February 2016 Thoughts...

…’Tis the best of times, and the worst of times…

The glow of the Christmas season is celebrated one more time on Candlemas Day…a short taste of Ordinary Time, and before we know it, we are summoned into the Lenten desert.

Lent means springtime. As the people who are God’s own, this season of the soul invites us to till the soil of our personal soul-garden, so that the wonder of what has been planted in us in baptism can grow.

I’m going to suggest this “tilling” is like a spring tune-up of our consciousness. There are four steps.

·        First, notice things. Be very present to what is going on with you at this moment. Be attentive to people, and to situations. This is a real discipline!

·        Second, question everything…with compassion. That means your doctor, your mayor, and yes, your politicians and your newscasts. Find out if they are a good reliable source of truth.

·        Third, be slow to make a judgment, when you have a hunch you may not have all the facts. Hold off. That too is a discipline.

·        And Finally, make choices and go into action only when you are convinced it is the most loving thing to do.

Your Lenten prayer, fasting, and generosity can be first on the list for this “tilling” of your personal garden. Your nightly question? “How does your garden grow?”

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Jesus, gentle Gardener, hand me the tools to clear my soul of whatever gets in the way of the new life you want to bring forth in me. Teach me to gather the rubbish and trash, and recycle it into whatever fertilizer I need. Plant in me the order and discipline that makes tilling the soil of my busy consciousness a joy. Help me to foster the gifts you have given, and warm them with your own Sonshine. Water me with the life-giving flow of your Spirit, refreshing in me what I’ve overlooked or forgotten. Draw me close to yourself in your prayer and fasting that I might know you as always present in my life. I ask this for the sake of your holy Name, Jesus, and that might be a Word of life wherever I walk. Amen.

Celebration Time!

The Dominicans and the Jubilee of Mercy

It’s Anniversary time. We’re 800 years old! It’s a time for looking back at what has been, and looking forward for what can be. It’s also a time for reclaiming who we are and what we are all about. For Dominicans that means being something first, then doing something. We are the Holy Preaching. We don’t just imitate the Word of God. We identify with it. We are first of all a word of hope, then of joy, then of peace. We are worded women and men, and in this celebration year we are also called to be a word of mercy. How so?

Dominicans walk a tightrope. (This image comes from Edward Schillebeeckx, OP.) We walk through history with a balance pole. On each end is a pail. One pail holds the Gospels, the Documents of the Church, and the Creeds. In the other we carry the New York Times, the Economist, the Science News, and the New Internationalist. If we let either go, we fall off the tightrope. Because we identify with the Incarnate Word, we are people of the both/and, not people of the either/or. We look for the truth wherever it may be found, even in the enemy, and we honor it. We live a spiritual act of mercy. We instruct the ignorant, and the first object of our outreach of mercy is ourselves. Our study is our penance, our daily asceticism. It prepares us to sow the Word we identify with, to give it away so there is always room for more. Thus we are mendicants. We are beggars. The Jubilee has begun – may our minds, our mouths, our hands overflow with mercy.

Mater Misericordiae...

"...Mater Misericordiae..."
"Mother of Mercy..." How often these words have crossed our lips when reciting the "Hail, Holy Queen." In this Year of Jubilee of Mercy perhaps it is time to ask what we mean by this title that we give to the Mother of God. Miseri: the poor ones; Cordiae: of the heart. She is heartsick for the poor miserable ones.
How and why is Mary the Mother of Mercy? Pope Francis tells us in his letter on Mercy (Misericordiae Vultus, The Face of Mercy) that Jesus is the face of mercy. So Jesus is heartsick too. It would be a challenging reflection to ponder that dear face being formed in the womb of Mary, his mother. In fact, he delighted in spending nine months confined in that small space, no larger than a man's fist...he, the God of the cosmos. He delights being intimately united with small things, so I guess you and I have a chance. Mary is the former and shaper of the human face of God's own mercy shown to us so we can see it, and share it...
Next, he nurses from her, drawing the strength to grow his tiny hands and feet. With them he will heal, restore, comfort, and finally die of self-giving merciful love. She has provided the very human means for our redemption. She will agonize with him as he lives it out. We will too as we watch the nightly news...
The Word-made-Flesh sits upon her lap as on a throne. She is the Seat of Wisdom. The very Word of the Father, the Wisdom-Engineer, the One who shaped the cosmos, tossed out the stars, appeared in the burning bush, and parted the Red Sea...the One who rules as King over all human history and its unfolding, carefully and wisely working with and around human freedom to bring about the dream-plan of his Father, that One sits upon her lap and plays patty-cake on her cheeks. He outstretches his pudgy arms to you, to me...wanting to draw you in, to plant kisses all over your face, and seems oblivious to any stupid thing we've ever done. We too?

Yes, indeed...she is Mater Misericordiae...
Star of the new evangelization,
help us to bear radiant witness to communion,
service, ardent and generous faith,
justice and love of the poor,
that the joy of the gospel
may reach to the ends of the earth,
illuminating even the fringes of our world.
Mother of the living Gospel,
wellspring of happiness for God's little ones,
pray for us.
Amen, Alleluia!