Oneing

One of my favorite mystics is called Julian of Norwich. We don’t know her real name. She is simply named after the church in Norwich, England—St. Julian’s—where she had her little anchor-hold. One window of her small room looked into the sanctuary for mass and another opened to the street where the people would come by for her counsel and prayer. Julian experienced her “showings,” as she called them, on the night of May 8, 1373. Then she lived in the anchor-hold for twenty years, trying to process and communicate what she had experienced on that one night. Julian wrote about these showings in her book Revelations of Divine Love, the first book published in English by a woman.

Julian experienced and wrote of a compassionate, relational, and joyful God. She writes: “For before he made us, he loved us; and when we were made, we loved him. And this is our substantial goodness, the substantial goodness in us of the Holy Spirit. It is nothing we create; it is our substance. God revealed to me that there may and there will be nothing at all between God and the soul. And in this endless love, the human soul is kept whole as all the matter of creation is kept whole.”

Julian uses the Middle English word “oneing” to describe this whole-making work of God. God is always oneing everything: making twos and threes and fours and divisions and dichotomies and dualisms into one. As she explains, “God wants us to know that this beloved soul that we are is preciously knitted to him in its making by a knot so subtle and so mighty that it is oned with God. In this oneing it is made endlessly holy. Furthermore, he wants us to know that all the souls which are one day to be saved in heaven without end are knit in this same knot and united in this same union, and made holy in this one identical holiness.”

Richard Rohr, OFM Adapted from Intimacy: The Divine Ambush

Bill

A man suffered a serious heart attack and had open heart bypass surgery. He awakened from the surgery to find himself in the care of nuns at a Catholic Hospital .

As he was recovering, a nun asked him questions regarding how he was going to pay for his treatment. She asked, “Do you have health insurance?”

He replied in a raspy voice, “No health insurance.”

The nun asked, “Do you have money in the bank?”

He replied, “No money in the bank.”

The nun asked, “Do you have a relative who could help you?”

He said, “I only have a spinster sister, who is a nun.”

The nun became agitated and announced loudly, “Nuns are not spinsters! Nuns are married to God.”

The patient replied, “Send the bill to my brother-in-law.”

Advent is Near

As I look out the window I see the trees. Their trunks, limbs and branches are bare. They look really beautiful against the clear sky, so different from when they are hidden by all the leaves.

At the end of November, we remember our dead, particularly those who died in the past year. And I think that one day I will appear before the Lord with all my leaves gone, all those things that hide me from myself and from others. Just the bare me. I hope the Lord will see some beauty in me also.

This thought reminds me to repent and prepare for that meeting.

That's one of the things Advent is for. The Holy Season of Advent is very near and Advent ends with our commemoration of the birth of our beloved Savior. That's where my hope is, in his coming. I trust that's where your hope is also.​

It's Not About You

The Purpose Driven Life has sold millions of copies, and transformed millions of people and churches across the world. Instinctively, most people want to know: What is my purpose? How can I be more fulfilled?

What a shock to open this best-selling book and read the first sentence: “It’s not about you!”

And it’s not about you. Though Jesus is intently interested in you, and loves you more than can be described, he is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, and is worthy of our worship.

We have been created to worship him, not the other way around.

Pie

A Jesuit and a Franciscan sat down to dinner, and pie was served for dessert. There were two pieces of pie, one cut smaller than the other. The Jesuit reached over and took the larger piece for himself. The Franciscan remonstrated, "St. Francis always taught us to take the smaller piece." So the Jesuit replied, "And so you have it!"

Christ the King Sunday

Today we celebrate The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King. This great feast marks the end of our liturgical year and the completion of our journey with Jesus and His disciples through the Gospel of Matthew. And what a finale St. Matthew gives us! We end with a dramatic story, The Judgment of the Nations (Matthew 25:31-46). Here St. Matthew presents Jesus, sitting on his glorious throne, surrounded by angels with all the nations of the world “assembled before him.” Then, like a shepherd who takes his flock to the market, he separates the sheep from the goats, the righteous from the accursed, those who will enjoy eternal life from those who will suffer eternal punishment.

What is so astounding about this passage is the criteria Jesus uses for his judgment. The nations of the world, and all of us, are not judged by our great accomplishments, our victories, our scientific exploits, our wealth, our diplomas, our popularity or our social status. We are judged by our compassion, our mercy, our love, our humility, the dignity and respect we show others and our hospitality. Once again, Jesus shakes us out of our complacency and reminds us that the standards and values of the Kingdom of Heaven are not the same as those of our world.

There is another lesson here that may be our greatest challenge. Jesus considers anything we do to or for others as being done to him, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.” One of Mother Theresa’s famous quotations is, "Christ is hidden under the suffering appearance of anyone who is hungry, naked, homeless, or dying." Christ is present in each one of us. He is hidden only if we choose not to see him.

Almighty and merciful God,

you break the power of evil and make all things new

in your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.

May all in heaven and earth

acclaim your glory

and never cease to praise you.

We ask this though our Lord Jesus Christ, your son

Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

God forever and ever.

Amen.

 

We Thank Thee!

For flowers that bloom about our feet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For tender grass so fresh, so sweet,

Father, we thank Thee.

For the song of bird and hum of bee,

For all things fair we hear or see,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For blue of stream and blue of sky,

Father, we thank Thee.

For pleasant shade of branches high,

Father, we thank Thee.

For fragrant air and cooling breeze,

For beauty of the blooming trees,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

For this new morning with its light,

Father, we thank Thee.

For rest and shelter of the night,

Father, we thank Thee

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends,

Father in heaven, we thank Thee.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God."

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

May God Bless You on This Thanksgiving Day!