Tags
Assisi, Christ, Church of San Damiano, compassionate love, God, holiness, imitation, intention, love, motivation, prayer, simple life, St. Clare, St. Francis of Assisi, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vessels
Some years ago I had the privilege of visiting the town of Assisi in Italy. The visit was brief and the focus was, as one might think, the holy places associated with St. Francis. It was an extraordinary six hours, and I often long to return for a longer visit. One of my most vivid memories, however, was not of the places and stories of Francis alone – although those remain as well – but of walking down the path to the Church of San Damiano. Somehow, the olive trees that lined the path seemed to shimmer in the sunlight as if they were saying to me, “Pay attention, for this place you are approaching is extraordinarily holy.” San Damiano became the home of St. Clare and her followers in 1212 and she never left but died there on August 11, 1253. The intense holiness of the saint and her Sisters, who lived a poor and very simple life of prayer, can be felt in the walls of the refectory, in the oratory where they prayed and the dormitory where a cross marks the spot of Clare’s death. What, one wonders, creates such a living vibration in a place where life was so “daily?” Intention and motivation, I suspect. A famous quote of St. Clare gives a hint of an answer.
We become what we love, she says, and what we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God’s compassionate love for others.
Three impressions opened before me a moment ago that were like steps to a conclusion. Here was the order: 1. As I turned on my computer I thought: “July first. New month, new incentive.” 2. My eye fell on the title of a book that someone had recently given me for our library. It’s called A Way Without Words and is subtitled A Guide for Spiritually Emerging Adults. 3. I read the prayer and affirmation for July first in Alan Cohen’s book, A Deep Breath of Life. Taken together those two said, “Help me remember my purpose and live the highest life possible. I honor my purpose of divine expression. I am here to love, learn and serve. 
In the Genesis story of disobedience in chapter 3 (1-8), when both Adam and Eve had “eaten of the fruit,” the text tells us, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened,” and they saw the truth of what they had done. In the gospel of Mark (7:31-37) there is a story of the healing by Jesus of a man in the district of Decapolis. “Ephphatha,” he said, touching his ears and tongue and “immediately the man’s ears were opened and his speech impediment was removed.”
This morning my reading of the day’s lectionary texts catapulted me back over thirty years into a reverie of liturgical music by the prolific St. Louis Jesuits. These amazing singer/songwriters brought the Scriptures alive with music that is still standard in Catholic churches and other Christian denominations to this day. (Check out YouTube for samples!) Today it was the gospel acclamation that started it all. Seek the Lord while he may be found! declared Isaiah 55:6. Call to him while he is still near! It sounded so urgent – so NOW! (although I must confess to adding the exclamation points myself.) I went then to YouTube to hear again the almost staccato delivery of those words that constitute the entire refrain of the song, building to the news of the three verses that: 1) Today is the day…to turn to the Lord, 2) As high as the sky…are the ways of the Lord, and 3) His words, his ways…lead us to life. Maybe you have to hear it to understand my enthusiasm (so feel free to Google “Seek the Lord” or go to 
It has become my practice every morning to consider each day a clean slate for my living. Of course there are on-going concerns or projects and I have my lists of “unfinished business” from the previous day (or week or month…) but my intention is to look at everything from the perspective of this day and leave yesterday to the history books. Even more important does that intention become on Sundays for two reasons. It is, after all, the first day of the week, the beginning of a new cycle of events. Additionally it is for Christians the Lord’s Day, the day of Resurrection, thereby giving impetus to thoughts of God and my own sense of hope for myself and the world.
Today’s Scripture readings, if reflected upon, seem to fit in our present world of philosophical and psychological advisors who speak about the interaction and necessary integration of body, mind and spirit. The psalmist sets the stage by declaring: I bless the Lord who counsels me; even in the night my heart exhorts me…Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices, my body, too, abides in confidence…(Ps. 16) Paul picks up the theme saying, “You were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.” (GAL 5:13-18)
