Monday, June 8, 2009 (No. 43)
Your life, your being, your very existence, is gift.
It is a gift given to you, for you to be you, for you to share.
The choice is yours.
Each new day is a gift.
Are you going to smile at it?
Or frown at it?
This is not some new age, psycho-babble hype.
The saints, sages, and shaman have been saying this for millenia.
Your life is a gift.
You are a gift to others around you,
to family, to friends, to neighbors, even to strangers.
You cannot add one day, hour, minute, or second to your life.
Come to think of it, even your next breath is gift,
despite your best attempts to try to control it at times.
True happiness and joy come only from a deep sense of gratitude.
And perhaps an honest smile can only come from a joyful heart.
Gratitude, to be grateful or not, that is the question.
The choice is yours.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 (No. 42)
Today is the traditional solemn feast day of the Epiphany of the Lord. It celebrates the visit of the magi who followed the star from the east to see the “newborn king of the Jews” in Bethlehem. It also marks the twelfth and final day of Christmas.
The gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh in the beginning of His life are often associated with the threefold mission of Jesus Christ as priest, prophet, and king, which in turn, as Dorothy Day observes below, is intimately connected with the end of His life.
In Christ’s life there were always a few who made up for the neglect of the crowd. The shepherds did it; their hurrying to the crib atoned for the people who would flee from Christ. The wise men did it; their journey across the world made up for those who refused to stir one hand’s breadth from the routine of their lives to go to Christ. Even the gifts the wise men brought have in themselves an obscure recompense and atonement for what would follow later in this Child’s life. For they brought gold, the king’s emblem, to make up for the crown of thorns that he would wear; they offered incense, the symbol of praise, to make up for the mockery and the spitting; they gave him myrrh, to heal and soothe, and he was wounded from head to foot and no one bathed his wounds. The women at the foot of the cross did it too, making up for the crowd who stood by and sneered.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me…
Epiphany means manifestation of the divine, revelation, sudden insight, recognition. How many people are troubled because God does not show himself in the way they expect?
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us.
Thursday, January 1, 2009 (No. 41)
We often pray from a sense of need. In the Gospels, Jesus always prayed from a sense of abundance. And so let us too pray in God’s abundance.
Father, please bless all of the children born this year, their parents and siblings, and their future friends. May they all be drawn into a deeper relationship with You as they grow in Your light and love.
Father, for all those You call home this year, please grant them Your grace of a good death, to have one last opportunity to choose You, to choose Life. May we meet them again with You in heaven. Have mercy on their souls, Father.
And Father, for all of us in between, grant us Your grace to choose You today, and each day of this year, to be drawn into an ever deepening relationship with You, with others, and with ourselves. Send your grace into every doubt, fear, and temptation, to transform us, to heal us, to draw us nearer to You. Help us drink every drop from the cup of life You offer us, both the drops of joy and the drops of sorrow, for all is gift. Help us be beacons of Your light and love in the world.
We pray with, through, and in Your Son’s name. Amen, amen.
The flame of love
Grows as it is divided
It increases by being shared
From one, then two, then three
And darkness is transformed into glory
And the walls reflect its light
Share your flame!
Share the flame!
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…
