Sunday, October 21

The sun shines brilliantly, though coldly into my house this morning and the furnace runs. Winter is definitely not far off. Pumpkins sit in my hallway thanks to the kindness of a neighbor who brought them from the High School fundraiser. I am blessed indeed by neighbors and friends and the sense of belonging to a community, even though much of it is virtual.

The readings for today can be found at

http://www.usccb.org/nab/102107.shtml

. I confess that I am not feeling inspired today by these readings. What would I do i f I had to preach on them? I think that I will simply be grateful that I do not.

Today is the Lord's day, nonetheless. It is a beautiful day and therefore easy to give thanks and praise. I am praying too, for the recovery of a friend who is in hospital, for safety for travelers and for prosperity for those who are poor. May peace reign in our hearts and homes this Sunday and carry forth into our work week.

Today is a good day to cook and knit and perhaps to sew, to spend a bit less time, perhaps in the pursuit of computerly things for even though I am housebound, I am determined to try to set Sunday apart and spend it somewhat differently from the other six days of the week, which do tend to merge together as one great long day punctuated by the daily necessities.

If I were to work at it a bit more, every day could be prayerful for I have the gift of solitude in a neighborhood that is essentially quiet. Probably not quite as quiet as Thomas Merton's famous hermitage, and no Abbot to report to, but certainly opportunity abounds in my life for more thought and prayer. Abound. That is interesting for I have been thinking of abundance recently in the context of a conversation with someone who had obviously tuned into the modern concepts of the abundant life--making your dream come true, making abundance come to you--in monetary terms. While I certainly think that prosperity is blessing and it is one that I need a bit more of, there are other forms of abundance. Love, faith, kindness, friendship all come to me in abundance, in spite of my solitude. For these I give thanks and for setting Sunday apart from the other days.

Let's be grateful for the Lord's day and make it a day of peace and rejoicing.

Sunday morning

It is beautiful, as befits Sunday. The temperature in my office is 69, up one degree from the time that I entered. Later, the weather forecast assures us, it will be hot. Right now I am wrapped in a fleece throw to ward off the chill!

Today the first reading is Sir 3:17-18, 28-29. I particularly like "What is too sublime for you, seek not, into things beyond your strength search not." The second reading is Ps 68:4-5, 6-7, 10-11 followed by the second reading from Heb 12:18-19, 22-24a, which contains the wonderful phrase "countless angels in festal gathering". Countless angels, countless, beyond counting, beyond imagining. I wish they could pause in their festal gathering long enough to push the low pressure down and the clouds and the fog back over us, who have been sweltering in the heat wave of this past week. Still countless angels. More than enough to go around. More than enough to help us in all of our needs. Countless angels, cherubim and seraphic and perhaps even more Archangels than the ones we know by name, Michael, Raphael, Gabriel. The Gospel reading for today is from Lk:14:1, 7-14. And those who are humbled shall be exalted. Hmmm. Not in this life surely.

The sunflowers, bedraggled by the heat, and full of seed have nearly completed their life-cycle. Fall is truly coming.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

Sunday morning, bright, clear a little chilly and sunny. The sun flowers march along clearing the top of the fence by over a foot. I wonder what it would look like to have a field of them? They are such a vivid color that they seem to make the sun even brighter, as though they are concentrating it.

I miss being able to get out and about to attend Mass and socialize with friends after.

The first reading today is from Jeremiah and tells of how the prophet was lowered into a cistern and then rescued. The responorial psalm is Psalm 40:2,3,4,18. The second reading, Hebrews 12:1-4 has the phrase "a cloud of witnesses" and the Gospel, Luke 12:49-53 has Jesus telling us that he has come to divide not to unite and not to establish peace. This is one of those passages that I have never really understood, since there are certainly other images that evoke the Lord as Peacemaker.

One thing I did see in the image though, was that it seemed appropriate for the current election process that we are going through. So many candidates on both sides! So many issues that truly need our attention and that equally need resolution. Are we the cloud of witnesses or the house divided? Will we unite in time to actually make a difference? We shall see. Not such peaceful thoughts for a so beautiful Sunday morning.

Sunday Morning

Now that the blue jay (actually, Mountain Scrub Jay) has stopped cheek, cheek, cheeking in my yard and gone somewhere else the morning is amazingly quiet. The birds come and go from the feeders quite peacefully except for this one jay, whom I suspect is a fledge and complaining that Mom and Dad aren't feeding him any longer! Such is life in the bird world, little friend!

In our world we continue feeding people throughout our lives. Sunday is an especially good time for this. After feeding our hearts and souls by going to Mass and Communion, my family would come home and prepare a special, festal breakfast. The smells of coffee perking, bacon frying and eggs being cooked filled the house and made it comforting in a way that it is not if no cooking ever occurs. (Yesterday, the smell of my buckwheat pancakes lingered after I ate them and the house seemed warmed.)

Sunday was also the day when we would go to friends for dinner or they would come to our house. I think my mother was never so happy as when people gathered around her table to eat food she had prepared. She inherited a beautiful, large and solid dining room table with six chairs and a long buffet. The only trouble that I find with that table is that it will hold more things than any other table in the house! It has been sewing table, writing table, puzzle table, bill paying table, crafts table and of course eating table for over forty years. I love to remember its history as I use it and today my principal task is to declutter it so that friends can join me for dinner this week.

I wish you all a day of peace and rest and time to share food with family and friends.