Choose, Love, Create, Live . . .

 

Image from J.H.

 

Blessing
What we choose changes us.
Who we love transforms us.
How we create remakes us.
Where we live reshapes us.
So in all our choosing,
O God, make us wise;
in all our loving,
O Christ, make us bold;
in all our creating,
O Spirit, give us courage;
in all our living
may we become whole.

Author: Jan Richardson

Litany of God's Names

 

Litany of God's Names

by Joseph Sobb, S.J.

O God of silence and quietness, you call us to be still and know you -
O God of steadfast love, your Spirit is poured into our hearts –
O God of compassion, your Word is our light and hope –
O God of faithfulness, you fill our hearts with joy –
O God of life and truth, from you we receive every gift –

O God of healing and peace, you open us to divine grace –
O God of all creation, our beginning and our end –
O God of salvation, you reconcile all things in Jesus, -
O God of Jesus, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit –
O God of Jesus, who invites us, “Come and see” –
O God of Jesus, who was tempted as we all are –

O God of Jesus, who is your pledge of saving love –
O God of Sarah and Abraham, from whom came  Jesus -
O God of Anna and Simeon, who recognized Jesus, your Son,
  as Messiah –

O God of Mary, who bore Jesus, -  

O God of Joseph, to whose fatherly care was entrusted Jesus, -
O God of all generations, of all times and seasons and peoples –
O God of our mothers and fathers, of all who have loved us –
O God of our past; O God of our future –
O God of our present, O God in our present -

Let us never forget . . .

 

80th anniversary of Auschwitz liberation

From Litany of Resistance, by Jim Loney

Response: Forgive us, we pray O God.
• For our hardness of the heart
• For wasting our gifts
• For wanting too much
• For wounding the earth

• For ignoring the poor
• For trusting in weapons
• For refusing to listen
• For exporting arms
• For desiring dominance
• For lacking humility

• For failing to risk
• For failing to trust
• For failing to act
• For failing to hope
• For failing to love
• For failing to negotiate
• For our arrogance
• For our impatience
• For our pride
• For our silence

Response: Change our hearts, we pray O God.
• That we learn compassion
• That we embrace nonviolence
• That we act in justice
• That we live in hope
• That we do your will
• That we love our enemies
• That we strive to be peacemakers
• That we live simply
• That we practice sharing
• That we protect the earth
• That we cherish life

Adapted from Pax Christi USA)

A Psalm of Icy Awareness

"Melancholy" by artist Albert Gyorgy

 

The earth around my home

       is now locked in a winter wrap

       of bone-chilling snow and ice.

Water, once clear and liquid,

       a joyous, flowing community,

      Is now frozen into crystals of ice.

Recently in humanity’s long history

      there has arisen an isolation,

      a separation of those who share

      common human flesh and bone.

While once upon a time we gathered joyfully

      in families, tribes and clans,

      we now so often live divorced

      from earth and from each other,

      with loneliness as our only company.

All isolation is ice-olation,

     frigid to human flesh, cold and lifeless to the touch,

     untrue to our most basic unity, comm-unity.

And whenever I act single-handedly,

     apart from an awareness of my sisters and brothers,

     I become a deformed divine disciple.

And tribeless, O God, how can I tread the Path

     which you have designed as a companion course?

Ah, the wisdom, so divine, in your Genesis words,

     spoken to the perfectly made, fully automated Adam,

     “It is not good for one to be alone.”

                                                                     

  ~Edward Hayes, Prayers for a Planetary People

 

Prayer of Peace . . .

 

Dancing Francis    LaCrosse, WI

A Franciscan Prayer for Peace 

Lord, make us instruments of your Peace

In a world all too prone to violence and revenge,

We commit ourselves to the Gospel Values of

Mercy, Justice, Compassion, and Love;

We will seek daily to promote forgiveness and healing 

in our hearts, our families, and our world.

Where there is hatred, let us sow Love;

Where there is injury, let us cultivate Peace

Fear and distance prevent people from recognizing all

as brothers and sisters; 

tensions lead to violence and mistrust;

We will strive to honor the dignity that God places

in each and every human person.

Grant that we may not seek to be understood as to Understand;

To be loved as to Love

Our failure to understand the other can create exclusion 

in all its negative forms – 

racism, marginalization of those who are poor, sick, the immigrant; 

it can also create situations of domination, occupation, oppression and war.

We pledge to seek the way of solidarity, 

to create hearts, homes, and communities 

where all people will experience inclusion, hospitality, and understanding.

For it is in giving that we receive, in pardoning that we are pardoned

And in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Let us Pray:

Lord God, create in us:

-the Capacity to hear and understand the voices of those who suffer from 

every form of violence, injustice, and dehumanization;

-the Openness to receive and honor people from other cultures, languages, 

religious traditions, and geographical regions;

-the Creativity to explore new ways of communication and dialogue through

music, poetry, performing arts, and the mass media;

-the Audacity to undertake the building of communities of forgiveness, healing, 

and reconciliation.

To God who is above all and in all are the glory and the honor. Amen 

(Previously posted by Chuck Faso OFM 

Author unknown) 

January 26, 2025: Pilar Siman Preaches for the Third Sunday in Ordinary ...

A Call to Renewal in Jubilee Hope for People and the Planet

  

– Third Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, Ph.D. 

Readings:

Nehemiah 8:2-4a, 5-6, 8-10

Psalm 19:8, 9, 10, 15

1 Corinthians 12:12-30

Luke 1:1-4; 4:14-21

 

 

 

January 2025 marks several significant anniversaries for Christians across the globe. First, is the 17-hundreth Anniversary of the Nicene Creed – the one creed common to all Christians that explicitly names God as “the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth.” The second, is the 10th Anniversary of the promulgation of Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si – On the Care for Our Common Home. And third, is the 2nd Anniversary of Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation, Laudate Deum – a reminder that our spiritual, mental, and physical well-being requires careful treatment of one another and all creation.  Indeed, everything is connected!

We need not look far to see the many ways that the New Year brought with it, numerous divisions and challenges to all areas of life. These all require our attention. Especially threatening are recent unprecedented “Natural Disasters” – fires such as those recently experienced in California, floods, droughts, heat waves – and predictions that extreme events will increase in frequency in coming years. Along with these – there has been a major uptick in “Climate Anxiety” – especially among youth across the globe.

One month ago, on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis announced the “Jubilee of the Year 2025.” This celebration has deep roots in the life of the Hebrew people, our ancestors in faith (Leviticus 25: 8-31). Jubilee was a time for them to make a “fresh start” – a reordering of the community that enabled every person and the land to regain what was needed to thrive: property was returned to families; land was not cultivated; property sold between Jubilee years was considered leased; The land was shared equally by all members of the people of God; Land monopolies were denounced; and, The poor were not to be shut out.

In today’s First Reading, the Hebrew people have recently returned from exile in Babyalon, where they were not able to freely practice their faith.  They have rebuilt Jerusalem, and they now hear the Torah read, learning anew the holistic, community-oriented life that God desires, including communal Sabbath (Gen 2:2); Sabbatical (Ex 20:8-11); Jubilee (Lev 25:8-31). With this renewed faith and freedom, they now can celebrate renewed community life, as God intended.

In a similar vein, Paul reminds the Christian community about the importance of the holistic, interconnected, communal life that Jesus founded: “As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ.  For in one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, … and we were all given to drink of one Spirit. … God placed the parts, each one of them/us, in the body as he intended.” (1 Cor 12).

The Bible teaches that every man and woman is created out of love and made in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26). This shows us the immense dignity of each person, “who is not just something, but someone. … capable of self-knowledge, of self-possession and of freely giving himself and entering into communion with other persons.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #1700) … How wonderful is the certainty that each human life is not adrift in the midst of hopeless chaos, in a world ruled by pure chance or endlessly recurring cycles! (LS #65)

The experience of the Babylonian captivity provoked a spiritual crisis which led to deeper faith in God. Now divine creative omnipotence was given pride of place in order to exhort the people to regain their hope in the midst of their wretched predicament. (LS #74)

In the Christian understanding of the world, the destiny of all creation is bound up with the mystery of Christ, present from the beginning: “All things have been created though him and for him” [Col 1:16]. (LS #90)

“It cannot be emphasized enough how everything is interconnected. Time and space are not independent of one another, and not even atoms or subatomic particles can be considered in isolation.” (#138) “If we feel intimately united with all that exists, then sobriety and care will well up spontaneously” (LS #11).

In this New Year of Jubilee, let us strive to follow Jesus, and join in bringing renewal to our spirits, good news to poor people, and the whole creation (Lk 4:18-19)!

 

Dawn M. Nothwehr, OSF, Ph.D.

The Erica and Harry John Family Professor Emerita of Catholic Theological Ethics

Catholic Theological Union – Chicago, IL