"...she pondered all these things in her heart..."

…she pondered all these things in her heart…

Carla Mae Streeter, OP

What was Mary, the Mother of Jesus, thinking about in the time after her son’s resurrection? Was she marveling at how things had turned out? Was she learning from those dark days when the temptation to lose trust in God was so strong? Was she knitting everything together with one “Aha!” moment after another?

First, there he was, her beautiful son, alive…wounds shining. Did she sense that he was no longer just “hers”? Did she realize that he was not just for the Jews, not just for any group anymore? That he belonged to the whole world now?

Did she understand that of course he would return to his Father, taking our humanness with him to prepare for all of us to follow? Did she grasp that the Spirit of God that overshadowed her was now loose in the world, forming bonds between people? Is this what she was thinking about?

What are we thinking about? We began our Paschal Mystery in the darkness of Holy Saturday night. We were led back to the baptismal font to remember where we died with him and put on our new life, our baptismal robe of joys and grief, of failures and heroic decisions. Then we walked with him as he opened up his very body and cleansed us in his own blood. Death thought it had silenced him for good, but up he came and danced on its head, freeing those long waiting for him, and whisking them off into their own resurrections. Then he leaves us, telling us it is necessary that he go so that we learn to live by the faith the Spirit will provide. From that open heart of his, he breathes his own Spirit into us to complete our walk here, a walk of peace-making and mercy. The fifty days of Easter, to top the forty days of Lent. Will wonders never cease!

Risen Jesus,

we are entering the Mary-month of May,

the month of your Mother.

No one grasped the wonder and beauty

of your Paschal Mystery

as did she who pondered all things in her heart.

Mother, teach us to ponder the wonders of your son!

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Special thanks to associate Shirley Talbot for these reflections

May 1 – 6^th Sunday of Easter – Psalm 67:2-3, 5-6, 8 – Acts 15:1-2, 22-29
Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 – John 14:23-29

In the earliest gatherings of the church, people misunderstood each other and misunderstood God. Paul was among those sent to speak and to clarify. We are still speaking and clarifying. Until that day when Jesus will be our light in the New Jerusalem, we listen to each other, love each other, let God’s Spirit teach us, and rely on the peace given to us as Jesus went to intercede for us before God’s throne. Today may our words be couched in love like a bouquet of spring flowers tucked in a basket on our neighbor’s doorstep.

May 8 – Ascension Sunday – Psalm 97 – Acts 7:55-60
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 – John 17:20-26

Even words spoken in truth and love are not always well-received. How often did we respond with anger to our mothers’ words of truth and love? The light shining brightly makes shadows more visible. “Come!” Jesus cried. “Come take the water of life!” Jesus prayed for us… that we might be one… with God… with each other. Children at heart, we draw back from the light that makes shadows so plain. Today lift us over our fear and give us enough light to see by as we speak and listen to words of truth and love, especially to those who have mothered us.

May 15 – Pentecost Sunday – Psalm 104 – Acts 2:1-11
1Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13 – John 20:19-23

There are people who continue the worship style described in that Upper Room on Pentecost Sunday. As Jesus was born during a time of enforced taxation and travel, surrounded with chaos, so God’s Spirit descended with wind, flames and chaos where people saw and heard things they couldn’t understand. Into the midst of our chaos God comes bringing peace that we cannot understand. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love.

May 22 – The Holy Trinity – Psalm 8 – Proverbs 8:22-31
Romans 5:1-5 – John 16:12-15

Wait a minute…God from God? Fully God and Fully Man? Wait a minute! Pastoral care was born in the heart of God as God sprang from God before the world was made. God pastored God. God encountered need and met need. God loved and was loved. This Glory of God now comes to us and is ours. What is this human being that God should be mindful of them, the offspring of such that God should care?

May 29 – The Body and Blood of Christ – Psalm 117 – 1Kings 8:41-43
Galatians 1:2,6-10 – Luke 7:1-10

Abram, before promises fulfilled, returned with thanks and was blessed. Bread and wine blessed to God again in the hands of Jesus. Blessed in Jesus’ hands loaves and fishes, thousands fed by the hands of Jesus’ followers.  Surrounded by the hungry now we lift our hands, God still blessing, we too return with thanks.

What the Resurrection is Really All About...

We are about midway through lent. Before the month is over this March of 2016, we will celebrate the Resurrection. We will breathe a sigh of relief, and think, “Thank goodness that is over now for another year!” But don’t be so sure.

The Passion begins with the Infant Christ. The first step down is the Word confining itself to the virgin’s womb…the size of a man’s fist. The Word incarnate thinks it’s just fine to slowly be clothed in humanness for the usual nine months. Infinity confined to a small space. We celebrate this wonder in the Advent and Christmas season.

But there is another step down. There is the day-to-day frustration with companions who just don’t get it. They need to be shown that leadership means washing feet, that we all are called to become a new kind of family where no one is excluded, and that the poor are the primary members of this new “kin-dom.”

Then another step down into the chaos of agony, sin, and death. Doesn’t this Holy One realize he doesn’t belong here? After all, he has engineered the cosmos. Could it be that he goes there because he knows that’s where he will find us, and he just has to be where we are? Crazy. And then grasping us safe, he springs up from the depths of death like some Olympic athlete, shining with the glory-sweat of victory. But he still does not know when to quit.

Another step down. Bread. Kept in a box, waiting to be eaten. Taking on the appearance of a “thing.” Does this self-emptying never stop? Is this what he is “passionate” about? Be careful. To eat him is to become him. Surely you don’t want to go up in flames loving like this…or do you? Eucharist is inch-by-inch being transformed into your own resurrection down the road a bit…like the butterfly. In the meantime you might find yourself baked, cut, chewed up…because that is what you are resurrected from. That is what resurrection is all about.

*****        *****         *****         *****         *****          *****         *****          *****

Loving Lord, your earthly passion began when you entered our time and space world. This is the “baptism” with which you longed to be baptized. What kind of love is this, that you will bond yourself with each of us, holding us tight as we ride the wild ride of what life dishes out to us? What kind of love makes you so “passionate?” No “atonement” here…no “pound of flesh.” Pure revelation of a God who will go to the depths of death to wisk us from the jaws of hell. Suspended between heaven and earth like some majestic lightning rod, you draw the very lightning flash of justice to yourself. You absorb your justice, making it one with your mercy. Keep holding me tight…during the rollercoaster of today.

Promoter of Preaching for March

The 800^th Anniversary is on! Celebrations abound, bringing back memories of what has been, and challenging us to dream a future for the Dominican Order of our own times. Dominic had to contend with a heresy, a twisting of truth to suit its own purpose. That purpose was to make sure we believe the lie that only “spiritual” realities matter. The physical, the material, are to be despised. It was a purist dualism, and looked so deceitfully holy. But Genesis and the Incarnation beg to differ. The universe is strewn with matter still evolving, and nothing beats a physical hug when your heart is breaking and you are crying your eyes out. The Christ could not be more explicit when he says, “This is my body.”

But this is 2016, and I suggest we have the direct opposite heresy to contend with today. We don’t despise matter. We worship it. Materialism and consumerism rule, and if we listen to the media, nothing, not even God, should question my overcrowded closet or my bulging bank account.

Where would we find Dominic today? I suspect he’d be living in a redeveloped abandoned convent in the central city, where he and his followers are very present in centers of learning and organizations where young and old are learning why they should be protesting unjust penal systems, trafficked human beings, and rampant exploitation of land and water. Why? Because we are to be holy as God is holy. He would be unapologetically proclaiming that this Mystery, contrary to being relegated to the periphery, is the center of every atom, galaxy, and greening effort we attempt. He would be about the business of righting the balance: not spiritualism nor materialism, but a created world held in the arms of a merciful Shepherd. And he’d be ready to die to get that good news out. Maybe we can live for it, into our future.

I have a plan for you...

“I have a plan for you…”

 

You never quit

do you.

 

First you step down

ever so gently

into a virgin’s womb

to be fitted into new clothes.

“Human Made” says the label.

 

Then another step down –

into the chaos of betrayal, beating, ridicule, and execution.

 

Don’t you realize this is no place for you?

 

But no – one more step – down.

Bread? Come now.

Something that is locked in a box waiting to be eaten?

 

What must you be thinking?

 

Life? Mine? Ongoing and forever?

 

You have a one-track mind and you never quit – do you.

Even when we are too busy to notice.

 

Thank you….thank you.

 

 

“I have lost nothing

 

that you have given me.” John 17:12

 

 

                                                                                                Easter, 2016

                                                                                                Carla Mae Streeter, OP

Reflection: First Sunday in Lent

A few thoughts from the powerful readings for today...

Theme: We are reminded that "One does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." Our fasting reminds us that we have "another mouth to feed," that of the longing of our heart for a renewed relationship with the God of the universe, who is bigger than anything that scares us.

Psalm and Middle Reading: "Be with me, Lord, when I am in trouble!" We all know this space well. We're backed up into a corner, and see no way out. But we're told the God will never leave us...so when we feel most alone, most attacked, we need to "hang on" to our faith in "every word that comes from the mouth of God."

First Reading: The Jews remember that they've been through some very tough times...and God has pulled them through.

Gospel: The better word for temptation is test.  We take a test to reveal what we know...Jesus is being asked to reveal who he is...but keeps Satan guessing...,"If you are the Son of God..." Satan has no faith. He cannot discern the things of God. Jesus rebuffs him with "the word of God" to which he, and we, cling to in faith, and Satan scatters...but he'll be back. "He left him for a time."

In our faithfulness we're invited to the solitariness of the desert to be reminded that our greatest temptation will be that God has abandoned us. In the aloneness we fear we will really be lonely. Yet the word of God assures us "I will never abandon you." This is the primary lesson of our Lenten retreat...never to fail the test of trust.

Matters of the Heart...

Real-Presence

 

It hung there

the old coat

day after day

in the front closet

along with

the faint scent

of Mennen’s After-Shave.

 

 

We kept telling her

to give it to Goodwill.

“In due time…”

she would say.

She said it reminded her

of him

and their 60 years

together.

 

 

And then one day

there was no answer

when we made our check-in phone call.

 

 

We hurried over

and got in through the garage

our secret agreed-upon passageway.

 

 

She did not answer when we called “Mom?”

When we opened the bedroom door

there she was

curled up on her bed

gone home to God

wrapped in that old coat.

 

-         Carla Mae Streeter, OP, 2015

 

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.