J.M.J.
Meditations by Msgr. Bernard Powers
Priest of the Owensboro, Ky
Diocese
Passionist Oblate
|
Msgr. Bernard Powers |
Sometimes in the Scriptures there are questions
raised by God….. These questions can be rather pointed….
somewhat challenging…. perhaps even put one on the spot.
In today’s reading God asked Adam:
Where are you ?
The same can be asked of us:
Where are you ?
Do you know your greatest desire … that is, the thing you want most ??????
Are you pleased with it
Is it God-centered…… Is it God…..
(to help you to answer this question, see where you place your
greatest efforts….. and most consistent efforts.
DO YOU KNOW YOUR TWO BASIC FAULTS… VICES ?
WHAT ARE YOU AFTER IN THIS LIFE
DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO
WHERE ARE YOU IN REGARDS TO GOD
Is He really first? Is your life a commitment to God?
Do you feel and act accountable to God ?
Are you really in love with God :
Is your goal to be a living saint….. or just to get to heaven
WHERE ARE YOU IN REGARDS TO PRAYER
do you really want to pray?
are there sincere practices in your life that enrich prayer ?
are you getting any help in your life of prayer ?
does prayer really affect you life during the day ?
is there some kind of prayer structure in your life?
WHERE ARE YOU IN RELATIONSHIP TO PERSONS AROUND YOU…
IN RELATIONSHIP TO YOUR PARTNER
are all your actions life-giving ????
ARE YOU GROWING IN THIS RELATIONSHIP
DO YOU PRAY TOGETHER
WHERE ARE YOU AS A PASSIONIST OBLATE
just something to belong to…… or is it making a difference in your life
is it a challenge in your life……
do you know the
purpose of the oblate program
WHERE ARE YOUR ATTITUDES
TOWARD THE NEEDY IN DAVIESS COUNTY
TOWARD SUFFERING…… CROSSES
TOWARD DEATH…..
WHAT IS YOUR ATTITUDE TOWARD GOSPEL
FROM BAPTISM……….. FROM CONFIRMATION.
GOD ASKED ADAM; WHERE ARE YOU ?
Loving
Spirit of God,
You call us into the sacred word,
the inspired word.
What an amazing call.
Your word is a treasure found in a field,
a treasure of great price.
A treasure worth the selling of all
to purchase the field and have the treasure.
How wonderful your words,
so full of life and sweetness.
Indeed a meal.
Lead us into this word found.
As we feast on this word
give joy to our hearts.
Loving Spirit of God,
because we bear your name,
let us eat well.
Amen
Opening the Scroll
Loving Spirit of God,
sometimes I find myself standing with John
raising the question: “Who will open the scroll?”
Yet as I question, the scroll is handed to me
for the opening.
In the opening there is the finding.
In humility and faith I accept.
In reverence and attentiveness I open.
With hunger do I eat, I eat of the word.
To my mouth it is sweet, delicate, and tasty.
To my stomach it is bitter and sour.
Yet this scroll, this word, handed to me is from the Source of Life,
from the very hand of God.
In opening the scroll, I find the word,
the word for me, the word for my nourishment,
the word I need. I eat; I devour; I consume.
I live.
There is self surrender of my will
to this word. There is the dying to myself
to this word.
There is an obedience to this word
is an abandonment,
a submission total and complete.
There is a dying and a rising. There is resurrection.
Where and when the Scroll, God’s word,
becomes the food for my spirit and the food for the journey,
than I live.
As nature gives the nutrients necessary
for my living and for my temporal journey,
so the Scroll, the Word,
gives light to my mind,
strength to my will,
energy to my heart,
freedom to my spirit
and love to my whole being
for my spiritual journey.
I stand with John accepting the Scroll,
finding the word,
I eat.
Amen
Text of Jeremiah 15:16
“When I found your words,
I devoured them;
they became my joy
and the happiness of my heart’
because I bore your name.
O Lord, God of host.”
New American Bible
“When your words came,
I devoured them;
Your word was my delight
and the joy of my heart.;
for I was called by your name,
Yahweh, God of Saboath”
Jerusalem Bible
“Your words are what sustains me;
they are food
to my hungry soul.
They bring joy to my sorrowing heart
and delight to me.
How proud I am to bear your name, O Lord.
The Living Bible
Finding the word
Most Holy Spirit,
my life is in your hands;
my heart is in your love.
You place in me a need,
a hunger… The appetite rages.
You who set me on a journey
as I move through life.
There are the sufferings and the crosses..
There are the joys and the celebrations.
My soul, my spirit, hungers.
Today the hunger is named.
I long for the Word.
I long for your words to empower me
to keep me moving .
I need just one word at a time,
a word that lifts up my heart
and my spirit in song.
On many occasions the word is found,
and I eat of it abundantly. I feast on a banquet.
I find and devour your word.
The word is not the roaring, raging thunder,
nor the crashing, falling rocks…
neither is it the earth quake
shaking the mountains to their foundation.
Your word is the whisper of the cave
heard, found deep within me,
deep in my being.
I find your word:
crumb or feast….
I eat… I feast… I devour
and there is the living.
I rise and come down the mountain.
The word heard in the whisper
is the word found and devoured.
Amen
Devoured Word
Loving Spirit of God,
You continually invite me to
the Table of the Word.
It is an invitation
to eat frequently..
As the stream can never run dry,
neither is your word
completely consumed by the eating.
It was You, O Lord, who made your words a banquet,
words giving life and spirit.
It was You, O Lord, who gave fruit and fruitfulness to your word.
He who hears my words
and keeps them is my mother
and my sister and my brother.
How important is the searching;
How necessary is the finding;
How essential is the devouring.
Should we not search for your word?
Should we not devour them when found ?
They are life giving.
As the tree absorbs the rain
and takes the nutrients from the soil,
so does my soul take nourishment from your word.
There is life and refreshment within.
Loving God,
as I devour your word
my faith grows…
charity blooms…
and hope soars.
There is union.
My spirit is refined
and there is courage and perseverance.
I can walk the journey of the day.
Yea, even more,
your word sustains me;
I walk into the night.
What a banquet!
Amen
Sometimes the Word
Sometimes the word
is like a delicate wine,
an elegant sip is a delight
and a pleasure to the palate.
Let me find this word.
Sometimes the word
is like a fresh, ripe peach,
delicious in taste,
rich with the ray of the sun.
Let me find this word.
Sometimes the word
is like a piece of jerky,
cold, salty, tough, hard
demanding.
Let me find this word.
Sometimes the word
is like salted peanuts,
one leads to another, two wants more.
One is not enough, and a handful is not sufficient.
Let me find this word.
Sometimes the word
is like a glass of water,
refreshing, cooling, life-giving,
quenching the thirst.
One is alive.
Let me find this word.
Amen
The Word
Loving Spirit of God,
sometimes my soul is in celebration,
in music, in song. There is an excitement.
From Your providence, Loving Spirit,
there comes forth a word,
a word filled with spirit and life,
with energy and aliveness,
with melody and rhythm.
Perhaps form the Canticle of Love
or the Gospel of John
or a jewel from a minor prophet.
It is your word, found,
that floods the whole experience
with the freshness of the spirit,
or the touch of a November chill,
that floods
with life and living,
with love and loving.
In the word, found
there is an invitation to eat.
It is a banquet
and I,
I was seated at table
by the Master
and with the Master
and we supper together.
Amen
Words bring joy
Loving God,
your words are amazing.
Some bring great joy to the heart.
They are filled with life…
They ring with excitement.
They touch the heart.
As I read your word,
some stand out clearly:
“today a Savior is born to us.”
“Behold the Lamb of God.”
I came that you might have life
and have it to the full.
Come to me you who labor
and I will give you rest.
This is my Body, eat.
This is my Blood shed for you.
I have loved you with an everlasting love
therefore I have drawn you to myself.
My gift to you is
the gift of love.
I will speak to your heart.
Although your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow.
He who eats this Bread
will life forever.
I call you friends.
Watch while I pray.
Go and sin no more.
I will never abandon you.
I will be with you always.
I am risen
Give me a drink
Go into the whole world
Come, follow me
What can I do for you
Behold I stand at the door and knock.
I Found
I found your word,
in a poem, in a letter…
in the song of a bird,
in the chatter of a squirrel…
In the beauty of an apple,
In the simplicity of a grape…
in the power of the storm…
in the gentleness of the dew.
I found your word
as a fragment,
old, without a date.
It was a joy to my heart,\
a truth to my mind.
Your word preserved in nature,
accidentally found…
rich in value…
full of life.
a word found
and I devoured your word,
It was a banquet.
My spirit
so long in darkness
knew an enlightening
that took me to my knees,
adoring and believing.
My heart
once sad
felt a joy
that took me to song,
giving thanks.
My spirit
had wondered aimlessly amidst the stuff
now took wings
soaring to the heights…
a contemplative silence, the silence of union.
Amen
Found
Loving Spirit of God,
Your word states: “When I found your word…”
This statement startles me.
How is it that I found your word?
Have I not known it before?
Have I not had it before?
Has it been complete lost in my life?
How is it that I found your word?
Was I looking for it…. searching for it?
Was it an accident that I found it?
I am sure it was a grace that I found it.
The finding was your gift to me.
Did I stumble upon it by accident?
The treasure found in a field probably was just accidental.
Is my experience with your word the same?
Loving God,
I wish to reflect upon this experience of “finding your word.”
Life is interesting and surprising.
Sometimes I find things when I am not even looking.
Sometimes I find a special something while looking for something else.
Loving God,
there are times when I am reading
and your “word” appears. It is startling, shocking.
It makes me notice. It grabs like a briar in a forest.
Like a clap of thunder or a bolt of lightening
the word is there.
There are other times when it is your word
and I ignore it, treat it as any other word…
I walk away, skip over it, pay no attention.
But immediately there is a pain,
a hunger, an inner disposition that is different.
Loving Spirit of God, give me an eye and an ear for your word.
As the skilled hunter can see
what does not want to be seen…
so I see.
see your word when it appears.
Loving Spirit of God,
help me to notice, to see. to find your word.
Amen
Finding the Word - Nehemiah
Lord Jesus,
sometimes it seems I am carried into captivity,
away from my roots, my homeland,
my values, my temple, even You, My God.
What a joy to me
when the word is found…
as was the Scroll and Nehemiah
and your chosen people.
What a joy when the word
is found in the rummage, among the things,
in the demolished walls of my plans,
in my ruined temple
What a joy to my soul when the word
is found and I am called to come,
to assemble, to join with others
to listen and to hear the word.
I come and stand,
perhaps even kneel
as the word is read,
from morning to noon, from noon to evening.
So for my soul
when I return from the secular experience
or perhaps from a period of sinful mess…
I return from my captivity
and find the scroll, the word,
buried beneath the stuff in my life.
When found,
I embrace the word with love.
I open the word with reverence.
I listen with faith.
I feast and devour the word.
Sorrow touches me;
I beg pardon.
A spirit of conversion enters my heart.
There is an awareness of my sin and my sinfulness.
I cry out: “Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man.”
However, your word is the word of mercy.
There is the Father, running to me,
embracing me,
clothing me in a robe, placing a ring on my finger,
putting sandals on my feet.
My heart rises in gratitude
for the word found and devoured
is a banquet.
Amen
Search
The search was long,
intense.
The hunger was deep,
an agony.
The journey was into the night,
the darkness.
No answer was given.
No explanation.
Only the emptiness, the dryness, the dark.
The darkness came quickly.
Feelings raged.
Thoughts whirled, snowflakes in December..
The journey was toward the source.
If one could only find,
there would be plenty,
but there were miles to go.
I listened for the word,
but there was only a piercing silence.
I looked for the word
but only the darkness, emptiness.
I searched for the word,
but only the nothingness.
The listening, disposed the heart.
The looking purified the soul.
The searching freed the spirit.
God, who prepares the soul for the finding,
in his owe time,
would permitted the finding.
I would search and wait,
wait for the finding.
Amen
Search Continues
Loving Spirit of God,
there is a spirit within me
that makes me search;
that set me on a journey of adventure.
Sometimes I have misplaced something
and there is a need for it.
All demands a searching, a seeking.
Sometimes there is an emptiness within…
an emptiness that needs care.
I start the journey of searching, of seeking,
hoping to find… always the hope.
The need has to be met,
the desire has to be addressed.
Loving Spirit of God,
help me in identifying my need,
to name my hunger,
help me to submit my need to your guidance
and to your grace.
When I am hungry, I am vulnerable.
When I am aware of a need that I can not exactly name,
I am is a very delicate attitude, most vulnerable.
There is a danger of succumbing to pleasure, to gratification.
Guard me! Guide Me!
Loving Spirit of God,
You know me and You know my needs.
You know my potentials and my weaknesses.
Guard Me ! Guide Me!
When I am searching,
I am vulnerable.
Protect me from without. Protect me from within.
Protect me from myself.
Help me to find what I need.
Amen
Found Word: Liturgy
Lord God,
today I came to the Liturgy.
My feelings were twirling, my thoughts tumbling.
My attitude was yucky.
As You know, Lord God, I didn’t feel like being there,
and perhaps I should not have been,
but I was.
I was not in a good mood…
but we won’t go into that, at least, not now…
I came to the Liturgy.
The opening music did nothing for me,
except perhaps add some heat to the fire smoldering within me.
The first reading… I guess you could call it a reading…
meant absolutely nothing.
However, Lord, that was not my fault.
The lector was a complete disaster.
If one could murder the word,
a murdering took place today.
It was awful.
Loving God, You amaze me.
Dare I say: “You are sneaky at times.”
In the first reading of which I heard not a word,
you got my attention away from me;
You got it “out there.” You got my attention to an other.
What a grace You poured into my being.
I stood for the Gospel with an anger adrenaline alertness.
I stood with an awareness.
The Gospel astounded me.
Your words amazed me.
You served a banquet.
I ate well.
I gathered a basket of fragments.
Amen
Found Word in Sacred Liturgy
Most Holy and Loving God,
when I found your words,
what a delight.
Today I found your words in the Sacred Liturgy.
They were not what I expected,
but indeed what I needed.
Your care and concern for me
is greater than my care and concern for myself.
You know me better that I know myself,
and your caring and concern is in proportion
to your knowledge of me.
Today. in the Liturgy, You gave me words
that we beyond the needs I was aware of within myself.
You gave words that flowed from your gracious love for me.
The finding was a shock, a surprise.
Once I was moved out of my day dreaming,
my sleepiness, my drossiness
and became attentive, listening,
what a discovery.
I found your words.
Your words touched my heart
for they were words that flowed from love.
They inflamed my spirit.
They enamoured my heart.
Your word recreated.
I was different and the difference what your work.
I was in a different world, I was with You.
It was not so much that I found your words,
but that your words found me.
Today I will live
and my living will be that
of giving flesh and blood to the words.
It will be an incarnation.
Amen
The Heart
Loving God,
when I find your words
and devour them,
taking them deep within my being,
bless me.
When your words become
the food of my journey,
sustaining me in life,
giving energy for my tasks,
bless me.
May these words,
these inspired word,
these words filled with life,
filled with spirit and fire
soak in like the rains
in the parched earth.
Even here, bless me.
May these sacred words
enter deeply into my heart,
the very core and center of my being.
May these words take me
to this inner depth
where I am most alive,
where I am most myself.
May they take me to the inner center
where You, My God, dwells.
May they take me to that point
to which only You can take me.
May these words not only give happiness to my heart,
but may they give a union with God
that is most sacred, most holy.
Loving Spirit of God,
as I contemplate your words,
I beg that You
“create in me a clean heart”,
a heart worthy of You.
Take me to this deepest point of being
that I adore.
Loving God,
only your word takes me to the
truth of your indwelling.
Only your gift of faith
enables me to believe this amazing truth.
May the feasting on your words
increase my faith.
Amen
Your Name
What a blessing to the soul
to be plunged into the mystery of Jesus,
to be baptized.
It is a God action
and the seal of the Holy Spirit is impressed
upon the soul.
One belongs to God.
God has redeemed in the precious blood of Jesus.
God has reconciled; there is peace between God and Creation.
God has restored fallen man to his sublime dignity.
One belongs to God.
A seal is set;
one bears the name of the Lord,
the God of hosts.
One is Christian.
Loving God, to bear your name
is to be like You,
to reflect your truth,
to manifest your goodness,
to witness hope.
All is possible because your words
are taken into our being,
into our hearts and minds.
There is forgiveness and reconciliation,
there is transformation and union.
All are acts of conversion;
all are acts of redemption.
my heart is your dwelling place.
Feed it on your word.
Seal me with your spirit.
Let me bear your name.
Amen
FIRST PROFESSION SR. JEANNE MARIE -
Homily August 6, 2006
The Proclamation of the Gospel
on this feast of the Transfiguration
startles the mind….. and thrills the heart.
It opens Christ’s profound teaching
and reveals Christ’s amazing love.
So does this Religious Profession.
It shocks the world…..
It excites the heart…
It reveals Christ’s amazing love.
In the Gospel
Christ speaks to us
about his Passion
and he is transfigured before us.
He reveals his Sufferings…. the Cross.
He shows his glory…. the Transfiguration.
The life style
that Sister Jeanne Marie
is accepting in this Monastery
through her profession
also reveals Christ’s suffering
and shows His glory.
In the gospel
we find Jesus at one of his greatest moments:
“Jesus is thinking of the Cross.
and in this cross his virginal love for the Father
and for all mankind will attain its highest expression.
In the Cross His poverty will reach complete self-emptying…
In the Cross His obedience will be the self-giving of his life.”
The Consecrated Life p.37
This gospel of the Transfiguration
is a proper setting
for this religious profession.
Both are
a revelation of the Passion
and a manifestation of the glory of Jesus.
In the Transfiguration,
All is mystery.
All demands faith.
All is a call to love Jesus.
in his Passion and
in his glory.
So in this Religious Profession:
All is mystery.
All is faith.
All is a call to love Jesus
in the Passion
and in his glory.
Oh yes, how good for us to be here
present in this two-fold mystery:
The Transfiguration of Jesus
and the Religious Profession of Sister Jeanne Marie.
We are on the mountain of mystery,
lead here by Jesus.
If you asked Sister Jeanne Marie
what she is doing today in this Profession,
she would have to say:
Mystery covers me like the cloud
and I am making an act of faith….
Personal graces have been abundantly given
and I am accepting them.
My heart has been touched with love
and my response to love is to love.
All is mystery,
and no mystery can be explained.
It can only be believed and lived.
All is a call;
a call of the heart,
and the call of the heart is the call of love.
And who can explain love?
Love can not be explained.
Love can only be written about in poetry…
Love can only be expressed in total gift…
Love can only be accepted and lived.
Love takes lovers
into commitment
for all time and beyond….
into a silence
that is contemplative…
into a gift
that is total.
Love takes one beyond question
to admiration…..
beyond giving
to complete union.
It is a grace,
and grace is an action of God.
No one can explain a grace of God.
It can only be accepted and lived.
The person who lets her soul
be seized by love
must abandon everything
to follow…
to seek…
to embrace.. (Mk 1: 16-20)
to be with the Lover…
and the Lover is the Divine Lover, Jesus..
How fitting a feast for this Religious Profession.
The Jesus who led Peter, James and John
up the mountain
is the same Jesus
who leads Sister Jeanne Marie to this Monastery…
to this sacred moment of mystery
… to this Religious Profession.
Jesus will speaks to her
about his Passion and His death
and reveal to her his glory..
She will know the goodness as well as the suffering
of being “here”.
For her to be “here”
is to be caught up in the Passion….
is to be with the Crucified Christ….
Such is the call to the Mountain.
By the grace of God….
By the choice of love…
By the consent of this Community..
today sister Jeanne Marie makes her vows.
Hers is the sincere promise
to live the Paschal Mystery…
to embrace the Crucified Christ…
to stand at the foot of the Cross in loving attentiveness…
to proclaim the Passion of Jesus to the world….
All this by her life style
as a Passionist Nun.
Today Sister chooses
to live, detached from all things,
and in a spirit of amazing trust
hoping for eternal life….
She will live in radical poverty.
She will reveal a Christ in complete self-emptying….
giving us infinite fullness.
She chooses
to live unselfishly
and in complete generosity to each and to all.
She will live in consecrated chastity.
She will reveal a Christ in virginal love for the Father…
giving us Divine Presence.
She chooses
to live in total surrender to God’s will,
an unconditional yes to the Cross.
She will live in sacrificial obedience.
She will reveal a Christ in obedience that is the giving of his love..
giving us eternal love..
Her actions are acts of love
and thus beyond comprehension.
Her actions are acts of faith
and thus beyond explanation.
Faith can not be explained.
And love needs no explanation.
Both are God’s gift.
Both are acts of the heart.
Both flow from grace.
Yet if one stills calls for the meaning and the purpose
of religious life… the life here at this Monastery…
the Church says:
The religious life
offers to a person the exciting opportunity
to follow Christ………….
through sufferings and joys,
through darkness and light…
through dryness and refreshing waters…
to follow Christ
into the fullness of life in the Triune God.
If Sister Jeanne Marie’s desire
is to follow Christ alone,………… and in such a radical way,
who can question her choice?
who would dare?
The Religious Life here in this monastery
offers a person a way of life
to be with Christ ,
to devote oneself completely to Him…
&nbs