OPreach
Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
Easter Joy
The Psalms this week are full of Easter Joy! Tuesday’s is from Psalm 33.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
Alleluia.
Upright is the word of the LORD,
and all God’s works are trustworthy.
God loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
Alleluia.
See, the eyes of the LORD are upon those who fear God,
upon those who hope for God’s kindness,
To deliver them from death
and preserve them in spite of famine.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
Alleluia.
Our soul waits for the LORD,
who is our help and our shield.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
The earth is full of the goodness of the Lord.
Alleluia.
Go Tell My Brothers
I’m playing catch up today after being on a Holy Week retreat, and don’t want to miss posting this wonderful reflection by Sister Sally Brady. Fortunately we have a number
of weeks to continue to proclaim the joyous message of Easter.
Easter Sunday
April 8, 2012
Acts 10: 34a, 37-43; Colossians 3: 1-4; John 20: 1-9
She (Mary Magdalene) saw that the stone had been moved away, so she ran off to Simon Peter and the other disciple . . . And told them.
– John 20:1-2
As never before in history, common destiny beckons us to see k a ne w beginning . . . this r equire s a change of mind and heart . . . for we have much to learn from the ongoing collaborative search for truth and wisdom.
– “The Way Forward” Preamble to the Earth Charter
We have come to our 500th Anniversary of Dominican preaching in the Western Hemisphere! How perfect is our Dominican 800th jubilee theme of “Women and Preaching,
in 2012, with the words Jesus spoke to Mary Magdalene: “Go, tell my brothers.” The Order’s “Patroness of Preachers” was the first messenger of Easter joy, and she did not hesitate to bring the message. She ran! If only our feet would be as swift to “go quickly” and make know this Jesus who is waiting to offer forgiveness to the world. It was after the seeing and believing that Peter, Mary and all Jesus’ followers realized that they were being “ordered to proclaim the resurrection, and to invite all people to repentance.”
As a world Order of Pr ach rs, it becomes our responsibility to continue proclaiming the deeper meaning of the resurrectionof Jesus, and not only experience a conversion of our own, but to call others to conversion, so that Gods light of truth can better be seen in our world, searching for the way.
Why does God desire that all people be invited to conversion? It brings us back to John the Baptist, the voice of God warning the people of an impending disaster and calling for a change of heart. We are all called to make an about-face and take a new path. A conversion of heart helps us begin to see and understand “The Way Forward” as those actions we take, or have taken, for others:
- Advocating on behalf of immigrant rights
- Speaking the truth in order to heal and support victims of trafficking
- Respecting all life, rejecting all that is death
- Calling our government to lead the way for global abolition of all weapons of mass destruction
- Protecting the Earth’s vitality, diversity, and beauty “as sacred trust”
Easter Morning at Santa Sabina
It’s a beautiful Easter morning here at Santa Sabina Center. What a wonderful retreat.
Tenebrae, continued
I am including a short clip of one of the friars extinguishing a candle on the Tenebrae hearse following chanting of a psalm this morning.
And I will be on retreat at our Santa Sabina Center in San Rafael through Sunday. So there will be a short break in posting.
Blessed Easter to all.
What is Tenebrae?
Tenebrae is a series of prayer services from a very old monastic practice which is done during the Triduum, or the three days preceding Easter. It is practiced at the time of morning prayer, and if you happen to be part of a Dominican parish, the friars are likely to make this a part of the parish’s prayer experience on these very holy days. Psalms are chanted (Gregorian chant), and there are a series of three lessons from the Lamentations of Jeremiah that are also chanted.
A candelabra (the tenebrae “hearse”) of 15 candles is lit prior to the beginning of the service, and as the psalms and lessons are chanted, the candles are gradually extinguished, leaving the church in semi-darkness at the end. Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows” or darkness”.
The solemness of this service always moves me, and I look forward to participating in Tenebrae at St. Dominic’s Church in San Francisco each year. This year I’ll be singing Lesson II from Lamenations 1:4-6. The psalm tones are particularly poignant and assist these passages to invite us to share in the sufferings of all those who are in anguish and to hold them in our hearts as we enter into these days of remembering the suffering of Christ. We remember that Christ’s suffering still continues among so many on our planet.
Daleth.
The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the appointed feasts;
all her gates are desolate, her priests groan;
her maidens have been dragged away, and she herself suffers bitterly.
Heh.
Her foes have become the head,
her enemies prosper because the Lord has made her suffer for the multitude of her transgressions;
her children have gone away, captives before the foe.
Vau.
From the daughter of Zion
has departed all her majesty.
Her princes have become like harts that find no pasture:
they fled without strength before the pursuer.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
return to the Lord your God.
For more information about Tenebrae, please go to this link provided by St. Dominic’s Church in Benicia.
What is Spy Wednesday?
You may have never heard of the name Spy Wednesday. It is the day before Holy Thursday, and with the Gospel reading from John 12, we remember Judas’ betrayal of his friend Jesus. We hear him say, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you.”
So as we remember this betrayal, we can imagine what that treachery felt like to Jesus.
We might also remember times we have felt betrayed or betrayed others.
We can hold in prayer those who are experiencing the pain of betrayal this day.
And most importantly, we can remember the forgiveness that God offers all of us.
We Remember
Last night at Dominican University Father Joe Aleugaray shared a story about distilling the message of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures to one word. Apparently someone once asked a rabbi to do exactly that. His answer was the word “remember“. Father Joe expanded on this and proposed, that, as we listen to the readings from both testaments, we too are called to remember.
I was glad to be reminded that this Holy Week is a week of remembering.
On Monday we remember Mary’s caring anointing of Jesus’ feet.
On Tuesday we remember how Jesus broke bread with those he knew would betray and deny him
On Wednesday we remember the betrayal of Jesus by Judas
On Thursday we remember Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and his Last Supper
On Friday we remember Jesus death on the cross
On Saturday we wait so that . . .
. . . on Sunday we can remember the Hope that Jesus’ resurrection offers us.
I’ve been quoting Desmond Tutu this week:
“Nothing can be more hopeless than Good Friday; but then Sunday happens.
You can’t but be a prisoner of hope.”
That is why we can say
– no matter where we are
– no matter our circumstances
– whether we are experiencing a Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, or Annunciation moment,
“Let us remember that we are in the Holy Presence of God.”
A Holy Week Prayer
Jesus, on the eve of your passion and death, you found comfort in the company of your friends. In the truest sign of friendship, you gave your life for them and for us. Help us to live the call of the gospel more deeply. Let our relationship with one another be a sign of your presence. Help us to live and die in your love, that we may live with you forever. Amen.
The above prayer is found in People’s Companion to the Breviary.
The Reluctant Prophet also Gives a Promise of Hope
It may have seemed to his listeners that Jeremiah, whom they called “Terror-All-Around”, had nothing to offer but bad news. But in today’s reading from the 31st chapter of the Book of Jeremiah we read:
Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, proclaim it on distant isles, and say:
The one who scattered Israel, now gathers them together and guards them as a shepherd the flock. The Lord shall ransom Jacob and redeem him from the hand of his conqueror. Shouting, they shall mount the heights of Zion, they shall come streaming to the Lord’s blessings: the grain, the wine, and the oil, the sheep and the oxen. Then the young women shall make merry and dance and young men, and old as well.
I will turn their mourning into joy. I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.
– Jeremiah 31:10-13
A Prophet’s Job Surely Isn’t Easy
In Friday’s reading (Jeremiah 20:10-13) for the 5th Friday in Lent, the Prophet Jeremiah was sure having a bad day. Of course, if we read the entire book attributed to him, we’ll see that he suffered ridicule and persecution for more than a day. And how would any of us like it if our enemies AND our friends coined the nickname for us “Terror-All-Around”? They must have thought he was the bearer of bad tidings.
In spite of his experience of persecution, Jeremiah could still say: Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for God has rescued the life of the poor from the power of the wicked. May we have the courage to be prophetic, and may we always remember the source of our strength and our hope, for a prophet’s job surely isn’t easy.
Let us remember life and beauty in our times of dryness.
And to do so, let us cherish them now.
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