Giving Thanks

Dear Friends,

In telling and retelling the story of those first Pilgrims who survived a harsh New England winter, we remember how their second year saw a crop raised and a community gaining a foothold. We say that those early settlers learned much from the Native Americans- about corn, squash, turkey and medicine. But there is more.

The Native Americans gave witness to the settlers that giving thanks is essential for life.

On our part of the country, the Iroquois Nation had (and has to this day) a custom called the Thanksgiving Address – an address given to help the gathered  listeners  achieve what the Iroquois called one-mindedness. They argued that, from the basis of that perception, one-mindedness, the human community could work consentually  toward  oneness of life. In this Thanksgiving Address, offered at special times of the year, Mother Earth was blessed, the cycles of the season were  blessed, as the crowd punctuated whatever was held up for thanks with their “yes.” The people were reminded that what the Creator wants is for us to remain peaceful, to protect and nourish creation. Yes!

The Native American worldview impacted the new American society in other ways as well. Jose Barreiro, one-time editor  of the Northeast Indian Quarterly, reported there of “a memory that has been told and retold among the Iroquois Six Nation people…that  in the formative days of the American republic, statesmen from the Indian Confederacy informed prominent colonists, including some of our Founding Fathers, on the Indian concepts of democracy.”

Research show that, indeed, Washington, Franklin and early members of our founding congresses, had Native American friends whose ideas found their way into our Constitution, much to our benefit.

So this Thanksgiving, as we celebrate our national holy day and tend to focus our thanks to God for family, friends, faith and the basics of life, let’s enlarge our own Thanksgiving Day gratitude to include the blessings of liberty, a strong Constitution and the wisdom of our early leaders who recognized the power for good contained in the Native American vision of peacemaking and reverence for life. For those Native Americans of the Iroquois Nation (Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora) whose lands we walk today here in beautiful  Upstate New York, let’s pray in the words of the Ute People of the West:
                               

I greet the highest in you.

Your goodness walks in front of me.

Your gentleness bids me good day.

Your quietness leads me.

I greet the highest in you.

And while we are at it, let’s use that same prayer as we gather for our Thanksgiving Day meal.

Blessings on your  day!

Be Committed to the Truth of Who We Are

Dear Friends,

Kate and Will are coming across the pond in early December, for visits to New York and Washington. Regrettably, little George will stay home, but his time will come.  Americans are looking forward to having Will and Kate here. We like them as young persons, creating a life and a family together. Moreover, they are royalty, and royalty fascinates people worldwide.

A few years ago, a  study was done of the people of Norway, Belgium and England, countries where royalty are still the symbolic heads of state. It revealed that royalty conveyed to the people of these lands a certain regal pride in themselves. They participate in the aura of their rulers – need them to sense their own dignity.

That participation in royalty shows up liturgically next Sunday, when we celebrate the feast of Christ the King - not an ancient feast, but one established by Pope Pius XI, 1925. At that time, a wave of anti-church sentiment in the world was making Catholics feel less sure of  themselves, less confident of the potential in the Gospel and our own potential to live by it. This feast seemed to help a considerable number of Catholics through a difficult time. We participate in the power for good that is in Christ, as we give, receive, welcome, lift up, bless and encourage goodness in this world.. Over the years, we have had to work at seeing  this feast as valuable for ourselves.

This feast invites us to be committed to the truth of who we are. Jesus, throughout the Gospel is eloquent about the fact that he is who he is, and does not accept the images and aspirations others put on him. He is totally devoted to the reign of God breaking into human life. As individuals and as a community, we are responsible to shape ourselves as believers  creating the world as a place where God’s reign, God’s kingdom can happen.

A second invitation inherent in this feast is to be committed to the truth of who God is. The people of Jesus’ times wanted him to be messiah according to their design. They could not accept him as the companion of the outcast, the stranger, the prostitute, the ungracious and ungrateful. Our times also want to dictate to God what kind of God to be. We want to restrict God’s presence in human life – to locate God in some proper place, exclusively in our tabernacles, churches and holy places. We want God to serve our needs, to play it our way. When the answer to our prayer is no, or our life takes a bumpy turn, we are tempted to push God away. You are not the God I want!

This week, Let’s stretch ourselves toward this coming feast. It offers us an opportunity to renew our commitment to God’s truth and our own, and to celebrate our own dignity with Christ as our Sovereign.

Please join in a Fresh Wind  program on Wed., Nov. 19, 7 to 8.30 pm. at the SSJ Motherhouse

Psychiatrist Dr. Jack McIntyre will be our featured speaker, offering insight to our use of

The Internet: Its Gifts and Pitfalls.

An Exercise on Faith - Try it!

Dear friends,

The following exercise may seem simple and inconsequential. Try it anyway. See what it says about you.

With what adjectives would you describe the Christian life as you live it? Is it languid, intense, engaging, unengaged, robust, restful, reliable in times of need, repetitious?

Recently, I came across this sentence which brought me up short and made me stop to think:

Christian life is defined by verbs of movement.

Digging into the Scriptures, we find that this is so. Jesus and His disciples said these things and did these things.  Here’s a sampling of biblical verbs of movement that help define our lives as believers. Others words of movement can be destructive, e.g. betray, destroy, desert, deny. 

This week, see how these words of positive movement  are present in your own life. Use them as a measure of the energy of faith in your life. Add to them.  How do they square with the adjectives you used to describe your own life as a Christian at the beginning of this exercise.

                ask                         seek                      find                        go                           come                     come back

                turn                       return                   reconcile             release                 repent                  walk                                      heal                       bring                     listen                    move                    become                               bless

                give                       give up                 receive                 gather                   love                       lift

                know                     believe                                work                      awake                   stop                       share

                leave                     anoint                   respect                 look                       look up                 visit

                watch                    accept                   open                     close                     enter                     send

                feed                      touch                   

In a recent translation of the Lord’s Prayer from the Aramaic, one line is rendered

Free us from what holds us back.

• As we consider these biblical verbs of positive movement, which one’s do we recognize as    part of our  lives already?
• What holds us back from exercising all of them?
• Which ones name actions in our lives that are second nature to us?
• Which ones have we never considered part of our Christian experience?
• Which ones will help us live through the holidays with their challenges?

If you want to have an unusual conversation with a loved one/friend/colleague, do this exercise with them.

Enjoy!

Divine Perspective

Dear Friends,

The content of the last two week’s blogs have centered on heavy experiences in today’s world. With the turn into November, we pause to put our lives and our world in a divine perspective. We lift our eyes, still our minds and hold God close. Here are some short pieces to help us focus.

This is from Catherine of Siena:  You { O God} are a fire burning and never consumed.

                                 You are a light, ever shining and never fading.

                                 You are goodness, beyond all goodness

                                 beauty, beyond all beauty

                                 wisdom, beyond all wisdom

                                 You are the food that satisfies all hunger.

Source unknown:                           

Be daring. Be silent. Be still. Alone.

                            Empty before your God.

                            Say nothing. Ask nothing. Be silent. Be still.

                            Let your God look upon you.

                            That is all.

                            God knows.

                            God understands.

                            God loves you with an enormous love.

                            God only wants to look upon you with love.

                            Quiet.

                             Be still.

                             Be.

                              Let your God love you.

Today, play with God.

Let God be your lover, companion and friend.

God is the partner of our every enterprise.

God is the loveable lover of all that is human.

God: creator, redeemer, healer, inspirator, beckoner,

                                      humbly wants us now and forever.

Be one with God,

And if you think you can’t, ask.

Raise up your arms to be lifted up as children seek a confidently loved adult to raise them up.

It is the nature of God to lift up .

                                                                ******************************

Mark your calendar for Wednesday, November 19, when psychiatrist Dr. John McIntyre walks us through The Gifts and Pitfalls of the Internet , how they find their ways into our lives for better or worse. What do we do to be “ in charge” of our internet use?

Live Within the Circle of God's Care

Dear Friends,

On September 9^th, 1963, I stood at my father’s hospital bed. He was encased in an oxygen tent, following his collapse and exploratory surgery. The doctors were not hopeful of his survival. I stood on, praying, waiting. Dad did survive and lived normally for another fifteen years. Months after this medical crisis, Dad told me what happened in that time under the tent. “I found myself walking up a long flight of narrow stairs. The higher I went, the colder it got. At the top of the stairs was a locked door. I knocked, wanting to get out of the cold. A man opened the door and said “You! We are not ready for you yet. Go back down.” He shut the door. Dad turned into the cold descent… to live on. Heaven was not ready for my father.

I thought of Dad even as I think of and pray for Brittany Maynard, the 29 year old newly-wed who has told the world that she will die by her own hand on November 1^st, several days after her husband’s birthday. She has an aggressive brain tumor and death has been predicted soon. She is using the power of the Oregon suicide-assisted law, because as she says, she wants to die “on her own terms.” To quote Pope Francis: “Who am I to judge?” Having said that, what else can we say to Brittany in these remaining days of her personal schedule? Send her thoughts such as these as the week draws on:

“Brittany, your husband and mother will be with you, whatever you choose. They don’t want you to suffer indescribable pain in an empty way, but pain need not be empty. Without your even knowing it, your suffering is woven into the suffering of Jesus who died on the cross. He truly died and he was truly raised up, as you will be. God sorrows with you, stands with you. God wants you to be whole. We are tempted to think awful things about God in the face of our own dying, youthful or not. But God holds you close, Brittany. Can you trust God more than the ones who tell you how your cancer will play out?

Who knows what you can become in the time left to you, Brittany, beyond November 1^st, if you allow for it. Who knows who you’ll touch, what courage you’ll give your husband and mother and to a world praying with you. People surround you who hope you know the one whose image you bear. Your terms, and the image of God you are, are not in sync. But they could be if you accept the time left to you to learn your depth and go there. Stones in a fast-running stream become smooth by rubbing against each other. So too with people as they suffer together becoming better for seeing each other through pain.

Live

within the circle

of God’s care for you.

Let this care touch your sorrow,

quiet your pain, heal your brokenness.

(Psalm 25, 13,17, 18)

Brittany, the day you choose to cross over is in Christian circles, the Feast of All Saints. All of them awaited God’s time, God’s call for them, my father among them.  You, too, I hope.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Putting Fear in Perspective

Dear Friends,

The marks of Ebola on Americans are fear of the unknown, ignorance of the facts, terror of succumbing ourselves, and the desire for a protective wall around our borders, our children. We are still gathering information, pointing fingers of blame. We are angry because people in charge don’t see it our way. Once, we experienced 9/11. We did all the same things then as now – the catalog listed above, and more. We mourned the dead then and now. We named and treasured heroic action. Immediately after 9/11, our churches were full. People needed to acknowledge God in the midst of this unprecedented attack. Little by little, we began to talk about these attacks, not just in their political and international dimensions; we began to wonder together out loud about the spiritual meaning/ implications of 9/11.

We will eventually do the same with this crisis. Here are some thoughts to use as you begin to work through the evolving crisis with the various groups with whom you interact. I will do the same.
The Ebola virus existed long before this moment. It was hosted by unknown forest animals of West Africa, and lay dormant until humans, hunting for food, awakened it. What dangerous food lays dormant in our world until humans awaken it? What cautions do we exert? How do we serve the neighbor by supporting their lives with essential human needs so they won’t have to go back to hunting for dangerous food?

This worldwide crisis requires a worldwide response. Can sickness unto death unify a dispirited, sick world? In the face of this scourge, we do well to turn to the love and lessons of God. Why bring God into it?  Because God is already here, in the suffering and fearful, as well as in those willing to help. “It is I who come to you, though you know me not (Is 45.4-6.).” We pray to our compassionate God not just for ourselves, but in solidarity with one another. Still, I admit, the God- part is the hardest.

If there is any silver lining in this continuing tragedy, it may be that God casts the shadow of the cross over this time, this misery. And where there is the cross, Resurrection following. Jesus was raised up. Faith says, we will be, too.  I think of Martha after the death of Lazarus.  Jesus wanted the tomb opened.  “Lord, by now there will be a stench (John 11.39)” That did not dissuade Jesus. After Jesus prayed, he called out “Lazarus, come out (11.43).” and finally, to the bystanders, Jesus said “Untie him and let him go free (11.44)” That’s the call to us. Acknowledge death and its stench. But be aware that Jesus is praying and working here and now with us, in us. Dare to be the ones who unbind the newly alive and let him/her go free. This is a mentality, a way of thinking which leads to a way of acting. Talk with one another about positive, world-embracing, life-embracing ways to grow. Form small communities of support to do this - communities in which prayer is integral. Send love out into a hurting world.

As we place before Jesus the pain of this time, our God says something like this back to us:  “I cannot prepare you for every choice you’ll need to make or every situation you’ll encounter along the way, but remember that I am the Lord. There is none beside me. Without me, there is no resolution of ill, no growth in humanness, no happiness. With me, the world and you will move closer to wholeness. You are never apart from me. You are never alone. Choose to be with me and you will live.”

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Choose to be a "Blesser!"

Dear Friends,

                The deacon had just finished his homily when, into the silence… he sneezed. The response came back, as one voice,  from the whole congregation: “God bless you!”  We typically say that when someone sneezes. The mother held up her child over the font as they entered  church.  “Bless  yourself,” Mama said. The operative word in both of these scenarios is bless.

                People from Genesis onward through religious  history have blessed themselves and one another. Noah blessed God for safety through the flood. We read the story of how Jacob stole his father Isaac’s blessing from his brother Esau in Genesis 27.  The psalms have us bless God, too, as in Psalm 33.1: “I will bless the Lord at all times…” At the Last Supper, Jesus took the bread, blessed, broke it  and , gave it to his disciples (Mark 14.22). In 1 Corinthians 10.16 Paul admonishes his readers  to treasure the Eucharist. ”The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not participation in the blood of Christ?” Our history, as a believing people, is a lifetime of blessing  given and received.

                At least, it should be. The liturgical blessings at Mass and other ritual occasions are rightly the prerogative of the ordained – the priest or deacon.  In many of our parishes, we raise our hands to participate in these official blessings.

                John O’Donohue, whose name give him away as Irish, draws on his cultural heritage to remind us that you and I are to give as well as receive blessings. We can bless our children aloud with some encouraging words as well as a sign of the cross before they go to sleep or leave for  school. Spouses can bless each other when decisions need to be made or the future is uncertain, or sometimes, ”just because.”

                Lord, we can say,  bless these ingredients that will go into my family’s meal. May what we share at the table bring us closer to you and one another. Lord, bless me as I put on these new clothes. May I wear them with thankfulness.  Lord, bless the person being cared for in the ambulance going by. Lord, bless the EMTs.

                “A blessing,”   says John O’Donohue “is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal and strengthen… The beauty of a blessing is its belief that it can effect what unfolds… A blessing is different from a greeting, a hug, a salute, or an affirmation; it opens a different door in human encounter…When you invoke a blessing, you are creating a ‘sheltering wall’ of rest and peace around a person.” (John  O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us,  pp198-203)

                So don’t be bashful, as though others may laugh or think you strange, when you sign off by saying “Blessings!” Do not relinquish your baptismal right to bless.  Choose to be a “blesser”  in life, if you not already.  Use your own words, or someone else’s:      

                                                                                                                  

May neighbors respect you

Trouble neglect you. 

The angels protect you..

And heaven accept you.   Amen.

Do come to our motherhouse for these events!

Wed. Oct. 22^nd, 7 to 8.30 pm  

  Lisa Scata   “So Your Children Don’t Want to Come to Mass with You?

And / or

3 consecutive Mondays beginning Oct 27  

 ‘Freshen Your  Thinking About Catholic Essentials”

I’ll be guiding that discussion. No test afterwards!