We are getting closer. One step at a time. Behind every medical journey is a person, a family, and a story. For Melody Marenga, this is a journey that touches not only her ability to hear, but also her ability to connect with her children, work, communicate, and participate fully in everyday life. Melody is […]
The Journey Towards a Cochlear Implant for Melody Marenga
Category: Interreligious
Shelter Us, O Lord!
My update today is to be working on my presentation at the Interfaith gathering Sunday evening. I should be cleared to drive by then (one handed, but still safely). The 72 hour rule expires at Noon Sunday.
Pray I aid in the effort to bring greater harmony and understanding between the faiths present at the gathering. May we enjoy the divine benevolence of presence, community and acceptance. Now more than ever.
If you wish to comment, please do! I accept any and all comments to help!
My Notes as I prepare Interreligious connections to feasts and fasting (max 3-5 minutes). I will verbally trim for the event:
(1) Feast and fast both teach us that life is a gift. Feast teaches us to receive with gratitude; fast teaches us that we do not possess the gift as if it were ours alone.
(2) The booth Feast is both memory and invitation: (a) memory that God sustained a people in fragile dwellings, and; (b) our invitation to the Holy One to dwell among us still. First it is the offer – I, the Lord, wish to dwell with you, And second our invitational response: Stay with us Lord. Such, the necessity of the reliance of Divine Care.
(3) Fasting is a Call to Service. Traditionally, the merit of a particular fast of a particular individual is in direct proportion to the Charity Dispensed. To fast and yet neglect the poor perverts religion (The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 21:54 x-ref Matt 25:31-46).
(4) Fasting is preparation for Mystical Knowledge (Daniel/Jesus). As a preparation for divine gifts. Gifts are gifts, freely given. Our disposition of fully receiving the gift is in our preparation. Open my eyes to see clearly (Ps 119:18a; Mt 4:2).
(5) Fasting is a Communal Repentance. When we fast we acknowledge the most foundation truth of all:
There is a God. It isn’t me.
(6) Fasting is Obedience. An act of self-control and interdependence. Is my body obedient to a simple command? Or has my mind lost control of my personhood? If I cannot command my appetite, how can I command myself to love?
(7) Fasts and Feasts are really the same thing at different points in time. Perhaps the most challenging truth. In the first instance we are grateful for the benevolent aid provided during difficult times. In the second instance we are repairing our part of the foundation of the festive divine relationship. My feast must have a fast – a realignment, a repair, a chiropractic adjustment such that our divine feasts may be all the more joyful. We joyfully fast that we might joyfully feast.
(8) Feasts and Fasting are shelter manifested in us! Divine shelter becoming human shelter. This is our common goal. Shelter one another!
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Celebrating All Homelands
We invite Him to possess us.
THIS IS MY SONG
This is my song,
O God of all the nations,
A song of peace for lands afar
and mine.
This is my home, the country
where my heart is;
Here are my hopes, my dreams,
my holy shrine;
But other hearts in other lands
are beating
With hopes and dreams as true
and high as mine.
My country’s skies are bluer than
the ocean,
And sunlight beams on clover-
leaf and pine.
But other lands have sunlight too
and clover,
And skies are everywhere as
blue as mine.
Oh, hear my song, O God of all
the nations,
A song of peace for their land
and for mine.
*To the melody of Finlandia
*Lyrics by Lloyd Stone
Never Again. HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY
Owning It
Greetings on this the Thursday of the Twenty-eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: Romans 3:21-30; Psalm 130:1b-2, 3-4, 5-6ab; Luke 11:47-54
Summary
The Lord said: “Woe to you who build the memorials of the prophets whom your fathers killed. Consequently, you bear witness and give consent to the deeds of your ancestors, for they killed them and you do the building. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have joined them in shedding the prophets’ blood.’ (Lk 11:47-48; MT 23:30).
All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God. They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption in Christ Jesus (Rom 3:22b-23),
Reflection
We need to own our mistakes. Socially, and personally, historical and current. This is the path of spiritual growth and healing.
Personal Reflection
Lord, may I never forget to repent, atone and do alms in reparation for my sins, the sins of my people and the sins of my Country.
Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/101625.cfm
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Indifference is all the difference ATNOBO25
Greetings on this the Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Amos 6:1a, 4-7; Psalm 146:7, 8-9, 9-10; 1 Timothy 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31
In our gospel portion today, we are given the insight to be able to say:
The opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is indifference.
Consider the Rich Man (Dives) in the Parable of Lazarus and Dives.
Each Day, every day
He dined sumptuously each day. And lying at his door was a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who would gladly have eaten his fill of the scraps.
Knew but Ignored
He knew Lazarus but cared not. Until he would be potentially useful. Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am suffering torment in these flames.’
Indifference is deadly decay
So indifferent were they, that when Lazarus died, noone buried him.
When the poor man died, he was carried away by angels to the bosom of Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and from the netherworld, where he was in torment, he raised his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
Indifference blinds
Indifference blinds us to Grace and salvation.
Then Abraham said, ‘If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'”
Kindness endures
Nobody is perfect. You may be having a bad day and aiding others is the furthest thing from your mind. This story is about someone who day-by-day had a life practice of indifference, advantage, resources, intelligence and the nascent capacity to be kind (Then I beg you, father, send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they too come to this place of torment).
This indifference of one man caused the death of another, Lazarus, and doom for his five brothers.
Nobody can complain they are unable to be kind. Lapses? Sure. A way of life? Never!
Kindness saves
Kindness can be painful. Those who were kind were made ill by the collapse of Joseph.
They shared their home, food, music, eine and oil. This is the contrasting kindness to the vile images of those ‘with’ taken in the Book of the Prophet Amos.
Kindness Praises Kindness
Blessed is he who keeps faith forever, secures justice for the oppressed, gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets captives free.
The LORD gives sight to the blind; the LORD raises up those who were bowed down. The LORD loves the just; the LORD protects strangers.
The fatherless and the widow he sustains, but the way of the wicked he thwarts. The LORD shall reign forever; your God, O Zion, through all generations. Alleluia.
Our calling
But you, man of God, pursue righteousness, devotion, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
Compete well for the faith.
Lay hold of eternal life, to which you were called when you made the noble confession in the presence of many witnesses.
I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus.
Appalachian Trail
I ended the day yesterday in Holy Mass (of Thanksgiving) for a successful 241 mile hike through Massachusetts and Vermont, end-to-end, entering New Hampshire on Saturday.
Kindness Abounds in Water
The severe drought made water management a critical task. There were days I had to restrict my water intake to two gulps every 70 minutes (set a timer on my phone). Thanks be to God for kindness. Water caches along some routes helped. I even begged a State Forestry Firefighters for a pint when passing each other. In payment I had to promise to stamp out any campsite firepits smoldering that I come across.
Kindness Abounds in Food
The distance between roadcuts made food management difficult. Thanks be to God for kindness.
One day hiker saw me at a forestry parking lot and gave me her snack bar, “you need this more than me”. Still others, while hiking extra miles to town to get food, simply stopped their truck offering a ride to town! I always apologized for my smell. Yes, it was bad. Like damp laundry waiting a week to be washed… times 10.
You see, I was Lazarus. Food, water, shelter, and kindness in small, yet for me, significant amounts… praise the Lord O my soul, as our responsorial psalm goes.
Your Kindness is in the Image and Likeness of God.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Sober and Hopeful Perspective
I follow her. She’s amazing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/dreshalovric/p/head-and-heart
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry
Happy Passover 2024
Happy Hanukkah
