Solidarity Sunday By Stephen J. Zwettler “Solidarity With the Marginalized Especially Our LGBT Sisters and Brothers” It is good to be together on this beautiful autumn day to celebrate the Eucharist and to support each other in prayer. I am always moved by the beauty of the two maple trees at the top of the parking lot when I pull into the Monastery grounds-such brilliant red and orange and golds. What a gift for us! Many of you know that in preaching I often lean on the arts to provide strong images that connect with the Scriptures and give flesh …
It takes a village to raise a vocation to monastic life
Homily for the First Monastic Profession of Rosy Kandathil September 20, 2015 Texts: Sirach 51:12-20 Acts 4: 32-37 Mark 9:30-37 Stories can move people to live differently. Stories do this because our own experiences easily resonate with them. Our reflections on Scripture stories are an investment of time and energy in coming to know who we are, where we are going and who we are going with. This is part of the discovery process that Thomas Merton speaks of: finding yourself within God’s conception of yourself. Rosy chose today’s readings as an expression of her coming to know God in …
Colleen Hartung’s Homily, September 13, 2015
Divine things and human things; A matter of perspective? Mark 8:27-38 Homily delivered on September 13, 2015 By Colleen Hartung In one of the last scenes of my favorite movie, The Sound of Music, Sister Margaretha and Sister Berthe approach the Reverend Mother as the Nazis spread out across the Abbey to search for the Von Trapp family. “Reverend Mother I have sinned” says Sister Margaretha. “I too” says sister Bertha. The Reverend Mother asks the sisters what sin they have committed. The sisters lift their robes revealing the distributors and coils they have removed from the Nazis’ cars. …
David McKee’s Homily, September 6, 2015
The Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time September 6, 2015 Wisdom 10:15-18, 20-21; 11:1-5 James 2:1-10, 14-17 Mark 7:24-37 “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” These words of the 13th. century Persian poet, Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī, have continued to run through my mind over the last month as I have meditated on today’s scripture readings. Let me read it again… “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you …
Joseph Wiesenfarth’s Homily, August 23, 2015
Joshua 24:1-2a, 14-18; Ephesians 6: 10-20, John 6:56-69 By Joseph Wiesenfarth Joshua led the Israelites across the River Jordan into Canaan, the Promised Land, which had been inhabited by the Amorites, whom, the elders rightly say, “lived in this land.” The reason that they don’t live there anymore is because Joshua either drove them out or killed them. He then divided Canaan among the twelve tribes, who were descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. They then proceeded to fight and kill each other. The hitch is that we don’t know who wrote the Book of Joshua because it took …
Paul Knitter’s Homily, July 19, 2015
Following Jesus as an Activist Contemplative July 19, 2015 (Sixteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time), by Paul Knitter JESUS THE ACTIVIST CONTEMPLATIVE (OR PROPHETIC MYSTIC) (Mark6:30-34, 53-56) Today’s gospel selection from Mark brings out a quality of Jesus that is often forgotten or neglected. If you would ask an assemblage of Scripture scholars the question: “How might you best describe who this Jesus of Nazareth was or what he probably thought of himself?”, the majority would probably tell us that he was, and probably thought of himself as, a prophet, in the long line of Jewish prophets, whose message about …
Sister Lynne Smith’s Homily, June 21, 2015
Crossing Over from Fear to Faith Mark 4:35-41 6/21/2015 Two weeks ago, Jerry Hancock spoke after Sunday Assembly about the correctional system in Wisconsin. He told us that it is the politics of fear that drives the push to build more prisons in the state. The politics of fear also gets people elected these days. Twenty-four hour news shows convince us that we live in a dangerous world. Politicians promise to do whatever it takes to keep us safe like building more prisons. Fear can be a major driving force in our lives. Whether or not we have been at sea …
Collen Hartung’s Homily, June 14, 2015
The Reign of God and Garlic Mustard? Mark 4: 26-35 by Colleen Hartung, June 14, 2015 On the face of it, the parables in today’s Gospel read like some straightforward adage or truism. Seeds are something very small that, when sown and scattered on the ground, grow, at least potentially, into something much greater. In other words, great things come from small, homely beginnings. It is true, a mustard seed is small, about 1/20th of an inch in diameter and a mustard plant can grow anywhere from two to eight feet tall and in ideal conditions such as those provided …
Reverend Jerry Hancock’s Homily, June 7, 2015
Temple Beth El Suggested Readings: Ruth 1:6-16 Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. p.141. The “whites only” signs may be gone, but new signs have gone up—notices places on job applications, rental agreements, loan applications, forms for welfare benefits, school applications and petitions for licenses, informing the general public that “felons” are not wanted here. A criminal record today authorizes precisely the forms of discrimination we supposedly left behind—discrimination in employment, housing, education, public benefits, and jury service. Those labeled criminals can even be denied the right to vote. Reflection Full disclosure requires that …
Jim Penczykowski’s Homily, May 31, 2015
“As we pray, so we believe” is a rough translation of the original Latin expression, lex orandi, lex credendi. It is an expression deeply rooted in Christian theology. Before the Nicene Creed, before the Apostles’ Creed, before the canon of Christian Scripture was established, before even the Council of Jerusalem, the followers of Christ were praying together. Their praying set the foundation for what they believed and what we believe. In the succeeding days, weeks, months and years after Jesus’ death and resurrection the first followers continued their custom of praying in the synagogue on the Sabbath and continuing their …