Intercessions ~ Dedication of the Lateran Basilica

Today is the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome/ the Mother Church of Catholics./ We pray to be built up as living stones/ a people dedicated to the service and love of God and God's people./We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those who were elected to public office this week/ asking for them to be blessed with gifts of integrity and commitment to the common good./ And for our country to be healed of its polarization and negativity./ We pray to the Lord

Kristallnacht translates Night of Crystal, remembering the nights of November 9 and 10, when the Nazis began their formal campaign to eliminate Jews from Europe./ We ask for the world to be healed of its many and bitter forms of hatred./ We pray to the Lord.

The trees are bare now/ having dropped their leaves./ We pray to drop resentment,/ pride,/ petty insistences and self-pity./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask for that change of heart which would make for a world at peace,/ a global heart which has in mind the protective love of children everywhere./ And grant that we would have a new regard for the earth which sustains us./ We pray to the Lord.

Give strength,/ hope and healing/ to the sick,/ the heavy-burdened/ and those who live in loneliness and fear./ We pray to the Lord.

And the fullness of life and joy/ born of your kind mercy/ to those who have died./ We pray to the Lord.

Thoughts for the Month of November

THE ROMAN MISSAL identifies this past Sunday as The Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. I prefer the secondary name, simply All Souls, otherwise we are left to ask, what about the unfaithful departed, the not-so-faithful  departed, the sporadically faithful departed, the faltering faithful departed? In Mexico the day is simply called, The Day of the Dead.

The word commemoration is important: with remembering. Remembering everything that was good, healthy, life-giving, edifying in the relationships where the other is now deceased. Or perhaps remembering the relationships where the other is deceased where there was sorrow, pain, abuse, sickness - and I survived it and even grew through it all. The element of gratitude is strong on this feast day.

There is also the theme of praying for the forgiveness of sins committed by those who have died. Does Jesus need to be convinced by our prayers to forgive? When Jesus loves, he loves by forgiving. More than anything, maybe the prayers for the dead are simply expressions of love for those who have gone to the other side.

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There is a theology of the deceased called a toll theology. That when someone dies, the journey continues as the souls of the departed wend their way to heaven. The soul stops along the way (at tolls) to kind of pay up. While devils appear announcing every sinful act, angels rush to announce every pure-hearted, good and kind act. There's a contest over the soul. 

We're able to help the soul pay by offering Masses, prayers, candles and good deeds in the deceased's name. This rather fanciful theology has never been approved or endorsed, though many people live by it. We each work out our salvation in this life. Again, perhaps the real thing being expressed here is our love for those who have go ahead of us - or perhaps a desire to express repentance for where we came up short in love or a desire to forgive. 

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In the mid 1980's I was chaplain to a University Hospital where I witnessed many people who in their dying lingered long. Often they needed to be told, "You can go now." Sometimes they were told this because loved ones hated to see a dear one suffer or, truth be told, the relatives needed to get on with life and this dying was taking too long.

Maybe the dying person had some kind of business to finish up with God. Or maybe they were just controllers, persons un-surrendered who couldn't imagine the family could carry on without them. 

But it seems to me that in this life the Christian is called to practice abandonment - entrusting everything of life to the loving kindness of God. We call it Divine Providence: trusting that God will provide, that God will take care. And if we are abandoned now, then, when death approaches, we will already be in the good habit of surrender, allowing for our physical death, our stepping over, to be the easiest.

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In the 1950's and 60's we spent so much time thinking about and talking about death, sin, guilt, judgement, heaven, hell, purgatory - even flames - that we neglected to talk about what it meant to be alive - except to avoid sin and behave well.

I'd suggest that as the garden is put to bed for the winter, the old, frosted and dead stems cut back and the new life already showing close to the ground where it will weather the winter, the November question is just that:  What does it mean to be really alive in the time of this life that God has given me today? In my first parish there was an old man who was the weekend rectory cook. I never saw him go to Mass and he had no obvious spiritual reference. I asked him one day, "Do you believe in heaven?" and he answered, "I believe in right now." That's not a bad answer. 

Alchemical Milk-Giving Mother of God

ALCHEMY IS MEDIEVAL CHEMISTRY which proposed to change base metals into gold or silver. One of the ingredients used in the alchemical process was milk. And so once again, the icon of the Milk-Giving Mother of God offers us new direction.

But of course, in her nursing the Infant Christ, she is pointing to an internal change: from baseness to something higher, from earth time-space to a spiritual place. And what is that? Often Christianity is reduced to being an ethical system, a battle between good and evil, but really it  is much more an invitation to "put on the mind of Christ." 1 Corinthians 2:16

Colm Toibin writes in his book, The Sign of the Cross about growing up in Catholic Ireland in the late 50's and early 60's.

At the cathedral at Enniscorthy the names of the bishops from the beginning of time were written on a painted scroll which stretched down the high walls on each side of the altar. There was benediction after the boys' confraternity when the priest's voice would boom down the huge, half empty, almost dark church, "death comes soon," he would say, "judgement will follow, so now dear children, examine your conscience and find out your sins."

"Find out your sins" is a rather low-level work of conscience while putting on the mind of Christ has more to do with the new consciousness of the Christ-mind. This is why Jesus so often speaks of hearing and seeing. His miracles performed for the blind and the deaf reveal his desire for us to see and hear spiritually. Have we ever explored the idea of an Examination of Consciousness and not just an Examination of Conscience? 

Icons of Christ always show him with an enlarged head and emphasized forehead because he is thinking thoughts that transcend earth-thoughts. And this Christ-mind, which can be our own minds, is a first step into the Kingdom of Heaven. 

The old ways of thinking are no longer adequate or even real! We fill our earth space/time minds with things that are too small.

Christ consciousness thinks outside the box. St. Therese of Lisieux was on-to-it when she said she'd spend her eternity doing good on earth. I asked a dying woman what she thought heaven would be and she answered, "I think I'll fly around and help people." 

• Some people vote only for the candidates who will safeguard their comfort, security or way of life.
• Some people have as their first thought: "What's in it for me?"
• Some people think only their way is truthful or righteous.

The consciousness of a Christ-mind transcends nationalism and sees himself/herself as one of the more than six billion people on this earth - created and loved by God who knows nothing of favorites. The word exceptional is reserved not for a nation but for God and God's messengers and saints.

Notice Saint Paul doesn't speak of  the mind of Jesus, but the mind of the Lord or the mind of Christ. This is the Resurrected-Ascended one, a Cosmic Christ or Pantocrator (Ruler of All). 

An earthbound mind is reduced to suspicion, paranoia and phobias. I know someone who spends every waking minute sniffing out Masons, heretics, homosexuals, satanists, political/religious liberals, feminists and Islamists. But when we have experienced the complete renewal of our minds (Romans 12:2) then the joy-stealing separations fall away with the bitter distinctions that create hate, violence and war. 

How do I get the Mind of Christ? 

• Participate in the Mass, receiving the Eucharist.
• Know the Gospels, even by heart.
• Plant and take care of a garden.
• Look long at icons.
• Wander around museums.
• Steer a wide circle around contentious people.
• Avoid contentious TV/radio news.
• Go for outdoor walks: parks, beaches, woods, nature trails.
• Stop: inhale, gaze, shhhhh!
• Read poems. Write poems.
• Learn to identify trees, wildflowers, birds and clouds.
• Challenge self-pity and resentment.
• "Water" the seeds of everything good in you.
• Listen to Bach, Handel, Haydn and Mozart. 

Before the Icon of the Milk-Giving Mother of God

O alchemical Mother of God,

Milk-bearing Nourisher

of your Child ~

take us up to the higher places

where sun and moon admire 

your transformational gift ~

your feeding us to expanded awareness,

seeing and hearing ~

the renewal of minds.