A Little Bit of Common Day

Yesterday at mass, Fr. Duane Roy noted that we were celebrating the 19th Sunday in common time. The phrase “common time” caught my attention; according to the dictionary, common can mean relating to everyone (as in the common good), known by everyone (as a common nuisance), belonging to or shared by everyone (a common friend), occurring or appearing frequently (a common sight), widespread or general (common knowledge), or characterized by a lack of privilege or special status (a common laborer). Thus when time is common it relates to everyone, is known by everyone, is shared by everyone, and is widespread, and those who have it lack special privilege. It almost sounds like a definition of Christ!

Time is humbling, the great equalizer, because it is common to all of us; no one has more minutes in an hour than anyone else. As with most things, we make judgments about the value of time—for example, I viewed the time I spent with my friend Louise last week as precious, whereas the two hours I spent in mandatory training to be a prison volunteer felt like a waste of time. However, when are part of the body of Christ, all time becomes extraordinary because we are always encountering Christ in everything and everyone we encounter and in all that we do.

As Sr. Mary Faith Schuster said with characteristic wisdom in her poem Pre-Dawn, “I’ll have a little bit / of common day, / please.” Having a little bit of common day is reason to celebrate, indeed.

Shepherding the Wind

Hosea isn’t exactly my favorite book of the Bible, but it does include the marvelous phrase “shepherding the wind,” which caught my ear recently during morning prayer and inspired the following poem.

Acquiescence

Humans who believe

they can command nature

to do their bidding

by shepherding the wind

with gigantic turbines,

seeding clouds to make it rain,

and capturing the sun’s

radiance in solar panels

eventually will be humbled—

whether through gales,

drought, or the limits

of technology—

and cease their efforts

to bend the natural world

to their will, instead

observing it as closely as

one watches one’s beloved,

accepting her independence,

marveling in her strength,

abandoning attempts to dictate

the terms of a relationship

but seeking only to accompany

her on the byways of life,

to dwell in the presence

of her loveliness and

contentment with who she is,

learning from her at last

the secret of how to flow

with life’s mystery.

Blessing the Work of Our Hands and Hearts

One of the beautiful rituals of monastic life at Mount St. Scholastica is the blessing of ministries that occurs at the end of our community meeting in August. Although the time when hundreds of sisters departed at the end of summer to teach in schools throughout Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa, and Colorado is long past, we continue to embrace the Benedictine values of ora et labora—work and prayer—at Keeler Women’s Center, Sophia Spirituality Center, Maur Hill–Mount Academy, Benedictine College, Donnelly College, various health care settings, and the monastery.

At the blessing ritual, we accept the call to ministry by committing ourselves to seek God, lovingly receive others as Christ, extend compassion to the poor, and undertake the work entrusted to us in the name of the community. Each sister then receives a personal blessing from the prioress, including each sister in Dooley Center, whose ministry is to pray for a specific person, group, or intention.

I wish that each person in our society was able to have his or her work affirmed in such a way. Every type of work is important because it allows us to serve each other, which affirms our value as humans. Performing some type of work—including prayer, which is the work of God—is an acknowledgment that I have time, effort, and/or a talent to give, and you are worthy of receiving it. We may not perform our work perfectly, but it is important that we offer ourselves to God as we are, invite God to dwell in us, and allow God to continue to form us, as expressed so eloquently in the song Take, O Take Me As I Am by John L. Bell:

Take, O take me as I am

Summon out what I shall be

Set your seal upon my heart

and live in me

Holy Ground Is Not Weed Free

Jesus’ parable about weeds and wheat growing in a field together (Mt 13:24-30) made me think of a movie I saw recently called The Biggest Little Farm. This documentary chronicles the efforts of a couple to create an organic farm and their belief that diversity is the key to a healthy life, which means that everything belongs in the world and has a role to play, even things we consider to be nuisances or pests.

This belief was put to the test when gophers (which are useful for aerating the soil) became too numerous and ate the couple’s crops and coyotes started killing a large number of their chickens. Instead of killing the coyotes, the couple trained dogs to protect the chickens. The coyotes then began feeding on the gophers, which controlled the overpopulation of this rodent.

A commitment to diversity means that we value all life that God has created and do not try to eliminate certain people/animals/plants because they inconvenience us, require us to share our resources, or are not to our liking.

Consider this: God may be trying to feed us with plants we consider weeds. Here in the Midwestern United States, we consider purslane a weed, yet it is highly nutritious, offering us antioxidants, minerals, and omega-3 fatty acids; in fact, calorie for calorie, purslane is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on earth. Similarly, people we have no use for or find annoying may offer us gifts and lessons we would never obtain from our friends.

Having a weed-free life should not be our goal. We will be much healthier, both physically and spiritually, when we allow diversity to flourish in our lives instead.

Knocking on Heaven's Door

Jesus told his disciples, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you” (Lk 11:9), which reminded me of the following story, adapted from The Song of the Bird by Anthony de Mello:

A woman approached the door of heaven and knocked. “Who’s there?” asked a voice from within.” She replied, “It’s me, Lord! Please let me in!” “There’s only room for one here,” the voice said. Saddened, the women left to ponder this message. Later, she returned to the door and knocked again. “Who’s there?” asked the voice from within. “It’s you, Lord,” the woman replied. Immediately the door swung open.

What can we learn from this mini parable? For one thing, “Ask, and it will be given to you” does not apply to our desire for wealth, security, fame, or power. Rather, it is when we align ourselves with God—God’s intentions, God’s creativity, God’s love for all beings—that we will receive what we need to experience God’s life and share it with others.

A second interpretation is that there is no room for us in the kingdom of God when we separate ourselves from the body of Christ. Further, the parable helps us understand that when we recognize that Christ dwells within us, there is no need to knock at the door of heaven, because it is always open to us, even in the midst of our life on earth. As with so many things, we just need the eyes to see what is already available to us.

A Grandparent's Prayers and Dreamings

Today is the feast of saints Anne and Joachim, which is the Church’s equivalent of National Grandparents’ Day. Tradition says that this couple—the parents of Jesus’ mother, Mary, and grandparents of Jesus—were upright and faithful people who struggled with infertility and turned to God in prayer. Upon being blessed with a daughter, they dedicated her to God in the temple.

     Saints Anne and Joachim keep us in touch with the humanness of Mary and Jesus, who, like us, were part of a family and were shaped by their interactions with their parents and grandparents. Anne and Joachim reinforce the critical role of grandparents: to model faithfulness and perseverance in difficult times and the importance of turning to God when we are in distress. In dedicating their beloved daughter to God, they also taught all of us that we are not to cling to the people we love but allow God to lead them on their own journey.

     This day of remembrance of saints Anne and Joachim reminds me of the refrain of the song We Are by Ysaye M. Barnwell:

     We are our grandmother's prayers

     We are our grandfather's dreamings

     We are the breath of our ancestors

     We are the Spirit of God

     May saints Anne and Joachim bless all grandparents today and give them the strength to be a source of constancy, love, and guidance for their progeny.

The Hospitality of Attentiveness

Many people have told me that the scripture passage about Jesus’ visit to the house of Martha and Mary (Lk 10:38-42) is one of their favorite Gospel stories. I suspect that is so because it captures such a human moment—resentment when others don’t seem to be working as hard as we are.

It is noteworthy that when Martha complains to Jesus that Mary is not helping her, Jesus does not discount the importance of hospitality. However, he highlights that how we offer hospitality is a choice. When we have guests, we can choose to rush around in an attempt to make everything perfect (which gives us an ego fix through the compliments we receive), or we can offer guests the hospitality of our full attention. When it is time to eat, we might need to ask our guests for their help in setting the table and dishing up food, but that invitation to assist in meal preparations allows them to feel useful and part of the family, which is another aspect of hospitality.

I like to think that Martha wasn’t always as stressed as she appeared to be in this Gospel story. Sr. Mary Faith Schuster thought so too, as she wrote in one of her poems:

We keep ignoring

the most important thing in Scripture

when Jesus dropped in for coffee

at Bethany.

The words were gentle

and the laughter lovely

and the wind blowing

so kindly over the waters

outside somewhere

for there was always

the sound of wind and water

and the long sweet laughter

of being happy.

Behold how they love one another

is another thing so easy to forget

in the scramble for doing

something with our lives.