january 14, thursday

The reflection this morning on the readings from today included this phrase: "we live in a high tech, low touch society". Ouch. It is true. Jesus reached out and touched people in his ministry to heal. The leper, in today's reading. I'm praying especially today for the wounded and suffering in Haiti.. that the presence of the rescue teams will include touch. May miracles abound today in Haiti... and around the world.. including in our home.

St. Hilary | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org

St. Hilary | Saint of the Day | AmericanCatholic.org

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january 10, 2010 01/10/10

Listening to Andrea Boccelli singing Silent Night. The boys are out getting burgers on their last night of the holiday together and pete and I had leftover Thai food. It is calm and bright. Pete and the boys installed an overhead light in our front hall. So, it is a little brighter in our living room/front hall. We went for a walk today at Pt. Reyes. When we arrived at our favorite trailhead we saw a lot of search and rescue people. Sheriff's office, Coast Guard, Park Rangers, ambulances. Evidently a 47 year old woman had left her truck in the McClure Beach parking lot and had disappeared on Thursday evening. The search began yesterday, Saturday. There were groups of four search and rescue individuals sprinkled on the hillsides. They had set up an antennae on the top of several hills to afford communication between them and headquarters. When we'd left, the team was still assembling parties to go out and doing a lot of waiting/standing vigil. I told Pete it reminded me of the parable of the shepherd who lost one sheep. The shepherd leaves 99 of his sheep to go looking for that one lost sheep. The searchers were grim-faced but determined to do their jobs. We encountered several of the teams as we hiked and they asked if we had seen anything unusual. Sadly, no, all we saw was beautiful Pt. Reyes, the ocean, the hills, birds, the dirt under our feet, and eachother, and other hikers. I wondered as we encountered the other hikers how they were taking in the news that there was a woman missing somewhere on that part of God's earth. I sensed that we were all uttering our own prayers in our quiet hearts. God bless Katharine Truitt ... where ever she is.

january 7, 2010

Today's reading from the first letter from John : 1 Jn 4:19–5:4 "Beloved, we love God because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,”but hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This is the commandment we have from him: Whoever loves God must also love his brother."

wednesday after epiphany

From today's readings, this is an excerpt from the first letter of John:

"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also must love one another. No one has ever seen God. Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us, and his love is brought to perfection in us." St. Teresa of Avilla says that Christ has no hands but ours. So many saints whose voices from centuries before coming down to beckon us to fuller life. Saints John, Teresa, Benedict, Charles Borromeo (my patron saint for 2009), Catherine of Siena (my niece Maggie just chose Catherine for her Confirmation saint), Joan of Arc (my Confirmation saint), Mary, the mother of Jesus, Joseph, the father of Jesus, Francis of Assisi, ...the list goes on and on. Today is the feast day of Blessed Andre of Bessett... who died in the 1920's in Canada. His sainthood rested on his prayers for the sick. Although he himself was frail, the bishop elected to ordain him a priest and gave him the job of praying for people. Many people believe they were healed by his prayers.

If the only way we see God is through love where do I see God in the world? In the loving marriages I behold, in the love of parent and child, in the loving friendships I know, in all the ways that individuals extend themselves on behalf of others... love is all around... I want to receive inspiration from God's presence in all these places. To keep on keepin on.

one more try

From the Prologue, January 3, of the Benedictine Rule:

"And the Lord, seeking his laborer in the multitude to whom He thus cries out, says again, "Who is the one who will have life, and desires to see good days" (Ps. 33[34]:13)? And if, hearing Him, you answer, "I am the one," God says to you, "If you will have true and everlasting life, keep your tongue from evil and your lips that they speak no guile. Turn away from evil and do good; seek after peace and pursue it" (Ps. 33[34]:14-15).And when you have done these things, My eyes shall be upon you and My ears open to your prayers; and before you call upon Me, I will say to you, 'Behold, here I am'" (Ps. 33[34]:16; Is. 65:24; 58:9).
What can be sweeter to us, dear ones, than this voice of the Lord inviting us? Behold, in His loving kindness the Lord shows us the way of life."

Thank you St. Benedict for this encouragement.

January 1, 2010

I missed mass today! From the book of Numbers , it reads: "The LORD said to Moses: 'Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!'" Sometimes I have received that blessing and it has punctured my heart. Why? I don't know.. somehow I have become frozen or numb to the knowledge htat God is above (or where ever God is) and that God cares deeply about me and about all creation. To be on the receiving end of a blessing is a powerful thing. To be the one who blesses is a powerful thing too! But both activities require an openess that sometimes ain't there. When I was in the hospital with my grandmother who was nearing the end of her life, a hospital chaplain came in to visit. My grandmother was not a church goin' gal. For marital harmony she had agreed to go along with my grandfather's position that religion wasn't just a lot of "hooey" but that it was at the root of the world's ills. Anyway the chaplain took the opportunity to talk to me and to leave my grandmother in peace. She taught me a Christian adaptation of a Buddhist way of being present to my grandmother as the two of us sat in her hospital room. I would sit quietly next to my beloved grandmother and pray that all that was broken would leave my grandmother and through me be lifted up to the "throne of heaven" (give it to God) and then ask God to send His love through me back to my grandmother. This prayer was a gift to me and I hope to my grandmother. Now, this is a way too that I can bless another AND ME without speaking aloud. God can work in so many ways.. and its a good thing because we're complicated creatures!