sharing the many hues of joy that witness hope, life, and love
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.
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
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The art Fr Dennis references is:
In 2014, we reflected on —
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.
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
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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 —
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.
Our readings for Sunday are here.
No notes from D2’s homily this time, but these are the poems from the Mass of
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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.
Our readings for Sunday are here.
These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of
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The poem Fr Dennis references this year is:
In 2014, we reflected on —
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.
Our readings for Sunday are here.
These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of
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The poems Fr Dennis references are:
In 2017
In 2014, we reflected from D2’s homily that —
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.
Our readings for Sunday are here.
These are the poem, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the Mass of
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The poem Fr Dennis references these years :
In 2014, we reflected on —
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.
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.
Our readings for Sunday are here.
These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of
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The poems Fr Dennis references these years are:
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:
In 2011, we reflected from D2’s homily that —
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. 🙂
Our readings for Sunday are here.
These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the Masses of
_______
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:
In 2014, we reflected from D2’s homily that —
Our featured image is the famous Trinity image of Andrei Rublev from 15th century. I leave you with a wiki link for more information.
The Surest Sign 