God Loves the Outcasts

 

Leprosy is mentioned in both the first reading and in the Gospel. Implicit in both of these is the theme of suffering. The following is a list of paradoxes about suffering. See if they make sense to you. 

 

Suffering is NOT God's desire for us, nor a gift from God. The paradox is that suffering occurs in the process of this thing we call life.
Suffering is NOT given in order to teach us something. The paradox is that we can learn from suffering, and grow.
Suffering is NOT given to punish us. The paradox is that suffering sometimes comes as the result of poor choices we make.
Suffering is NOT given to teach others something. The paradox is that through suffering we can learn about faith, character, endurance, hope as well as weakness, struggle, humility.
Suffering does NOT occur because one's faith is weak. The paradox is that our faith may be strengthened by the journey through suffering.
God does NOT DEPEND on human suffering to achieve divine purposes. The paradox is that, sometimes, God's purposes are fulfilled through suffering.
Suffering is NOT always to be avoided at all costs. The paradox is that people sometimes choose suffering.
Suffering can sometimes destroy us. The paradox is that it can add meaning to our lives. 

 

Many things in life humble us and the man in today's Gospel reading clearly knew the importance of prayer. His body language is moving as he approached Jesus on his knees. Like countless pilgrims in Fatima who approach the Shrine on their knees and in smaller ways when we adopt the posture of kneeling during Mass. Maybe remembering in our minds' eye when we were that little boy or girl saying our night-time prayers kneeling beside our bed. He models prayer by asking "if you want to, you can cure me." We know the rest...he stretched out his hand and in that unheard of gesture to a man bearing the mark of leprosy- taught us something. To ask big questions for one thing. 

 

Who are our outcasts? Who do we not fully welcome into our community? Where do we push away those to whom Jesus might well fasten himself, cling to? Who do we need to fully restore to community?

Whenever we discriminate with any supposed moral superiority against different human groups (vagabonds, prostitutes, drug addicts, people with AIDS, immigrants, LGBT...) or we exclude ANYONE from living with us, denying them our acceptance, we are seriously distancing ourselves from Jesus. There is enough suffering in life- don’t add to it. 

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we are open, patient and understanding that labels are the true cause of much suffering in the world. Like Jesus may our arms and hearts be open in need of His acceptance and love.

 

Whatever It Takes

 

 

In today's gospel we see Jesus involving himself in the ordinary lives of people. He was at Peter's house where he healed Peter's mother-in-law. As a result of his presence among the people, the whole surrounding neighborhood brought their sick and ill so that Jesus could heal. That is why Jesus came: To be a human like us, to live and share our daily lives, to do whatever it takes to bring the Spirit of healing into our lives. 

 

Jesus performed miracles in his life. But the pastoral worker, or any Christian, need not perform miracles. It is enough just to be there and listen. 

 

In the past two weeks, I had been deployed to provide comfort and healing to factory workers whose coworker died in an industrial accident. Two young coworkers who witnessed the accident were suffering normal trauma symptoms after the incident. They shared praised for their mentor who was intelligent in his job and had a wonderful sense of humor. After listening to their pain and giving them the tools to cope with this difficult memory, they both plan to return to work today. Most reassuring after they attended the funeral Mass, they hung up his holy card with the picture of their mentor on their refrigerator door as a reminder of his gift to each of them. Sometimes the best thing we can do is listen. Jesus did a lot of it in his ministry. 

 

A motivational speaker once said there are two kinds of people in this world: those who say "whatever" and those who say, "Whatever it takes." And he's right! Some people live their lives with the motto of a petulant teenager on their lips, "Whatever." Have you ever asked a young person to do something that you think is important and have them shrug their shoulders and respond, "Whatever?" Some people are like that with regard to their faith. In fact, let's turn this into a responsive reading. I'm going to make some statements. After each statement I want you to answer with a shrug, "Whatever." Say it with a loud sigh. "Whatever." O.K. Jesus said to love your neighbor. "Whatever." Jesus said there is more rejoicing over one sinner who is found than the ninety-nine that stayed within the fold. "Whatever." Jesus said that when you have done it to the least of these. "Whatever." 

 

Now, let's change our response from whatever to "Whatever it takes." OK, let's try it. Jesus said to love your neighbor. "Whatever it takes." Jesus said there is more rejoicing over one sinner who is found than the ninety-nine that stayed within the safety of the fold. "Whatever it takes." Jesus said that when you have done it to the least of these. "Whatever it takes." Are you and I, like St. Paul, willing to do whatever it takes to win the world to Christ? 

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, like Jesus, Paul was willing to go the limit, to do whatever it takes to win souls. In today's glimpse of a life in the day of Jesus, we can see that Jesus was too. He did not glory in hanging around where he had performed miracles, but he went on, with the aid of his life of prayer to the Father to guide him, and he spread the Gospel. We are called to do the same.

 

Satan and the Devil

 

Let’s be honest, today the devil is either naively ignored as some dark superstition from the past, or is falsely attended to, as some underworld force that can throw little girls into mustard-spitting convulsions, as in the infamous movie, The Exorcist. Indeed, most people today do not even believe in the devil, either as a person or a force. What is to be said about the devil?

 

The kingdom Jesus preaches is about coming together 

 

The gospels name the forces of hell in two ways: sometimes they speak of the devil (diabolus) and at other times of satan (satanus). Are the terms synonymous? Not exactly: Diabolus means to divide, to tear apart; whereas satanus, most curiously, means almost the opposite, it connotes a frenzied, sick, group-think that accuses somebody or something. In essence what the gospels tell us is that the powers of hell, satan and the devil, work in two ways: sometimes they work as the devil by dividing us from God, each other, and from what is best within us. Sometimes they work in just the opposite way, as satan. Here they unite us to each other but through the grip of mob-hysteria, envy-induced hype, and the kind of sick unity that makes for gang-rapes and crucifixions and excommunications.

 

And at the root of both lies the same thing, envy. It is no accident that, among the ten commandments, only envy has two inscriptions against it. Jealousy is the devil’s tool and Satan’s weapon. Through envy, the devil works at dividing us from each other. From envy we get the kind of paranoia, jealousy, sense of being wronged, and bitterness that divides families, communities, churches, and whole nations. The devil tears us apart. Satan, using the same weapon, works differently. As Satan, envy unites us so as to put us into the frenzied, mad pitch of the lynch mob, the crowd hell-bent on crucifixion. Satan uses envy to pit the crowd against an outsider. 

 

In Jesus we see the opposite. The first word out of his mouth (“metanoia”) is a word uttered against the power of the devil: be un-paranoid, do not let envy and suspicion divide you from each other, God, and what is the best inside yourself! Everything else Jesus says and does is intended precisely to lead us beyond division, bias, segregation, and being apart from each other. The kingdom he preaches is about coming together (the opposite of the devil).

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that our hearts are not writhing in a paranoia and a jealousy that tears us apart from each other, and crowds writhing in a sick energy that wants, in God’s name, to spill some blood. Rather, bring us together as a family, a church, a nation that seeks a spirit to be compassionate, generous, humble and kind.

 

Crazy Act of Love

First winter storm in Buffalo had the Buffalo Bills postpone their playoff game. In my neck of the woods, outside my windows, East Bethany looked liked this.

                            

One week later, Southtowns in Buffalo got six feet of snow while our farm received three foot. However, our outdoor feral kitty Mittens disappeared. Susan made kitty igloos insulated from the cold and provided food and water.

 

But Mittens decided to look for better shelter. About 500 feet from the kitty igloos is an abandoned shed where he likes to hangout.

The only one problem. It’s 500 feet from our house and there was three feet of snow deep blocking his path back to the food and water.

 

This is where ”kitty love” or shall we say a “crazy act of love” comes to save the day. I get out the snow shovel and start digging a path from the kitty igloos to Mitten’s winter storm shed.

 

 

You may want to ask yourself when was the last time you went outside the box and did something really special for someone.

 

 Perhaps, you bought a boatload of food and took it to the local shelter. Or, maybe you visited a friend or relative in a nursing home to let them know that they were still on your radar. If you got a story, forward a text or email and I like to hear it.

 It was one shovel at a time, snow was heavy and deep but I knew Mitten’s needed a path so he could find his way back to the kitty igloos and grab some food and water.

I wonder how many times in your lifetime you have gone out of your way to really show your love and that you care. God everyday gives you a breath and have we offered our thanks. Mitten’s I’m sure is hiding inside his winter shed, but the path leads him back to food and water.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends who busted their hump for 20 minutes to let someone know that you really love and care for them. If no one noticed your sweat and tears, then let me offer my thanks for your unconditional love.

‘When you do good deeds, don't try to show off. If you do, you won't get a reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to the poor, don't blow a loud horn. That's what show-offs do in the synagogues and on the street corners, because they are always looking for praise. I can assure you that they already have their reward. When you give to the poor, don't let anyone know about it. Then your gift will be given in secret. Your Father knows what is done in secret and will reward you.” Matthew 6: 1-3.

Hear God Say "I Love You":

 

What exactly does that mean, to pray affectively? You must try to pray so that, in your prayer, you open yourself in such a way that sometime —perhaps not today, but sometime— you are able to hear God say to you: ‘I love you!’ These words, addressed to you by God, are the most important words you will ever hear because, before you hear them, nothing is ever completely right with you, but, after you hear them, something will be right in your life at a very deep level.

These are simple words, but they capture what we ultimately try to do when we “lift mind and heart to God” in prayer.

 

In the end, prayer's essence, is simply this: we need to open ourselves to God in such a way that we are capable of hearing God say to us, individually, “I love you!”

 

This might sound pious and sentimental. It's anything but that. Don't be put off by simplicity. The deeper something is the simpler it will be. That's why we have trouble understanding the deep things, be they of science or the heart.

 

Anyone can understand what's complex, but we have trouble grasping the principle of relativity, the concept of being, the concept of love, and things about the nature of the God, for exactly the opposite reason. They're too simple. The simpler something is, the harder it is to wrap our minds around it and the more we need to make it complex in order to understand it. That's true too of prayer. It's so simple that we rarely lay bare its essence. It has ever been thus, it would seem.

On the morning of the resurrection. Mary Magdala goes looking for him, carrying spices with which to embalm his dead body. Jesus meets her, alive and in no need of embalming, but she doesn't recognize him. Bewildered but sincere, she asks Jesus where she might find Jesus (something, I suspect, we do often enough in prayer). Jesus, for his part, repeats for her the question he opened the gospel with: “What are you looking for?”

 

With deep affection, he pronounces her name: “Mary”. In doing that, he tells her what she and everyone else are forever looking for, God's voice, one-to-one, speaking unconditional love, gently saying your name. In the end, that's what we are all looking for and most need. It's what gives us substance, identity, and justification beyond our own efforts to make ourselves lovable, worthwhile, and immortal. We need to hear God, affectionately, one-to-one, pronounce our names: “Cheryl” “Julia!” “Kern!” ‘Ted!” “Steve” “Brad!” Nothing will heal us more of restlessness, bitterness, and insecurity than to hear God say: “I love you,” 

 

Lord I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we say the same thing to God: “I love you!” In all long-term, affectionate relationships the partners have to occasionally prompt each other to hear expressions of affection and reassurance. Prayer is not meant to change God but us. True. And nothing changes us as much for the good as to hear someone say that he or she loves us, especially if that someone is God.

 

Follow Your Bliss

                                             

 Author Joseph Campbell often talked about "following your bliss." I heard of a bus driver in Chicago who does just that.

He sings while he drives. That’s right... sings! And I don’t mean he sings softly to himself, either. He sings so that the whole bus can hear! All day long he drives and sings.

He was once interviewed on Chicago television. He said that he is not actually a bus driver. "I’m a professional singer," he asserted. "I only drive the bus to get a captive audience every single day."

His "bliss" is not driving a bus, though that may be a source of enjoyment for some people. His bliss is singing. And the supervisors at the Chicago Transit Authority are perfectly happy about the whole arrangement. You see, people line up to ride his bus. They even let other busses pass by so they can ride with the "singing bus driver." They love it!

Here is a man who believes he knows why he was put here on earth. For him, it is to make people happy. And the more he sings, the more people he makes happy! He has found a way to align his purpose in living with his occupation. By following his bliss, he is actually living the kind of life he believes he was meant to live.

Not everybody can identify a purpose in life. But when you do, and when you pursue it, you will be living the kind of life you feel you were meant to live. And what’s more, you will be happy.

While, some people may label me as a retire Catholic, I prefer to believe that bringing comfort to people in times of great trauma or photographing the first snowfall of the year in Reviresco (our perpetual nature preserve) is what I am meant to live.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that they hear the voice of God calling into their hearts and encourage them to be a living example of generosity and compassion to all in need of Our Lord’s saving grace.

 

We Can See God in Other's Eyes If We Learn to Look

 

We are fostering two black orphan kittens Musta and Noir. Musta and Noir are special young cats needing special families. Their names mean ‘black’ in Finnish and French. Musta and Noir are litter mates. They were very sick as tiny kittens and have been overcoming the results of that in a foster home. Now, at 6 1/2 months old they are ready for their forever homes. They could be adopted separately, but would also love to go together. Either way, they would like homes with at least one other companion animal, a cat or a cat-friendly dog.

Musta loves to play with wand toys, watch hockey or dog shows on TV, play with water from a faucet or spring toys, or explore nooks and crannies. Noir loves to play in the water, chase spring and wand toys. While Musta is captivated by TV, Noir prefers to sit on laps, and will greet you by flopping on her side and looking up charmingly for a pet. They are no longer kittens but ten weeks old and need a good home.

I often sense that God looks at me through their placid, loving eyes. Perhaps that is because they are typically with me when I am praying.

This is equally true of other creatures. We can see God in their eyes if we look. But few other creatures give themselves so readily to us as our pet companions. They seem content just to look upon us.

For me, our foster kitties are icons of God’s love because I know, at least in my head, that God looks at me in the same way. God is content to gaze upon us in peaceful love and acceptance.

In our woundedness, we do not look each other in the eyes for long. We are too skittish for that. It makes us too vulnerable. If only we were as simple as cats or as wise as God, then we could gaze in peaceful love and acceptance.

We celebrate the Epiphany of the Lord, his “shining forth.” The Magi followed the star, but I wonder which was brighter, more intense: the star or the eyes of the Baby Jesus?

If you have met a baby’s eyes, you know that they, like innocent animals, look at us with such serenity, such acceptance. It is easy to sense something of heaven in their gaze. They say that eyes are portals to the soul. If we could look into adults’ eyes the way that we do with pets and wee ones, what might we see?

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we look into one another’s eyes and we see the love of God.

 

Musta and Noir are currently in foster care. At the time of adoption, the kitten will be at least 3 months old, up to date on vaccines and spayed/neutered. If you are interested in more information, please email us at info@vol4animals.org.

 

Year of Gratitude

 

I walked into Holy Mother of the Rosary Cathedral on Christmas morning to prepare for Mass. When one of the choir members came up to thank me for a homily I had preached six months ago in the summer. She shared the gospel message was difficult for her to accept and practice. Jesus was teaching the need to forgive our enemies. Easy for Our Lord, but she had a falling out many years ago with her sister. She could not remember the details why they had not spoken to one another, but she had been really hurt by her sister’s remarks.

 

Then a God moment occurred. She prayed about forgiveness and struggled with how she was going to find a way to talk to her sister again. But a moment happened in which she had contacted her sister and she found to courage to share how she had been hurt in the past. To her relief, her sister did not explode with emotion, nor deny her past actions, but actually said that she was sorry. I shared that’s how the grace of the Holy Spirit works. When the moment comes, the Lord nudges us to let go of our past resentments and provides the grace to give courage and the words that bring healing and peace. Mass didn’t even start yet and I already received a Christmas gift.

 

Another grateful moment occurred when my next door neighbor’s water well starting working again. Yes, it took a well digger and plumber many attempts to get her water running back into her home. Once the new pumps were in place, there were several frantic calls to unplug the clogged lines loaded with mud, then a fearful call that there was no hot water but that got repaired and the final ironic call came that her shower faucet was leaking. A new shower head and handle took care of that problem. But there was this God moment when I asked the neighbor, “Maggie what’s it like to have water back in your home again. ”With a big grin on her face, she folded her hands, looked up with a twinkle in her eyes, and said, “it’s wonderful to take a shower again.”

 

Oh, yes, let me add that I am grateful that I have water coming into our home, but prayers are needed for the other 99 local residents whose wells have gone dry. My town has declared a state of emergency and a tanker with water from the state emergency department is on loan for people to pour into their dry wells. The town supervisor is working hard to reallocate funding to bring water to these families. However, the construction won’t start till August.

 

As we begin a new year, I might suggest that we take five minutes at the end of our day and pray: “what am grateful for today?” My green tea for breakfast, feeding Mittens our outdoor kitty in his igloos, nursing Carmella, a recused outdoor kitty recovering from a major illness in our patio converted into an ICU unit for sick kitties, for that well digger and plumber, for all my Sonshine Friend for 24 years sharing Jesus love for us.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends that we pause throughout this new year and express our prayerful gratitude for all the beautiful gifts You bring into our daily lives. We are truly grateful for being children of God.

 

Gifts of Patience and Peace

 

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth, no. Another pair of underwear, no. Another video toy, absolutely not. No, what I really need is when my computer or TV crashes, someone like Santa’s elf magically appears and connects me back online.

Last week, I am watching a program on our TV and instead of sound, I get this humming, thumping sound. Annoying to say the least. So I called Spectrum and customer service reboots the system, but again, no sound just this low humming, thumbing sound. If you go online and look for help, I learned that this happens all the time. It appears our machines are having a meltdown. Online, there are tutorials how to reboot, like simply unplug the TV, the tuner, the computer for 60 seconds and it will magically come back on. No this did not work.

Now I am coming unplugged. I have no patience, not knowing what to do to repair this technology. Interesting, I can help a neighbor get water back into her home, or assist my wife to rescue another abandoned kitten. I can help comfort and support a mother of three children whose husband was murdered this past week, but I don’t have a clue what dial to turn to get the darn audio to work on the TV.

So I scheduled an appointment with a tech to come to the house thinking that he most likely will say it’s not their problem, and I need to buy a new $1,000 TV. I didn’t sleep well that night and prayed for a miracle. The following morning, impatient and moody I went to work and on my way home I would fuss with the controls to try to repair. However, to my surprise and delight, the sound “just came back on.” That was a gift, but what was the lesson God was trying to teach me

God was teaching me the difference between worldly waiting and faith-filled waiting.

One of my good friend’s was recently diagnosed with a pulmonary condition that could eventually be life-threatening. After the initial diagnosis, he had to wait a month to see a specialist and get his many questions answered. Then there were numerous tests scheduled to determine the cause, severity, and subsequently, the treatment. Between each test, there was a waiting period before he received the results. He had to admit that those waiting periods were harder to go through than the medical tests! All in all, it took four months from diagnosis to beginning treatment.

During this time, he had several projects to complete, and one project in particular turned out to be quite a blessing. He had agreed to develop an Advent prayer service for his parish. As he prayed for inspiration, images of the very first Christmas and the faith-filled people of that time kept resonating with him. He was inspired by their trust in God’s promise of a Savior. They and their ancestors had lived in hope. Theirs was a faith-filled waiting. Their faith assured them that God’s promise was heartfelt and certain. Even when they doubted, God sent them people whose trust in God could bear fruit: the prophets, John the Baptist, Mary and Joseph. They trusted. They waited. They followed God’s will. They lived in hope for all of us. And their waiting bore fruit for all of us.

This insight of faith-filled waiting changed his perspective on his medical situation. He could see how those four months of waiting were a holy time given to him to accept his illness, educate himself about it, and share his anxiety and hope with others in his life. Most importantly, it gave him time to pray for a deeper faith and trust in God’s will. God was teaching him, as God had been teaching me, through the example of our spiritual ancestors, how to wait, not in our way—we get upset, grumpy, impatient, but in a faith-filled way. And just as the faith-filled waiting of the people of that first Christmas bore fruit, my lesson in faithful waiting also bore fruit. Waiting and hoping in faith has brought him and myself to a deeper trust in God and God’s will for me. It has freed me to accept this journey and to pray that it will bear fruit.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshone Friends on Christmas morning. Waiting in a worldly way can bring anxiety and fear. Faith-filled waiting bears the fruits of patience and peace. That’s my gift for all of you this Christmas morning, the gifts of patience and peace. May our waiting bring us closer to God. And may we continue to be blessed with faith-filled waiting throughout the new year.

Poinsettia Prayer

 

Many people enjoy decorating their homes or offices with poinsettias during the holiday season. Poinsettias, or flores de Nochebuena, are associated with Christmas on the basis of a Mexican story about a girl who wanted to bring a gift to Jesus at Christmas Eve services but lacked the means. On the way to church, she grabbed some weeds from the roadside to bring to Jesus. However, when she entered the church to make her offering, they blossomed into poinsettia flowers. This tale reinforces a common Biblical theme of God’s tender and protective care for those who are poor and the special love that God has for people whom the world sometimes forgets. The story also reminds us that no matter who we are, God loves and appreciates our offerings, no matter how “poor” those gifts may be.

In Advent, I try to pray regularly. Sometimes my prayer time is full of a beautiful kind of silence in which God is present. Other times my mind is so preoccupied with what I need to get done that day that it would be fair to say that my prayer is full of weeds rather than flowers. I may find myself saying a few words to the Lord and then being pulled off into distractions stemming from the tasks of the day ahead, or perhaps I simply feel restless. How I’d like to get rid of the weeds of distraction! Where are the flowers of consoling and tender silence?

The story of the poinsettia, however, reminds us that God appreciates our gifts, however “weedy.” Perhaps God can even transform those gifts into “flowers.” Simply by showing up to prayer, no matter how well the experience of prayer goes on our end. Even offering my distractions to God is something that I can let God embrace. Those few moments of quiet may well be just the moments that God needs to enter into my heart so that I am a little more patient or compassionate with my equally busy family or friends.

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends during this Advent Season. Like the girl who offered what she had to God, we also can offer whomever we are in any particular moment to the Lord. Our prayer is enough, and we are enough, for it is God who takes our prayers and transforms them in ways hidden even to us.

 

Mary--Reach the Unreachable Star

 

My friends in Las Vegas will be celebrating a wonderful feast this Tuesday in honor of the Blessed Mother. The feast of Gaudalupe is a story about a woman of great faith and courage.

In 1531 Juan Diego, a native Mexican, was walking to Mass when the Blessed Mother, dressed as an Aztec princess, appeared to him. She spoke to Juan Diego in his native language and sent him to the bishop of Mexico with a request to build a church on the site. When Juan Diego told the bishop, he demanded a sign before he would believe the story. The Blessed Mother told Juan Diego to pick roses on the site. Although it was December and freezing, roses were in full bloom. Juan Diego gathered the roses in his tilma, a cactus-cloth cape. When he shook them out in front of the bishop, an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was imprinted on Juan Diego’s tilma.

 

 

 

In the musical “Man of La Mancha,” when Dulcinea asks Don Quixote what it means to “follow his quest,” he responds by singing “The Impossible Dream.” Mary, who awaited the birth of Jesus some 2,000 years ago just as we do this Advent, could have written the song. She certainly lived it.

 

Imagine how young Mary—probably no more than 15 or 16 years old—must have felt upon receiving the news that the impossible was about to take place within her, that she would give birth to the Savior. How could she tell her betrothed, Joseph? What would her family think? Who would believe her?

 

“Do not be afraid, Mary,” the angel says to her. “Nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:30, 37). We know the rest of the story. The impossible was indeed made possible, not only at the birth of Jesus, but in the many miracles he performed, and most of all at his Resurrection. If God could accomplish all this, imagine what God can do in your own life. Advent is the season for imagining what is possible, for dreaming new dreams, for hoping beyond hope.

But it is also the season when hope can be hardest to find, dreams hardest to believe. The days draw short, the nights are long and the air turns. Expenses may loom at a time when resources are scarce. Separation, grief, loneliness, and depression are no strangers to the season. Hope may be in short supply during this time. We need Mary’s inspiring example of courage and trust in the face of uncertainty more than ever.

 

Mary can’t guarantee us a smooth ride, however. Look at her own difficult journey: first, she had to travel to Bethlehem late in her pregnancy (Luke 2:1–6). Have you ever tried riding a donkey? Now imagine doing so nine month’s pregnant! Later, she had to flee to Egypt with Joseph and the baby when their lives were in danger (Matthew 2:13–23).

Nor can Mary promise us a season free of anxiety and worry. Imagine how she must have worried about what was ahead for her beloved child as his messianic destiny was revealed to her, first by shepherds who left her pondering the news in her heart (Luke 2:16–19), then at the Temple by the prophet Simeon, who spoke to her of the sorrowful times ahead: “A sword will pierce your soul too” (Luke 2:22–35).

 

What Mary can offer us is a remarkable and inspiring example of courage in the face of adversity, patience in the face of uncertainty, and hope beyond hope that the impossible is indeed possible.

 

Mary stood with her son as he was crucified (John 19:25–27); she stood with his fearful followers who huddled after his death (Acts 1:13–14). She knew that the story wasn’t over yet. And she was right.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, our story isn’t finished, either, no matter what challenges or wounds burden us this season. All things remain possible with God. This is the miracle of Advent. We can once again dream the impossible dream—and reach the unreachable star.

 

 

 

Time to Know Your Deepest Longings

 

 

One day on a winter's walk in the woods I came face to face with a deer. Our town is in the midst of a water crisis. Over 60 homes and farms wells have gone dry. The stream I was walking along was mostly frozen over. I had stopped at a place where the swift current of the stream broke through to the surface and swirled around in eddies before it disappeared back under the ice.

 

As I sat for a while watching and listening to the gurgling water, a deer quietly appeared. We stared at one another for a few moments and, sensing I was no threat, the deer moved to the edge of the water and drank deeply.

 

I recalled the words, “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.” I had been experiencing a kind of winter in my soul. There were few signs of life, and the Spirit of God seemed to have become frozen over within me. Somehow, I was drawn to this external image of my internal longing—flowing water finding a way to bubble up from beneath solid ice.

 

Like everyone else I had been caught up in the busyness of Christmas preparations. Though we had lit the Advent candles at home and I had tried to pray, I needed more. I needed time to really allow my sense of longing to swirl up and become clear to me as it did on that winter's walk in the woods. I knew then that I needed a closer relationship to God and that I had to stop just going through the motions of my prayer life. My longing, once acknowledged, turned out to be an invitation to live with a deeper awareness of God's presence and care all around me.

 

What are you longing for? What is your heart trying to tell you? The gift God offers this first week of Advent is the invitation to explore your inner longings. The Church, through our Advent customs, and even the weather of the season itself support such inner work. During the first week of Advent, give yourself time and space to contemplate what you are truly longing for in life. Know that this is the season when your longings will lead you to the Christ Child, in whom the hopes and fears of all the years are known and responded to with generous love.

 

Lord, I pray for all my Sonshine Friends, as individuals and as a community, we are longing for your presence. My neighbors water shortage makes life very difficult. How can we say God is present when so much seems to be unstable? However, I am grateful when I heard this week several corporate companies are bringing bottles and gallons of water to be distributed to the community. I pray and ask your prayers that the state legislators who are meeting this week in Albany hear the cry of my Bethany residents and release funds to bring water to the community.