2: 1, 12-22; Psalm 34; John 7: 1-2, 10, 25-30

“Our God is close to the brokenhearted, and those who are crushed in spirit, God saves” (Psalm 34). “Jesus cried out as he was teaching in the temple, ‘You do not know God. I know God because God sent me’” (John). “Sent” in today’s gospel in the original Greek is apostello. In John’s understanding of Jesus, Jesus is an apostle, sent to come close to all who are broken, brokenhearted, crushed in any way. There are more apostles than just the Twelve. Paul and Barnabas are apostles (Acts of the Apostles), but we can include Jesus and Mary among the apostles, those sent to put flesh on the heart of God. We too are made apostles in our Baptism. We are sent to reach out to the brokenhearted and the crushed, letting Jesus live in our world today through us.

Remember a time when you were brokenhearted or crushed in spirit. Who reached out to you in your suffering? What did that person do for you? When were you aware that God sent (apostello) that person to you? Thank God for all those who have put flesh on God in your life. How can you continue this reaching out to those in need?

We know you, Jesus, and we adore you. We know from whom you came, why you came, and to whom you are going. Free us to join you more closely on your journey as God’s apostle.

Saturday, March 24, 2007
Jeremiah 11: 18-20; Psalm 7; John 7:40-53

“Deliver me from my pursuers or they will tear me apart like a lion! O let the evil of the wicked come to an end” (Psalm 7). In other verses of Psalm 7 the psalmist calls on God to get all the weapons of the heavenly arsenal turned against the evil ones. As we come closer to the execution of Jesus, the liturgy grows more intense, heightening the story of Jesus’ persecution. When Jesus would go alone to pray, as the gospel notes, he may have used cursing psalms to express his fear, his outrage, and his willingness to turn over a normal human thirst for vengeance to God. Jews were passionate people, so Jesus would undoubtedly have used these psalms to lay out his battered heart before the one who could soothe him and break the schemes of Jesus’ enemies.

Are there old hurts in your life or new sufferings inflicted on you by others that you would lay out before God? You can say anything to God. The psalmists certainly did. Jesus, feeling every human emotion, was not ashamed to share with God his rage and his hatred. To feel hate is not to sin. To act out of hatred may well be. Putting our feelings out in the open, with Jesus and before God, is to let God know our inmost hearts. That is friendship. That is intimacy with God.

Father, forgive them for they know not what they do, those who shoot to kill, abuse their families, withhold food and medicine from the poor in their greed. We pray for those who persecute your little ones.

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Sunday, March 25, 2007 - Fifth Sunday of Lent
Isaiah 43:16-21; Psalm 126; Philippians 3: 8-14; John 8: 1-11

“I stretch forward to grasp hold of Christ who has already grasped hold of me” (Philippians). This is what the people of God have been doing all Lent: rejoicing in Christ’s having taken hold of us even as we reach, stretch ourselves, to experience more deeply his dying and rising. Isaiah and the psalmist join the rejoicing, the messianic times of fruitfulness and abundance breaking in. If we have gone into Lent, the preparation for the dying, “weeping, weeping…we shall come home with shouts of joy” (Psalm 126). The unconditional forgiveness of God takes flesh in Jesus’ freeing the woman taken in adultery, and the continual challenge of God takes flesh in his inviting those without sin to cast the first stone.

Take just one for your contemplation: the grasping of Christ, the abundance of fruitfulness, or the casting of the first stone. Ask the Spirit to lead you more deeply into the area in which you need a change of heart. Do you need to know how firmly you are held, never to be abandoned? Do you need to believe that after any weeping comes the joyful return, “carrying the sheaves of the harvest”? Do you need to be freed from casting stones, at yourself or at others whom you judge?

We want “to know you, Christ, and the power of your resurrection, and to share your sufferings…” if you call us to that. Give us courage along with joy and trust.

March 26, 2007 - Celebration of the Annunciation of the Lord
Isaiah 7:10-14, 8:10; Psalm 40; Hebrews 10: 4-10; Luke 1: 26-38

“I have come to do your will, O God” (Hebrews). “Here I am, the servant of God. Let it be done to me according to your word” (Luke). Hebrews attributes the quotation from Psalm 40 to Jesus, and like mother, like son. Both surrender to what God desires.
God desires to become flesh, to live and love, laugh and cry amid the muck and the glory of all that is human. God’s passionate desire is to be one with us, and to invite us to unity with one another. God’s will is shalom (Jeremiah 29:11), God’s word is shalom.
Through the prayer of Jesus and Mary, God speaks peace, healing, wholeness, integrity to us and to all of creation.

Today the Incarnation begins. Look at all the ways in which you are in the body. Thank God for each of your senses, your blood and bones, every bit of you. Now look at God living and loving in your body, and through your body, your flesh. This is God’s will: to be one with you; to be Emmanuel, with you and for you. How will you respond?

Here we are, O God! We come to do your will. Help us to speak of your tender love and faithfulness today to whomever you send our way. Help us to share our joy in your Incarnation.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Numbers 21:4-9; Psalm 102; John 8: 21-30

“When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I AM. I do nothing on my own, but I say only what the Father has taught me” (John). For John, Jesus does not die to make satisfaction for human sin, but rather, to gather into one new family all the scattered children of God (John 11:52). When Jesus is lifted up, John is playing on the Greek word for exalted. We know he was lifted up on the cross, but as you listen on Good Friday to the Passion according to John, watch for the royal dignity with which Jesus mounts his throne, the cross. He is the first disciple (learner) of God, the one who learns God completely and hands on what he has been taught. He learns how much God wants unity among all the scattered. Jesus will be the magnet that will attract all the world to himself, and through him to God.

            What has God taught you directly, as you pray, and listen throughout the day? Are you willing to say with Jesus, “I do nothing on my own”? Prepare your day, the various decisions you will be making, and consult with God now, so that you too do nothing on your own. Imagine each encounter of this day and give it to God: “Take, Lord, receive_____.”

            You call us all to obedience, to do nothing on our own. In Jesus, you offer us a leader, one who works with us, co-laboring for justice, peace and unity. Thank you for this great gift of his being Emmanuel.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Daniel 3: 13-20, 24, 49-56, 91-95; Daniel 3 (canticle); John 8:31-42

“Jesus said, ‘If you make my word your home, you will be my disciples, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free’”(John 8:32). Apostles are sent; disciples are learners. Discipulus/a in Latin means a student. Before we can be effective apostles, first we learn from the Word. We get comfortable with the Word, make it our home. The Word is not only scripture, but we make our home in the Word, Jesus. We live in him and thus grow day by day in discerning the truth. His Spirit of truth makes her home in us. We are constantly learning from the Spirit. As a result, the Spirit is, day by day, setting us more and more free.

Remember your various homes, some filled with affection, some perhaps with pain. Invite Jesus to come into each of those homes with you. “O God, you have always been our home.” (Psalm 90:1). Use that psalm prayer as a touchstone all day today, praying it frequently. Ask the Spirit to make you at home in Jesus, comfortable with him. Then ask the Spirit for the courage to seek, speak and live the truth whenever, wherever you find it.

O God, you have always been our home. Thank you! You make your home with us and we want to make our home in you. Set us free, we beg you.

Thursday, March 29, 2007
Genesis 17:3-9; Psalm 105; John 8:51-55

“God said to Abraham: ‘I will maintain my covenant with you...throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God...” (Genesis 17). “Look to God and seek to serve God faithfully. Recall the wonders God has done...for God remembers the covenant, made binding for a thousand generations” (Psalm 105). Covenant is an important theme in the Jewish scriptures. Jesus makes a new covenant with his people, a covenant sealed in his own blood. So much more than the pact we may have made as children with our best buddy, nicking our skin and mingling our blood, friends forever. Blood brother, blood sister, we would promise each other. We drink the blood of Christ in our eucharistic celebrations and truly do become more even than brother and sister to him. We let him take up life in us and through us, extend his mission to everyone whom we meet, day by day.

Making deals with God is a common way to pray. Some saints have done so. In today’s reading God initiates a special relationship and promises nothing to be OUR God. No tit for tat here. God does all the giving. In response to God’s initiating this intimate relationship, we seek to serve. Sit quietly and let bubble up from deep within you all that God has given you. “Not that we love God, but that God has first loved us!” (I John) Enjoy God’s giving.

O generous God, thank you for calling us to covenant with you and with each other. Make us truly brothers and sisters, one in you and in Christ’s Body, through the power of the Spirit.

Friday, March 30, 2007
Jeremiah 20:7, 10-13; Psalm 18; John 10:31-42

“When the Jews reached for rocks to stone him, Jesus protested to them, ‘Many good deeds have I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?’” (John 10). As we come closer to the death of Jesus we see the hatred of his enemies escalate. He doesn’t let them walk over him. He protests. Yet he will not back down. What did he do that so enraged these religious leaders? It seems he had good news to preach about God, and he criticized the church authorities of his day for “laying heavy burdens on peoples’ backs.” He went about doing good, healing, loving, putting God’s heart on his sleeve so everyone could see, touch, hear God’s love in the flesh. For which good work did they eventually kill him? For breaking the Law. For healing on the Sabbath. For setting people free. For offering them hope in God’s unconditional love.

Today’s psalm (18) is one Jesus may have prayed when he “eluded their grasp and went back across the Jordan.” Pray it with Jesus.
            I love you, God, my strength! God, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer!
            God, my rock of refuge, my shield, my stronghold!
            The waves of death surged round about me, the snares of death overtook me.
            In my distress I called to God and God heard my cries.
Repeat frequently during the day: “I love you, God, my strength!”

Thank you for calling us to share in Jesus’ mission to comfort the afflicted and to speak the truth to power. Deepen your gift of justice in us.

Saturday, March 31, 2007
Ezekiel 37: 21-28; Jeremiah 31; John 11: 45-57

"Jesus died to gather into one family all the scattered children of God" (John 11).
Each evangelist understands the death of Jesus a little differently. John and his community experienced how the dying of Jesus brought the frightened friends of Jesus together, just a few daring to stand at Calvary, but gradually growing more united, more courageous, more on fire with a mission to continue his mission. This gospel sees the mission of Jesus as uniting us all. "If I am lifted up [on the cross], I will draw all people to myself," he promised earlier. We become family through the cross. When Jesus gives Mary and the Beloved Disciple to each other’s care, he symbolizes this new family, a community where Mary is mother and we are all brothers and sisters. He prayed before he died that we might all be one. Now he gives his life to make that happen.

In our scattered, fast‑paced world. Jesus offers a center, an interior unity. In our scattered relationships, Jesus offers a focus, a way to be brother and sister to near family, a way to reach across oceans to our far family. In reality, in him we are already and not yet one. Let your imagination circle the block, the city, the country, the globe and
picture all peoples coming together to contemplate Jesus, lifted up. Tell him how you feel as you watch so many streaming to him. His great desire is that we all be one. Tell him what you desire.

We offer you all our tensions and pressures, Jesus, so that you may take them and center them in yourself, focus us, our feelings and desires in you. Thank you for making us one new family.

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Sunday, April 1, 2007 - Passion Sunday (once Palm Sunday)
Isaiah 50:4-7; Psalm 22; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22: 14-23:56

Today we celebrate Jesus’ power and passion as he comes riding into Jerusalem on a colt. No warhorse, no armies for him. Children singing, that is the peace we pray for as we greet the Prince of Peace. At the Last Supper in today’s gospel, instead of John’s footwashing scene, Jesus teaches and overturns our notions of power. In the first reading from Isaiah, the power of a teacher to influence is the focus: “that I might know how to encourage the weary with a word. Every morning God wakens me, opens my ear to listen as those who are taught.” Paul in the second reading speaks of the self-emptying of Jesus, the letting go, the being stripped, the becoming obedient to the reality of death. Yet God gives Jesus an exalted name, a new power, the power (dynamis in Greek) who is the Spirit. Paul is clear about what we should pray for today: “Have this mind in your that was in Christ Jesus...”

Pray with all the passion of your heart to have the mind of Christ, to share the passion of Jesus, his passion for peace and for unity. Pray for a share in Christ’s power that you too may be obedient to reality in whatever form it comes. Obedience simply means having an openness, an ear for God, who wants to encourage the weary with a word. Let yourself be encouraged during this prayer time so that you may, less self-absorbed, spend today offering encouragement to the weary.

“This is my body,” you tell us in today’s gospel, Jesus. Let us say to you: Here is our body that is your body, our church-community. Hold us close to you as your own, and share your passion and power with us.

Monday, April 2, 2007
Isaiah 42:1-7; Psalm 27; John 12: 1-11

“I formed you and set you…a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, and bring out prisoners” (Isaiah). We believe that the word does what it says. When we read that sentence from Isaiah’s servant song, which the first Christians applied to Jesus, we believe that God is at this very moment continuing to form us and to set us as light. When we hear in the gospel that Mary of Bethany (while Martha served!) poured perfumed oil on Jesus’ feet, we are the ones who are anointing, by our prayer and love, those doomed to death, whether by sickness, accident, persecution, war…

Christ suffers in his Body, encircling the globe. Quiet yourself and let the Spirit send up from the depths of you images of the sick, the grieving, the blind, the prisoners, the refugees, and anoint them with the name of Jesus. Envision the person or group with JESUS in large gold letters above them. Say the psalm verse: “Your name is like oil poured out” and watch the gold letters melt and anoint the person. And to quote Isaiah 58, “and do not forget your own kin.”

You are our light and our salvation! Whom should we fear? We want to wait for you with courage, asking to share in your suffering that we might share even now in your risen life!

Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 71; John 13: 21-33, 36-38

“’You are my servant, through whom I show my glory’, says the Lord. I, I thought I had toiled in vain, and for nothing, uselessly, spent my strength” (Isaiah). Such discouragement the servant suffers. Just like Jesus at his last supper, described in today’s gospel. “Satan enters into Judas” in the presence of Jesus, unnoticed by the disciples. How must Jesus have felt about his one time friend? Then he realistically warns his disciples that they cannot follow him now. Peter blusters about his willingness to lay down his life. What feelings must have risen up in Jesus as he promises that Peter will deny him three times?

Work with those questions above. Picture yourself at that table, sharing a last meal with Jesus. Watch his face, his eyes as he sends Judas off “quickly,” and cuts through Peter’s boasting. Let the others clean the dishes, and you move off with Jesus alone to ask him about his experiences tonight. Listen to him.

Give us courage, Jesus, to accompany you through discouragement, betrayal, and abandonment. These experiences are ours too, and we thank you, our pioneer, for your willingness to share all that is human.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Isaiah 50: 4-9; Psalm 69; Matthew 26:14-25

“The Lord God has given me a well-trained tongue that I may know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them. Morning after morning, God opens my ear…” (Isaiah). This sentence might be an SSND mission statement. A mission statement for all of you who let God, who invite God to open your ear morning after morning. This listening to God, to God’s word to you, gives you the wisdom to speak to the weary, to console them, to motivate them. In the gospel we see that Jesus has failed to motivate Judas, for he slinks off to betray his Teacher.

Undoubtedly, Jesus is weary and his festive meal with his friends is mightily marred by the interaction with Judas. Ask God how you might console Jesus. As the others clean up the supper dishes, you and he walk over to look together out the window and you say to him….

You are weary, Jesus, and we too are weary of war, of violence, of disunity, of all that defies God’s will for our peace. Console us, Jesus, and thank you for needing our consolation as you face all that is ahead.

Thursday, April 5, 2007 - Holy Thursday
Exodus 12: 1-8, 11-14; Psalm 116; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13: 1-15

“Our blessing cup is a communion with the blood of Christ” is the refrain for today’s Psalm. It opens by asking what return we can make to God for all God’s goodness to us. It is so simple, we think: lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. That cup, cup of joy and cup of tears, is a cup that sets free and makes healthy and whole. Salvation, from the Latin salus, does mean health and wholeness. From its Hebrew original, this cup of blessing means an “exchange of the entire contents of the self ”. Jesus blesses the cup and pours the entirety of himself into it; it is his blood. Not a gory sacrifice. For the Jews, blood did not symbolize death, let alone torture, but rather life. Jesus pours his blessing, his abundance of life into a cup of wine that now is his blood for us to drink. We can take his very life and self into our bodies. In the footwashing, Jesus also pours his full self into the most menial service, the service of a slave. Not even a Jewish slave who was male was allowed to wash the feet of another Jewish man. Only Gentile slaves, and Jewish women and children could perform such service, so lowly, so degrading was it considered.

“I will offer you a thanksgiving sacrifice.” Efchariston still means thank you in modern Greece. We are priestly people who offer Eucharist. More than ritual with bread and wine, Jesus’ liturgical action in today’s gospel, his thanksgiving sacrifice, is to get on his knees before the dirty, smelly feet of his friends. How can we offer thanksgiving today? Besides thanking God, whom can you thank during these holy days with your footwashing service?

Tonight you give us a new commandment: to love one another AS you love us. Give us the grace to love with your own love, especially those we find most unloveable. Thank you! Efchariston!

Friday, April 6, 2007 - Good Friday
Isaiah 52: 13-53: 12; Psalm 31; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42

Today, darkness covers the earth. There is no Eucharistic celebration, no action of Jesus’ dying and rising. Like the psalmist, Jesus might say, “I am like a broken dish, a laughingstock.”

Such sadness. Such agony and terror, as portrayed in Hebrews 5: 7. In the garden, Jesus is like a wild animal, trapped. That is what the Greek word, “loud cries,” connotes. “He offered prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to the one who was able to save him from death. And he was heard because of his reverence.” He was heard? He was saved? We remember that to save means to be set free. And so he was when God raised him.

If you attend a service, listen to the reading of the passion as one of the characters in the story, perhaps a lowly private in the Roman army, or a brave woman disciple who darts in and out of the crowds around Jesus. If you plan to read it privately, you can do the same, but if you read it out loud and slowly, the power of the Word can change your heart.

A prayer from Ghana: “Come, Lord, and cover us with night. Spread your grace over us…more than all the stars of the skies. Your mercy is deeper than the night…Night comes, the end comes, you come. We wait for you.”

Saturday, April 7, 2007 - The Easter Vigil

“Oh happy fault, o necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” sings the Exultet. Yes, this is what many believe, but not the Franciscan theologian St. Bonaventure, contemporary of Thomas Aquinas. Bonaventure challenges us with the question: If Adam had not sinned, would Jesus still have come to us? STOP. THINK. ASK THE SPIRIT.

            Bonaventure teaches that Jesus would have come to us because of God’s abundant generosity. Sin was not necessary, but God found it necessary to pour out all that God is into the person of Jesus. God wanted to give all that God is to this earth and all its creatures. Thus we have readings of the creation, the setting of Israel free from slavery, the water drawn joyfully from the springs of God’s great kindness. The stars themselves call out to God, “’Here we are!” shining with joy for their Maker” (Baruch).

            How shall we pray with such an abundance of readings? Perhaps remembering all that our baptism has given us. Perhaps by composing our own litany of our favorite saints. Perhaps by contemplating the gift of water, or of fire whether in a fireplace or a simple candle.

Christ, our light! Thanks be to God! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! “Here we are!” shining with the glory of our Risen Lord who lives, who lives in this world, who lives in our bodies. Jesus lives!

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Sunday, April 8, 2007 - Easter Sunday
Acts 10:37-43; Psalm 118; Colossians 3:1-4;
daytime: John 20:1-9; evening: Luke 24: 13-35

Our liturgists can’t stop piling up passage after passage! We have two choices for a second reading and a choice of two gospels, depending on the time of day! Both gospels are worthy of our consideration because both offer ways of being with Jesus. Like us at times, Mary searches in the dark, and runs to tell the others that the stone is rolled away. Like us at times, we find a companion to share our disappointment with “as we walk along the road.” As both stories progress, we like them do recognize Jesus: Mary through his voice, and the disciples on the way to Emmaus, both in his breaking bread and in their heart-felt response, a loving joy “burning within them.”

What darkness, stones, blocks to relationship has God rolled away so you could recognize Jesus? When he, living now, speaks your name, what do you hear? To whom do you run with the good news? What causes your heart to burn within you?

Stay with us, Jesus, for it is always near evening in this world that we are polluting, in people who choose darkness, and at times, in the darkness that pervades our personal life and/or prayer. We trust your staying power and your en-courage-ment.

Monday, April 9, 2007
Acts 2:14, 22-23; Psalm 16; Matthew 28: 8-15

“How wonderfully God has made me cherish the holy ones who live in God's land...I keep you, God, always before me" (Psalm 16). We are following, learning from and loving a man whom for many is "dead and gone." Even some Christians think he is "gone," off on a starry throne in heaven. If we know, really know, in our hearts that Jesus is alive and well and very intimately with us, we may need support for our belief. So God gives us holy ones in our land: our grandparents, perhaps, who believe that Christ is present in the Eucharist; our friends who believe that Christ is present in the poor and outcast of society; our leaders and mentors who do justice in the marketplace and in legislative halls.

And you? Where is Christ alive for you? “I keep you ever before me," we pray in the psalm. Have you been in love? Do you remember how your beloved lives in your heart, "ever before you?" That is what we hope to say to Jesus. Are you ready to pray it now? Or at least, pray: "I want to keep you ever before me." Let the aliveness of Jesus sink into your mind and heart. Keep your eyes on him and keep your eye out for him as you move through today.

You show us the path to life, fullness of joys in your presence. We do believe that you are alive and with us, Jesus. Help our unbelief and fill us with passionate faith in you!

Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Acts 2:36- 41, Psalm 33, John 20: 11-18

“The earth is full of the goodness of God!” the psalmist proclaims. Mary of Magdala and Jesus meet in a garden, perhaps bursting with new growth. Jesus stops her tears with the simple statement of her name. Imagine the love with which Jesus looks on this woman who would not desert him in his crucifixion.

First, imagine a scene full of the beauty and newness of creation. You are contemplating that beauty when you hear Jesus call your name. Turn and look at him, looking at you with deep tenderness. Rest in his gaze, and/or tell him how you feel.

Help us, Risen Lord, to find you in the beauty of creation and to see all people with your eyes, full of love. Even our “enemies.”

Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Acts 3: 1-10, Psalm 105, Luke 24: 13-35

“Glory in God’s holy name”(Psalm 105). Acts relates a story of the healing power of Jesus’ name. The gospel account depicts Jesus’ drawing out the despair of two disciples traveling to Emmaus. Once they have voiced their disillusionment with Jesus, he begins to teach them. They in turn invite him to stay for supper, and he in turn, blessing and breaking bread, opens their eyes. Here is a method for dialogue with Jesus. We can tell him our aches and disappointments; he teaches us too; we ask him to stay; he gives an even deeper revelation of himself. Moral: don’t hide your uncomfortable feelings from Jesus.

During prayer today you might want to say the name, Jesus, every time your mind drifts from his loving gaze at you. Or you might want to dig up old disillusionments and failures to entrust to him for healing. Ask the Spirit to bring to mind those unhealed parts of yourself and ask Jesus to stay with them.

Holy Spirit, help us to accept ourselves just as we are. And to accept others without judging their motives. Let Jesus’ powerful name heal our selves and our world.

Thursday, April 12, 2007
Acts 3: 11-26, Psalm 8, Luke 24: 35-38

“When God raised up God’s servant [Jesus], God sent him first to you, to bless you” (Acts). Luke is teaching Christology in today’s sermon by Peter: “God may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration...” It will take 400 some years before we have a “definition” of who the Christ is. Here is the first understanding: Jesus will become Messiah (Christos in Greek) in the fullness of time. In the gospel, on Easter night Jesus appears to the Eleven and the rest of the company. His first words to them are: “Peace be with you.” Then he opened their minds to understand scripture. Who are the “rest of the company,” the companions who heard this teaching? Who was sent to preach repentance and forgiveness? Luke finishes his gospel in chapter 24 and begins Acts of the Apostles where the Twelve and 120 others, including Mary the Mother, are gathered in the upper room. What has all this detail, this theology to do with prayer? The monks at Qumran who produced the Dead Sea Scrolls taught that to study scripture is to worship. Jesus said to know God is to experience eternal life. The only reason Luke or any one today theologizes is to know God and then to communicate God.

What aspects of theology nourish your prayer? What doctrines are dear to you, teachings that you ponder in your heart? Ask the Spirit to open your ears to hear Jesus teaching you.

Thank you, Jesus, for your teaching, and for your peace that the world cannot give. Make us instruments of your peace, and let us foster peace in some way today.

Friday, April 13, 2007
Acts 4: 1-12, Psalm 118, John 21: 1-14

“It is the Lord!” (John). In Acts, the threats of the Sanhedrin do not stop Peter from preaching the good news to his captors. The man healed by the name of Jesus “is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified and God raised from the dead.” Peter is saying, See for yourselves. Peter in the gospel, shortly after Jesus is raised, is fishing and does not see for himself. It is the beloved disciple who recognizes Jesus on the beach and cries, “It is the Lord!” Jesus does not wash feet this time, but his service is cooking breakfast on the beach for his friends.

Ask for the gift of recognizing “It is the Lord!” in many events and people today. How will you let Jesus serve you today? Imagine yourself helping him prepare the charcoal fire and clean the fish. Then ask to keep that contemplative work style throughout the rush of the day.

Whatever we do in word or in work, we do in your name, Jesus. Let our words, our work, our service today give you glory.

Saturday, April 14, 2007
Acts 4: 13-21, Psalm 118, Mark 16: 9-15

“…we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard!’ (Peter in Acts). Both readings highlight how when we meet the risen Christ we are given the courage to speak. Peter and John are told by the religious authorities never to mention the name of Jesus. Peter asks, Shall we obey you or God? “…for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Mary of Magdala too, the first to receive an appearance of Jesus raised, is sent to tell the good news. She is disbelieved by the men. When Jesus himself appears to them “he upbraided them for their lack of faith and stubbornness.” His final commission is given to us all: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”

Ask for the courage to speak good news to people and to the whole creation. How can you -- like Francis -- preach to the animals, the flowering trees, the sky and fields? How can you work for the preservation of clean air, access to clean water for all? What courage and energy will you need from the Risen Lord? Tell him.

Jesus, forgive our lack of faith, and help us to open to good news. Give us courage to defend and to use wisely your gifts of creation, even if we have to counter the culture.

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April 15, 2007 - Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 5:12-16; Psalm 118; Revelation 19:9-13,17-19; John 20: 19-31

“He [Jesus] touched me with his right hand and said, ‘Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last, the one who lives’” (Revelation). Jesus is first, the prototype (according to St. Bonaventure) of all creation. First born from the dead, and the one through whom all things were made. He is also the last, the goal of all creation. The gospel is Thomas’ cry: “My Lord and my God!” The right hand that Jesus touches John with on Patmos and holds out to Thomas is a wounded hand. How remarkable that even in risen life, his wounds (and perhaps ours as well) remain, no longer pain-filled, but as glorious sources of healing. “Be not afraid!”

Where have you/do you meet the risen Lord, either directly in prayer or in the faces, words, love of Christ taking flesh in those around you? How will you respond? How do you find the wounds of the world when your imagination circles the globe? With Jesus, breathe on all the world’s wounded the peace of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, although we have not seen you in the flesh, we love you. Deepen our love for those in whom you take flesh today. Give us your Easter gift of peace, we pray.

Monday, April 16, 2007
Acts 4: 23-31; Psalm 2; John 3: 1-8

“Enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth your hand to heal…through the name of your holy servant Jesus,” the first community prays in Acts. They are “born of the Spirit” about whom Jesus teaches “a ruler of the Jews,” Nicodemus in the gospel. Such a transformation of the 120 gathered in fear before Pentecost. Such courage and boldness now. These first witnesses to the resurrection boldly speak truth to power.

When have you spoken the good news boldly? When have you been born of the Spirit and when have you been filled with the Spirit? Ponder in your heart that experience as well as the fullness of the Spirit given you in Baptism and in every Eucharist. Ask to join the servant Jesus, meditating his healing presence to whomever you meet today.

Thank you, holy servant Jesus, that did not cling to divinity but, stripped of all power, you became our servant, washing our feet, setting us free to serve with you. Give us courage.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Acts 4: 32-37, Psalm 93, John 3: 7-15

“The whole group of those who believed were of one heart and one mind...everything they owned was held in common.” Barnabas (“which means ‘son of encouragement’”) was particularly willing and generous. Thus the apostles could “distribute to each as any had need.” The most basic tenet of Marxism is: “From each according to his/her ability; to each according to his/her need.”

How do those lines make you feel? Would you like that kind of sharing? Mormons do take care of their own in just that way. And Catholics? Ask for a deeper willingness to share more, maybe even all. What would you like to be called? Son of encouragement? Daughter of kindness? Play with a name that sums up your values. See what God calls you by being quiet and listening.

Here we are, Lord Jesus. Inspire our Catholic community to share with the poor, the outcast, with nations that don’t believe as we do. We come to do your will. May your will be done in us.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Acts 5: 17-26, Psalm 34, John 3: 16-21

The angel who opens the prison doors for the apostles missions them: “Go, stand in the temple and tell the people the whole message about this life.” This earthly, human life that God loves so much that God gave a Son, not to condemn the world, but to lure people into the light and life of God’s own self. As the psalm promises: “Look to God, [to Jesus] and be radiant!”

Look to God right now, however you image God: as father, as shepherd, as whirling, colorful energy, as Jesus, as dew, as rock, as ocean teeming with life, as the infinity of the universe. Keep looking. “Taking a long, loving look” is how we describe contemplation. Let your face and heart grow radiant in God and all the gifts of God that shower you. How will you respond?

So much bad news in this world, Jesus! So many “religious” people ready to condemn the world and its people, certain people. Give us your own heart and radiant love, Risen Lord of all!

Thursday, April 19, 2007
Acts 5: 27-33, Psalm 34, John 3: 31- 36

Again, obedience is our theme. Peter boldly answers the high priest on behalf of all the apostles: “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” This “enraged the council so that they wanted to kill them.” Violence sometimes erupts today between religious authorities and Christians or Jews or Muslims, endowed with a free conscience. Jesus obeyed God’s mission to the poor, outcast, hopeless, and they killed him. “God is close to the brokenhearted and those crushed in spirit God saves” (Ps 34). The gospel calls us to obey (listen to and trust) the Son and so enjoy life, eternal and radiant life, right now. Even if, like Oscar Romero, refusal to obey human authority in order to stand with the crushed leads to death.

Have you ever experienced the summons of God that disagrees with human authority, religious or civil? What did you do? What circumstances might arise in the future that would call you to decision? Where do you want to place your trust and obedience? Talk this over with Jesus.

What tears you weep, creator God, when you see the abuse of power, done in your name. Forgive us for listening to bad news and trusting it. Grow us up into the freedom of the Spirit and give us courage.

Friday, April 20, 2007
Acts 5: 34-42, Psalm 27, John 6: 1-15

In Acts, Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee, cautions his fellow council members: “If this [Christian] plan is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it....” So instead of executing the apostles, the council had them flogged. A painful start, but a two thousand year old movement. As our SSND foundress, Blessed Theresa of Jesus, teaches: “All the works of God go forward slowly and painfully, but their roots are all the sturdier and the flowering all the lovelier.”

When have you experienced that a painful or slow plan, activity, dream, transition in your life finally blossomed? As you remember, join your daily “dying and rising” with Jesus’.

Thank you, Jesus, for the courage and willingness of your first friends to suffer because of preaching in your name. Thank you for calling us to friendship and apostleship. Give us, please, courage and hope.

Saturday, April 21, 2007
Acts 6:1-7, Psalm 33, John 6:16-21

After blessing bread and fish for about 5,000 people, Jesus withdraws and the disciples head home to Caparnaum by boat. They began to row. “It was now dark, and Jesus had not yet come to them.” Are they rowing slowly and painfully? Alone in the dark? And then a rough wind! Suddenly they see Jesus walking toward them on the water and their response is terror. This Easter season, instead of joyful news, the airwaves and newspapers are filled with commentators debating the merits of withdrawing troops from the invasion of Iraq. Hopefully Easter has loosened some of the grip terror can have on us.

And you? Where is your focus? On your terror, or on Jesus coming to you through the dark? How does Jesus look at this world of war, more than thirty wars currently around the world. An unending war on terror? Ask Jesus. Listen.

Jesus, help us to value this life, our bodies, our loves in the way you do. We surrender all to you, trusting that your risen life courses through our veins now, and will forever in the life to come.

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April 22, 2007 - Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 5: 27-32, 40-41; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21: 1-19

Acts offers us a dramatic dialogue as the once cowardly Peter stands up to the high priest and Sanhedrin. Ordered to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, “they left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of the name.” The “name” in Revelation is the Lamb; in the Alleluia verse it is Christ; in the gospel, the disciple whom Jesus loves cries, “It is the Lord!” The fishermen come ashore to find Jesus cooking breakfast for them on the beach. Not only by footwashing, but here is another way that Jesus is the holy servant, our cook!

What do you call him? How do you name him? Jesus, the name above all names. Savor his name. Repeat it slowly as all your loved ones pass before your imagination, and see his name wrap each one in his peace. Let some of those you fear move through your imagination and bless them with this powerful name.

We hear you ask us too: “Do you love me?” Jesus, you know our hearts, you know how we love you and how we want to grow in loving you, especially as you take flesh in those whom we find hard to love. Help us!

Monday, April 23, 2007
Acts 6: 8-15; Psalm 119; John 6: 22-29

Jesus is asked “What must we do to perform the works of God?” Jesus answered them, ‘This is the work of God: that you believe in him whom God has sent.’” Gradually we have been weaned away, in our spiritual development, from trying to please God with many and heroic works. We are a people of faith, not putting trust in our works, but in God’s faithfulness to us. We believe in Jesus. In Hebrew faith does not mean assenting to correct doctrine but rather means clinging to Christ, attachment to him, commitment to his person, his desires, his will, his work.

Ask the Spirit to call to mind the stepping stones of your spiritual development. What events and/or persons led you to a deeper conversion to the person of Christ? Led you to take your eyes off your self, your work, and your spiritual progress to keep them fixed on Jesus?

Lord, we believe in you. We trust you. We love you. Help our unbelief! Deepen our attachment to you.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Acts 7:51-8:1; Psalm 31; John 6:30-35

Our psalm response today is “Into your hands, I entrust my spirit,” which Jesus prayed on the cross and Stephen prays in today’s reading as he is stoned to death. Like Jesus on the cross, Stephen also pleads in perhaps the most radical statement in the New Testament: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Jesus cried, “Father, forgive them.” Perhaps nothing makes us more in God’s image than the gift of forgiveness. Forgiveness, however, is not something we can will. It is God’s gift. Jesus did not forgive, but prayed to his Father to forgive his murderers; Stephen repeats that prayer for God’s gift of forgiveness. Stephen addresses his prayer to the “Lord.” Jesus, raised from terrible torture, has become the source of all forgiveness.

Ask the Spirit to call to mind any one whom you need to forgive. Can you ask the risen Lord to give you the gift of forgiving the person? Don’t fake it. It may take years to receive the gift. It is wise not to announce, I forgive you. A bit patronizing, unless you are asked for forgiveness. Then you will be ready.

“Our hearts are ready, Lord” (Psalm 57). Make our hearts ready to forgive, to reconcile, to love again even those who have hurt us in large ways and small.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Acts 8: 1-8; Psalm 66; John 6:35-40

Jesus says “Everything the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away...This is the will of the one who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that God has given me...” How deeply do we believe that Jesus cannot lose us? Will never let go of that addicted daughter, that godless son, that unchurched grandchild? No one, nothing will be lost. The early church portrayed Jesus as good shepherd. He gathers; he does not drive away no matter how blatant the crime, the evil, the sin. “I will never drive away.” God has given every mite and mote of creation to the cosmic Christ, who guards the whole of creation--and each of us.

Consider those whom you consider “lost” to sickness, sin, your values. Perhaps a loved one, or a whole race, religion or nation. See Christ approach them with his wounded hands streaming healing, grace and glory. He touches your “lost” one. Tell him how you feel.

Thank you, good shepherd, for holding us close to you. Gather the wounded of our world, especially those wounded by sin, to your heart.

Thursday, April 26, 2007
Acts 8: 26-40; Psalm 66; John 6:44-51

In the gospel, after Jesus had fed them, the crowd dared to pursue Jesus around the lake to ask him for a sign. Multiplying loaves and fish for 5,000 is not a good enough sign for them? How frustrated Jesus so often is! Still he responds with this sign: “No one can come to me unless the Father draw that person.” Jesus himself is the sign, the attractive sign to all who will keep their eyes fixed on him. God’s mercy and faithfulness is embodied in his body, in his work, in his service. Jesus continues, quoting scripture: “‘They shall all be taught by God.’”

How does God teach you? How do you learn from God? What signs do you need? Can you understand why Jesus is called the Sacrament of God, a bodily sign who confers grace, the life of God, on all who receive him? Talk these things over with him. Then listen.

Jesus, source of God’s life deep within each heart, within the community, within every bit of creation, help us to keep coming to you. Keep us fascinated by your never-ending kindness and compassion.

Friday, April 27, 2007
Acts 9: 1-20; Psalm 117; John 6: 52-59

God chooses the weak, and even those who do evil, to be instrument. Acts tells of Rabbi Saul’s change of heart. He learns that in persecuting the Christians of Damascus he is persecuting Jesus himself. Perhaps Paul’s overarching belief in the Body of Christ was born at that moment of debility. Not only is Saul’s blindness healed, but he is filled with the Spirit and was immediately baptized. His mission, as the psalm proclaims, is to bring good news to all the nations.

When have you experienced that when you are weak, God is strong? That where sin abounds, grace more abounds? That the Body of Christ includes all peoples? Talk with Paul about these and other teachings of his. He too is the Body of Christ in glory and is with us, continuing to teach. Listen.

Sharpen, Risen Lord, our zeal for the good news. Even if we are weak, sinful, or limited by age or sickness, give us the missionary heart of Paul. May every creature hear your good news!

Saturday, April 28, 2007
Acts 9:31-42; Psalm 116; John 6: 60-69

John’s gospel in some ways portrays Jesus as most human and, as well, as most divine. Here we see his humanity, his identifying with us who so often are afraid to speak our hearts, our values for fear of rejection. Jesus’ great desire is to be so closely united with us that he gives us his flesh and blood to absorb into our flesh and blood. This nauseates some disciples: “many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” Then Jesus, who is not play-acting, turns to the Twelve with that most poignant question in every human heart: “Will you also go away?”

Hear Jesus ask that question directly to you. How will you respond?

Lord Jesus, you have the words, you are the Word of life. Help us to search for your word in scripture and sacrament. Please ive us discerning hearts that we may recognize your voice. Cast out words of judgment, gossip, violence and fill us with you.

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Sunday, April 29, 2007 - Fourth Sunday of Easter
World Day of Prayer for Vocation
Acts 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 100; Revelation 7:9, 14-17; John 10: 27-30

Today is known as Good Shepherd Sunday. The reading from Revelation puts Jesus among us, “the sheep of God’s flock”, calling him the Lamb. This Lamb will lead us, a “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages,” to springs of living water. There God will wipe away our every tear.

Who in your life has put flesh on the shepherding activity of the Risen Christ? What has that person done for you? How have you responded? Picture that person enfolded in the arms of the Good Shepherd. Then picture yourself there too. Tell Christ how you feel. Finally, imagine people of every tribe and nation embraced by Christ.

Thank you, Christ Jesus, for your abundant kindness toward us, your deep fountain of Spirit-life within us. Help us to overflow today with your life and love.

Monday, April 30, 2007
Acts 11: 1-18. Psalm 42, John 10:1-10

Abondanza! In the gospel Jesus tells us just why he came and why he stays, God-with-us: that we might have life in abundance. He comes not to test us, correct us, even guide us, but so that we might know God’s love and faithfulness in great gushes of life! Not a trickle from a faucet, not an eight ounce glass, not gallons, but a never-ending fountain of living water from deep within us: the Spirit. “As deer long for flowing streams, so we thirst for God” (Ps 42). In Acts, the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius and his household is described in Peter’s own words, when he is confronted by those who would exclude Gentiles from the early church. After Peter is rebuked by God (“That which God has made clean, you may not call unclean.”) he is called by messengers from the Gentile Cornelius. Peter explains to his accusers: “The Spirit told me to accompany them without discriminating.” Peter asks, when the Spirit acted independently of custom and human law and falls abundantly on Cornelius’ whole household, “Who am I to hinder God?”

Ask the Spirit to show you whom you may call “unclean,” any “discrimination” or prejudice that lurks in your heart. Be still. Listen. Ask the Spirit to heal your fear of those people, and to replace the fear with acceptance and love. Pray for those whom you might wish to exclude.

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for choosing us Gentiles to receive your abundance. Pour out your healing, unity, and peace on all peoples of this world. Make us instruments of your unity.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 Feast of Joseph the Worker
Acts 11: 19-26; Psalm 87; John 10: 22-30

Why is today technically an “Easter weekday,” when we don’t even celebrate the octave of Pentecost any more? How much our weary world needs Joseph the worker, when the workers of the world unite to claim their dignity, Labor Day in many countries.
Strangely enough, we can apply all three readings to Joseph. Acts tells of another Joseph called Barnabas, son of encouragement. He encourages the newcomers to the faith and works with Saul, teaching. The psalm reminds us of Joseph of the infancy narratives, telling Egypt of God’s glory and going to be enrolled. In the gospel, Jesus announces that his work is God’s work. God gives us to Jesus and no one can snatch us away.

Let us ponder work in our hearts. What is your work? Even if you are retired, note that Barnabas works at encouraging, as can we even if bedridden. Let us pray for the newcomers to the faith, received at Easter. When we pray for the nations, telling them of God’s glory as we move in our imagination around the globe, let us especially pray for workers, for those wanting to work, those who see no value in their work. Let us pray that all in the Christian community work for God’s glory and not just a paycheck.

Thank you, Jesus, for holding us close, so that no one, no thing, no feeling can snatch us away from you. You are our encourager. Give us courage to work with you today.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Acts 12: 24-13:5; Psalm 67; John 12: 44-50

In Acts, a small community, praying and fasting together, together hear the Holy Spirit instruct them to set aside Barnabas and Saul for the Spirit’s work. It is not unusual to hear the Spirit speak in our prayer, but it is important too to have the message confirmed in community. Jesus points out the commandment of God, which is to pay attention to the word of Jesus.

What does it mean that Jesus and his word is the commandment of God? Not ten commandments, and certainly not the 637 commands of the Jews, just the simple word of Jesus. Which word gives you life? Let some of the words bubble up, let the Spirit speak in your heart.

Help us to absorb your word, Jesus. Holy Spirit, keep the word, the light, the life of Jesus fresh within us and among us.

Thursday, May 3, 2007 Philip and James, apostles
1 Corinthians 15: 1-8; Psalm 19; John 14: 6-14

Our first reading lays out what Paul thinks constitutes any of us apostles: that we have experienced the Risen Lord alive. Paul terms it “appearance,” but it might be a word, an intuition, a feeling that Jesus is risen indeed. That experience sends us as apostles of good news. To “see” Jesus, Philip is told at the last supper, is to see God. Jesus is the sacrament of God. To know what Jesus wants is to know God’s will.

And what does Jesus want as you “see” him move through his living, dying and resurrection appearances? When have you experienced that he truly is alive, present, working in your life? What changes happened because of that? If you are not sure you have ever “seen the Lord,” ask for that conviction right now. Jesus lives!

Deepen our conviction, Christ Jesus, that you are alive and working within us and among us, deep within the whole world which is your sacred body. Help us to see you everywhere.

Friday, May 4, 2007
Acts 13: 26-33; Psalm 2; John 14:1-6

Paul, in preaching in the synagogue of Antioch, summarizes the early church’s
teaching about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus at his last supper perhaps also summarizes his preaching: “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” More than any other words, Jesus urged us: “Be not afraid.” Thomas speaks for many of us when he complains, “We do not know where you are going.” Jesus responds that he is the way, the truth and the life. The implicit challenge is whether we will follow the way, embrace the truth, accept the life.

Where is Jesus going today? To whom is he going? How is he going? When he turns his love and service to other nations, races, creeds, how do you feel? What troubles your heart these days? Share with him the difficulties you find in accepting his way, truth and life.

We know your passionate desire, Jesus, that all may be one. Help us to accept and appreciate all the peoples of the earth in their great diversity. Help us to realize the new family that your death brought about. You are Lord of all creation!

Saturday, May 5, 2007
Acts 13: 44-52; Psalm 98; John 14: 7-14

How wonderful that both on Thursday and today we have the good news that if we want to know God, we need only look at Jesus, the sacrament of God in human flesh.
God is glorified in human flesh, for to become “fully human, fully alive gives God glory,” teaches Irenaeus, an early father of the church. In Acts, Paul has another kind of conversion. Eager to teach Jews in their synagogue, when his message is rejected he shakes the dust from his feet and turns to the Gentiles (that is, us) who rejoice and “glorify the word of the Lord.”

How shall you glorify God today? Where will you see God today? Prepare your day, in the manner taught by Francis DeSales. What will you be doing that will make you more human? more alive?

Again and again we thank you, gracious God, for loving our messy humanness so much that you become immersed in our flesh. Thank you for the Incarnation. Take flesh in us today.

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Sunday, May 6, 2007 Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 14: 21-27; Psalm 145; Revelation 21:1-5; John 13: 31-35

In the missalette, Living with Christ, we read of a Muslim who characterizes “Islam as the religion of faith, Judaism as the religion of hope and Christianity as the religion of love.” There is some merit to that description, but today’s readings indicate that Christianity is also about both faith and hope. In Acts we hear of the faith of the early communities praised three times. They do not put faith in doctrines, but in the Lord. The piece from Revelation brims with hope and deserves a full reading. “…a new heaven and new earth…God’s dwelling is with the human race…God will wipe away every tear…no more death or mourning, wailing or pain…Behold, I make all things new!” And then love is the only commandment, the only criterion for our attitudes and actions. Love glorifies God, and it is love that Jesus himself offers through us. “AS I have loved you…” That is the gold standard. Love is missionary, attracting, the reason that all will know that we belong to Jesus: “if you have love for one another.”

Thank God for the gifts of faith, hope and love given you from your mother’s womb, and held up for the community to support in your baptism. How has God grown these gifts in you since that time? Pray for those without faith, for the hopeless, and for those who find it so difficult to love.

Our faith, hope and love are only a shadow of your faith in us, your hope for us, your love of us. Thank you, our God, for first loving us, choosing us, gifting us. We rest in you.

Monday, May 7, 2007
Acts 14: 5-18; Psalm115; John 14:21-26

“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.” The opening lines of today’s psalm refer to Paul’s and Barnabas’ being treated as gods, and their horror of such acclaim. The gospel focuses on the Spirit. The alleluia verse: “The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all I have told you,” is repeated as the last verse of today’s gospel. The “Easter weekdays” continue, but for many of us, this is preparation time for the Spirit’s renewal. Four weeks of advent, six weeks of mystagogia. It is not only the newly baptized who are to learn more deeply of God’s mystery. We too are led by the Spirit from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18).

How does the Spirit teach you? Of whom and of what does the Spirit remind you? Go through the week ahead in your imagination and as you see yourself in relationship, at work, resting, “anoint” each activity of the week with “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory.”

Glory to you, O God, and peace to all peoples on earth. We worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. We especially thank you for the gift of the Spirit.

Tuesday, May 8, 2007
Acts 14: 19-28; Psalm 145; John 14: 27-31

Dying/rising. This is the mystery of faith in which we participate. Yesterday’s reading from Acts shows the people wanting to offer sacrifice to Paul, and today’s passage portrays Paul’s being stoned and left for dead. The alleluia verse reminds us “Christ had to suffer and to rise from the dead and so enter into his glory.” He had to suffer not because God needed or wanted a bloody sacrifice, but because dying/rising is a pattern in all of nature, and especially in human living and loving. Jesus “had” to be like us in all things. Jesus says to us, whatever our state, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you…Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.” In order to give us peace, he “had” to be among us, one of us, suffering with us, being lifted up with us.

Look at the dying/rising pattern in the week past. Ask the Spirit to remind you. This is what we offer in our Eucharist, joined with Jesus. Lay out any troubles and/or fears before Jesus who listens carefully to you, and then says directly to you: “Peace.”

Open us, Holy Spirit, to receive Jesus’ gift of peace. Take, receive all our troubles, all our worries, all our sufferings, all our joys. Take all of us. We are yours.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007 - Feast of Blessed Theresa Gerhardinger, SSND
Acts 15: 1-6; Psalm122; John 15:1-8

Mother Theresa is the foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. We can find the gifts she offered, and continues to offer through her Sisters and our Associates, to the world-wide church. Acts tells of a growing controversy as to whether Gentiles should be admitted to the new community without first becoming Jews. “The Apostles and presbyters met together to see about this matter.” Our founding was at times problematic, and so meeting together to thrash out differences leads to a principle of SSND life: dialogue. Our charism is unity, which is mentioned in the Psalm; we might carry the word School in our name, but we are called together to be signs of unity, to work for reconciliation, for inclusion in a reflective, dialogic, and prayerful way. At the last supper Jesus reminds us all that we cannot bear fruit unless we are deeply attached to the Vine. And so Christ Jesus is the center and source of SSND life.

Please pray for all School Sisters of Notre Dame, today, missioned around the world in 38 countries. Pray that our ministries bear fruit, that all whom we serve feel included, one with us and with Christ. Thank you.

Attract all peoples of the earth to be one with you, Jesus, one in the Spirit, so that we all may bear fruit. Make us instruments of peace, justice, unity and love in our world.

Thursday, May 10, 2007
Acts 15: 7-21; Psalm 96; John 15: 9-11

In Acts we see the early church using a method of communal discernment, looking together for God’s will. Like the SSNDs, they are reflective, prayerful, dialogic and discerning. First Paul and Barnabas tell of the Spirit’s work among the Gentiles, and then Peter shares his religious experience with the whole assembly. Peter concludes that Gentiles need not keep the Law since it is grace that saves. They all fall silent. Paul and Barnabas speak again. Again “the whole assembly listened” and again they are silent. Finally the leader James looks for a confirmation of their experience in the Jewish scriptures. These are not opinions debated but religious experience shared. What a model! In today’s brief gospel, Jesus exhorts us to love and to “remain in my love.” Why? “So that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete.”

Which interpretation speaks to you right now: that the joy which is in Jesus might enter our deepest selves, that we share joy, his joy, together; or—that he takes joy in us, that his joy stems from us? Be still and ask to absorb his love and joy.

As the Father loves you, Jesus, so you love us! God’s own love poured out not only into sinless you, but into us, weak and failing as we are. Thank you, God’s instrument of grace and salvation.

Friday, May 11, 2007
Acts 15: 22-31; Psalm 57; John 15: 12-17

“It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and us…” James announces at the end of the first council of Jerusalem, opening a Jewish sect to include and to welcome Gentiles without burdening them with Jewish laws and customs. And so we can sing with the psalmist: “Our hearts are ready, O Lord!” Ready not just to be set free but to be included as friends of Jesus. He tells us in the gospel that we are no longer servants only but friends. “I have called you friends, because I have told you everything that I have heard from my Father. It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you….”

Ask the Spirit to remind you of times when you felt left out, excluded, perhaps even abandoned (the dying). Then ask the Spirit to remind you when you felt chosen, included, wanted (the rising). Who in your life took the initiative in loving you? Now see Jesus initiating an ever deepening intimacy, sharing with you all that God has given him. How do you feel?

You call us friend. What grace, what a gift. You want us. You draw us to yourself and share intimately every aspect of our very human life. Thank you, thank you!

Saturday, May 12, 2007
Acts 16: 1-10; Psalm 100; John 15: 18-21

Acts dramatically reminds us that all mission is plotted and fueled only by the Spirit. The Spirit keeps Paul from some territories and sends him to others. Paul had a night vision, or perhaps a dream, brought to his consciousness by the Spirit who lives deep within him (Romans 8:26). Whatever our mission to the “world,” Jesus reminds us, (and we all do have such a mission due to our baptism), the “world” may well hate us as it hated Jesus.

Take a long, loving look at the work you do in a given day. Whether it is mowing grass, planning a project, teaching a class, preparing a meal, closing a deal, washing the dog—whatever, how is this God’s work, led and guided by the Spirit? Give every piece of your work to God for God’s greater glory.

Let us join Jesus in his prayer: “Father, I pray for them: may they be one in us, so that the world may believe that it was you who sent me.” Jesus, let all our work be a sign of your work in the world.

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Sunday, May 13, 2007 Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 15:1-2, 22-29; Psalm 67; Revelation 21: 10-14, 22-23; John 14: 23-29

Unfortunately, this piecing of Acts leaves us with a false impression. Some Jewish Christians were teaching: “Unless you are circumcised according to the Mosaic practice, you cannot be saved.” After the dialogue, silence, and confirmation from Scripture, the apostles and elders write to the Gentile churches that some other Christians have been disturbing them, without the necessary authority. The large missing piece of Acts today directly contradicts what constitutes “being saved.” Not Mosaic practice, not circumcision, not keeping the Law. To quote directly from Acts 15, when Peter shares how God granted the Spirit to the Gentiles, God “made no distinction…Why then are you putting God to the test by placing on the shoulders of the disciples a yoke that neither our ancestors nor we have been able to bear? On the contrary, we believe that we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they.” Jesus in the gospel promises the Spirit who will teach and call to mind, and offers us peace, so that unlike the early church in this first crisis, our “hearts may not be troubled.”

How do you believe you are saved (yesh in Hebrew means set free; salus in Latin means health and wholeness)? By keeping the Law, or by the free and abundant grace of God poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5)? Have you chosen Jesus as your personal savior? Has he chosen you? Rest in your savior.

We beg you, Jesus, to set us free from all judging the salvation of others by their practice or lack of it. We trust that you are the Savior of the world. Deepen our trust in your love and mercy. Thank you.

Monday, May 14, 2007 Matthias, Apostle
Acts 1: 15-17, 20-26; Psalm 113; John 15: 9-17

As we come closer to Pentecost, our readings today prepare us. Acts transports us to the upper room where Peter speaks to the 120 gathered there. In these reflections we have just studied how the early community discerned: sharing of religious experience, keeping silence, deciding and checking the decision with a scriptural confirmation (Acts 15). Before the inrush Holy Spirit, however, they use a traditional means to “test” the Spirit, the drawing of lots. What must it have meant to Matthias to be, as the psalm puts it, lifted up and seated with princes? An ordinary man, never mentioned in the gospels, is named apostle. He may not have been at the last supper to hear Jesus call his disciples “friends.” You did not choose me, Jesus states, but “I chose you…to go and bear fruit.” We too need not have been at the last supper to be a friend of Jesus, chosen and sent to bear fruit.

Have you ever had the experience of Matthias? Just going about your daily duties and suddenly singled out for recognition? Ask Jesus to single you out today, to infuse those daily duties with his Spirit, to call you friend, to choose you to bear fruit. What fruit might you bear? What do you want?

Jesus, give us the gift of loving well. Heal any false ways we may have of loving and teach us to love as you love us. Thank you for loving us, choosing us, sending us.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Acts 16: 22-34; Psalm 138; John 16: 5-11

In yesterday’s gospel Jesus says that the greatest love is to lay down our lives. We might prefer death to what Paul and Silas suffered according to Acts. They are stripped, beaten with rods, flogged and tied to a stake in the innermost prison. Their response? They prayed aloud and sang hymns so that all in the jail could hear them. The other prisoners must have been mightily moved because when an earthquake opened the cell doors and freed those in chains, they did not run away. The jailer recognized God in the midst of this turmoil, so Paul and Silas “spoke the word of the Lord to him” and he and his household were baptized.

Imagine your self stripped naked in front of a crowd. How does that feel? Imagine being beaten with rods. Feel the pain in your body. Flogged? Smell the blood, your own blood. What would be your response? Some people in our world are still treated like this, some for choosing Christ (as in Sudan), others for standing for justice (as in Central America). Pray for those being martyred today. Pray for those being tortured, and all victims of violence, even in North America.

We give thanks that you have given so many the courage to lay down their lives, to suffer for justice and peace. Give us the courage we need to make decisions to love well and not to count the cost.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Acts 17: 15, 22-18:1; Psalm 148; John 16: 12-15

From Acts we have a speech that Paul gives in Athens, a model for how to approach “pagans” in our own evangelizing. First he scoped out the city and discovered how religious the Athenians were. He commends them, and he quotes one of their poets to remind them that in God we all live and move and have our being. But when he proclaims that God has raised a man from the dead the group divides into those who scoff and those who want to hear more. Jesus is indeed a sign of contradiction. His revelation continues, as he promises today in the gospel. The Holy Spirit will continue to guide us into all truth.

How do you exercise your mission to evangelize? Not all give speeches. Some have the courage to be the conscience in a group, some to be peacemakers, some to proclaim justice and act justly. Ask the Spirit to remind you of times when your good news made a difference to someone else. Ask to be and to bring good news in the activities of today.

In you we do indeed live and move and have our being. Thank you, good God, for your breath, the Holy Spirit, whom we breathe in union with you.

Thursday, May 17, 2007
(for seven dioceses in the U.S., this is Ascension Day)
Acts 18:1-8; Psalm 98; John 16: 16-20

Paul was much more respectful to the pagan Athenians yesterday than he is today with the Jews who live in Corinth. Here he argues, and when the Jews oppose him he calls down blood on their heads. He also makes friends with Aquila and Priscilla, sewing tents with them, and with Titus Justus and Crispus, a leader of the synagogue. Paul is a man of many passions, and friendship is one. Jesus too knows the depth of friendship. His friends will “weep and mourn” when they can see him no longer in the flesh, but he promises that our “pain will be turned into joy.”

Whom do you call friend? Anoint them with the name of Jesus. Let his name, which is like oil poured out, cover each one with a golden glow. Tell Jesus how you love each one and let Jesus tell you how he loves each one. Be sure to smile!

Jesus, we love you! Thank you for the many gifts of friendship in our lives. Heal any broken relationships, please, with the healing power of your name.

Friday, May 18, 2007
Acts 18: 9-18; Psalm 47; John 16:20-23

Paul’s passions must include fear, for the Lord (Jesus) says to him in a vision, “Do not be afraid, but speak and do not be silent.” Thus Paul spends 18 months in Corinth. When the jealous Jews drag him before the proconsul, Gallio tells the Jews that he doesn’t care about “words and names and your own laws.” Jesus uses the image of a woman in childbirth to promise future joy after the pain of “losing” Jesus to death.

Can you name your fears? Ask the Spirit to show them to you. As each one comes to mind, hear Jesus speak directly to you: “Do not be afraid.” Are there some people to whom you must speak, but fear holds you back? Hear Jesus assure you: “Speak and do not be silent.”

Deepen our mission, Lord Jesus, to be ambassadors of reconciliation, to be peace makers, to speak truth to power, to speak the truth in love, even if only in some small way today.

Saturday, May 19, 2007
Acts 18: 23-28; Psalm 47; John 16: 23-28

Women can teach the eloquent, the educated, and the enthusiastic. Priscilla with her husband instructs one of the future leaders of the church, Apollos. He taught accurately about Jesus, but the couple “explained the Way of God to him more accurately.” Who ever has complete understanding the Way of God? Understanding the mystery of God, of Jesus, of the Spirit, is a lifelong task and, according to Karl Rahner, will extend all through eternity. Mystery, he writes, is infinitely knowable. Jesus tells his disciples that he has been teaching them in figures of speech but the day is coming when he will speak to us plainly about the Father. And even then, we will spend all eternity knowing ever more deeply and intimately our God.

Ponder the mystery of God in your heart. How has your understanding of God, Jesus, the Spirit, the Body of Christ changed and developed over your lifetime? Tell God all that you want to know.

We long for you, our God, and we want to deepen our understanding of you and your way. Thank you for the gift of the Spirit who teaches us continually.

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Sunday, May 20, 2007 Ascension of the Lord
Acts 1: 1-11; Psalm 47; Hebrews 9: 24-28; 10:19-23; Luke 24: 46-53

We will be clothed with power from on high is Jesus’ parting blessing. Power in Greek is dynamis. It also means energy, and is another name for the Holy Spirit in the writings of Luke and Paul. Jesus, in Luke’s two books, gives two missions, once we are infused with the power and energy of the Spirit, “baptized with the Holy Spirit” in Acts. In the gospel, we are to understand the scriptures, and in a strangely passive voice, repentance and forgiveness is to be proclaimed. In both of Luke’s accounts, we are to be Christ’s witnesses. With Hebrews connecting the two Lucan stories, we know that we are to witness not only to his earthly life but also to his risen life with God. The risen Christ appears before God on our behalf. He is our faithful and compassionate high priest. We can approach God with utter trust because “…a new and living way, he opened for us...through his flesh.”

Jesus lives! Ask to let that truth penetrate your daily living even more thoroughly. He lives on our behalf. Contemplate him, alive. We can approach God with utter trust. Pray for yourself, that you may trust Jesus and not your “virtue,” and pray for the gift of trust for all those who live in fear of not being good enough.

What joy you must experience, Jesus, in coming face to face and forever with God, all on our behalf. Thank you for plunging us into your Spirit and filling us with the energy who is Spirit!

Monday, May 21, 2007
Acts 19: 1-8; Psalm 68; John 16: 29-33

Some disciples said to Paul, “We have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
How true that may be today. Once when Pope John XXIII opened the windows the Spirit’s power and energy renewed the face of the earth. And now? Jesus says that all his friends will be scattered, leaving him alone. Yet not alone, he corrects himself, for God is with him always. Nor can we ever really be scattered since we are one, united, in communion with the Spirit who is the bond of love, our peace. Jesus says, “In me you have peace…take courage.”

When have you heard, noticed, turned to the Holy Spirit? When has the Spirit done for you what was done for Israel, according to Psalm 68: “gives the desolate a home to live in, leads prisoners out into freedom”? Where is your desolation, your feeling scattered, left alone? Where is your prison? Pray for those who are truly homeless, abandoned, imprisoned in refugee camps, by violence in their own homes.

Thank you, Jesus, for the gift of your Spirit, poured into our hearts and into our world. Renew the face of the earth, the church, and each human heart. Give us peace so that we may love well, in the power of the Spirit.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Acts 20: 17-27; Psalm 68; John 17:1-11

Paul is heading for Jerusalem, eager to be there for Pentecost. He calls the elders of Ephesus together and bids farewell, telling him that he is “captive to the Spirit.” Psalm 68 reveals such good news Israel, surrounded by neighbors whose gods burdened them with laws: “God bears our burdens day after day. Our God is a God who saves!” Jesus and the Spirit save. The Spirit prays continually within us (Romans 8:26) and in today’s gospel Jesus prays for us. “May they be one as we are one.” As Jesus and God are one, such is the unity that is Jesus’ deepest desire.

What are your deepest desires? What besides the Spirit holds you captive? What are your burdens that God bears for you? What might keep you from being one with all humanity? with all creatures? Pray for your interior freedom and unity. Praise the Spirit who makes us one.

Blessed be you, our God, who bears our burdens day after day. Help us to bear one another’s burdens, the burdens of our near neighbors and our far neighbors.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Acts 20: 28-38; Psalm 68; John 17:11-19

Today we hear Paul’s farewell to his co-ministers at Ephesus and Jesus’ farewell to his friends. Paul and his friends are portrayed as much more emotional, praying and weeping and embracing. Jesus is subdued, continuing his prayer. He prays for their and our protection. He prays for our joy. He prays that we may be made holy in truth. “Your word is truth.”

What, if you have the chance to make it, will be your farewell to your friends, family, co-ministers, whether you are leaving a place or this earth? What will be your final prayer? If you knew you would be dead at the end of this day, what final message and prayer would you leave? Pray it now.

Pray for us, Jesus, now and at the hour of our death. Help us to look on all that we have accomplished in your name and give thanks to your Spirit for the Spirit’s power alive in our lives.

Thursday, May 24, 2007
Acts 22: 30, 23:6-11; Psalm 16; John 17: 20-26

In one of the great trials of all time, Paul is clever. Dragged before the Sanhedrin in the presence of the Roman cohort’s commander, Paul sets the Sadducees who do not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and the Pharisees who do, against one another. The Pharisees are suddenly defending Paul’s teaching about the hope of resurrection. In prison afterwards, Paul is visited by the Lord who tells him, “Keep up your courage.” Jesus, in his prayer, is keeping up his courage, reminding his Father of their intimate union and praying that by seeing that his friends are one in God the world may know that God sent Jesus. “I made your name known to them…so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Imagine! The very love with which God loves Jesus is the love with which God floods us. Not, what would Jesus do? but “I in them.” Jesus is in us, loving with God’s own love. If God is for us, in us, surrounding us, who can do us harm? Rest in God’s protecting and abundant love.

Please give us the gift of courage, Jesus, as we prepare to receive again the fullness of your Spirit. Make us bold, full of zeal, full of love.

Friday, May 25, 2007
Acts 24: 27, 25:13-21; Psalm 103; John 21: 15-19

Weekday readings are not meant to have the theme that Sundays do. Yet, in Acts we hear of Paul spending two years in prison, just because Felix was a people pleaser. In John, Jesus warns Peter that when he is old another will lead him. In our active spirituality, in our workaholic culture, what a waste of Paul’s time. Not necessarily so. When we are old, feeble, diminished, imprisoned in our bodies, nothing is lost. Perhaps the sick and suffering do more to build the Body of Christ than all the action oriented missionaries.

Let your imagination travel around the world, searching out the sick, the imprisoned, the diminished, those whom society casts off as non-productive. Smile on each group in the hospital, the nursing home, the refugee camp, the prison, the homebound, the jobless, and love them.

You choose the weak to confound the strong. When we are weak we know that your Spirit is strong in us, and your power is made strong in our weakness. You must increase; help us want to decrease.

Saturday, May 26, 2007
Acts 28: 16-20, 30-31; Psalm 11; John 21: 20-25

From Mary’s “Be it done to me according to your word” to Acts’ conclusion today when the word of God reaches Rome, Luke has narrated the journey of the Word.
Paul, in house arrest in Rome, is able to receive guests and preach boldly. We also have the conclusion of John’s gospel, eyewitness testimony covering only some of all that Jesus did. The entrance antiphon sums up some of Jesus’ ministry: “The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me and sent me to bring good news to the poor and heal the broken-hearted.”

For what has the Spirit anointed you? What ways have you discovered to bring good news? How are you able to help heal the broken-hearted? Remember and pray for those near neighbors and far neighbors who need good news and the Comforter.

Come, Holy Spirit, and renew the face of the earth, gouged by war, deforestation, greed. Make us instruments of peace and renewal of the earth and its riches.

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Because we no longer as a church celebrate an Octave of Pentecost, this week we shall do so on this page. Beginning with Monday, May 28, I will quote the Alleluia verse for each day, and then take a part of the Sequence (probably also dropped in many parishes) for our contemplation each day.

Sunday, May 27, 2007
Acts 2:1-11; Psalm 104; Romans 8:8-17; John 14: 15-16, 23-26

Although on Pentecost we only hear Peter’s preaching, remember that 120, including women, were in that upper room and filled with boldness, new language, zeal to speak “about God’s deeds of power.” In John’s gospel we hear Jesus’ promise that the Spirit “will teach you everything and remind you of all that I have said to you.” All of Romans 8 deals with God’s love poured into our hearts, the Spirit who cries Abba (or whatever name you use) from deep in our hearts, uniting us constantly to God. “You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear,” Paul insists.

Ask the Spirit to remind you of what Jesus has said to you, whether through Scripture, through your imagination, through another person. You might want to make notes. Pray for all those who have subscribed to the “war on terror”. Pray for their peace and ask the Spirit to set them free from fear.

You alone can set us free, Holy Spirit. Free us from fear, from rage, from greed, from everything that weakens or destroys the love whom you are.

Monday, May 28, 2007

“Alleluia! Jesus Christ became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

Holy Spirit, Lord divine, come from heights of heaven and shine.
Come with blessed radiance bright!

Come, Father/Mother of the poor! Come, whose treasured gifts ensure,
Come, our heart’s unfailing light!

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

“Alleluia! Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kin-dom.”

You of Comforters the best, you our selves’ most welcome guest,
Sweet refreshment here below.

In our labor, rest most sweet; pleasant coolness in the heat;
Consolation in our woes.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

“Alleluia! The Son of Man came to serve.”

Light most blessed, shine with grace in our hearts’ most secret place.
Fill your faithful through and through.

Left without your presence here, Life itself would disappear.
Nothing thrives apart from you.

Thursday, May 31, 2007 - Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Zephaniah 3: 14-18; Isaiah 12: 2-6; Luke 1: 39-56

“The Lord, your God, is in your midst.” What Mary brought to Elizabeth, the child Jesus, we can bring to one another, the Risen Christ. As the Spirit overshadowed Mary, so the Spirit overshadows us and sends us to visit.

To whom shall you bring the Risen Christ today? Even if you are homebound, you can bring/send the Spirit to renew the face of the earth and every human heart. Pay attention today to how you pay attention when you “visit.” Ask Mary to help you reverence everyone with whom you speak.

Mary, you went with haste. Please slow us down in our fast-paced culture. Help us to attend to others, to listen, to draw them out, to decrease so that Christ in them might increase. Thank you.

Friday, June 1, 2007

“Alleluia! I chose you from the world to go and bear fruit that lasts, says the Lord.”

Heal our wounds, our strength renew; on our dryness pour your dew.
Wash the stains of guilt away.

Bend the stubborn heart and will, melt the frozen warm the chill,
Guide the steps that go astray.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

“Alleluia! Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, giving thanks to God through him.”

On the faithful who are true and profess their faith in you
In your seven-fold gift descend.

Give us virtue’s sure reward, give us your salvation, Lord.
Give us joys that never end.

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To underscore the celebratory nature of these post-Pentecost liturgies, we will continue to focus on the Alleluia verses Monday through Saturday. The first reading on those days follows the story of Tobit and is probably best read in one sitting. It is a moving story.

Sunday, June 3, 2007 Feast of the Most Holy Trinity
Proverbs 8: 22-31; Psalm 8; Romans 5: 1-5; John 16: 12-15

The Jews believed that there were seven “things of God” which pre-existed creation, such as the Torah, the Menorah, and the throne partner of God, Lady Wisdom of whom we hear in the first reading. Although sometimes this passage is applied to Mary, it actually was used by John for the prologue of his gospel. Because Jesus appeared in male form, however, Lady Wisdom (Hokmah in Hebrew) became the masculine Logos, Word of God, helping God to create and playing before God. We have been contemplating John’s Last Supper discourse since Easter week, so let us focus on Romans. “We have been justified through faith.” Finally Lutherans and Catholics signed an agreement to that Pauline statement only in 1999, hoping to heal what Martin Luther tried to teach Rome in 1517. Only through faith in Christ do we obtain grace, Paul insists. And what is grace? We know it is God’s life within us, but Paul nuances that: God’s life is God’s love, the Holy Spirit, poured into our hearts.

Justified literally means set right, but there is so much more God wants to give us: God’s own life in Christ, God’s own love, the Holy Spirit. What return can you make to our God for all that God wants pour into your heart? Breathe deeply and feel the love/life/Spirit of God flooding your every cell.

Glory be to our Creator, Father and Mother! Glory be to Jesus, our life and savior of the world! Glory be to the Holy Spirit, the life and love of God, living deep within us!

Monday, June 4, 2007
Tobit 1:3, 2:1-8; Psalm 112; Mark 12: 1-12

“Alleluia! Jesus Christ, you are the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead. You have loved us and freed us from our sins by your blood.” (Revelation 1:5)

How and to what has Jesus been a faithful witness in your life? What is your experience of being loved by Jesus? Rest in that memory and let it become real all over again. How have you been growing in freedom over the past years? Blood is not a sign of death in Jewish spirituality, but of life. How has the life of Jesus, then and now, set you free? What more do you want from this faithful one?

Thank you for your faithful witness, for your unconditional love, for our freedom in your Spirit. Thank you, and Alleluia!

Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Tobit 2: 9-14; Psalm 112; Mark 12: 13-17

“Alleluia! May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to God’s call.” (Ephesians 1:17-18)

Remember how on the way to Emmaus, Jesus called the disciples dull and slow of heart. When has your heart felt and been dull, slow, sluggish, and when has your heart been awake, alert, sensitive to the movements of the Spirit? Ask the Spirit to call these memories to mind. Reflect on God’s call to you. When, how, where, why? What hope is in your heart because of God’s call? What do you want?

Deepen our faith, our hope, our love, good and giving God. Let your Spirit teach us moment by moment today where to find the light in our own hearts and in the world.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Tobit 3: 1-11, 16-17; Psalm 25; Mark 12: 18-27

“Alleluia! I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord Jesus. Whoever believes in me will never die.” (John 11:25-26)

How have you known the resurrection in the ordinary joys and life-giving encounters of daily living? Ask the Spirit to help you remember and give thanks. What does it mean for you to believe in Jesus? Ask him to teach you.

Lord Jesus, we do believe, help our unbelief! Deepen our attachment to you and our commitment to your Body throughout our world. Thank you for resurrection moments!

Thursday, June 7, 2007
Tobit 6: 10-11, 7: 1, 9-17, 8: 4-9; Psalm 128;Mark 12: 28-34

“Alleluia! Our Savior Jesus Christ has destroyed death and brought light to life through the Gospel.”

With the people of Samaria, we cry: “Truly, you are the Savior of the world!” (John 4). THE mystery of faith is proclaimed: “By your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world!” Show Jesus all the parts of the world that need saving, freeing from the forces of death. Show Jesus anything in your life that is nudging you toward death, and if you can’t find anything, ask the Spirit to show you your sin. The Spirit will gently light up your blind spots.

“Joy to the world, the Savior comes!” Not only at Christmas does this weary world need rejoicing. Give us back the joy of our salvation, Holy Spirit. Thank you!

Friday, June 8, 2007
Tobit 11: 5-17; Psalm 146; Mark 12:35-37

“Alleluia! Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love that person and we will come to that person.” (John 14:23)

What word might Jesus mean? Do you ponder it in your heart like Mary? Do you put it into practice? “We” will come. Often we are reminded that Christ lives in us and through us, that the Spirit is poured into our hearts. But what about the Creator of every iota of creation? Living within you? Surrounding you with love and beauty and breathing creatively in and through your depths. Ponder THAT in your heart!

Infuse us, creative God, with your love, your joy, your beauty, your truth, your kindness, your mercy, your peace. And open the eyes of our world to your presence in every created particle.

Saturday, June 9, 2007
Tobit 12:1, 5-15,20; Tobit 13; Mark 12: 38-44

“Alleluia! Blessed are the poor in spirit. The kingdom of heaven is theirs.” (Matthew 5:3)

The above verse was probably chosen to prepare us for this piece of Mark’s gospel. First Jesus excoriates the religious leaders who “devour the houses of widows.” Then Jesus notices a poor widow who donates to the temple treasury “all that she has to live on.” We too give “out of our surplus.” Have you ever met anyone who gave away everything to some one more poor than they? Ask Jesus to discuss this kind of heroism with you, your fears, your desires; and his desires for you. What do you want? What does he want?

“Lord, be merciful to us who are sinners,” we who have so much more than we even need. Bless our hearts with generosity toward those who are needy.

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Sunday, June 10, 2007 Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ
Genesis 14: 18-20; Psalm 110; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; Luke 9: 11-17

Five loaves and two fish, 5, 000 people fed and twelve baskets left over. What does that say about God’s abundance and generosity? So much of that is captured in Psalm 81, a few lines of which are our entrance antiphon. In this psalm, God tells us we can put down our workbaskets (how appropriate for a Sunday). Then, if only we would open our mouths, how God wants to feed us, God hungers to feed us with the finest wheat and honey from the rock. We are the Body of Christ, the Spirit is the blood energizing the Body. And God longs to feed us, crying, “Oh, if only you would open your mouths!”

Today, try to pray not only with open hands but with an open mouth, turned up to receive all that God wants to lavish on you, all that God wants to feed you. This time don’t tell God what you want and need, but let God do the giving. After some time spent centering on God’s nourishing you, resting in God’s generosity, then think, remember, write what it is that God wanted to give you. Are there any surprises?

Thank you, creative God, for fashioning us into the Body of Christ and for fueling us with the Holy Spirit. Thank you for all your gifts, especially the gift of the Spirit.

Monday, June 11, 2007 Feast of Barnabas, apostle
Acts 11: 21-26, 13: 1-3; Psalm 98; Matthew 5: 1-12

Barnabas, we learn earlier in Acts, means “son of encouragement,” and in today’s reading we see him encouraging the young community at Antioch. Earlier he alone had welcomed Paul after Paul’s conversion, trusting him, when other Christians were suspicious. Barnabas encouraged Paul in this new Way. After being chosen by the Holy Spirit, Barnabas and Paul are sent together on mission. Paul calls himself an apostle, but Luke also names Barnabas an apostle, one who is sent.

We hear of monastic spirituality, lay spirituality, liturgical and/or biblical spirituality. Apostolic spirituality is one which characterizes all who have “met” the risen Christ and have been sent by his Spirit to the monastery, the world, the liturgy, scripture etc. How would you describe your spirituality? How do you find the Spirit sending you? Where is the Spirit sending you? How will you respond?

Holy Spirit, give us the gift of encouraging the newcomers to our faith, of welcoming the poor and the refugees coming to our country. Open our hearts and save us from our fears.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007
2 Corinthians 1:18-22; Psalm 119; Matthew 5:13-16

Yesterday we began a continuous reading of the Sermon on the Mount and today we begin Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, often called the sorrowful letter. Paul encourages us to let our yes means yes. Jesus is the great Yes to God, the Amen that gives God glory. God has sealed us with the Spirit, Paul assures us. In his sermon Jesus emphasizes too our mission to be light and salt for the world.

When did you say “yes” yesterday, and to what? to whom? How were you salt, how were you light? Ask the Spirit to remind you, and to seal you even more deeply as God’s own.

Yes, we say, Yes! Yes to you, our God. Yes to all whom/that Christ sends us to. Yes to all the Spirit has fashioned in us, and is transforming in us day by day. Yes!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007
2 Corinthians 3: 4-11; Psalm 99; Matthew 5: 17-19

Both Paul and Jesus speak of letters of the Law. When the Torah was given to Moses, Paul teaches, the glory on his face was such that he had to cover the radiance. How much more the radiance of the Spirit? Jesus does not abolish that first Law given on Sinai, but comes to make it full. Full of the Spirit, of life itself. Nothing can separate us from the Spirit, so that even those who teach others to break the least commandment will be included in the kin-dom, Jesus promises.

Today is the feast of Anthony of Padua, one of the great teachers and preachers of the early middle ages. Let us pray today for all our former teachers and all those whose preaching touched our hearts. Let us pray for those teaching and preaching now, that the radiance of the Spirit may attract many to Christ.

Alleluia! Teach us your ways, O God. Guide us in your truth. Your Spirit is truth. Open us to the teaching of the Spirit in our hearts today.

Thursday, June 14, 2007
2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6; Psalm 85; Matthew 5: 20-26

Many rich themes in today’s readings, perhaps best summed up in a verse from the psalm: “kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss.” When Jesus speaks of “righteousness” in today’s gospel, the word also means justice. Justice is built on a foundation of right relationship which makes our “offering at the altar” acceptable.
Paul tells us this reconciliation is possible because of the Spirit who is the Lord, leading us from glory to glory, is transforming us in freedom into the very image of Christ who is the image of God. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

Justice, freedom are made mockeries in the U.S. Only the Spirit can gift us with freedom, not armies, not political victories. Pray for all those who think they please God with their worship but are anything but reconciled with their opponents. Pray for yourself, that in your own life reconciliation, truth and justice may keep on setting you free, keep on fashioning into the very person of Christ.

We gaze on your glory, Son of Justice, Prince of Peace, and we thank you that your Spirit is transforming us too from glory to glory. Let justice and peace kiss in our day, we pray.

Friday, June 15, 2007 Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Ezekiel 34: 11-16; Psalm 23; Romans 5: 5-11; Luke 15: 3-7

The theme today is God’s shepherding which takes flesh in the merciful love of Jesus for the least and the lost, or as Paul puts it, “while we were still helpless.” Paul names the Spirit the “love of God poured into our hearts.” The other readings describe God’s heart. In the Ezekiel reading we learn that a good shepherd tends according to the needs of each one. If we are lost, we will be looked for; straying, we will be brought back; injured, we will be bandaged; sick, we will be healed. But the strong and the healthy? Here translations differ mightily. The New American (Catholic) Bible says that the strong and healthy God will destroy; the Revised Standard says, God will watch over them; the New English Bible (Anglican) says God will set them out to play. The Hebrew text is missing. What is our criterion for filling in the blank? Jesus. Always Jesus. “To see me, Philip, is to see the Father” (John 14: 9). How does Jesus treat the strong and healthy: Mary, Martha and Lazarus of Bethany, his disciples, his friends? “I have come that you might have life in abundance!” (John 10) so why would he ever destroy those who accept his abundant life?

How are you feeling right now? What is happening in your life? Whatever way you feel, God tends to you personally, uniquely, with tenderness. “Only goodness and kindness follow me.” Draw deeply from the springs of God’s great kindness, draw deeply from the heart of Jesus, and open to the love of God being poured into you right now.

You lead us beside restful waters and refresh us. Thank you, loving God. We beg you to refresh all those who despair of comfort and rest, in war torn areas, in desert refugee camps, even in their own homes.

Saturday, June 16, 2007 Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Psalm 103; Luke 2: 41-51

Although we are continuing with 2 Corinthians, how providentially today’s passage fits the heart of Mary. Like Paul, she too is an ambassador of reconciliation. Her heart too is full of the “caritas Christi” which urges Paul. Her heart treasures each of her experiences, and she reflects on them. The gospel, instead of promising the sword of sorrow that would pierce her heart, portrays a piece of that sword. She is desperate to find Jesus, as anxious as any mother who “loses” a child. Her heart shares our pain, and she offers us com-passion.

Pray today for your own mother and all the sorrow she bore. Pray for all parents who lose their children to war, to drugs and alcohol, to bitter divisions. Ask Mary to be an ambassador of reconciliation for all parents and children who are alienated.

Give us a great share, we pray you, Jesus, of your love to impel us, to urge us in continuing your mission of reconciliation, welcoming all to your open and generous heart.

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Sunday, June 17, 2007 Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
2 Samuel 12:7-10, 13; Psalm 32; Galatians 2: 16,19-21; Luke 7:36-8:3

Ordinary time has returned with a set of extraordinary readings! Paul proclaims:
“a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.” That is salvation, the setting free. Then comes the making holy: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” The gospel story portrays both the freedom and the holiness of a woman who, like David in the first reading, repents. An unnamed woman washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and dries them with her hair. What freedom both she and Jesus demonstrate, eyes only for each other, not impression managing! Her holiness is proclaimed by Jesus: “she has shown great love.” Then Luke does name some women who travel with and provide for Jesus in his mission. How simple holiness is: clinging to Jesus, traveling with him, providing for the least in his Body. We too can say: Christ lives in me.

“Through faith in Jesus…” Not intellectual assent to truths about him, but clinging to him, trusting his grace, committing to his Body. Faith means union and this is God’s great gift to us. He must increase, we must decrease. Pray for that grace, to know that it is no longer you who live but Christ is living and loving in you, through you. How will you respond?

Jesus, help us to touch you as really as this woman at your feet. Let us touch you in prayer, and in “washing the feet” of those we meet today by our loving attention and service.

Monday, June 18, 2007
2 Corinthians 6:1-10; Psalm 98; Matthew 5: 38-42

How does one know if the message and messenger are of God? Paul says that our willingness to suffer for the gospel is proof, and he has suffered! Mother Theresa Gerhardinger, the foundress of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, agrees, writing: “The works of God go forward slowly and painfully, but their roots are all the sturdier and their flowering all the lovelier.” All Paul’s physical sufferings may not add up to the kind of suffering Jesus in his sermon on the mount suggests: Offer no resistance to one who is evil.

When have you refused retaliation, perhaps even did not defend your self or your name because like Jesus, you decided to be “meek and humble of heart?” When has God’s work in you moved slowly and painfully? And then what happened?

God, please grant us all the gifts Paul received through his suffering: patience, kindness in the Holy Spirit, authentic love, truthful speech. Thank you!

Tuesday, June 19, 2007
2 Corinthians 8: 1-9; Psalm 146; Matthew 5: 43-48

Not only is retaliation forbidden in Jesus’ sermon, but we are to pray for those who persecute us. In his letter, Paul praises the Macedonians to the Corinthian community because although they were severely afflicted and desperately poor they were generous and joyful in contributing to the famine victims in Jerusalem for whom Paul is collecting. Paul speaks of Jesus’ “gracious act”: “for your sake he became poor although he was rich, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”

Ask for the grace of giving to those less fortunate with both joy and generosity. Consider all that Jesus surrendered in “becoming poor,” even stripped of his garments, his friends, so that we might become rich, full of God’s own self.

You emptied yourself to become our servant, Lord Jesus. Thank you. Help us be a little less self-absorbed today, to empty ourselves a bit more today. Thank you.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007
2 Corinthians 9: 6-11; Psalm 112; Mathew 6: 1-6, 16-18

Paul is still urging generous contributions for the community suffering famine in Jerusalem. Our priests are not the only ones who talk about money! With various maxims, Paul assures them that God will not be outdone in generosity. He promises that “God is able to make every grace abundant for you.”

Is that true for you? How is God making every grace abundant for you? What do you want? As an adult, have you ever begged? For what? What captures your mind and heart so deeply that you are willing to beg? For the poor? On their behalf?

Jesus, you know how hard so many of us find it to receive, let alone to beg. Give us the humility to ask you and others for what we need, for the poor, for an abundance.

Thursday, June 21, 2007
2 Corinthians 11: 1-11; Psalm 111; Matthew 6: 7-15

Paul is hurt often by the Corinthian community and doesn’t hesitate to tell them so. He does not want to be a burden on them. As he works to preach the gospel, the psalmist proclaims that God works for justice and truth. Jesus points out the “works” of praying and forgiving, and teaches us the Lord’s prayer.

In your experience of God, what do you know that God works for? What is God’s passionate desire? Pray the Our Father slowly, breathing deeply after each phrase, asking that its hope for God’s glory, God’s will, daily bread, forgiveness and deliverance from evil might sink deeply into you. Pray for truth and justice in our government, culture and church.

Thank you for your many works, our God. Thank you that we are your work of art, fashioned in the image of Jesus.

Friday, June 22, 2007
2 Corinthians 11: 18, 21-30; Psalm 34; Matthew 6: 19-23

Paul mocks those (Jewish Christians who badger him) who boast of their good works by listing all his sufferings. They boast of their credentials, and so he does too.
But, he can add “far more imprisonments, far worse beatings.” Beaten with lashes and rods, stoned and shipwrecked, discovering dangers not only from the elements but from Gentiles and Jews alike, all he can boast of is his weakness. As the psalmist urges, Paul does: he looks to God so that his face may not be shamed but radiant with joy. And as Jesus urges, Paul does: he stores up treasure in heaven, where his heart is.

Where is your heart today? Where do you find joy? What is your experience of and attitude toward personal weakness? Ask the Spirit to teach you.

We are weak, Jesus, so let your Spirit be strong in us, the power and energy we need today to embody you, to let you love through us today. Thank you.

Saturday, June 23, 2007
2 Corinthians 12:1-10; Psalm 34; Matthew 6: 24-34

Both Jesus and Paul describe poverty of spirit today. Jesus does so by pointing to birds and lilies, reminding us that God cares for our physical needs and encouraging us not to worry. Paul continues to proclaim, not his ineffable religious experiences, but his weakness. When he complains to God, God responds: “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” God speaks to weakness and Paul responds that when he is weak the power of Christ in him is strong. That is indeed enough.

How does God speak to you? What have you heard God say directly to you? If you never have had that kind of ordinary religious experience, ask for it now. Ask, What do you want me to hear today? and be quiet. See what bubbles up from your depths where the Spirit dwells.

We cast all our cares on you, our God. Free us from worry about physical needs and spiritual progress or lack of it. You are our only savior. Thank you for setting us free.

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Sunday, June 24, 2007 - Nativity of John the Baptist
Isaiah 49:1-6; Psalm 139; Acts 13: 22-26; Luke 1: 57-66, 80

How important John is in our tradition, that his birthday supplants a Sunday. Our readings tell us why John is celebrated. First, he is a prophet, a polished arrow, God’s servant, one who gathers the people and through whom God shows glory. He was knit in his mother’s womb, “wonderfully made,” announces the psalm. Paul inserts John’s message into the story of Jesus: “John would say…Behold one is coming after me; I am not worthy to unfasten the sandals of his feet.” The gospel tells of his birth and circumcision, and the unusual name given him by the angel, John. John means “Yahweh is gracious.”

John knew his mission in life. What is your personal mission? To what are you called? With John, repeat frequently throughout the day: “He must increase, I must decrease” (John 3:30). And how will that happen, do you suppose? Do you want? Are you content to boast of your weakness?

Give us the wisdom, humility and courage, Jesus, to get out of your way as you grow in us. Free us from self-absorption and keep us aware of what we are: earthen vessels, your earthen vessels.

Monday, June 25, 2007
Genesis 12: 1-9; Psalm 33; Matthew 7: 1-5

We begin a continuous reading of Abraham’s story today, and by the end of the week we will have finished Jesus’ sermon on the mount. The Alleluia verse from Hebrews clearly refers to Jesus’ admonition not to judge others. Because we have a beam in our own eye, how dare we try to remove the splinter from another’s eye? We must of course judge right from wrong and choose accordingly, and Hebrews gives us a method: “The Word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” We can let the Word who is Jesus help us sift through our own deepest motivations, discern the beams that blind us, and refuse to judge the motives of others. The SSND rule of life urges us “to presume the good will of others.” We dare not judge why people do what they do. Jesus is adamant about this way of loving: “For as you judge, so will you be judged.” Paul elaborates by reminding us that we are to bear one another’s burdens (beams or splinters) and so fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2).

How, when, where do you bear another’s burdens? Pray for the grace to love well, to presume the good will of others, to be merciful as your God is merciful, “slow to anger and full of compassion.”

Come, Holy Spirit! Come Word of God, and cleanse our hearts of judgment and contempt. Gift us please with discernment that we may know our own motivations.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Genesis 13: 2, 5-18; Psalm 15; Matthew 7: 6, 12-14

The God who speaks to Abraham, giving him an abundance of acreage and descendants as well, and Jesus who warns against “the gate wide and the way broad that leads to destruction” seem to be at odds. Jesus continues: “How narrow the gate and how constricted the road that leads to life. Those who find it are few.”

What is your experience of Jesus? We cannot cling to one saying, just a part of one sermon. As you watch Jesus in action in the four gospels and in your own life, how is he? Constricting or freeing? Loving with abundance or narrowly? Ask him how you can be among those who find eternal life right now, today. Listen.

You have come that we might have life, life in abundance, Jesus. Help us to trust your great heart, your generous loving, and to throw ourselves on your faithful mercy!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18; Psalm 105; Matthew 7:15-20

Jesus speaks about fruits, warning against rotten trees: “by their fruits you will know them.” We must judge actions, products, fruits. We may not judge anyone’s motivation. More importantly, we must attend to the fruit that we are bearing. Today’s Alleluia verse from John promises that if we abide in Jesus we will bear much fruit. Paul lists some of the fruits of the Spirit that simply grow if we are rooted in Christ: love, joy, peace, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, self control (Gal 5:22). These are not virtues to practice but gifts of the Spirit that flourish when Christ is the ground of our being.

Ask the Spirit to remind you of a major decision you made in the last few months. What fruit is that decision bearing? Are you more loving, joyful, peaceful, kind, etc. What decisions will you make today, small ones perhaps? Prepare your day. Before you decide, often between two goods, which will bear fruit, which lead to more gentleness, faithfulness, peace, etc?

We choose today to abide in you, Jesus, to live in your love, joy, peace and kindness. Make us fruitful for the sake of your little ones, the least, the poor. Thank you!

Thursday, June 28, 2007
Genesis 16: 1-12, 15-16; Psalm 106; Matthew 7:21-29

Hagar, Sarai’s slave woman, becomes pregnant by Abram, and Sarai’s jealousy leads her to abuse of the other woman. Here is an ancient explanation of the hatred between Arabs, children of Ishmael, and Jews, children of Isaac. The Camp David Accords may be the greatest miracle the world has seen for 5,000 years, reconciling Egypt and Israel. Jesus warns that not everyone who cries, “Lord, Lord” will enter the kin-dom, but only those who do the will of God. The will of God is shalom: “My plans for you are plans of peace, not disaster” (Jeremiah 29:11). The sermon on the mount ends with the people acknowledging that Jesus teaches with authority.

How do you “do” shalom in your daily life? St. Irenaeus whose feast we celebrate says we do the will of God and give God glory when we are fully human and fully alive. What choices will you make today to be more human, more fully alive?
Pray for peace between Arabs and Jews, among all who live in the Middle East.

Give us the wisdom to trust your will, good God. Help us believe that you do not will disaster and suffering, but call all to reconciliation and peace. Help us do your will and give you glory.

Friday, June 29, 2007 - Feast of Peter and Paul, apostles
Acts 12: 1-11; Psalm 34; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18; Matthew 16: 13-19

Peter is led out of prison by an angel, Paul has finished his race. The psalmist invites all to glorify the Lord together, eyes fixed on Jesus so that our faces may be radiant with joy. Then in the gospel, Jesus asks all of us who are also apostles: Who do YOU say that I am? Peter responded, Matthew tells us: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

From what you know of Paul, how would he have responded to that question? And you, how will you profess your faith? What words will you use to describe who Jesus is for you? for your church? for the world? When you have finished pondering that in your heart, ask him: Jesus, who do you say that I am? Be still. Listen. Let everything bubble up from deep inside you without censoring.

We look to you, Jesus, so that our faces may be radiant with joy, attractive signs of your presence in us and in the world. Help us claim our apostleship, as you send us today to______.

Saturday, June 30, 2007
Genesis 18:1-15; Luke 1:46-55; Matthew 8: 5-17

Commentators note how Abraham “entertained angels” offering three visitors a most generous hospitality. They in turn promise that Sarah will have a son. “Because she was afraid,” Sarah denied that she had laughed at the idea of bearing a child in her old age. Llinking Sarah with Elizabeth who also conceived in old age leads to a response of the Magnificat. In the gospel Jesus heals the servant of a centurion, Peter’s mother in law, and all the sick and demon-possessed brought to him. Jesus is especially amazed at the faith of a pagan soldier who recognizes Jesus’ authority.

When do you find yourself lying? What motivates a lie? Is it like Sarah—fear?
Fear of authority? Faith can drive out fear. Clinging to Jesus, attachment to him can give us courage. Truth can set free. Pray for these graces for yourself, and for those in public and church office. Pray for a restoration of true authority.

Put down the mighty from their thrones, God, and raise up the lowly, the humble, those who know their deep dependence only on you. Do justice in our land and fill the hungry with good things.

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