Posts tagged ‘dominican’
Sometimes Watercolor is Preaching
This watercolor painting of Mount Shasta was created by Sister Joanne Cullimore, OP. Mt. Shasta is a majestic snow covered mountain that is part of the Cascades in California. It is one of the state’s 14ers, and stands 14,161 feet high.
Watercolor of Mount Shasta
Truly, this painting of Sister Joanne Cullimore does all the preaching that is necessary.
God is revealed in creation.
The Feast of the Holy Rosary
Today is the Feast of the Holy Rosary – a feast that is remembered by many, and especially by Dominicans everywhere. Throughout our eight hundred years of ministering to God’s people the rosary has been an important part of our prayer. Legend tells us that Our Lady gave the rosary to Dominic, but the historical facts are not quite so clear.
Nonetheless, we know that Dominic was a man of deep prayer and of great love for Our Lady, and that Dominicans have treasured this particular form of prayer over the centuries. The website of the Order of Preachers in Santa Sabina in Rome sheds more light on the subject.
Praying the rosary is a very meditative and contemplative way of prayer. It has brought hope, comfort, and solace to many in difficult times throughout the centuries.
Sometimes Photography is Preaching
Dominicans have a long history of understanding preaching as being more than standing in a pulpit and delivering a homily or a sermon. The early Dominicans saw their lives – as a community focused on the mission of sharing Christ’s message with the world – as the Holy Preaching. The nuns who prayed in the monastery for the safety and success of their brothers, shared with them equally in the charism of preaching. St. Catherine of Siena traveled, prayed, exhorted, visited the sick and those in prison, wrote letters, dictated The Dialogue. Her life was the holy preaching.
We have a history, from Fra Angelico in the 15th century, to the present time of recognizing that our artists preach through their art. Our sisters have taught in schools and ministered in hospitals. Their lives are the Holy Preaching. Our sisters are involved in parish ministry and serve the poor. Their lives are the Holy Preaching. Many work at effecting changes in systems that are unjust and create poverty. This is the Holy Preaching.
I begin with “Sometimes Photography is Preaching.” Sister Adele Rowland was the first in our community to use that medium in the Holy Preaching, and you can view a few of her photo montages on our congregational website.
This photo, Morning Glimpse, reflects a passage from today’s Psalm 43 is:
“Send forth your light and your fidelity;
they shall lead me on and bring me to your holy mountain,
to your dwelling-place.”
5th Graders Visiting the Convent
Teachers always love field trips! Especially field trips when the children and parents (chaperones) enjoy what they learn. Every year the Diocese of Oakland invites schools of the diocese to send their 5th grade students on a special field trip. The boys go to St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park and the girls go to a sisters’ motherhouse in the diocese.
Today students came from two diocesan schools to the motherhouse of the Dominican Sisters of San Jose. Three of us sisters, Sister Liz Schille, RGS (a Good Shepherd Sister), Sister
Sister Beth talking to the 5th graders
Beth Quire, OP (a Dominican Sister of Mission San Jose), and I (a Dominican Sister of San Rafael), taught them a little bit about what it’s like to be a sister, and the importance of answering God’s call in their life. It was a fun day, and the girls and their parents really enjoyed themselves.
Truly, all of us are called . . . from the time we are baptized, or even from the time we are born. God calls us to, as the apostle Luke wrote: “. . . to preach good news to the poor. . . to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) God calls us to do this whether we marry or not, whether we become a nun or a sister or not.
Today we talked about our way, as sisters, of living out this call. I always like talking about that, because I love being a sister!
A Poem – Ephphatha!
When I read the Gospel reading for today, Mark 7:31-37, I was reminded of this poem that I wrote on April 30, 1995, when I was in the novitiate.
Who can hear what is not spoken,
the cry that never parts lips,
the secret, un-whispered desires
never uttered, never stammered?
Who, but one who listens deeply?
Listens deeply and hears.
Hears the hunger of the crowds for true bread,
the searching heart of Zaccheus atop a sycamore,
the desperation of a Canaanite mother, willing to be……
….dog.
Yes, one who listens deeply
hears the lonely heart of a woman at a well,
hears the trembling fear of one grown weak from loss of blood.
Yes, one who listens deeply
hears the cry of the poor,
hears one’s own voice deep within,
hears the very heartbeat of God.
Yes, there is one who…
but for me
It all takes too much time!
this listening business.
(bus-i-ness
a still, quiet kind of busy-ness)
Listen in prayer.
Listen in conversation.
Listen to the footsteps of birds in flight.
Take time. Pay attention.
Allow God’s voice to sift through a screen of distractions.
“I vow obedience means I promise to pray.” (Carrol)
Attend to the multiple faces,
the many voices,
the reaching hands of God.
What might happen?
…if I did.
Listen (on purpose) I mean. Pay attention.
Would hearing improve?
…ears be opened?
Ephphatha!
Have I, too, been deaf since birth?
…had ears to hear?
Could my heart be opened?
Ephphatha!
They want me to do what?
(don’t let them become they)
Ephphatha!
“It’ll take you and a good wrestling team
to get me to be open to that!”
EPHPHATHA!
Yes, be open.
(even if it takes wrestling with a god)
To allow myself to be surprised at
where, when, how
God’s voice is heard.
In the wisdom of creation,
in the inspired words of Scripture,
in the life and teachings of Jesus,
in the accumulated wisdom of the…tradition,
in the word and example of [others],
in the voices that speak to us of the needs of our world,
and in the directives of…legitimate authority.
(Constitutions of the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael)
And then to
respond.
Whole heartedly, unreservedly,
(is that possible?) without measure.
Joyfully! (that too?)
Not looking back after putting hand to plow.
Without complaint (not me!),
Without longing for what could have been,
what once was (yet grieving the loss).
In Ecclesiastes it is said,
Whatever your hand finds to do,do it with all of your might. (Eccl. 9:10)
No cosmic scavenger hunt, this.
And Paul,
Whatever you do, do it heartily as to the Lord alone and not for those you serve,
knowing that of the Lord you shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for you serve the Lord Christ.
(Col. 3:23-24)
Listen (deeply)
Hear (openly)
Respond (generously)
Seafood Risotto is not Life-Changing
I believe it was said by Karl Barth that one should “read the Bible with one hand and the newspaper in the other.” Dominicans have expanded his quote by saying, “Preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” I’m sure that it occurred neither Barth nor the early Dominican Theologians, that journalistic food for reflection would be found in something as light-hearted as “Public Eavesdropping.”
This morning there was another gem!
These are the words of a “man sharing with a waiter his reaction to his seafood risotto.” He said, “It’s not life-changing.”
Now who would ever think that a particular entree would be life-changing (unless of course the person eating it was on the brink of starvation, or the food was tainted, resulting in food poisoning)? Do people go to restaurants hoping that their lives will be changed by the event? Have we so truly bought into the lies sold to us on TV that we hope to have our lives changed by food, a new car, a new wardrobe, a trip to the Bahamas, the latest Wii, or by losing twenty pounds?
If we truly want our lives to change, we need to look around and see the needs around us. We need to find ways to change the lives of the poor and the forgotten. When we give ourselves in service to others, our lives change in ways that are beyond imagining!
So, if you want to have your life changed, just ask God. And remember, be careful what you ask for, you might get it!
Walking into a New Year
As long as I have been in St. Dominic’s parish in San Francisco, about 13 years now, we have received Epiphany packets so that we can bless and chalk our doors. We write the letters C, M, B, suggesting the names of Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar – the names of the Magi, as well as the first letters of the words “Cristus Mansionem Bendicat” – “May Christ bless this dwelling.” I like to think that it is not only a blessing of our homes, but also a blessing upon our comings and our goings, since that is what a doorway symbolizes. It also is a symbol of hospitality, as it is the place at which we welcome our guests. And as we stand in the doorway of 2009, it is where we welcome this new year.
I am reminded of the Jewish practice of attaching a mezuzah to the doorpost. In doing this, the Jews remember God’s protection of their ancestors at the time of the great Exodus from the land of Egypt, as well as God’s protection and faithfulness on their long and difficult journey. Doorways hold much meaning.
Now our Epiphany blessing is a short liturgy in which we mark these doorways, as we ask God’s blessing upon those who live in the home within or visit throughout the coming year. So of course we would do this as we begin each New Year. I think it is especially fitting that we bless our homes in this way on the Feast of the Epiphany, or for that matter, anytime in January. For, do you know where we get the name, January? Well, we get it from the name of a Roman god, Janus.
Now Janus was the god of beginnings and endings – the god of gates, doors and doorways. Fitting, don’t you think? Who could have planned this little bit of serendipity? There is a bust of him in the Vatican Museum, and he has two faces, one is looking forward, and the other is looking backwards. So while he is gazing into the new – the future, at the same time he is looking back into the past.
And isn’t that exactly what we do at the beginning of a New Year? We look forward and backward . . . . with a mixture of emotions. We can look at the year behind us and remember the things that brought us joy as well as sadness. And we look forward into the unknown . . . with guesses and projections . . . . with hopes as well as fears. For we do not know what lies ahead.
I walk through this doorway into the New Year with the hope that my sisters and I will remain true to our vocation as Dominicans who preach through their lives as well as their words – and that our lives reflect the words we speak. Moreover, I hope to be faithful to this blog this year! May we have a peace-filled 2009.
