Hope-filled Holiday

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anxious, Elizabeth, endure, Mary, Memorial Day, pandemic, persevere, re-connect, rejoice, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Zephaniah

Zephaniah, the ninth of the twelve minor prophets, is a rarely quoted text in the daily lectionary. Thus, it is a memorable moment when we read a message like the joyful one that is the first reading for today. Listen:

Shout for joy, O daughter Zion! Sing joyfully, O Israel! Be glad and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem…Fear not, O Zion, be not discouraged! The Lord, your God, is in your midst. He will rejoice with you with gladness and renew you in his love. He will sing joyfully because of you…

It was significant today for me to read such an account of emotional experiences as I had just spent a heartfelt half-hour reading about families and other groups that have been spending this weekend re-connecting with loved ones. All across our country people are gathering in celebration of the incipient end of the pandemic. One after another, families and friends tell of the joy they have experienced upon spending time with one another. The stories are full of hugs, kisses, laughter and new stories from over the past year when such behaviors were not allowed. Love was the over-arching theme and the possibility of actually touching one another seemed almost miraculous. All of it gave credence to the second reading for this day from Paul’s letter to the Romans. We would do well to take his words to heart:

Brothers and sisters: Let love be sincere; hate what is evil, hold on to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; anticipate one another in showing honor. Rejoice in hope, endure in affliction, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the holy ones, exercise hospitality…

Above and beyond all that, there was the consummate example of love and hospitality—my favorite in the entire gospel (at least today…) where Mary “went in haste” to her cousin Elizabeth. Mary was a pregnant teenager seriously needing solace and she found it in Elizabeth (undoubtedly held tightly in her arms). How similar are some of today’s stories to Mary’s, how needy are we all of comfort after the past sixteen months!

May we find joy in the Lord as Zephaniah did, camaraderie as Paul and the early followers of Jesus did, and comfort at the possible end to the pandemic as Mary did in the person of her relative. And may we all remember on this Memorial Day to thank God for all the good that has been done for us.

Sharing the Faith

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Acts of the Apostles, faith, Jesus, proclaim, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we read my favorite lectionary text from the Acts of the Apostles: (Acts 17:15->) when Paul stood in front of the people of Athens to proclaim his faith in Jesus. It’s a stirring text and brave at the time when Christians were few and far between. The most “gutsy” sentence of all was the proclamation that…”he is not far from any one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’“

I just think of Paul standing up in this large outside amphitheater with no microphone or any other apparatus—only his voice to convince his listeners that Jesus is more than just a gifted preacher. If the opportunity presents itself, why not go outside, stand up tall, take a deep breath and boom out the sentence quoted above. How believable is your statement? Can you imagine speaking that way if there was a crowd listening to you? Think about it.

Today’s brief reflection from the Daily Devotional “Living Faith” has this to say about that situation:

“It’s hard, and risky, to speak of faith to others. We don’t want to offend or be laughed at; we’re afraid of being unable to explain ourselves, getting muddled or misrepresenting our faith. Yet it remains true that we know about the resurrection from the dead because someone took the risk to tell us. And they knew because the women and men who beheld the risen Jesus told others, and the word has been passed on year after year over twenty-one centuries. We may find, like Paul and the Athenians, that one person’s openness to speak is met by another’s openness to hear….” (Mary Marrocco)

Hoping Against Hope

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Acts of the Apostles, go deeper within, Jesus, John, love, Ordinary Time, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We are moving swiftly toward “Ordinary Time” – the season after Pentecost when we are left to our own devices, when Jesus leaves the earth for good and tests our trust in the Holy Spirit for faith and inspiration. The lectionary readings today are full of “foreshadowing” and are mixed between miracles with St. Paul in prison (Acts16) and Jesus in his disturbing message to the apostles (JN 16) where he says things like: “It is better for you that I go.” I can hear myself responding to that with “NO! You can’t go! What will we do without you? How will we know how to live in this confusing time?”

As I wrote that last part, I was reminded of the commentary on the news last night on MSNBC about all the unbelievable political issues and the violence in the world. So I ask again of Jesus: “How are we to live without your presence?” and I get the same difficult answer: Go deeper. Love as best you can and trust that I am with you. You need to find me in your best selves, in the evidence around you: the light that returns every morning without fail, the burgeoning of springtime, the kindness of strangers…everything that speaks of the good in the world.

Think of the best person you know and consider why that person is “best.” Make a list of all the good things in your life. Watch internet videos of babies interacting with one another…Do anything that shows the goodness in life. And trust in God, hoping against hope that God is, in fact, truly with us. And never stop doing your best to love one another as Christ loves us.

What’s Your Name?

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hear God call you, name, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Every three years, the lectionary readings cycle around to my favorites—special to me for the meaning of the words, the feelings of hope in them or some particular memory they invoke. Today’s selection from Paul’s second letter to Timothy is very significant as it speaks lovingly to Timothy of the positive influence of the feminine role models in Timothy’s family: his mother, Eunice and his grandmother, Lois. Paul was speaking with great fervor about Timothy’s faith that was passed down from these two women. (“I yearn to see you again…as I recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and that I am confident lives also in you.”)

As children we knew that in some form all of our names were to be given to honor a saint and, quite often as well, a relative or other special person in our family’s life. Thus, my sister was named Paula because my uncle Paul had been killed in World War II around the time of her birth and my brother’s name was John after his father. My mother was rather in favor of other criteria: names that would never devolve into nicknames, for example, or even names of famous people like movie stars or those she thought beautiful like Heather or Valerie…There was never any question for my brother. Although she would have preferred Stephen or Victor, it was clear to all that—in biblical greatness—”his name is John.”

There seemed no real reason for my name, however. I was happy to have St. Ann, mother of the Blessed Virgin and grandmother of Jesus, for my patron but that is my middle name. And as I got older, I was happy not to be named Theresa or Marie or any of the other names attached to multiple girls in my school classes. I was always, throughout my school life, the only Lois in my class. I did, however, cringe occasionally when I heard, “Hey, Lois, where’s Superman?” from someone I presumed was making fun of me, So imagine my surprise when, in adulthood, I saw that Timothy’s grandmother was Lois—right there in print in the Bible! I’m still happy to claim St. Ann as my patron but adding Lois to my tribe makes me consider—now that I am clearly in the age of grandmothers—the qualities of a good grandmother, since I have two great women to emulate in this role.

Do you like—or have you lived into accepting—your given name? Who are those great people, even if not of your same name, to whom you look for ways to give example to younger people? If you could choose any name at all to hear God call you, what would it be? Might you make a practice of hearing your God-given name as you pray?

The Power of Words

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conversion, gift of language, Scriptures, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, words

Sometimes I worry about this task I have taken on, wanting to say something every day that will be useful to at least one of the people who reads my words. Then I think of that phrase: my words. They are never just mine—these words that come to me sometimes with little or no effort, and sometimes as if I were a woman in labor, seeming to push each one out with a mighty force, in order to convey a thought, a feeling or an image. I know I can never adequately express the effect that the sun has on the mountain outside my window, especially on a frigid day like today when some of the frozen trees create a zigzag path to the top that only a nimble giant would attempt to scale.

Today, on the feast that notes the conversion of St Paul, I wonder how he felt when trying to express his experience of the light that changed his life that day on the road to Damascus…or on any day that followed. There are lines in the Scriptures that can touch our hearts with a power that we cannot understand but only recognize. There are poems that take our breath away and lines that when put to music move our bodies even without our consent because they cause such a stirring in our souls.

So today I celebrate those women and men down through the ages who have given us the gift of language and the facility to make words do for us what we cannot do ourselves to express and praise and love and explain ourselves—especially to the One in whom we live and move and have our being. (Acts of the Apostles: 17:22-28)

Do It Now!

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Advent, Eckhart Tolle, possibility, present moment, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, waiting

It appears that I was correct when I “woke up” (read: “was shaken out of my lethargy”) yesterday about the possibility, the inevitability of never going back. I should have known when I read Eckhart Tolle’s Present Moment Reminder earlier this morning. He said this:

Give up waiting as a state of mind. When you catch yourself slipping into waiting, snap out of it. Come into the present moment. Just be and enjoy being.

It took the Sunday lectionary readings from the U.S. Catholic bishops to recognize how late it is. Did you know how soon the season of Advent is upon us? With all the consternation about the danger of traveling for Thanksgiving, have you even thought about readiness? Internal readiness, I mean…

St. Paul reminds the Thessalonians today that “You, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness…for all of you are children of the light. Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.” It’s as if he is saying, “There has been enough hand-wringing and lamenting about the state of our country and the world. It’s up to each one of us to take charge of our situation because the healing will come from the inside.” It is true that we are in a season of distress, the like of which most of us have never seen before, but if we wait, let it be in a state of active waiting. Give up passivity and step into possibility and trust. Love as you have never loved before – not just for your own well-being but also for that of those who walk with you. Be here now and love the opportunity to BE!

God’s Dwelling Place

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Basilica of St. John Lateran, Corinthians, God, Lynn Bauman, psalm 46, refuge, St. Paul, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I used to think it strange that the Roman Catholic Church counts in the daily list of “saints” a Church building. That was back in the days of my most concrete way of thinking. Today I know that the Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome is symbolic for many reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it has survived from the early part of the fourth century, the oldest church in Europe. Yes, it has been renovated, having survived several fires and even an earthquake, but as such has become a symbol of the ongoing presence of the Church—the home of God, so to speak, and as the site of papal installation until 1870. It still stands as one of the most beautiful and significant churches in Rome.

The symbolic value of the Church is seen today in the lectionary Psalm 46, chosen for the celebratory Mass of this day. Listen to the images found in the translation of Lynn Bauman (more powerful if read aloud).

God is for us a place of refuge and a mighty strength always present to us in our time of need…Suppose an earthquake rumbles through our world, or a mountain tips and tumbles into the sea; should these make us afraid and be the cause of dread? Though storms may blow and the seas themselves begin to foam, and though the foundations of the world are shaken to their core, Our God is the God of thousands, the God of myriad beings, like a stronghold to our ancestors, our God is with us now.

As if that were not enough, St. Paul tells the Corinthians today: Brothers and sisters, You are God’s building…Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? AND the temple of God, which you are, is holy. (1 COR 3)

Think on these things, if you will!

Hidden Blessings

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challenges, hidden blessings, Lynn Bauman, psalm 128, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Psalm 128 tells us quite clearly today (in the translation of Lynn Bauman): Your life is filled with hidden blessings which overflow from your hands—the gift of many labors. For it is God, the center of the heart, who prospers life until its end.

We might not feel that this season is full to overflowing with blessings but if we can look more deeply into things and take the long view we might agree with St. Paul. Speaking for myself, if I look at the rhythm of my days, I see that my work has changed significantly during the pandemic. It has become, at the same time, more simple and more challenging. Simpler in the tasks of service to my housemates: trips to the post office and the bank with proper precautions, time at home together praying and even planning and executing new menus for meals which teaches me that the challenges are not as daunting as I thought and the results and benefits of a successful meal are better than I expected.

The more challenging side of life is trying to maintain a work schedule that keeps the Sophia Center going. Challenge is primarily in the realm of technology so I have learned to admit what I can and cannot manage and it becomes easier to ask for help. I am blessed with wonderful women who provide that. The upside of navigating the shifts in how we present and participate is the depth of sharing as well as the fact that participants can attend whether from downtown Binghamton or in the far reaches of Florida or the Northwest USA. Our zoom calls keep digging the roots of our sharing deeper and our recognition of our oneness beating in our hearts.

All in all, I am reminded by Psalm 128 to look for the “hidden blessings” and remember that I will surely find God in the search.

Paul as Cheerleader

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compassionate, Ephesians, imitators of God, kindness, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often think of a truth that I heard long ago from someone far back in memory and I bless the person who brought it to me like so many gifts from forgotten sources – the angels given to us for guidance in life…This gift, like a 100-watt light bulb, revealed that it is not at the beginning of life that we are expected to be perfect. Rather we are here to learn and wake up as we go so that by the end of life we might have come to understand what it was we were here to be and do. That was a big relief to me since I had early taken to heart the adage: “Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect,” and imagined that there was a time frame (like “today!”) appended to it.

There’s a lot of “wiggle room” in that recognition: a lot less guilt for mistakes and even for the occasional tantrum! It’s our effort that God is looking for, I believe. And that’s why I appreciate some of St. Paul’s best advice, as in his letters to the burgeoning Christian communities. Today, for example, Paul calls us brothers and sisters and urges us down through the ages to “be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ. Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us…” (EPH 4) Paul is sometimes very directive in his words to an audience but sometimes (as in the above quote) he is like a kind cheerleader, remembering his own lessons earlier in life, and motivating us to remember who and whose we are.

Before the Dawn

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breath, dwell, Ephesians, psalm 33, St. Paul, strengthened, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It is 6:37 a.m. and still dark outside. It is totally quiet inside and out – the only sound being that of my keyboard. As I wait for the light to come I wonder when the niggling anxiety will cease – inside and out. Today I will go to Albany – a 2 1/2-hour journey from here, the safety of home, the bubble I have lived in for eight months. My only travel has been to the tiny post office in our village and the drive-up window outside at the bank, except for a few antiseptic trips driving people to doctor’s offices and generally waiting outside in the cocoon of my car.

It is a strange feeling – inside and out. I am going to a “long-range planning” meeting with nine of my Sisters in religious community at a time when any sort of planning is tentative at best. We plan for a future that has been on hold now for over seven months – a future full of important projects necessary to our lives in this time of diminishment of numbers. One would think it a futile challenge, but as I begin to see the outline of the trees outside and the sound of my alarm that tells me it is time to wake up, I do.

I hear St. Paul in the lectionary today encouraging the Ephesians, praying for them that God may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through the Spirit in the inner self, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you (we), rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God. (EPH 3) As I draw breath and strength from those words the psalmist weighs in with the certitude that “the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. (PS 33)

The birds are awake and singing now. I see the clearly the tree outside and a faint expanse of pink in the sky. I am ready to meet the day and all its potential for me and us – inside and out.