Twenty-Second Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretation of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Masses of

  • Sept 3, 2017 10:10 (Poems only)
  • August 31, 2014

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references are:

In 2014

  • The readings from Jeremiah (“You duped me, o Lord, …”), the excerpt from Psalm 63 (“My soul is searching for you … “), and the excerpt from the gospel of St Matthew all emphasize the sense of God’s Word (the fire) that is central to all of us, to where our true life is. In other words, don’t spend our lives on things that don’t really matter.
  • E.g., the character Richard Rich, in A Man for All Seasons, is obsessed with clothing and social status. Ultimately, he perjures himself to help convict his one-time friend and mentor, Sir Thomas More, of treason (punishable by death). Sir (and now Saint) Thomas More gently chides him: We shouldn’t sell our souls … ever, but … for Wales ?” Rich ruptured his soul for a minor position.
  • In Robert Bly’s Caterpillar poem, he writes of hopes and transitions:
    • the caterpillar (eventual transformation of shape)
    • the edge of the sheet of stamps
    • stamps (sending)
    • seasons (summer into fall)
  • All this looking back .. and then forward to the next steps of life, 🙂 not unlike September in a college town (like Ann Arbor). 🙂

And it seemed fitting to have a picture of a caterpillar of a Monarch butterfly as our featured image today.

Twentieth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poem, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

  • August 20, 2017 Noon
  • August 17, 2014

_______

The poem Fr Dennis references is:

In 2017

  • Because of all the turmoil in the world and the country (riots against racism, neo-Nazism, terrorism … ) in 2017 (and all the flavors present in 2026!!), the Bishop of Lansing at the time, Bishop Earl Boyea, directed the diocese to pray the Mass setting for Civil Needs #29 Progress for Peoples, with Eucharistic Preface for Sundays in Ordinary Time III, Salvation of man by a man.
    • Another example of the pastoral creativity of Fr Dennis was in his creation of daily Mass. For a Friday 12:10 Mass, on February 9, 2018, he chose the Mass Setting for Various Needs #49 For Giving Thanks (A) and Eucharist Prayer Various Needs IV, Jesus who walked about doing good. After a past Sunday start with five inches of snow, fresh snow had been added every day, with another seven inches on this Friday; all now being referred to as a Snomageddon. But in our shared prayer together, we prayed about the wonder of this snow and then gratitude for all those civic workers “walking about” and keeping the infrastructure functioning and people safe, “doing good” if ever there was. Another gentle reminder from D2 that we love a God of “And”s and much Love, Who loves us.
  • How do we capture that sense of being “special”? More specifically, how do we keep the knowledge that we are each special, without the concept being diluted by all humans being so or corrupted by comparisons with each other?
  • D2 thinks of the Eucharistic Rite language “the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many [emphasis added] …” “All” is an acceptable and popularly preferred translation. (rl notes “all” also sidesteps the invitation for us frail humans to judge each other as to who is in “many” and who is not.)
  • Tony Hoagland’s poem is a beautiful sharing of the extraordinary in the ordinary.

In 2014, we reflected from D2’s homily that —

  • The readings evoke a lot of differences — Gentiles, Jews, Canaanites, dogs (!), … but with any “us” and “them,” how are we called to learn? We are to grow from one another’s offerings and in one another, all in Christ and in the Trinity.
  • He noted his fondness for the phrases
    • “and make joyful in my house of prayer” in Isaiah.
    • “… for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable” (Romans) (and, an rl interjection, I sunk deeper into the meaning of this in my 2014 silent retreat in which it was made lovingly clear that we grow out of our gifts, like an iris out of its bulb, rather than pummeling out our frailties).
  • Jesus learns because of his experience with the Canaanite woman and adapts his mission to one of even greater love.
  • D2 asked us to consider: When has someone’s rejection and persistence won me over? (“For the gifts and call of God are irrevocable.”)

I stumbled across this image of the Canaanite woman story on the web but the file only contained the image not the artist or title of the work. What I love about it is how the artist captures the mother’s urgency for her ailing daughter (demonic possession), AND how the daughter (child, female, ill) and dog (lesser being, outcast) are comforting each other. Please let me know if you know the artist / title, so I can attribute and seek permission.

Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the simple captures of brief cameos by Frs. Eric Sundrup, SJ at the 8:30AM and Tom Florek, SJ at the Noon Mass on Sunday, August 10, 2014

Fr Eric: God meets us in our authentic hearts and minds.

Fr Tom: God meets us in the silence and holy dark.

==> And Jesus comes to save us immediately, because He already has.

Transfiguration August 6

So … the Feast of the Transfiguration is … a Feast.  It is a biggie for the message it shares, however, liturgically — it is not a Holy Day of Obligation.  But it is pretty amazing!  So, since it was one of my favorite Fr Dennis homilies when it fell on a Thursday in 2014 (Cycle A). Here we go / rachamuid!  His homily, shortened for daily mass sensibilities and kind consideration of the flock’s schedul follows.  

Our readings for Transfiguration are here. 

This is the link to the dance, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis Dillon SJ’s homily from the

  • Thursday, August 6, 2014 5:10 Daily Mass

_______

The art Fr Dennis references is:

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • That August 6 is the anniversary date of the Hiroshima bombing by United States Air Forces in 1945. 
  • (rl notes, to be clear, Fr Dennis was not saying nuclear detonations are emblematic of the Transfiguration!  As one of the generation growing up during WWII and devoted to life, he found it important to remember the anniversary of one of the two days human settlements were subject to nuclear attack on that scale. A very complex time of history — best not to judge but to stay in the vulnerable heart of its complexity.)
  • (but … back to Transfiguration!)
  • Transfiguration contains readings, and the gospel most particularly, of resplendence.
  • We might imagine this moment of Transfiguration akin to the Irish engagement with “thin spaces” in which the resplendent world abides closely with ours.  D2 imagine-prayed that the Transfiguration (Peter, John, and James abiding with Jesus transfigured, Moses and Elijah) might feel like a thin space to Peter, John, and James.
  • In his life, a rare personal interlude in a homily, he recounted that when he was missioned to NYC for his PhD in Film History and Criticism at NYU, he did his best to experience the city.  He and others from his Jesuit community would serve at the same Catholic Worker House that Dorothy Day served.  (He recounts one encounter in a different homily.)  But also, they would engage with the arts — the hallmark of NYC.
  • He had an experience of being so Beloved, so transfigured after watching a performance of Alvin Ailey’s Revelations for the first time, that he wanted to walk rather than take the enclosed limiting subway home.  So he near bounced up the stairs out of the subway to street level.  It felt like he was walking 1/2 foot off the ground the whole way home, feeling like — yes! he could move like the dancers moved!  Of course, as he noted — he wasn’t moving like the dancers and couldn’t, but that sense of possibility arising out of our Belovedness is the gift given to us by God through Jesus and lived in the Spirit.
  • When I (rl) heard his homily and watched youtube, I was infected with the Transfiguration, too!  The next day my old legs and I dashed out on my bicycle and found myself laughing joyously as I pedaled a furious pace in low gears to slowly grind “full speed” up one of Ann Arbor’s steep hills.  It came when I walked into the Heathdale, the closest thing to a sacred grove in Ann Arbor, and was surrounded by butterflies.  It was present after my high school friends and I overlooked the night lights of “Spaceport Billings” a là STAR WARS and pledged what we were going to do, but, when we turned 180 degrees from the city lights, that chatter was immediately silenced by the night sky filled with the shining backbone of the Milky Way (once we realized what it was) and shared who we are.  We are Beloved. 
  • Thanks, D2.

Apologies for the Featured Image quality … but that’s what Transfiguration, a deep moment of Belovedness felt like for me … based on how resonant Fr Dennis’ description of Transfiguration moments feel.

Leaf Quidditch by Lorraine Lamey (published Groundcover News Vol 14:8, 2023)

The chlorophyll has left the leaves.
A zephyr sets the branches waving farewell
to their bright or brown denizens.
The road ahead drops just right
for the tilted pitch of a Seeker’s two-wheeler.
My bicycle and I take flight coasting downhill
at a hearty speed and with precarious leanings
but not so precarious as in years past.
We sail among the drifting leaves dancing
like sunbeams in and out of my outstretched fingers.

I am transfigured with each ascension
though my pace and joints evoke the rickety-clickety clack
of an early wooden rollercoaster
hauling a full load to its peak height.
The ten minute ascent garners scarcely a two minute ride.
Push off, pedal a bit, brakes ready for the all-stop intersection,
clear?
Then pedal furiously to make up for caution.
During each descent, the leaves and wind stream by
and slough off another decade from my heart and soul.
Weight, worry, and weariness whip behind me.
By the fourth ascent, I am ten-years-old again
and playing leaf quidditch on my bicycle.
In that moment of refulgent joy,
a wee brightest yellow sugar maple leaf
finds me.


Eighteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here.  Since the Feast Day of St Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits and The Spiritual Exercises is on July 31st, we’ll keep the image and quotes of Jesuits! And, of course, Fr Dennis Dillon was a Jesuit aka a member of the Society of Jesus abbreviated “S.J.” or often just “SJ”.

These are my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of

  • August 3, 2014 8:30AM

_______

Fr Dennis references this Daniel Berrigan, SJ poem-like quote:

“Sometime in your life, hope that you might see one starved man, the look on his face when the bread finally arrives. Hope that you might have baked it or bought or even kneaded it yourself. For that look on his face, for your meeting his eyes across a piece of bread, you might be willing to lose a lot, or suffer a lot, or die a little, even.” Daniel Berrigan, SJ.

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • Extraordinary ordinariness and ordinary extraordinariness.
  • Jesus chose to leave himself to us in ordinary bread
    • As in Hebrew Scriptures, God gave and became manna to the Jewish people during the Exodus and challah for the Sabbath.
    • Bread is something we all need; the daily sort of food we all and each need to sustain ourselves. (rl — With respect for those with wheat- or grain-based dietary restrictions and your substitute essentials.)
  • So, we now have this awesomeness of the Divine in the most ordinary of foods.
  • In the Communion line
    • Our hand gesture is the gesture of both offering and receiving. (rl — Keeping in mind that spiritually, we are to offer all of our self to God at the Altar — in imitation, not exchange. We can never match the Gift …. so no “exchange.”)
    • At our parish, St Mary’s in Ann Arbor, D2 noted the joy of the Communion line in the diversity of faces and hands in receiving styles.
  • D2 kept this quote of his fellow Jesuit as a reminder of the ordinary extraordinariness of our Savior and Sacrament, and how we ourselves meet Him in the world — the one who hungers, the one who feeds us all, and the moment within should we be able to be the one who offers a gift of food.

Our image today is a mural in El Paisnal, El Salvador, seen in this Jan. 29 photo by Rhina Guidos. It features Saint Oscar Romero and town native the Blessed Fr. Rutilio Grande, S.J. surrounded by rural men, women and children, in the community the Jesuit Father Grande served from 1972 until his March 12, 1977, assassination. Fr. Grande spoke of his dream of a communal table where everyone, including the poor, had a place to eat and a right to have a say in matters that affected them. Catholic News Service photo by Rhina Guidos.

Seventeenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

No notes from D2’s homily this time, but these are the poems from the Mass of

  • July 30, 2017

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references are:

I had some notes from my deep dive into “treasure” with the New Jerome Biblical Commentary and couldn’t get myself into them to post in a timely matter last week.

🙂 I think God was watching out for us! 🙂

On reflection, the foray seemed a bit heavy and not very D2-y (even as he did dive into theology for his own explorations). He had found early on in his pastoral life that his homily and spiritual conversations needed to reach the flock’s daily experiences. So — a “maybe” to direct sharings of scholarship, and a definite “Yes!” to all that captured the emotions and experience of being alive and human in Christ, like poetry and more.

On Sunday, I was the team member shepherding our parish’ Children’s Liturgy of the Word, in which we offer 2- to 6-year-olds more accessible and interactive gatherings in the lounge (parents encouraged to join!) while the Mass continues in the main church.

We had a good time with a simpler discourse: feeling God’s Love is the treasure, the pearl of great value … and we need to practice returning to the feeling of Belovedness throughout our lives. So: notice where and with whom that occurs (as one Grandpa and granddaughter happily squished in a sofa chair together) and practice it now when we are young and feel Beloved, because as we age, it can become more difficult to clear ourselves from the thickets of daily life and return to our Belovedness. That being said, the kids loved finding the heart stickers we hid around the lounge and sticking them on!

Emily Dickinson’s poem captures this sentiment perfectly and so does a purportedly free image of a hummingbird … as we all go to Heaven all along the way, moment by Beloved moment.

Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of

  • July 20, 2014 Sun 8:30AM

_______

The poem Fr Dennis references this year is:

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • It’s parable time in the reading cycle — lots and lots of parables, last week the seeds and soil, this week the mustard seed and faith, and more weeds.
  • In general, for parables:
    • When asked a question, Jesus tells a story or parable which essentially prompts the questioner to consider a different view or answer.
    • Parables are poem-like in that they make larger statements about life in general and have multiple meanings, e.g., “Let those who have ears, hear.”  There is the literal meaning of the statement [auditory signal] and that larger meaning which denotes “ear [of faith].”
    • They are an unusual style of story intended to teach and hide.
  • D2 chose the poem Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen. The poem incorporates the familiar story of Abraham and Isaac, which evokes a sacred, biblical epic context, while the modern context and details of WWI, draft, and desolation are hidden. The biblical story is not followed to its ending, and instead the poem’s Abram (not the graced and renamed Abraham who listened to God and received a son and promise of numerous descendants) slays Isaac in direct defiance of God’s messenger, just as the old men of Europe slew their young.
    • Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 and died during WWI. A lot of his poetry arises out of his experience in war.  This poem is 16 lines but only the last two rhyme, the two lines that express his opinion/point of view.
    • In this poem we hear the human choice surround WWI rather than the biblical Abram’s/Abraham’s choice to obey God, ultimately saving his son.  Instead, “the old man … slew his son, / And half the seed of Europe, one by one.”

And some fun facts about the mustard tree (the big plant with branches!) that is thought to have originated in Persia and spread throughout the region.

Fifteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of

  • July 16, 2017 10AM
  • July 13, 2014 Noon

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references are:

In 2017

  • In the first reading from Isaiah (v 55:10-11), God sends God’s Word like rain and snow, for the soil and seed, eventually producing crop and more seed for the sower (like the gospel!, the good news!).
  • In today’s gospel excerpt from Matthew, Jesus has more the style of an Eastern / Zen koan master with the “whoever has ears should hear …” style.
  • Reception: The gospel, readings, and poems discuss reception beyond auditory hearing. They convey our need/energy to receive, to have reception, so the Word of God can make something happen.
  • In the second reading of St Paul’s Letter to the Romans
    • All of creation is redeemed, along with us, i.e., not just humans
    • Being in our relationship with the Word means, we, along with Creation, wait with “eager expectation” and some “groaning in labor pains.”
    • What does “original sin” in Creation mean? How does this happen? “for creation was made subject to futility because of the one who subjected it (i.e., Adam Eve), in hope that creation itself would be set free … and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Note this is the train of theology that takes us to the Eater Vigil’s proclamation in the Exsultet [paraphrased]: O happy fault, who gave need for so marvelous a Savior.”
  • Hearing: We are called through this gift to reflect on our impactful conversations for listening. How can we be more like our friend and master? How often do we get to say (or sing!) a word that effects results? E.g., God and Creation, Adam/Earth Creature naming the animals.
  • In Original Sin by Lawrence Raab, he creates a poem that is about words that cause things, good and bad.
  • In Blessing by Irene Blair Honeycutt, her poem describes words capturing a profound moment of silent communion between humans, dogs, home, Creation, and God.
    • Different moments, different gifts. Fireflies gave the gift of Light in the rural dark, katydids gave the gift of silence, dogs looking up gave the shared gift of community in Creation.
    • Finding home in the dark — such a relief.
    • There is no single word for each of these experiences in the poem … save perhaps “Blessing.”

In 2014, we reflected from D2’s homily that —

  • In Isaiah — snow and rain are sent out with a purpose, and that purpose will be accomplished.
  • In Romans — we will all, including Creation itself, be groaning for that accomplishment and fulfillment, maybe in desire, maybe in the need for the fulfillment to be finished (like Christ on the cross). We don’t really know the full sense of that groaning for accomplishment and fulfillment.
  • In the long version of the gospel from Matthew, note the sower’s spirit and demonstrated generosity in the sowing:
    • the seed is sown without measure, without expectation of outcome, and in the confidence of generosity itself
    • (rl — was reminded of “The Force is my ally, and a powerful ally it is.” But I didn’t want to make D2 yark; though he’d probably chuckle. On being asked, a final pastoral suggestion of his to a young person was on their selection of passage for their Sacrament of Confirmation, to be conferred on May 4, was … “Well, hmmm. May 4th? It almost has to be something from Luke, right?” As in “May the Fourth be with you.”) 🙂
  • We are left with, in part, the uncertainty of it all for ourselves, for our world, but with the sure path of how to follow / be like Christ as a sower.
  • In Faith Shearin’s poem, Spelling Bee, D2 thought the line “love took shape” as the poet speaks of her own daughter and the other parents’ experience of watching the once helpless children growing into their own.

The image is from my pollinators’ / native plants (mostly) garden. It is now twice as large, with an even better variety of plants, sown from seed. My neighbors grow a kitchen garden.

My heart is full of the joy of God when I see a monarch butterfly stop at my neighbors’ dill plants (they LOVE it!), and three to four of my varieties — even before the tithonia (aka Mexican sunflower) blooms to the joy of butterflies, buzzies, and hummingbirds alike. It is one of those simple moments as a human being in which I feel I am truly part of all of God’s Creation and covenant with the entire earth.

Wee bees are made just perfectly to fit the wee blossoms, and the dreadnaught class bees love the tithonia and other huge blossoms.

Love is taking shape.

Fourteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

These are the poem, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of

  • July 6, 2014

_______

The poem Fr Dennis references these years :

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • In the first reading, Zechariah’s prophecy defines God’s kingship through the contrast between a horse and ass of that day:  
    • Horse — elegant, a partner in warfare, trainable
    • Ass — kind of odd-looking, beast of burden, untrainable 
  • … All leading to the understanding that “kingship” is Jesus’ gentleness carried on a donkey, making the idea of Jesus bringing a “Kindom” of kinship amongst all God’s Creation all the more imaginable, more intuitive.
  • The gospel excerpt from Matthew, “for I am meek and humble of heart,” is one of the few times Jesus describes his interior state, “meek” (as in unassuming) and “humble of heart.”
  • So. In light of this clear image of kinship, unassuming nature, and humility — How do I view God? How do I view God in my life? What has God meant to me?
  • Sr Jessica Power’s poem, Repairer of Fences, clearly depicts a God who gets us out of the trouble we create, not a God placing us in trouble.

Our featured image from 2007 today is of a mule foal (i.e., the offspring of a mule), a rarity as most mules are sterile, being the 23-chromosome copy of the 24-chromosome horse (usually a mare) and a 22-chromosome donkey (an ass, usually a male). The unusual foal, eventually named Kule Mule Amos (nee John), was the son of Kate, a mule. Both lived on their human family’s ranch and were never offered to researchers to figure out this puzzle. KMA lived a short-ish life of six years, as one of the quirks of his genetic inheritance was less stability due to leg/foot structure and load-bearing capacity. It is thought the former may have played a part in his fall with internal injuries in a pasture one winter, leading to his death. The family’s concern for the latter kept KMA from being “a beast of burden.”

The image is from Laura Amos, via NPR, and without permission at this time. Hoping for a fair use, one-time exception.

I have added it because mules giving birth to foals are a quirk, not quite as much as someone proclaiming kinship as “kingdom.” But, still. And, some scholars don’t quite know how to interpret the passage from Isaiah and its gospel usages, in which the Savior-king will be “riding on an ass, the foal of an ass.” Yet … is it an additional emphasis on the humility (hey — not only a donkey … but on the FOAL of a donkey)? or the grammar which seems to indicate both?, or the sidecar theory? (On an interesting note to the latter point, when I was led up Cerro Pelón on horseback to one of the Monarch Butterflies’ overwintering meadows in Mexico, the foal of the lead guide’s mare was brought (only on its love of its mom — no lead, no nothing) to learn its way up the mountain. But he stuck to mom like glue as much as he could! Lastly, Jesus always saw the moms and children as people, which was not always the standard cultural understanding in his day.

Happy 250th to our beloved USA today, unfinished but not broken! Keep on hoping, praying, and serving, everyone! 🙂 May Christ’s Peace arise in us from the roots in the good earth to the stars that shine upon us.

A Gap Post

As it turns out, this was one of those Sundays, the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A, for which I did not have any Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ homily notes or poems. There are a couple of reasons I can think of — the “Eleventh Sunday” might fall during one of the two Solemnities of the Lord this time of year (Trinity Sunday and Corpus Christi Sunday); this started to be vacation time for the Jesuits after the super hectic school year (even if you weren’t in Campus Ministry proper); and sometimes … I just might not have made it to the one or two Masses on the “Eleventh Sunday” that he actually preached. Or, maybe there is an Eleventh Sunday OT poem hiding in my collection of poem “orts,” poems that I know he read to us (by my hearing or someone else’s) but I/we couldn’t place the Mass.

However, I can share some of the ways he taught us how to engage with scripture.

First and foremost, Ignatian contemplation — imagine yourself in the gospel (usually) scene. Observe and feel, use your senses — smell, touch, hearing, taste, sight, your social sense — and feel. Yes, that’s right, experience your emotions. One of the gifts of St Ignatius of Loyola to the Church is that he shared that God is in our imaginations, too (since God created human imagination!). Those feelings in our rich imagination of the gospel story — joy, elation, anxiety, fear, courage, distrust, anger, frustration, and more — those are the experiences we then share with our best friend, Jesus Christ, who can and will only meet us in Love in the scripture. I find these moments of shared humanity and Christ’s gift of restored divinity to us, as God’s Created, help me understand the Love in even difficult or perturbing gospels. Or, be at peace with my lack of understanding for now.

His understanding of his own reading of scripture then led him into the theological underpinning and to poems, new ones and ones he was familiar with after 1/2 century of engagement. He might find several poems for a particular Sunday, and there might be different ones shared at different Masses once he experienced how their shared prayer in a particular Mass was unfolding.

D2 also shared how various scripture commentaries (e.g., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, Eds I and II, and now III), helped him, as well as a tight line-by-line Greek to English translation in the Left Behind and Loving It blog.

Of course, there were many, many films. This is a good reminder to me to put up the selections from our parish film series.

And, many books — again, ranging from fiction to formal academic tomes and all kinds of genres in-between that might help us understand the humanity and divinity of the gospel. One of the books of his final recommendations is The Diary of Jesus Christ by Bill Cain, SJ.