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

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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

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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.

Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • June 22, 2014 8:30AM Mass
  • June 23, 2011 (no poems this time)

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

  • 2014 homily — After Work by Jane Hirshfield
  • 2014 homily — Fitzgerald’s Prayer by John Shea

In 2014 —

We reflected with D2 that The Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ is its own kind of mystery, following on the mystery of the Trinity:

  • We are called to eat the meal — manna and water in the first reading, now bread and wine, and Precious Body and Blood in the Mass.
  • This eating is not a passive act. We are called to bring our deepest selves and actively engage with the Mass and our lives. Among the changes created in the liturgy by the Vatican II Council are:
    • Greater communication, because the priest and congregation now engaged with each other in the Eucharist in a shared local language, as a native language conveys more of the heart, more intimacy. (Cf: The Latin Rite, which emphasized observation and distance, and separation between shepherd and flock in worship style.)
    • Music in the Latin Rite was beautiful, complex, and mainly for professional participation, while current liturgy music is for everybody to sing together and listen to each other, again, in a shared language.
  • We are called to prayer and action in community, with each other, in Christ.
  • In Jane Hirshfield’s poem, After Work, he experienced the seeing of the sacred in the everyday events, which is part of the wonder of the Body and Blood — seeing and experiencing the Body and Blood of Christ, in bread and wine.
  • John Shea’s poem, Fitzgerald’s Prayer, describes the healing and gift in receiving the bread and wine and sharing our stories with each other and to God, i.e., Meal as Eucharist …
  • … and as we share in the here and now, we bring in and can look forward to the eternal Banquet.

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

  • Corpus Christi used to be celebrated with a parade / march (officially, “a procession”) through the streets with the Precious Body and as the body of Christ.
  • The diversity of the Communion line at St Mary’s reminds him of a “procession of the Body of Christ” — international, multi-generational, all different kinds of receiving of the Host, each piece of home-baked Host unique..
  • The commonness of the gifts — bread and wine — are available in virtually every culture.

Well … I am still looking for our featured image! I am trying to find one I can use from the Calgary (Alberta Province of Canada) Stampede. Over the years, the chuckwagons, who would later race, formed caravans (processions) … and then the cooks with the chuckwagons began making flapjacks (pancakes) for the stampede / race attendees. Eventually, the Stampede and Race merged; other community pancake breakfasts emerged as fundraisers and community builders, including the 2022 StampEid, intentionally combining an African traditional chickpea stew with the offering of flapjacks. This article offers a history of the event, a good example of how the Gospel grows itself — through community processions, meals, and sharing. I love the image of the first flapjack cook, Horace Inkster. His driver/racer/boss, Jack Morton, also shared his chuckwagon with his two pet badgers. 🙂

Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, Cycle A

Our readings for Sunday are here. 

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

  • June 11, 2017
  • June 15, 2014  5PM

_______

The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:

In 2017 —

The Trinity is a dynamic relationship — One God with relationship between one and all and with each other and all of us and each of us, AND a revelation of who we are:

  • The Trinity is celebrated all together. (rl note: don’t sweat it; we won’t get it. That’s why the Trinity is a mystery.)
  • New York Times article about the metal artist / worker, Alex Calder, who is quoted, “The work is the same but it keeps changing.”
  • Kilian McDonnell’s poem, “The Monks of St John’s File in for Prayer,” reminds D2 of the St Mary’s Communion line — all the stories and variety of us, together.
  • He thought Robert Hadyn’s poem, “Those Winter Sundays,” captured how God is relational, or as St Ignatius says, “Love is shown more in deeds than words.” Robert Hadyn, our first U.S. Poet Laureate, taught at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor [rl — where the St Mary’s of these posts is located].

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

  • God is community, 3-in-1 family. We constantly depend on other people for purpose and happiness, like we depend on God.
  • God is wider than our imaginations as captured so beautifully in the Frederick Faber poem, the lyrics to the hymn of the same name, “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” (Gather #626).
  • Billy Collins’ humorous poem, “The Lanyard” lays out so truthfully that somehow, through God’s Grace, we are “even” with the Trinity with whatever gift we offer at the Altar, 🙂 even a lanyard.

Our featured image is the famous Trinity image of Andrei Rublev from 15th century. I leave you with a wiki link for more information.

Pentecost Sunday, Cycle A

Our readings for this Pentecost are here. 

This is a brief excerpt from the Pentecost, Cycle B entry, based on my notes from Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of May 20, 2018 10AM.

______

In 2018, Fr Dennis kept it real, simple, and direct.

At the time, it did not feel particularly Easter-y as the news was filled with news that could cause despair and disgust.  D2 noted that having such behavior seemingly fill the news can be disheartening.

And while we are called to forgiveness, perhaps most especially when it is difficult, Fr Dennis offered that forgiveness is not a call to passivity.  Peacefulness is the fight for justice; it is our foundation.  Forgiveness, peacefulness, justice — all these states are dynamic, rather than static or passive conditions.

And that is a nice thought in the year 2026 when so much seems amuck (again or still).

*****

For our image this week, I stumbled across a Danish fresco in the Cathedral of Aarhus in Aarhus, Denmark.  It is a fresco of Pentecost with the tongues of fire descending on the twelve apostles … and one title indicates Mary of Magdala but, gospel-wise, Mary the Mother of God and the Church.  She is the one with light hair and no beard.  🙂

Seems to fit with the Roman Catholic Church’s observance of Mary, Mother of the Church on the Monday after Pentecost .

The image was part of a “free download,” but it did not seem the same as other free downloads.  The attribution is asked to be ID 85709227 © Stig Alen’s | Dreamstime.com

Easter Week 5, Cycle A

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, are here. 

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

  • May 18, 2014 Cycle A, Noon

______

The poem Fr Dennis references is:

In 2014, we reflected on —

  • In the gospel, Jesus knows he is leaving again and relatively soon but offers some confusing statements when considered in tandem:
    • Jesus and the Father are one
    • Jesus is going to the Father (which implies distinctness or separation).
  • A note of exasperation at Phillip can be detected in Jesus’ words (“Have I been with you for so long a time …?”), but also with Phillip’ and Thomas’ expectations for an understanding they perhaps ought to have internalized by now.  That being said — their puzzlement is also a balm to us as we are both enamored and struggle with the mystery of the Resurrection nearly 2000 years later!
  • This dialogue and conversation captures the sacred tension between religious structure and the spiritual realm.
Catechism / Structure  <— Sacred Tension —>Spiritual Realm / Mysticism
What am I supposed to do? Where are we going?Who am I supposed to be? Who do I follow?
  • Jesus is teaching that by staying with Jesus, the Jesus inside each one of us, we stay close to God and this means that it matters who we’re traveling with (not as a matter of feet and maps) but our intention and focus (Matthew 6:21, also comes to mind)
    • with Jesus in our hearts

    • with eyes and ears for Jesus in others
    • in prayer and Mass (the actual Presence being given to us anew, each time, for taking into ourselves and taking out into the world).
  • The Lincoln prose-poem of David Shumate is set in 1865, describing the man himself and what he had lived through the prior four years (recalling President Lincoln was assassinated on 14 April 1865 at 10:15PM, the country’s first presidential assassination, just five days after the Union received the words of surrender from the Confederacy on 9 April 1865, and several days before the Civil War’s official end).  It was not just Lincoln’s words that built community out of great division, but the man himself.

Some rl musings —

  • Our image of the post is The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln by Eastman Johnson (1868). I first saw it at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) (It rocks! Check it out!). Young Abraham Lincoln is leaning into the only light available in the darkness of his cabin to capture the light of the words from one of the only books available to him.  His act of hope in the future, a better future for many, is an echo to me of how Jesus himself brought Light into the world, and we need to have that Light inside us and share it and Jesus, as best we can.
  • rl – I have vague memories of the folk song, sung by any number of artists, titled “Abraham, Martin, and John” offered by Dion or Marvin Gaye.  I remember Dad growing quiet, or Mom quietly crying to it or having a social sadness that I wouldn’t understand at the time, but feels all too familiar these days.  My horizon of hopes ahead for me personally is, understandably diminishing as I age — both because of my limitations and because I’ve been blessed with so many hopes realized.  But it is the thought of what we need to do for our younglings to have a full horizon of hope that shakes any melancholy, renews my faith in Christ “who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light,” and sets my sail accordingly to the hope the Resurrection encompasses. We are an Easter people, children of the Resurrection, called to follow and share Christ’s Light, irrespective of the darkness around us. That is our Faith.

Easter Week 4, Good Shepherd Sunday, Cycle A

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday, are here.

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

  • May 7, 2017 Cycle A

______

The poems Fr Dennis references are:

In 2017, we reflected on —

  • In Jesus’ time, the relationship between the sheep and the shepherd was personal, the sheep were family.  Even now, in the south Sudan, the Dinku tribe keeps cattle for food and milk.  The cattle sleep in the tents with the humans, and there is a ritual, an emotional and intentional mourning, at their eventual death. And, as we know from the Nativity stories, the shepherds were closest to story but among the lowest tier of Jewish social status.  Jesus, once again, goes to the margins of society to love and be present like the best of family, the best of friends.
  • Before the Resurrection: Jesus was Master.
  • After the Resurrection:  Jesus is friend and peer
    • He returns to his friends and consoles them
    .
    • He moves on in our lives with us, together, each of us with Jesus and each other.
  • One of the reasons to go with this interpretation of friendship is that in last week’s Emmaus story, the primary experience must have been one of Jesus consoling the disciples.  Why? Because he is not teaching — none of the links of his life to the scripture are recorded!, so the intent is more to show there was meaning to this suffering, from the beginning of God’s revelation in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to the current moment of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and a clear meaning at that (the many and unspecified scripture references). 
  • rl paraphrases as: What was remembered from the encounter at Emmaus was not the makings of a killer scholarly paper, but the relief, the consolation of mercy from your dearest friend after fatal betrayal and abandonment by everyone that you were and are and will be forgiven and that you remain dearly beloved.  Jesus gave their frailty context, meaning, and humanity.
  • David Budbill’s The First Green of Spring — eating and life, each day is a new resurrection.  Also, much of the resurrection is Jesus sharing meals with his friends.
  • Kiersten Dierking’s Lucky is a poem capturing the quiet work of God in our lives, much like a Good Shepherd leads us to green pastures.  The intimate trust of being safe with someone.