Question from Ed …

Hello, What is the best book on Our Lady? Something not too sweet / saccharine on the one hand, nor too dry / academic / theological on the other. I don’t that about much about Our Lady and want to learn more. Thank you.

Annunciation by He Qi, 2001

First, of course, consult Scripture! That is our primary source for what we know about Mary.

Second, I must confess that I tend to swing towards the more theological side of things but I think you’ll find some some of that very accessible and engaging.

Third, talk to Mary herself! We are blessed to live in and with the Communion of Saints meaning holy people like Mary are with us always. So spend some time in quiet and be open to Mary’s presence with you. Sometimes it is helpful to use Scripture as an entry way to prayer in this regard. Take a passage with Mary in it and imagine that you are in that scene (the Nativity, in the Temple for Jesus’ Presentation, at the Wedding Feast of Cana, at the Cross, etc.). Allow your imagination to wander and interact with the people and things in the scene. Praying with your imagination is a great form of prayer!

And finally, BOOKS and articles!

The best book I know on Mary by far is Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints by Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson. Now it does have that word “theology” in it, but I have to say, you just might want to give it a whirl. As a first step, perhaps, read this review by Nancy Hawkins in America magazine: Spirit-Filled Companion (June 9, 2003). I love this book because it gives us a real-life sense of Mary that takes account of her real-life circumstances and tries to free Mary from some of the unfortunate accretions of her story over time. Another way to see if you’ll like this book is to read Sister Elizabeth’s article for Catholic Update in 2001: In Search of the Real Mary.

The next place I’d go for resources on Mary is over to my friends at Loyola Press. Loyola Press is a Jesuit ministry and have a fantastic collection of writers and resources on all things Catholic. I used to work there and can say from personal experience that they have a great grounding in theology and the faith. Their materials are top notch. Here’s a few on Mary I’d recommend (en español tambien):

• Mary: Jesus’ Mother–And Ours: Six Weeks with the Bible (Catholic Perspectives) by Kevin Perrotta
• Mary and the Saints: Companions on the Journey in the “Catholic Basics” series
• Mary, The Compassionate Mother: A Part of the Somos católicos Series by Virgilio Elizondo

Ed, I’m sure the A Nun’s Life Community has a bunch of suggestions too so check back here to see the comments folks leave on the blog post here! Blessings to you!

“Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for anger does not accomplish the righteousness of God.”
- James 1:19-20

In today’s world, it seems like everyone has something to say. There’s nothing wrong with that (I say as I type these words). But James’ letter reminds us to listen before we speak or react to what others say or do.

Listening is easy to do – when I agree with what I hear. But when I hear something that’s totally not what I agree with, it’s much more challenging. Yet James’ letter doesn’t say I have to agree with everything I hear! But it urges me to respond in Christ-like way.

What James does ask of me is to respect differences of opinion – to stand in my own truth while allowing others to stand in their own truth. My prayer for today is to listen carefully to other people, especially those whose political, religious, or social viewpoints are very different from my own.

While it might be tempting today to avoid conversations on controversial topics, I will remind myself instead to listen without judging others or myself and in doing so to cultivate a spirit of patience and acceptance in the world.

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Join the A Nun’s Life Community for prayer at 6 p.m. CT in the chat room today.

AS098 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on January 12, 2012. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: the difference between penance and sacrifice, speechless God, is grief a rejection of faith, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What is the difference between penance and sacrifice?
• Austerities and asceticism
• I don’t feel like God is telling me much. Am I going to hear a voice one day before graduation telling me to go to a convent? Or is saying “I want to go to college and study anthropology” sufficient?
• Measuring up to the holiness of friends and other people.
• My mother died recently and I’m very sad. But some of my bible study friends say, “She’s in heaven with God now and you should be happy about that.” Is my sadness somehow a rejection of my faith?

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

AS095 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on December 8, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: nature and theology of grace, renouncing things one never had, nun vows, the Trinity as two men and a hen?, my church NO my church!, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What exactly is grace? Is it like The Force or getting a shot of Red Bull?
• How does grace lead to freedom?
• Two men and a hen — A new image for the Trinity?
• Can a person renounce something if they’ve never had it? e.g., can I give up sex if I’ve never even had a romantic relationship?
• Aren’t the vows about renouncing things?
• Whose church is it, anyway? Is the Church my church, your church, God’s church, or our church?
• A Sister is interviewed on CBS News regarding the Apostolic Visitation and sisters’ responses

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/ and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

During Advent, members of the A Nun’s Life community will be posting reflections on the Jesse Tree and the O Antiphons.

Day 2 :: Eve And Adam written by Sister Maxine

I clearly recall the first essay that I wrote that pleased me. It was preceded by tons of writing that did not. But what made the essay pleasing to me wasn’t that it was perfect (it was far from perfect….). It was that I managed, at long last, to adequately express what I was thinking and feeling. Through it all, I learned that the act of creation has beauty and power and pain and joy.

When I read the creation accounts in Genesis, I can only imagine how God must have felt. In the first creation story (Gn 1:2-3), God brings forth order from chaos and shapes the universe. Each day, God creates something new. Creation nears its high point on the sixth day, with land animals and humanity, and reaches its apex on the seventh day, with the sabbath. On the last day, I imagine that God breathes a sigh of relief and satisfaction and thinks about creating pizza as a way to celebrate.

When I read the second creation account (Gn 2:4ff) which introduces us to Adam and Eve, I see God at work once again. But the story line is different—and foreboding. The story begins with God making a man out of earth and reaches its high point with God’s last act of creation, a woman. There is only one thing that God forbids the humans to do – to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Everything else in the garden is theirs to enjoy.

At this point, the writer in me is like, “Things are NOT going to go well for the humans.” Maybe I’m projecting my own human weakness, but I can almost taste the apples from that tree.

What am I to do with these two stories – one that speaks of the intrinsic goodness of creation and the other, of the potential for tough challenges and temptations along the way. For me, there is comfort in knowing that God hasn’t yet written the final word on the story of creation. I am part of that story. By living with the compassion, love, and integrity that Jesus models, I seek to shape a story of hope for all of creation.

* * Want to revisit the other symbols of Advent? Click here on Jesse Tree. * *

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight and every weekday at 6 p.m. Central Time at aNunsLife.org/live.

AS093 Ask Sister podcast published on November 24, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. This is a Special Edition on Saints, holiness, and joy. The nuns are joined by Catholic superstars Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, and Father James Martin, SJ.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.
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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

Sister Sandra Schneiders

• What is the Scriptural basis for the saints?
• In iconography and in various visual renderings, the saints are often pictured with some kind of symbol that speaks to something about their life — Teresa of Avila is pictured with a dove and quill, Saint Joseph with carpentry tools. Centuries from now, what symbol would you hope would be associated with you?
• What does holiness mean in general as well as in the ups and downs of our daily life?
• What was it like first getting to  know the author of the Fourth Gospel?
• Check out Sister Sandra’s new book Prophets in Their Own Country: Women Religious Bearing Witness to the Gospel in a Troubled Church

Father James Martin

• What role do saints play in our prayers?
• Is it considered a miracle that some saints do not decompose after dying?
• Isn’t holiness a pretty serious thing? What role do joy, humor, and laughter play in the spiritual life?
• What’s the deal with relics?
• What advice would you give to people who want to live a saintly life?
• Check out Father Jim’s new book Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor, and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life

Do you have a question for us? Contact us http://anunslife.org/contact/and, using your computer, record your question on voice mail. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

Sunday’s liturgy was beautiful as our church welcomed catechumens and candidates who are moving toward full communion with the Catholic Church. As a sponsor, I had the awesome privilege of sitting in front with my person. As I knelt during the Eucharistic prayer, I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the liturgy, of common prayer among the People of God, and of Christ’s presence in and among us.

And then I realized that this would be the last time I celebrated Mass this way. My parish community and every Roman Catholic Church in the English-speaking world will begin to use a revised translation of the Mass at the next Sunday liturgy which coincides with Advent and the new Church year.

Although I’ve experienced the English translation of the Mass my whole life, using the vernacular (the language of the people instead of Latin) is a relatively new experience — as in only about 40 years old. Since then, scholars have learned much about the experience of the celebrating the Mass in English as well about translations from the original Latin.

“This new translation will employ the best of what we have learned about translation and liturgical language in two generations of celebrating the Liturgy in the vernacular. It will provide an opportunity to reflect ever more deeply on the eucharistic celebration that lies at the heart of the Church’s life.

In accord with the rules for translation established by the Holy See, the revised translation follows the style of the original Latin texts more closely, including concrete images, repetition, parallelisms, and rhythm. The English used in the Mass texts is more formal and dignified in style. Where possible, the texts follow the language of Scripture and include many poetic images. In addition, the third edition contains prayers for the celebration of recently canonized saints, additional prefaces for the Eucharistic Prayers, additional Masses and prayers for various needs and intentions, and some updated and revised rubrics (or instructions) for the celebration of the Mass. (source: Ten Questions on the Roman Missal by the USCCB)

Like many Catholics, I am not sure what to expect from this third translation of the Roman Missal. I am looking forward to the emphasis on the language of Scripture and use of poetic images. While I like the familiar languages and images of the current translation, I am excited by a renewal of intentionality at Mass because we will each have a heightened awareness of what we are saying and doing as we learn how to pray in a new way together. At the same time, I am disappointed that a more rigorous formality has been introduced and that there is still pieces of language that are exclusive of women (“for us men and for our salvation”) and images of God that are overwhelmingly masculine. If indeed we are moving closer to Scripture then we in fact should be including along with Father and King the many different images of God including that of Mother, Lion, Lover, Baker Woman, Sower, and many more. I hope and pray that parish leaders will carefully implement Roman Missal 3.0 and at the same time be sensitive to necessary adaptations.

For now and for this week, however, I will cherish my last Mass with the current Roman Missal. Roman Missal 2.0, you’ve been my constant companion. I have celebrated with you, cried with you, and witnessed some of the most beautiful landmarks of my Catholic life with you. You were there when my siblings married their spouses, my nephews were baptized, and my parents renewed their vows. You were there when my friends became Catholic or were ordained or got married or when we celebrated their Mass of Resurrection. You were there when my IHM sisters celebrated Jubilee and when I professed my vows as an IHM Sister. I am grateful for you, Mass 2.0. Goodbye.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). Just go to aNunsLife.org/live. Also we’ll give an update on the Fall FUN!raiser and announce the winner of the Grand Prize iPad 2!

We are grateful for today’s guest blog post by Marg, in honor of World Food Day yesterday!

“You’re so fat!” is a high compliment in cultures where food is scarce. In 21st century America, that same sentence could land you in a pile of trouble. Clearly, food is an elemental, complex, emotionally loaded topic in both its absence and its abundance! In the Old Testament, the Jews, a people living in a desert, envisioned heaven as a place of plenty. Isaiah, describing the time after the end of time, says:

On this mountain [Zion], the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples A feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. — Isaiah, 25:6

I sit here with my far-too-ample gut, smelling the wonderful supper that Karol is making for us, and I think about that quotation. It’s about God satisfying all our wants…not just satisfying them, but providing the finest of the fine for those who are faithful. In making his point, Isaiah focused on real food, beyond the reach of most people of his time, but food that provided a substantial, universally understandable metaphor.

Breaking Bread with Friends

No matter how good the food, however, eating alone is not much fun. My elderly great-aunt essentially lost interest in eating because she was lonely. When she had company, her appetite returned. Sharing food with someone you care for is a strong defense against loneliness. The Last Supper is the quintessential model of Jesus providing the finest of sustenance – his own body and blood – and sharing it with his friends. Sharing food with good friends expresses love and builds community. In a totally different context, consider the following story as another example of how sharing food can build community, even among strangers.

For 16 years, [Joe Cahn], the self-appointed “Commissioner of Tailgating” has traveled to stadium parking lots around the country, sampling food and making friends. “I call it the original Facebook….Here, when you want to friend somebody, you give them food. On the Internet, when you want to friend somebody, you push a button. What’s more fun?”

“The difference between friends and acquaintances is our friends come into our kitchen. Our acquaintances stay in the living room, waiting to get served. Our friends walk in with their spoon and take stuff out of the pot.”

Joe Cahn, Quoted by Glenn Yoder in The Boston Globe, October 12, 2011, p. G-35

Sharing food is not a uniquely human trait. I’ve seen a flock of cedar waxwings perched on a bough passing berries from one to another until each gets something to eat. Interspecies sharing may be an even less common phenomenon, but take a look at this video clip for an interesting example.

So this is my “Irish Stew” of thoughts about food. What thoughts do you have about sharing food…with friends, with strangers, in different contexts? What are your feelings? There are a multitude of possibilities!

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for evening prayer and chat at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone) today at aNunsLife.org/live.

The other day, my gardener friend Fran gave me the last tomato of the season from her garden. Tonight, when the festival of Sukkot begins, I’m going to celebrate that tomato, a symbol of abundance.

Sukkot is an annual festival that began in ancient Israel as a thanksgiving to God for the Fall harvest. It also commemorates the forty years that the Jewish people lived in the wilderness after their exodus from slavery in Egypt. Sukkot means “huts” or “booths” in Hebrew. The word brings to my mind an image of humble dwellings of a people in transition, a people whose true home was in God.

In solidarity with the Jewish community, I’ll give thanks for a bountiful harvest. Not only for the tomatoes, onions, carrots, lettuce and many other great things that came from Fran’s garden. But also for the joys of friendship and the recognition that God is with me in all seasons.

So tonight, cheers for the tomato! What comes to mind for you as a symbol of thanksgiving for the Fall harvest in your life?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for evening prayer and chat at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone) today at aNunsLife.org/live.

Today’s liturgical readings call us to remember and to live today the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. We all know the gist of the story. A traveler is violently attacked and left for dead, passersby avoid the person, but then the least likely of them stops and tenderly cares for the person.

We tend to call anyone who helps a stranger a “good samaritan” which is certainly true to this story but there is also a deeper meaning which the last verse of the story calls us to remember:

Who is neighbor? The one who showed mercy, compassion.

Lest we only allow the story of the Good Samaritan to fill us with warm fuzzies, God calls us to live mercy and compassion, to reach out to others and to ourselves with mercy and compassion. There is yet a further meaning of these words which the prophet Zephaniah brings to the fore:

The word of God came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says God: Render true judgements, show compassion and mercy to one another; do not oppress the widow, the orphan, the alien, or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. (Zephaniah 7:8-10)

Mercy and compassion are the mark of true justice — not a vengeful justice that takes life for life, violence for violence — but one that shows kindness and respect, one that feels deeply for all involved, one that uses wisdom and relies on the grace of God.

Our response must be three-fold:

1. Pray and reflect on the words of Scripture.
2. Consider how the Spirit is calling us to look at this in our own life — in how we treat ourselves and how we treat others — indeed our whole disposition to life and the world around us!
3. Act. Don’t just think about how this is such a nice idea. Incarnate it.

I’ve learned the all-too-difficult lesson that when you ask God to help you with something like putting your actions where your mouth is, God obliges! Just not necessarily the way I would have liked it. Still, we are called to follow through, to keep pursuing the good that God has stirred within us.

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for evening prayer and chat at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone) today at aNunsLife.org/live.

The words of the centurion from today’s gospel story are echoed in every Mass … “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.”
(Luke 7:6-7; also Matthew 8:8)

One Sunday morning, however, I heard these familiar words in an altogether new and shocking way. During the mass, it came time for the assembly’s response to the presider’s words, “happy are we who are called to this banquet.” I responded with the rest of the community, “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you but only say the word and I shall be healed.”  As I said these words, my mind filled with images from the gospel story of the centurion who sought out Jesus to ask him to heal his faithful servant who was at home “ill and about to die.” When Jesus heard this he prepared to go at once, but the centurion said, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you enter under my roof … but say the word and let my servant be healed.”

These were the words that we were now saying, and I prayed for the humility and the faith of the centurion.  I was feeling pretty miserable that day and not worthy of much of anything.  As the community finished the response, a most unusual thing happened. There was a split second silence, and then the words “BE HEALED” rang through the church.  I wondered if what I heard was the voice of God.  It sounded like an old woman’s voice – crackling and somewhat shrill.  It wasn’t probably so different from the disciples’ experiences of the heavens splitting open and the voice of God issuing forth. 

And then I saw her, not God, but an elderly woman leaning precariously over the front pew, her hand gripping a cane. I had seen her before and knew that she was hard of hearing and seeing. Throughout the mass, this woman was always out of sync with the songs and responses.  By the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, I had all but forgotten the constant echo. But it was she who had uttered the words “Be healed.” Because she was just a few seconds behind the rest of the assembly, we only caught the last two words of her sentence, “… but only the say the word and I shall BE HEALED.”

For me, the voice of God was very much revealed through this woman.  These last two words became for me the beginning of a profound understanding of myself and God. I just utter the words out “I am unworthy to receive you” and without missing a beat, God answers, “Be healed.”

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today at 6 p.m. CST (your time zone). The nuns will be joining you from the NL studio!

Sister Maxine and Sister Julie are on the road and are blessed to have another talented write fill in for us on the blog. Thank you, Kbart, for this reflection on today’s scripture story about the woman healed by Jesus ….

Full disclosure – I have never finished reading the bible. Every time I start reading I get stuck on something, and I stop to try and figure it out. This of course means that I stop reading…for years, and then I pick the bible up and start reading again, only from a different place from before. The bad news is that I haven’t read the whole bible. The good news (no pun intended) is that when I do read a passage from the bible it stays with me.

A few days ago knowing that I was writing blog for today, Sister Julie sent me an email with the reading for today: Matthew 9:18-26. She also said “don’t have to use it, just an FYI in case you need an idea.” My internal voice kept saying: ‘you don’t have to use it; you don’t have to use it; you don’t have to use it.” But the thing about internal voices is that the button for volume control often goes missing. So of course I went to the darn bible, looked the reading up; read it; closed the book and immediately asked myself “what the heck am I going to do with this?”

The next morning at breakfast I told Marguerite about the email, the reading, and my struggle to “get it.” We talked about it and Marguerite, a gifted teacher, has a way of helping me interpret things in a way I can understand. But as with all good teachers, she leaves me off at the door with questions. And then it’s up to me whether or not I want to open the door to explore further. In this case my questions stemmed from the woman who followed Jesus to touch his cloak. What was it that made her do that: knowledge, belief, or faith?

I spent an hour going through three dictionaries (I am a librarian) checking the differences in the definitions of those three words and the synonyms of the same. And while knowledge is still on the paper – it is the other two that I am stuck with: belief and faith. That woman sought Jesus out in the crowd believing that Jesus would heal her. And when Jesus turned around and saw her he said “Courage, daughter. Your faith has healed you.” Matthew goes on to say “that very moment the woman was healed.”

I think about my own life and wonder if my own patchwork faith is as strong as that woman’s. Would the strength of my faith carry me into a crowd with the belief that just one touch would heal me? I respond by saying that each day “something” carries me into the day and helps me get through. That same “something” is with me when the moments are long and I can’t get out of my own way. “Something” is in the face of a little baby nephew when he smiles. And I believe for me that “something” is my faith in God. And even though I haven’t read the whole bible….”something” keeps me going back to start again. Maybe “something” isn’t about finishing, but adding to, and continuing as I move through my life with belief and faith.

Has your faith carried you into a crowd with the belief that you would be healed? Where did your faith come from? How do you keep your faith fresh, growing and strong?

IGF010 In Good Faith with Sister Barbara Reid, OP, PhD, recorded live on June 2, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. The nuns talk with Sister Barbara about finding God in everyday life, Sacred Scripture, prayer, biblical spirituality, and more!
Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Sister Barbara Reid, OP

Sister Barbara Reid, OP, is a Dominican Sister of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a PhD in Biblical Studies from The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC and is professor of New Testament and vice president and academic dean at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Her most recent books are Taking Up the Cross: New Testament Interpretations Through Latina and Feminist Eyes , The Gospel According to Matthew: New Collegeville Bible Commentary Series , the three-volume work Parables for Preachers, and Choosing the Better Part? Women in the Gospel of Luke.

Topic: The sisters talk with Sister Barbara about her experience of living faith in everyday life, drawing on her work as a scripture scholar and as VP/academic dean of CTU, the first woman to hold that role.

Show Notes:

• The Bible as a way to understand our present experience of God in light of the experience of our ancestors in the faith
• New to the Bible? Suggestions for how to get started
• Conflicting images of God in the scriptures – who is the “real” God?
• Jesus, the incarnation of the loving God
• Biblical spirituality
• Ways to pray with the Bible
• Saint Dominic’s Nine Ways of Prayer
• Women in the scriptures and their messages for us today
• ”Feminism” – a commitment to dignity and equality for all people
• How the feminist perspective challenges interpretations of scripture that justify violence and abuse
• How to keep the scriptures “fresh”

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

How times change! Today, while reading about the space shuttle Endeavour, whose final mission ended this morning, I came across this photo (at right). It shows the first call ever made by a pope to outer space. During the call, on May 21, Pope Benedict spoke to the crew of the Endeavour, which included two Italians. The pope applauded their dedication and courage.

Elsewhere in the heavens, I imagine Galileo smiling.

Sure, the 17th century was a long time ago, and Galileo has probably let bygones be bygones. Besides, the idea that the earth revolves around the sun has long ceased to be controversial. And our understanding of how to interpret the bible has changed a lot, so we look at verses like Psalm 104: 5, “You fixed the earth on its foundation, never to be moved” very differently than did people hundreds of years ago.

I’m encouraged by the photo! It reminds me that our Catholic Christian tradition is a living tradition, in conversation with the world around us, however delayed or timely that conversation might be.

Pope’s call to space: AP Photo/Houston Chronicle, Nathan Lindstrom
Endeavour space shuttle: photo by NASA/Bill Ingalls

Yesterday, Sister Julie and I attended the Associate Covenant ceremony of our friend Holly. The ceremony was held in the Motherhouse in Monroe, Michigan. The warm light of the setting sun glowed in the Chapel windows as Holly stepped forward and made her formal commitment to the IHM way of prayer, community, and ministry. It was a beautiful and deeply touching ceremony.

Holly dedicated the ceremony to Bede Griffiths, a Benedictine priest who has done much writing and speaking about the mystical roots of Christianity. The desire to grow in awareness of oneself and of the Divine certainly isn’t unique to Christianity – it is shared by many of the great religions of the world, such as Buddhism, Islam, and Hinduism.

I loved how the ceremony reflected the universal human desire for the Divine. There was a lotus flower, a religious symbol common in Hinduism and Buddhism, on the cover of the ceremony booklet. There were readings from the Book of Wisdom and the Gospel of Luke, as well as from the writings of Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, among others. The music included pieces such as “How Can I Keep from Singing” and “Nocturne.”

As the ceremony ended and we went forth from the chapel, I thought about the many different ways the Divine is at work in humanity and all of creation. And about the power of symbols to remind us of our interconnectedness in the Spirit. This morning, as I was just waking up, I realized that I was dreaming about a lotus flower placed over an open Bible.

Are there particular symbols that have come to light recently for you? If you’d like to share them, please write about them in the comment box below. If it’s an image, you might want to include a link where the image can be viewed.

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Join the sisters and A Nun’s Life community at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE for Praying with the Sisters live podcast and chat.

AS065 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 25, 2011. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org Ministry. Topics include: psychics and nuns, meditating on Scripture, sisters in the parish, Celibacy in the City TV show?, meet Sister Mary Evoca, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the topics we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• I visited a psychic who told me to go to nuns for direction. Help!
• What does it mean to meditate over (or on) scripture?
• What is the role of Catholic sisters and nuns in parish life?
• What’s up with that new recording gizmo on aNunsLife.org/contact (aka our new portress Sr. Mary Evoca)
• Celibacy is CRAZY! Can anyone really live that way?

Do you have a question for us? Visit our new portress Sister Mary Evoca http://anunslife.org/contact/and leave a message for us. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

DM005 Digital Ministry with Father Robert Barron on the theology of ministering online, how to proclaim the Gospel in a digital age. Recorded live on January 13, 2011. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Be inspired by technology, technique, and theology.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Father Robert Barron

Father Robert Barron is a sought-after speaker on the spiritual life-from universities to YouTube to national conferences and private retreats. The Catholic theologian and podcasting priest is one of the world’s great and most innovative teachers of Catholicism. His global media ministry called Word On Fire has a simple but revolutionary mission – to evangelize the culture.

Topic: The sisters talk with Father Barron about WWJD? What would Jesus do given today’s digital technology and media? Does Scripture give us any clues on why or how we might use digital media for the sake of the Gospel? We discuss these topics and more on this episode of Digital Ministry.

Show Notes

• Fr. Barron’s ministry at WordOnFire.org and teaching at the University of Saint Mary of the Lake Mundelein seminary in the Archdiocese of Chicago
• the variety of media that Fr. Barron uses to minister online
• the importance of reading and studying theology and the faith before ministering online
• using other people’s language to communicate the Gospel
• talking about the Gospel to people who are unchurched, or unfamiliar with religion
• like Jesus, hanging out in the “courtyard of the Gentiles,” a place where unbelievers can engage with the Catholic faith
• YouTube and the Internet as a virtual Areopagus (cf: Saint Paul preaching in the Areopagus, Acts 17:16-34)
• how ministering online affects one’s own prayer life
• the influence of Fulton Sheen
• the “YouTube heresies”
• Father Robert’s reviews of the movies Gran Torino and True Grit
• responding to people who show anger in their comments on YouTube or other websites
• thoughts on WWJD — what would Jesus do in today’s digital world
• themes from scripture that can encourage us in our online ministry
• the spiritual needs of people online and adapting to them
• balancing multiple ministry responsibilities and interacting online
• and thoughts on what sermon Fr. Barron would ask Jesus to preach!

Digital Ministry covers a mix of things covering techniques, technology, and theology in order to enhance one’s capacity to do ministry, to witness to the Gospel in every day life on the Internet. The show airs on the second Thursday of the month (today was an exception) from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time. Visit the Digital Ministry web page for more information including how to download this podcast after the live broadcast and our full podcast schedule.

For more information, including upcoming guests and our full podcast schedule, visit the program page of Digital Ministry.

Continue the conversation day or night at the A Nun’s Life Community Forum and look for the topic “Digital Ministry Podcast Listeners.”

The fourth and final step for our spiritual tuneup is to act. No, you don’t have to join a stage group (although that may be what your reading, praying, and reflecting move you to do). Rather you are at a new place where you can choose to be in the world in a way that is more in sync with yourself and with God.

I’ve just started reading The Beating of Great Wings by Marianist Father Bernard Lee, SM, and in the very first few pages he says that action is not identical with activity. “Action is the exercised responsibility for collaborating with God historically in the redemption of historical experience.” (page 3) While he doesn’t define “activity” at this point, the image that comes to mind is “doing stuff” or the big and little things that make up our daily roster of activities. I also get a sense that “activity” as a sort of frenetic experience, a bit random and perhaps lacking or verging on lacking control.

Had I read Lee’s definition of action (especially in contradistinction to activity) and not already pondered this 4-step process, I probably would have thought to myself, wow, that’s a tall order to be responsible for collaborating with God in the redemption of anything, even a pop bottle or can! But the care-full process of immersing oneself in reading, praying, and reflecting is what prepares the way for being a person of action, a person who collaborates with God in redemption. That “redemption of historical experience” means that it begins with us and our everyday lived experience — shopping for diapers, working, studying for finals, having a drink with friends at the bar, sitting in traffic, etc. It also means being mindful of and action-oriented toward the needs of the bigger world — our neighborhood, our country, our world. This is the stage, so to speak, for collaborating with God.

Thoughts, questions, ponderings, ideas, inspirations? What’s percolating?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Wow! It’s the 4th week of Advent. As we move towards Christmas, we are invited to read, pray, reflect, and act (continuing the thread from earlier). These four steps can help us during Advent as well as anytime we need to tuneup our spiritual life.

To reflect or to be reflective means to think quietly and calmly. Sometimes this is understood as a mode of being, a kind of disposition. However, we can also be more deliberative in reflecting especially when we are reflecting with a view towards discerning God’s activity in our lives and making a choice about how we want to be in the world. A particular way of doing this is “theological reflection.”

Theological reflection is an intentional choice to engage seriously with a particular idea or issue using a variety of approaches that begin with one’s experience and integrates it with scripture, the wisdom of the church, an awareness of the community and world we live in, and the stories of our lives. It is a kind of discernment that enlightens and gives meaning to how we live and approach events, challenges, ideas, topics, etc. in our life. The aim is not dogmatic statements but conversion, that is, transformation of heart.

Here is an example of steps that one might take in theological reflection, keeping in mind that prayer is a given throughout this process:

1. Name the experience: chose the event, challenge, idea or topic
2. Explore the experience: find another layer to the event by looking at how you felt about the event, what was startling or surprising, how other people are involved
3. Dig deeper: expand your thinking by considering what values are at stake, emerging, in conflict, etc.
4. Make faith connections: discover how God at work in this event by asking yourself how God is present in the event for yourself and others, what scripture passages or church custom or faith story comes to mind, etc.
5. Articulate your learnings: what questions still linger, what did you discover about yourself and God and others, what has changed, what will you do going forward, etc.

(based on Reflecting with God: Connecting Faith and Daily Life in Small Groups by Abigail Johnson)

What other tips do you have for engaging in theological reflection? What works or not so much?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

A closeup of the illuminated letter P in the 1407 Latin Bible.

This week is National Bible Week. It is has been celebrated the week of Thanksgiving every year since 1941 by the National Bible Association, an organization that works to raise awareness of the Bible’s importance and relevance to the U.S. as a nation and in the lives of individuals.

What can we do to raise our own awareness about the Bible?

Here are some suggestions:

Mary Elizabeth Sperry, associate director for Utilization of the New American Bible, points out that the Bible—actually a library of 73 “books”—includes royal history, prophecy, poetry, love songs, letters, and of course believers’ accounts of the preaching and passion of Jesus. Yet, Sperry notes, the “Bible is not a history text, a science book, or a political manifesto.” The Bible is the record of the faith of people who walked with God—and sometimes did not. We read it to deepen faith, we pray with it to express faith—but we can also study the Bible. Taking an adult-level scripture course or reading a book by someone like Father Raymond Brown will help you to discover scripture’s depths. (From Take 5 for Faith, available in bulk for parishes and by email for individuals from our friends at TrueQuest)

Studying Scripture with renown Catholic Scripture scholar Raymond Brown, SS, is a great idea. You’ll find tons of listings at the Raymond Edward Brown author page on Amazon.The New Jerome Biblical Commentary is a favorite here at the convent, and I’m also fond of An Introduction to New Testament Christology.

CatholicMom.org’s Lisa Hendey (whom we interviewed in September on our Digital Ministry program) has some great suggestions on her website for how to pray with, study, and do activities around the Sunday Scripture readings.

Join a Bible study group at your parish or online! It’s always good to pray and reflect and study with others. Good for the mind and spirit. We’ve been thinking about hosting one here at A Nun’s Life Ministry on our community forum. If interested in helping out or participating, let us know.

Praying with Scripture is essential to our life of prayer. There are a variety of ways to pray with Scripture, starting with reading it! The Canadian Jesuits have some great tips on how to pray with Scripture. This approach is one that I learned when I lived in Toronto and was part of a Jesuit prayer group.

What other thoughts do you have on how to immerse yourself in Scripture and how Scripture can be lived in every day life?

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Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

IGF002 In Good Faith with historian Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson recorded live on October 7, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Dr. Thompson about the history of U.S. Catholic sisters and nuns and find out some surprising things.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson

Dr. Thompson is professor of history at Maxwell School of Syracuse University, where she also holds appointments in the departments of religion, political science, and women and gender studies. She is a leading expert on the history of Catholic sisters and nuns in the United States.

Topic: The History of Catholic Sisters and Nuns in the U.S.

The sisters talk with Dr. Peggy Thompson about calling and history, her experience working with women’s religious communities across the country, the significance of Catholic sisters and nuns in the context of the American experience, and what the “good old days” of religious life was actually like. We’ll also talk about how many of the stories of founders and pioneer sisters can inspire us today in our daily quest for God.

Dr. Thompson recently did an 18-lecture series on The History of Women Religious in the United States. The publishers of this series, Now You Know Media, have provided the first lecture for free. Listen to the Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women’s Religious Life.

Show Notes:

• from broadway aspirations to history scholar
• history, it’s not about “dead things”
• the first sister-President of the United States (and Vice President too)
• what the lives of pioneering sisters can tell us about living an active live and a life of prayer
• what we can learn from religious founders about living a faith-filled life
• sisters caring for the wounded during the Civil War
• the impact of Catholic sisters and nunson U.S. culture
• skeletons in the closet and other surprising tales from religious archives
• habits for apostolic religious — not as traditional as they seem
• revisiting their founding inspiration — lots of surprises along the way
• apostolic orders : are they morphing into Beguines?
• prayer: always central to Catholic sisters and nuns throughout the ages

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

AS043 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on October 1, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: inclusive language and using male pronouns exclusively for God, Catholic stance on gambling and bingo, nun titles, a right to life, and more!

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• Where does the Church stand with gambling such as betting on matches, playing poker, etc.? What about bingo?
• What is “inclusive language” all about? What’s wrong with using all-male language in prayer?
• What are the different titles that Catholic sisters and nuns use to refer to themselves and to their sisters in leadership positions?
• The nuns talk about what it means to have a right to life. Backdrop: young people, bullying, outing of others, controlling others, taking care of ourselves–and others–in the midst of our relationships in school, family, online communities, etc.

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below. In whatever way you contact us, please know that your last name, email address, and any other private information will be kept confidential.

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ And Mary said,

My soul magnifies my God!
My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior
whose glance has rested on me,
a poor and humble servant.

From this day forth
all shall speak of me as blessed.

The Almighty has done wondrous deeds for me.
May the name of the Most High be praised.

God’s mercy reaches out from age to age,
touching all the faithful.

The proud have lost their thrones
while God’s hand has raised up the lowly.

The hungry are filled with all god
while the rich go away empty-handed.

Ever present to our God
are the promises made to our ancestors:
To Abraham, Sarah, and their descendants, mercy forever! (Luke 1:39-55)

* * *

Join A Nun’s Life Community for prayer today via our live podcast “Praying with the Sisters” and chat room. Just before 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone) join us at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE … more info on that page.

Every evening Monday through Thursday, Sister Maxine and Sister Julie have evening prayer here at aNunsLife.org. We pray the scriptures of the day and also pray for the needs of the world and this community. You are invited to join us for prayer by simply visiting aNunsLife.org/live at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone). We have a chat room on that page so that we can connect with you personally and so that you can share your prayer requests.

More information can be found at Praying with the Sisters. Not too sure about how this works or what a podcast or chat room is? That’s okay! We’ve got instructions and many folks who will help you once you get to aNunsLife.org/live.

If you’ve got questions about prayer or would like more input on prayer (e.g., ways to pray, what meditation is, how to pray the liturgy of the hours in daily life, etc.), let us know below. Use the comment box below. We’re always open to new ideas and ways to help one another in our spiritual journeys.

See you later today!

IGF001 In Good Faith with guest Sister Sandra Schneiders recorded live on September 2, 2010. Produced by aNunsLife.org ministry. Our hosts talk with Sister Sandra about vocation, discernment, the Gospel of John, biblical spirituality, and religious life.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

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Guest: Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM

Sister Sandra is a leading authority on Catholic women’s religious life and a renowned author. She is professor emerita of New Testament Studies and Christian Spirituality at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley. She is the author of a number of books on scripture and religious life. Among them are Written That You May Believe: Encountering Jesus in the 4^th Gospel and The Revelatory Text: Interpreting the New Testament As Sacred Scripture. She is also completing a three-volume series on religious life: the first is Finding the Treasure and the second Selling All are already published and the third book is on the way.

Topic: Exploring God’s call in everyday life.

The sisters talk with Sister Sandra about her call as a Catholic nun as well as her call as a scholar and theologian. The sisters also discuss her work with the Gospel of John and how biblical spirituality can help us in our daily quest for God.

Show Notes:

• on being a self-described “God junkie”
• putting out the last cigarette before entering the convent
• take time to discern but not too long lest you fall into “analysis paralysis”
• on whether and how we can know for sure that God is calling us
• favorite passage in the Gospel of John
• how biblical spirituality can help us in today’s quest to find and to live God’s calling in our life
• the bible as one story and many stories, like our own lives
• ecumenical and interfaith dialogue
• young women discerning religious life
• on having one’s affective needs met in religious life
• living community v. living in community
• “Staying in the Fire” Phyllis Kittel
• the Apostolic Visitation and women religious
• on being faithful to our own identity, not to give it up because it’s been called into question, but “to affirm it more strongly, to claim it more firmly, to live it more truthfully”
• on experiencing loneliness in one’s life
• does God make bad things happen to us?
• the most rewarding aspect of living as a religious

In Good Faith is a conversation exploring God’s call in everyday life hosted by A Nun’s Life Sisters Maxine and Julie. Our monthly program features guests who are nationally known for their ministry in spirituality, religious life, and discernment. We’ll look at how our guests understand their own life as a calling and discuss a variety of perspectives on living faith and call in everyday life. The program is broadcast live every first Thursday of the month from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Central Time. Tune in at www.aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

For more information, including upcoming guests on In Good Faith, please visit the program page of In Good Faith.

“I have a spiritual question. In my opinion, one of Jesus’ most profound statements was, ‘The kingdom of God comes not from observation; neither shall they say lo here or lo there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you!’ To me Jesus is saying that you cannot obtain God’s kingdom by merely observing or following outer religious rituals and believing in outer doctrines. Rather you can only discover His kingdom by going within your heart and mind to discover and become one with God’s presence within.”

“If this is so, why do most Christian churches (including the Catholic Church) place such a heavy emphasis on following particular outer doctrines and creeds – often accompanied by implicit or explicit warnings of damnation if theses rules are not adhered to – despite the fact that Jesus is clearly telling us that God’s kingdom cannot be found in this manner?”

- Steve

Thank you for the question. The passage to which you are referring is Luke 17:20-21 in which Jesus is asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come. The last word of verse 21 can be translated as “within” or “among”. “Among” is often the translation because it fits better with other statements that Luke makes in his Gospel regarding the presence of the kingdom.

Given the context of this statement (as well as the larger context of the Gospels) I don’t think one can draw the conclusion that Jesus thought that “outer religious rituals and “outer doctrines” had nothing to do with the Kingdom of God. Clearly the Gospels give us a Jesus who is very much a practicing, faithful Jew.

On the other hand, you are right about the fact that Jesus was not one to follow the letter of the law when it opposed God’s Word. And so, for example, Jesus would heal on the Sabbath even when “work” was prohibited on the Sabbath.

The outward practice of rituals and the adherence to doctrine is not diametrically opposed to what happens in one’s head and heart. Yes, rituals, prayer formulas, doctrine can become hollow when they are not connected with our head and heart, but their whole purpose is to help us connect with God and with one another as a faith community. But they should never become a substitute for a relationship with God.

I’ve not come across a ritual or teaching that was accompanied by a warning of damnation. Damnation is a result of a life choice to use our God-given free will and talents in order to reject God, to turn away from God with the whole of our lives.

What are your thoughts on the relationship of external rituals and personal experience of God?

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Join the sisters for evening prayer tonight at 6 p.m. Central Time and every Monday through Thursday at http://anunslife.org/live

Yesterday’s Scripture reading was the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, three people who refused to worship anyone or anything other than the God of Israel. This angered King Nebuchadnezzar who had demanded that they worship a golden idol. The king commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be tossed into a white-hot furnace. Before falling headlong into the furnace, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego said,

“Great Ruler, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If you throw us into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to overcome the blaze and rescue us from your hand. But even if God does not rescue us, we want you to know, Great Ruler, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold that you set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18)

I am always struck by the response of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They trusted fully in God and at the same time did not require that God answer their prayer to be saved from torture and death. “Even if God does not rescue us …” they said, they would remain committed to God and take this stand with and for God, and with one another. To me, that is the ultimate form of living passionately for God, yet being “detached” from the outcome — leaving God free, as it were, to respond however God choose to respond. Too often we put conditions and qualifications and “buts” to our requests. We tell God what our desired outcome is and, if that outcome doesn’t happen, we might think that God does not hear us or answer our prayers.

Can we really pray and ask God to answer us and be open to however God responds? I think of Jesus himself in the garden of Gethsemane. He certainly had a desired outcome: he did not wish to be tortured and killed. But, and this is huge, more important than his own desire, he wanted what God wanted — whatever it turned out to be.

“Abba, if it’s your will, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

As we move towards Holy Week, let us ponder the words and faith of Jesus and of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. What new or deeper understanding might we have of our prayers, our desires, and our faith in God?

Listen to this reading and prayer from last night’s Praying with the Sisters podcast.

* * *
Join Sister Maxine and Sister Julie for evening prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (check your time zone)
at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

AS018 Ask Sister podcast recorded live on March 19, 2010. Sponsored by aNunsLife.org ministry. Topics include: a discerner’s IHM experience, why Catholic sisters support health care reform, Bible translations, common misperceptions about nuns, and more.

Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3.

Subscribe to A Nun’s Life Podcasts:

Ask Sister podcast is a live podcast where you have the opportunity to engage with us and ask questions about nuns, prayer, religious life, or pretty much anything in between!

Here are some of the questions we addressed in this Ask Sister podcast:

• What was Sue’s experience visiting the IHM Motherhouse? What was it like to pray and working with the sisters?
• What Bible version do you use for your prayer podcasts?
• What are some common misconceptions that you encounter about nuns and sisters?
• Why are U.S. Catholic sisters supporting the Senate bill on health care?

Do you have a question for us? Call our toll-free Voicemail Hotline at 888-703-4732 and leave a voicemail for us with your question. Be sure to give us your first name and city from where you are calling. We’ll play your message and respond on the Ask Sister podcast. You can also send us an email or comment below.

Today’s Gospel offers us an invitation and a challenge.

Jesus called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.

The invitation is to be open to following God’s call — wherever and however it may take us.

The challenge is to be open to following God’s call — wherever and however it may take us. In many ways we welcome the invitation to follow God, we are committed to living the Gospel of Jesus. And sometimes, that call is not as pretty as the calligraphied holy card tucked in our Bible. Why it’s absurd to go traveling without money or food. Surely Jesus didn’t mean to leave my mobile phone behind or my credit card. Besides it was a different time back then. Jesus would not have asked that of us today.

Really.

When we open ourselves to God’s call, we cannot know for certain where or how it will lead. We can certainly use our gifts of common sense and reason, but openness to God also means using our gifts of passion, boldness, kindness, daring, and risk. How can we know “for sure”? That’s where having a regular habit of prayer is helpful because then we’ve already opened our line to God and have been in the habit of listening and sharing with God. Invitations to do the Gospel may still come as a surprise but with a habit of prayerfulness, we’ve already got some ballast in the boat.

How does this Scripture passage strike you this day? Please share your comments below. We’d love to hear from you.

Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer
at 6 p.m. Central Time (your time zone).

Lectors say the darnedest things. Yesterday at Mass, the lector (the person who proclaims the scripture readings of the day) was leading us through Psalm 19. It is a beautiful, awe-inspiring psalm, which begins

The heavens herald your glory, O God, and the skies display your handiwork. Day after day they tell their story, and night after night they reveal the depth of their understanding. Without speech, without words, without even an audible voice, their cry echoes through all their world …

The best part, however, was the ending, which is supposed to read, “May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O God, my rock and my redeemer!” But the lector fumbled a bit as she proclaimed this part of the psalm and what came out instead (at least to my ears) was “… I rock in my redeemer.”

That’s right, I rock in my redeemer.

As the liturgy continued to the next reading and Gospel, my mind spilled over into thoughts of David, the psalmist, who himself was a musician. I bet he felt like that sometimes, as in this psalm, where the whole world — including oneself — is alight with God’s glory. Simply put, we rock because God rocks! “To rock” is a popular slang term that means to excel, to do something so awesome that it’s not just well done, it rocks.

How will you be caught up in God’s life and grace today such that you too can proclaim, “I rock in my Redeemer!”?

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Join us tonight for prayer at 6 p.m. CST at http://aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke 2:22-35. It’s the first part of the story of the Presentation of Jesus which is when Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple in Jerusalem to be purified and consecrated to God according to Jewish law. (The actual feast day is not until February 2).

Saint Simeon by Suzanne Reynolds

The story records how the family meets Simeon, who was “devout and just, anticipating the consolation of Israel” (v25). Simeon welcomes the child recognizing in Jesus “the salvation … prepared for all the peoples” (v30-31).

In light of today’s reading, what new insight or open door or inspiration has presented itself to you during this Christmas season?

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Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE.

Today’s Gospel reading is from Luke 1:39-45. It is one of my favorite readings because it is the story of the Visitation, of Mary visiting Elizabeth to share the news that she is pregnant with Jesus. This story is an important one to us as IHM Sisters and it is the name of our spirituality center — “We take our inspiration from the visit between Mary and Elizabeth who spent time together sharing their joys and hopes, their confusion and their fears as they tried to be faithful to what God was asking of them.” (Visitation North Spirituality Center)

Mary set out and hurried to the hill country to a town of Judah, where she entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth.

As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why am I so favored, that the mother of the Messiah should come to me? The moment your greeting reached my ears, the child in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed that what Our God said to her would be accomplished!”  (Luke 1:39-45)

In what way does this gospel story of the Visitation speak to you this day?

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Please join us at 6:00 p.m. CST (your time zone) for Praying with the Sisters podcast, a ministry of A Nun’s Life. Visit aNunsLife.org/LIVE. This will be our last podcast through the holidays. We’ll be back on Monday, December 28. Also, please know we are trying out new podcasting technology so last Friday we had a slightly different format but today we are using the regular one. More to come in the new year!

Today’s Scripture reading is one of my favorites. It is 17 glorious verses naming the ancestors of Jesus. The fun starts with Abraham and Sarah and goes through Judah and Tamar, Ruth and Boaz, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel, up to and including Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. “Of her,” writes Matthew, “was born Jesus who is called the Christ.” (Matthew 1:1-17)

Why a lengthy genealogy of Jesus? Read Robert P. Maloney, C.M., of the Congregation of the Mission, The Genealogy of Jesus in America Magazine (December 17, 2007).

Why do I love it so? Through there are controversies around the genealogy and how it adds up, how it matches the genealogy in Luke’s gospel, and what it all really means, there is a simple truth that speaks loud and clear to me. The genealogy gives us a sense of Jesus’ people and of how anticipation of Jesus has been interwoven throughout history long before Mary first got word from the angel that she was carrying the child of God. The genealogy of Jesus also reminds my of my people, of how my life is rooted in my family, my grandparents, great-grandparents, and so forth.

In my IHM congregation, there is a saying that we use often: “Everything before us brought us to this moment, standing on the threshold of a brand new day.” In light of today’s reading, we can also say “Everyone before us brought us to this moment …” Like any family “everything” and “everyone” in our history hasn’t always been that pretty, but still, it has all brought us to this moment. Even Jesus had some racy ancestors yet I’d say he turned out okay!

So today let us celebrate our people — our own ancestors and our spiritual ancestors through Jesus the Christ born of Mary.

What familial or spiritual ancestor do you celebrate today?

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Today’s Gospel reading (Matthew 15:29-37) is a powerful story of Jesus healing people one after the other. Scripture tells us that Jesus simply went up a mountain and sat down. That’s all he did. No indication that he set out to change the lives of the community and individuals forever. He just went up a mountain and sat down. No doubt word of Jesus’ presence and deeds had been spreading. He had just healed a young girl because of her mother’s faith. Whether for curiosity or suspicion or desire for healing, the people of the area through which Jesus was traveling (the Sea of Galilee) went to find Jesus.

Maybe Jesus was taking a break up on that mountain. Maybe he wanted some quiet time for prayer or a chance to be with his disciples alone. Maybe he sensed the needs and desires of the people and hoped they’d come out of their familiar setting into the mountain wildness, a place known for encounters with God.

Regardless of what Jesus may have had in mind, there he sat, and the people came to him.

The more Jesus heals, the more the crowd comes. First a person who was blind, then someone who could not speak, and another who could not walk. I imagine it was an exhilarating though exhausting day for Jesus and the disciples. And not just one day — Jesus tells us that this went on for three days.

So why did Jesus do this? Why did he take three days out of his traveling, out of his retreat time, out of whatever schedule he had in order to tend to the people?

Compassion.

Jesus said, “I have compassion for the crowd.” He said this as he gathered his disciples together to figure out how to feed the crowd who was rather hungry after three days with no food.

“I have compassion,” said Jesus.

Compassion is the ability to feel deeply for another person, a consciousness of how another is feeling and a desire to reach out. For Jesus, this was not some whimsical understanding of compassion or a “touchy-feeling” kind of thing. Jesus practiced this way of being in the world, this compassion, both with people it was “easy” to give compassion to, and people who weren’t so easy, like those who persecuted him.

As the dawn of Advent continues to break upon us, may the spirit of Jesus enliven all that we do and all that we are, that we might be a people of compassion and find ways each day to live this compassion of Jesus.

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Join the A Nun’s Life community for prayer at 6 p.m. Central Time
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Today’s Scripture reading from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans is a powerful reminder that each and every one of us has a calling.

All of us, in union with Christ, form one body, and as parts of it we belong to each other. Our gifts differ according to the grace given us. If your gift is prophecy, then use it as your faith suggests; if administration, then use it for administration; if teaching, then use it for teaching. Let the preachers deliver sermons, the almsgivers give freely, the officials be diligent, and those who do works of mercy do them cheerfully.

Do not let your love be a pretense, but sincerely prefer good to evil. Love each other as much as sisters and brothers should, and have a profound respect for each other. Work for the Lord with untiring effort and with great earnestness of spirit. If you have hope, this will make you cheerful. Do not give up if trials come; and keep on praying. If any of the saints are in need you must share with them; and you should make hospitality your special care.

Bless those who persecute you: never curse them, bless them. Rejoice with those who rejoice and be sad with those in sorrow. Treat everyone with equal kindness; never be condescending but make real friends with the poor. Do not allow yourself to become self-satisfied. (Romans 12:5-16)

A vocation is not just a calling to consecrated life (such as becoming a sister or monk or deacon); a vocation is a calling to each and everyone of us to live our life fully using the gifts that God has given to us and the grace that God continually gives us. Saint Paul gives us some examples (first paragraph) and he also gives us a kind of road map to living fully (second two paragraphs). Listen to some of the key words of this road map:

prefer good to evil … love … have profound respect for people
minister with earnestness of spirit … hope … do not give up
keep praying … share … give hospitality … bless and never curse people
be in solidarity with those who rejoice or are in sorrow
treat everyone with equal kindness … make real friends with the poor

These are some of the dispositions that we can take to heart and in doing so live more fully the life God has blessed us with.

Pick one, just one, of these “landmarks” on the road map and consider how you can take it to heart each moment of this day and into the week.

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]]> http://anunslife.org/2009/11/03/you-are-called/feed/ 7 http://anunslife.org/2009/05/28/can-we-pray-for-jesus/ http://anunslife.org/2009/05/28/can-we-pray-for-jesus/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 13:58:53 +0000 Sister Julie http://anunslife.org/?p=2997

Question from Nathalie that raises an interesting topic …

… is it okay to pray for Jesus? I mean, I know we pray TO Jesus, but… I really would like to pray for him… because he and his message are often misunderstood, misused and abused – to serve self-centered ends. I guess he probably doesn’t NEED us to pray for him, but… I don’t know. I just want to pray for him.

Hi Nathalie, Good question! My first response is that yes, it’s okay to pray for Jesus. Prayer, after all, is talking and listening to God. When we pray for someone, we are in relationship with God and bringing the person and her/his needs before God. At their heart, “praying for” and “praying to” are actually more like “praying with” than anything. So with Jesus, we are deepening our relationship with him, consciously bringing the cares and concerns of Jesus to the forefront while we are with him. While Jesus is God and so does not “need” anything per se, prayers for Jesus are like what you wrote — that he and his message be understood and lived from the heart.

Another way to understand “praying for Jesus”, is more along the lines of how the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures spoke of “blessing God”. You’ll find this kind of language in many places, especially in psalms and canticles. One of my most favorite ones is the canticle of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the book of Daniel 3 (in a Catholic Bible). The three were tossed into a white-hot furnace as punishment for going against King Nebuchadnezzar’s decree to worship his gods, not the God of Israel. Instead of certain death, the three walked around singing and blessing God. Here’s part of their canticle:

Bless the Lord, all people on earth; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, O Israel; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you priests of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you servants of the Lord; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, spirits and souls of the righteous; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever.
Bless the Lord, you who are holy and humble in heart; sing praise to him and highly exalt him forever. (NRSV translation)

How else might we understand “praying for Jesus”? What is your own experience of this?

From the Canticle of Zechariah prayed during Morning Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours …

“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:78-79)

Every morning I pray the Canticle of Zechariah which is the song sung by Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, praising God for God’s work throughout history and through their newborn son John who would become the Baptist. These verses always fill me with hope and a lightness as I begin the day and can see dawn literally breaking in through the tree branches beyond my window.

What do you hear in these verses and how can this “word” of God carry you through today?

Today is Divine Mercy Sunday, a Catholic feast day that originated with Saint Faustina Kowalska. Saint Faustina was a Catholic nun belonging to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She experienced visions Jesus Christ including a message about spreading the word about God’s mercy to the whole world. When Pope John Paul II canonized Sister Faustina, he made Divine Mercy Sunday part of the church’s liturgical calendar.

The scripture readings today are beautiful and offer a kind of “action plan” for our Christian journey. Visit the blog From the Pews in the Back to read my guest post A Divine Action Plan, a short reflections on the readings for Divine Mercy Sunday.

Since today is a day to celebrate Divine Mercy Sunday, I want to explore a bit more what “mercy” means. It’s one of those words that is fairly ordinary and unassuming, yet loaded with meaning. It is simple yet it is life-changing.

Mercy.

My first research destination: Merriam-Webster dictionary

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French merci, from Medieval Latin merced-, merces, from Latin, price paid, wages, from merc-, merx merchandise

1 a: compassion or forbearance shown especially to an offender or to one subject to one’s power; also: lenient or compassionate treatment b: imprisonment rather than death imposed as penalty for first-degree murder

2 a: a blessing that is an act of divine favor or compassion b: a fortunate circumstance

3: compassionate treatment of those in distress

My next stop: Theological Dictionary (Rahner and Vorgrimler)

Mercy. Readiness to help those in need. The Old Testament expresses God’s mercy chiefly by the verbs meaning to “be motherly” and to “bend down”. Throughout the Old Testament, assurances of God’s mercy, graciousness, and fidelity to his covenant outbalance all references … to the wrath of God; these qualities dominate the New Testament conception of God….

Human mercy, according to Scripture, is not measured by any display of feeling but by concrete proofs.

Which brings me to my final research destination: The Works of Mercy

The Corporal Works of Mercy

• feed the hungry
• shelter the homeless
• clothe the naked
• visit the sick and imprisoned
• bury the dead
• give alms to the poor

The Spiritual Works of Mercy

• instruct
• advise
• console
• comfort
• forgive
• bear wrongs patiently

What does mercy mean to you? Which word or phrase above resonates with you, draws you, calls for some kind of response from you?