Pauca Verba is Latin for A Few Words.

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Intercessions ~ Seventeenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sts. Joachim and Ann ~ German 15th c.


Monday is the Feast of the Apostle James who writes:/ "Religion that is pure and genuine in the sight of God the Father will show itself by such things as visiting orphans and widows in their distress and keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world."/ May we learn well the apostles mercy invitation./ We pray to the Lord.

Tuesday is the Feast of Sts Joachim and Ann,/ the parents of the Virgin Mary./ We pray for parents and grandparents,/ aware of those whose families are stressed by war,/ food shortages,/ unemployment,/ domestic violence./ We pray to the Lord.

Pope Francis is in Canada this week on what he is calling a Penitential Pilgrimage,/ apologizing to the indigenous peoples of Canada for the part the Catholic Church played in the physical,/ mental and cultural abuse of indigenous children in church run institutions./ May we understand/ and share the pope's concerns/ and search within ourselves to attain the clean heart of the Gospel./ We pray to the Lord.

Terrible wildfires are burning in Europe and our own country./ We pray for the relief of fire-fighters,/ and the protection of human persons,/ property and wild life./ May we learn a new and deep respect for the planet on which we live./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the Church where it is unsettled by scandal,/ criminality,/ poverty,/ or losses it has brought upon itself by the neglect of Christ./ We pray for the clergy who sometimes are devoid of spiritual content,/ behaving more like tradesmen,/ law-enforcement or corporate managers./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the children who are waiting to be born./ For the young people who are bullied and feeling lost and desperate./ For the young people who are lost to addictions,/ enslavement,/ poverty,/ and a heartbreaking sense of failure and alienation./ We pray to the Lord.

We cannot fail to pray for Ukraine and the many other places where there is war./ For those who create and defend wars and the awfulness of bombs,/ mines,/ missiles and the unrelenting bombardment of civilians/ For the turning of those who hold the evil of war in their hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Vacation Blog

 


Taking a break of a few days — leaving off with the Sunday intercessions posted tomorrow morning as usual and picking back up the first week of August. Meanwhile, here's a marvelous icon for you titled, Mother of God, Joy of All who Sorrow. It's kind of a busy icon with lots going on — but such is the world with so many people anguished with hunger, war, sickness, great poverty, loneliness, troubles and injustices. The Holy Mother is bright and attentive to the many written supplications being sent up her way. There's a wonderful fanciful garden of super-blooms behind her (the real Miracle-Grow) — inviting us to relief and the joy of beauty. 

When I was in seminary, I'd go off in the evening every other week or so to visit my father. We'd sit and I'd fill him with seminary stories and then, when it was time for me to head back, he'd walk me to the door of his place and say, "See ya son, keep the faith." I expect that was an old Irish-ism he'd heard growing up. So, until the end of July I send a blessing — stay well and safe and "Keep the faith."


Tuesday, July 19, 2022

Compose your own psalms ~ you know you can do that, right?




More often than not, the one hundred and fifty psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures are attributed to King David. Maybe. But even though the word psalm means praises on a stringed instrument, they are often long, whiney laments about un-named troubles (maybe bad health) or requests to seek divine vengeance upon troublemakers and unholy people. Often the psalmist wallows in self-pity and only in the last moment does he seem to snap out of his misery long enough to praise God.

For 2000 plus years we've been praying somone else's words. Nothing wrong with that but maybe it's past time we started composing our own psalms. What about it? I'd suggest we wouldn't be writing psalms to replace David's. No one would even need to know you're a psalm composer, so there's no need to worry about the judgments of others.

My seminary psalm course professor was a noted academic. He never seemed to consider that as priests we'd be praying psalms with people at every Mass for the rest of our lives. So here I am, about 47 years later wanting to write, A Psalm of Stephen. I knew a priest who every day wrote what he called his, angry psalm. He was in AA and I expect he needed to write his angry psalms to help him stay the gentle, light-hearted man I knew him to be. But a psalm can reflect any emotion. It does seem to me however that even an angry or sad psalm needs to have some expression of gratitude and love for God who deserves our confidence. 

So, I'd invite you to join me. What motivated the psalm below that I've composed myself? I was in a public garden and standing for mesmerized minutes at the edge of two large sections of Mountain Mint, a remarkable native pollinator plant which was covered with hundred of pollinators: seemingly every kind and size bee, wasp, moth and butterfly. They were so distracted in their grazing, getting stung didn't even enter my mind. Here's a few pointers if you'd like to set out with me:

  • Avoid religious sounding language; Jesus spoke plainly.
  • Maybe begin with something that's moved you deeply recently.
  • Remember in high school — simile and metaphor?
  • Avoid rhyming lines — it's too much work and makes things sound stilted.
  • Do I need permission? Baptism is your ticket. 
  • But CAN I do this? Of course you can. But many of us have been shutdown in one way or another. Find or re-discover your voice. No excuses.
  • Avoid words that are over-used, powerless, or that say too little. Stretch your vocabulary.
  • Father Antony Bloom said, "Don't pray until you feel something." Write from the heart.
  • There are four basic emotions: happy, sad, angry, afraid. Everything else will fall into these categories. A psalm can include any/all of these feelings.
  • Can I invent words? Absolutely. I think I may have invented two in my psalm here.
  • What about punctuation and grammar? God is not a teacher with a red pencil


I want to sing my own song,

a new song

to the God of endless imagination,

who brings beauty into being

and everything alive,

all seasoned and cyclic,

and me —

meditated and still,

locked-on before this brilliance.


Here I am before these mountains of Mountain Mint,

July-blooming,

square-stemmed,

silver-leaved,

galax-ied flowers, soft lavender-pink,

slow to bloom,

creating anticipation.


Here I am in this warming air,

by bright morning sun,

mint covered in the diversity of  bees —

striped bumbled bees,

honey bees, 

almost micro bees,

small wasps,

moths and butterflies.


But there's nothing to be afraid of, 

they're oblivious to my presence,

drinking up the nectar-gift —

the apiarist wondering if

this year's honey-harvest will have a minty taste.


And as the plants gently sway

for countless translucent wings in motion,

is the air vibrating;

do I really hear soft buzzing?

And while I'd do nothing to confound an inquisitor,

I have to wonder,

(and laughing as I do),

is this what it is to touch your pulsing heart,

O God?



Sunday, July 17, 2022

Psalm Verse Asking for Peace


 
Olive ~ Symbol of peace


Come, consider the works of the Lord
the redoubtable deeds he has done on the earth.
He puts an end to wars over all the earth;
the bow he breaks, the spear he snaps.
He burns the shields with fire.
Be still and know that I am God,
supreme among the nations, supreme on the earth.!
Psalm 45: 9-11



Saturday, July 16, 2022

The Processing Cats of the Optina Monastery




This short video went viral in Russia a few years ago. The monks of the Optina Kozelsk Monastery have adopted ten stray cats, which in exchange for monastic hospitality keep vermin away. Every morning, Father Sergei walks the borders of the monastery property with candle and blessing cross, sending up prayers of gratitude and asking for protection and safety. But as we see here, the cats seem to enjoy participating in this tradition of monastic life.

A group of American middle-school students watched the video and afterwords mused along with their teacher: "Do you think the cats know they are receiving Father Sergei's blessing? Does Father Sergei have food with him? Or maybe the cats know he feeds them at the end of the procession and we don't get to see? Maybe he gives them warm milk?" Doesn't matter really, whatever the reason, be delighted!

P.S. The video is best enjoyed full screen with the happy music turned up a bit.

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Intercessions ~ Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time


 

May we learn in our hearts the words of St. Paisios the Elder/ whose feast was this past week and who said:/ "When there is respect for small things, there will be an even greater respect for the bigger things. When there is no respect for small things, then neither will there be for the bigger ones."/  We pray to the Lord.

God has placed a word of love in the heart of the church./ We ask for the church to be a bearer of compassion,/ healing and mercy for a broken world./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those who have had to evacuate homes and businesses while devastating fires burn./ For firefighters,/ rescuers,/ law enforcement/ and the many who volunteer to help./ For the protection of forests,/ orchards,/ vineyards and neighborhoods./ We pray to the Lord.

Renew us with gifts of kindness where there is cruelty,/ hope where there is despair,/ reassurance where there is anxiety,/ love where there is neglect,/ comfort where there is mourning,/ healing where there is sickness./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray to be willing and able to identify and love the neighbor in need,/ support and justice for those crushed by poverty./ For those who are forgotten,/ abused,/ un-invited,/ silenced,/ ridiculed,/ avoided./ We pray to the Lord.

The invasion of Ukraine is the unleashing of great darkness and sin./ We pray for the conversion of those who perpetrate the blasphemous assault against civilians in their homes,/ the laying waste of the earth,/ the destruction even of churches and monasteries./ We pray for the victims of war,/ especially  the littlest children./ We pray to the Lord.

St. Paul writes:/ "May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from God's glorious power,/ and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience,/ while joyfully giving thanks to the Father,/ who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light./ We pray to the Lord.



Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Psalm 41 ~ A Poetic Rendition

 

Ukrainian mass grave ~ "a wound to the very Heart of Love."

Here is Nan Merrill's poetic rendition of Psalm 41. She has re-presented the psalms in a way that connects the ancient text to a contemporary mind. She does not suggest her expansive translations preclude the traditional text, but that those translations be kept at hand. Might I suggest reading the psalm twice: once in the larger font and then perhaps a second time with my own thoughts in the smaller italic font.


Who among us hears the cry of the poor? (At the end of Mass a man said to me, "I'm so sick of hearing about them — the poor.")

How many open their hears (Is my heart closed to anyone? Am I okay with that?)

and heed the Call? — (Capital C. God is a call, an invitation,)

The plight of the world is a wound

to the very Heart of Love,

a scar on our own souls. (The way we treat our world wounds God's heart.)

Blessed are those who lovingly respond!


The Friend, who knows all hearts, (But Jesus knew what they were thinking and said, "Why do yo entertain evil thoughts in our hearts?" Mt. 9:4)

will remember their kindness. (We often think God remembers only our faults and sins.)

they will know joy, peace, and deep

fulfillment working in harmony

with all who serve toward healing

the needs of this troubled world. (Lovely — to work with God in healing our world.)


"As for me, I prayed, 'O Soul-Mender, (Can you name for yourself, God as soul-mender?)

be gracious unto me.

For I have been deaf to those in need; (Are we tired of hearing about Ukraine already?)

my fears paralyzed me. (Are we afraid of justice because it might mean I may have to do without something?)

I am bound like a prisoner held

in my own house,

alone and abandoned.

Each fear I push away or deny (Pushing fear away: like the little monkey with his hands over eyes and ears.)

rises up with power;

feeling anxious, lies and deceit

take the place of truth.

I can hide no longer; my confusion,

the way I blame others, (We learn to blame others at a very early age.)

have turned even my friends away.'


O Divine Healer, help me face the fears

that threaten to overwhelm; (Are there fears I'd call overwhelming?)

without your guidance, they will

bring about what I most fear! (O Christ our Savior, shed your light upon the path I have to tread.)

I am on my knees asking forgiveness; (The desert monk kneels to write his sins in the sand.)

give me strength to turn all (This is true religion, that each day I change if even in some small way.) 

that separates me from You

into love and kindness. (The Dali Lama says that  religion is kindness. Are we forgetting kindness?)

You who are Unconditional Love, You

do not judge our weaknesses;

raise me up, that I may be renewed (This is what Eucharist is supposed to do for us! Yes?)

in body, mind, and soul! (There are folks who don't want God's love to be unconditional. They usually feel this way about the weaknesses of others.) 


"By this I know that You have

graciously forgiven me; (The desert monk returns later to see the sins he'd written in the sand have been blown away.)

fear did not triumph over me,

though my heart was broken open

so the light could enter in. (A broken heart can become a source of compassion for others)

You upheld me, filled me with integrity, (Can I name a time when I've felt God holding me up?)

and opened my heart to the poor. (I asked a man who was struggling to examine his conscience, "Do you do anything for the poor?" "Not much," he honestly and quickly answered.)


Blessed be the Beloved, loving Presence (Someone complained about calling God Beloved. Why? Not manly?)

to all hearts open to Love,

from everlasting to everlasting!

Amen. (Dag Hammarskjold wrote: "People often thing that the basic command of religion is 'Do this!' or 'Don't do that!' It isn't. It's look and wonder! learn to give attention to the world around  you.")



Saturday, July 9, 2022

Not a place, but a state of mind


St. Jude's Chapel is found in Madison, NC. Like St. Jude's Hospital for Children, this little place is not owned by the Catholic Church or any church for that matter. There are no services held here, except may an occasional wedding. It was built in 1991 by the Baruito Family as a thank offering for the matriarch's surviving cancer. Made of cedar and only twelve by fourteen feet with a capacity for eight people, it is a charming place. 

Having never visited St. Jude's Chapel, I only stumbled across the photo online and had to zoom in to read the name on the outdoor sign. My immediate response to the scene was to be reminded of my first year in seminary when I had a class titled Ascetical Theology (the life of the soul with God).  

The only thing I remember from the course was the assignment we were given the first day — to describe the chapel of your own dream-design. I was delighted with the topic and remember my essay well enough. I described a wooden chapel that I came upon in a dense forest. "Then the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth."  1 Chronicles 16:33.

The dream chapel would be low, with a little sheltered entrance inviting intimacy, like this one. It would have a wood-shingled roof, reflective of the forest, and a small tower or steeple holding a single bell. My seminary years pre-dated the building of St. Jude's Chapel but turns out, are reflective of my own 1974 idea — the black iron hinges on the single front door, the low rough stone foundation and the few steps out front, as if the place had sprung up out of the ground!

There were thirty three men in that seminary class and unfortunately we never spoke to each other about our imagined dream place. A missed opportunity. We'd have learned more about each other  from that conversation than from just about anything else we ever talked about. Right or wrong, I imagined their essays depicting great urban or suburban churches - maybe contemporary round churches with wide meeting spaces, rows of pews and parking for everyone, perhaps with a school and convent attached and a covered walkway between church and rectory so Father would never have to get wet.  One priest said to us: "Boys, someday you'll build a church. My advice is, always have the light switches inside the front door so you never have to stumble around in the dark." The only light I imagined in my chapel was sunlight through small windows or candle light.

And while this essay has stayed with me for 48 years, it wasn't until years later that I realized, the chapel of my dream wouldn't accommodate a congregation.  "For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly, there is my hope. God alone is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold, so that I shall not be shaken." Psalm 62:6,7. The picture I created was not a place so much as a state of mind. 

I would have been glad for a subsequent conversation about the imagined chapel, but the assignment was never returned. Every time we met for class I hoped that the priest-professor would return the paper with comment — that there would be a response. At some point I surrendered the hope and  imagined the papers were just thrown in the garbage. A missed opportunity. On the other hand, maybe not. In hind sight, the priest might have said to me, "Are you sure you belong here, maybe you belong in a monastery seminary."  I don't know how I would have handled that. 

Years later, I drove across the state of Pennsylvania to spend some days with a community of hermit monks in Ohio. After spending a few hours talking with the prior he said, "It's clear to me that you don't have a vocation to this life, but it's also clear to me that you don't pay enough attention to your contemplative aspect." What's that? Obtaining Christ's clean heart of the gospel, waking up to the things of God in Christ, looking to follow the path of becoming the real and full human person God dreamed me to be. 




Thursday, July 7, 2022

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time



    Saint Kateri Tekakwitha ~ Icon by Robert Lentz

Thursday is the Feast of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha,/ North America's first indigenous saint./ It is said of Kateri that she prayed more with her eyes than with her lips./ Grant that we would pray well,/ admitting silence and sight to our prayer./ We pray to the Lord.

In the Book of Joshua we read:/ "Be strong and courageous,/ do not be frightened or dismayed,/ for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."/ May we learn to trust in stressful times./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the peace,/ health and wellbeing of family and friends./ But we also pray for our enemies as Jesus requires./ And if I believe I have no enemy,/ I pray for those who irk,/ confound,/ disappoint or sadden me./ We pray to the Lord.

Today it seems that it is not enough to simply disagree with others,/ but that people increasingly menace others,/ take them down in today's wild media world,/ and even make anonymous death threats./ We pray for the calming of minds,/ hearts and souls./ May we learn again how to live peaceably and respectfully./ We pray to the Lord. 

Pope Francis will soon go to Canada to apologize to the Native American community for the painful failures of the church to love and serve./ We ask for a Church that not only says, "Sorry,"/ but which  feels the broken heartedness of  the many who have been victimized by clergy and religious around the world./ We pray to the Lord. 

War is anguish and waste,/ smoke and flame,/ terror and blood,/ tears and death./ We pray for Ukraine/ and the many other places where there is war — for healing and restoration./ We pray to the Lord.

July 4th was the 185th day of the year,/ but also the day marking the 308th mass shooting,/ leaving hundreds dead and many more injured,/ even damaged for life./ Forgive and heal the nation slowing bleeding itself,/ allowing its children to be murdered./ Raise up pro-life voices of true lament and change./ We pray to the Lord.



Tuesday, July 5, 2022

Jesus Will Ask Me


When I die and stand before Jesus Christ who is my God, he isn't going to ask me about anyone else. He won't ask me about the two men who live in the neighborhood who got married. He won't ask me about the unmarried young woman with the baby, or the girl I heard had an abortion. He won't ask me about the atheist I met at a summer gathering. He won't ask me about the Jews or the people of color. He won't ask me about the woman who feels more comfortable as a man. He won't ask me about the parish woman I know who left the Catholic Church and now goes to the Episcopal Church on Sunday. He won't ask me about the Catholic couple who got divorced and remarried outside the Church without annulments. He won't ask me about the Republicans or the Democrats. He won't ask me about the co-worker's son who wound up in jail. He will only ask me how I loved these people. That requirement is written in the book he holds in Father Zenon's icon. 


N.B. The gist of this paragraph came to me from a friend who received it from a Quaker friend unknown to me. Adjusting it a bit, I've added the Christ-dimension, changed the pronouns from "you" to "me. Expanded the examples and added Father Zenon's icon of Christ the Teacher. 

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Psalm 16 ~ True Happiness


"Love...holding me in its power."

Nan Merrill (+2010) has written a book titled: Psalms for Praying, An Invitation to Wholeness. Here is a brief review of the book giving a sense of what the author has done for us. 

The Psalms are the oldest prayers in the Judeo-Christian tradition. There are 150 of them, and they were written for a variety of occasions. They remain popular as devotional resources because they speak to us cogently about the human condition. The Psalms express the hopes and fears, the gratitude and the anger, the joy and the sadness that we all experience at one time or another.

This paperback is the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Nan Merrill's Psalms for Praying, and the author has made some revisions. She has recast all 150 Psalms in poetic form and sees them as a companion to use with those in the Hebrew Scripture. Merrill hopes that these prayers will also be used to awaken us to love, silence, peace, wholeness, and acts of justice, mercy and compassion. In times of war, these cries from the heart become even more poignant. 
Here is the author's poetic recasting of Psalm 16 — A Psalm of Confidence and True Happiness. My own verse-by-verse thoughts follow.

1 Remain ever before me
     O Living Presence,
   for in You am I safe.
2You are my Beloved; in You
   and through You I can do all things.

3 I look to those who are at one
     with You and learn
   from them of your ways;
4 My delight increases each time
   I sense your Presence within me!
Songs of praise well up from my heart!

5 Love is my chosen food, my cup,
   holding me in its power.
6 Where I have come from,
Where're I shall go,
   Love is my birthright,
     my true estate.

7 I bless the Counselor who guides my way;
   in the night also does my heart instruct me.
8 I walk beside the Spirit of Truth;
   I celebrate the Light.
I bask in the Oneness of All!
9 Thus my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
I shall not be afraid,
  nor fall into the pit of despair;
For in Love's presence I know the fullness of joy.

10 You are my Beloved and, in You
   will I live forever!


Verse 1:  A purist might say, "The traditional psalm doesn't use the term "Living Presence." OK, but have I ever named God for myself, or do I only use the words of other people? Do we use the word God so easily that it's almost a throwaway word? Here Nan Merrill has thoughtfully given God a new name — "O Living Presence."  The little sound-word "O" expresses wonderment. In a scary, dangerous world, I can feel safe in this sure Presence.

Verse 2: Here again, the poet-author gives God another name. "Beloved.." And when I live with and in the Beloved, not only do I feel safe, but I feel encouraged and strengthened. Indeed, "I can do all things." How fitting for folks who feel disempowered, degraded, ignored, self-doubting, insecure.

Verse 3: The psalmist is a communal person. We don't live spiritually in isolation. "I look to those who are at one with You." Who might these be? The saints, surely. But also the un-canonized holy and good ones I have met along the way. 

Verse 4: "Delight increases within me." Does the word delight express my personal religious/spiritual world? How does this delight in God's Presence find expression in my life?

Verse 5: This is interesting — I think the author has again re-named God. Here she calls God simply Love. God who is Love, is like food and drink to me. A necessity. My sustenance. This Love is a power which holds me. I'm thinking of the icon of the Cambrai Mother of God above (c.1340) holding the Infant Christ who is squirming and climbing up the front of the Holy Mother pulling on her veil and holding her chin with his right hand. The icon's unspoken message seems gives expression: This is how you are loved—God is climbing all over us or climbing over all the obstacles of history (global and personal) to get to us in love. 

Verse 6: "Where I have come from...Where'er I go..." Of course, I think of my parents, but I also remember when I was in my forties and went back to the Bronx to stand by and touch the marble Baptismal font where my parents brought me as a newborn. We have all come from a Baptismal font as the siblings of Jesus. And again, the trillion, trillion, trillion coincidences that have brought me to today and just as wondrously to tomorrow for the rest of my life.

Verse 7: A traditional translation would say, "God who gives me counsel." Nan Merrill says more simply and as a way of giving God a new name, "I bless the Counselor." And what a lovely thought, that this good Counselor instructs my heart even in the night while I sleep. But the "night" can also be the world's darkness. Even then, God teaches me how to go. Am I a good heart-learner?

Verse 8: "The spirit of Truth." But truth isn't just new information about God, something that's accomplished because I've read the right books or listened to the latest expert. The truth is the truth of God's love seen in Christ. I want to live that kind of authentic life—my own unique life lived fully as Christ lived his. That's what it is to live in the Light.

Verse 9:You see here — the godly way is a way of gladness and rejoicing. It dispels fear which gives birth to despair, anger, resentment, hatred, even violence and wars. Here again, the author calls God simply, "Love." And this love gives cause for full joy. I think it was C.S. Lewis who said, "There is no such thing as a sad Christian." 

Verse 10: God again is called "Beloved." Maybe that's the promise of eternity, living forever in love — given and received. Isn't that what we all long for — to love and to be loved?