Pauca Verba is Latin for A Few Words.

Tuesday, August 30, 2022

A Rosary Decade When Feeling Hopeless or Heavy Hearted



A few years ago Pope Francis lovingly referred to the Rosary as, "the sweet chain that ties us to God." And recently a friend and I were talking about her rosary prayer group and she asked about the rosary I own. I sent this picture of the rosary I made when I was newly ordained nearly forty three years ago. It has gone with me all along the way. I can imagine you have your own. I enjoy presenting it here every now and again, inviting folks to pray with me. 

Here are short meditations to aid focus between each Hail Mary when perhaps feeling hopeless or heavy hearted. Or maybe you're just sitting in a waiting room and the magazines are a waste of time and you'd care to join the prayer.

Our Father...

I woke this morning beginning the new day with gratitude. God's mercies are all around — that I am God's dear child even when I don't feel it, that I am forgiven what happened even a very long time ago. God did not create me simply to figure out what work I have to do, but how to be, how to live — authentically, like Jesus.

Hail Mary...

Perhaps there is something that weighs heavily on my heart — something which threatens hope in me, which steals away energy, sleep or joy — which tests faith.

Hail Mary...

Is there worry in my life because I feel my aging (or someone dear to me)? I detect physical changes, weakness or losses that concern me. My sight, my hearing, my bones, my mind, my energy? Perhaps these signs of outer loss are an invitation to live more interiorly? In an extroverted world, to go inside. In a world that can't stop talking, to listen, to be more still. 

Hail Mary...

The state of the world is causing many people to feel hopeless. We need servant leaders. I pray for them, and that the world would be done with autocrats, liars, cowards, power-grabbers, conspiracy creators, manipulators, disrupters, soulless people devoid of conscience. What grief these people cause.

Hail Mary...

A woman who survived the Yugoslav war said, "We couldn't believe anyone would bomb a medieval city?" But here we are again with the invasion of Ukraine. It is unthinkable that in our time a single man could cause so much death, pain and destruction. Even the churches of his own publicly claimed religion are blown up. In my helplessness I pray...

Hail Mary...

Perhaps there is a person with whom I feel distance. Maybe there has been a disagreement or there is simply physical distance. The nation feels at times as if it is poised for a new war of division. There are people who call for it. Our poor weaponized country. Even the children seem to have lost their right to go to school feeling safe. In my frustration I pray...

Hail Mary...

Some events can cause us to say, "There are no words to describe how I feel." Maybe some trauma, guilt, disappointment, mistake or failure. Is there perhaps some life-turn that I simply can't make sense of, or a worry that I can't seem to shake? In that helplessness I can pray...

Hail Mary...

Is there someone I know whose struggle is chronic — a disability, a wound, handicap, some emotional problem, addiction, depression or physical disease. In my fear of the unknown or not knowing how to help I pray... 

Hail Mary...

I only have to walk outside and feel the unrelenting heat and drought to become worried. Or in other places the problem is floods. Everything seems to be record breaking or un-precedented. The covid pandemic and threats of new diseases have left us alienated and worn out. The new weapons the world continually turns out are increasingly fearsome. In my discouragement I can pray...

Hail Mary...

Before I end this rosary decade can I simply be still, quiet, silent — giving heaven some moment or space in which to speak a word. 

Hail Mary...

Glory be to the Father



Sunday, August 28, 2022

Christ to Bless ~ A Morning Prayer

The Blessing of Christ ~ Hans Hemling (1481)


Christ to bless my mind and the thoughts of this new day.
Christ to bless my heart and its rhythmic beating.
Christ to bless my heart again and all its feeling.

Christ to bless my eyes and all their viewing.
Christ to bless my ears and their sensitive listening.
Christ to bless my nose and each life-breath inhaled.

Christ to bless my hands and every thing they give or receive.
Christ to bless my mouth and every word spoken.
Christ to bless my feet and the path they walk.

Christ to bless the work I undertake.
Christ to bless the prayers I pray.
Christ to bless my setting out and my returning.

Christ to bless my advances and my setbacks.
Christ to bless these friends of mine.
Christ to bless my family in its complexity.

Christ to bless my discipleship.
Christ to bless those I've failed or offended.
Christ to bless the days remaining. 

Fr. Stephen Morris





Thursday, August 25, 2022

Intercessions ~ Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

 



We pray for the people of Ukraine, who Pope Francis has called a "martyred people."/ May we not grow accustomed to this terrible,/ costly war/ as we live in our own distracted,/ fast-paced./ short-memoried culture./ We pray to the Lord.

Monday is the Feast of the Passion of Saint John the Baptist,/ who is called, the Friend of Jesus./ We pray for sufferers around the world,/ in particular praying for Christians who are arrested,/ tortured,/ exiled,/ punished,/ imprisoned/ and even murdered for being the contemporary friends of Jesus./ We pray to the Lord.

Some students have already returned to school and begun a new academic year./ We pray the blessings of safety,/ friendship and an honest pursuit of learning./ We pray for teachers,/ school administrators and staff./ We pray as well for the young people who have no school to go to, / for girls who are prevented from attending school,/ for the young people whose education is disrupted by war./ We pray to the Lord.

The plight of Catholic Christians in Nigeria and Nicaragua has intensified./ A bishop and priests have been arrested,/ religious sisters have been kidnapped./ We pray for them and Christians in many places who are living in dangerous,/ even life-threatening situations./ May we not take our religious freedoms for granted./ We pray to the Lord.

May we learn well the message of Thomas Merton who wrote:/ "We should not be too sure of having found Christ in ourselves until we have found him also in the part of humanity that is most remote from our own."/ We pray to the Lord.

Again and again we pray for those places around the world where there is drought,/ fire,/ floods and other disasters./ For those who fight fires,/ who step into danger to save or assist others,/ who have lost everything./ For the healing of bodies,/ broken hearts and memories./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, August 23, 2022

God's Grandeur



 

Someone reported that while leaving the state of Maine this week he could detect the first whiff of autumn in the air. Then I stumbled on this picture of a lightly frosted red leaf. Let us pray for autumn rain as the ground is dry, the rivers, aquifers and reservoirs need re-filling after this extraordinarily hot and dry summer. 

I have always had an appreciation for plants and animals. I planted seeds with my mother as a very young boy and had a vegetable garden carved out of a corner of the backyard. When I was a new priest I had a pretty big garden behind the parish school and escaped there mid-afternoon for an hour or so. One teacher said to me, "All the kids in this school know of you is that you're the gardener priest." She wasn't being kind. Licking my wound someone said to me, "Not bad, better being thought of as a gardener priest than the alcoholic priest or the high-living fancy car priest or the abuser priest."  Now I take care of a public garden by the train station and the low walled garden in an old church cemetery. 

George Harrison said, "Everyone should have themselves regularly overwhelmed by nature." Pope Benedict said at World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia in 2008  "It is as though one catches glimpses of the Genesis story — light and darkness, the sun and the moon, the waters, the earth, and living creatures, all of which are 'good' in God's eyes. Immersed in such beauty, who could not echo the words of the Psalmist, in praise of the Creator, 'How majestic is your name in all the earth.'"

So ready or not, autumn is coming — a uniquely lovely season. All the seasons say, "We can change" And we do need to change, don't we? Now they are selling child sized (real) guns. I could despair, but I saw Monarchs on the verbena and zinnias this week, and a goldfinch teasing seeds out of the coneflower, and the hundreds of bees and wasps continue to forage on the mountain mint. And a young mother brings her little boy to the garden every morning so he can kiss the cement "bunny" garden ornament. How dear is that?!




This is St. Paul's good advice, and his time was as crazy in it own right as ours:
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things."  Philippians 4:8


 

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Sacred Night in August



Maybe you'll remember this painting titled Sacred Night by Fritz von Uhde who painted it in 1888-9. We talked about the image last Lent when the work of Von Uhde was our theme. Recently a friend wrote about her devout and elderly mother needing to spend some weeks in a physical rehab. I sent these little rosary mediations (as an audio message) to help her along the way, figuring the Christmas mystery would surely be familiar to her. I think the Incarnation is the central mystery-theme of the Christian life and that we might meditate on it often and not just in December. I've made a few adjustments to the one line meditations for our purposes.

Our Father

Jesus was born in little and insignificant Bethlehem. Every place is important to God — whether it's  Bethlehem or the little room where I live and pray.

Hail Mary

Mary was very young and poor. God notices everything and everyone. God notices me.

Hail Mary

The first guests of the Infant Jesus at Bethlehem were poor, marginalized shepherds. God rejects no one. We do, but God doesn't.

Hail Mary

There was a bright star over the little house of Bethlehem where Mary gave birth to Jesus. The birth of Jesus makes glad the whole world and beyond the beyond!

Hail Mary

The cow and the donkey were in the stable of Bethlehem. Even the animals know who this little child is.

Hail Mary

In Jesus, God now has a human face. God sees us and loves us through the human eyes of Jesus. I'm not invisible to God.

Hail Mary

Perhaps it is naïve, but the artist has filled the night scene with singing angels. They are entering through the holes in the roof and singing their hearts out while sitting on the rafters. What has happened at Christmas is wonderful. God has jumped the distance between the eternity of heaven and earth time. It is amazing! Why are we so silent about it all?

Hail Mary

When the angel asked Mary to be the Mother of Jesus she said yes. Today I will say yes to what God asks of me. I will say yes to the Christ-presence I encounter today.

Hail Mary

The physical birth of Jesus is in the past — a historical moment. But the love born that night is forever — it is true for me and each human person on this planet.

Hail Mary

God came to be with us at Christmas in a new way. I don't have to be afraid — God is with us tenderly all the way in Jesus and Mary.

Hail Mary

Glory be to the Father



Thursday, August 18, 2022

Intercessions ~ Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time


Monday is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary./ Mary is Queen, but Queen Mother./ May the world know and be changed by this most tender face of heaven./ We pray to the Lord.

Wednesday is the Feast of the holy apostle, Bartholomew./ Apostle means one who is sent./ May our life in Christ not be left behind in church with the hymnal,/ but taken out and shared this week./ We pray to the Lord.

Some of us are taken aback at how much water we use,/ how much garbage we produce,/ perhaps how much food we waste./ May we take nothing for granted and learn some new way of conserving the earth's resources./ We pray to the Lord.

The Church is troubled in many places throughout the world:/ in Nicaragua where the government perceives the Catholic Church as an enemy,/ in Ukraine stressed by an invasive war,/ in Egypt where a Coptic Church caught fire on Sunday killing many worshippers including children,/ in Nigeria where the existence of Christianity is threatened./ We pray for the protection and well-being of Christians who are troubled,/anxious and mournful./ We pray to the Lord.

This coming Saturday,/ Pope Francis will create twenty-one new cardinals in Rome./ They come from places we usually consider to be far away or at the peripheries./ We ask for their ministries to be blessed./ And may we strive to "arrive at real maturity—that measure of development which is meant by 'the fullness of Christ.'" Eph 4:13/ We pray to the Lord.

Schools will re-open soon./ We pray for the safety of young people everywhere./ We ask blessings for teachers,/ parents,/ school administrators and staff./ May we live well the lessons of our earliest school years,/ especially consideration of others,/ courtesy,/ respect and love for living things./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray not to become discouraged,/ cynical or trapped in fear or anger./ May we remember in our living,/ the words of the 1960's hymn,/ "They'll know we are Christians by our love."/ We pray to the Lord.




Tuesday, August 16, 2022

A Night Prayer



I will lie down in my bed now,

not morbidly,

not fearfully,

as I will one day lie in my grave.

Your arms stretched over me like wings —

under and around, 

mothering me still.

You Jesus,

Beloved,

All-good Son of Mary,

and bright champion over death.

Amen.


fr. stephen morris



Sunday, August 14, 2022

A New Alphabetic Psalm

 



We might be familiar with the Alphabetic Psalms of the Hebrew Scriptures. These are psalms where every line or couplet begins with the Hebrew letters of the alphabet in sequential order. I've echoed the technique here using our own ABC alphabet. The psalms express every emotion — ecstatic joy to murderous rage. The psalmist holds back nothing from God.

Arise with me, O God, who has watched over me through the night.

Blessed are you, whose tender thought created me.

Cast away any spirit-foe that looks for my un-doing.

Direct me in my anguish and ignorance.

Everyday may my first thought be of love for you.

Filling my day, my life-way, with blessings everywhere.

Gratitude piled high, for your kindness to me.

Help me when I am weakened by the tempest of anxieties.

I am your dear child, who thanks you for my life-gift.

Justice: Do we shrink from it for fear we might have to do without?

Keep your merciful gaze on me, O God, lest I betray you today.

Loving humankind, you found us long before we ever thought to look for you.

My tears, my fretting, you know it all, O Blessed One.

Niche or nook, the inner place of deepest intimacy with you.

Oh, for the little house which is my life — guard me.

Pleasant to me are the thoughts of your heart.

Quandary, questioning, quaking — I remain your very own.

Remember any good thing I have done throughout my life, Holy One.

Shade me in the day of trouble.

Thanking you for companions who have walked with me on our way to you.

Under your gaze, keep me safe from those who could make trouble.

Vagrant I am, still, it matters to you that I exist.

Worms of resentment invade — free me, O Good One.

X — Roman numeral for ten — number of fresh beginnings. Each day I begin again with you.

Yesterday's folly, by your compassion, forgiven and forgotten.

Zillow sells houses — may I find my true home in your heart.




Thursday, August 11, 2022

Intercessions ~ Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

 

Dormition of the Mother of God ~ Duccio Di Buoninsegna (1308-1311)


These can be crude,/ vulgar days./ May thoughts of Mary in the summer feast of her Assumption/ purify minds/ helping to restore gentility,/ civility,/ decency and courtesy./ We pray to the Lord.

In the Dormition icon,/ we see the Mother of God,/ "asleep" on her funeral bier,/ surrounded by angels and the gathered apostles./ The glorified Christ holds her soul,/ depicted as a small child./ May we be Christ-seized persons,/ who search to understand what this means for each of us personally/ and all of us as Church./ We pray to the Lord.

Life is hard enough,/ but there are some who make things even more difficult./ Some are in positions of authority./ So we pray for boasters,/ distractors,/ liars,/ detractors,/ tricksters,/ thieves,/ conspiracy theorists,/ power-grabbers and saboteurs./ For the humble turning of hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for a world where a hundred million persons are displaced./ For the many who work to welcome,/ shelter,/ feed and support refugees./ For those whose hearts are hardened against the new-comer./ For those whose decisions unsettle the lives of others,/ causing citizens to flee./ We pray to the Lord.

May God keep us from despair as the deadly invasion of Ukraine drags on/ and the planet struggles with climate changes,/ drought,/ fire and flood./ We pray for those who can't be bothered with it all,/ who think nothing is wrong./ For those who are exhausted trying to help wherever there is suffering./ We pray to the Lord.

There seems to be some possibility of Pope Francis going to Ukraine during this terrible time./ We pray for his protection,/ health and strength,/ as he carries a message of reconciliation,/ peace,/ renewal and hope,/ wherever he goes./ We pray for those who have set themselves against him./ We pray to the Lord.

In our own lifetime,/ the orange and black Monarch Butterfly/ which was once seen seemingly everywhere,/ now has been placed on the list of nearly extinct species./ Our planet is in trouble./ May we be wise and generous in loving the home God has given us./ We pray to the Lord.



Tuesday, August 9, 2022

Bless God!


Bless God!

These jumbo trees,

heaven-crowned,

earth-rooted,

wide-branched,

summer-leaved and needle-d

still

carrying the gibbous moon,

satellite and starlight

and the midnight flight.

spm



Sunday, August 7, 2022

O God!


The cosmos contains approximately 100-200 billion galaxies


O God of imagination.

O God un-pondered.

O God in searching more than certainty.

O God sorely exploited.

O God poorly invoked.

O God who begins with light.


O God whose creation is play.

O God who has made us spiritual beings.

O God of flowers, fish and color-shock. 

O God whose gift is scent and texture.

O God of seasons and twice-a-day tides.

O God of our beginning again and again.


O God of our material and inner eyes.

O God of the heart's secrets.

O God who knows who and where I am.

O God who walks a path with us.

O God who gives the bees and birds their stripe.

O God who delights in beauty.


O God in our aloneness.

O God in inner tempest.

O God in our tragic mistakes.

O God in our wound.

O God in the tears of our laughter and sorrow.

O God in dawn and dusk.


O God of traveling clouds, galaxies and exoplanets.

O God of the Aspen's smooth bark; the Linden's rough.

O God of Pine needle and Maple leaf.

O God of sun ray, moon beam and lightning flash.

O God who sounds the wind and rain.

O God of surf on sand.


O God of tubers, roots and rhizomes.

O God of buds, berries, seeds and nuts.

O God three-personal family.

O God creating with a heartbeat.

O God safekeeping us by love.

O God greening us into wholeness.




Thursday, August 4, 2022

Intercessions ~ Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time


 

Early in the new month of August,/ we pray for the health and joy of those who celebrate birthdays,/ anniversaries and other days of remembrance./ For the safety of summer travelers and vacationers./ We pray to the Lord.

Pope Francis has returned to Rome from his Penitential Pilgrimage to Canada./ As with the priest sex abuse scandal,/ there is much work to be done beyond saying, "I'm sorry."/ May the work of healing and reconciliation be spirit blessed./ Through it all, may the church learn humility,/ compassion and God's wisdom./ We pray to the Lord.

Sometimes there is too little or no rain and the living things die./ At other times there is too much rain and floods bring destruction and death./ We pray for a world that is often out of balance./ And for ourselves,/ born a second time in Baptism water;/ may we be truly alive in learning the mind of Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

August begins remembering the 1945 bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki./ There are Japanese persons who are still alive/ having struggled with injury and trauma ever since./  What marvelous things human beings can do — witness the pictures sent back from space by the Webb telescope./ May we learn to live on this planet peacefully,/ in solidarity with each other as God's children./ We pray to the Lord.

The terrible and sad invasion of Ukraine drags on./ And around the globe,/ other awful wars are taking place of which we are unaware./ May those who create wars learn God's good sense/ and be healed of greed,/ power quest/ and even insanity./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for our own families where there is sickness,/ wound,/ resentment,/ fracture,/ money or emotional trouble./ Bless the children of our families,/ and children and young people everywhere./ We pray to the Lord.


Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Silver Rosary ~ Passed on, Polished up, Prayed with

 


I received an antique silver rosary in the mail recently from someone who asked for me to re-home this extra. As  you can see, this rosary is quite lovely and so I polished it up and thought you might like to pray the first decade with me as its purpose is restored. Here are little thought-mediations we might focus on between the first ten Hail Mary's.


Our Father

May the world's children be welcomed, cherished and loved. 

Hail Mary

May we understand "pro-life" in ever expanding and encompassing ways — making us a church which upholds life through justice.

Hail Mary

For fire fighters and flood rescuers. May we learn to love and protect our planet — the water, the air, the soil, the plants and animals.

Hail Mary

For Pope Francis to be blessed with strength and health as he returns to Rome from his Penitential Pilgrimage to Canada where he set out to reconcile and heal the wounds Christians inflicted on indigenous peoples. May the Church be healed wherever it has sponsored terrible actions done in the name of Jesus.

Hail Mary

Wars only bring death, fear, wound and waste. May the war makers be blessed with true sight — Christ's sight. For those whose lives are changed forever by war.

Hail Mary

For the wellbeing of family and friends. Asking for gifts of health and healing where there is dysfunction, addiction, depression or sickness.

Hail Mary

May we be real disciples — not confusing the mind of Christ with ideologies of arrogance and power.

Hail Mary

May we be an inclusive people —putting away any us vs them thinking. May we see no one — no  group — as other.

Hail Mary

Make us to be children of light — dispelling ignorance and pettiness. May we learn humility and compassion.

Hail Mary

There is a consistory in Rome later this month in which twenty-one new cardinals will be created. One of them is a Christian dalit (untouchable) from India. Even though this caste system has been outlawed, its categorizing of people endures. For the many people around the world who feel unseen, unheard, unloved.

Hail Mary

Glory be to the Father...