Called By Name

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existence, God, Hearts on Fire, Joseph Tetlow SJ, Lord, name, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It took me a long time to get comfortable with my name. My mother, I have heard, was looking for names that didn’t have the likelihood of devolving into nicknames. (That was a lost cause!) I think she was also interested in finding names that were uncommon, if not really unique. (The majority of Catholic girls of my age had a Mary or Marie attached somehow.) The one thing that comforted me about my name (although I was often asked where Superman was hiding) was that I was the only Lois in my class from kindergarten through high school.

Today I came across a prayer by Joseph Tetlow, SJ that focused more on who we are in the eyes of God and how our name becomes us as we grow into that identity. Knowing that I am unique in all the world (as we all are) because of God’s call, I pray:

Oh, Lord my God, you called me from the sleep of nothingness merely because in your tremendous love you want to make good and beautiful beings. You have called me by my name in my mother’s womb. You have given me breath and light and movement and walked with me every moment of my existence. I am amazed, Lord God of the universe, that you attend to me and, more, cherish me. Create in me the faithfulness that moves you and I will trust you and yearn for you all my days. Amen. (Hearts on Fire, p.14)

Choice Words

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Ancient Songs Sung Anew, grow still, Lord, Lynn Bauman, master, psalm 37, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, wait for the Lord

The responsorial Psalm in the lectionary for today (PS 37) is a long one but of the few verses chosen for the liturgy, I was drawn to the first which said, Commit to the Lord your way; trust in him and he will act. I didn’t want to leave it there so I turned to my favorite translation and read the whole Psalm of 41 verses. The sentiments were the same and there are many beautiful encouragements for those of us who wish for the more poetic urging. Here are my favorite lines.

Make God, as Lord and Master, your delight and the desires of your heart God will fulfill. Give up your life to God and for the good of all, commit to the One who acts for you…Grow still, be quiet, and wait patiently within, and in that silence put your trust in God. (4-7, Ancient Songs Sung Anew – Lynn Bauman)

Not only does that confirm the value to myself that relationship with God will bring but includes as well “the good of all,” to which we are surely called. May your day be blessed in the peace and blessing of these thoughts.

Personification

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justice, Lord, Lynn Bauman, mercy, psalm98, the general dance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

In the traditional translations of Psalm 98 we read today that “the Lord comes to rule the world with justice.” That could make us shiver and evoke images of what may become a category 3 or 4 hurricane in Florida and other places to our south this weekend. It seems that we – some of us at least – usually tend toward the negative interpretation of God’s entry into the world. The word “wrath” comes to mind in this situation. Even for some who define God as Love, there’s almost a knee-jerk reaction at moments like that. It seems strange, does it not?

Today, not only did I read on at the usccb.org website to find: “Let the rivers clap their hands and the mountains shout with them for joy before the Lord, for he comes to rule the earth.” How can we suppress a smile at those images? I found (not surprisingly) an even more picturesque version in Lynn Bauman’s modern translation that is similar up to verse 9 where hills and valleys are clapping and and waves are dancing and people singing, but goes on to conclude what should assuage all our fears of reprisal for our failings. Listen:

Let hills and valleys join in song to offer hospitality to the Holy One, who comes to right our every wrong. This God will weigh the worth of everything that was, and is, and ever shall be so mercy can be known in full, and justice here be balanced with compassion. (Ancient Songs Sung Anew, (p. 247)

That all sounds good to me, an invitation maybe to go out and join in what Thomas Merton calls “the general dance!”

Kickstart

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fortress, kickstart, Lord, praise, prayer, refuge, rock, salvation, stength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Some mornings there is no reason for the joy or distress we feel upon waking up to the day. Nothing on the calendar is more than a mild challenge, no ache is greater than the normal twinge of aging, no residuals of a delightful or disturbing dream can be named. Some of us do, however, act as the weather directs: sunny or gray depending…

It’s good to have a few “fall-back” kickstarts just in case we need something to get going. Prayer helps, and certain quick reminders from the psalms do just fine most days. Today provides one such example. I recommend saying it aloud and then keeping it written in a convenient place for any gloomy day.

I love you, O Lord, my strength, O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer. My God, my rock of refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold! Praised be the Lord, I exclaim, and I am safe from my enemies.

Good Idea?

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appearance, heart, judge, Lord, Samuel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today in the first Book of Samuel, we read:
“Do not judge from appearance or lofty stature. Not as humans see does God see, because humans see the appearance while the Lord looks into the heart.”

Amen to that!

The Call to Presence

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dawn, gentlest, innocence, Lord, love, present, psalm, The Sign of Jonas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

I sit this morning in the quiet moment where nothing stirs except the very energetic birds and where the light came as quickly just now as if someone had flipped a switch to begin the day. Everything is still outside while in my head the thoughts and plans that woke me at 4:30 begin to dissipate so I can notice and embrace the silence…

Now even the birds are quieting down, to listen perhaps to Thomas Merton’s psalm for the dawn. I join them and sink into Merton’s call to presence.

The Lord God is present where the new day shines in the moisture on the young grasses. The Lord God is present where the small wildflowers are known to Him alone. The Lord God passes suddenly, in the wind, at the moment when night ebbs into the ground. He Who is infinitely great has given to His children a share in His own innocence. His alone is the gentlest of loves: whose pure flame respects all things… (The Sign of Jonas, p. 346)

 

 

 

 

 

Imagining God

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Acts of the Apostles, being, Christianity, creation, diversity, divine being, faith, God, humanity, Lord, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s lectionary recounting of Paul’s speech to the people of Athens is, for me, the most meaningful text in the Bible book of The Acts of the Apostles. There are many stirring speeches and miraculous deeds in this important record of early Christianity but this inspired oration holds a truth that the world would be wise to consider now. If I were trying to express the deepest truth of a faith worthy of all humanity (to everyone else who professes to believe in a divine being, a “first cause,” not tied to a religion but larger than that, not gender specific, although necessarily personified at times as he, she, or it but also beyond that), I believe I could find no better expression than these words of Paul.

Consider it, read it aloud (replacing the masculine pronoun “he” if it serves you better), and see if you can imagine a world coming together around such a declaration. It might take some letting go of “lesser gods” – or not, if they are compatible with this characterization of a supreme being. It might take some welcome of primitive cultures. We might come to appreciate the diversity of ways to name God, or G-d. Who knows what might happen if we allow ourselves the total freedom to “let go and let God” as we consider the possible unity resulting from consideration of Paul’s inspired text?

The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather, it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything. He made from one the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions, so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us. For ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’ (ACTS 17)

 

 

 

 

 

Let All The Earth Cry Glory!

Tags

Christ, divine influence, existence, God, Lord, power, radical transformation, Teilhard de Chardin, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unity, universe

After a weekend of observing radical transformations of vast fields into vibrant green carpets and watching the waning sun splash patterns of color like the best abstract artists – not to mention the truest blue of the sky, I turn to Teilhard de Chardin for a fitting prayer of gratitude this morning. He does not disappoint.

Glorious Lord Christ:
the divine influence secretly diffused and active in the depths of matter,
and the dazzling centre
where all the innumerable fibres of the manifold meet;
power as implacable as the world and as warm as life;
you whose forehead is of the whiteness of snow,
whose eyes are of fire,
and whose feet are brighter than molten gold;
you whose hands imprison the stars;
you who are the first and the last,
the living and the dead and the risen again;
you who gather into your exuberant unity
every mode of existence;
it is you to whom my being cries out
with a desire as vast as the universe:
“In truth you are my Lord and my God!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Important Question

Tags

good, Lord, thanks, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today, a question, the refrain from the lectionary psalm response. Repeated three times, it reminds me of the necessity of gratitude and it is enough.

How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good he has done for me? (PS 116:12)

 

 

 

 

 

Being Light

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darkness, daylight, Ephesians, God, John, light, light of the world, Lord, Scriptures, shining within, St. Paul, sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transformation

On this day we begin the season of “daylight saving” by having decided at some moment in the past to say that 7:00AM is now 8:00AM in order that darkness will not descend upon us so soon tonight. It seems ironic that the Scriptures for today include (if reading the alternate “Year A’ texts) a strong directive from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as well as a declaration before the gospel from John – both on the subject of light.

John declares, “I am the light of the world, says the Lord; whoever follows me will have the light of life.” (JN 8:12) Having the light of God shining within us is something to be desired and worked toward in our daily life. It’s as if God is promising to be a beacon – like a flashlight for us – which, if we only flip the switch to “ON,” will illuminate our path.

Paul goes even further in his command to the Ephesians and to us that we actually must become the light. No prepositional phrases for Paul about living in the light; rather, Paul says, “You were once darkness but now you are light in the Lord.” (EPH 5:8) For Paul, it seems that following the light of God is not enough. We, ourselves, must be transformed into that light. That’s an astounding statement if we really consider the depth of its meaning. Thomas Merton had a vision of what that might be like which he described as [people] all walking around shining like the sun.

Are we ready and willing to take the responsibility of lighting the way, being that beacon in concert with God?