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The inner word

13 Sep 2015 - Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The Letter of James has some of the strongest language in scripture about the necessity of living your faith. From two weeks ago: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only” (1:22); and today: “If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it?” At every Sunday Eucharist the assembly prays for the needs of the church, public authorities and the world, those oppressed by any need, and the local community. To pray for others is a good, generous, and necessary thing to do. To pray for someone without actually doing more for them, though, results in nothing but good intentions. “Faith itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” Where can you follow up your prayer with some intervention-al action?

Works Prayer

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Exploring the word

14 Jun 2015 - Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

The sower sows the seed. But the seed becomes grain by mysterious means. The sower can’t take credit for what happens once the seed pushes its first sprout into the soil. That’s the work of the seed’s Creator. And it merits praise. The liturgical year doesn’t really have a designated “Praise Sunday.” Praise is the forgotten sister of our prayer cycle. Most of us are eager to bring forth our petitions. There’s so much need, and we have nowhere else to turn! Intercessory prayer, AKA supplication, is a good thing, and we should pray “asking prayers” daily. Our Eucharist, although it contains many asking prayers, is itself a prayer of thanksgiving. If the story of the 10 lepers is statistically reliable, one in 10 of us remember to give thanks for the good that comes to us. But even if we forget gratitude momentarily in the rush of relief and celebration, our Eucharist stands in as the ultimate prayer of thanks. Then there’s lamentation. We don’t usually think of this mode of prayer as prayer. It’s so instinctual and doesn’t seem like a very holy attitude at all. While it’s neither holy nor unholy to lay down and weep, or to lift up a howl of rage or disappointment, the direction of our lament makes the difference. If we lift it up to God—even with its barbed edges and recriminations—it’s a valid prayer. Read Psalms 6, 10, 42, 55, or the famous 22 if this seems dubious. Contrition, often a component of intercession and lamentation, is the prayer of regret that admits wrongdoing. It’s built into the sacrament of Reconciliation as well as into the Penitential Rite of the Mass. Intercession, thanks, lamentation, and contrition have their place in the prayer life of the believer. So does praise, a component of the practice of Adoration. But we neglect this prayer for all sorts of reasons. Part of it could be pride. To offer praise requires humility. We have to bow and implicitly recognize our smallness. Also, in our competitive culture, we’re quick to criticize but slow to give the glory away. Another factor in neglecting praise may be our sense that our activity in prayer should accomplish something. Logging our petitions hopefully results in divine responsiveness. Thanks permits us to close the loop of obligation to a benefactor. Lamentation allows us space for venting. But praise? What does it do? What do we get for it, and frankly, what does God get out of it? Praise and adoration draw us deep into the heart of right relationship with God. As someone once said about Adoration: “I look at God. God looks at me.” Deepening the intimacy of that relationship is accomplishment enough! Related scripture links The harvest is ready: Joel 4:13; Rev. 14:14-20 Seed and sower: Eccl. 11:6; Isa. 55:10; 2 Cor. 9:10 Birds: Gen. 6:20; Dan. 4:10-12 Cedars from Lebanon: 1 Kgs. 4:33; Ezra 3:7; Psalm 37:35; 92:12; Ezek. 27:5; 31:3

Authors Alice Camille

Prayer intercession thanksgiving Praise contrition lamentation

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Exploring the word

05 Apr 2015 - Solemnity of the Resurrection of the Lord (Easter Sunday), Cycle B

NEW LIFE IS always something of a mystery. Take a look into the face of a newborn, and you hardly have words to express what you see. A life so delicate, unspoiled, full of possibility and grace: what worlds are contained in every new child! New life is a promise, a sign of hope, and certainly a reason to rejoice and be grateful. The whole world seems born again in the event of a new life. This may sound like the windup for a Christmas homily. But consider: Incarnation is the inauguration of the mystery that finds its perfect conclusion at Easter. Once again, we celebrate the arrival of new life, boundless hope, endless possibility into our old and weary history. We inhabit a universe in which routine often seems to trump novelty. Tired old thinking and behaving wears grooves into the tracks of culture. Each generation inherits the mistakes of the last one and can seem destined to repeat them rather than learn from them. So this is how the present is mired in the past: There will be poor always. Power and ambition will always seek control of the humble and lowly. Every generation will have its wars. Prejudice will continue to spawn fear and violence. The beautiful earth continues to take a beating with careless exploitation. The innocence we long for seems gone for good. But today we celebrate new life! The empty tomb creates a vast space for hope, because it is the ultimate novelty within history: Death, at last, is overcome. The grave no longer is our final destination. We can dare to think differently now, to liberate ourselves from the ruts of the past. Because nothing is fixed, now. There are no inevitables. The empty tomb declares to the world that death has a back door. What does this mean for all of us? That nothing that seems lost really is. Not original innocence, not freedom to turn our lives around and make better choices. The apparently doomed can yet be saved. The lost cause, isn’t. So keep on praying for the addict and the atheist. Pray for the spouse who doesn’t come to church. Pray for world leaders who ignore the common good in favor of personal ambition. Pray for the church, that she might continue to seek the light that shines in the darkness of our times. And do more than pray. Act for justice. Speak out against prejudice in whatever form it takes: whether a pretense at mean-spirited humor or a rule that keeps certain people out. Hope for a tomorrow that’s different from today. Believe that our children will inherit a society kinder than ours—and work to make it happen. Related scripture links The beloved disciple: John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7-8; 20-24 (possibly 1:40; 18:15) Peter’s bad disciple days: Mark 10:28; 14:29-31, 37; Matt. 14:28-31; 15:15-16; 16:22-23; 18:21; 19:27; 26:33-35, 40; Luke 18:28; 22:31-34; John 13:6-9; 13:36-38; 18:10-11 Anointing the body of Jesus: John 19:38-42 Simon do you love me?: John 21:15-19 Thomas and believing: John 20:27-29 Another contest between the other disciple and Peter: John 21:7-8

Authors Alice Camille

Prayer Incarnation New life

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Sign & sacrament

02 Nov 2014 - Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls’ Day), Cycle A

The Feast of the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed, commonly known as All Souls Day, is the day the church has set aside to pray for everyone who has died. All Souls, however, is not only for the benefit of those who have gone before us. For the living it is an invitation to shift our attention away from the limits of ordinary time (past, present, and future) toward a spiritual concept of time—that is, God’s time: the eternal now. As we do that, daily annoyances, minor crises, doubts, fears, and worries begin to dissolve, and we notice the enormousness of the human experience. Practice taking the long view. What changes?

prayers dead

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In other words

01 Jun 2014 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

Raising his eyes in prayer, Jesus said: “I spelled out your character in detail to the men and women you gave me. They were yours in the first place; then you gave them to me, and they have now done what you said. They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that everything you gave me is firsthand from you, for the message you gave me, I gave them; and they took it, and were convinced that I came from you. They believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I’m not praying for the God-rejecting world but for those you gave me, for they are yours by right. Everything mine is yours, and yours mine, and my life is on display in them. For I’m no longer going to be visible in the world; they’ll continue in the world while I return to you” (from John 17). From New Message 4 Next Week (actapublications.com/newmessage4nextweek) based on The Message: Catholic/Ecumenical Edition by Eugene Peterson (ACTA Publications, 2014).

Prayer

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Homily themes

01 Jun 2014 - Seventh Sunday of Easter, Cycle A

"One thing . . . I seek: To dwell in the house of the Lord.” Today is a good day to see how the church—how all of us—are apostolic, as we pray in the creed, by being like the apostles. Who is gathered in this house—in this “upper room”? The whole church at the time: apostles, Mary, women and men. Why? To pray, but also to see the glory of the Lord revealed and to hear the name of God spoken and the words of the Jesus proclaimed. And that’s what we are here in church to do today as well.

Prayer gathering apostles

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The inner word

20 Oct 2013 - Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

When you hear that the purpose of Jesus telling the parable about the widow and the judge was “to pray always without becoming weary,” you might think he’s talking about praying all the time. While making your whole life a prayer is a laudable goal, Jesus isn’t referring to constant prayer but to not falling out of the regular practice of prayer, even when it’s most difficult. Prayer in, faith out: For those who continue to call out to God, faith will be their reward. Do you pray regularly, every day?

Faith Prayer

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