Who Will I Visit?

If you could visit with anyone in the world, during any time period of life, who would it be? Why would you want to visit with them? What would it take to get there? And what would it be like to be in their presence after all? (Try these questions for a very interesting dinner conversation sometime soon. It’ll get you through the holidays!)

This Sunday’s Gospel of Mary going in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth is filled with emotion. It is an example of what happens when we can’t wait to share something with someone else. It’s about incredible JOY at the surprises, the new births in life. When we think something is impossible, we are reminded that with God all things are possible.

Imagine all of the conversations between Mary and Elizabeth. What all did they talk about? When do you have spiritual conversations like theirs? With whom do you have them?

As we travel to visit in the next week or so, with whom will we seek to have conversations? Who will we invite? Will we intentionally spend some time with someone elderly? Will we recognize the miraculous life, the vibrant and joyous spirit within each individual we encounter in the next few days?

Jump for Joy

When was the last time you jumped for joy? What was it that brought this delight to your life?

In this third week of Advent, we focus on JOY—on rejoicing. What would it be like to sing “Joy To the World” accompanied by spontaneous jumping for joy?

God rejoices in us! Do we really believe that? Each Sunday when we gather as community, our celebration of the Mass gives us opportunities galore to show that joy, that rejoicing in God’s goodness to us. Here are a few:

Sing with joy, using the voice God gave you!

Pray boldly and audibly—with joy!

Greet others with gladness to see them!

Spend some time after Mass visiting with others and getting to know them. Express gladness to have seen them.

Thank those who generously serve at our liturgies!

Talk about what brings you joy on the way home, at lunch, or sometime during this week.

Let’s look for reasons to “cry out with joy and gladness” all week long, all season long!

P.S. I am filled with joy at the very generous response from many of you to the Religious Retirement Fund appeal I did last weekend. Thank you for your monetary donations and your words of affirmation of my message.

Mary and Elizabeth Lives

I am living the Mary and Elizabeth story of the relationship between holy women of different generations, exploring the mysteries of life, filled with gratitude and new awarenesses. It is a story of mutual love and deep respect. It is a story of “visitations.”

Advent is about waiting, anticipation, and preparation! Advent is a time of growth in hope, peace, joy, and love! And on this Second Sunday of Advent, we also do a second collection for the Retired Religious Sisters, Brothers, and Priests. This year, I am grateful to the Sisters in my life in new and profound ways.

Last month, several family members went to visit my Benedictine aunts in Lisle, Illinois. Of the five, three are alive and well at the ages of 92, 94, and 96. We visited, told stories, laughed and cried.  I know that I cried all the way to the airport thinking that this may be the last face-to-face visit with at least one of them. I felt my mother’s presence with us (from heaven).

People are always curious about why I didn’t join the Benedictines; after all, I love their charism of hospitality and welcome, of respect for all, and their prayer lives. It’s just that I only came to know them as an adult. They all entered the convent before my mother was married. My mother thought she had a vocation too, but when the Texas family was reduced from 12 to 7 to 3, my mother stayed home to help on the farm.

Almost all of my high school teachers, Sisters of Divine Providence, are in the communion of saints in heaven, except for Sister Rose Marie, my senior English teacher, who will be 90 soon. I recently wrote a reflection on our 55 years of shared life. She taught me to love literature and to write. She told me when we last visited that as a 17-year-old, my high school compositions made her think! Imagine my surprise! I was thinking of myself like people thought of Jesus—what good can come from Nazareth or from Hostyn! I was young and had no idea that I could influence an elder, my teacher.

Mary, the very young mother-to-be, needed Elizabeth, the much older, also unexpected mother-to-be.  We all know the story of their visitation—the need to companion, to accompany, to share mystery and to share joy. I can only imagine the story-telling, the tears of joy and the tears of wondering about all the unknowns. Theirs was a story of birth. Theirs was also a story of the “birthing” of much that was new, and profoundly counter-cultural. Both John the Baptist and Jesus would change structures, laws, and ways of thinking about the relationships of people. Their lives and their deaths led to profound change—voices crying out for an end to injustice, new commandments of love that are inclusive of all, mercy and compassion for those considered unworthy of attention or rights.

I continue to be profoundly grateful for the wise women, the elders in our Sisterhood, who have shown me the way to follow Jesus. This is why I joyfully speak on behalf of all who have given their lives in service, in visitation to all the places they have ministered, and in loving us into “births” we never expected.

The costs of healthcare, the realities of an aging membership, the maintenance of buildings that we have outgrown, and our great desire to choose mission over maintenance motivate us to ask for assistance through this appeal.

Thank you for contributing generously. Call or visit a Sister you know. Pray for vocations. Lord, hear our prayers and move us to action.

Called to be a People of Hope and Light

We begin the season of Advent with the lighting of the first candle, representing hope. This hope is based on God’s promises, God’s plans for humanity. The prophet Jeremiah describes the promise to grant David a descendant, the Messiah, who “shall do what is right and just in the land.”

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians is a prayer of affirmation as well as challenge. He reminds us that Jesus’ greatest desire for each of us is to be blameless in holiness before our God. We do that by increasing and abounding in love for one another and for all. He reiterates that they have learned from him, a devoted follower of Jesus, how to behave. Now, he wants them to try even harder so as to be pleasing to God.

Advent is a time of waiting, anticipation, and preparation. Each week, we light another candle as a reminder that we are to be a light in the darkness—to be the light of God’s hope. The call to be a light to others often involves living in right relationship with one another and all of creation. To be a light in the darkness is also a call to work for justice. God is made flesh in each of us when we act as Jesus did—do what is right and just in the land.

What are some “right relationships” that are a challenge for us in our world today? How do we bring hope, the light of Christ, in the midst of all the darkness? What will we do this Advent to try even harder to be pleasing to God?

Jesus’ Truth

“You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

What kind of a king is Jesus? To what truth does Jesus testify?

Throughout the year, we have imaged Jesus as shepherd, light, true vine, and the way. Today we image Jesus as our king. Jesus is the opposite of an authoritarian, dictatorial, self-serving king. His is a servant leader, particularly concerned about the most vulnerable, the outcasts, the unrecognized and unnoticed. When we follow Jesus, how does that affect the way we see others? Who sits on the throne in your heart, you or Jesus?

And about the truth! What does it mean to tell the truth? About our faith? About our commitment to justice? About our love for all people?

The invitation to us is strong—listen with the heart to hear the truth. Listen to the voice of Jesus. Recognize that Jesus is the source of truth.

Heaven on Earth?

Be vigilant! Look! Listen! Live each day as if it were your last. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. These are the lessons I learn from this Sunday’s readings.

If you knew that this is your last month, or last week, or last day on earth, how would you spend it? What would take priority in your day? Where would God be in the picture?

There are events in all of our lives when we feel as though the end is near. Some of the events are personal: a terminal illness, a damaging secret about to be revealed, the break-up of a relationship, sudden financial loss. Other events are social: wars, persecution, uncontrollable wildfires, famine, violence and poverty and refugees seeking asylum all over the world. As difficult as these events are, we know by our faith that God is here in the midst of it and life goes on. But we also have assignments…

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we say, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” To be ready for the end time, the time of our accounting for how we lived our lives, we must have been hard at work, with a sense of urgency, building the Kingdom of God on earth. What would that look like? What would we be doing?

Who are the builders of the Kingdom of God on earth who inspire us? The prophet Daniel calls them shining stars, giving out points of light, showing the way.

There are powerful movements of the Spirit and Spirit-filled actions all over the world. There are stirrings and actions of persons and communities that are rising up, organizing and collaborating to act on behalf of change that brings about peace, justice, freedom, dignity, truth, equality and hope in their families, their communities and in our world. What will we do to join them?

And so we pray: Lord, fill us with your Word. We trust that it will never pass away. Move us to action. Help us to be vigilant, look and listen to the voices of the least among us. Help us to become the wise who shall shine brightly like the stars to guide the way.

Giving of the Little We Have

What is the difference between giving “out of abundance” and giving “out of poverty?” The two widows we meet in the readings this week both give out of their poverty. When asked, the widow gives away the flour and oil needed for her next meal, one to be shared with her son. She gives what she would ordinarily need for her and her son’s sustenance. And she discovers that her jar of flour never goes empty.

Many years ago when I first traveled to Mexico to meet the family of one of our CDP Sisters, I experienced poverty that I had never known before. Dirt floors in the house, having to bring water from a distance, no indoor plumbing of any sort. We visited for a while and before we left, the family sent us home with the two eggs that were on the counter and some tortillas. As far as we could see, that was all they had. We didn’t want to take it. But we were reminded that this is hospitality and it would be rude for us to not accept the gift. They gave “out of their poverty.”

I admit that I have felt the tug of giving from my poverty, from my limited resources. When I was doing graduate studies, I lived with a community of Sisters who struggled to cover all the household chores needing to be done. I would help, of course. And because I was more able-bodied than most, I was often asked to do more, especially when someone was sick or absent. I struggled to give away my precious time, needed for my studies. What I discovered, however, was that after giving away my limited time, I returned to my studies and suddenly I was inspired in my writing and could finish reading more quickly. All I needed was faith that it could get done?

In the Gospel reading, we meet another widow. Jesus observes the rich who proudly contribute lots to the treasury. And then he sees the widow add her two coins, all that she has, also needed for her livelihood. In Jesus’ time, widows were among the marginalized, the ones living on the periphery. Jesus notices and Jesus cares. He declares that she has given more than anyone because she gave from her poverty.

How do you rate your own capacity to give? When do you give “out of abundance” and when do you give “out of poverty?”

How do you rate your ability to give?

No Exceptions to Love

What “love” messages have you heard this week? Where did they come from? What was happening?

Did you hear any love messages in the media? In your workplace? In your neighborhood? In your family?

Jesus is quite clear when he answers the lawyer in Mark’s gospel. The greatest commandment is love of God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second is: Love your neighbor as yourself!

Jesus’ answer is true to the Jewish prayer called the Shema, from the Hebrew word “hear.” This Shema was known to Jesus as a practicing Jew. This Shema affirms the basic tenets of the Jewish faith then and now. And we, as Catholics, hear the same expression of the greatest commandments in our Scriptures.

We have powerful evidence of the love commandments lived by the Jewish congregation who experienced the loss of many of their people last Saturday, during their holy day observance. Their grief and mourning are filled with messages of loving remembrances of the dead. They are also strong in their conviction that they will continue their tradition of love extended to neighbors—to asylum seekers and migrants. In spite of the hate of that tradition and the people who live it, the hate that consumed the killer, they vow to keep loving!

In our world today, Scripture and society look at love differently, don’t they? Who is my neighbor? Only the one I agree with, the one who is like me? Jesus is very clear in his preaching and in his living example. Love of God, love of neighbor and love of self—NO EXCEPTIONS!

We are given some powerful challenges in Mark’s gospel.

How can I love God, neighbor and myself with my heart and emotions?

How can I love God, neighbor and myself with my soul and essence?

How can I love God, neighbor and myself with my mind and intellect?

How can I love God, neighbor and myself with my strength and body?

Can we honestly say “I love you God” without widening our hearts, our souls, our minds and our strength?