Monday, June 26, 2017

By the Gallon

Monday of Week 12 in Ordinary Time
Matthew 7:1-5


This is a familiar passage with a familiar question:
Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the beam in you own eye?  You hypocrite!

So focused on the splinter and beam I hadn’t paid much attention to the previous bit “the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”

In my preaching classes the perennial challenge is to go deeper. Dig into the mystery and find a truth that has real power to liberate and bring life.  Digging only a teaspoon deep will yield only a teaspoon of life and liberation.

I wonder if I give myself an out but doling out love, attention, and compassion by the teaspoon…and making up for the lack of depth by sheer frequency?  If I graduate to the tablespoon, the cup, the pint, quart or gallon will it ask of me something too intimate, too vulnerable?  And then if I do, the gospel says, I will get it back in return!  At first that sounds like a real bonus…but do I want it? 

I figure that is the point.  It is my life’s task to desire it.  But along this road I have to drop a few other desires…a tablespoon here, a cup there…making room. 

God is love and love is goodness giving itself away. 
Edith Stein aka St. Teresia Benedicta of the Cross


And I suppose by the gallon wouldn't be a bad measure!

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Feeling an Octave

Tuesday of the 9th Week of Ordinary Time
Mark 12:13-17
Or day 3 of the Octave of Pentecost
(which we don’t celebrate anymore
but I am feeling it anyway;)


Those crafty Herodians and Pharisees!
There is some snarkiness at play.
I have taken that attitude…
leading with some false flattery
Thinking myself wise and cunning

And I have also had that done to me
False flattery thrown my way
And I bite!!!

Am I turning red?

Gaining that same calm confidence and knowing
That allows Jesus to see through to the importance of what is at stake
That is a gift of the Holy Spirit
Listening…but not with the ego
Listening to the words and the heart
This is where those Holy Spirit gifts come in handy:
Wisdom, understanding, counsel…

I need an Octave of attention on the Holy Spirit
An Octave is good

And again

Come, Holy Spirit;)

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Come Holy Spirit

The Feast of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104
1 Corinthians 12:3b-7, 12-13
The Sequence
John 20:19-23



COME
Come, come closer, be near to me
Come…I must ask out loud
because I don’t possess you
At times I may think I do
But sure enough that is a sure sign that it is NOT you
If we are to be close
It will be the other way around
You will possess me

HOLY SPIRIT
Paraclete
Lawyer for the defense
Advocate
Guide
Consoler
Or to steal the words of the Pentecost Sequence:
Greatest comforter,
sweet guest of the soul,
sweet consolation.
In labour, rest,
in heat, temperance,
in tears, solace.

FILL
That is what strong driving winds do
They fill
Push through to all the nooks and crannies
I’ve been working at clearing the space
Come…fill it all up

THE HEARTS
Bend the stubborn heart and will
The heart of the matter
That is where acts of the will begin
Heal
Strengthen
Soften
Wash
Melt what is frozen
Warm what is chilled
Guide what wanders aimlessly

OF YOUR FAITHFUL
May I manifest the fruits
Love
Joy
Patience
Kindness
Generosity
Faithfulness
Gentleness
Self-Control
And in my questioning
May I discern fruitfulness
With these as my barometer
Does that interest
make me a more generous person?
Does speaking that way
add to the Gentleness of the world around me?
Does that habit
exhibit self-control such that life is ordered to love?

Always harder than it sounds…


Come Holy Spirit,
fill the hearts of your faithful
and kindle in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.
And You shall renew the face of the earth