The Sky’s a Changing

On this December 24, 2010, the Earth continues in its orbit around the sun.  We’re just coming out of the longest night of the year.  What a great plan the Creator has, to distribute the light and the warmth of the sun for all parts of this globe as it spins and orbits!

I’m reminded that even as we welcome the birthday of God-in-our-midst, we are dirtying the blanket of air that has been just right for our lungs.  How to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions?   I want to honor the gift of clean air, this wonderful Christmas gift, and make sure that generations to come will have a Merry Christmas.

Sister; Brother

Hello!   I would like to be a mystic.  A mystic sees every creature as brother/sister.  That would be cool!  Instead of a dead landscape out there, a mystic sees (and feels?) the relationship between him/her and the squirrel, the trees which have their sap in the ground , the bird, that stranger who no longer is stranger, etc.

Saint Francis even called death his sister:  “Sister Death from whom no one can escape. . ..”  I would be content right now if sleep were my sister and came to me all during the night.  Maybe if I were a mystic, she would relate with me better.

CAN THAT BABY BE GOD INCARNATE?

Sometimes people say, “I don’t believe in a personal God”.  What I understand them to say is that they don’t believe there is a God who can love or think or enjoy. . . .   They may be imagining that God is some HUGE POWER and that’s it.

My question is:  “If I can love and think and enjoy, why couldn’t  God?”  I do believe that God is a very personal entity – more “personal” than I can imagine.

People are now setting up their Christmas cribs to bring attention to the Baby most of all.  My faith tells me that at one point in history God (the Word of God) was made flesh, starting as a baby – receiving love and responding lovingly, learning and beginning to think, enjoying his environment, and even crying to let his needs be known.  The wonder of Christmas!

The Great Network

Hello; Blessings to you from central Minnesota! 

Yesterday I took my brother who is blind to the doctor.  The sidewalks were layered with ice and snow, so he could not use his white cane.  He hung on to me, grabbing my elbow the best he could.  At one time he “lost” me; his thick gloves impeded him from holding on tight.  As I looked back I could see that he was really lost, in total darkness, not knowing which way to go.  His blindness is so total that I have found myself acknowledging the reality:  he is blind all the time, not just for this or for that!  (What must that be like!!)

A debility like blindness opens up to me the great world of our interdependence.  I chose a picture of a spider web for my blog because it expresses so well how one part depends on/sustains the other parts.  I also like the fact that no part of the web is more or less important than any other part!  When I am in darkness for not knowing or for not being able, I thank God for my sisters and brothers who can help me out.  Actually, our great and wonderful Creator-Sustainer arranges this great network.  May God be praised!

Love offering of the Mass

Today is Friday and in our little town we get to have the Mass (Eucharist). There is nothing that I enjoy more than to assist at the Mass. That’s the truth.  I know that for many people that’s not so.

I do have one complaint about the Mass.  I get distracted just when the dynamic of the Mass hits its high point.  The Mass is not only a sacred banquet; it is a sacrifice of love.  Jesus poured out his love on the cross and he continues to love; he never takes his love back.  He is always self-emptying for the other.

Of course, the object of Jesus’ love is our Creator and all of us creatures.  In the Mass the great self-giving of Jesus is prepared sacramentally (through ritual that holds the reality) at the time of the consecration.  Wow!  What creativity Jesus had to think of how best to give us himself in an act of love! Joachim Jeremias, the great scholar of Jesus’ language, Aramaic, says that when Jesus said “Do this in remembrance of me”, Jesus really meant:  remember me to God the Father.

Having before us on the altar the Body that is given for us and the Blood that is poured out for us, the dynamic of the Mass invites us all to unite our lives with the on-going love of Jesus in the GREAT OFFERING :  through Christ, with Him, and in Him is to You God almighty Father, in the unity of the the Holy Spirit, all honor and all glory for ever and ever.

I like that chance to say to God with Jesus:  I (and we) return all our love to our Creator.  The dynamic is terrific.  My complaint is that there are so many distracting prayers just before this GREAT OFFERING that I have to make such an effort to realize it is happening.  Also it would help a lot if all the people at the Mass, and not only the priest, could say the words:  “through Christ, . . . “.   The “great Amen” is not enough for me.   

While at Mass this morning I will try to “be with it” and not allow my “monkey mind” to stray me from the great dynamic of love offering.

Who is God? And Who Am I?

Good Morning!   I notice that many times we like to bring God down to our size.  I was recently in a church where the Blessed Trinity is depicted as a father of about the age sixty, seated with a young man of about the age of thirty, and a dove hovering over both of them.  They were dressed in regal robes and wore kingly crowns. This certainly does not appeal when In our times we have learned that what exists are hundreds of billions of stars, and we are still counting, measuring space in terms of light years, etc.  Who/what is this God whom I credit with having originated our evolving universe?

Of course, our little minds cannot fathom the bigness of God.  One thing I think would be helpful, is not to start with ourselves, for example:  “This person is kind and good; God is like that, kind and good.”  Rather, start with God:  “God is love; my ability to love is minuscule compared with the ability of the One who is the Source of all love in the world.”

Beautiful and Good

This morning, November 2, 2010, I just came back from voting and so got to have the experience of the fresh air and sunshine of our beautiful Minnesota. As I look around me I see God my Creator speaking loudly from everything I look at – the trees as they ready themselves for winter, the white puffy clouds in front of the blue sky, and the gushing water of the Mississippi. Existence speaks to me of the primacy of God the Father; this Person of God self-expresses as the Word; that which exists and self-expresses is full of life and change, the Spirit. I see everything  imaging God to me of this three-fold relationship within the Blessed Trinity. It is beautiful and good. May God be praised!