ADVENT Saturday of Week 1
Feast of Saint Francis Xavier
Entrance
Antiphon Psalm 17
I will praise you, Lord, among the nations;
I will tell of your name to my kin.
Reflecting on St. Francis Xavier,
and those lines from Psalm 17, I
wonder...
This passing-on business
...my version of 'telling your name'
why is it so unpredictable
why doesn't it look the way I had
envisioned it
why is it so darn un-satisfying?
And God answers:
You are always getting your name and my
name mixed up!
St. Francis Xavier
after meeting Ignatius Loyola,
studied, was ordained and was sent to
India.
He spent the rest of his life in the
East, preaching the Gospel.
He made many converts
and fought against the exploitation of
the native population
by the Europeans.
He died in 1552 of 'fever and
exhaustion'!
(from my little universalis app)
I am going to presume that for Francis
Xavier
That was the good kind of exhaustion
Exhaustion at having been used as a
vehicle
for ‘telling your name’
God’s name is love
Love is exhausting
The good kind
And God says to Cindy:
Now go and exhaust yourself, Cindy
You aren’t every ingredient
(nor are you many, or some)
Because thinking you are
will lead to the very bad kind of
exhaustion.
In
this mission of ‘passing-on’
You have a part…your part
One no one else can fill
And…oh yeah…please remember whose name
you are telling;)
