In the East/ this last Sunday before the start of Lent is called Forgiveness Sunday./ We pray for anyone we need to forgive for past hurts and offenses./ For the world to be blessed with gifts of reconciliation and healing./ We pray to the Lord. Lent begins this Wednesday./ May we grow in holiness,/ faith and goodness these forty days./ For those preparing for Baptism at Easter./ We pray to the Lord.
Pope Francis is scheduled to make a visit to the Muslim Kingdom of Morocco at the end of March./ We pray for his safety in traveling/ and ask for his trip to be fruitful/ as Morocco is a center of inter-religious dialogue./ We pray to the Lord. At the start of March,/ we pray for those who celebrate birthdays,/ anniversaries,/ and other days of remembrance,/ asking for good health,/ safety,/ and docility of heart./ We pray to the Lord. Tensions in Venezuela,/ and between Pakistan and India are dangerously high./ We pray for world leaders who are wise and skilled in de-escalating conflicts and threats./ We pray to the Lord. For the President of the United States and our Congress/ to be true servants and people of good will./ We pray for those who are sick,/ away from home,/ in prison,/ in war zones,/ un-employed or bankrupt./ For the world's children./ We pray to the Lord.
The homely wild flower photographed here, Mexican native Zinnia Haageana (ha-gee-aa-nah), was discovered by the 17th century German botanist, Johann Gottfried Zinn. Seeds from those humble plants have since been endlessly hybridized into dozens of colors and kinds, which seed companies today call fabulous. Then someone wrote recently, sharing the happy news of the birth of their baby girl called, Zinnia. Sweet name for a sweet girl! In flower symbology, Zinnias can be sent to those who need strength to endure or who are absent and suffering trials of the heart. Baby Zinnia's birth and naming might prompt us to prayer for the world's little girls.
Pink Zinnia, for the girls not allowed to twirl, or pick a dress, let alone a husband. Yellow Zinnia, shine your bright light on smile-less faces; dry tears; heal disease.
White Zinnia, soul-restoration for girls sold or stolen into slavery. Red Zinnia, give a jump to the symbolic hearts that have stopped beating. Orange Zinnia, for the girls who have never seen a classroom, whose minds, like rain forests, are filled with secrets, solutions and remedies. Purple Zinnia, pamper each third-world girl, like the first-world girls we call princess. Father Stephen Morris
Camille Pissarro was twenty-four when he worked on this painting, while living on the Caribbean Island of St. Thomas. But notice, it's unfinished. The faraway mountains, the trees throughout - painted roughly. The building on the left - just a light sketch on a white canvas.
Here's a little Pissarro bio that might help us to understand. When Camille was twelve (1842) he was sent to a French boarding school near Paris, where the director encouraged his artistic interests. He returned to his birthplace of St. Thomas five years later (1847) to work in his father's hardware store. In 1850 (age 20) he met and traveled with the Danish painter Fritz Melbye, who painted exotic scenes for wealthy Europeans. Two years later Camille traveled with Fritz to Venezuela where he made a professional life-choice to be a painter. In 1853, his younger brother, Gustave, died. In 1854, the year of this painting, Pissarro returned to Saint Thomas to help with the family business, eventually moving to Paris to pursue his studies as a painter.
What a busy young man. We might assume with all of this going on, it's no wonder the landscape went unfinished.
But closer to home, as Lent begins in eleven days, do I have some sense that there is something unfinished about myself? That God, who knows me inside and out, might have something in mind that needs inner work. Someone said to me when I was a young priest, "With you, it's never enough." It wasn't meant as a compliment. But Jesus didn't call his apostles together to go on holiday. And if there's any theme repeated again and again in the Gospels, it's Jesus walking down the road to the next place.
We might have a second look at Pissarro's painting and prayerfully ask, "Lord Jesus, this Lent, is there some unfinished business I need to attend to? Something yet to accomplish that you want me to understand? Some vision of myself with you that needs attention?"
Pope Francis has affirmed that access to clean drinking water is a human right,/ not merchandise to be bought and sold,/ and shameful that millions of people get sick and die each year for lack of it./ We pray for a world of justice,/ where no human life would be shortened for lack of potable water./ We pray to the Lord. A four day summit on the protection of minors draws to a close today in Rome./ We pray for children who are used,/ neglected,/ maltreated or unwanted./ For child soldiers,/ those who live in lower classes and castes,/ trafficked for sex,/ physically and emotionally abused./ We pray to the Lord. We pray for the President of the United States and our Congress./ We pray for the nation in a time of national emergency:/ where there is child poverty,/ gun violence,/ climate change,/ epidemic drug addiction and racial hatred./ We pray to the Lord. For those who are depressed,/ sick or worn down by winter./ For rescuers and winter helpers./ For the safety of travelers./ We pray to the Lord. We pray for the ability to stay standing and enduring during these difficult days./ For the well-being of family and friends./ For our own growth in goodness and holiness./ We pray to the Lord. As we anticipate Lent/ we pray to be able to forgive any person who has hurt us,/ and may we ask forgiveness of any person we may have offended in any way./ We pray to the Lord.
This past Sunday used to be called Septuagesima, the first of the three pre-Lenten Sundays with the engaging Latin names. Septuagesima means roughly, seventy - seventy days until Easter. These are get ready Sundays; a kind of front porch to Lent.
For many people, the world is moving too fast. "I don't have time to think," people complain. So these three Sundays (Sexagesima and Quinquagesima to follow) serve as a kind of heads up. Lent is a big deal; it needs time - like the winter turning to spring takes time. For me, it's regrettable that these three preparatory Sundays were dropped from the liturgical calendar in the late 1960's. Now Ash Wednesday just shows up - ready or not.
But okay, the three Sundays can still inform and help us along the inner way. In 2017 we contemplated forty paintings created by the young Russian painter, Issac Levitan. This Lent we might reflect upon the paintings of the Danish-French Impressionist, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903).
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, said:"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inner significance."The artist then isn't so much interested in doing what a camera would have done, if cameras existed centuries ago, but to open windows within to the unconscious, eternal, deeply human, spiritual things. Pissarro's new technique or new approach, called Impressionism, may help us with this. Even the word, Impressionism or Impressionist, gives us a clue: "What impression does this painting make upon me?" A person can go through a lifetime and never ask a question like that.
To that end, we'll see that apart from an occasional far-distant church, Pissarro doesn't employ overtly religious themes or images at all. But he believed everything was beautiful, and his response to beauty can spark insight and awareness, thought and feeling within ourselves these approaching Lenten days. Pissarro said, "Blessed are they who see beautiful things in humble places where other people see nothing." Sounds like an invitation to wake up in a sleepy world. And isn't that what Spring is - a great waking up? Jesus is often telling us to wake up, and every account of his healing a blind person is an invitation tosee! I might invite you then to spread the word - that folks might find something new and different here this coming Lent which begins with Ash Wednesday, March 6.
Leaving the synagogue Jesus went to Simon's house. Now Simon's mother-in-law was in the grip of a high fever and they asked him to do something for her. Standing over her he rebuked the fever and it left her. And she immediately got up and began to serve them. (Luke 4:38-39)
The account of Jesus healing Peter's mother-in-law is told in all three of the Synoptic Gospels (synoptic means the three gospels that are similar in many ways). Mark tells the story in the first chapter of his Gospel, 1:29-31. Matthew tells us later in chapter 8:14-15. No matter, the account always follows after the story of the demon possessed man who came into the synagogue and was healed by Jesus.
It seems that as soon as the synagogue service was over, Jesus went to Peter's house. It's also Andrew's house, who is Peter's brother. Mark tells us that James and John went too. This wall-painting shows us the little house suddenly filled with all of the newly called apostles. In the fresco here Peter seems to be introducing his wife's mother to Jesus, but Jesus appears to be ahead of introductions. The painter has included two of the sick lady's pleased neighbor friends. A sweet imagined detail.
Jesus holds a little scroll in his right hand. A Catholic might think Jesus picked up a copy of the synagogue weekend bulletin. Rather, it's the artist's way of telling us that Jesus is teaching us something even without words. And while the two verses shared above are from Luke's Gospel, the painting shows Jesus taking the lady by the hand, which we're told of in Mark's version.
Why such variety in the telling? One evangelist wants to stress one aspect over another. And any story is going to be told in different ways by the folks who were present.
Verse 38: They go to Simon's house. We've not even heard of Simon before this verse. Luke doesn't tell us anything about the calling of the apostles. So maybe Jesus and Peter are newly acquainted, and Peter wants to introduce Jesus to his family. But someone is sick. We don't know her name because it isn't important. It is a very human story: Jesus entering a home. Jesus not being afraid of sickness. Jesus listening and responding to a human need. Jesus at once translating Saturday worship and prayer into care for others.
The verse goes on to tell us it was a high fever. We can surmise that this lady is no youngster and is down for the count. Interesting, they ask Jesus: "Can you do something for her?" They don't tell Jesus what to do, but they have just seen him free the demon possessed man in the synagogue only minutes before.
A fever! Here the fever is physical, but sometimes our thinking is fevered - like whipped up fevered fears, fevered tale-telling or fevered assessing about how other people are living their lives. Like the fevered chorus of townsfolk in an Italian opera!
Verse 39: The religious laws forbade someone visiting the sick from sitting on the bed. That's good advice even for today. Luke tells us Jesus remained standing and scolded the fever, as if it was some kind of personal presence or power. But Mark tells us so tenderly and characteristically, "Jesus took her by the hand and raised her up." So human - and with a hint of resurrection. Christians ought to specialize in taking people by the hand. But we live in a germ obsessed culture - all these sprays, wipes, filters and sanitizers. Along with a smile, holding another person's hand is perhaps the most Christian action. It's just the Gospel.
Luke tells us that the healed woman got up from the bed immediately and started to serve them. This isn't proof that women belong in the kitchen, but a demonstration that the healing was complete, and that she didn't have lingering effects. "Oh give me a little time and I'll get back to you when I regain my strength." Things are back to normal for this lady.
Will we ever see "normal" again in the life of the Church or in the nation? God will have to answer that. But we can ask for ourselves to be kept on our feet and strong enough to do what we have before us to do. That's a good prayer.
Pope Francis convenes a global summit of bishops next week on sex abuse prevention./ We pray for the meeting to be fruitful,/ opening the way for the Church to become a new place of healing./ We pray to the Lord.
For the President of the United States,/ our Congress and those in positions of authority everywhere./ May they be freed of lies,/ animosity and mockery,/ and grow in their capacities to respect the dignity of the people in their care./ We pray to the Lord.
February is Black History Month./ May we learn the story/ and value the gifts African Americans bring to this country./ We pray for the nation to be healed of the deep and still festering wound of racial hatred./ We pray to the Lord.
We pray for the poor nation of Yemen/ which is being called the worst man-made humanitarian disaster,/ where two thirds of the population lack food-security./ May we learn how to create a world of justice and peace./ We pray to the Lord.
Grant health,/ strength and healing to the members of our families and friends,/ shelter for the homeless,/ encouragement for those who are losing hope,/ comfort for those who are isolated or feeling forgotten./ We pray to the Lord.
Give us courageous hearts to protect the green and blue planet entrusted to our care./ Free us from entitlement,/ greed,/ destructive exploitation and selfish indifference./ We pray to the Lord.
While the Eastern Church makes scant mention of St. Valentine, here a devout soul has created a contemporary icon to his memory. The skillfully applied gold background suggests: This is one luminous saint!
While Valentine holds the Book of the Gospels in the crook of his left arm, I'm wondering why the iconographer has not placed a cross in his right hand - the usual indicator of a martyr. Anyway, Valentine's story is convoluted - apparently a third century priest of Rome, then made Bishop of what is today Terni, Italy, he was martyred during the persecution of Claudius. The saint's biographies relate in some detail the movement of his relics from here, to there and everywhere.
He's called the Patron Saint of Lovers, but that seems to me too small, and has given way to the sad reduction of his person to an 18.2 billion dollar candy, flower, jewelry, lingerie, greeting card industry. Eight hundred and fifteen million dollars alone are spent on Pet Valentines! God doesn't give us prophets, saints and bodhisattvas to bump up national economies.
But years ago I read an account of Valentine's life that I wouldn't want to forget. It seems that during the persecution of Christians, when many languished in prisons, Valentine was somehow able to get notes and letters smuggled in to them - messages of encouragement, consolation and loving union. Nothing romantic about that, but a fierce determination to get around the obstructors, to the gritty suffering of persons.
In 1969 there was a major renewal of the Church's liturgical calendar, whereupon saints like Valentine, Christopher, Dymphna and Philomena, were removed from the universal observance of their feast days. It wasn't to say, as some people interpreted, that Valentine didn't exist or wasn't a saint, but that his story didn't warrant a universal celebration. In a nasty, divided, militarized, terror-world, we could do with a universal Patron of Love.The Church might better have released Valentine from his red-ribbon-shackles, allowing him to be the new model of love: antidote to the world's urgent problems. So today, I want to send Valentines to the world - my own notes of heart-awareness and good wish to the persons and places of pain, menace, ignorance and death.
Forgive us holy Valentine,
for the degradation of your charism:
the illuminated sign of the highway sex shop
offering Valentine Specials. I send up Valentines to the mountain top where the snow leopard lives; to the sky, where ducks fly their ancient migratory way. I send up Valentines to the dawn colored clouds; pray your poisoned rain be purified. I send up Valentines to the encircling satellites; to the space station pilgrims - blink back to us secrets of peace. I send out Valentines to the fear-shivering children - victim carriers of heart-breaking, stomach-churning sins. I send out Valentines to my ancestors in their desperation, brokenness, addiction and fatigue. I send out Valentines down deep to sailors asleep in ocean trenches; soldiers absorbed into the soil of forests and fields. I send out Valentines to secreted places, the womb, the residuum, the places we call God-forsaken, in truth, human-forsaken; heart-sentences of solidarity kiss and caress. I send out Valentines to the heartbeats I hear thousands of miles away: notes of happiness, healing, wholeness and life. Father Stephen P. Morris
A friend wrote recently and asked, "Have you heard about the little boy and the bear?" I thought it was the opening line to a joke, like, "Did you hear the one about the rabbi, the minister and the priest?" No joke.
A three year old boy in North Carolina was staying with his great-grandmother last month and got separated from his fellows and went missing for nearly three days. A huge search effort got underway: helicopters, drones, search dogs and hundreds of volunteers and police. The effort was called off one night when the temperatures dropped too low during the recent cold snap. Sounds biblical, but: "...on the third day..." the boy was found about 100 feet into the nearby swampy woods - cold, hungry, snagged in vines, but alive and well.
Here's the part that's really got folks' attention: the boy said that a friendly bear stayed with him the whole time. Of course, many of the grown ups said he just made up the story and that the whole thing was three year old fantasy. But why not?
And here is Mikail Nesterov's painting of the young 14th century St. Sergius of Radonezh standing in the deep and misty Russian forest with the bear who kept him company. Notice the song bird at the top of the birch sapling, the spring flowers on the forest floor. Children and saints in harmony with animals and plants can be reflections of the ancient time we might call the time of the Blessed-s: when human beings were right with God. We even call Jesus' presentation of that time or condition, The Beatitudes. You know: Blessed are the poor in spirit...Blessed are the meek...Blessed are the merciful...(Matthew 5,6,7)
Jesus' teaching is timeless of course. But the story of the three-year- old boy and the bear, and Sergius and his bear, prompted me to write my own Blesseds, with our time and situation in mind. Blessed are the adults who welcome and safeguard children and young people as the world's first priority. Blessed are the planet protectors - the new holy people. Blessed are those who refuse to see endless wars and militarization as the world's normal. Blessed are those whose personal effort is to get the bombs out of their hearts. Blessed are those who strive for a life un-distracted by securing money and protecting possessions. Blessed are those who cast out fear by confidence in God. Blessed are those who create beauty as antidote to all the destruction. Blessed are those who carry compassion and justice within themselves.
Early in February,/ we pray for those who keep birthdays,/ anniversaries and other days of remembrance,/ asking for good health,/ safety and peace./ We pray to the Lord. May we share the thoughts of Pope Francis/ who prayed before departing for the Arabian Peninsula this past week:/ "Let us pray loudly because there are children who are hungry and thirsty,/ who don't have medicine/ whose lives are in danger./ We pray to the Lord. May the President of the United States,/ our congress and those in leadership everywhere,/ model for us the virtues of kindness,/ courtesy,/ generosity,/ and a deep awareness of the needs and pains of the people they serve./ We pray to the Lord. Gun death is being called a public health epidemic,/ with nearly 40,000 Americans killed by guns in 2018./ Six in ten are dead by gun suicide./ We pray boldly for a nation healing./ We pray to the Lord. Monday is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes./ We join the millions who pilgrim to Lourdes every year,/ asking for gifts of peace,/ healing and strength./ We pray to the Lord. Thursday is the Feast of St. Valentine./ May we learn how to love others rightly,/ freed of heart-violence,/ possessiveness,/ fear/ and so much judging./ We pray to the Lord. We intercede for the people around us at Mass today,/ whether we know them or not,/ as each person is carrying some heavy burden./ For our families and friends./ For the sick,/ the prisoner,/ the lonely/ and those who are convinced they are of no worth or significance./ We pray to the Lord.
Here is another painting,Madonna and Child, painted by the 13th century artist, Duccio di Buoninsegna. And along with it, the oldest known prayer to the Virgin Mary, dating to the 3rd century.
We fly to your patronage,
O Holy Mother of God,
despise not our petitions in our necessities,
but deliver us always from all dangers,
O glorious and blessed Virgin.
Amen.
Can you feel the prayer's urgency, We fly! And the title Mother of God (Theotokos) which was formally bestowed on Mary at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. The third line gets right to it: our lives are full of necessity. We bring all our anxious concerns to the prayer, not only for ourselves, but for our families and dear ones, the nation, the church and the world. The prayer acknowledges that we live in a dangerous world. But may I suggest, the greatest dangers are those which threaten our inner lives:
the danger of our souls suffocating under so many possessions,
the dangers of becoming toxic by prevailing hatreds,
the danger of willful ignorance and indifference.
the danger of not evolving or becoming who we were created to be.
Name it for yourself: what awareness of dangers do you bring to this prayer? The painting is as personal as the prayer is - notice the Holy Child looks at his mother; while she looks at us. The prayer then ends with a burst of praise: O glorious and blessed Virgin!
At first glance, Psalm 18 may appear to be two psalms arbitrarily linked together. But these days, scholars carefully discerning thematic links, are suggesting otherwise. And when we become aware of these links of sun (verses 1-7) and Torah (God's law: verses 8-15)), the psalm becomes very much unified and beautiful.
We need to remember that the ancient Hebrews were more poets than scientists. They believed they lived under a kind of solid dome, the ends of which came down and were attached to the ends of the earth. This dome had a watery heaven above it which provided rain through openings. Planets and stars hovered inside the dome and the sun moved from this end to that.
Verses 1-2: We have largely lost the ancient sense that nature has a voice: The heavens declare; the skies proclaim. Nature speaks to us. The 2nd verse goes so far as to refer to this communication as unending and knowledge-displaying speech. Indeed, as the great forests are chopped down and burned away, some aware people raise their voices lamenting the knowledge of the trees, plants and animals being lost to us.
Verses 3-4: Nature has its own language and voice that is spoken in every place..."to the ends of the world," the psalmist says.
Verses 5-6: In the ancient world the sun was worshipped as a god. But here, the sun is not a god, but a created object made by a ruling, creator God! Glory belongs to God, not the sun. The sun is in God's service. The power and beauty of the sun affirm God's rule. The sun, rising at one end (the east) and making its great, daily tour across the dome to the western end, is an image of how broad and sweeping God's rule is.
Verse 7: The psalmist is aware that the sun is a powerful, energizing life-giver. Everything benefits from its heat and light. Isn't it so: the Winter Solstice has arrived, the northern hemisphere's turning again into the sun's light. And if that did not take place, if we continued into deepening darkness, the planet would die.
This might be a good place to note, that this psalm is placed among a cluster of what are called Royal Psalms - psalms for and about the king. And here the message to the king (premier, prime minister, president) is: the leader has a responsibility, like the sun, to provide life for the people. Life for ALL the people, as the sun shines on everyone, in all our variety and need.
But there is more; Psalm 18 isn't just an ode to the sun. We might better see the sun-verses as a transition for the next verses which tell us that real life is about being dependent upon God's law. Sun-like, God's rule energizes us to live authentic and full lives!
Verses 7-9: God's law is perfect - it revives us. God's decrees are sure - making us wise. God's precepts are right - making us joyful. God's commands are clear - enlightening us. God's ordinances are true - giving us right direction to live our lives as God intends.
Verse 10: I can order up the TV life: the food, the trips, the style, the stuff and still not have a real life.
Verse 11: We're told that reward is to found in keeping God's ordinances. But reward is not like the gold and silver foil-stars the teacher put on our papers, or punishments for failure. Biblical reward is a life lived in relationship with God. Biblical reward is an invitation to a new life lived in harmony with God, other people and all of creation. Some people "do" a lot of religion but there's nothing new or even harmonious about them.
Remember Psalm 1? The person who walks in God's counsel (God's good advice) is like a tree planted on the bank of a stream - "Whatever he does prospers." Prospers = becomes fully alive! So, the question isn't, "Am I following all the rules and believing all the divinely revealed truths?" but, "How am I living in the God-intended life I was created for?" There's a difference.
Verses 12-13: We ask the forgiveness of the God who knows we are full of faults, mistakes and weakness but who gives us what we need to grow us up. Blameless doesn't mean we're without faults, but that we know how deeply dependent we are on God. We're acceptable to God, not when we're finally sinless, but when we know how much we need God.
In other biblical places we see that God isn't impressed with the whole animal sacrifice thing, but when we live our lives humbly before God - down to earth about ourselves - without masks, power plays, references and resume.
Verse14: In the end, the psalmist calls upon God as rock and redeemer. God's gifts are personal and intimate. The word redeemer is closely linked to another word used to describe the relatives who would pool their money as ransom to get a sibling, child, parent or cousin, freed from slavery. Well, there you have it: The good God who made the sun and set it in place, is the same God who is as close to us as our closest relative!
