Author: Sr. Dorcee, beloved

I am the one whom Jesus loves.

Perfectly Human

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Amy Julia Becker, with whom I disagree on some issues, has a marvelous weekly post for guest authors called “Perfectly Human**”.  Here is her description of the purpose of this column:

This weekly feature is intended to provide a picture of life with a disability in all its possibilities and limitations, gifts and struggles. The title of this feature comes from the Greek word telos, which can be translated as “perfect” but which also can be defined as, “the end for which it was created.” People with disabilities are just as human as anyone else–flawed and gifted, beloved and broken. They are “perfectly” human, which is to say, created with a purpose. This space is intended to convey the things that connect us as human beings, things that go beyond our perceptions of able/disabled. And this space is intended to suggest ways in which individuals with disabilities can, at least sometimes, help individuals without disabilities to understand their own humanity.

This is this week’s entry: “All People Are Messy.” I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Never an option

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I was so struck this morning by this introductory comment to today’s Mass readings from Magnificat.  The gospel recounts the story of Peter asking Christ to depart from him because he is a sinful man.  Magnificat comments:

Peter relies on his limited expertise instead of upon the humble authority of Jesus Christ . . . even regarding fishing.  . . . When Peter’s sin of presumption fills him with shame, he begs Jesus to depart from him–a request that Christ will never honor.

What a Savior we have–One who will never depart from us, even if we beg Him. . .

The thick cloud

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Yesterday’s post about the pillar of cloud reminded me of something I read recently.  (Sorry, I haven’t been keeping up with my “What I’m Reading” column . . . ) I recently finished a book about Edith Stein (St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) and the Jewish Catholics who went to Auschwitz at the same time as she did.  Most them, like Edith, recognized God’s call on them to offer themselves as some sort of sacrifice for their Jewish brethren. Among them was a group of brothers and sisters from the same family, the Löb family, most of them priests and Sisters.  Their memorial card makes reference to the thick cloud that descended that descended upon Mount Sinai when the Lord revealed Himself to the people of Israel.  We, too, experience times when the Lord comes to us in what seems to be a thick cloud.  Let us take courage from the Löb siblings’ ability to recognize God in the one that covered them.

“Behold, I am coming to you in a thick cloud” (Ex 19.9).

We read these words in the Book of Moses that recounted the Exodus of the Jews.  We can apply these words to these chosen souls, who came from that same people to whom God appeared on the holy mountain. The holy mountain is the contemplative cloister.  On that mountain they were praying during the night, when the cloud descended upon them.  From a purely human perspective, this cloud, ominous and inescapable, would be nothing more than a threat.  From this cloud, however, they heard the voice of God.  Though each had his own path, they were one in their noble surrender to God’s holy will, and they recognized with joy their chosen lot.  And we saw them go.

Fight against those who fight against me

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A little encouragement from Amy Carmichael this morning:

Ps 35.1 Fight against those who fight against me.
Ps 35.3 (Kay) Be a barrier against my pursuers.

What are the things that fight against me?  Let us not lose the comfort and power that is in this word for us by relating the prayer to the larger things only, it touches the smallest.  The wave that sweeps over the great rock, is the same that sweeps over the tiny shell on the shore.  It is the little things of life, the minute unimportant-looking things, that are most likely to shatter our peace; because they are so small that we are very likely to fight them ourselves, instead of looking up at once to our Strong God, our Barrier between us and them.  “Close the gate, or bar up the way:–as the cloudy pillar formed a barricade between the Egyptians and Israel” is Kay’s note.

Fight against those who fight against me–the feelings, the little foolish feelings that want to keep us back from saying to the blessed Will of God “I am content to do it” [Ps 40.10], fight Thou against them, O God; “and my soul shall be joyful in the Lord: it shall rejoice in His salvation . . . Lord, Who is like unto Thee, Who deliverest the poor from him that is too strong for him?” [Ps 35.9, 10]

What a joyful life ours is, continually proving His tenderness in the very little things.  There is nothing too small for Him to help.  He is indeed a Barrier between us and our pursuers.  How precious is His lovingkindness. [Ps 36.7]  Now for a day of joy!

His love has no end

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I have been meditating on Ps 136 this past weekend.  The RSV begins: O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures for ever–or as Derek Kidner points out, the better translation is: for his love has no end. This phrase repeats itself after every verse of the psalm–for his love has no end, for his love has no end, for his love has no end. Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon, an Orthodox pastor,  has a wonderful commentary on this phrase:

Psalm 136 insists, literally in every verse, that the root of all God’s activity in this world, beginning even with the world’s creation, is mercy–hesed.  This mercy is eternal–le’olam–“forever.”  Mercy is the cause and reason of all that God does. He does nothing, except as an expression of His mercy.  his mercy stretches out to both extremes of infinity.  “For His mercy endures forever” is the palimpsest that lies under each line of Holy Scripture.  Thus, too, from beginning to end of any Orthodox service, the word “mercy” appears more than any other word.  The encounter with God’s mercy is the root of all Christian worship.  Everything else that can be said of God is but an aspect of His mercy.  Mercy is the defining explanation of everything that God has revealed of Himself.  Every Orthodox service of worship, from Nocturnes to Compline, is a polyeleion, a celebration of God’s sustained and abundant mercy.  What we touch, or see, or hear, or taste–from the flames that flicker before the icons and the prayers our voices pour forth, to the billowing incense and the mystic contents of the Chalice–all is mercy.  Mercy is the explanation of every single thought that God has with respect to us.  When we deal with God, everything is mercy; all we will every discover of God will be the deepening levels of His great, abundant, overflowing, rich and endless mercy.  “For His mercy endures forever” is the eternal song of the saints.  (Christ in the Psalms, p. 272)

Even there

Sr. Dorcee, beloved2 Comments

Written by a missionary in Communist China in the early 1950’s, with only 15 cents left in his pocket, a terrible toothache, no fuel and a tiny daughter with scarlet fever.  The beginning reference is to Acts 27:27-32.

In Adria’s tempest-tossed wastes,
My barque through the dark deeps is driv’n;
The canvas all torn from my masts,
My timbers by stormy waves riv’n.
Yet there faith’s assurance rings clear,
E’en there will I trust, EVEN THERE.

All hope for deliverance had gone,
Despair’s chilly gloom shrouded all;
No sun’s ray through threat’ning cloud shone
To brighten the future’s dark pall.
Yet there should my heart quake with fear,
E’en there will I trust, EVEN THERE.

My brook’s daily waters had dried,
All replenishing springs scorched bare;
Resourceless in sore need I cried
To a God who seemed not to care.
Though trembling, triumphant I bow
E’en now will I trust, EVEN NOW.

The barrel of meal empties fast,
The tempter crowds close with his lies;
“Can God?” Ah! He’s failed you at last,
“In wilderness find fresh supplies.”
Perish doubts!  Though I know not how,
E’en now will I trust, EVEN NOW.

~Arthur Mathews

Safely Through the Storm

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I just got a copy of a little gem of a book, Safely Through the Storm, compiled by Deb Herbeck.  Debbie compiled 120 wonderful quotes guaranteed to help you to “lift up your hearts.”  I already have post-its marking many of them. I have to share at least a couple with you:

All things fail, but You, O Lord of them all, never fail. . . . You seem, O Lord, to give extreme tests to those who love You, but only that, in the extremity of their trials, they learn the greater extremity of Your love.  (St. Teresa of Avila)

Today, O Lord, I felt intense fear. My whole being seemed to be invaded by fear.  No peace, no rest; just plain fear: fear of mental breakdown, fear of living the wrong life, fear of rejection and condemnation, and fear of you . . . .

You, O Lord, have also known fear.  You have been deeply troubled; you sweat and tears were the signs of your fear.  Make my fear, O Lord, part of yours, so that it will lead me not to darkness but to the light, and will give me a new understanding of the hope of your cross.  (Fr. Henri Nouwen)

“I found myself . . .”

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When you find yourself in a trial or difficult situation, do you see it as the hand of God.  Here’s another excerpt from the book I was talking about last time, Green Leaf in Drought, by Isobel Kuhn.  It’s  from one of Arthur Mathews’ letters home:

John says, I FOUND myself in the isle which is called Patmos–not one jot of credit does he give to the might of Rome.  A not one mention escapes him of what he must have endured before eventually “finding” himself there.

He was “found” there just as Philip was “found” at Azotus, and the Mathews’ family is “found” here.  The means, circumstances, decisions that led to his finding himself there are unimportant.  Faith discerns even behind the Beast the hand of God–for second causes make good disguises and baffle any eyes but the eyes of faith.  So to enlarge on the why and the wherefore; to blame himself or his charges; to weigh past decisions for or against . . . is not on John’s mind; nor does he allow any wishful sightings to occupy his thoughts.  A more ideal field for just such thoughts could hardly be found.  So there is a great deal of comfort for us in John’s early verses of the Revelation.   (Green Leaf in Drought, p. 55)

If

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I have been reading quite a bit of the writings of Isobel Kuhn, a protestant missionary to China right before Communism took over.  The excerpt below is from a book about a married couple and child who were trapped in China at the onset of Communism and not allowed to leave for quite awhile.  Isobel focuses in on the question that can tempt us all at various times in our lives: “If only . . .”  The woman she is writing about is the wife and mother in the family.

“If only that letter had not come, inviting us here.”  What about the “if”?  She got them [a tract she had on “If”] and read:

Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died” [Jn 11.32b]”  And He could have been there; He was not far away.  He knew all about it, and He let him die.  I think it was very hard for that woman . . . It is something God could  have made different, if He had chosen, because He has all power; and He has allowed that “if” to be there.

I do not discount the “if” in your life.  No matter what it is . . . Come to the Lord with your “if” and let Him say to you what He said to Martha.  He met her “if” with His “if”!  “Did I not tell you that IF you would believe you would see the glory of God” [Jn 11.40]” The glory of God is to come out of the “if” in your life. . .

Do not be thinking of your “if.”  Make a power out of your “if” for God. . .

Do you know that  light is to fall on your “if” some day?  Then take in the possibilities and say, “Nothing has ever come to me, nothing has ever gone from me, that I shall be better for God by it . . .”

Face the “if” in your life and say, For this I have Jesus.

But there is nothing to be ashamed of if you experience those “ifs” plaguing you, as Isobel Kuhn goes on to write:

[O]ur Lord never scolded Martha for her “if”; nor Mary (who accompanied the same “if” with mute worship, prostrating herself at His feet), but with her, He wept.  Wept at the sorrow which must accompany spiritual growth in our lives: for by suffering He also learned obedience.  (Green Leaf in Drought, p. 36)

“When You Can’t Say Your Prayers”

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I am going to be “off the air” for a little over a week.  All of The Servants of God’s Love will be on retreat this coming week.  I’m going to leave you with an article by one of my favorites, Fr. Pat McNulty from Madonna House.  He starts out:

When You Can’t Say Prayers

by Fr. Pat McNulty.

What do you say when you think you have just written a significant, deep, wonderful, life-giving, fantastic, momentous, world-changing article and your editor says, “I read it carefully several times and could not get a handle on what you are saying”?  to read more, click here.