It is very biblical

From artist Ben Wildflower – here is his Etsy page Ben Wildflower

Here are some things that are very biblical as I understand the Bible…

And Mary said:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
my spirit rejoices in God my savior.
For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed.
The Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is from age to age
to those who fear him.
He has shown might with his arm,
dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart.
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
but lifted up the lowly.
The hungry he has filled with good things;
the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped Israel his servant,
remembering his mercy,
according to his promise to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever.”
–Luke 1:46-55

That’s it for today. Pray for a better world, and then take on the actions to bring forth that world. It is hard, it is scary, it is intimidating, but it is necessary.

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Assumption

Today is the feast of the Assumption. May our Mother Mary guide us all; God knows we need her. Blessings to all on this feast, I pray for more peace in the world today, beginning in me, as peace has felt difficult to come by.

When I came across this link (from America Magazine, 2008) I was struck by these words in particular:

sometimes, Mary is presented as meek and mild, passive and subservient. The problem with this view is that it is impossible to reconcile it with the ten stories we have of Mary in the New Testament: the Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Presentation, flight into Egypt, loosing Jesus in the Temple, going to bring Jesus home from his public ministry, the wedding feast at Cana, being at the foot of the Cross and Pentecost. The strength and power of Mary’s witness is most especially captured in the Magnificat from which we just heard. Here Mary extols how God is saving us by turning the world on its head, doing the very opposite of what was expected. 

May we all be aware of the unexpected grace of God, and may we all be willing participants in the revolution of redemption. It is hard work and we will surely need our Mother’s help. While this feast is about her “falling asleep in the Lord” she may be the most woke woman I know.

Blessed among women – by Susan Grunder

(Another guest post today, from Susan Grunder. We actually celebrated the Visitation yesterday, not today, but I did not get to post this on time. Late? This message is always. timely, and we are grateful for the way Susan has shared it with us.)

Mary, Ely Cathedral photo credit Susan Grunder

Today we celebrated the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  How I love to hear the Magnificat proclaimed!  As a grown woman, Mary’s song of liberation, empowerment and grace never fails to move me.  I don’t recall ever hearing it as a child.  The Magnificat is not part of the Rosary or the Angelus.   It is a part of the liturgy of the hours, which pretty much guaranteed me not hearing it as a child.   And that, I think, is ok.  I think I needed more maturity to be able to connect with the power of this prayer of thanksgiving and liberation.   I came to appreciate the Magnificat in graduate school, both as part of prayer and as part of study.  Today, I heard it proclaimed at the 9:00 Mass.

And it was beautiful.  And powerful.  And challenging.

Today I also attended the funeral of an amazing woman who was a mentor to me in many ways.  She was an empowered lay woman in the church, a long time DRE and Spiritual Director, who shared freely the graces she was given and who had an amazing gift for storytelling and listening.  Mary Lou was able to share the workings of God’s grace in her own life and help others identify grace in their own.  She held so firmly to the belief that her ministry in Faith Formation stemmed from her baptism that she kept a framed copy of her Baptismal Certificate on her office wall rather than a copy of her diploma for her MA in Religious Education.  I came to know her by being invited to participate a regular meeting of fellow faith formation professionals who were older and wiser than me.  Those

Sweet, lovely docile and passive? (a rerun)

I quite purposefully use this image of Mary from Medjugorje. Some of you know that as unlikely as it seems, I went there. This was originally posted in 2011, and I am reposting today on this Feast of the Nativity of Mary in 2015.

Little lady dressed in blue. That is an image of Mary that attracted me as a young girl and who seemingly called out to

Say yes

Silence. Listening. Emptying. Filling. Receiving. Giving.

Today I offer you a repost from a few years ago, with some questions… What seemingly impossible things are we called to say yes to today? What is in the space between God and our yes that makes for miracles? How will we each bring Christ into the world without reservation?

The Rosary

October is designated as the month of the Rosary. Does this idea make you want to roll your eyes? With images of a kind of quaint piety tumbling through your imagination. Perhaps you are reminded of times when old grandmothers and other elderly women were seen in church, clutching their beads.

As for me, I am very sentimental about the Rosary, but not in a way that is pious or saccharine. It was 25 years ago, in late September/early October, that I, as a young woman, clutched a rosary in my hand and made my way back to Church. Anyway, that is a story that I told before, and I won’t retell it today.

As this month begins this year, it is impossible for me

Rejoice, arise, and persevere – a Marian reflection

Boundless Love – Janet McKenzie©

Today on September 8, many of us celebrate the Nativity of Mary – or more simply put, Mary’s birthday.

Now there are those who scoff at Mary, or who at least scoff at the devotion that many of us show to her as Mother of God. Once a long time ago, the woman who did my dry cleaning, and with whom I had exchanged many a God bless you, freaked out upon hearing that I was Catholic. She predicted hell and damnation for me because in her mind, I worshiped Mary, and not God – which is not true. Mary is many things, but she is not God.

While many Christians have a devotion to Mary, there are Catholics who also have their own Mary issues, even if they may be more quiet about them. As you can tell, I am not one of them!

I always hold up the thought that we should not always

Unexpected and unlikely

Fiddling with what I sometimes call “the Google machine,” (I heard Rachel Maddow say that about 5 years ago and have used it ever since) I was looking for references to Our Lady of Guadalupe that might expand the focus beyond what we typically find. With thoughts of Pope Francis and his cry to bring the joy of the Gospel to all, to go out from the Church, my fingers flew. Knowing that the “Google machine” works this way, I was not surprised to find a post written by my friend Eric Stoltz in 2010; it was for his parish website. (Eric is a deacon at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Beverly HIlls.) What I came across was his website post for today’s feast from 2010, when he wrote:

The third gift of Tepeyac deals with issues of authority. In the story, the bishop is the obstacle and the conquered peasant carries the world-changing message. This is why, in my world, when her oppressed children cry out—whether janitors massing at City Hall, or farm workers protesting along a dusty road in California’s Central Valley, or gay and lesbian Catholics marching down Santa Monica Boulevard; anawim [those who are despised by society but loved by God] of every stripe—they always carry an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We know she walks with us. Impoverished, immigrant, indigenous or “intrinsically disordered,” we remember her words of assurance to Juan Diego: ¿No soy tu madre? “Am I not your mother?”

God persistently reaches out to us, often in the the most unlikely places and faces. Today it is the appearance of La Guadalupana, but that is simply one variation. How can we recognize God? How can we hear and believe the invitation? How do we understand authority?

This all makes me think that perhaps it is not the institution that needs to be toppled, but rather our own expectations, and the expectations of said institution. Today we are given yet another reminder that when that happens, change comes with it.

Over and over we are given examples of God’s love, mercy, invitation, embrace, assurance, and hope. This is God’s authority! God seeks our response and God’s expectation is that we will do the same for others. That is our authority!

Today, may we walk with the images of God, breaking in unexpectedly and in unlikely people and places. Today, may we remember that our expectation and God’s expectation may be very different things.

Yes or No? Yes and No!

Dormition Abbey, Jerusalem, November 2004. Taken by me.

I was not going to post today but as I prayed earlier and as I got ready for work, the need to write about the Feast of the Assumption and/or yesterday’s Gospel about Jesus and the Canannite woman was persistent. It was even more pressing after finding these three thought provoking posts, one from Ginny Kubitz Moyer, one from Philomena Ewing (ok two from Phil, see this one also,) and one from Claire Bangasser.

Which brings me to a question I would simply like to pose for today… Yes or No? As usual, I go for the both/and approach and come up with Yes and No!

The Canaanite woman will not take no for an answer. She went to Jesus in good faith for healing for her daughter and was not going to go away quietly. Once again we meet a woman, not even a Jew, persistently going to Jesus for help. He is even pretty clear that she is not who he came to save!

She says – no, you must help me. Even the dogs get scraps!

Today we have another Marian feast to ponder, the Dormition of the Theotokos or what we Catholics call the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Mary has not said no – in fact, she has said “yes.” It is Mary’s yes that changed the world!

What is it for you  in life – the Yes or the No?

We must exercise both? How does this work in your life? I hope you comment here; I’d love to know what you think.

Mary the Mother of God

January 1 is the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God. If you read these pages you know I have been very Mary-ish of late. Of late? I am *always* very Mary-ish. Once I had a Protestant boyfriend who wanted me to join his church and my constant reply would be “No Mary? No Fran.”

It’s not idolatry, but I can see how some might see it that way.

Today I read a heart-stoppingly great post by Eileen at Episcopalifem in which she shared some thoughts about Mary. One of the things that comes up is the image of Mary that we are given, which is so disturbingly saccharine and one-dimensional.

In any case, I have written/spoken about Mary twice recently – here and here, if you wish to have a look. Both times I address some of this perceived weakness, if that is the right word. It is easy to get caught up in that and give up on Mary, but Mary is the one who spoke to me when I was returning to Church and I stick with her.

I mean let’s face it – God could have gone down a lot of roads to find ways to enflesh the spirit. Even going the traditional pregnant woman route – he could have chosen a woman from a higher class… but no. God, being God – used the unlikely and goes with a very young woman who comes from Galilee. That is a theological statement- anything that comes from Galilee and not Jerusalem is “lesser than.” This was no mistake.

So he calls upon this young girl, one from the margins and that is how God is made human. When people question my love of Mary and my Roman Catholic faith I want to point them here and say – “Are you kidding me? This is so outrageous! Extreme and unlikely and how could I not be completely in love with all of this?”

Which brings us back to our feast day on New Year’s Day… This feast, once again celebrating Mary the Mother of God, the Theotokos – the God bearer. All the sweet little images can come and go; this is a woman of some serious substance and the way that God is made manifest in human form, through her. Wow. 

It is completely radical and subversive in so many ways! All hidden in plain sight – amid the little lady dressed in blue devotional materials. No offense to those by the way- I had to enter in through that door. I bought the whole thing hook, line and sinker.  However, like any meaningful, intimate relationship some level of maturation is required. You can’t stay where you were when you met if you expect to be in relationship in an authentic way – right?

So I think of Mary as many things – sweet, subservient and meek is not among them. As for the virginal – I will quote myself here, referring to one of the links from above:

We are all called to give birth to the Christ in some way, from our own virgin territory. Oh – that. It doesn’t matter, we all have virgin territory, those places in our souls, however seemingly tiny and shrouded, where we have the tender untouched, flesh given to us by God.

If I distill this down it is that we all must find our inner virgin. The very word is so loaded in our culture – enough for a whole other post sometime. Face it – we disdain virgins in our culture, we do. And by doing so, we disdain a very essential part of our own inner being.

Our virginity – and I am speaking very broadly here – is not something to quickly rid ourselves of and be done with, like an old and slightly embarrassing piece of clothing.  Think about this and reflect on what this might mean.

In any case, if we get lost in the little lady, the virginal as expressed through the context of patriarchy and oppression- well then we might lose the thread of Mary. And if we do, we lose something essential. She is the golden thread that really pulls the true Golden Thread into the weaving.

Before I go, I must point you to another post that is must-read material. Michael Iafrate is an amazing young Catholic writer who blogs at Vox Nova (a blog I often have trouble reading) and at his own place, catholicanarchy.org. I highly, highly recommend reading his work.

In any case, he did an end of year post that pointed me back to something he wrote in September, about the Rosary. You can find that here. It is a rich piece of writing and he shares this post from Brother Vito, a Capuchin, who suggests the Subversive Mysteries for the Rosary. Oh my – go read this, it is amazing!

Well I have gone on far too long – no wonder someone I know calls me “Ramblin’ Rose.”  Anyway, it is the Feast of Mary the Mother of God and I am delighted to begin this year celebrating her.

Happy New Year to all.