Joy Spoken

Look toward the east, O Jerusalem, and see the joy that is coming to you from God!  Behold, your sons are coming, whom you sent away; they are coming, gathered from east and west, at the word of the Holy One, rejoicing in the glory of God.

The sheer joy of these words!  The joy of having a child return home!  Even on this side of the veil, we have glimpses of heaven.

Take off the garment of your sorrow and affliction, O Jerusalem, and put on forever the beauty of the glory from God.  [Baruch 4:36-5:1]

A Christmas List for Jesus

The St. Andrew Christmas Novena, a.k.a the Christmas Anticipation Prayer.   Never heard of it until two years ago.  The tradition begins on the feast day of St. Andrew, November 30.

Choose one thing for which to ask the Lord.  Pray the prayer 15 times daily along with your request, up until Christmas.   Last year, I balked at the 15 times - feeling like it suggested superstition.  So, I just prayed it once per day, and still found it deeply beautiful.  But this year, I not only am saying it 15 times, but afterwards I say a request for each person in my family.  I am asking for  a list of seven things!

 Sometimes I feel like a little child sitting on Santa's lap saying, "I want this and this and this..."  And yet, isn't that what Christ wants?  He wants us to come to Him like children and promises not to withhold good things from those who ask.

Best of all is the joy and hope which pervades my soul in prayer.  The moment in which the Son of God was born...  Think of it, the very moment when Jesus entered this world!

The "O" Antiphons

O Day-Spring, Brightness of the Light Everlasting, and Sun of Righteousness, come and enlighten him that sitteth in darkness and in the shadow of death. [Luke 1:78.79; Malachi 4:2]

Once again, I am humbled by the beauty of an ancient Church tradition just discovered by yours truly for the very first time.  This tradition: The "O" Antiphons!

The Church has been singing the "O" Antiphons since at least the eight century.  They are part of Evening Prayer for December 17-23.  They use ancient Biblical imagery drawn from the Old Testament to proclaim the coming Christ as the fulfillment not only of old Messianic hopes, but present ones as well.  They embody the longing of all for the Divine Messiah. [usccb.org]

The word antiphon means a psalm, anthem or verse sung responsively.  Or, it is a verse that accompanies a canticle or psalm during the liturgy. (www.merriam-webster.com)

 Here, again, is today's antiphon in another version:

O Radiant Dawn,
Splendor of eternal light,
Sun of justice, 
Come and shine on those who dwell in darkness 
and in the shadow of death.

Living in a Fallen World

The following is an excerpt of a letter I received recently from my elderly prayer partner. She has been virtually blind for more than 30 years and now is almost entirely lame due to osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis.  Nonetheless, she shines with the joy of the Lord, provides much wisdom and offers many prayers on behalf of me and my family.  

We need strong men to complete our spirituality as a Christian community.  The married couples with children are the image of the Holy Family in the world.  It's important to strengthen that image because everything in our modern institutions conspire to eradicate it.  

 When I was in school, I was downcast about something which I no longer remember but it might've been the death of a young man in the neighborhood who was an excellent swimmer.  As a child, he had polio but had made a good recovery.  He wasn't a close friend, but everyone liked him, and he spent a great deal of time outdoors.  I told my mother that it wasn't fair.  Her answer has stayed with me my entire life: "People lose their children, and children lose their parents every day.  Do you think that God loves them less?  The ways of God are unfathomable, we are too small to understand Him.  We know that we live in a fallen world which He has saved, but it's up to us to make it better because not everyone accepts the sacrifice of His Son.  Pray the 91st Psalm every day, visit the Blessed Sacrament often and keep an attitude of a prayerful interior.  It will serve you and the world well."  

Understanding the Trinity

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.   Genesis 1:27

There are three parts of me:  

1. My  physical body
2. My spiritual soul
3. My emotional spirit 

There are three parts of God:
1.  The physical Jesus
2.  The spiritual God the Father
3.  The comforting Holy Spirit

I can connect with God daily by:
1.  Physically uniting with Jesus through Communion, and through Adoration
2.  Praying to God the Father from my soul
3.  Listening for the still, quiet voice of the Holy Spirit within me.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen. 

Miracle Takes Place within a Clay Jar

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. [2 Corinthins 4:7]

Jesus chose a wedding as the place for his first public miracle.  He had shown himself capable of such wonders, or Mary wouldn't have directed the servants to "do whatever he tells you."

Think about this first miracle:

~ He directs human beings pour water into earthen vessels.
~ He changes the water within the jars into wine. 
~ The miracle wine gets poured out, from the jars, for the guests to drink.
~ The miracle wine is of the finest quality.

Now think about this miracle, as experienced in Holy Communion:

~ He has human beings pour wine into our earthen vessels.
~ He changes the wine within us into His blood.
~ His blood gets "poured out" to those around us through acts of love and service.
~ These acts of love and service are of a rare quality that cause one to note their origin.

We may be the only Bible that some people ever read.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. [2 Corinthins 4:7]

An Hearty Desire to Pray

"O lord, we beseech thee mercifully to hear us: and grant that we, to whom thou hast given an hearty desire to pray, may by thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities,  through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Does not this embody the mother's prayer while "on the night watch?"  The dangers and adversities, lurking about the lives of her beloved children, must be kept at bay.  She is given "an hearty desire to pray," beseeching the Lord to show Himself strong on behalf of her loved ones.

The Slow Work of God

Have you been going through a hard time, for a long time?  Trust in the slow work of God.

Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin

 

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,
as though you could be today what time
(that is to say, grace and circumstances
acting on your own good will)
will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit
gradually forming within you will be.
Give Our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.


—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. [Isaiah 55:9]

Spiritual Direction

It has been three years since I first heard the term "spiritual director," when a friend mentioned a priest who had provided spiritual direction for her.  Hmmm, interesting thought.

Yesterday, I met with someone who is offering to be my spiritual director.  She is a nun, the director of a local retreat and spirituality center.  "What is spiritual direction?" I asked her.

Here is a sketch of what she said:

~Spiritual direction is an ancient practice that has experienced revival in recent years.  In Western Christianity, there is a renewed interest in the contemplative approach to one's faith.

~It is an opportunity for me to meet and share with a trained person how I am experiencing God.  I set the agenda.   The training part is important, as one who is not trained can cause great damage to the those seeking spiritual direction. 

~There is a charism element for one to be a good spiritual director - he/she has to be gifted for it, trained and confirmed by people who know what it is about.

~It is not counseling, although sometimes these areas overlap.  It is not confession, although sometimes things are discussed that one may want to take to confession.

~The spiritual director is bound by confidentiality.  I am not.  She will be primarily listening to me and to God.  She is available for God to work through her and me.  She is just another "poor sinner" on life's path, coming alongside of me.

~Her philosophy:  God can be found in every human experience, primarily in the affections.  Bring my reality.  What is going on in my life?  Where is God in this?  How am I experiencing God in this? 

~She leans towards the contemplative, entering into the reality of what our life is at any given moment.  How is God inviting me to be in that moment?  How will I respond?  What is my human reality right now?

~In one of the initial sessions we would talk about prayer. 

~The meetings last about an hour.  Meeting once per month is suggested initially, eventually expanding to once every six weeks.  There is a suggested donation of $25 - $50, depending on one's budget.  However, she would never allow finances to prohibit someone from receiving spiritual direction.

At the end, she said, the only true spiritual director is God and the Holy Spirit.

 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall see your Teacher.   And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.    [Isaiah 30:20,21]

Morning Prayer

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee. [Psalm 143:8]


One of the beauties of the Anglican tradition is that of Morning and Evening Prayer.  I heard it referred to colloquially once as FWHW and LWHW.  "First Word His Word," and "Last Word His Word." 

It seems wise to let the words to and from God be the bookends of each day.  Here is a template for Morning Prayer.  Suggested daily readings of the Psalm and the Lesson (scripture) can be found at these links:  https://www.biblegateway.com/reading-plans/bcp-daily-office/today    or

 http://www.catholic.org/bible/daily_reading/   

      A Brief Form for Morning Prayer

 

O God, make speed to save me.
O Lord, make haste to help me.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.

Then read a Psalm.

Then read a Lesson.  A table of lessons is found in the church leaflet, or at ordinariatephiladelphia.org.

Then say the Benedictus (written below).  Zachariah’s prophesy in Luke 1 when he was filled with the Holy Spirit and his tongue was loosed.

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,  that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us;  to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant,

the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, through the tender mercy of our God, when the day shall dawn upon us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

 

The Apostles Creed is an option at this point.

Then prayer;

O Lord, hear my prayer: And let my cry come unto thee.

Our Father…

 

O LORD, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

O GOD, the King eternal, who dividest the day from the darkness, and turnest the shadow of death into the morning; Drive far off from us all wrong desires incline our hearts to keep thy law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that having done thy will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when the night cometh, rejoice to give thee thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

O MOST loving Father, who willest us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of thee, and to cast all our care on thee, who carest for us; Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which thou has manifested unto us in thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

THE grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with us all evermore.  Amen.

 

 

 

Earthen Vessels

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us. [II Corinthians 4:7]



A dear friend was declaring her faith in Christ despite things having gone "so wrong" with her children.  As an elderly Christian woman, she radiates the love of Christ.  Her children both are married to selfish human beings.  Yet despite this reality, both her children still exude Christ's love!

I venture to say that things could be worse.  All is most wrong when love is not evident.  Despite faulty spousal choices, her children glow with the love in which they were raised.  Perhaps the love comes through more strongly as it  shines despite great adversity.  Their light shines in the darkness, but the darkness comprehends it not.  [John 1:5]

My friend, your faithful parenting and prayers will show in the countenance of your children, no matter what.

Nevertheless I Live

I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.  Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.  And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.  [Galatians 2:20]


I wrote the above verse from memory, having learned it as a child.  Yet it came to life for the first time this morning. 

Christ lived 33 years on this fallen earth, only to be tortured and killed, a seeming failure of all he had done.  He had labored hard.  He was a devoted child, a responsible young adult working as a carpenter, and then a traveling missionary and leader.  It was the life that he lived in the flesh, and it seemed for naught when he died.  Yet then,  he lived. 

I have lived a half century on this fallen earth, and have worked hard.  I've been a devoted wife, a dedicated educator, and have spent years driving my kids to their commitments and classes. Some days, there is a sense of futility in all of it.   Yet, I will live.

I will live, not by my own faith, which is weak and questioning.  But I will live by the faith of the Son of God.  Christ in me.  His faith in me.  His ability to live beyond the situations which meet the eye.  He gave himself for me.  His faith is in me.  Lord, I believe.  Help thou my unbelief.