Today’s Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 37. I’m pretty sure I’ve shared this before, but verses 4 and 5 have always spoken to me about something that is key in discerning what God is calling us to. We need to listen to our hearts. Of course, this works better if we align our hearts with God.
Take delight in God, and God will give you the desires of your heart.
I love the poetry of Wendell Barry; he is a man of hope.
The care of the Earth is our most ancient and most worthy, and after all our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it and to foster its renewal is our only hope. -Wendell Barry
Chihully shows us the artists’ way of renewing the earth. This spectacular garden is found at the permanent Chihully exhibit in Seattle.
It is a huge danger to pretend that awful things do not happen. But you need enough hope to keep going. I am trying to make hope. Flowers grow out of darkness.
– Corita Kent
When I was in high school I admired the art work, the serigraphs, of Sister Corita Kent. She was one of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Angeles who were censured by Cardinal McIntyre in 1970, resulting in about 90 per cent of the sisters being dispensed from their vows because they remained true to the call of Vatican II to modernize their lives and the charism of their founders, rather than allow the cardinal to dictate their attire and the horarium of their community and prayer life.
We still live in hope, regardless of our circumstances. May we always, as Corita suggests, “make hope”.
Being extravagantly generous is an enchanting way to become holy and Godlike, for God is awesomely extravagant – as is revealed by even a casual glance at creation.
Appreciating the sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains
What is real prayer? Praise to God. And the meaning of prayer? Appreciating; thus opening the heart more and more to the Divine beauty on sees in manifestation.
Prayer is sitting in the silence until it silences us, choosing gratitude until we are grateful, praising God until we ourselves are a constant act of praise. – From Radical Grace: Daily Meditations
In Thursday’s Gospel reading (Luke 15:1-10) we read:
Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.I tell you . . . there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.
So with whom do I identify? Do I need my life to be turned around? Or am I among the self-satisfied? Am among the lost or the found? How do I know the difference?
Looking out over Caleruega, Spain, the village where St. Dominic was born
Wednesday’s Responsorial Psalm (from Psalm 27) speaks of the deepest longings of our hearts:
One thing I ask of God; this I seek: to dwell in the house of God all the days of my life, that I may gaze on the loveliness of God and contemplate God’s dwelling place.
In Thursday’s Gospel reading (Luke 15:1-10) we read:
OPreach 