Photo: Theme in Yellow

 

Poem: "Theme in Yellow" by Carl Sandberg

 I spot the hills

With yellow balls in autumn.

I light the prairie cornfields

Orange and tawny gold clusters

And I am called pumpkins.

On the last of October

When dusk is fallen

Children join hands

And circle round me

Singing ghost songs

And love to the harvest moon;

I am a jack-o'-lantern

With terrible teeth

And the children know

I am fooling.

Photo: Ornamental Corn

 

Prayer: Francis of Paola

Put aside your hatred and animosity. Take pains to refrain from sharp words. If they escape your lips, do not be ashamed to let your lips produce the remedy, since they have caused the wounds. Pardon one another so that later on you will not remember the iniquity.

Photo: Little Miami River, Ohio

 

Photo: Joseph Cardinal Bernadin

Grant us, Lord, the gift of modesty. When we speak, teach us to give our opinion quietly and sincerely. Help us in success to reality what we owe to you and to the efforts of others, in failure and amid dejection, and in all ways to be simple and natural, quiet in manner and lowly in thought, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Prayer: Bernard of Clairvaux

Where can the weak find a place of firm security and peace, except in the wounds of the Savior? Indeed, the more secure is my place there, the more he can do to help me. The world rages, the flesh is heavy, and the devil lays his snares; but I do not fall, for my feet are planted on firm rock.

Photo: Golden Lawn

 

Poem: “Spiderweb” by Kay Ryan

From other
angles the
fibers look
fragile, but
not from the
spider’s, always
hauling coarse
ropes, hitching
lines to the
best posts
possible. It’s
heavy work
everyplace,
fighting sag,
winching up
give. It
isn’t ever
delicate
to live.

Photo: The Chapel at BC High

 

Spirituality: Our Lady Queen of Palestine

October 25th is the feast day of Our Lady Queen of Palestine.

Our Lady was first invoked under this title by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem as he entered the Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and consecrated the diocese to Mary on July 15, 1920. He asked her protection over the homeland of the Holy Family because of the ancient and growing tensions that had been threatening its people for generations.

He established this titular feast in her native land in 1927, wrote a special prayer for recitation before the Blessed Sacrament, and erected a church in her honor. The Holy See approved the feast day for the liturgical calendar in a decree asking the faithful to pray to Our Lady as Queen of Palestine for protection over the Holy Land.

After the first Crusade, its leader, Godfrey of Boullion, Duke of Lower Lorraine in France, founded the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to defend the Holy Sepulchre and Christians in the Holy Land. The Order still exists today, has its own Constitutions, and is governed by canon law.

In 1983, Pope St. John Paul II addressed an audience of Knights and Dames of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre, exhorting them to continue their work in the Holy Land under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Later, the Grand Master of the Order wrote the pope, requesting that he name Mary Queen of Palestine as the official patroness of the Order. The pope issued the decree in 1994.

The work of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem has evolved over time. It no longer involves the physical protection carried out by the knights of old. This important institution of the Vatican State now provides for the material needs of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem and financially supports initiatives that aid Holy Land Christians. 

The Order financed a large portion of Our Lady Queen of Palestine's shrine. The Knights and Dames of the Order strive to sustain and aid charitable, cultural, and social works to benefit those living in the Holy Land.

We have One God The 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time

                                                        We have One God

The 30^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 29, 2023

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Exodus 22:20-26; Psalm 18; 1 Thessalonians 1:5-10; Matthew 22:34-40

 

 

The Holy Days that we celebrate this week, All Saints and All Souls Days, help us put these readings into context. We remember our past and we look to our future at the same time. At the very beginning and at the end of our lives, we belong to God, and that reality ought to shape our thoughts and actions. If we love God as God loves us, we will turn from our idols to serve the living and true God. This means listening to God’s commandments and applying them to our times.

 

The Book of Exodus is not just a nice biblical standard for the ancient Hebrews who lived nomadically at the edge of deserts, it remains a Gospel imperative for us today. It is certainly about living in right relations with others and remembering that we have the same basic needs and human rights. It is about being compassionate to others because, by accident of birth or like our ancestors, we could find ourselves in a similar precarious existential situation. It is not too much of a stretch to know that we could find ourselves in a situation of misfortune.

 

Today, human mass migrations occur across the globe because of wars and persecution, lack of human rights, environmental damage, survival of one’s children, or the quest for a meaningful life. People across the world are hurting, and often they are faced with rejection, exclusionary immigration policies, and demonization. Our faith demands that we treat the less fortunate with kindness and assistance without fixating on political platforms or ideologies. To solve the challenges of displaced people, refugees, and migrants, we must stop calling them names, and get to know them as individuals.

 

          The solution in the U.S. cannot be done state-by-state with border states bearing the brunt of the response. It requires an international response, most specifically of building economies and freedom in countries where its citizens are fleeing poverty, injustice, and persecutions. International cooperation will help world economies build systems that benefit people in their own homes. We must work together to relieve the suffering of the world, especially those who we think are different from us. From the Vatican to the Archdiocese of Boston, church leaders are calling for churches to be ready and willing to assist migrants “in order to provide short-term critical care and shelter in the biblical sense of welcoming the stranger so that migrant families do not go unhoused this winter.”

 

          In the beginning and the end, we belong to the Lord. We share a common heritage, and we are faithful, compassionate people of goodwill who try to do the right thing by God. The hard words of Jesus must cause us deeper self-reflection. To love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, we must love the neighbor, the stranger, the alien, the widow, the orphan, the other person we may not know or understand, as we love ourselves. Today, these are the unhoused, those with addictions, those who speak a different language, skin color, culture, or have a different religion. This is the fulfillment of the Torah; it is the fulfillment of God’s law, and it is the principle by which God demands we live in right relations with one another at all levels of society. 

 

          The question that remains to us is, “Can we first see, and then respond by relieving, the suffering of another person? We have in common with all others the ability to love and to suffer. This is what is essential in life. Can we lessen the suffering of another person? Can we prove our love to God that we care compassionately for those who are in existential need? I’m confident that your love is that strong. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Romans 8) We are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

Tuesday: (Romans 8) I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.

 

Wednesday: (Revelation 7) I, John, saw another angel come up from the East,
holding the seal of the living God. He cried out in a loud voice to the four angels who were given power to damage the land and the sea, "Do not damage the land or the sea or the trees until we put the seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God."

 

Thursday: (Wisdom 3) The souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.

 

Friday (Romans 9) I speak the truth in Christ, I do not lie; my conscience joins with the Holy Spirit in bearing me witness that I have great sorrow and constant anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh.

 

Saturday (Luke 14) He told a parable to those who had been invited, noticing how they were choosing the places of honor at the table. "When you are invited by someone to a wedding banquet,do not recline at table in the place of honor.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 13) Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the sabbath. And a woman was there who for eighteen years had been crippled by a spirit; she was bent over, completely incapable of standing erect. When Jesus saw her, he called to her and said, "Woman, you are set free of your infirmity."

 

Tuesday: (Luke 13) "What is the Kingdom of God like? To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden. When it was fully grown, it became a large bush and the birds of the sky dwelt in its branches."

 

Wednesday (Matthew 5) When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain,
and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: 
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.

 

Thursday (John 6) “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.

 

Friday (Luke 14) On a sabbath Jesus went to dine at the home of one of the leading Pharisees, and the people there were observing him carefully. In front of him there was a man suffering from dropsy.

 

Saturday (Luke 6) Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 30: Dominic Collins, S.J., priest and martyr (1566-1602), was a Jesuit brother who was martyred in his native Ireland. He became a professional solider in the Catholic armies of Europe after the Desmond Rebellion was put down in 1583. He joined the Jesuits in 1584 at Santiago de Compostela and was sent back to Ireland in 1601 with a Spanish contingent. He was captured, tried for his faith, and sentenced to death.

 

October 31: Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J. (1532-1617) was widowed at age 31. When his three children died, Alphonsus joined the Jesuits as a lay brother at age 40 after attempting to complete the rigors of study. He was sent to the newly opened college in Majorca where he served as a porter for 46 years. His manner of calling people to sanctification was extraordinary. He served obediently and helped others to focus on their spiritual lives.

 

October 31: All Hallows Eve (evening) owes its origins to a Celtic festival that marked summer's end. The term was first used in 16th century Scotland. Trick or treating resembles the late medieval practice of souling when poor people would go door to door on Hallomas (November 1) receiving food in return for prayers for the dead on All Souls Day (November 2.)

 

November 1: All Saints Day honors the countless faithful believers - living and dead - who have helped us along in our faith. Our liturgical calendar is filled with canonized saints, but we have many blesseds and minor saints who no longer appear on it. We have local saints across the world. We have many people who live Gospel values who we appreciate and imitate. We remember all of these people on this day.

 

November 2: All Souls Day is the commemoration of the faithful departed. November is known as All Souls Month. We remember those who died as we hasten towards the end of the liturgical year and the great feast of Christ the King. As a tradition, we have always remembered our dead as a way of keeping them alive to us and giving thanks to God for their lives. 

 

November 3: Rupert Mayer, S.J., priest (1876-1945), resisted the Nazi government and died while saying Mass of a stroke. In 1937, he was placed in protective custody and was eventually released when he agreed that he would no longer preach.

 

November 3: Martin de Porres, religious (1579-1639) was a Peruvian born of a Spanish knight and a Panamanian Indian woman. Because he was not pure blood, he lost many privileges in the ruling classes. He became a Dominican and served the community in many menial jobs. He was known for tending to the sick and poor and for maintaining a rigorous prayer life.

 

November 4: Charles Borromeo, bishop (1538-1584), was made Bishop of Milan at age 22. He was the nephew of Pope Pius IV. He was a leading Archbishop in the Catholic Reformation that followed the Council of Trent. During a plague epidemic, Borromeo visited the hardest hit areas so he could provide pastoral care to the sick.

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 29, 1645. In the General Chapter of the Benedictines in Portugal, a statement published by one of their order, that said St Ignatius had borrowed the matter in his Spiritual Exercises from a Benedictine author, was indignantly repudiated. 
• October 30, 1638. On this day, John Milton, the great English poet, dined with the Fathers and students of the English College in Rome. 
• October 31, 1602. At Cork, the martyrdom of Dominic Collins, an Irish brother, who was hanged, drawn, and quartered for his adherence to the faith. 
• November 1, 1956. The Society of Jesus was allowed in Norway. 
• November 2, 1661. The death of Daniel Seghers, a famous painter of insects and flowers. 
• November 3, 1614. Dutch pirates failed to capture the vessel in which the right arm of Francis Xavier was being brought to Rome. 
• November 4, 1768. On the feast of St Charles, patron of Charles III, King of Spain, the people of Madrid asked for the recall of the Jesuits who had been banished from Spain nineteen months earlier. Irritated by this demand, the king drove the Archbishop of Toledo and his Vicar General into exile as instigators of the movement.

Tenemos un solo Dios El 30º Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario

 Tenemos un solo Dios

El 30º ^Domingo del Tiempo Ordinario

29 de octubre de 2023

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Éxodo 22:20-26; Salmo 18; 1 Tesalonicenses 1:5-10; Mateo 22:34-40

 

 

Los Días Santos que celebramos esta semana, Todos los Santos y Todos los Difuntos, nos ayudan a poner estas lecturas en contexto. Recordamos nuestro pasado y miramos hacia nuestro futuro al mismo tiempo. Al principio y al final de nuestra vida, pertenecemos a Dios, y esa realidad debe moldear nuestros pensamientos y acciones. Si amamos a Dios como Dios nos ama, dejaremos nuestros ídolos para servir al Dios vivo y verdadero. Esto significa escuchar los mandamientos de Dios y aplicarlos a nuestros tiempos.

 

El Libro del Éxodo no es sólo un buen estándar bíblico para los antiguos hebreos que vivían de forma nómada al borde de los desiertos, sino que sigue siendo un imperativo evangélico para nosotros hoy. Sin duda, se trata de vivir en relaciones correctas con los demás y recordar que tenemos las mismas necesidades básicas y los mismos derechos humanos. Se trata de ser compasivos con los demás porque, por accidente de nacimiento o como nuestros antepasados, podríamos encontrarnos en una situación existencial precaria similar. No es exagerado saber que podríamos encontrarnos en una situación de desgracia.

 

Hoy en día, las migraciones humanas masivas ocurren en todo el mundo debido a guerras y persecuciones, falta de derechos humanos, daños ambientales, supervivencia de los hijos o la búsqueda de una vida significativa. Personas en todo el mundo están sufriendo y, a menudo, se enfrentan al rechazo, a políticas de inmigración excluyentes y a la demonización. Nuestra fe exige que tratemos a los menos afortunados con amabilidad y asistencia sin fijarnos en plataformas políticas o ideologías. Para resolver los desafíos de las personas desplazadas, refugiadas y migrantes, debemos dejar de insultarlos y llegar a conocerlos como individuos.

 

          La solución en Estados Unidos no se puede lograr estado por estado y los estados fronterizos serán los más afectados por la respuesta. Requiere una respuesta internacional, más específicamente de construcción de economías y libertad en países donde sus ciudadanos huyen de la pobreza, la injusticia y las persecuciones. La cooperación internacional ayudará a las economías mundiales a construir sistemas que beneficien a las personas en sus propios hogares. Debemos trabajar juntos para aliviar el sufrimiento del mundo, especialmente de aquellos que creemos que son diferentes a nosotros. Desde el Vaticano hasta la Arquidiócesis de Boston, los líderes eclesiásticos están pidiendo que las iglesias estén preparadas y dispuestas a ayudar a los migrantes “a fin de brindarles atención crítica y refugio a corto plazo en el sentido bíblico de dar la bienvenida al extraño para que las familias migrantes no se vayan”. sin vivienda este invierno”.

 

          En el principio y en el fin, pertenecemos al Señor. Compartimos una herencia común y somos personas fieles, compasivas y de buena voluntad que intentamos hacer lo correcto para Dios. Las duras palabras de Jesús deben provocarnos una autorreflexión más profunda. Para amar a Dios con todo nuestro corazón, alma y mente, debemos amar al prójimo, al extraño, al extranjero, a la viuda, al huérfano, a la otra persona que tal vez no conozcamos o entendamos, como nos amamos a nosotros mismos. Hoy en día, estos son los que no tienen vivienda, los que tienen adicciones, los que hablan un idioma diferente, el color de piel, la cultura o tienen una religión diferente. Este es el cumplimiento de la Torá; es el cumplimiento de la ley de Dios y es el principio por el cual Dios exige que vivamos en relaciones correctas unos con otros en todos los niveles de la sociedad.

 

          La pregunta que nos queda es: “¿Podemos primero ver y luego responder aliviando el sufrimiento de otra persona? Tenemos en común con todos los demás la capacidad de amar y sufrir. Esto es lo esencial en la vida. ¿Podemos disminuir el sufrimiento de otra persona? ¿Podemos demostrar nuestro amor a Dios y que nos preocupamos con compasión por aquellos que tienen necesidades existenciales? Estoy seguro de que tu amor es así de fuerte.

 

Escritura para la misa diaria

 

Lunes: (Romanos 8 ) No somos deudores de la carne, para vivir según la carne. Porque si vivís según la carne, moriréis; pero si por el espíritu hacéis morir las obras de la carne, viviréis.

 

Martes: (Romanos 8 ) Considero que los sufrimientos del tiempo presente no son nada comparados con la gloria que se revelará para nosotros. Porque la creación espera con ansiosa expectación la revelación de los hijos de Dios; porque la creación fue sometida a la vanidad, no por sí misma sino por culpa de quien la sometió, con la esperanza de que la creación misma sería liberada de la esclavitud de la corrupción y participaría de la gloriosa libertad de los hijos de Dios.

 

Miércoles: (Apocalipsis 7) Yo, Juan, vi otro ángel subir del Oriente, 
llevando el sello del Dios vivo. Clamó en alta voz a los cuatro ángeles a quienes se les había dado poder para dañar la tierra y el mar: "No dañéis la tierra ni el mar ni los árboles hasta que pongamos el sello en la frente de los siervos de nuestro Dios. "

 

Jueves: (Sabiduría 3) Las almas de los justos están en la mano de Dios, y ningún tormento los tocará. Parecían, a los ojos de los tontos, estar muertos; y su muerte fue considerada una aflicción y su salida de nosotros, una destrucción total. Pero están en paz.

 

Viernes (Romanos 9 ) Verdad digo en Cristo, no miento; mi conciencia se une al Espíritu Santo para darme testimonio de que tengo gran dolor y constante angustia en mi corazón. Porque desearía yo mismo ser anatema y separado de Cristo por amor a mi pueblo, mis parientes según la carne.

 

Sábado ( Lucas 14 ) Contó una parábola a los que habían sido invitados, observando cómo escogían los lugares de honor en la mesa. "Cuando alguien te invite a un banquete de bodas, no te sientes a la mesa en el lugar de honor.

 

Evangelio: 

Lunes: (Lucas 13 ) Jesús estaba enseñando en una sinagoga en sábado. Y estaba allí una mujer que hacía dieciocho años estaba paralizada por un espíritu; estaba inclinada, completamente incapaz de mantenerse erguida. Cuando Jesús la vio, la llamó y le dijo: "Mujer, quedas libre de tu enfermedad".

 

Martes: (Lucas 13) "¿Cómo es el Reino de Dios? ¿A qué puedo compararlo? 
Es como una semilla de mostaza que un hombre tomó y plantó en el huerto. Cuando creció, se convirtió en un gran arbusto y las aves del cielo habitaban en sus ramas. "

 

Miércoles (Mateo 5 ) Cuando Jesús vio la multitud, subió al monte, 
y después de sentarse, sus discípulos vinieron a él. Comenzó a enseñarles, diciendo: 
"Bienaventurados los pobres de espíritu, porque de ellos es el Reino de los cielos.

 

Jueves (Juan 6) “Todo lo que el Padre me da, vendrá a mí, y no rechazaré al que viene a mí, porque bajé del cielo no para hacer mi voluntad, sino la voluntad del que me envió.

 

Viernes (Lucas 14) Un sábado fue Jesús a cenar a casa de uno de los principales fariseos, y la gente que estaba allí lo observaba atentamente. Frente a él había un hombre hidrópico.

 

Sábado (Lucas 6) Jesús subió al monte a orar y pasó la noche orando a Dios. Cuando llegó el día, llamó a sus discípulos y de ellos escogió a Doce, a quienes también llamó Apóstoles .

 

Santos de la semana

 

30 de octubre: Dominic Collins, SJ, sacerdote y mártir (1566-1602), fue un hermano jesuita que fue martirizado en su Irlanda natal. Se convirtió en soldado profesional en los ejércitos católicos de Europa después de que la rebelión de Desmond fuera sofocada en 1583. Se unió a los jesuitas en 1584 en Santiago de Compostela y fue enviado de regreso a Irlanda en 1601 con un contingente español. Fue capturado, juzgado por su fe y condenado a muerte.

 

31 de octubre: Alfonso Rodríguez, SJ (1532-1617) quedó viudo a los 31 años. Cuando sus tres hijos murieron, Alfonso se unió a los jesuitas como hermano laico a los 40 años después de intentar completar los rigores del estudio. Lo enviaron a la universidad recién inaugurada en Mallorca, donde trabajó como portero durante 46 años. Su manera de llamar a la gente a la santificación fue extraordinaria. Sirvió obedientemente y ayudó a otros a concentrarse en su vida espiritual.

 

31 de octubre: All Hallows Eve (noche) debe su origen a un festival celta que marcó el final del verano. El término se utilizó por primera vez en la Escocia del siglo XVI. Truco o trato se asemeja a la práctica medieval tardía del souling , cuando los pobres iban de puerta en puerta en Hallomas (1 de noviembre) recibiendo comida a cambio de oraciones por los muertos en el Día de Todos los Difuntos (2 de noviembre).

 

1 de noviembre: El Día de Todos los Santos honra a los innumerables creyentes fieles, vivos y muertos, que nos han ayudado en nuestra fe. Nuestro calendario litúrgico está lleno de santos canonizados, pero tenemos muchos beatos y santos menores que ya no aparecen en él. Tenemos santos locales en todo el mundo. Tenemos muchas personas que viven los valores del Evangelio a quienes apreciamos e imitamos. Recordamos a todas estas personas en este día.

 

2 de noviembre: Día de los Difuntos es la conmemoración de los fieles difuntos. Noviembre se conoce como el Mes de Todos los Difuntos. Recordamos a los que murieron mientras nos acercamos al final del año litúrgico y a la gran fiesta de Cristo Rey. Como tradición, siempre hemos recordado a nuestros muertos como una forma de mantenerlos vivos y dar gracias a Dios por sus vidas.

 

3 de noviembre: Rupert Mayer, SJ, sacerdote (1876-1945), resistió al gobierno nazi y murió mientras decía Misa de un derrame cerebral. En 1937, fue puesto bajo custodia protectora y finalmente fue liberado cuando aceptó que ya no predicaría.

 

3 de noviembre: Martín de Porres , religioso (1579-1639) fue un peruano nacido de un caballero español y una india panameña. Como no era de sangre pura, perdió muchos privilegios en las clases dominantes. Se hizo dominicano y sirvió a la comunidad en muchos trabajos de baja categoría. Era conocido por atender a los enfermos y pobres y por mantener una rigurosa vida de oración.

 

4 de noviembre: Carlos Borromeo, obispo (1538-1584), es nombrado obispo de Milán a los 22 años. Era sobrino del Papa Pío IV. Fue un arzobispo destacado en la Reforma católica que siguió al Concilio de Trento. Durante una epidemia de peste, Borromeo visitó las zonas más afectadas para poder brindar atención pastoral a los enfermos.

 

Esta semana en la historia jesuita

 

• octubre de 1645. En el Capítulo General de los Benedictinos en Portugal, una declaración publicada por un miembro de su orden , que decía que San Ignacio había tomado prestado el tema de sus Ejercicios Espirituales de un autor benedictino, fue repudiada con indignación.
• 30 de octubre de 1638. En este día, John Milton, el gran poeta inglés, cenó con los padres y estudiantes del English College de Roma.
• 31 de octubre de 1602. En Cork, martirio de Dominic Collins, un hermano irlandés, que fue ahorcado, arrastrado y descuartizado por su adhesión a la fe.
• 1 de noviembre de 1956. Se permite la entrada de la Compañía de Jesús en Noruega.
• 2 de noviembre de 1661. Muere Daniel Seghers , célebre pintor de insectos y flores.
• 3 de noviembre de 1614. Los piratas holandeses no lograron capturar el barco en el que se llevaba el brazo derecho de Francisco Javier a Roma.
• 4 de noviembre de 1768. En la fiesta de San Carlos, patrón de Carlos III, rey de España, los madrileños pidieron la retirada de los jesuitas que habían sido desterrados de España diecinueve meses antes. Irritado por esta exigencia, el rey obligó al exilio al arzobispo de Toledo y a su vicario general por ser instigadores del movimiento.

Photo: Autumn Shadows

 

Poem: “Late October,” by Maya Angelou

Carefully

the leaves of autumn
sprinkle down the tinny
sound of little dyings
and skies sated
of ruddy sunsets
of roseate dawns
roil ceaselessly in
cobweb greys and turn
to black
for comfort.

Only lovers
see the fall
a signal end to endings
a gruffish gesture alerting
those who will not be alarmed
that we begin to stop
in order to begin
again.”

Photo: Fleur d'Lis

 

Poem: “Remember” by Joy Harjo (American, b. 1951)

 Remember the sky that you were born under, 

know each of the star’s stories.

Remember the moon, know who she is.

Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the 

strongest point of time. Remember sundown 

and the giving way to night.

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled 

to give you form and breath. You are evidence of                                               

her life, and her mother’s, and hers.

Remember your father. He is your life, also.

Remember the earth whose skin you are: 

red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth, 

brown earth, we are earth.

Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their 

tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, 

listen to them. They are alive poems.

Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the 

origin of this universe.

Remember you are all people and all people 

are you.

Remember you are this universe and this 

universe is you.

Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.

Remember language comes from this.

Remember the dance language is, that life is.

Remember.

The author, a member of the Muscogee Nation, served as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the U.S., the first Native American to have this honor.

Photo: Mission Hill Basilica

 

Prayer: Pope Francis

Keep alive within us the flame of hope, so that with patience and perseverance we may opt for dialogue and reconciliation. In this way may peace triumph at last, and may the words "division", "hatred" and "war" be banished from the heart of every man and woman. Lord, defuse the violence of our tongues and our hands. Renew our hearts and minds, so that the word which always brings us together will be "brother", and our way of life will always be that of: Shalom, Peace, Salaam!

Spirituality: Anger that settles

 

There is no equivalent to the word Qaher. The dictionary calls it “anger,” but that does not satisfy. It is when you take anger, place it on a low fire, add injustice, oppression, racism, and dehumanization to it, and leave it to cook slowly for a century. And then you try to say it, but no one hears you. So, it sits in your heart, and settles into your cells, and it becomes your genetic imprint. Then it moves through generations. And one day you feel yourself unable to breathe. It washes over you and demands to break out of you. You weep. And it begins again.

Photo: The choir loft, St. Mary's in Beverly

 

Poem: "I go down to the shore," by Mary Oliver

I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall —
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:

Excuse me, I have work to do. 

Photo: St. Mary's, Beverly

 

Prayer: Dom Hélder Câmara, "Put Your Ear to the Ground."

 Put your ear to the ground

and listen,
hurried, worried footsteps,
Bitterness, rebellion.
Hope
hasn’t yet begun.
Listen again.
Put out feelers.
The Lord is there.
He is far less likely
to abandon us
in hardship
than in times of ease.

Render to God what is God’s: The 29th Sunday of Ordinary Time

                                        Render to God what is God’s

The 29^th Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 22, 2023

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Isaiah 45:1-6; Psalm 96; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-5; Matthew 22:15-21

 

Isaiah laments that the people of Jacob were specially called by God, the chosen people, and they proved that they did not know God because their actions did not align with God’s reign. Matthew points out the same situation as the Pharisees and Herodians, who profess to speak for God, reveal that they do not know God. If they did, they would not try to trap Jesus or put him to the test. Rather than speaking about how Jesus was the moral superhero, the most clever and wise one, the wittier one, we will speak about how we know God, and then how we act as a disciple of God.

 

Let’s look at Cyrus who is mentioned by Isaiah in the first reading. As the king of Persia, Iran, a pagan king, he allowed the people of Jacob to return to their homeland and to rebuild Jerusalem after the Babylonian Exile. The common thought was that God used pagan kings to chasten the people when they refused to repent of their idolatries. The lesson we need to learn is that idolatries and ideologies separate us from God and from one another and it is not the way forward for people who believe in God. It strikes me that some people might have an image of God that needs to be expanded and to see God’s realm as Jesus showed us. Jesus points to God as, “I am the Lord and there is no other, there is no God besides me.”

 

The first writers of the bible were brilliant in the ways they conceived of God as the artist creator of the universe and of humans. God participated in all aspects of creation and participates in all created things. We are not God, but every single person is born out of the love of God and has the capacity to be united with God. God expresses this love in a unique personal form, like he did with the people of Jacob. God has a personal relationship with each of us while remaining the transcendent creator of the many universes. Through our faith, we see Christ as the communion of the divinity expressed in personal form. As God is in each person, Christ’s role is to reconcile every other human with God. 

 

We do not worship a doctrine or an idea; we worship a triune God, who is the root reality of all existence. Our soul has an interior depth where we commune with God, whose love is expressed to us uniquely. Jesus of Nazareth was teaching the Pharisees and Herodians that we can learn to trust the areas of discomfort and tension, that darkness and unknown where fear operates, because the tenderness of God’s love is already there. Rendering to God what is God’s means that we must let God’s love heal us of the opposing tensions within us. 

 

We cannot live a life where God is privatized, individualized, and removed from everyday life. Our world needs to be rebuilt and reimagined along God’s plan for the world where we see our interconnectedness anddependence upon one another. We need to value human life and all life forms, which includes our earth. The world can become a pattern of friendship, interdependence, complementarity, cooperation, and creative joy. Union with God is not withdrawal or separation from the world, like keeping Caesar and God separate, but a dedicated, integrated, and absorption into it. We must make our way to heaven through earth. Our triune God reveals a spirituality of unity. 

 

Scripture for Daily Mass

 

Monday: (Romans 4) Abraham did not doubt God's promise in unbelief; rather, he was empowered by faith and gave glory to God and was fully convinced that what God had promised he was also able to do. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness.

 

Tuesday: (Romans 5) Through one man sin entered the world, and through sin, death, and thus death came to all men, inasmuch as all sinned. If by that one person's transgression the many died, how much more did the grace of God and the gracious gift of the one man Jesus Christ overflow for the many.

 

Wednesday: (Romans 6) Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness.

 

Thursday: (Romans 6) I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your nature. For just as you presented the parts of your bodies as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness for lawlessness, so now present them as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.

 

Friday (Romans 7) I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not. For I do not do the good I want,
but I do the evil I do not want. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.

 

Saturday (Ephesians 2) You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone.

 

Gospel: 

Monday: (Luke 12) "Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me."
He replied to him, "Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?" Then he said to the crowd, "Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich,
one's life does not consist of possessions."

 

Tuesday: (Luke 12) "Gird your loins and light your lamps and be like servants who await their master's return from a wedding, ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.

 

Wednesday (Luke 12) Be sure of this: if the master of the house had known the hour when the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come.

 

Thursday (Luke 12) I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.

 

Friday (Luke 12) When you see a cloud rising in the west you say immediately that it is going to rain–and so it does; and when you notice that the wind is blowing from the south you say that it is going to be hot–and so it is. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky.

 

Saturday (Luke 6) Jesus went up to the mountain to pray, and he spent the night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to himself, and from them he chose Twelve, whom he also named Apostles

 

Saints of the Week

 

October 23: John of Capistrano, priest, had a vision of Francis of Assisi when he was imprisoned during an Italian civil war at which time he was the governor of Perugia. He entered the Franciscan Friars Minor in 1415 after ending his marriage. He preached missions throughout Europe including a mission to Hungary to preach a crusade against the Turks. After the Christian victory at the Battle of Belgrade in 1456, John died. 

 

October 24: Anthony Claret, bishop (1807-1870) adopted his father's weaving career as a young man but continued to study Latin and printing. After entering seminary, he began preaching retreats and giving missions. He published and distributed religious literature and founded the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. He was appointed archbishop of Cuba but was called back to Spain to be Queen Isabella II's confessor. He resumed publishing until the revolution of 1868 sent him into exile. 

 

October 28: Simon and Jude, apostles (first century) were two of the Twelve Disciples called by Jesus, but little is known about them. We think they are Simon the Zealot and Judas, the son of James. Simon was most likely a Zealot sympathizer who would have desired revolution against Rome; Jude is also called Thaddeus, and is patron saint of hopeless causes. Both apostles suffered martyrdom. 

 

This Week in Jesuit History

 

• October 22, 1870: In France, Garibaldi and his men drove the Jesuits from the Colleges of Dole and Mont Roland. 
• October 23, 1767: The Jesuits who had been kept prisoners in their college in Santiago, Chile, for almost two months were led forth to exile. In all 360 Jesuits of the Chile Province were shipped to Europe as exiles. 
• October 24, 1759: 133 members of the Society, banished from Portugal and put ashore at Civita Vecchia, were most kindly received by Clement XIII and by the religious communities, especially the Dominicans. 
• October 25, 1567. St Stanislaus Kostka arrived in Rome and was admitted into the Society by St Francis Borgia. 
• October 26, 1546. The Province of Portugal was established as the first province in the Society, with Simao Rodriguez as its first provincial superior. 
• October 27, 1610. The initial entrance of the Jesuits into Canada. The mission had been recommended to the Society by Henry IV. 
• October 28, 1958. The death of Wilfrid Parsons, founder of Thought magazine and editor of America from 1925 to 1936.