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Dominican Preaching through Word and Image
As the Deer Longs for Springs of Water . . . .
The first psalm for our morning prayer today is Psalm 42.
Like a deer that longs for springs of water,
so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirst for God, the living God:
when shall I come and stand before the face of God?
One of our San Rafael deer
Come and You Will See
Today’s Gospel passage (John 1:35-42) tells of Jesus inviting the disciples to follow him by inviting them to “Come and See.” He’s not asking them to make a commitment. He’s not saying they should follow him. He’s not telling them how they should live their lives. He is simply inviting them to investigate . . . to observe . . . to see for themselves just who he is and what he is about.
We, the Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, are hosting a Come and See Day on February 4th. We’re not asking for a commitment either, we are simply inviting single Catholic women, between the ages of 20 and 45 to come . . . to investigate . . . to observe . . . to ask questions . . . and to find out for themselves just what being a sister might be like.
Why don’t you come? Why don’t you encourage someone?
Come and You Will See
Sometimes Poetry is Preaching
I read this poem the other day in an email from Panhala.net. They always share wonderful poetry.
I should be content
to look at a mountain
for what it is
and not a commentary on my life.
– David Ignatow.
Forever We Will Sing the Goodness of God
Today our responsorial psalm is Psalm 89, and we read:
Blessed are the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O Lord, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day
and through your justice they are exalted.
Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.
Let Us Awaken the Dawn
It’s back again to an early morning thought . . . let us awaken the dawn. One of our psalms in morning prayer is Psalm 57, and our antiphon says it all.
Awake, lyre and harp: I will awaken the dawn.
Here I Am, Your Servant Is Listening
Our Scripture readings continue with the theme of call. Yesterday’s was the calling of Jesus’ disciples, and today, in the First Book of Samuel, we read about the calling of the prophet Samuel.
Then Eli [the prophet] understood that God was calling the youth. So Eli said to Samuel, “Go to sleep, and if you are called, reply, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” When Samuel went to sleep in his place, the Lord came and revealed his presence, calling out as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And in today’s response from Psalm 40 we read:
Here am I, Lord; I come to do your will.
Those Who Fish, Rise Early
It is a New Year . . . has been for ten days now. Our Christmas Season ended on Sunday, the Feast of the Epiphany . . . yesterday we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord . . . and today Jesus calls his followers and invites them to go fishing.
Jesus said to them,
“Come after me, and I will make you fishers of people.”
Then they left their nets and followed him.
This shot of a boat going out to fish was taken in the early morning, just as the sun was rising. Those who fish, must start early. Photographers rise early for the good shots. So must we who are are also called to fish. My friends who are not early risers would argue with me about the rising early. And they are right . . . they see an earlier morning than I do, for they stay up sometimes till the morning. Reminds me of a Rumi poem, “Sometime, stay up all night.”
Late or early, let us find our God in the silence of that time, and may it speed us on our way to where each one of us is called to “fish.”
Blessed Christmas
Why Is It So Difficult for Us to Believe?
Today’s reading in the 3rd Thursday of Advent is from Isaiah 54
So God has sworn not to be angry with you,
or to rebuke you.
Though the mountains leave their place
and the hills be shaken,
My love shall never leave you
nor my covenant of peace be shaken,
says our God, who has mercy on you.
We can believe that the mountains can’t be moved, but we have difficulty believing that God’s love would never leave us.
Let our Advent task be to find our hope in the love of God toward us, stronger and more faithful than anything we know.
The Feast of Saint John of the Cross
Today is the Feast of Saint John of the Cross, a Spanish Carmelite saint and mystic from the 16th century. One of his most famous (and moving) poems is entitled, “The Dark Night.” Below are a few stanzas.
1. One dark night,
fired with love’s urgent longings
– ah, the sheer grace! –
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
2. In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
– ah, the sheer grace! –
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
3. On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
4. This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
– him I knew so well –
there in a place where no one appeared.
5. O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
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