Acts 2:1-11
If you have been looking for a good Pentecost movie lately, you might consider “The Soloist.” Both stories – “The Soloist” and Pentecost – speak to desperate times and point to a way through. This Way does call for courage; yet those who step out on it will find a surprising spring in their steps, as if they already touched the goal. (more…)
If we think of ourselves as pilgrims and of our life as a spiritual journey, then every now and then we need to climb a tree. Where we have been? Where we are going? We have to rise above the day-to-day details to find out. On a real pilgrimage our path is linear. On a spiritual pilgrimage it is both linear and cyclical. From a linear perspective we just keep growing. We grow in understanding. We grow in commitment. We grow in love. We grow more alive. On the other hand, from a cyclical perspective, we keep passing the same wayside shrines again and again. The incarnation – or Christmas – is one such shrine. Following that comes Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Advent, and then the Incarnation again. I am calling them shrines, in keeping with the image of a pilgrimage, and yet like real shrines, they both measure our progress and inspire us for further progress. (more…)
For today’s reading go to: http://bible.oremus.org
If the Gospel of Luke were written, not in words, but in musical notes, we would call chapters one and two the overture. Not until chapter three does the Gospel, proper, begin. In his overture Luke introduces the main themes of Jesus’ story. Let me give just a few examples. First, there was no place for Jesus and his parents in the inn. Luke foreshadows with this detail the kind of life Jesus will live, always on the margins of society – in, but not of, the world. Here’s another example: Mary wrapped the babe in bands of cloth. True, mothers did wrap new born infants in bands of cloth, but so also was a corpse wrapped. The bands of cloth prefigure not only Jesus’ death, but the symbolic death he brings to all of us in the sacrament of baptism. And a final example: Mary laid Jesus in a manger, that is, an eating trough. This detail could scarcely be more blatant; it tells us that Jesus was destined to become bread for the world, bread for eternal life. (more…)
For Today’s reading go to http://bible.oremus.org
Tonight I simply want to tell you three stories. The first is a well-known story about a baby born about 2,000 years ago. No doubt God chooses carefully where every baby will be born, so this baby’s birth puzzles us. This baby was destined to bring God’s love into the world in a marvelous new way. In fact, this baby was so close to God’s heart, that people later said of him: to see him is to see the human face of God. So why would God arrange for this special baby to be born in a cattle shed? Let’s try to get behind the image of our little creche scenes – so clean, so sweet-smelling and sanitary – and face the truth. Jesus was born to humble parents in a squalid setting. The sudden bellowing of a cow could well have blasted Jesus’ little new-born ears. Whisps of straw surely poked his tender skin. And his very first breath would have filled his tiny nose with the pungent smell of fresh manure. Some start for the one who would be called the Son of God! (more…)
Today’s reading: http://bible.oremus.org
Being at the mercy of a wood-burning stove, either you are reaching for your sweater or peeling it off. Last winter I gave myself a solo retreat in a snug little cabin in the woods. Nothing distracted me from a few simple activities – I read, I ate, I meditated, I slept and I fed the wood-burning stove. That cast-iron companion gave me my single source of heat. Outside the windows the cold menaced at about ten degrees; but as long as I kept the fire going the cabin felt cozy. Nights were a challenge though. If I slept too long at a stretch without feeding the fire the cold invaded with serious intent. This tug of war between cold and heat describes our spiritual lives as well, as the two protagonists in today’s Gospel show us. (more…)
