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This link will keep 'parishioners-at-large' in touch with current creative liturgy sources and resources that respect a variety of 'traditions' within the Church.

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Daily Scripture

+ 7th Week of Easter

We are to be consecrated in truth.

Readings: Acts 20:28-38 Psalm 88:29-30, 33-36 John 17:11b-19

Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they may also be consecrated in truth. [John 17:18-19]

Read the Gospel very slowly and if possible, out loud and if necessary, three times! Although John’s literary style is quite complex, the farewell prayer of Jesus is as powerful as is Paul’s farewell message in Acts.

It is not likely that these passages are the actual words of Paul and Jesus. They are compositions that Luke and John or whoever wrote in their name and are based on the oral tradition of the sayings of Jesus and the preaching of Paul. They were written in the style of farewell addresses of prominent leaders of their times in order to win the attention of early believers to whom the message of truth was entrusted.

The ‘truth’ that is being proclaimed is not from a catechism nor is it a defined doctrine or dogma. It is the core truth about the God who spoke through the prophets and then through Jesus about the universality of God’s love.

During this time of immediate preparation for Pentecost, we are invited to think about our own responsibility to pass on the ‘truth’ of God’s goodness entrusted to us in Christ and how we are to live that truth in our daily lives, each in our own unique way. No one of us can do this alone and so we much join hands literally and figuratively within the community of believers everywhere.

To live the ‘truth’ is to live in the Spirit of Jesus Christ the fruits of which are charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, moderation, self-control, reverence, etc. I’m sure you memorized these ‘fruits of the Holy Spirit.’

These are the true ‘marks’ of our authenticity as believers.

Still More for Advent

Thursday December 8, 2005

An Advent Prayer
[Written for an Advent past but a prayer that still has meanng]

Here I am again, Lord,
at the door of another year —of challenge and opportunity;—of grace and importunity.

It seems
I have been down this road before—more times than I can count.

I confess to you
that I have been less than content with,
and more than inept in
the fulfillment
of countless promises
-spoken and unspoken-
which I have made to you.

I suspect they were not so much for you
but for me.

Promises make me feel good
as if I have already given something of myself,
but in reality,
cotton candy promises that taste sweet on contact
but whose taste quickly vanishes;
instantly forgotten.

Somehow,
promises seem to take the pressure off
as if to appease an expectant taskmaster
or demanding parent.

“I promise…”

But I’m not always as good as my promises.

I think that perhaps
I need to rethink this whole notion
and substitute instead
an attentive ear to your promise
to me
and to humanity.

I think I may have assumed too much
as if by this time I knew your mind
and what you expect of me.
How silly.

Who can know your mind
or who can fathom your thoughts.

Perhaps this Advent
I will listen more carefully
and come to know that your expectations
are more realistic than mine.

Perhaps this Advent

Advent is less about our promises
as it is about learning to breathe the air
that Jesus breathed;
to inhale the “Spirit”
that Jesus lived.

Only by listening
not so much with our ears
as with our hearts
can we hear what God is asking of us
this year.

I suspect we already know.

Father Lasch