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Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Look At the Moon
When you look at the Moon, you think, ‘I’m really small. What are my problems?’ It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.
— Source Unknown
Top of Gold HIll
From tomorrow, Monday, June 10th to Sunday, June 17th I will be on retreat at Santa Sabina Center.
This morning I went on a hike up to the top of Gold Hill; there is a Nike Tower at the summit. It’s about a 2 mile hike up to the top. When I’ve gone up there before, one could walk all around it, but now there’s a fence that keeps you off that circular path. So I couldn’t capture quite so much of it as I would have liked. But the panorama of the Bay that could be seen from up there was amazing!
Because of the retreat, there won’t be any posts until next week.
Blessings to all, Pat
Think Different
Think in ways you’ve never thought before.
If the phone rings, think of it as carrying a message
Larger than anything you’ve ever heard,
Vaster than a hundred lines of Yeats.
Think that someone may bring a bear to your door,
Maybe wounded and deranged; or think that a moose
Has risen out of the lake, and he’s carrying on his antlers
A child of your own whom you’ve never seen.
When someone knocks on the door,
Think that he’s about
To give you something large: tell you you’re forgiven,
Or that it’s not necessary to work all the time,
Or that it’s been decided that if you lie down no one will die.
Marveling at the Beauty of the Created
This, then, is salvation:
When we marvel at the beauty of created
things and praise their beautiful creator.
— Meister Eckhart
Dominican Mystic
How to Choose the Way We Live Our Lives
As the Vocation Minister for our congregation of Dominican Sisters, I am often asked about how to choose from among the many wonderful possibilities of vocations. It is easy for us to choose when Choice A is clearly good, and Choice B is clearly bad. But it usually doesn’t work that we. We most often make choices from among things that are good. And if they are good, we also know that God is in them. So we are also not making a choice between God and Not-God.
Now much as I would like to tell many gifted, generous, and committed women that the best choice is to become a Dominican Sister of San Rafael, alas, I cannot do that. We only know our own hearts. And, as much as this has been a wonderful and life-giving vocation for me, others have other fulfilling vocations to live.
So how to choose? Perhaps the Sufi poet Rumi can help us. I don’t think I could say it any better!
Let yourself be silently drawn
by the strange pull of what you really love.
It will not lead you astray.
~ Rumi ~
The Greatest Commandment
In Thursday’s Gospel reading from Mark 12, we hear a scribe’s response to Jesus’ answer to the question what is the greatest commandment. He says,
“Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, God is One and there is no other. And to love God with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
It seems to me that we continue to struggle with this, and concentrate on the wrong things. We can never err on the side of compassion. I think Jesus would probably agree with the Dalai Lama who said, “My religion is kindness.”
Fill Us at Daybreak with Your Kindness
Today’s Responsorial Psalm is from Psalm 90. May we, not only at daybreak, but everyday, recognize the kindness with which our God fills and surrounds us. May our eyes be opened to God’s beauty, and our hearts, by God’s love.
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Before the mountains were begotten
and the earth and the world were brought forth,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Seventy is the sum of our years,
or eighty, if we are strong,
And most of them are fruitless toil,
for they pass quickly and we drift away
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children.
In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.
The Feast of the Visitation
Today is the Feast of the Visitation, and we remember the loving, accepting, and supportive friendship of Mary and Elizabeth.
Today I include an excerpt of a poem by Mary Oliver, “Am I Not Among the Early Risers.” I’ll bet that both Mary and Elizabeth were early risers. We know that Mary was among “the long-distance walkers.”
May we remember to be among the “long-distance walker” and go the distance in our friendships. Then we, when we touch the holy during our visitations, as Elizabeth and Mary Oliver, “bow down”.
and the long-distance walkers?
the perfection of the morning star
above the peaks of the houses, and the crowns of the trees
blue in the first light?
Do I not see how the trees tremble, as though
sheets of water flowed over them
though it is only wind, that common thing
free to everyone, and everything?
worthy to do, and then gone off, barefoot and with a silver pail,
to gather blueberries,
thus coming, as I think, upon a right answer?
at the top of the field,
her eyes sharp and confident as she stared into mine,
has not already done?
what pomp
would satisfy me as thoroughly as Blackwater Woods
on a sun-filled morning, or, equally, in the rain?
every motion of my body there was a delicious ease,
and in every motion of the green earth there was
a hint of paradise,
and now I am sixty years old, and it is the same.
Above the evil man and the just, the same stars.
Above the child who will recover and the child who will
not recover, the same energies roll forward,
from one tragedy to the next and from one foolishness to the next.
Flowers, Grass, and a Few Thistles
Wednesday’s first reading is from the first chapter of First Peter.
“All flesh is like grass,
and all its glory like the flower of the field;
the grass withers,
and the flower wilts;
but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
This is the word that has been proclaimed to you.
Thoughts for Memorial Day
I always enjoy going to the website gratefulness.org. I found the following there today, and it reminds me of my reflections last night after watching 60 Minutes and listening and observing the effects of our wars upon these women and men who have offered their lives for others.
Today we show our gratitude for life by mourning war’s victims, both military and civilian. Their loss reminds us how terrible war is, and we pledge our lives anew to the mediation, mercy, and compassion which bring about peace.
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