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Shekinah

12/21/2014

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One of my favorite meditative songs is “Shekinah,” recorded by Monica Brown.

The word Shekinah, according to the early rabbis, had a number of meanings:  “to tent,”  “to tabernacle,”  “a divine visitation of the presence/dwelling of God,” “settling presence of God.”  And much later, in John’s Gospel, we hear the words:  “The Word became flesh and ‘pitched his tent’ among us.”

Today’s Scripture readings, with the Ark, the tent, the palace - made me think of “Shekinah,” the song.  Brown sings of “Shekinah” as the indwelling of God and God’s temple – very much in tune with the rabbis.

In Sunday’s reading from second Samuel, David ruminates on the idea that while he lives in a palace of cedar, the Ark of God dwells in a tent.  But God reminds David, through Nathan, that “I have never lived in a house…I have been traveling with a tent for shelter.”  In other words, I don’t have to be confined to a building.  “[Haven’t I] been with you wherever you went?”   

This same reading from second Samuel reappears on the morning of December 24.

The Gospel for the fourth Sunday in Advent is Luke’s familiar narrative of the Annunciation of Jesus’ birth to Mary, in which the angel also announced that Elizabeth was six months pregnant.  Scripture readings of days preceding Christmas invite us to engage in similar annunciations that proclaim good news to once barren wombs:  to Samson’s mother; to Hannah, mother of Samuel; to Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptizer; and to Mary, whose womb tabernacled the Christ. 

This is the third time the Annunciation narrative has been recounted:  on the feast of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Sunday of the Fourth week of Advent. 

What important message is there for our hearing this Gospel three times and David’s story twice in such a short span?  Of our hearing the words womb, temple, tent, palace?

I think God is speaking these words to us:

“I don’t need a physical building to be present to you.  I am within you.  You are the temple that wanders as did the tent in the midst of the Israelites.  I need you to share God wherever you are.  ”

 Monica Brown summed this up in her last line: “YOU, YOU are the temple.”   

Pope Paul VI, summed it up with these words:  “You are the eighth sacrament; the only one that some people will receive.”

Our call:  “Be God’s presence!  Be Shekinah!  Be the temple!”

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Patricia Gamgort, OSB
St. Gertrude Monastery
Ridgely, MD

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God of radically amazing Mystery

12/14/2014

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Expanding our image of God invites us to embrace a God of radically amazing Mystery, One who continuously gives expression from within creation, One who emerges as new life in every nook and cranny of creation.  (Radical Amazement by Judy Cannato)

I recently finished a 4 week course using Judy Cannoto’s book and was taken by her last chapter That All May be One: Living in Radical Amazement  where I read the above quote.  The reading from Isaiah 61:1-2, 10-11 prompted me to go back and read this chapter.  Hear his prophetic voice:  “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; God has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord and a day of vindication by our God.” Isaiah invites us into a radical seeing of God/Mystery in a world that would look so different if we allowed the Spirit to “hover over us/the Earth”.  Listen with the ear of your heart!  Pray with your mind and heart these words of Isaiah. 
Advent invites us into Mystery – the Mystery of a God who comes to us as a child/a baby, who grows to “proclaim the Good News” through his life of compassion, mercy, healing, freeing, etc.  John the Baptist in John’s Gospel sees himself as one who is called to reflect that light, to “testify to the light”.  He knows he is not the Christ but one sent who points the way to the Light/the Christ.  John knows himself as “the voice of one crying out in the desert, make straight the way of the Lord”.  His vision is so clear, his sense of self so humble, his passion to proclaim the Christ to everyone lights a path for his followers and those who will follow them to know this Jesus who was sent by God out of deep love for the world.

The God we know through Isaiah and John is one of great Mystery, who invites us, nudges us to proclaim through our own lives the Light.  Our call is to BE the Good News and to proclaim the Good News through our lives of service, of healing, of friendship, of non violence, of universal love for creation and all its creatures, plants, rivers, etc.  After all, we are Guests of God on this earth, just passing through.  What kind of footprint do I/we want to leave?   What kind of legacy might we want to pass on to our children and their children? How am I Light in the world?



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S. Patricia (Tricia) Kirk, OSB
Emmanuel Monastery
Lutherville, MD

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Outrageous Hope and Impossible Dreams

12/6/2014

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Several years ago I received a Christmas card that read:

“Once again, as on a silent night long ago, we are challenged to live and love with outrageous hope.” It deeply touched me then, and continues to do so, Advent after Advent.

The people of the Advent Scriptures are those who knew what it meant to live with outrageous hope, to dream impossible dreams, to desire the desires of God’s heart: freedom from hunger, slavery, oppression and poverty; fruitfulness and abundance shared by all; a world where all people feel accepted and at home; and, more than anything, the gift of peace.

This year, the second week of Advent repeats two scripture readings:  Isaiah 40:1-11 (Sunday and Tuesday) and Luke 1: 26-38 (Monday and Friday).  Both readings speak of and challenge us to live and love with outrageous hope and impossible dreams.

“Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,” speaks the prophet Isaiah.  “Fear not to cry out the good news, and say to the cities of Judah, ‘Here is your God.’”  Imagine those words being spoken to the peoples of the Middle East today... words that seem at the very least naïve and impossible!  Yet the people to whom they were spoken almost 3,000 years ago were people displaced from their homeland, captured and oppressed by others who had destroyed their temple and their land. Outrageous hope in the promises of God is what kept these people going, in spite of all the reasons to give into despair. Can these words offer the same hope to people today?  Can they speak to the thousands of displaced persons in our world, in our country, with the same hope?  What is our challenge here to live and love with outrageous hope?

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And then there is the reading from Luke…God’s request to a young woman in Nazareth to birth the Holy into this fractured world. Mary’s courageous “yes” enabled the deepest dream of God’s heart to become a reality.  “And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” 

Because of her “yes,” she came to know the perils of being an unwed pregnant teenager in a culture that could legally stone her to death!  She experienced what it was like to be an “illegal alien” in a foreign land because she had to escape her own land to save her life and the life of her child. She knew the agony of being a mother of a condemned criminal, and watching him die at the hands of an unjust society. What was the hope and the dream that enabled such strength to live in Mary? If we are to be an Advent People in 2014, we need to be captured by the same outrageous hope and impossible dream that our ancestors knew.

As we “listen with the ear of our hearts” to God’s repetitious Word this week, how will we live and love with outrageous hope in our own corners of the world?  How will we dream the impossible dream and live in a way that it might come true?

The following quote captures the challenge:
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Kathleen McNany, OSB
Emmanuel Monastery
2229 W. Joppa Road
Lutherville, MD 21093


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Advent Reflections 2014

11/30/2014

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PictureAdvent - Embrace Mystery
God is calling us
to resonate with mystery. 

God wants to lodge with us once again,
enveloping us in mystery.



Growing up in Germany, Advent was always an exciting time! It was a time when ancient and very poetic Advent songs were sung at church and school. At home, we would bake cookies and it seemed like there were lots of secret and hidden things happening. For sure, I knew that my parents and grandparents were busy getting our Christmas gifts ready. They would change their usual routines;  somehow, they were surrounded with this veil of expectancy. We children, too, would sneak away to our uncle's house and work on our arts and crafts. I remember my excitement as I was anticipating my mother's delight over a picture I created. Still today, when I think back to these happy times, I can feel this expectancy, secrecy, excitement and the fragrances of the cookies baking in the oven. There is one word that captures all of this well for me: Mystery - something was happening, awaited and it was very sensual.

Many a year (like now in 2014), the feast of the apostle St. Andrew would be at the beginning of Advent. I am carrying his name. Catholics in my local area celebrated their name days rather than their birthdays. Maybe this was a way of distinguishing ourselves from the Lutherans all around us. Maybe it was to have us feel the awesome dignity that being named after a saint bestows. It sure helped me to identify with the man who followed his intuition to follow Jesus. The gospel of John relates this story beautifully. John the Baptist reveals to his two disciples (Andrew and another unnamed disciple) who Jesus is. These two follow Jesus. Then, the gospel explains, 
"When Jesus turned and saw them following, he said to them, “What are you looking for?” They said to him, “Rabbi” (which translated means Teacher), “where are you staying?" (John 1:38). 

Advent is the season to get ready to go and see where Jesus is going to lodge among us. Advent invites us to listen to Jesus' question, "What are you looking for?" Andrew is going to be a faithful companion in the listening and responding. Mystery abounds in these moments of dialogue, of prayer. 

As we light the first candle on the Advent Wreath, may we open ourselves to the gifts of this season. 

May we use this season to embrace Mystery once again. 


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S. Andrea Westkamp, OSB
St. Benedict Monastery
Bristow, VA


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    Benedictine Sisters of three monasteries:
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