Liturgical tradition gives this Sunday the title of “laetare” or “rejoice” Sunday based on its midpoint in the season of Lent and the opening word of the entrance antiphon. Alas, the scripture passages in this cycle of Lent do not come anywhere near rejoicing, at least at first blush. But good news awaits. Psychotherapists frequently ask, “How do you feel about that?” Persons undergoing psychotherapy frequently have difficulty identifying and naming feelings or emotions. One psychotherapist of my acquaintance banned only one response to her prompt about feelings. She banned her patients from saying, “I feel confused.,” because she contended …
David McKee’s Homily from March 3, 2024
Third Sunday of Lent March 3, 2024 Exodus 20:1-17 1 Corinthian 1:18-25 John 2:13-22 Well, it’s been a difficult few weeks trying to come up with something meaningful to say this morning about our readings. It’s one of those times when there doesn’t seem to be any common thread that ties the texts together; or at least I couldn’t find one. Faced with that fact, I found myself attracted to the passage from Paul’s letter to the Christ-followers in Corinth. Still, after reading a bunch of commentaries on the text, and pondering and taking notes distractedly for many hours, I …
New books in the library—March 2024
Enrich your mind and spirit—visit the monastery library! March 2024 The monastery library added the following books to its collection: Bourgeault, Cynthia. The Heart of centering prayer. Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 2016. Cassidy, Laurie, ed. Desire, darkness, and hope. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press 2021. Hewett, Beth. Grief on the road to Emmaus. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2023. Irwin, Kevin. Ecology, liturgy, and the sacraments. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2023 Kim, Seung Chul. The Center is everywhere. Eugen, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2022 Koosed, Jennifer L. Judith. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022. Lane, Dermot. Nature praising God. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2022 Lohfink, …
New savanna: seeded!
Submitted by Amy Alstad, director of land management and environmental education This Wednesday, a group of 30 volunteers and coworkers gathered to plant the newly-cleared oak savanna. Thanks to many helping hands, the task of planting 1.5 acres went quickly and was infused with a lot of joy and celebration. The work of the past three months has involved cutting, treating, hauling and burning a huge volume of buckthorn, honeysuckle and other invasive shrubs to restore the open, sunlit structure of a true oak savanna. Once cleared, the space was ready to receive the seed mix made up of 70+ species …
Leora Weitzman’s Homily from February 25, 2024
2/25/2024 • 2nd Sunday in Lent • Gen 17:1–7, 15–16 • Rom 4:13–25 • Mk 8:31–38 When Jesus gets stern like this, I like to think he’s just warning us about spiritual laws of nature that won’t spare us if we neglect to heed them. The spiritual law here is the paradox that “those who seek to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for the Holy One, and the message of the Holy One, will save it.” What does this mean? In college, I was good at classwork but shy. Since I liked explaining …
Roberta Felker’s Homily from February 11, 2024
Holy Wisdom Monastery The Transfiguration 2 Kings 2:1-12; 2 Corinthians 4:3-6; Mark 9: 2-9 February 11, 2024 Roberta Felker (Peter, on the mountain) Not the light but how it spoke, his transfiguredflesh an instrument of consonance and discord.As if that were not enough, Elijah? Moses, too? James grabbed his knife. John stood mute, dis-figured by fear. And I? Well, some people act. Somewait, and then there are those who think out loud. Let’s build three sheds! I shouted, instantlyregretting it. What I meant was hold still, but my wordsnever come out right. When light stopped throbbing, tympani broke the sky. It …
Jim Penczykowski’s Homily from February 4, 2024
Labels and names will be my focus today as we try to locate the “good news” in the scripture of the day. First off, labels and names are slippery and shaky. For instance, to the English in 1431, Joan of Arc was a heretic. But to the French, Joan was a martyr and saint. In our day labels and names are used to paint persons and groups into a societal corner so they can be better exploited by the powerful and wanna be powerful. For example, a person or group called a terrorist by one side might be called a …
What is a pilgrimage?
Submitted by Carol Kretschman, Oblate This is the question we raised after our arrival at the Saint Columba Hotel on the Isle of Iona on September 16, 2023. We concurred that it wasn’t exactly like a retreat. And yet it was very similar. I remained perplexed. Then someone suggested that I read “The Art of Pilgrimage” by Phil Cousineau. He reminds the reader that the complete circle is the universal symbol for the soul – an image of wholeness – and the goal of the sacred journey is to become as whole again as possible. Our longing is the sign that …
Painted Turtle Love
Submitted by Julie Melton, Friends of Wisdom Prairie and Sunday Assembly Member Remember painted turtles at Lost Lake basking on logs months ago? When they sense danger, they simply slide into the water and swim away. Some days you can see their noses poking out of the water. In winter they are living under the ice. With very slowed down respiration, they absorb dissolved oxygen through their skin. If the oxygen level drops too low, they absorb carbonate from their bones and skull which prevents them from dying by asphyxiation. Meanwhile, fall hatchling turtles and unhatched babies winter in nests …
Manato Jansen’s Homily from January 28, 2024
The Authority of Love Engulfs Us Manato Jansen – 1/28/2024 Holy Wisdom Monastery I kind of enjoyed the daunting encounter with these scripture passages for this Sunday. They felt a bit all over the place. We start with Moses’s words of assurance to the Israelites at the end of his life that God will raise up another prophet who will speak the words of God. Then we read an entire chapter in the book of 1 Corinthians dedicated to the very contextual topic of meat sacrificed to idols in Corinth. Then, we read about how Jesus exorcized a demon in …