First Sunday of Lent, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • March 9, 2020 5PM (no notes, poem only)
  • March 9, 2014

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

  • Original Sin by Lawrence Raab in 2020 (now realizing this was likely the last “live” homily our parish heard from Father Dennis, as the pandemic lockdowns began that week and he was missioned to Colombiere Center Community in August 2020. He offered the homily during a streamed Mass and goodbye to us in August 2020.)
  • I’m Nobody!  Who are you? by Emily Dickinson in 2014

In 2014, we reflected with D2 that —

in the Gospel,

  • The Temptations (the gospel reading) are all about who we are and how we are to act, held in a dynamic tension:
    • Adam and Eve are tempted with “you are going to be like gods” … yet/and we believe we share the life of God, i.e., Grace and in so doing/being, we belong to God’s family.  We are made divine through our brother, Jesus.
  • This is what the devil pounces on — this longing in our heart, arising out of our graced divinity, to be more than what and who we are.  The devil takes something good but uses it to lure us in a wrong direction, that wrong direction being away from God.
    • rl notes this is consistent with Saint Ignatius’ discernment of spirits:  in those trying to follow God more closely (n. 315 and n. 332 of the second set of discernment rules for those trying to follow the Lord), evil spirits often assume the form of an angel of light.  The soul believes they are following an angel of light, only little by little to be baited and switched to sin by the camouflaged evil spirit.
  • So — the Temptations of Jesus from Satan are because you are the Son of God:
    • change stones into bread, i.e., do something for yourself (wealth)
    • jump and be saved, i.e., be noticed for yourself (power)
    • take it all; i.e., take it all and worship me for yourself (pride)
  • And Jesus replies: That’s not who I am created to be by God nor how I should act ==> NO to the Temptations.

Second Reading from Romans

  • All of Paul’s letters can be summed up — if we know who we are, we will act as we should.
  • Emily Dickinson’s poem — I’m Nobody! Who are you? is a mildly whimsical take on the 2nd and 3rd Temptations, and a general sense of not getting above ourselves. We are the beloved children of God, siblings to Jesus … and sinners.
  • Our journey is about coming to know the Light and Love Who is in us, so we can share with those around us.

Our image today, The Temptations, is from The Book of Kells. It is housed in Trinity College in Dublin with two pages open at a time. It was created c.800 C.E. in Ireland and long housed at the Abbey of Kells (hence, its name).

And to keep a little laughter in our Lenten journey, here are some Motown Temptations in a clip from 1966 sharing their fine pipes and steps in “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” something the Trinity has sung to us from eternity’s beginning, about rending our hearts, not our garments, and in so doing, returning to God with all our heart.

Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

***Repeat from Seventh Sunday posting*** I do not have any notes or poems for Fr Dennis homilies for the Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A or C.  In a moment of inspiration this morning (Thank you, God!), it made more sense to offer the notes and poems from the Seventh and Eighth Sundays of Ordinary Time, Cycle A rather than the Sixth Sunday, Cycle B.

The Roman Catholic (and many denominations’) date of Easter is derived each year from the observance date of Jewish Passover, because Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead three days after being crucified, following the Passover meal with his disciples, i.e., the Last Supper.  Over millennia, this became a murky process with human biases and frailties built-in, on top of shifting and different calendars.

Catholic Answers (catholic.com) offered a succinct description of current calculation of the date of Easter and associated observances:

  • On the Gregorian calendar (the one that we use), Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after March 21. Easter thus always falls between March 22 and April 25.
  • Now, to find Palm Sunday (the sixth Sunday of Lent) you start with the date of Easter and back up one week: It is the Sunday before Easter Sunday.
  • To find Ash Wednesday, you start with the date of Easter Sunday, back up six weeks (that gives you the first Sunday of Lent), and then back up four more days: Ash Wednesday is the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent.

As a result, it varies how far into the “single-digit” Sundays of Ordinary Time we go in any given year.  This year, we will not observe the Seventh and Eighth Sundays of Ordinary Time prior to entering Lent.  We celebrate Pentecost, and then at the end of May return to the observance of daily Mass in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time (with various memorials on different days). 

On Sunday, June 14th, we will observe our first Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time, the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.  I have found this site of an online Ordo, created by a Jesuit, Dennis Smolarski, SJ, is very helpful to see the patterns of liturgy.  The Ordo is the schedule that indicates which observance and guidelines for each day’s mass(es) are associated with each year’s calendar date.

Annnnd, all that leads us back to why I might not have notes from a particular combination of Ordinary Time and Cycle.  🙂  ***End repeat from Seventh Sunday posting***

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

  • February 23, 2017  8:30AM (poem only)
  • March 2, 2014

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are (and without indication of permission on the websites):

  • 2017 homily — The Sun by Mary Oliver (poem only)
  • 2014 homily — Goldenrod by Mary Oliver

In 2017, I must have caught up with D2 during the day and found out the poem he read.

In 2014, we reflected that

  • This gospel  is analogous to the Sermon on the mount and its deeper revealing, e.g., “Do not murder” of the Ten Commandments is revealed by Jesus’ teaching: Do not be angry.
  • D2 also shared a retreat story about someone feeling inadequate before God, and the response this person received (in prayer, rl recollects from the story): Fear not, you are inadequate.  🙂  So.  Turn it over to God and worry less.
  • There is a popular misquote of Saint Ignatius, in which the actual emphasis for prayer and works are reversed.  But the original is along the lines of:  Pray as if everything depends on us, work [peacefully] as if everything depends on God.
  • In Ann Arbor of 2014, there were not near as many beds of goldenrod as there are now in 2025.  Instead, day lilies filled garden beds and residential hillsides.  He suggested that day lilies, too, work with the Mary Oliver poem’s insight “of giving one’s gold away” gracefully and naturally. 

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for the Seventh Sunday, Cycle A are here.  But note below, this and the following are special entries prior to entering Lent.

I do not have any notes or poems for Fr Dennis homilies for the Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle A or C.  In a moment of inspiration this morning (Thank you, God!), it made more sense to offer the notes and poems from the Seventh and Eighth Sundays of Ordinary Time, Cycle A rather than the Sixth Sunday, Cycle B. 

The Roman Catholic (and many denominations’) date of Easter is derived each year from the observance date of Jewish Passover, because Jesus Christ resurrected from the dead three days after being crucified, following the Passover meal with his disciples, i.e., the Last Supper.  Over millennia, this becomes a murky process with human biases and frailties built-in, on top of shifting and different calendars.

Catholic Answers (catholic.com) offered a succinct description of current calculation of the date of Easter and associated observances:

  • On the Gregorian calendar (the one that we use), Easter is the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after March 21. Easter thus always falls between March 22 and April 25.
  • Now, to find Palm Sunday (the sixth Sunday of Lent) you start with the date of Easter and back up one week: It is the Sunday before Easter Sunday.
  • To find Ash Wednesday, you start with the date of Easter Sunday, back up six weeks (that gives you the first Sunday of Lent), and then back up four more days: Ash Wednesday is the Wednesday before the first Sunday of Lent.

As a result, it varies how far into the “single-digit” Sundays of Ordinary Time we go in any given year.  This year, we will not observe the Seventh and Eighth Sundays of Ordinary Time prior to entering Lent.  We celebrate Pentecost, and then at the end of May return to the observance of daily Mass in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time (with various memorials on different days). 

On Sunday, June 14th, we will observe our first Sunday Mass in Ordinary Time, the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A.  I have found this site of an online Ordo, created by a Jesuit, Dennis Smolarski, SJ, is very helpful to see the patterns of liturgy.  The Ordo is the schedule that indicates which observance and guidelines for each day’s mass(es) are associated with each year’s calendar date. 

Annnnd, all that leads us back to why I might not have notes from a particular combination of Ordinary Time and Cycle.  🙂

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

  • February 23, 2020 8:30AM
  • February 19, 2017

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references this year are:

In 2020, I did not take notes, but I do remember the rather loud appreciation for the Family Vacation poem, particularly from the fathers in the congregation that day.

In 2017, we reflected on —

  • The Gospel calls us to love beyond what and who we know how to love; like God does (as described in the first reading and psalm).
  • God = holy, and holy = kind and merciful.
  • We are called to be like God, which is impossible.  But we continue to practice this revolution and evolution of the heart to do good and be holy in our everyday lives.

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • February 6, 2011 (no poem)

_______

In 2011, we reflected from D2’s homily that —

  • Salt was valuable in Christ’s time, both a precious commodity and form of currency.  Also, we can’t survive without it biologically. 
  • Note God is all Light.  We chose darkness (sin), but the indwelling of God in each of us is our Light to the World.
  • Now, we add these background understandings to last week’s Beatitudes and this week’s gospel so that
    • with God indwelling within us, and
    • knowing that we are each precious, THEN the Beatitudes seem more doable by us human creations.

Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A

Sermon on the Mount© Laura James, 2010 Used with permission

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • Feb 2, 2020 Noon, Feast of the Presentation of the Lord (no homily notes)
  • January 30, 2011 (no poem)

_______

The poem Fr Dennis references is:

  • 2020 homily — A Marriage Song by Wendell Berry

An introductory comment that these two entries (the Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Ordinary Time) are brief.  These are my early note-taking efforts back in 2011 — as I was coming ’round the corner of one year returned to the Church.  And, I was beginning to realize how precious — like salt! — Dennis’ homilies were, and all the more so set in a Mass of loving fellowship.  Most of the Masses he celebrated left me square in the experience of God’s Love, and these two entries reflect the first stirrings (fifteen years ago) of my desire to leave trail markers in notes should I ever need guideposts to help me find my way to kind love through scripture and prayer.

In 2020, I listened this Sunday but did not capture any homily notes.  Likewise, the poem is in Wendell Berry’s New Collected Poems (2012) and is well-worth finding, though I had no luck getting a link from the web.  In recollection and without notes, my thought is that the repetition of “Our Mary in her day of days” in the poem is like a refrain in a hymn and would have struck D2 akin to the repetition of the “Blessed are …” introduction of each beatitude. However, I went back to the original spreadsheet and saw this Sunday was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

In 2011, we reflected from D2’s homily that —

  • The Beatitudes
    • are beyond commandments
    • they are affirmative qualities rather than probabilities or conditionals
  • They are God-like qualities.
  • How can we do this or be these qualities, so extraordinary in sum total or individually?
  • It’s a cliffhanger! 🙂 Tune in to the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A!

Our featured image today, Sermon on the Mount© Laura James, 2010 Used with permission, is by the renowned artist, Laura James. I found her work embodies that sense of deep connection and Love in the understanding of the preciousness of salt, of ourselves to God, that D2 was conveying in his homilies of the Fourth and Fifth Sundays of Ordinary Time.

Here also is a link to a terrific article on her work.

I hadn’t realized the Book of Gospels we used at St Mary’s when I first returned to the Church in 2010 was the one of her design and art! It was long and lovingly used before it was retired, but this fortuitous connection with her work this morning is just in time for me to return it to use tomorrow for our Black and Blessed Celebratory Mass (and also discover that a new edition was published in 2020!).

May we be the Light of the World today, particularly for those experiencing darkness and oppression … and for those parts of ourselves needing that Light. Pass the salt! 🙂

Third Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A (Word of God Sunday)

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • January 26, 2020 10AM (no homily notes)
  • January 22, 2017  Noon

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

In 2020, I just listened and did not capture any homily notes (how jazzy of me!) —

  • However, the Margaret Hasse poem, Jazz You’ll Never Know, captures the feel and rhythm of all the Light themes in the readings, the repetition but just slightly different with each use, like jazz.

In 2017, we reflected from D2’s homily that —

  • The theme of Light is strong in all these readings, again, it seems like the celebration of Epiphany just keeps shining on
    • Is 9:1 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shown […more and great rejoicing]
    • Ps 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom should I fear?
    • Mt 4:16 The people who sit in darkness have seen a great light, on the dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen.
  • Note that Matthew misquotes Isaiah, in this the people are sitting (emphasis added) in darkness rather than walking (as in Isaiah).  And this begs the question:  Why was the gospel according to Matthew never “fixed”?
    • Because of the “eyes on the prize” principle.  Scripture, particularly in the Catholic tradition is not literal nor incantational, it is one of the pillars that leads us to God, who is most definitely not literal!
    • In other words, the message is important, not the details.  Light is important.
    • Our expression of our faith is important; are we sincere even if we don’t get all the words and details correct?  The writer of the gospel of Matthew is.
  • How randomly Jesus seems to call the disciples!  We don’t get any sense of Jesus
    • knowing them before their call

    • somehow attracted to them
    • “come along” seems the ultimate in low key invitation for what is going to be a life-changing event and, ultimately, a relationship with a world-changing person.
    • there doesn’t seem to be any logic in it — scriptural, organizational, geographical, social … anything!
  • Instead, the wonderful randomness of Jesus’ calling of the disciples is
    • like the wandering evangelists

    • establishing Jesus as an inspiration of the wanderer
    • and, rl would chip in, that everyone can receive a call to be a disciple.
  • Anne Porter’s poem, Music, describes music so beautiful it reminds us of absolute beauty … the very beauty who came to wander with us (“wanders where we wander”).

Our featured image is the famous Chi Rho page from the Book of Kells, now housed in Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. Nature-based inks on cowhide vellum. Amazing.

Second 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

  • January 15, 2017  10AM
  • January 19, 2014 8:30AM

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

In 2017, we reflected on —

  • In Isaiah (49:6), we hear that the Lord made Isaiah, Israel, the prophets, and, of course, Christ himself to be a “light to all the nations” (emphasis added), to the magi, the Jewish people, the Gentiles (that’s us!).  It feels like an echo of the Epiphany.
  • In the gospel, John the Baptist said, “I did not know him,” in the sense that he did not recognize Jesus for who he truly is.
    • It feels consoling, in a way, that someone like John the Baptist could be wrong.
    • He saw Jesus but did not understand Jesus was the “Son of God”; he had been wrong.
    • Also, the earlier Spirit and Fire messages about the Messiah (from spirited and fiery John the Baptist) sound threatening, but Jesus generally isn’t like that or that sort of threatening, particularly to the anawim (the poor and marginalized).
  • Patricia Fargnoli’s poem Winter Grace is about not seeing and then, eventually, seeing (like John the Baptist) that “which is otherwise always eluding you.”

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • In the gospel, John the Baptist said that “I did not know him [as the Son of God]” until the Spirit / Dove descended on Jesus — that’s us!! —
    • As it is often the reflection on past events that helps us recognize Jesus.  We hope and aspire to recognizing Him a little sooner in the course of our events.
    • The persistent aspiration to holiness and the humility regarding our limitations are aspects of our holiness, but being recognized as holy by others after-the-fact seems also to be an aspect of being Holy.
  • In the second reading (1 Cor 1:2 “to you who have been … called to be holy”) addresses the saints and all of us hoping to see what’s right in front of us.  E.g., Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized the presence of God in our lives, and in community, and that he might very well have to die for living so.
  • Eavan Boland, an Irish poet (1944-2020) captures the after-the-fact epiphanies in her poem, the Necessity for Irony, with her final lines of
    • that I was in those rooms,
      with my child,
      with my back turned to her,
      searching — oh irony!–
      for beautiful things.

Our featured image today is a jewel (8″ x 8″), and as with all jewels it was pure internet chance that I found it: the Behold the Lamb of God Icon by Ed Narvaez. The notion of the “black sheep” captures that sense D2 was going for with the after-the-fact recognition of the holiness and value of someone who, at the current moment, doesn’t seem to fit. Like the saying that Jesus came not only to comfort the afflicted, but to afflict the comfortable. 🙂

Mr. Narvaez is quite gifted and accomplished in a variety of art forms; he resides in Boulder, CO. His description of his icon capture of the restored icon in St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, Belgium is well-worth the visit to his site. I have received Mr. Narvaez’ permission to display the image; please respect his artistic rights. The actual icon is still available for sale, if you are captivated by it.

The Baptism of the Lord, Cycle ABC

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • 12 January 2020 8:30AM, Cycle A
  • 11 January 2015, Cycle B
  • 14 January 2011, Cycle A

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

For the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the first and second readings are the same for all three liturgical years A, B, and C.  However, there is a different gospel option for each year, which we’ll discuss below (from notes of Fr Dennis Dillon SJ’s homilies).

In 2015 (albeit Cycle B but supplemented with notes from the 2020 Cycle A homily), to better set the context of D2’s discussion, we reflected that —

  • In the first reading, Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7, Israel is commissioned as a chosen leader despite its insignificance at that time in the world order, per the New Jerome Biblical Commentary, 2nd Edition).
  • The gospel reading for each cycle (A, B, or C) has a different emphasis and consequence in the telling of Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist:
    • Cycle A, the gospel according to Matthew (3:13-17) (emphases added):  “After Jesus was baptized, he came up from the water and behold the heavens were opened for him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming upon him.  // And a voice from the heavens saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
    • Cycle B, the gospel according to Mark (1:7-11) is even more personal than Matthew in that only Jesus hears God’s blessing (emphasis added):  “And a voice came from the heavens, ‘You are my Beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'”  In other words, it is easy to believe that only Jesus hears the blessing.
    • Cycle C, the gospel according to Luke (3:15-16, 21-22) takes a more universal, or at least public, approach.  Compare the gospel of John which acclaims Jesus, though not by name, to “The people.”  In Luke, “[a]fter all the people had been baptized and Jesus also had been baptized and was praying … ,” the dove descended.”  And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  The context lends support to the interpretation that “the people” heard this.
  • Why does this nuance matter? Because if everyone in the crowd (a là Luke and John) hears “my beloved Son,” the crowd is, essentially, being told to follow this guy.  But if only Jesus hears this blessing (a là Mark and to a lesser extent Matthew, this year’s gospel), then it more fits the model of Baptism and its blessing as a personal call, more like we would each experience and determine how to respond (e.g., going to the wilderness and figuring out “What now, God?!?!?”).

In 2020 and 2011 Cycle A homilies, we reflected that —

  • Themes of Light pervade this season:
    • Advent:  We are awaiting the Light in the darkness.
    • Christmas / Nativity:  Light into the world.
    • Baptism:  Light from Light.
      • Luke’s Baptism — to all
      • Matthew’s Baptism – a Father-Son moment, a blessing for the journey.  It is a moment of obvious union in this world.  God the Creator cannot do what the Son is sent to do / be.
  • The Perlberg poem offering “the season’s perfect oxymoron” of the signs of “United” and “Departures” right next to each other at the airport, as her the poet’s daughter and her husband are leaving after the Christmas holiday.  The poem captures the complexity of parent-offspring relationship (particularly as adults) that in a way is resonant with the complexity of the Baptism.  So many meanings all at once.  The Sharon Olds poem, used in 2011, also captures this complexity but between a mother and child.  The Perlberg poem perhaps captures more of the richness of the Baptism emotions we can imagine for God and Son in this moment.

In the 2015 Cycle B homily, we reflected that —

  • Much of the Cycle B homily (and a daily Mass homily) that laid out this comparison of the Baptism in the four gospels discussed above.
  • In this homily he also described how the gospel of Mark uses John the Baptist, in what he says and does, to reveal who Jesus is.
  • He also introduced us to John Shea’s poem (a very, very long one!) about John the Baptist.  The poem covers all we know of John the Baptist!
  • In somewhere around the tenth stanza and a couple following ones, John Shea captures the “Are you the One Who Is to Come?” question with “This arrow of a question was sent from prison” by way of John the Baptist sending his disciples to ask, “Are you the Messiah or not [because you ain’t acting like the Messiah I was expecting!]?”
  • Recall that John the Baptist was going around saying [paraphrased], “You think I’m something?  He’s gonna baptize you with fire, not just water!”  The implicit meaning is that the Messiah is going to be like us … but only more so, with exclamation points.  As John Shea writes, “The more is arriving ….”
  • So John the Baptist gets his Messiah, just not the who and how that John the Baptist expected.
  • John the Baptist’s role was to point to Jesus; to gather people and then give way
    • John Shea’s poem offers “I can denounce a king / but I cannot enthrone one.”
    • So, as being fully human, like John the Baptist, we can point to what God is doing in our lives and receive the bread to follow Jesus in this journey.
    • This is not unlike Recovery Spirituality in that there are many tools in this century to help address addictive behavior and choices, but the other 1/2 or more of the effort is leaving the result to our Higher Power, to Grace, or, as so many of us might say, to God.  There is a letting go that has to happen, and so John the Baptist did.

Featured image to follow! 🙂

Epiphany, Cycle ABC

Our readings for Sunday are here.  These are the readings every year.

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

  • January 5, 2020 10AM
  • January 7, 2018 10AM
  • January 3, 2016 10AM
  • January 4, 2015 5PM

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

In 2020, we reflected that —

  • I (rl) managed to get the poems but did not take notes, apparently enjoying the homily — though now, oh how I wish I had jotted them down. This was one of his last three months of homilies and Mass celebrations with us. Each of the three poems by Sutphen, Nye, and Staub shares a moment of epiphany, as per usual with D2, a sharing of the Light in the ordinary.

In 2018, we reflected that —

  • We associate the magi and its root word with astronomers and magicians, of which D2 was one in his youth (and continued to share in his Nativity Pageant Mass aka The Mass of Chaos homily) in the model of __________ __________ of the 1940s. Fr Dennis was more of a sleight of hand magician, and used scarves when he was at St Mary’s, and it looks like cards at other times in his life.
  • An epiphany and the magi of the Epiphany evoke awe and mystery.
  • It’s hard for us to imagine how foreign the astrologers and magicians were to the Jewish temperament at that time. The Magi of the gospel had three strong prescriptions against them in Jewish culture of that day:
    • First, they were magicians/astrologers; these groups were generally looked down upon by both Jewish culture and its offshoot Christians.
      Second, they were Gentiles (and how).
      Lastly, gentile magicians using a star to proclaim a Jewish King to the Jewish people themselves.
    • Yet, in the story of The Epiphany, 1) the Magi are the witnesses, 2) very much outsiders, and 3) there’s no closure to their story — they just disappear without conversion.
  • But in having such a story, God, through the Magi, demonstrates God is not bound by our way of thinking and how God is present in different cultures …
    • … which leads to an understanding of missionaries that is more Jesuit-like: a missionary doesn’t bring God to other cultures, so much as finds out how God is already at work there, i.e., God’s Glory .. and God’s Glory is not confined by us, least of all.
  • “Epiphany” means “shining forth” — like the stars, gifts, the James Joyce insight into epiphanies.
  • Mary Oliver’s poem Ice is a beautiful description of living on with the absence of a parent or parents and how we come to our understandings and insights later. It captures the light, joy, and suffering of those times of our lives, or the story of the Magi: light, Herod, The Epiphany, their departure, and the ensuing slaughter of the innocents.

In 2016, we reflected that —

  • There are so many themes of Light! — Isaiah reading, second revelation of mystery, Israel, star, God’s Glory, Jesus Himself.
  • D2 tells the joke about a big day in Heaven. God is feeling even more generous than usual, especially for religious communities. So God sends Francis of Assisi, Dominic, and Ignatius of Loyola back into The Nativity, >poof<. They’re there. Francis raptures “Oh! The simplicity! The poverty!” and goes off and joins the shepherds or something. Dominic begins philosophizing about the infinite God manifesting in this finite child, and so on and so on. He walks off deep in his thoughts. Ignatius leans in to the Holy Family and asks, “Have you given any thought to the boy’s education?” [laughter in the congregation]
  • All jokes have an epiphany — the moment where we “get it.”
  • Jesus is an epiphany, a shining to all the nations.
  • James Joyce noted that all his stories have an epiphany for the reader or for one of the characters.
  • An epiphany is how things fit together better; we see things better or more wholly [or more “holy”?] and grow as a result.
  • Poems are like epiphanies, the “aah” moment of seeing the light.
  • In today’s poems —
    • Five Wishes by Anne Porter express the epiphanies of who Ms. Porter is — a wild bird, radiance, …, and being with her daughter..
    • In William Carlos Williams’ Pastoral he describes the beauty of weathered, poor houses, the patina. He now prefers the patina to the untarnished new. His doctoral ministry has led him to the beauty of their neighborhoods; his poem is the sharing of his epiphany which is “not of importance to the nation.”

In 2015, we reflected that —

  • James Joyce spoke of epiphanies as a literary device, a recognition of what the character/story is all about without the character knowing it. Much of this can be found in Richard Ellmann’s classic James Joyce, a biography.
  • Epiphanies are a kind of inadvertent revelation of things the characters are most careful to conceal, e.g., Mary and Joseph were simply busy taking care of their kid and these magi (and shepherds) show up.
  • Epiphany is a moment when the souls of the commonest object shines like a radiant star; an epiphany is both arrogant and humble. Epiphany merely happens and in its happening it merely happens; the author does not focus the text on the epiphany itself.
  • It is remarkable that God comes as a child / one lowly and common but who shines like a radiant star, not a as a huge warrior king. He is attended by magi whose astrology told them they were visiting a newborn “king of the Jews.”
  • Ron Koertge’s Negative Space poem holds an epiphany, unveiled after decades of life together.

Mary Mother of God, Cycle ABC

Our readings for Sunday are here.

The following are my notes, the poems, and reflections from Fr Dennis Dillon, SJ’s homilies from the Masses of

• 1 January 2017, 10AM
• 1 January 2016, 10AM

The poems Fr Dennis referenced are:

• Diagnosis by Sharon Olds (2016 homily)
• Going to Bed by George Bilgere (2016 homily)
• New Year Resolve by May Sarton (2016 & 2017 homilies)

In 2017, we reflected:
• How the New Year is also a new hope, a starting over again.
• D2 mentioned Ann Lamott’s new novel All New People in which failure and
forgiveness are prominent themes among its characters.
• And, today’s baptism (at Mass) is a reminder of yet more life and hope going on
amid daily challenges that might make us think otherwise.
• The May Sarton poem, New Year Resolve, offers “come back to still water” in
our minds, and the key to finding clarity is silence.
• Jesus, as an act of salvation, finds the clear water in our everyday
experience, as if to say “everything’s okay.”

In 2016, we reflected that
• Historically, a number of celebrations are wrapped up in this day — Mary, the
historical titular Feast of the Society of Jesus (aka the Jesuits), the Feast of the
Circumcision, New Year’s Day, and more.
• The Feast of the Circumcision was observed because only humans bleed, and
Jesus’ circumcision would have marked the Lord Jesus as truly human. In The
Church of the Gesù in Rome in the rear of its sanctuary/apse, there is the image
(below) of the circumcision, and during and around its June-ish observance, an
image of The Sacred Heart. In part the display of the circumcision is done, as
theoretically, any bloodletting would have satisfied the letter of sacrifice law,
but the crucifixion marks the entirety of his sacrifice and our resurrection (fully
divine, he also fully suffered and died and resurrected completely).
• Today’s Mary, Mother of God celebration is one of the major Marian
observances, as the reading is clear how she was reflecting on all this — the
shepherds, the temple and circumcision, the magi, and later Jesus getting lost in
the temple. Just as Jesus had to grow in wisdom and grace before God and his
community, so, too, did Mary. “What’s going to happen to this child?” “How is he
going to save?” These were normal and expected questions because, for all
appearances, Jesus was just one infant like any human infant.
• So Mary (and all of us) learn how to understand from the experience of a child.
Sharon Olds poem Diagnosis is evocative, perhaps, of the challenge Mary might
have had to interpret and understand Jesus.
• The Bilgere poem evokes this time of year, the winter solstice, the Christmas
season, and the sense of reverence and extraordinariness in the ordinary, like
how the Lord of the Universe erupts into our world as a human infant!

Some rl notes: today’s readings are beautiful — blessings, loving salvation, and shepherds — all in celebration of Mary, the Mother of God. For those who aren’t Catholic, the Marian devotion ranges from proxy mother to mother watching over the community to Jesus’ first and best disciple. Spiritually and emotionally the range of devotions create a flowing, mystical, and rich person.

The first reading, Aaron’s blessing (the Aaronic blessing), is when God instructs Moses to teach his brother, Aaron:

The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!

I really enjoyed the Irish Blessing, an all-Ireland video released during the pandemic, and one that contains the Aaronic blessing at the end.

I had the gift of reading the Aaronic blessing passage at Mass in 2017. I love reading (or lectoring, if you wish) as when I am prayerful, what is spoken is beyond me. It is one of the joys of the mystical tradition of the Catholic Church. As I was reading: Whoosh! All the errant ways in which I (and many of us) use God’s name or claim to be God’s people or “righteous” flooded in simultaneously with the true voice of God (like in 1 Kings 19:11-13 — a whisper, not a roar; gentleness, not dictatorship), and I found myself emphasizing in the reading the words “my name.” I realized God was not just marking the Jewish people, but God was creating and explaining God’s identity to us humans who worship idols or create false proxies of Love Loving.

But the peace of understanding who God is and how we share God was a rich consolation, making the inheritance of the second reading even closer. It’s easy to imagine the desire to be close to Abba, Father, especially if you feel close to your human father; but experiencing God’s voice of loving call directly draws us each and all to our best self.

The Circumcision by Alessandro Capalti in the apse/sanctuary of the Church of the Gesù in Rome shows this moment,

but then Jim Hasse, SJ catches the thoughtfulness, concern, and puzzlement Mary might have carried in his Sorrowful Madonna, our featured image.