God’s Faithfulness

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The first reading for today is an odd one in some respects even as the events around it are infamous and memorable. Moses is atop Mt Sinai with God. Meanwhile the people of Israel, just freed from the slavery of Egypt are worshiping the golden calf. It is worth noting that the story of the golden calf is a kind of “fall” story, similar to “the Fall” in the Garden of Eden. In both stories, immediately after the establishment of a relationship between God and humanity, human beings disobey. In the case of Exodus 32, God forms Israel as a new creation and they immediately fall into sin. What is God to do? How is God to be just to God’s self and be faithful to God’s people. In the years of teaching Scripture to folks in the parish, this passage never fails to raise the question about God’s wrath, God’s intent, Moses role, and bargaining with God Continue reading →

Formed by the Word

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TheAnnunciationIt is ironic and odd that the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord follows on the heels of the announcement of Tampa’s stay-at-home order. But wonderfully graced that we have the opportunity to let “Announcement” inform the other.

Today we celebrate the scene in which the Angel Gabriele comes to Mary to announce she will be the mother of Emmanuel, “God with us.”  Words we need to hold close to our heart and memory in the looming shadow of the pandemic.

My friend, Fr. Bill McConville OFM, notes that part of the church’s art tradition is that the scene of the Annunciation often portrays Mary, not empty-handed, but holding a book or a scroll, her reading and reflecting on Scripture being interrupted by the angel’s pronouncement. The tradition is that she is meditating on Isaiah 7 (today’s first reading) in which there is the promise that a virgin will bear a child. Continue reading →

An Exile of Sorts

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This afternoon in the city of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor plans to issue a “stay-at-home” order in response to the growing incidences of virus cases locally and statewide. We were not the first to issue such an order nor will we be the last.

In its own way, it is as though each family is being sent into exile away from so much of they know as familiar: work, recreation, grandkids, grandparents, gathering places where community is formed, church, and more. Consider a week during the “old normal” and list out all the places you went but now can no longer go. Perhaps that is a glimpse into a limited exile. Continue reading →

Quarantine or Social Distancing

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In a previous post I noted that there are almost nothing on my calendar, things I had to do. Yesterday I discovered there is a very low correlation between what is on my calendar and things that come up and have to get addressed in short order.  Yesterday was a very long day.

Here in Tampa, the city, county and state are all considering whether to issue a “stay at home” order as have states such as California, New York, New Jersey and others. A lot of people don’t realize that Florida is now the 3rd most populous state, so the decision is pretty critical. Continue reading →

Death and Glory

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Next Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent, Year A. You can read a complete commentary on the Sunday Gospel here.

1 Now a man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 Mary was the one who had anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and dried his feet with her hair; it was her brother Lazarus who was ill. 3 So the sisters sent word to him, saying, “Master, the one you love is ill.” 4 When Jesus heard this he said, “This illness is not to end in death, but is for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that he was ill, he remained for two days in the place where he was. Continue reading →

Advice on Isolation

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I suspect that in the coming days more and more metropolitan areas and perhaps states will issue directives to stay at home. They are many monikers for this, but isolation will do. In the days ahead, lots of people will share experience, experts will offer advice, pop-up “experts” will hold forth with all manner of guidance, and I think we are on the cusp of a new cottage industry. The thought of 30 days isolation is daunting, no doubt. Continue reading →

Being Church

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What a difference a day makes. Wednesday, I woke up with a full day of ministry awaiting. Lots of people calling, emailing – all asking “Are we going to shut down? Will the Bishop suspend Masses? What’s going to happen now?” Today I awake wondering what I will do with all the time on my hands. Not that there aren’t a lot of things to do, but the rhythm of the day is changed. Changed dramatically. What a difference a day makes.

It made a difference for the man born blind. One day was all it took, and he had to figure out how to live in a world that was completely new to him. What a difference a day makes. The rhythms of his life dramatically altered needing to figure out what to do with the time given.

Here we are celebrating a live stream Mass as are many churches and chapels across this country and the globe. The rhythms of our life are changing. Today for sure. Tomorrow…? Who knows, it is will be a new world perhaps. Continue reading →

An Act of Hope

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St. Augustine: Act of Hope

For Your mercies’ sake, O Lord my God,
tell me what You are to me.
Say to my soul: “I am your salvation.”
So speak that I may hear, O Lord;
my heart is listening;
open it that it may hear You,
and say to my soul: “I am your salvation.”
After hearing this word,
may I come in haste to take hold of you.
Hide not Your face from me.
Let me see Your face even if I die,
lest I die with longing to see it.
The house of my soul is too small to receive You;
let it be enlarged by You.
It is all in ruins;
do You repair it.
There are thing in it,
I confess and I know,
that must offend Your sight.
But who shall cleanse it?
Or to what others besides You shall I cry out?
From my secret sins cleanse me, O Lord,
and from those of others spare your servant.

Amen.

—Second Prayer of St. Augustine

Storing Treasures

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13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.”14 He replied to him, “Friend, who appointed me as your judge and arbitrator?”15 Then he said to the crowd, “Take care to guard against all greed, for though one may be rich, one’s life does not consist of possessions.”16 Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest.17 He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’18 And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods19 and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”20 But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’21 Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:13-21) Continue reading →