Dear Friends,There is so much I have come to dislike about winter…especially now that it’s the middle of the season and it’s feeling way too long. Oh sure, that first snowfall of the year still “looks” so pretty but… There have been too many days when traveling was either difficult or downright hazardous due to snow, there has been freezing rain making the roads more like ice skating rinks rather than safe passageways, and we’ve endured some days of bitter cold along with dangerous wind chills, not to mention a good share of cloudy days too. The beauty of nature appears hidden from sight – no flowers in bloom, no green grass, no leaves on the trees, no butterflies fluttering around, no wide variety of songbirds gracing our yards and feeders, etc. – all the fascinating sights and sounds of nature that delight both eye and soul.
As I write this morning, I cannot even see out the window; it’s covered with 
frost again! But wait! After staring at this heavily frosted window, I suddenly see something my brain didn’t register at first glance: a delicately intricate pattern displayed at the bottom left corner. Amazing! What could have gone unnoticed in a mass of sameness captured my attention and awe. Indeed the sacred is revealed often in most extraordinary and unexpected ways and places.
Jesus is teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath and is met by an unclean spirit occupying the body of a man who boldly announces: “I know who you are – the Holy One of God!” (Mark 1:21-28) Among those gathered in the synagogue, perhaps an ordinary group of people – a mass of sameness if you will, this revelation of Jesus’ true identity by the unclean spirit comes from a most unexpected place. True to so many such revelations of who Jesus is in the gospel of Mark, there is an element of “don’t tell”, of secrecy. Why all the drama, suspense and secrecy? Could it be each of us is being invited to experience our own revelation – to discover anew who God is and how God breaks into and moves within the fabric of our often ordinary lives? Might it be we are being encouraged more and more toward embracing the Sacred all around us through acceptance and faith and belief in God’s constant presence and deep and abiding Love?
Amid the busyness and sometimes sameness of our days, may we search for, notice and ponder the signs and nuances God uses to speak to us in most unexpected ways. Even an annoying frost-covered window has something wonderful to reveal...
Peace on the Journey.
Dear Friends,
For a long time I referred to myself as “the first-born son my father never had”. You see, dad was an avid outdoorsman – he hunted small and big game and fished…a lot! When I reached the appropriate age, I was solicited (expected) to accompany him on his hunting and fi
shing excursions, all but deer hunting – that was his time with his adult male buddies. After all, it was family tradition for father and son, (pictured are dad and grandpa) or in my case daughter, to go hunting and fishing together. We went duck, goose and pheasant hunting. I endured winter weekends on frozen Lake Winnebago ice fishing and long days of sitting in a dark shanty, listening to of all things the then Marquette Warriors basketball games on the radio, during the February sturgeon season. Sundays were particularly difficult as the call to get up came at 4:00 in the morning so we could drive to Chilton to attend 5:30 Mass before heading out for a long day of ice fishing (never mind I had to nudge him to wake him up after the sermon). As a teenager, and a daughter, I really would have much rather spent my “free time” on weekends and after school during hunting and fishing seasons with my friends. Very early on I grew weary of those early morning calls to get up and get ready. But I went with dad, sometimes begrudgingly, to places I really wasn’t always thrilled to go.
Today’s first reading from Jonah (3:1-5, 10 - for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time) relates the middle of the story of God’s call to Jonah – a sort of happy ending telling us a snippet of Jonah accepting God’s command to travel to Nineveh (a great city of the Assyrian Empire, an enemy of Israel), to relay God’s message of warning for the people there, the people’s repentance and God’s mercy upon them. What we hear in this Scripture reading today doesn’t tell us is that this is the second time God told Jonah to go to Nineveh. The first time, Jonah ran away, was thrown into the seas and swallowed by a “large fish” dwelling there for three days and nights before God saved him from this peril. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh! But God indeed called Jonah a second time, and this time Jonah went to Nineveh and did what God asked of him.
When we search our hearts and listen for the voice of God within, what do we hear? Sometimes what God is calling us to do or be is challenging or uncomfortable. Sometimes we may decide God is asking too much of us. Sometimes we may feel God wants us to go places in our hearts, minds and lives we would rather not go. But God keeps calling – never gives up on us and continually and abundantly loves us so deeply. And eventually, as people of faith, we remember God's love for us, relent and follow God’s call.
One autumn afternoon, when I was about 16 years old, my dad and I were traveling the back roads in search of those elusive pheasants. Once again I wished I hadn’t had to go hunting with him. But at one point he stopped the car in the middle of the road and sat silent for several minutes. The next words he spoke touched my heart deeply: “Just look at how beautiful the colors of the trees are”. It was then, after countless calls to get up and go hunting or fishing that I saw so clearly his love for nature and realized for the first time spending this time with dad was so very precious.
What is it worth to us to answer the call of God? Imagine what we will discover!
Peace on the Journey.
Dear Friends,About ten years ago, unknown to me at the time, a picture was taken of my father-in-law stooped down at the entry of his house in the act of tying my shoe. It is a picture that I treasure as much as I treasure the memory of him and his life. We loved each other and yet we had a friendly push-pull sort of relationship: I delighted in my ability (and success) to tease him and in his laughing response; we entered into a sort of competition as to who could pack the cement poured into the basement wall frames the best as we were building our house…he didn’t do too bad at that at all, but I won. Last night I went looking for this photograph and couldn’t find it. I know it’s here somewhere (I saw it only a few weeks ago) and I will keep looking until I find it.
In scenario above, I know what I’m looking for and why – I seek that photograph because it has meaning probably only to me. But I ponder seeking in light Jesus’ question to the two disciples (Andrew and John): “What are you looking for?” (John 1:38).
Does not Jesus ask that same question of us too? It is a question he asks not once, but many, many times through the course of our lives. We ask that same question of ourselves too even when we are not conscious of a spiritual connection or prompting. What is it that we seek – from God, for our lives, in special circumstances, in the quiet of the dawning light and in the darkness of the night? Eventually (or often) we may ask and ponder what is it that God seeks of us – what is God’s call to and for us? The two questions go hand in hand. And…our discernment of answers to these questions requires a good deal of listening – listening in silence for and to the voice of God within the depths of our hearts, listening to the wisdom of the words of Scripture, listening for the movements of the Spirit within us and our world, listening to the signs of our times and our lives, listening, listening, listening and…then responding. We, like Andrew and John, Peter and Nathaniel and Philip and so many more, are continually invited to “Come and see” all that God’s Love has in store for us.
Peace on the Journey
Addendum (19 January 2009):After searching high and low, literally every drawer and nook and cranny in the house, I finally found it! The picture, that is...
Dear Friends,Maybe it’s common at the beginning of a new year to look back at the past; to stir up memories and reflect on them. Maybe it’s these short, cold, snowy/icy winter days, those days when we aren’t able to engage in our usual activities of the day because of the weather that gives us time to pause and rehash what has been. Oh for sure, we are looking forward – to spring, to warmth, to the emergence of the new life of nature. But for some reason winter may be more of a time when we look back. This can be of value if we remember our memories fondly or find valuable lessons from our past – our good choices and, yes, even our mistakes. It can also be difficult and stifling to dwell on our past if we fall into the trap of second-guessing and berating ourselves for ways we now think we could have done or been better, as if we could go back and change what has already happened – what has already been done. But no matter where our thoughts take us on these wintry cabin fever type days, a good soul searching, God-seeking question to ask ourselves is: “Where is (or was) God in this or that?” We just may find that God’s presence is with us always and God is so much more forgiving than we are of ourselves. We are our own worst critics after all. And it is God who understands us through and through and knows who we really are.
So…who are we? Or, more appropriately, whose are we? After coming out of the water of the river Jordan, Jesus hears a voice from heaven – the same voice we hear deep within ourselves if we but take the time to listen – “You are my beloved…” (Mark 1:11). Surely it is easy to believe God saying this to Jesus, the Word made flesh, the Son of God, the Messiah, the Chosen One. Is it so difficult to believe God says the same to us, believes the same of us? Are we not made in the image and likeness of God? Did not God declare as good every created thing and being? We may go about our lives trying very hard not to live in the land of “what if’s” and second-guessing ourselves or our past. And yet, I dare to pose one of those “what if” questions for us to ponder: What if I truly believe I am God’s beloved?
Peace on the Journey
Feast of EpiphanyDear Friends,I know next to nothing about astronomy. Oh, I can pick out both the big and little dipper in the clear night time sky and that little diamond-shaped star configuration whose name I do not know and can only see if I don’t look directly at it. But star gazing on a clear night is a delight even on these cold winter nights when the stars appear even brighter. It is also a very humbling experience. So vast and awesome is the universe and how tiny one can feel reflecting on what we can see of it. Certainly the Magi were much more astute in reading the signs of the stars (and times) – and one star in particular.
The Magi are traditionally referred to as the three wise men who noticed and witnessed the light – the star rising in the sky – and recognized the Light of the newborn Messiah. Are we not all called to be magi? To be wise people? We are wise people when we recognize and embrace the great gift of God’s breaking into the world in human form to live among us and with us and for us in flesh and blood. We are wise people when we allow God's Light and and Love for us to shatter through any darkness in our lives - sadness, pain, grief - to soothe, comfort, and grow ever brighter and stronger as we journey through and along. We are wise people when we open up and offer our true treasures – the gift of ourselves and our unique talents – and share them in a spirit of compassion and humility. We are wise people when we recognize there is another “way” to go, not only “our way”. And we are wise people, knowing we are not alone, when we place our trust in God’s constant Love, presence, and guidance…even (and especially) when we don’t know the way.Peace on the Journey.
frost again! But wait! After staring at this heavily frosted window, I suddenly see something my brain didn’t register at first glance: a delicately intricate pattern displayed at the bottom left corner. Amazing! What could have gone unnoticed in a mass of sameness captured my attention and awe. Indeed the sacred is revealed often in most extraordinary and unexpected ways and places.
