"Behold, the Lamb of God." Jn 1: 36
All of us need something to anchor us. Raised as an Episcopalian by a pious and devout mother and an agnostic but socially conscious father, Elizabeth was married by the time she was 19 years old, had five children, moved to Italy and was widowed at 30. Her world shattered, she needed stability.
Impressed by the devotion of the Italians she met, she began inquiring about the Catholic church. Touched and anchored by the doctrine of the real presence in the Eucharist, she also found consolation in the compassion of the Blessed Mother. Returning to New York from Italy, she made profession of faith as a Catholic, but her conversion effectively cut her off from her family and friend's and left her penniless. One might expect bitterness in a situation like this, but Elizabeth responded with understanding and forgiveness. In a meditation she wrote, “Carry those who give you pain in your heart before God, and think of their virtues instead of their faults.” (1)
Even in the middle of chaos, Elizabeth was not one to sit still and wait for something good to happen. Needing a way to support her children, she moved to Baltimore and opened a school which led to the founding of the Sisters of Charity and though her life changed dramatically, it would not be the end of her suffering. Not long after its founding, her community ran into financial difficulties and one of her children died. Nevertheless, she remained steadfast in her faith. Credited today with founding the first American religious community for women and opening the first parish school, Elizabeth Seton remains an icon of strength and authentic women's spirituality. Rooted in the experiences of daily life, her spirituality accepted the good with the painful and celebrated God at the center of it all.
Today, ask to learn something from a woman about the love of God and the service of God's people.
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Christmas Season
"So start to love your neighbor. Share your bread with the hungry, bring the homeless pauper into your house. Clothe the naked, and do not despise the servants of your kin... By loving your neighbor, by having care for your neighbor, you are travelling on a journey." St Augustine's Treatise on St. John
Thinking of the spiritual life as a journey is a helpful metaphor because it frees us from needing to be someplace or get somewhere. People on journeys or pilgrimages are not much concerned about social status, political views or cultural norms. Rather, they are seekers who want to experience something new, something different from what they have always known. Seekers are the kind of people who eat to live, not live to eat. They are not tourists who need to see ten things every day, but pilgrims who want to experience each day as sit comes. They are more concerned with knowing the people and community in which they live than accomplishing something for their own satisfaction.
In today's Office of Readings, St Augustine reminds us that the best way to begin a journey and live as pilgrims is to love our neighbors, whoever they might be. When we break bread with the hungry and give a place in our hearts to the homeless everything changes. We realize that the hungry and homeless are people just like us, not objects to be fed but children of God with whom we will travel. It is not simply our generosity that is so attractive to those who witness our love, but our relationship with the poor that will call others to "get on the bus" as together we seek God.
Anyone who has ever had the privilege of walking with another in terrible need will tell you that they received much more than they gave, and the memory of being loved for helping the lost will sustain us forever.
Today, don't go looking for someone in need, love the neighbor right next to you.
Thinking of the spiritual life as a journey is a helpful metaphor because it frees us from needing to be someplace or get somewhere. People on journeys or pilgrimages are not much concerned about social status, political views or cultural norms. Rather, they are seekers who want to experience something new, something different from what they have always known. Seekers are the kind of people who eat to live, not live to eat. They are not tourists who need to see ten things every day, but pilgrims who want to experience each day as sit comes. They are more concerned with knowing the people and community in which they live than accomplishing something for their own satisfaction.
In today's Office of Readings, St Augustine reminds us that the best way to begin a journey and live as pilgrims is to love our neighbors, whoever they might be. When we break bread with the hungry and give a place in our hearts to the homeless everything changes. We realize that the hungry and homeless are people just like us, not objects to be fed but children of God with whom we will travel. It is not simply our generosity that is so attractive to those who witness our love, but our relationship with the poor that will call others to "get on the bus" as together we seek God.
Anyone who has ever had the privilege of walking with another in terrible need will tell you that they received much more than they gave, and the memory of being loved for helping the lost will sustain us forever.
Today, don't go looking for someone in need, love the neighbor right next to you.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Sts Gregory and Basil
"When, in the course of time, we acknowledged our friendship and recognized that our ambition was a life of true wisdom, we became everything to each other: we shared the same lodging, the same table, the same desires, the same goal. Our love for each other grew daily warmer and deeper....our great pursuit, the great name we wanted, was to be Christians, to be called Christians." (1) St. Gregory of Nazienzen
The saints whose lives we honor today were, in contemporary language, "soul friends." Basil, who is recognized as the father of monasticism in the East, could be fierce and unbending. Much like Mother Teresa of Calcutta in our day, he was a reformer and made decisions quickly, often without much conversation with others. Gregory, on the other hand, was shy and retiring. When appointed Archbishop of Constantinople, he lived with friends rather than take up residence at the city's center. Both men were accused of heresy and were slandered by those who resented their power and fortitude. Despite their differences, they remained friends.
All of us need people with whom we walk closely in faith, especially when life is difficult and confusing. Having one other person to accompany us through the dark and light times is a gift beyond words. Gregory and Basil had this in one another, and although their relationship was often under great stress, Gregory reminds us that their "great pursuit...to be called Christians" kept them together in love and hope.
Today, treasure the gift of a soul friend.
The saints whose lives we honor today were, in contemporary language, "soul friends." Basil, who is recognized as the father of monasticism in the East, could be fierce and unbending. Much like Mother Teresa of Calcutta in our day, he was a reformer and made decisions quickly, often without much conversation with others. Gregory, on the other hand, was shy and retiring. When appointed Archbishop of Constantinople, he lived with friends rather than take up residence at the city's center. Both men were accused of heresy and were slandered by those who resented their power and fortitude. Despite their differences, they remained friends.
All of us need people with whom we walk closely in faith, especially when life is difficult and confusing. Having one other person to accompany us through the dark and light times is a gift beyond words. Gregory and Basil had this in one another, and although their relationship was often under great stress, Gregory reminds us that their "great pursuit...to be called Christians" kept them together in love and hope.
Today, treasure the gift of a soul friend.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
New Year - Mary Mother of God
"The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!" Nm 6:26
Kindness is a wonderful virtue, especially when we are the recipient of it! Often, when I have traveled long distances, especially to developing nations, I have been met with enormous kindness. Knowing I was tired and a little anxious, friends and friars offered me a cool drink, a room to rest in and an assurance that I would not be alone as I explored a new culture, language and environment.
Today, as we begin a new year, the scriptures are both kind and challenging. While they offer us a wonderful blessing from the book of Numbers, and invite us to call God, Abba, Dad, Poppa, they also remind us that it was to shepherds that the birth of Jesus was announced, something that would have unnerved and shocked people in the ancient world. Shepherds were from the underclass of the society and were often looked at as unclean since they regularly had to graze their flocks on the lands of others. That God would choose to announce the birth of his Son to them would have startled their contemporaries, and caused some to reject or ridicule their message simply because of who they were.
It is no different today. Though we try to listen to and accept the opinion of all our neighbors, it is tempting to listen more closely to the educated and wealthy, not because they have more insight, but because we assume they know more. Today's scriptures, however, remind us that God is not subject to our narrow ethnic, cultural, religious or social lenses. This is a gift we ought to treasure and imitate.
This year, submit yourself and all your resolutions to God and give God permission to show you the path to light and life
Kindness is a wonderful virtue, especially when we are the recipient of it! Often, when I have traveled long distances, especially to developing nations, I have been met with enormous kindness. Knowing I was tired and a little anxious, friends and friars offered me a cool drink, a room to rest in and an assurance that I would not be alone as I explored a new culture, language and environment.
Today, as we begin a new year, the scriptures are both kind and challenging. While they offer us a wonderful blessing from the book of Numbers, and invite us to call God, Abba, Dad, Poppa, they also remind us that it was to shepherds that the birth of Jesus was announced, something that would have unnerved and shocked people in the ancient world. Shepherds were from the underclass of the society and were often looked at as unclean since they regularly had to graze their flocks on the lands of others. That God would choose to announce the birth of his Son to them would have startled their contemporaries, and caused some to reject or ridicule their message simply because of who they were.
It is no different today. Though we try to listen to and accept the opinion of all our neighbors, it is tempting to listen more closely to the educated and wealthy, not because they have more insight, but because we assume they know more. Today's scriptures, however, remind us that God is not subject to our narrow ethnic, cultural, religious or social lenses. This is a gift we ought to treasure and imitate.
This year, submit yourself and all your resolutions to God and give God permission to show you the path to light and life
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