Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 5/31/09 by Dawn

You can find the full scripture readings at http://www.usccbl.org/nab/053109b.shtm

Jesus said:
"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.
But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,
he will guide you to all truth...."
John 16:12-13

I often tell God that he should just explain what he's doing with my life and I'll be fine with it. "Tell me the end result and I'll be happy," I say to the Almighty. It's a good thing God doesn't answer my prayers in the way I think he should.

I always think about that when I read this section of the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples that he's got more to say, but that they can't handle it. I guess it's like 10 years ago, when I began to feel promptings to leave my previous job. I was in a management position in a big company and quickly climbing the corporate ladder. I knew that I was unhappy, but I didn't know what else to do. I prayed and prayed for God to show me what to do, but all I kept hearing was to quit my job and that he would show me the next step. I wasn't content with that, though. I wanted to KNOW what I would be doing. If I could have seen then, that 10 years in the future I would be working with a bunch of teenagers, helping them, and myself, walk through a major crisis, I would have stayed where I was. At that point in my life I didn't even really like teenagers! God is so good - as Jesus says in today's Gospel, the Holy Spirit is sent to be with us as we go through our lives, directing our every step... if we heed the direction.

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost - the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples. I often think the Holy Spirit is the most difficult member of the Trinity to talk about and understand. We understand, as much as we are able to understand, God the Father, and we can sort of get a grasp on Jesus because he was human, but the Holy Spirit is another story. We like to think of the Spirit in terms of a bird or a flame, but it is not, those are just things we use to represent the Spirit. Yet the Spirit completes the Trinity and is vital in helping us not to lose our way. Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as the Advocate. The definition of advocate is "one that defends or maintains a cause or proposal". This helps me to better grasp the purpose of the Holy Spirit.

As we conclude this Easter season may we all be filled with the Holy Spirit and encouraged to walk the path God has set before us. Knowing we don't see in full - and that's a good thing, we wouldn't be able to bear it!

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Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 5/24/09

You can find the full scripture readings at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/052409a.shtml

Today's reflection comes from a homily given by Guerric of Igny (c. 1070/80-1157). He became abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Igny, in the diocese of Rheims in 1138. A collection of fifty-four authentic sermons preached on Sundays and feast days have been edited. Guerric’s spirituality was influenced by Origen.

Father, while I was with them I kept them in your name. This was the prayer our Lord made on the eve of his passion. But it would not be inappropriate to apply it to the day of the ascension, when he was about to leave his disciples and entrust them to the Father.

He who in heaven directs and governs the hosts of angels created by himself had chosen a small group of his disciples as his associates on earth. These he would instruct in person until the time when their hearts were sufficiently opened to be led by the Spirit. And so, great God that he was, Christ loved these little ones with a love worthy of his greatness.

Having withdrawn them from secular pursuits, he knew they had abandoned all worldly ambitions and now relied on him alone. But as long as he shared their mortal way of life he did not lightly lavish on them marks of his affection; his manner toward them was grave rather than tender, as was fitting for a master and a father.

Now, however, when the moment was at hand for him to leave his disciples, he seemed overwhelmed by the depth of his affection for them, and unable to disguise the overflowing tenderness which until then he had hidden from them.

Hence the words of the evangelist: Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. He laid bare the whole strength of his love for his friends, before pouring himself out like water for his enemies. Handing over to them the sacrament of his body and blood, he instituted the celebration of the eucharist.

It is hard to say which was the more wonderful, his power or his love, in devising this new means of remaining with them, to console them for his departure. In spite of the withdrawal of his bodily presence, he would remain not only with them but in them, by virtue of this sacrament.

It was at that moment that he commended them to his Father. Eyes raised to heaven, he said: Father, while I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition. And now I am coming to you. Keep those you have given me in your name. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

Much more he went on to say; but the whole of his prayer can be summarized in these three petitions, which are themselves a summary of salvation, namely that the disciples should be kept from evil, sanctified in truth, and glorified with Christ.

Father, he said, I desire that they too, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory. Happy those who have their judge for their advocate, pleading for them even while he must be adored with as much honor as the one to whom he addresses his prayers!

The Father will not refuse the desire expressed by his lips, for he shares with him one single will and one single power, since God is one. All is bound to be accomplished that is requested by Christ, whose word is all-powerful and whose will is wholly efficacious.

Of everything which exists, he spoke, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood forth. And now he says: I desire that where I am, they too may be with me.

What certainty for believers! Not to the apostles only, or to their companions, is this assurance offered, but to all those who through their word will believe in the Word of God: I do not pray for these only, but also for those who through their word will believe in me.

(Sermon on the Ascension 1-2: PL 185, 153-55)

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Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 5/17/09 by Dawn

You can find the full scripture readings at http://usccb.org/nab/readings/051709.shtml

"This I command you: love one another."
John 15:17

Today’s Gospel ends with a command from Jesus: “Love one another”. It sounds pretty simple, until we realize that He actually means it in the deepest way. It’s not, “be nice to each other”, it’s LOVE each other. To love someone is to make ourselves vulnerable. This means that as hard as we may try, we have no control over whether or not they will love us back. The more people we love, the more we open ourselves to the possibility of pain. We need look no further than the example of Jesus: the one who created the world, became victim of the creation. Yet God continues to love us, and so we must love one another.

I sometimes find myself being stingy with my heart. I hate being hurt, and as a result I’m slow to love others. In his book “Turn My Mourning Into Dancing”, Henri Nouwen states that those who would try to guarantee their hearts will not be broken, will end up in a self-created hell. He quotes C.S. Lewis in “The Four Loves”:

To love at all is to be vulnerable…. If you want to make sure of keeping [your heart] intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken – it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable…. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from the danger of love is Hell.

How do we love those who leave us? How do we love those who hurt us or themselves? How do we love those who don’t want to be loved? The answer is both simple and complex: we love through Christ’s love for us.

Who is God specifically asking you to love?



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Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 5/10/09 by Ellie

You can find the full scripture readings at http://usccb.org/nab/readings/051009.shtml

Our Canandaigua community, our high school community and the St. Mary’s community have experienced a painful loss this week in the death of Tom Kane, the Academy student and a parishioner. We are doing the painful soul searching that occurs when someone we love takes his/her life. The second reading begins:

Children, let us love not in word or speech
But in deed and truth….
His commandment is this: we should believe in
The name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
And love one another just as he commanded us.
John 3:18-24

Let us examine this message not with regret nor to ask if we could have done something for this young man. Let us examine today’s readings to affirm more deeply our call to believe in Jesus and to love one another just as he commanded us. Jesus showed in His life what kinds of acts of love He means: to be with those who mourn, to bring compassion to the sick, and to comfort the troubled, to feed the hungry, and even, to bury the dead. We find ourselves this week deeply aware of this call to put Jesus’ teachings into action. This is one of the many blessings of this week.

The gospel reading has a related message for us. Our outpouring of caring shown this week by so many for the family and for our young people is not to be an only-in-emergencies-response.

"I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.
He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit,
and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.
You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.
Remain in me, as I remain in you…
I am the vine, you are the branches.

John 15

This is not a role for just for the hard days, the periods of loss, or for tragic events. This is a commitment for life. We are the branches, we parents, teachers, public safety officers, friends, neighbors, parishioners, clergy are invited by the ‘Vine Grower’, shaped and pruned by the Grower to bear more fruit. And that commitment, as the former reading specified, is not just in word or speech alone that are we to be the branches, but by our deeds and how we live our truth. I might add that a week like this is perhaps the path of ‘our pruning’ where we are readied to bear more fruit.

Take good care of yourself as we emerge from these days, Be present to your teens and children, to every one in your life. In your prayers, remember not only the many who were so affected by this week’s events and for those among us whose pain and burdens are unknown to us, but also for those who have no one to pray for them. These are all lessons we've learned from our mother. So as we celebrate Mother's Day, lets remember that we’re all in this together! We are the branches.


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Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 5/3/09 by Dawn

You can find the full Scripture Readings for this Sunday at http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/050309.shtml

Jesus said:
"I am the good shepherd,
and I know mine and mine know me,
just as the Father knows me and I know the Father;
and I will lay down my life for the sheep."
John 10:14-15

Music is incredibly important to me. The lyrics of a song can capture my attention for days. Recent surveys of practicing Catholics reveal that I'm not alone. When asked to name the top three things they value during a liturgy, music is mentioned nearly every time. I developed a bad habit shortly after I learned how to read: every Sunday as soon as we got to church I would race through my prayers so that I could open up the music book and see what songs we were singing that day. If I liked the songs I knew it would be a good day, if they weren't my favorite... well, things didn't look too good! I've since learned that there is a huge amount of work in choosing music for liturgy. Good pastoral musicians spend much time in selecting appropriate songs. They have to take into account the Scripture of that Sunday, the Liturgical Season, the make-up of the congregation, and the song leader - just to name a few.

All this is talk about music does have a point. One of my very favorite hymns is "The King of Love My Shepherd Is". It is a very old Irish tune, attributed to St Columba, the words are by Henry W Baker. I'm not sure why I like it so much, but I do. Here are a few of the verses:

The King of love my Shepherd is,
Whose goodness fails me never,
I nothing lack if I am His
And He is mine forever...

Perverse and foolish I have strayed,
But yet in love He sought me,
And on His shoulder gently laid,
And home, rejoicing, brought me...

And so through all the length of days
Your goodness fails me never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing Your praise
Within Your house forever.

"Perverse and foolish I have strayed, but yet in love He sought me, and on His shoulder gently laid, and home, rejoicing, brought me." - these are my favorite lines in perhaps all the hymns we sing. There's not a better image of the Good Shepherd. Jesus says in the Gospel today, I know my sheep. He knows us inside and out, we can do or think nothing He does not know, yet He still chooses to love us and call us His own.

I was thinking about that fact today during Communion. I have had the privilege for many years to be a Eucharistic Minister at St Mary's. By now I know many of the faces that come through my "line". I've learned some of the stories behind the eyes I look into - the mother who lost her daughter, the daughters who bring Communion to their frail mother, the teen who has struggled with depression, the man whose wife recently died. Yet, although I think I know these people, how much more intimately does our Heavenly Father know each one of us, better than we know ourselves. While that can be a scary thought, it is also freeing - we don't have to pretend to be anyone else in His presence, we are who we are and He loves us.

He is the Good Shepherd.


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