Remembering the Vision!!

 

Loving God,

We greet this Fourth of July with grateful hearts as we call to mind the vision of freedom and justice for all upon which our country was built.

We give thanks for those who imagined this vision.

We are grateful to those who continue advocating for and pursuing a land of peace, liberty and equity for all. We realize it is still being created, however, as we witness the divisions, prejudices and injustices that plague us.

May we hold fast to the dream and vision of unity within our country.

May we dedicate ourselves to living as brothers and sisters respectful of one another’s dignity and need for equity.

May we also realize the importance of reverencing our earth which provides for and sustains much of our lives.

We give glory and praise to our God and pray that we may always live in harmony as one family.

Amen.

~Sr. Rita Ostry, ND

Omaha, NE

Gaze upon us, O God!

 

God of the Great Gaze,
We humans prefer satisfying un-truth
to the Truth that is usually unsatisfying.
Truth is always too big for us,
And we are so small and afraid.
So you send us prophets and truth speakers
to open our eyes and ears to your Big Picture.
Show us how to hear them, how to support them,
and how to interpret their wisdom.
Help us to trust that your prophetic voice
may also be communicated through our words and actions.       
May we practice a spirit of discernment
and a stance of humility,
so that your Truth be spoken, not our own.
We ask this in the name of Jesus the Prophet,
for we desire to share in your Great Gaze, Amen. (Author Unknown)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helix_Nebula

What goes around, comes around . . .

 

Story: The Rolling Coin

A wise old man once owned a precious golden coin. One day, as he sat gazing at this precious coin and rejoicing in its beauty, a thought occurred to him: ‘It isn't right that I should be the only person to have the pleasure of possessing this golden coin. What use is it if no one shares it?’ And he went out and gave the coin to a passing child.

The child couldn't believe her luck. She couldn't take her eyes off this shining coin. Then she had a sudden idea: ‘I’ll give this coin to Mum. She needs so many things. This coin will make her very happy.’ Of course, the child’s mother was delighted with the coin—such an unexpected solution to so many of her problems. She pondered in her mind as to how to spend it and what to buy first. As she was thinking about this there was a knock at the door, and there stood a street beggar. ‘Poor soul’ she thought. ‘He has nothing, and we are just about getting by.’ And she gave the gold coin to the beggar.

The beggar was speechless. This coin could be turned into food for a month. He made his way back to the subway where he slept, and there he noticed a new resident, just arrived. The poor guy was blind and disabled. No chance of getting anywhere near to the folks who might have spared him a coin or two. ‘I guess he needs it more than I do,’ he thought to himself. And he pressed the gold coin into the blind man’s thin, cold fingers. 

That evening, a wise old man walked through the dark subway. He noticed the blind, disabled beggar and stopped to speak to him. The beggar couldn't remember the last time anyone had bothered to speak to him. After a while, the wise old man put his arm around the beggar’s shoulder. ‘I've nothing left to give you, except my friendship,’ he murmured. 

A tear rolled across the cheek of the blind beggar. How could he ever repay this gift of human kindness that had changed a dark night into a new dawn? With his shaking, aching hands, he reached into his pocket, brought out the golden coin and gave it to his new found friend. ‘Thank you for loving me,’ he said. (Source Unknown)

Prayer of Presence . . .

 

Palms Down, Palms Up 

This is a very simple prayer meditation that can be done anywhere and anytime.

• Be seated. Close your eyes. Relax, but keep your back erect. If you need to stretch, do so.  Rest your hands on your knees with your palms down. Breathe deeply and slowly, inviting the Spirit of God in with each breath.

• Your hands, with the palms down, indicate your desire to turn over any concerns, worries, anxieties, fears to the God who loves you. Let any anxieties or anger come to mind and into your feelings.  Then, hand them over to God in a prayer like: “Loving God, I give you my worry about . . .” Whatever is weighing your spirit down, palms down, release it as if you were dropping the concern into God’s hands.  Let God take it and hold it gently for you. 

• When you have handed over each item to God, turn your hands palms up as a sign of your desire to receive from God.  Ask God for the graces you need right now that will help you to trust in God’s goodness.

• Finally, rest in God’s presence.  Listen.  Attend to God’s Spirit speaking from the depths of your heart.  If images or guidance come, well and good; if you find only calm silence, be content.

 

Image by Doris Klein, CSA

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Being sharp . . . being effective . . .being happy!

 

Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job in a timber merchant and he got it. The pay was really good and so was the work condition. For those reasons, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

“Congratulations,” the boss said. “Go on that way!”

Very motivated by the boss words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could only bring 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but he could only bring 10 trees. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

“I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

“When was the last time you sharpened your axe?” the boss asked.

“Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees…”

Reflection:
Our lives are like that. We sometimes get so busy that we don’t take time to sharpen the “axe”. In today’s world, it seems that everyone is busier than ever, but less happy that ever.

Why is that? Could it be that we have forgotten how to stay “sharp”? There’s nothing wrong with activity and hard work. But we should not get so busy that we neglect the truly important things in life, like our personal life, taking time to get close to our Creator, giving more time for our family, taking time to read etc.

We all need time to relax, to think and meditate, to learn and grow. If we don’t take the time to sharpen the “axe”, we will become dull and lose our effectiveness.
Author: Stephen Covey
From: 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

A Summer Morning prayer. . .

 

Opening Prayer
I bow before you, my hidden but beloved God,
as I begin this day.
An alarm rings in my heart to awaken me to the fact
that I am a pilgrim who travels a sacred path.
I now answer that call to mindfulness,
as I prepare to enter into silent prayer.
I join myself with all who are in prayer at this sacred hour
when the Earth once again faces its source of life, the sun.
I now turn fully to face you, O God,
the source of the universe and of my life,
as I enter into silence. (pause for silent prayer).

With fidelity I have tried to still my restless heart in you,
the divine source of all that I am.
May this effort bear fruit by my living more fully in the
present moment this day.
I join my voice to all the awakening sounds of the Earth
at this hour, as I pray. (reflect on a chosen passage of scripture)

Concluding Prayer:

This summer day is growing warmer
as we turn to face the fullness of our daystar, the sun.
Plants, animals, and we human folk are all solar-powered
in the marvel of your clever creation.
May this morning prayer give me the energy
to act at all times this day with love and kindness.
May I treat each person and each living being as a
brother or sister, as a member of your sacred family.

I pray now for these personal needs: (offer intentions), and
for the special needs this day of (n.).
May the business of this day never eclipse my real work
as a pilgrim on the sacred path.

Open my eyes and ears to the miracles you have hidden
along my path this day.
Let my mind find its joy in the present moment,
the only place where you dwell.

I bow before you, Divine Creator, Holy Mother,
Eternal Source of my existence.
Your heart is my home;
from you I have come
and to you I journey this day.
AMEN.

(Author: Edward Hays)
 

God, hear our prayer!

 

God of No-sides Prayer!

God of our side, and God of our enemies’ side,
hear our prayer:
we need your help here on planet earth.
With heavy hearts we confess
the brokenness of our beautiful blue planet
which is spinning out of control.

Hear the sound of gunfire,
see the bomb craters,
taste the bitterness of people hating people,
smell the fear that permeates our lives,
touch the hearts of the wounded.

Hear the sound of children being hurt,
see people running away from their homes,
taste the hopelessness of shattered communities,
smell the despair of refugee camps,
touch the inconsolable on both sides.

Feel our pain as we spin through space.
Touch the pulse of the earth as it beats wildly.
God of our side, and God of our enemies’ side,
you are the God of no sides at all.

You call us to a new place,
to step with faith outside this world of taking sides.
You lead us to an inside out world,
an upside down kingdom,
where our enemy is our brother,
where our foe can be our  fondest friend.

You call us from the sidelines,
to centre stage,
to be a community of global resurrection,
firm believers in love that cannot die,
love that cannot be killed,
love that never lets us go.

You call us to be firm believers
in the one who crossed heaven and earth
to show us that even between God and human beings
there are no sides.

It is in the name of Jesus Christ,
whose arms embrace us all,
that we pray for peace today.
Amen.

Carol Penner - A Mennonite Voice

Carol Penner www.leadinginworship.com

Deep Listening . . .

  

 

In this century and any century,
Our deepest hope, our most tender prayer,
Is that we learn to listen.
May we listen to one another in openness and mercy
May we listen to plants and animals in wonder and respect
May we listen to our own hearts in love and forgiveness
May we listen to God in quietness and awe.

And in this listening,
Which is boundless in its beauty,
May we find the wisdom to cooperate
With a healing spirit, a divine spirit,
Who beckons us into peace and community and creativity.
We do not ask for a perfect world.
But we do ask for a better world.
We ask for deep listening.

Author: Jay McDaniel

The Presence of the Presence!

 

 

 

God is there in these moments of rest and can give us in a single instant exactly what we need.  Then the rest of the day can take its course, under the same effort and strain, perhaps, but in peace.  And when night comes, and you look back over the day and see how fragmentary everything has been, and how much you planned that has gone

undone. . . just take everything exactly as it is, put it in God’s hands and leave it with God.  Then you will be able to rest in God ~ really rest ~ and start the next day as a new life.

 

St. Teresa Benedict of the Cross (Edith Stein)

 

Photo by Anita Henning, CSA

 

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The Feast of the Heart of Jesus!

 

June 16, 2023

Art courtesy of Sister Doris Klein, CSA

The story is told that once a young boy was about to have open-heart surgery.  To prepare him the surgeon said, “Tomorrow I will look at your heart.”  Smiling, the boy interrupted, “You’ll find Jesus there.”  Ignoring his remark, the surgeon continued, “After I have seen your heart I will try to repair the damage.”  Again, the boy insisted.  “You are going to find Jesus in my heart.”

The surgeon who had suffered losses in his own family and was still in pain from a failed marriage, felt very distant from God. He replied in a chilling tone, “No, what I’ll find is damaged tissue, constricted arteries, and weakened muscle.”

The next day he opened the boy’s chest and exposed his heart.  It was worse than he expected – a ravaged aorta, torn tissue, swollen muscles and arteries.  There was no hope of a cure, not even the possibility of a transplant.  His icy anger at God began to surface as he thought, “Where is God? Why did God do this?  Why is God letting this boy suffer and cursing him with an early death?”
As he gazed at the boy’s heart, he suddenly thought of the pierced heart of Jesus, and it seemed to him that the boy and Jesus shared one heart, a heart that was suffering for all those in the world experiencing pain and loss; a heart that was redeeming the world by love. 

Struck with awe at such goodness, such redemptive, unconditional love, tears began rolling down the surgeon’s cheeks, hot tears of compassion for the little boy.  Later, when the child awoke, he whispered, “Did you see my heart?”  “Yes,” said the surgeon.  “What did you find?” the boy asked. The surgeon replied, “I found Jesus there.”

The heart can be understood as a physical part of each of us – that hidden yet vital organ that circulates the full human blood supply three times per minute and whose hundred thousand beats a day are often taken for granted.  The heart is the very core of a person.  When that very center is deeply affected, one’s whole way of thinking about the world, one’s whole way of feeling it, of being in it is profoundly altered.  As in our opening story, the doctor experienced a conversion of heart – a healing from heartlessness to heart-fullness. And the child – who was all heart and shared in the heart of Jesus – had a heart filled with redemptive and unconditional love.

Today’s feast is the celebration of the “enlarged heart” of God as it was enfleshed in the heart of Jesus through the womb of Mary – a heart filled and overflowing with unconditional love and mercy.

Today is not necessarily a feast of our devotion to the heart of Jesus, but more it is a celebration of God’s devotion to us by offering us a heart of love beyond our comprehension, a heart of love beyond any Hallmark card expression, and a heart full of love that is unfathomable. Our God’s love is tender; Our God is totally in love with us, and desires to be of one heart with us.  For as John writes: God is Love!

In our Gospel today, Jesus reveals to us that his heart is humble and invites us to find rest within his heart.  Jesus lived love and mercy throughout his ministry as he encountered the marginalized, the poor, the forgotten, and so many more.

In Scripture we find a number of examples of how his love was lived out. . .
• Let the children come to me . . .then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them
• At the sight of the crowds, his heart was moved with pity for them.
• Moved with pity, Jesus touched their eyes and immediately they received their sight.
• (Rich man) Jesus looking at him loved him.

So what is the good news for us today?
Let us through our prayer imagine ourselves resting in the heart of God hearing the heartbeat of God in the intimacy of our own prayer.
 (Nouwen)- “when we come to hear the heartbeat of God in the intimacy of our prayer, we realize that God’s heart embraces all the sufferings of the world.  We come to see that through Jesus Christ these burdens have become a light burden which we are invited to carry. . . It is in the heart of God that we come to understand the true nature of human suffering and come to know our mission to alleviate this suffering not in our own name, but in the name of Jesus.”

For God’s heart goes out to us and God’s love is always there for us – so let us meet God heart to heart in our time of quiet and pondering of life . . .

Closing: Reflections from Macrina Wiederkehr’s experience of the heart of God in her prayer . . .

Like lightning at dawn – the All-Powerful One came
electrifying, energizing, frightening, shattering, crashing into my morning prayer!
Totally unprepared for this kind of interruption,
I froze on my knees both in wonder and terror.
There was no morning silence left,
no comforting darkness to enfold me
only those flashes of light that make hiding impossible.
But this? Oh, this was awful!
God stood there with terrible, penetrating loving eyes, saying only:
Your love is too small!

Standing that close to truth felt uncomfortable, unbearable and I tried
to hide my face the way I often do when truth gets too close.
I tried to hide the pieces of my terribly divided heart. 
But then the lightning came again.
And God was standing there even closer than before
Holding the pieces of my heart with such tenderness
still saying, Your love is too small.

I took the pieces back with reverence
My tears proclaiming the truth of all I felt.
There was no pressure, no force
just the God of morning asking for my love.
And now, every time I see those flashes
in the northern sky I hear again, a voice
saying simply, Your love is too small.
And I weep; I weep at the possibility of who I could be.
(From Seasons of Your Heart)

 

Art by Joseph Fanelli (1993)

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Rocks, pebbles, and sand . . .

 

A philosophy professor stood before his class with some items on the table in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, about 2 inches in diameter.

He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up the remaining open areas of the jar.

He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous “Yes.”

“Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, your children – things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter – like your job, your house, your car. The sand is everything else, the small stuff.”

“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party, or fix the disposal.”

“Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
Author Unknown

Sacred Life!

 

Litany Prayer ~ Chief Seattle

Every part of the earth is sacred,
every shining pine needle, every sandy shore.
every mist in the dark woods, every clearing and humming insect is holy.

The rocky crest, the juices of the meadow, the beasts and all the people,
all belong to the same family.

Teach your children that the earth is our mother;
whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.

The water’s murmur is the voice of our father’s father,
we are part of the earth, and the earth is part of us.

The rivers are our brothers; they quench our thirst.
The perfumed flowers are our sisters.

The air is precious, for all of us share the same breath.
The wind that gave our grandparents breath
also receives their last sigh.

The wind gave our children the spirit of life.
This we know: the earth does not belong to us;
we belong to the earth.

This we know: all things are connected, like the blood which unites one family.
All things are connected. Our God is the same God,
whose compassion is equal for all.

For we did not weave the web of life: we are merely a strand in it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
Let us give thanks for the web in the circle that connects us.
Thanks be to God, the God of all.

Printed in CRCN/CiRCLe M Newsletter May 2011