Pauca Verba is Latin for A Few Words.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Intercessions ~ Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Prayers for the American Territory of Puerto Rico 

Wednesday is the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi./ We ask to live the words of his prayer:/ Lord, make us instruments of your peace,/ where there is hatred may we sow love./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the poor,/ storm-battered island of Puerto Rico,/ and for all those throughout the Caribbean who are heartsick with struggle and painful loss./ We pray blessings for all who are generous helpers./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask blessings for our families and friends,/ mindful of those with health concerns,/ who struggle with depression or addiction,/ financial or relational problems./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray again for our country,/ fractured and divided,/ lost in bitter partisanship and culture-war arguments./ We pray to understand that our job as Americans is simply to do good to other people./ We pray to the Lord.

For the children we know and those we don't know./ For the children who suffer trauma and loss,/ who are without food,/ medical care,/ education,/ clothing,/ security or love./ We pray to the Lord.

May Christians see their Sunday worship as an invitation to personal and communal transformation./ Inspire those who no longer worship or whose worship is weak and distracted./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Psalm 103 ~ God's Limitless Care for All of Creation





Click on the wild fall asters above - the field flowers mentioned in psalm 103. Some thoughts about the psalm's verses follow.

Verse 1: The psalmist begins with the little phrase, Bless the Lord, my soul. To bless means to extol, glorify, acclaim, celebrate, tell out! He's talking to his soul - his inner life, the center of his spiritual energies. Then he invites this invisible interior life to delight in God: calling to his energies, his breath, his knowledge and creativity, his powers of imagination, even his sighs.

Verse 2: Let us not forget God's benefits. The Latin word bene means good. Don't forget the many hundreds of good gifts given to me this day: this cup of tea, this breath of air, these hard working eyes, this fresh taste, this returned smile...

Verse 3: God forgives and heals. The psalmist uses the word infirmities, which is sickness. But sometimes the sickness is emotional or spiritual: sick with anger, resentment, complaint or negativity. Sometimes a whole family can be sick, or our lineage.

Verse 4: Israel didn't have a well defined sense of the afterlife. But for the Christian, perhaps this verse hints at Easter. "God redeems your life from the grave." Or maybe "grave" is used poetically to express the deadly things that can befall us on earth - the serious matters that can harm us, like the litany of addictions that are common today.

Verse 5: God renews our youth. I knew an elderly French nun whose convent was seized by Hitler's Black Shirts during the Second World War. The nuns had to sneak out at night to find something to eat. But she never soured and always kept a happy heart - joyful, awed and youthful.

Verse 6: God executes righteousness. There are Christians who love this word righteousness. I wonder if they think it means that God is like an inspector general. They hope God's righteousness is going punish all the people who are not like them. How we burden God with our own agenda! The second half of the verse tells us what it really means: God is on the side of all the world's people who are ripped off, pushed aside and ignored. There are billions of them. 

Verse 7: God has revealed God's self to Israel throughout their long history. But you have a story, and I have a story too. And God is no less revealed through our own personal stories.

Verses 8-10: God is patient, like a mother who teaches her child to walk. What a delightful thought! God isn't an angry accuser. How did we ever get that so wrong - this idea of God "upstairs" filling out his report card, angry red check-marks on his clipboard list! This is called negative belief. Someone long ago invented negative belief because it's easy to control and manipulate people if they're afraid. 

Verse 11: Fear God? St. Antony of the desert said, "I no longer fear God, but I love him." I fear only what can take me away from God.

Verse 12: God doesn't hold onto our sins, nursing a heavenly grudge against us, but hurls them as far as the east is from the west. Very neat!

Verses 13-14: The psalmist tells us twice that God's love is parental. God remembers that we are fragile and vulnerable. Think of how a good parent holds a newborn.

Verses 15-16: We come and go - like field flowers that last only a short time. As a seminarian I used to cut grass in a huge cemetery with graves going back into the 1800's - graves no one had visited in a very long time, the glorious headstones so worn, the names and dates erased. 

Verse 17: God's kindness is extended to children's children, the psalmist says. God knows our lineage, the people we have descended from and those who will come after us. God has called each of us into existence and brought us to today!

Verse 18: Notice how the psalmist fine-tunes his thoughts: God's commandments are not something we think about, or memorize, or even pray about but something that we DO




Verse 19: God's kingship is first. We're reminded of the prayer Jesus taught us: "Thy Kingdom come (but what does that mean?) Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." In seminary we often sang the hymn, The King Of Love, My Shepherd Is.

Verses 20-22: We might imagine these verses are a great chorus of praise, the psalmist summoning all the angels and all of God's visible and invisible creation - this last call to hear God from our very deepest interior place. God, who is full of hope for us, and who holds us so carefully and closely.

Sunday, September 24, 2017

Ancestral Healing




Then Jesus began to talk to them in parables, "A man once planted a vineyard," he said, "fenced it round, dug out the hole for the wine-press and built a watch-tower. Then he let it out to some farm-workers and went abroad. At the end of the season he sent a servant to the tenants to receive his share of the vintage. But they got hold of him, knocked him about and sent him off empty-handed. The owner tried again. He sent another servant to them, but this one they knocked on the head and generally insulted. Once again he sent them another servant, but him they murdered. He sent many others and some they beat up and some they murdered. He had one man left - his own son who was very dear to him. He sent him last of all to the tenants, saying to himself, 'They will surely respect my own son.' But they said to each other, 'This fellow is the future owner - come on, let's kill him, and the property will be ours!' So they got hold of him and murdered him, and threw his body out of the vineyard. What do you suppose the owner of the vineyard is going to do? He will come and destroy the men who were working his vineyards and will hand it over to others. Have you never read this scripture - 
The stone which the builders rejected, 
The same was made the head of the corner;
This was the Lord,
And it is marvelous in  our eyes?"
At this they longed to get their hands on him, for they knew perfectly well that he had aimed this parable at them - but they were afraid of the people. So they left him and went away. Mark 12:1-12

Jesus is up against religious leadership here and he is telling them this parable-story to let them know that he knows what they're up to. The parable begins, "A man planted a vineyard," which is to say, God gathered a people, Israel, who are uniquely his own. The story contains wonderful detail reflecting God's care:  the vineyard has a protective fence, an in-house wine-press and a watch-tower.

But God expected that in time this people would be fruitful in justice. Instead, the tenants (Israel) turned on God and abused the leaders God provided to secure them. And then the story becomes particularly sad, because the owner (God) not allowing his plan to be frustrated or utterly thwarted, sent servants - prophets - one after another to secure this fruit of justice. But prophets make people uncomfortable and are more often than not, likely to be exiled, abused, killed.

Jesus is saying to his religious listeners: "Murdering God's prophets is in your lineage." We all have a lineage. We all come from a long line of ancestors. We all have a family story that goes way back in time. Some of it we know about, other aspects are lost to time. This parable caused me to think that our own family-story needs to be healed. Some of the dis-ease or the historical wound influences how we are as family even to today. In every family-story there are accounts of:

divorce
child abuse
sex abuse
suicide
domestic violence
alcoholism
drug addiction
abandonment
depression
the bad spirit of ancestral:
hatred,
racial prejudice,
anti-semitism,
negative complaint


Victorious Christ ~ San Damiano ~ Assisi


What is there to do? I'd suggest consciously bringing it to Mass, and at the consecration and elevation of the bread and wine say, "Jesus please, your mercy, heal my family." You see, the stretch of Jesus reaches not only into the four directions, north, south, east and west, but also into time - past, present and future. We can entrust every wound to Jesus' timeless, healing, self-gift. 


Thursday, September 21, 2017

Intercessions ~ Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time



We pray for the many millions of people suffering heartache this week/ following earthquakes,/ repeated hurricanes,/ floods,/ fires,/ wars and terrible violence./ We pray to the Lord.

The political scene in our country is troubling:/ self-veneration,/ the seeking of power and fame,/ hyper-partisanship,/ the blatant despising of others,/ narcissism and menace./ We pray for a national conversion./ We pray to the Lord.

Autumn has begun,/ and the trees will drop many thousands of leaves./ May we drop resentment,/ willful ignorance,/ selfishness and superficiality./ We pray to the Lord.

May we be freed  from the spirit of guilt,/ which freezes past moments of regret,/ which easily becomes our point of self-identification/ and keeps us weak in serving Christ./ We pray to the Lord

We pray for the healing of those who are raised in humiliation and shame./ For families where old wounds are kept alive,/ where there is bitterness,/ sickness or dysfunction./ For those who are loved by no one./ We pray to the Lord.

Wednesday is the Feast of  Saint Vincent de Paul,/ the 17th century priest-patron of charity./ Bless us with generous hearts,/ may we be a church that welcomes all,/ that refuses no one./ We pray to the Lord.

Tuesday, September 19, 2017

Psalm 65 ~ A Psalm of Worship and Wonder




Gathered around the glorious temple with their fields and flocks, this psalm suggests that Israel has settled into an agricultural way of life. We can also hear the psalmist taking delight in God while standing in the midst of wonder and seasonal beauty.

Verse 1: The psalm begins with praise: "God, you are God!" Then the psalmist immediately references vows. We're not sure what he has in mind - perhaps just the keeping of commandments and the heart-to-heart covenant relationship Israel has with God. Catholics talk a lot about vows: wedding vows, priest vows, nun and monk vows, private vows...But before any of that, there are our Baptismal vows. Do we even know what they are?! 

Do you renounce Satan?
I do.
And all his works?
I do.
And all his empty show?
I do.
Do you believe in God...
Do you believe in Jesus Christ...
Do you believe in the Holy Spirit...
I do.

Verses 2 and 3: The psalmist seems to think that the reason we go to God is to get freed of sin. There's so much talk about sin. I grew up being taught that sin was around every corner. African Americans believe that a miracle is around every corner. Their discipleship is full of expectation and delight.

Verse 4: "Happy are they whom you choose." People will ask a priest or nun, "When did you get the call?" God calls or chooses all of us, not just those in "religious life." We're all called to a life of soulful spiritual awake-ness and faith in action. And this God-call is very satisfying, the psalmist says.

Verse 5: Now there is shift and the psalmist starts to sing of God's wonders. How God delights us - right up to the edges of the earth. He likely thought the earth was flat and had margins.

Verse 6: And God has made the strong mountains, putting them in place. Now, it's easy to take a mountain down. Instead of mining into the ground beneath the mountain, we blow it up and take what we want. A mining company claims to be able to destroy and remove a mountain in two years. Gone forever.

Verse 7: The translation we've heard here refers to the clamor of the people. The Coverdale translation speaks of the chaos of the people. Take your pick. But whichever word we prefer, we need God to fill us with peace, inside and out, and to heal the deep fractures and hurts.

Verse 8: Dawn and dusk, sunrise and sunset are given happy voices! And God's people tremble before God's signs, not for fear but for wonder. Lots of people in our fast-paced, hectic, techno-world have forgotten wonder

Verse 9: Here is a whole verse just about the plentiful gift of water. But some nations are greedy and they dam up and exploit the rivers, polluting them and deflecting the greater volume of water for themselves, ignoring the needs of those down stream. Or we rollback water protections, leaving communities vulnerable to every kind of water-bearing waste. A Buddhist mountain-top monastery doesn't use chemicals for cleaning because they know those chemicals will wind up in the water supply the people depend upon at the base of the mountain. Think of the people in Flint, Michigan.

Verse 10: God is called a provider in this verse. God provides, but human greed causes sickness, weakness and death. Justice is needed more than charity. Justice realizes and acts out of the deep awareness that on planet earth, we are all in it together. 

Verse 11: God drenches, smooths, softens, blesses. How attentive God is to his creation. How tender!

Verse 12: The psalmist sings of God's goodness. When I was a boy I was made aware of God righteous anger, God's punishing justice, God's sadness, God's disapproval and indignation. But in Christ we see God's goodness: God's patient kindness, God's reach, God's compassionate eyes, God's maternal, inviting and life-awakening voice. 

Verse 13: God is even aware of the animals grazing on the wild fields. But we have chopped down the forests and destroyed the habitats where the animals live. The orange and black Monarch butterfly was abundant when I was a boy. Now it is near extinction because the fields of milkweed, off of which it feeds on its long annual migration to Mexico and back, have been paved over with cement, blacktop and malls.  Then the psalmist says the hills are clothed with joy. And he says this without ever having seen the magnificent autumn-colored hills of this country's north east.




Verse 14: The psalmist has used the word joy three times in his psalm. Creation is so alive it seems to express emotion. The Coverdale translation says the hills laugh and shout. And if the hills and meadows can be joyful, how much more might we. A young African-American woman, who had lost everything in Hurricane Harvey, was having her hair done by a volunteer beautician in the shelter where she had found safety. When the beautician twirled her around in the chair at the end to face the mirror, the girl beamed ear to ear and said to the camera, "This has made my day." 

Sunday, September 17, 2017

Mother of God Who Dries Tears





Forgive us, O Lady
for seating you on a throne
when you'd more likely prefer
the simplicity of your Nazareth home,
where you'd sing songs to your Golden Boy
and bounce him on your knee. 
You know, we're always looking for some new way
to express our affection for the two of you. 
But I notice  as well you hold a tear-drying napkin,
the final swipe at
the guilt we bear -
the frozen, past moments,
which your son wipes away.

Father Stephen Morris

Thursday, September 14, 2017

Intercessions ~ Twenty Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time


Florida Flamingo Rescue

Pope Francis has said this week that DACA is a pro-life issue./ May we understand and embrace with increasing depth/ the meaning of the words pro-life,/ and so share the mission of Jesus./ We pray to the Lord.

In todays' Gospel,/ Jesus calls us to the radical forgiveness of others/ as the distinguishing mark of discipleship,/ and the principal work of all humankind./ May we learn his lesson well./ We pray to the Lord. 

We pray for the millions of people impacted by hurricanes throughout the Caribbean Islands,/ Texas,/ Florida and beyond./ For those who rescue and help,/ for those who work to preserve community in these damaged areas./ We pray to the Lord.

As there is a new moon this Wednesday,/ may we discover something new about ourselves,/ about God,/ other people,/ about the care of our planet./ We pray to the Lord.

Thursday is the Feast of Saint Matthew the Apostle and Evangelist./ May we love his Gospel and live Christ's Sermon on the Mount/ which Matthew has preserved for us./ We pray to the Lord.

The Jewish New Year Feast of Rosh Hashanah is celebrated this week,/ beginning a ten day period of prayer/ introspection and repentance./ May we live self-examined lives/ embracing of change/ as God invites./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Prayer For Anytime - But Especially In Autumn


Bend Oregon Aspen Grove ~ Mike Putnam Photography



O Jesus, make us young again,
young at heart,
for all the world, Jesus!
Fill us with delight
and awe and wonder
before everything that is
beautiful, good and true.

Sunday, September 10, 2017

Father Pedro Arrupe's Prayer

The Centurion at the Foot of the Cross ~ The Passion of the Christ


Father Pedro Arrupe (1907~1991) was the superior general of the Society of Jesus, SJ (Jesuits) from 1965~1983. Here is his meditative prayer, Teach Me Your Ways.


Teach me your way of looking at people:
as you glanced at Peter after his denial,
as you penetrated the fears of the rich young man
and the hearts of your disciples.

I would like to meet you as you really are,

since your image changes those with whom
   you come into contact.

Remember John the Baptist's first meeting with you?
And the centurion's feeling of unworthiness?
And the amazement of all those who saw miracles 
   and other wonders?

How you impressed your disciples,

the rabble in the Garden of Olives,
Pilate and his wife

and the centurion at the foot of the cross...

I would like to hear and be impressed

by your manner of speaking,
listening, for example, to  your discourse
   in the synagogue in Capharnaum
or the Sermon on the Mount where your audience
   felt you "taught as one who has authority."

Thursday, September 7, 2017

Intercessions ~ Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time



Monday remembers the events of September 11, 2001./ We pray for a safer,/ more peaceful world,/ strength and healing for those whose health has been compromised for their recovery work./ For those who died that day;/ for those who mourn./ We pray to the Lord.

Millions of people have been impacted by the recent hurricanes,/ Harvey and Irma./ We ask the blessing of endurance for those whose lives have been effected,/ and for those who rescue and help in any way./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for families today/ where there is sickness,/separation,/ the pain of losses/ the struggle to come up from under disaster./ We pray to the Lord.

In all the national talk about DACA and immigration reform,/ we often cite that we are a nation of laws./ May we not forget that God is God/ and that the heart of God takes precedent in all things./ We pray to the Lord.

Our relation to the earth is damaged with all the nuclear bomb tests,/ the rockets hurled into the oceans,/ the practice drills that blow up mountains,/ trees and animals./ May we learn to reverence the planet-gift God has given us./ We pray to the Lord.

There are also historic floods these days in Niger,/ Yemen,/ Sierra Leone,/ Nepal,/ India,/ Pakistan and Bangladesh,/ all countries without FEMA and reconstruction monies./ Disease follows floods./ We ask for the conversion of hearts to justice./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Into the hands of Jesus ~ A Prayer of Surrender

Trip Advisor: Cathedral Notre Dame d'Amien

In the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius we find a prayer commonly called the Suscipe. It is a prayer of surrender, asking God to receive all of my self. It begins, "Take Lord, receive..."

Older Catholics might be familiar with the daily prayer of self-gift called A Morning Offering. Folks in AA often pray what is called a Third Step Prayer: "O God, I offer myself..."

But when I stumbled on this photograph of the bound hands of Jesus found in the Cathedral of Notre Dame d'Amien, France, I thought to write/pray my own. There's nothing wrong with praying memorized prayers or prayers found in books, but I want to be sure that I feel something, so here I've composed my own surrender-prayer, focusing on the hands of Jesus as we imagine them to be in the Gospel scenes.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

I surrender all my anxious fears and enervating fantasies, 
all my past with its wounds, mistakes and wrong turns. I surrender my health concerns and the days of my aging, my relationships and anything about my life that I hope will be strengthened or healed:

I place it all in Christ's swaddled hands at Bethlehem,
Christ's work-a-day hands at Nazareth,
Christ's shivering hands at the River Jordan,
Christ's weathered hands in the temptation-desert,
Christ's gift-bearing hands at the Cana wedding,
Christ's silencing hand over the tumultuous sea.

I surrender any knowledge I possess, my skills, abilities, accomplishments and any exercise or insistence of my will that may secretly seek to control today or tomorrow:

I place it all in the hands of Christ raising up the little girl,
the hands of Christ calling the apostles ashore,
the hands of Christ touching the funeral bier,
the hands of Christ taking hold of Peter's mother-in-law,
the hands of Christ giving sight to the blind man,
the hands of Christ opening the deaf man's ears; loosing his tongue,
the hands of Christ summing Lazarus from the stone tomb.

I surrender anything I own or do that I unconsciously think identifies me, any power or notoriety I possess, my disappointments and every poisonous resentment:

I surrender it all to the child-gathering hands of Christ,
the bread-breaking, wine-passing hands of Christ,
the foot-washing hands of the teaching Christ,
the rope-bound hands of the imprisoned Christ,
the cross carrying hands of the condemned Christ,
the nail-gashed hands of the Good Friday Christ,
the Thomas-touched hands of the Easter Christ,
the radiant hands of the cosmic Christ.

Father Stephen P. Morris



Sunday, September 3, 2017

Prayer at the Start of School


Pencils perhaps are kind of passe, but this picture with it's stand-out red pencil made me think of my thirteen-year-old friend, Katie, and the standout poem-prayer she wrote for the start of school. Parents and grandparents might care to share it with the young people they know.

O Lord,
I thank you for the great things you have given me over this past summer.
I pray that in this school year, I will spread the message of Jesus through my actions and my words.
I pray that I will grow as a person, and as believer, and that I will learn many new things, especially about my faith.
I hope I will build better relationships with my friends and my peers, and that I will grow closer to God.
I pray that I will make a change for the better in my community and the world.
I pray that even though I am young, I will see that I have the ability to make a positive impact.
I pray I will always be kind and accepting of others, have courage in myself and faith in Jesus.
Allow me to never take school for granted, and help me to see the opportunity to learn not as a burden, but a gift that many children will never get.
I pray this school year will be filled with blessings, for myself, my family, my school and the world. Amen.