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A collection of staff reflections, newsletters and prayerful ponderings
A collection of staff reflections, newsletters and prayerful ponderings
I recently came across a wonderful prayer suggestion made by Fr. Mark-Mary of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal in a short video entitled Give God your struggles with a Rosary of Trust .
Here’s my summary and adaptation for staff prayer.
It begins,
"Rejoice in the Lord always. I say again, rejoice! The Lord is at hand. Let all people see your forbearance or your unselfishness. Have no anxiety about anything, but with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving make your needs known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:4-8)
Fr. Mark-Mary points out that these are very challenging words, in two important ways:
1. They won’t let us, in any way, “minimize the difficulty, the reality, the depth, the heaviness of the struggle, or the burdens in your life.”
2. They also wont’ allow us “to reduce the goodness, the presence, the activity, the power of God at work in our world and in your lives.”
This means that whatever’s going on in your life, you don’t have to sweep it under the carpet or stuff it deep down inside and pretend its not there. Peace is not about letting our troubles and concerns go, its about handing them over to the Lord instead. It’s in handing them over to a God who loves us that we find peace.
Tomorrow, October 7th, is dedicated to praying the Rosary. If praying the traditional rosary isn’t your thing, try a Rosary of Trust.
On each bead, name, and hand over a concern to the Lord.
For example:
1. Okay Lord, I give to you my current situation.
2. I give to you the new reality of my classroom.
3. I give you the awkward silences.
4. I give you the hesitant, sometimes non-existent conversations.
5. I give you the ever-changing circumstances we find ourselves in.
6. I give you the difficult and clumsy dance of managing family and attending to work.
7. I give you the decreasing energy I feel each day.
8. I give you the increasing effort needed everyday.
9. I give to you the fact that I don't think I have enough time, patience, or brain power.
10. I give you my worry about…
(take a moment to hand over your concerns one by one.)
Handing over it, whatever it is, brings peace. God is our Father and he is at work in the world and in our lives. So, we give whatever we are carrying to Him, and we have peace in that.
Psalm 139
Let us pray,
Lord you know the details of our circumstances, you know the depths of our petitions and prayer before ever a word is on our lips. The desire to pray is itself your gift. Your divine love is a shield around us and your concern for our wellbeing is constant. In this moment we celebrate your abiding presence among us.
When the human family struggled to reach up to you, you humbled yourself and came down into our midst and dwelt among us. In Christ, you shared life with us, walked with us, ate with us, wept with us, and rejoiced with us. You are “God with us” and we give thanks that our life is becoming more and more a “with God” life.
The “with God” life is for everyone. Pope Francis assures us when he says,
“I have a dogmatic certainty (the highest kind of certainty): God is in every person's life. God is in everyone's life. Even if the life of a person has been a disaster, even if it is destroyed by vices, drugs, or anything else - God is in this person's life. You can - you must - try to seek God in every human life.
This is our intention for the year: to explore and encourage a deeper sense of the “with God” life in our own lives and the lives of those we support.
The final part of our spiritual theme reminds us that the key to the “with God” life is humility. Humility is a much-misunderstood quality. It doesn’t mean thinking less of yourself, it means thinking of yourself less.
The with God life is renewed, as C. S. Lewis says, the moment you wake up, when “all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning (the first task of humility) consists in simply shoving them back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other larger, stronger, and quieter life come flowing in. And so, on all day. Standing back from all your natural fussing and fretting; coming in out of the wind. We can only do it for moments at first, but from those moments the new sort of life will be spreading through our system because now we are letting God work at the right part of us.”
Q. Which part of this text best describes the heart of humility?
1. Shoving back wishes and hopes for the day (what Lewis calls wild animals)
2. Listening to that other voice (the voice that says good things about us)
3. Taking that other point of view…
4. Letting that larger, stronger, and quieter life come flowing in…
5. Making the effort all day long, even if the good effect lasts only a moment.
6. Standing back from all your natural fussing and fretting, i.e., coming in out of the wind.
7. Letting it (the with God life) spread through our system, letting God work at the right part of us.
Lord, when our wishes and hopes for the day come rushing at us, help us to shove them back until we have had a chance place our hope in you; a chance to listen to that other voice (your voice) that speaks good things about us; change our point of view, our way of thinking about life so that your larger, stronger and quieter life can come flowing in. Even if the effort lasts all day and the good effect lasts but a moment, we will not stop seeking you. When we are most tempted to get discouraged or give up, help us to stand back from all our natural fussing and fretting and come in from the storm. Let your divine life spread through our system; strengthen us at our core so that we might allow you to work at the right part of us.
Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in them the fire of your love. Lord send forth your Spirit. And you will renew the face of the earth.
Amen.
As we close this school year, I’d like to look back on the passage of scripture we used to begin the year.
As you listen to the passage from the prophet Micah, recall the rhythm and simplicity of the famous Serenity Prayer.
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
“You have been told O human, what is good and what the Lord requires of you; only to do right, love goodness, and walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8
Notice how the passage flows with the same easy rhythm, speaks to the heart with the same life-giving simplicity and invites us to the same quiet confidence as the prayer.
If only we could receive the words of this passage as personally and as knowingly as we might pray the Serenity prayer. Then we might discover within it an invitation to let God attend to the care of our souls (instead of an overwhelming almost unachievable spiritual to-do list).
The days ahead hold the promise of rest, refreshment, and time to recover. Never has it been more important to renew our strength; never has it been more important to let God attend to the needs of our souls. This passage makes a threefold offer of care. It invites us to discern the difference between pseudo self-care, authentic self-care, and soul-care.
We might hesitate to attend to our legitimate needs or pursue the things we enjoy for fear of being selfish. It’s tricky to care for our needs. When we do, we discover that so many of our attempts fall short and simply leave us feeling numb to life.
So we pray, Lord, you know us better than we know ourselves. You know that we all have a well-worn pathway to numb within us. Numb is easy, numb works well-enough, the real problem isn’t that it wears off, (which it does) it’s that it wears us out. Lord, establish new pathways to care within us, ways that leads to lasting fulfillment and freedom.
You are good. You’re worth taking care of. Self-care is like basic vehicle maintenance. It’s not selfish, it’s prudent. Good self-care means attending to and respecting our limitations and the needs of our human nature. Ignoring our needs, like ignoring an engine light, is risky. Taking care of ourselves, like regular maintenance isn’t complicated. We don’t need to be a mechanic to get it right. It’s more a matter of doing the right thing at the right time. It’s about faithfulness and a commitment to caring for what God has created.
So we pray, Lord, if we were able to handle everything on our own, we would have done it by now. In times of discomfort and discouragement we struggle to take better care of ourselves. Clear away all discouragement so that we might discover our true worth and our need for one another, for community and for you.
Soul care is essentially learning to live life with God. Soul care is not about us doing more (creating a longer to-do list), it’s about co-operating with what God is offering to do. It’s more about placing ourselves in a position to let God care for us. The spiritual life is not about becoming a master mechanic, it’s about realizing that we already have a master mechanic in the family who would gladly attend to the care of our souls if we would only drop off the keys.
We close with this prayer, Lord we offer you the keys to our inner lives, the humble space of daily life to go about your work. We invite you into the workshop of our souls. Into a space where we can rest and work with you side by side. Lord of Life, we confess that we don’t always know how to navigate life well. Meet us in this moment. May your grace fill the gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it. Teach us to thrive in an ever-changing world. Lord, we place the days that are behind us and the days ahead of us into your care. We surrender our understanding of how things ought to be. We place our needs and our prayers before you. Flood the deep places of our lives with your peace. Let your healing love wash over us and flow out to a desperate and hurting world.
Sacred Heart of Jesus, we place our trust in you.
Looking back over past 100 days, what have we seen? What were we meant to see? What have we been shown?
Until the pandemic hit, whole parts of reality were invisible to me. The past 100 days have changed my way of seeing. Hopefully forever. I can see things in myself that I didn’t want to see. I can see things around me that I’ve never seen before, things I needed to see, and things that were there all along. I can see my vulnerability and the vulnerability of my neighbour. I can see what is truly pandemic-proof and what is not. I couldn’t have seen it unless this moment in history had shown it to me.
With fresh eyes, I see the fragility of life and its heroic potential. I see the breakability of things and the need for deep healing in the world. I see the illusion of self-sufficiency thankfully yielding to a new vision for Christian community. Most of all, I believe we are being allowed to see as God sees; to see the eternal end goal of God: borderless community.
The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered inequities in our society that God would want us to notice. We have been humbled. We must admit that we don’t have the power to see the world clearly within ourselves. More than ever, we need the Author of life to pull back the veil, so to speak; to show us reality as it is. As we re-read the Gospels during this eye-opening moment, perhaps we can see what Jesus has wanted us to see all along: one another.
A venerable old sage once asked his disciples, “How can you know when the darkness is leaving, and the dawn is coming?” “Perhaps it’s when it is light enough to distinguish one kind of tree from another”, replied one disciple. “Perhaps it’s when you can distinguish a fox from a wolf”, said another. No said the master, “Those things will not help.” The sage replied, “We know darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming when we can see another person and know that it is our brother or our sister; for otherwise, no matter what time it is, it is still night.”
3 Practical takeaways for the foreseeable future:
Seek Christian Community: Our commitment to community needs a better foundation. We have seen that institutional communities (even our parishes) aren’t pandemic proof. We need to build small sustainable communities where faith and support remain open even when our buildings are closed.
Ask for the gift of Community: Authentic Christian community is a gift of God, created by the Holy Spirit and based upon the forgiveness of Jesus. Community is not something we can build or achieve on our own. We must seek, ask, and knock unceasingly for this gift.
Expect a Knock: Whatever shape community comes in, prepare for it, open your heart to it and expect to hear a knock. God is inviting us into radical relationship with one another. This is our biggest challenge yet.
Someone recently pointed out to me that most spiritual guidance, and a good deal of modern Christianity, has all been formatted as advice. Most advice can be reduced to a basic formula. Simply do this or follow these steps and “presto” all will be well. It seems the path to peace, fulfillment or whatever we hope to become, always lies in doing one more thing. That’s not good news, that’s a formula for disappointment and burnout.
Good advice unavoidably tells us what we need to do, but good news tells us what’s already been done. News is always a report of something that’s already happened. The Gospel isn’t good advice, it’s good news. Deep down our heart knows the important difference between the two. Advice, even if it’s good, places a burden upon us, but good news takes our burdens off.
Christianity formulated as advice sound like this, “be kind, be patient, forgive, be generous, follow the commandments etc.” All easier said than done. Thankfully this is not the essence of the Gospel. The Gospel is all about what God has done to connect with us; it all about what God has done for us. Anything we might do can only be a response to what God has already done. Something amazing happens when we get this right, we find a greater capacity to give rooted in a deeper capacity to receive.
Our ability to sustain kindness or patience is ultimately rooted in our experience of the never-ending kindness and, some might say, reckless patience of God. Only the experience of God’s tender compassion towards us in our worst moments of failure and weakness can fuel the compassion we hope to show others when they are not at their best. That’s the priority and power of the Gospel. “We love because he first loved us.” (1st john 4:19)
May our lives be shaped by the Good news of God’s never-ending love made known to us in Christ. May our love, and all that we do for others, be our response to the Good News of what Jesus has done for us. May the Gospel remove all burdens and sustain us always.
3 Practical takeaways (good news, not advice) for the week:
Soak in Sunday. Our Sabbath rest is rooted in the resurrection, the supreme work of Jesus. It reminds us that our identity is not rooted in work alone, but in the love of God who seeks our friendship. Soak it in.
God Forgives Fumbles. We all drop the ball. It’s worth pointing out that Jesus never pointed a condemning finger at anyone. Contrary to popular belief, He doesn’t give advice. Everything about Him is good news. When we fumble, he simply says: “I will not reject anyone who comes to me.” (John 6:37)
Good News Travels (even if we can’t). The good news of Jesus helps us to see that God is sharing every aspect of life with us. This shared life is the fruit of a life shaped by the Gospel. As we pause to celebrate Education week, we are grateful for those who have shared the good news with us and for every opportunities we have to share it with others.
Christ is risen… he is risen indeed. This changes everything. In a world where everything seems changed, this is good news to hold onto. The resurrection reminds us that the only way to hold onto the risen Jesus is to let go of our normal way of viewing the world.
Jesus revealed the truth of his resurrection through ordinary encounters. He entered the homes of his fearful disciples and shared meals with them. He spoke tenderly to them and listened to them. He reassured them in their doubts and made time for their questions.
The risen Jesus will come into your home and when he does, he will enter with great tenderness. Tenderness is a sign of the risen Lord. Thanks to the risen Lord, ordinary life, and the sacrifices it involves, can be transformed into an encounter with the tenderness of God.
Shopping for groceries, placing meal after meal on the table and bearing with one another patiently reveals the face of God for others to see. Our ordinary lives are now saturated with a sacramental quality. Some have called it the sacrament of the present moment. Thinking about tomorrow or getting emotionally involved in things outside the present moment can make us feel fragmented and divided. The tenderness displayed by the risen Lord is the antidote to this tension. Whatever we must do, whether it is easy or not, if accompanied with tenderness (great love), slowly brings about a sense of order that is rooted in the immense tranquility of God.
When you do the duty of the moment, you bear witness to the risen Lord alive among us. You make a home for him in the place where your family dwells. You feed him when you feed your family. You wash his clothes when to do their laundry. You serve him in a hundred ways as a parent. The duty of the moment when done with tenderness and carried out to the best of our abilities is holy.
May the tenderness of the risen Jesus fall upon your family. As you attend to the duty of the moment; as you think of the needs of others, things will get clear. The “one thing necessary” will appear and you will know the tremendous value of the things you do.
3 Practical takeaways for the week:
Take your tensions to prayer. Who or what is your greatest source of tension in these days of staying at home? Pray lovingly for that person or situation. Ask for the gift of tenderness.
Vulnerability in Communication. We all have the need to listen and be listened to. Being attentive to the words and needs of others isn’t easy. It takes energy (a lot of energy). We need to be listened to as well. This means keeping the channels of honest communication open. Who is listening to you as you listen to others?
Meditate on the tenderness of God. Tenderness is the heartbeat of God. Every little thing you do for those you love is a fresh declaration of the unending rhythm of the Risen Jesus at work in our world. Pray for families and situations this week that need the immense tenderness and tranquility of God. Pray for their safety and well-being.
Note: Earlier this year we entered into the mysteries of Easter and quarantine. Here is what I wrote:
Though the word disciple (mathetes) means “learner,” biblical discipleship was unlike traditional classroom learning.
In Jesus’ time, studying under a rabbi meant taking part in the rabbi’s daily life. It meant sharing a home together, eating meals, praying and studying together. A rabbi’s life was meant to be a “living example” of a life shaped by God’s Word. Disciples not only studied the text of Scripture they studied the “text” of the rabbi’s life.
So, if we’re going to live as disciples of Jesus today, our deepest learning is to be shaped by the presence of the Teacher already living under our roof.
In the gospel, Jesus instructs his disciple to prepare a local house for the celebration of the Passover. The house is unspecified, but the words to the owner are stated specifically. The owner is told, “It is at your house that I am keeping the Passover with my disciples” (Matthew 26:18). In these, days our homes have become our churches.
We might feel increasingly isolated in our homes, but our homes are returning to an essential role they once served in the earliest days of the Church. In the early Church, people worshipped in ordinary homes. Families and small groups gathered into domestic churches. Ordinary dwellings became houses of prayer and houses of formation.
As we enter the mysteries of daily life with our rabbi, our kitchens, dining rooms, living rooms etc. will and can become holy ground.
Tomorrow evening in the liturgy of Holy Thursday we witness an expression of the domestic church that forever changed the Jewish Passover meal into the Eucharistic meal we share every Sunday. Although circumstances keep us apart, we can still gather spiritually around the table of the Lord. We can still unite ourselves to the Eucharist by making an act of “Spiritual Communion.” In the act of spiritual communion, we express our faith in Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist and we ask him to unite himself with us.
Here are a few tips for spiritual communion for the days ahead.
Tip #1 join yourself spiritually to the Mass (Spiritual communion).
No matter what your day is like, the presence of Jesus can help make it better, or at least more bearable. Spiritual communion is available 24/7. It can enhance the meaningfulness of a televised mass or enrich a time of personal prayer. All it takes is prayer such as this one, composed by St. Alphonsus Liguori.
My Jesus, I believe that you are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. I love you above all things, and I desire to receive you into my soul. Since I cannot at this moment receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.
I embrace you as if you were already there and I unite myself wholly to you.
Never permit me to be separated from you.
Amen.
Tip #2 let Jesus wash your feet
Jesus often went off script and turned conventional practices upside down. Before the last Supper he washed the feet of his disciples. This was usually the role of the household servant, but he chose to do it himself. In these days when we cannot celebrate the sacrament face to face, the archbishop has said that it will suffice for now to say an act of contrition and commit ourselves to seek out the full sacrament when conditions allow.
Here is a fitting act of contrition taken from scripture: “Lord I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul will be healed.”
Tip #3 redeem the internet
Thanks to the creativity of many Catholic content producers, the riches of the global Church, have become accessible to us in an unprecedented way. Online we can pray the rosary with Pope Francis; join top-notch bible studies and join spiritually (even daily) in the sacrifice of the Mass televised from some of the most beautiful churches around the world. To be certain, it's not the same as worshipping shoulder-to-shoulder or encountering one another face-to-face, but the opportunity to be fed spiritually from the comfort of home is remarkable, nonetheless.
Note: Earlier this year we entered into the mysteries of Easter and quarantine. Here is what I wrote heading into Holy Week
These past forty days (the original meaning of quarantine) have been like nothing else we experienced before. The new phase of teaching and learning starting this week coincides with the celebration of Holy Week. Each day of Jesus’s last week on earth brough fresh challenges to his followers. More than any other week this week is the week they needed to stay closest to their rabbi.
There is an ancient Jewish saying, if you encounter a rabbi, it says you should “cover yourself in the dust of his feet and drink in his words thirstily.” The expression refers to a familiar sight for ancient Jews: disciples were known for walking behind their rabbi, following him so closely that they would become covered with the dust kicked up from his footsteps. It’s a vivid image for what is meant to happen in our life spiritually. Disciples were expected to follow their rabbi so closely that they would be covered with their master’s way of thinking, living and acting.
Although we have all had to become stay-at-home disciples, we are still moving forward, still following our Rabbi, Jesus Christ. We pray that our closer walk with him this week might leave us covered with his life, changed and made new.
Tip# 1 Treat every day like a retreat.
Get away (interiorly) for a few minutes each day. Spend time with your Rabbi. “Cover yourself in the dust of his feet and drink in his words thirstily.” God’s voice only makes itself heard in the stillness of the soul. A single word from the Gospel can change the entire mood and course of your day.
Tip# 2 Celebrate your virtues and the virtues of those around you.
Maybe you never thought you had it in you, but you do. That’s not to say it’s easy, but these days are revealing the determination and strengths of so many. Celebrate your virtues and give thanks for the goodness you see.
Tip# 3 Lean on Grace (God’s gift).
We follow our Rabbi closely so that we might be covered in his virtue and grace. We can’t do it on our own. We rely on his example; his gentle patience and mercy, his comfort and encouragement and his healing grace that incrementally changes us into his likeness.
Prayer for this week:
Lord Jesus, my Rabbi, my Teacher and Friend. As I walk behind you this week may I be covered in your dust. May I be covered in your way thinking, living and acting. May the mysteries of Holy week leave me entirely covered with your life, changed and made new.
I want to follow you more closely. I know that I cannot do it all on my own. I transfer all my trust to you. I trust that you love me; that you gave your life to save me; and that you now live at my side every day to enlighten, strengthen and free me. I give everything to you. I want you to oversee everything: my mind, my heart, my words, my thoughts, my body, my future, and all my relationships. Jesus, I trust in you.