Posts from the ‘community prayer’ Category
All the Earth Cries Out
One of today’s psalms at morning prayer was Psalm 100. It begins: “All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God.”
All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God!
All the earth cries out to you with shouts of joy, O God,
Servign you with gladness, coming before you, singing for joy.
You, Creator of all, are God. You made us, we belong to you,
We are your people, the sheep of your pasture.
We enter your gates with thanksgiving, and your courts with songs of praise.
We give you thanks and bless your name.
Indeed, how good you are, enduring your steadfast love.
You are faithful to all generations.
Faith Bringing Forgiveness
It is our custom, as Dominican Sisters, to gather each day for morning prayer. After the reading of the day’s Gospel, we often share our reflections – a kind of preaching, in the tradition of the Order of Preachers. On hearing today’s Gospel read (Mark 2:1-12) it occurred to me that:
- Jesus commented, not on the faith of the paralytic, but on those carrying him,
- presumably they brought him to be healed, not forgiven,
- the paralytic was forgiven, not healed, because of the faith of his friends, and
- no one said they were sorry, nor asked for forgiveness.
We say we trust in a forgiving, loving, and merciful God. Yet it seems that we operate out of a belief that one has to be sorry for one’s sins and ask for forgiveness before the “sinner” can receive forgiveness. This story in Mark’s Gospel refutes this notion.
The title, “The Son of Man,” is said to refer to Jesus’ humanity. Could it be that Jesus is calling all of his disciples to forgive the sins of others? Could it be that our faith could result in mercy and forgiveness, not only for ourselves, but for the broken world we live in?
Clearly, in a lawful society there must consequences and restitution for actions such as those we have witnessed in Tucson. Naturally we pray for the victims of this unimaginable and horribly violent act. Can we also de
sire, like Jesus, for Jared Loughner’s healing? Can our faith bring him forgiveness, whether he’s asked for it or not.
And perhaps more to the point, can my prayers and faith bring healing and forgiveness to those who have hurt or betrayed me personally.
Imagine how different the world might be if we disciples of Jesus could truly be ministers of Christ’s healing, mercy, and forgiveness. We don’t need a lot of faith to do this, I understand it only needs to be the size of a mustard seed.
The Gift of Community Prayer
The time we have to pray together in the morning as sisters truly is a gift. It’s one of those regular things about religious life that is there for us day in and day out. (Though we do take a break from it on the weekends here at St. Rose Convent.) Its consistency is a gift. Knowing that my sisters are praying for me when I am not there (out of town, at a meeting, etc.) is a gift. And sometimes the sisters’reflections on the day’s Scripture reading is also a gift.
Take today for example. Today’s reading was from Mark 7:24-30, and it’s about the Greek (Syrophoenician) woman who came to Jesus looking for healing for her daughter. Jesus was rather gruff with her. Since she was not Hebrew, and Jesus saw his mission as being to his people, the Hebrews, he said to her, “Let the children be fed first. For it is not right to take the food of the children and throw it to the dogs.” Sounds a little off-putting, doesn’t it?
Because this Syrophoenician woman persisted and said, “Lord, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s scraps,” Jesus healed her daughter, and told the woman that when she went home she would find that her daughter would be just fine, and that the demon that tormented her would be gone.
Talk about good news for that family!
I wonder if over these 2000 plus years that Christians have been reading this passage, we’ve tried to sanitize it, by saying that Jesus was only trying to test her faith, and prove a point about faith to his disciples. Otherwise, how could Jesus possibly have acted so abruptly? Some might even suggest that he sounded rude. To top it off, the version of the Gospel that was read from the missal this morning said that Jesus dismissed her with the words, “Be off!”
Sister Cathryn’s brief reflection and prayer grasped all of the incongruity of the situation. Noting that Jesus sometimes got frustrated with his disciples and their obtuseness, she wondered whether or not he might be having an off day. Yet, in the midst of his frustration, and in spite of his sharp words to a woman desperate for her daughter’s well-being, Jesus mission of release to the captives and healing to the broken-hearted still was fulfilled. The demons were cast out of the woman’s daughter.
That can give all of us hope, can’t it? Even when we’re not having the best day . . . . even if we don’t choose the best words . . . . even when someone is standing on our last nerve . . . . God’s liberating and healing power can work through us. It never has been and never will be about us. It’s about GOD working through us, just the way we are.
Now that’s Good News!
