finding God in the minuitae of words

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.” 

~Mrs. Whatsit in A Wrinkle in Time,

Madeleine L'Engle

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“The Bible is full of evidence that God's attention is indeed fixed on the little things. But this is not because God is a great cosmic cop, eager to catch us in minor transgressions, but simply because God loves us--loves us so much that we the divine presence is revealed even in the meaningless workings of daily life. It is in the ordinary, the here-and-now, that God asks us to recognize that the creation is indeed refreshed like dew-laden grass that is "renewed in the morning" or to put it in more personal and also theological terms, "our inner nature is being renewed everyday". Seen in this light, what strikes many modern readers as the ludicrous details in Leviticus involving God in the minuitae of daily life might be revisioned as the very love of God. ” 

~Kathleen Norris,

 The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Woman's "Work"

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What are you doing September 13 to the 15th?

There’s still time to join me at Cedarbrake Renewal Center for the “Writing as Prayer” retreat. It’s going to be a wonderful weekend at one of my favorite retreat centers. Come, follow the sign!

You can write me for more information: mymaria@me.com Or check out the official blurp below, and how to register here: 

Writing as Prayer: Sept 13-15

Join us for a weekend exploring writing as a tool for fostering intimate prayer. We will use guided writing exercises, visual and musical props to invite participants into spiritual conversations with the sacred. Anne Klock, flutist, will provide the sacred music for this retreat. NO writing skills are required, only a willingness to ponder and listen—with pen in hand!

holy Mary, Mother of God...

Notre Dame la Grande, Poitiers, France

Pondering today's feast, Mary's assumption into heaven:

I like thinking of Mary as a Warrior. I propose that all of you consider what your image of this Virgin might be – so that again she might excite our imaginations and provide us with an example of what a woman can do. She has done so in the past. Her weapons are always prayer, fasting, and sacrifice. Time and time again these weapons have overcome the mighty and pulled them down from their thrones. I wonder how it is that the evil of an oppressive Communist empire finally collapsed on itself almost without one shot being fired by men. Could it not possibly be that countless prayers in her name were stronger than bombs and sabers, warheads and tanks? Behind all that fluffy lace and golden pillows, their hides the strength of mother, the strength of prayer, and the promise of victory from a loud voice in heaven that says: “Now have salvation and power come, the reign of our God and the authority of his Anointed One.”

  

This is what we celebrate today: God’s affirmation of a woman, God’s affirmation that there is power in a mother’s love to defeat every evil and right every wrong, to pull down the mighty from their thrones and lift up the lowly. The Assumption is not just God’s exaltation of faithfulness and discipleship, but our own as well.

~Fr. Tom Boyer,

2012 homily at St. Mark's, Norman

St Pierre Church, Caen, France 

By praying both with our voices and our thoughts, we shall experience in ourselves how the Immaculate gradually takes possession of our souls, how we shall belong to her every day more in every aspect of our lives, how our sins shall disappear and our faults weaken, how smoothly and powerfully we shall be drawn always closer to God.

~Maximilian Kolbe

It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation,
always and everywhere to give you thanks,
Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God,
through Christ our Lord.
 For today the Virgin Mother of God
was assumed into heaven
as the beginning and image
of your Church’s coming to perfection
and a sign of sure hope and comfort to your pilgrim people;
right you would not allow her
to see the corruption of the tomb
since from her own body she marvelously brought forth your incarnate Son, the Author of all life.

~Communion Preface, Mass for Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Guido Reni

[A]t first I had no idea where the lovely Magnificat we sang every night was from: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my savior’ [Luke 1:46]. When I eventually found it in the first chapter of Luke’s Gospel, I was startled but glad to see that it was one pregnant woman’s response to a blessing from another… 

 The song is praise of the God who has blessed two insignificant women in an insignificant region of ancient Judea, and in so doing ‘has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly: [who] has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty’ [Luke 1:52-53]. . They are a poetic rendering of a theme that pervades the entire biblical narrative—when God comes into our midst, it is to upset the status quo.The Magnificat’s message is so subversive that for a period during the 1980s the government of Guatemala banned its public recitation (a sanction that I’m sure the monasteries of that country violated daily)…  

I treasure Mary as a biblical interpreter, one who heard and believed what God told her, and who pondered God’s promise in her heart, even when, as the Gospel of Luke describes it, it pierced her soul like a sword.

~Kathleen Norris [Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith]

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Note: 

Tried to find a video for you, but alas, it was not to be found... 

click here for a special treat: a song by Austin blues singer Margo Valiante titled, "I shall Not Walk Alone"

Bless you!

"Rituals bind a community together, 

and also bind individuals to a community."  

~Kathleen Norris in THE CLOISTER WALK

Just as there's a patron saint for anything you need or want -- there's a Blessing Prayer for everything.

A special gift from our son's godmother, our family's edition of Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers dates back to 1988, the year our youngest daughter was born -- and it's been put to good use throughout our family's journey! A newer version is featured and available through the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Catalog.

Clearly, we can -- and often do -- spontaneous prayer together, too. But for those special moments when we want to create and celebrate with a family ritual, this book has been -- well, a genuine blessing!

For example, on the first day of school, our family tradition was to make a special, sit-down breakfast -- followed by a few moments when one or both of us would bless each child by placing our hands on his or her head, and -- using the Catholic Household Blessings & Prayers book -- say:

May the Lord bless you and keep you.R. Amen
May the Lord's face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.R. Amen
May the Lord look upon you with kindness, and give you peace.R. Amen

Years later, as we prepared each one to go off to college, we gathered in a family circle and, again, using the book, began with the sign of the cross:

The Lord will guard your coming and your going. Blessed be the name of the Lord.R. Now and forever 

Gathering all our memories of good times and difficulties together, and full of hope and concern for the days ahead, let us ask God's blessing on [name of son/daughter]. 

Listen to the words of the Holy Gospel according to John:

Thomas said to [Jesus], 'Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

[John 14:5-6]
This is the Gospel of the Lord.

R. Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ

Finally, as each family member placed hands on the new college student, either Michael or I would pray:

O God, you led your servant Abraham from his home and guarded him in all his wanderings. Guide this servant of yours, [name of son/daughter]. Be a refuge on the journey, shade in the heat, shelter in the storm, rest in weariness, protection in trouble, and a strong staff in danger. For all our days together, we give you thanks: bind us together now, even though we may be far apart. May your peace rest upon this house, and may it go with your servant always. Grant this through Christ our Lord,

R. Amen

It may sound like I'm trying to sell you a book. Yet as much as we've appreciated and used this particular text, what I'm promoting is taking the time to celebrate and honor special, unique moments in our family's journey -- as a family -- using a ritual to help us remember God's presence, and our belonging to the universal Church.

This book has reminded me over the years that the opportunities are endless! Blessing on a birthday. Blessing during pregnancy. Prayer in time of discernment. Blessings in times of suffering and need. Prayers before surgery or near the time of death. Prayer rituals heals us, and binds us to one another in Christ who is our everything.

What kind of family rituals do you treasure in your own family?

All in the family: claiming Jesus as one of our own

“The Christian religion asks us to put our trust not in ideas, and certainly not in ideologies, but in a God Who was vulnerable enough to become human and die, and Who desires to be present to us in our ordinary circumstances.” ~ Kathleen Norris

Our Lady of Africa

Images of the Virgin Mary throughout the world often reflect the physical characteristics of a certain race, ethnicity or culture. Much in the same way, I love the way that nativity sets from various regions or countries take on the physical attributes, clothing, and style of specific groups of people.

By giving the holy family our personal ethnicity, we claim them as one of our own, make them a part of our family. And in a very real way, we bring to life the mystery and wonder of the word ''Incarnation.”

As I wrote in an earlier post, my Cuban grandfather Alipio understood this truth as he built el nacimiento each year with a particular Caribbean flavor!

Our family's first nativity set was a generous gift from Michael's parents for our first Christmas. Not long after, one of our close friends in San Antonio, a Marianist priest who led a yearly archeological study tour to Israel, brought us back an olive wood nativity from Bethlehem. 

Over the past couple of decades, I have enjoyed collecting nativity sets from countries that we’ve traveled to, and thanks to Ten Thousand Villages, a few from countries I may never visit—like Bangladesh and Nepal.

As I set each nativity around our house for Christmas, I am reminded of our small “c” catholic (universal) Catholic faith.  We are, indeed, one in Him—the “infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger,” our Savior, Christ the Lord.

This reality is often difficult to conceive (pardon the pun). In God’s infinite love for each of us, for me, the Creator of life became a seven pound human bqby, one like us, in every way but sin. 

We have much reason to rejoice and celebrate!

Our Lady of China

This will be my final written blog post for 2012. But for the next week, I will post pictures from around our home of some of my favorite nativity sets, including what country they are from.

Thank you for walking “Day by Day” with me! 

May peace reign in your homes this Christmas season, and may Jesus be born again in your heart.