communitas et caritas

  Today, once again, I am preaching for mid-day prayer... so here it is: Reading:  Ephesians   3:2-12 Responsorial Psalm:  You shall draw water joyfully from the springs of salvation. (Isaiah 12) As you might know,   I have been utterly captivated by the words of Pope Francis.   Today’s Psalm and the reading from Paul share two of the main themes Pope Francis has focused on:   to preach the gospel to everyone, and to show our joy as Christians.   For Francis, we preach in everything we do, not just by explicitly offering words of the salvation of Christ to those who do not yet know him.   We preach through the care we offer others, whether physical or emotional, through our actions of kindness to our families, communities, and to strangers, and through our open attitudes of joy and hope. We also preach in the more conventional sense, too, by sharing our insights with one another and teaching and learning in the classroom.   To practice what we sometimes call “intellect

We had a big meeting of nuns a week ago, and we were asked to bring a small symbol of Jesus' heart with us.  I brought this red heart: (Actually, to be truthful, I brought both it and the cross because I changed my mind while packing.) The heart fits in my palm, and it has a lovely tinkly bell inside.  It makes a happy noise! But I didn't bring it because it sings, or because it's heart-shaped and pretty.  I brought it because of who gave it to me.  The heart was a gift from my very best friend, and it symbolizes Jesus' heart for me because she's the one person in my life who always knows how I feel by the sound of my voice.  We live far apart, so most of our communication is by cell phone.  And yet she always seems to know whether I'm really happy or just pretending to be. It makes me think of the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection in the Gospel of John.  She goes to the empty tomb and sits weeping in sorrow for the loss o