The Litany of Shortfalls

Lord,
There was some parenting I didn’t receive;
      You are my Father.
There was some romancing I shouldn’t have trusted;
      You are the Lover of my Soul.
There are some things I want, but can’t find;
      You are the Source of all good things.
There are some evils I have gotten used to having around;
      Your Passion and Death has saved me.
There are some lies I tell well;
      You are the Truth.
There are goals for which the cost to me seems too high;
      You tell me only to ask and it will be given to me.
These things are big; I cannot see how I can change them;
      You make all things new.
Lord, I believe;
      help my unbelief.
Amen.

— Therese Z. (via Happy Catholic)

Bless My Students

Father, bless my students,
      past, present, and future,
      in whatever it is that You know
      they may be needing this day!
Send down Your grace so that
      they may discover
      a deeper faith and a brighter hope.
Open up their hearts to the possiblities
      of You, of others, and of themselves.
May their lives be full of
      Your love, peace, and energy.
Amen.

When I Rise

When I rise
      full of LOVE
      for life and laughter
      and the me that I am
      LOVE will meet me…

When I rise
      above my own neediness
      fears and frustrated tears
      and allow myself to be warmed by the Son
      LOVE will shine on me…

When I rise
      past prayerlessness
      desparate hopes, sleepless nights,
      and wondering why I’m alone
      LOVE will wrap me in its arms…

When I rise beyond sacrificing who I am
      mistreating my heart
      and giving my affections to the ungrateful…

When I rise above
      accepting scraps when
            I crave for a whole slice of cake
      reaching for carrots
            that are merely mirages
            of together forever
      accepting another’s rejection
            as validation
            of my undesirability…

When I rise…O when I rise

When I rise above it all
      my wings will carry me
            to a place called
            faith and deliverance
      a place where the lies
            whispered in the dark
            must flee
      in the face of such intense light
            for this is the place
            where God is
            and LOVE dwells

For God and LOVE are the same…
      and as I rise ever higher
      chains snapping from my heart
            my mind
            my soul

I soar ever higher
      carried on the wings
      of LOVE itself…

Yes, I rise
      and LOVE kisses me deeply
      ever so sweetly
      and whispers
            I’m home

— Michelle McKinney-Hammond

Scars

They tell how it was,
and how time came along,
and how it happened again and again.
They tell the slant life takes
when it turns and slashes
your face as a friend.

Any wound is real.
In church a woman lets the sun find her cheek,
and we see the lesson:
there are years in that book;
there are sorrows a choir can’t reach
when they sing.

Rows of children lift their faces of promise,
places where the scars will be.

— William Stafford (via whiskey river)

A dear friend asked me the other day if Jesus still has his scars from the crucifixion. I said yes. I recently read a quote which I cannot find that said no one gets out of life without a few scars, including God in his Incarnation.

Winter and summer, darkness and lightness, death and rebirth, descent and ascent—the paschal mystery is the pattern of transformation. Each scar in your heart represents a wounding and a healing, a form of death and rebirth—many scars, many painful moments of death and eventual rebirth within your lifetime. Each scar is a reminder of tranformation.

Children know they will grow up. They know they will be transformed. They even look forward to it. Only through transformation do we grow. Stagnation means death only, no rebirth, no transformation. The Cross is our way to transformation.

Maybe that is one of the reasons why Jesus told us to see the world like a child?

Paperclip Campaign

[paperclip]

This week is the national week for the Days of Remembrance for the victims of the Holocaust. As a way to remember them, and to remember all victims of terrorism and hate crimes, wear a paperclip on your collar this week!

A few years ago, a grass roots campaign was started by Sharyn Markus, a media specialist at Mountain Ridge Middle School in Colorado Springs. The symbol for the Paperclip Campaign came from the Norwegians during World War II. They wore paperclips on their collars to protest the invasion of their country by the Nazis. It was fitting for the Norwegians to pick the paperclip as their symbol of unity because it was a Norwegian, Johan Vaaler, who had invented it.

So, by their lead, let’s wear paperclips on our collars during this week of the Days of Remembrance to take a stand against prejudice and discrimination, and remember the victims of hate, like the Holocaust, terrorism, Sept. 11, and other hate crimes.