Lord, have mercy!

"...do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say...For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you."
Matthew 10: 19, 20

This has been a heartbreaking week in our country and world.  So much violence, hatred, sadness, and pain. What can possibly be said?  What I sincerely believe is that God cries real tears with us. God shares in the pain and sadness that we humans inflict on each other. God's heart is broken too.  What are we to say? How can we help the suffering?  God will surely give us words of comfort, if we just ask. Today's Psalm is so appropriate: "Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness; in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense." (Psalm 51).  For we are all guilty of complacency and buying into the anger and "otherness" of others.  When, in reality, in God's eyes we are all one, not one of us more righteous or better than the other.  And if one of us is hurting, we are all hurting.  If one of us is suffering, we are all suffering.  There is no "them" and "us." We are all brothers and sisters.  Have mercy on us, O God!  Give us eyes to see that what we do to others, we do to you. Love, heidi

A rose by any name...

"The names of the twelve apostles are these..."
Matthew 10:2

What's in a name? Well, our names are important enough that St. Matthew thought it necessary to give the names of the twelve apostles in his Gospel.  Our names make us special. Our names identify us to people we know and even people we don't. Whether we like our names or not, our names identify us.  Pray-As-You-Go invites us this morning to ponder what Jesus calls us.  Does Jesus use our given names or something different? When Mary Magdalene encountered Jesus after the resurrection she didn't recognize him until he said her name. Do we miss recognizing Jesus until we hear our names? Do we hear our names? In addition to calling me "Heidi-dear" (with an Irish accent) I have heard Jesus call me "Little One" or even "Little Lamb." Whatever Jesus calls us, he calls us with tenderness and compassion. Jesus says our name like we've never heard it said by anyone else.  Jesus says our name with love we cannot imagine.  Let's spend some time today or this evening praying and pondering how we hear Jesus beckon us.  Love, heidi

The harvest...the laborers

"The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few."

Matthew 9:37

 

When I was a kid and heard this reading, I thought Jesus was talking about religious vocations here.  The laborers were the priests and sisters who would dedicate their lives to doing the work of God.  Yes, those were the laborers.  I felt somewhat guilty that I might not be one of them, although the Sister Mary Ringo dream surfaced periodically.  (I was the weirdest kid!) Anyway, "Not so fast," says Jesus. We are all called to be laborers for the harvest, as I realized later.  The real "harvest" being doing the work of God...feeding those who are hungry, visiting the sick and imprisoned, the lesson of Matthew 25.  That "harvest" is the harvest we all need to roll up our sleeves and pitch in to help.  And as for a spiritual vocation: Any job we do with love and for the glory of God is a spiritual vocation.  So we are not off the hook here, Friends!  Anything we do for the good of others and the glory of God makes us laborers for God's harvest. So let's get out there and do it today!  Love, heidi