As we leave for the summer, may I bless you with this Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort . . . at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships; so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger . . . at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people; so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears . . . to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war; so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness . . . to believe that you can make a difference in the world; so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here’s what you do: Say nothing evil or hurtful; Snub evil and cultivate good; run after peace for all you’re worth.  Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.  That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation.  No sharp-tongued sarcasm.  Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.  I Peter 3:8

“I stay near the door.  I neither go too far in, nor stay too far out; the door is the most important door in the world - it is the door through which men walk when they find God.  There’s no use my going way inside, and staying there, when so many are still outside and they, as much as I, crave to know where the door is.  And all that so many ever find is only the wall where a door ought to be.  They creep along the wall like blind men, with outstretched, groping hands, feeling for a door, knowing there must be a door, yet they never find it . . . So I stay near the door.

I admire the people who go way in.  But I wish they would not forget how it was before they got in.  Then they would be able to help the people who have not yet even found the door, or the people who want to run away again from God.  You can go in too deeply, and stay in too long, and forget the people outside the door.  As for me, I shall take my old accustomed place, near enough to God to hear Him, and know He is there, but not so far from men as not to hear them, and remember they are there, too. Where?  Outside the door - thousands of them, millions of them.  But more important for me - one of them, two of them, ten of them, whose hands I am intended to put on the latch.  So I shall stay by the door and wait for those who seek it.  I had rather be a door-keeper . . . ” (Samuel Shoemaker, Extraordinary Living for Ordinary Men)

But no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler.  Job 31:32

“Jesus, we are silly sheep who have dared to stand before you and try to bribe you with our preposterous portfolios. We are sorry and ask you to forgive us.  Give us the grace to admit our brokenness, to celebrate your mercy when we are at our weakest, to rely on your grace no matter what we may do.  Dear Jesus, gift us to stop grandstanding and trying to get your attention, let the dishonesties in our lives fade away, accept our limitations, cling to grace and delight in your love above all.  Amen.”  (Brennan Manning, Ragamuffin Gospel)

So, friends, we can now—without hesitation—walk right up to this loving God  . . . honestly, full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out.  Hebrews 10:19

I grew up in the 50s with practical parents.  A mother who washed aluminum foil after she cooked in it and then reused it.  A father who was happier getting old shoes fixed than buying new ones.  It was the time for fixing things; a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, a screen door, the oven door, the hem in a dress. We kept things.  It was a way of life and sometimes it made me crazy.  Just once I wanted to be wasteful because waste meant affluence.  Throwing things away meant you knew there’d always be more. 

When my mother died, I was struck with the pain of realizing that sometimes there isn’t any more.  This is true for all we hold precious: our marriage, our kids (even with bad grades on report cards), old dogs with bad hips, friends, aging parents and grandparents.  Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return.  So, while we have them, cherish them, love and care for them, and fix whatever is broken.

Seize life!  Relish life!  Each day a gift from God.  Make the most of each one.  Ecc. 9:7   

In his remarkable book, The Wounded Healer, Henri Nouwen wrote that grace and healing are best communicated to a hurting world through the vulnerability of men and women who have been fractured and heartbroken by life.

Nowhere is there a better example of grace and healing than in the community of wounded healers called AA.  Psychiatrist James Knight wrote:

“These persons have had their lives laid bare and pushed to the brink of destruction by alcoholism and its accompanying problems.  When these persons arise from the ashes of the hellfire of addictive bondage, they have an understanding, sensitivity, and willingness to enter into and maintain healthy encounters with their fellow alcoholics.  In this encounter they cannot and will not permit themselves to forget their brokenness and vulnerability.”

If we conceal our wounds our inner darkness can never be illuminated nor become a light for others. When we dare to live as forgiven men and women, we too join the company of wounded healers.

So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may work through me . . . For when I am weak, then I am strong.  2 Corinthians 12:9-10   

In the Arctic waters there is a nearly invisible ice fish that swims among the icebergs, its survival made possible by the unique properties of its blood.  A special protein acts as antifreeze to keep ice crystals from forming.

On their trips south each year, geese maintain a speed of 50 miles per hour and fly thousands of miles before making their first stop to rest.

Polar bears that are tranquilized, trapped, and released 300 miles away can find their way home, even across drift ice that changes constantly and holds no landmarks.

God’s creation discloses a power and majesty that baffles our minds and steals our speech.  If we slow down long enough to look, really look, we will find ourselves awed before this holy God.

“Earth is crammed with heaven and every bush aflame with God.  But only those who see take off their shoes.” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

O God, You are magnificent.  Creation and creatures applaud You.  Generation after generation stand in awe of Your work.  Your marvelous creation is headline news.  The fame of Your greatness spreads throughout the country; yet You are all mercy, full of grace and love.  Psalm 145:5-8

DESIDERATA

(written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s)

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence.  As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all.  Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even to the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story.  If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Be yourself. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.  Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.  But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.  Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.  Be at peace with God and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.  With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.  Phil. 4:8

Most of you are very aware that few writers have touched the deep places of my heart more than the ministry of Brennan Manning.

Brennan’s mentor and spiritual director was Father Larry Hein.  He is the one that taught Brennan that the preoccupation with projecting the perfect image, of being a model Christian and edifying others with our virtues, leads to self-consciousness, sticky pedestal behavior, and absolute spiritual bondage.  Brennan loved to hear his teacher tell him, “Give up trying to look like a saint Brennan. It’ll be better for everybody.”

May you be blessed with one of Father Hein’s favorite prayers for his students: “May all your expectations be frustrated, may all your plans be thwarted, may all your desires be withered into nothingness, if it proves necessary for you to experience the powerlessness and poverty of a child and sing and dance in the love of God who is Father, Son and Spirit.”

He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way. Ps. 25:9

It’s a hard truth to accept: “behind every act of compulsivity is an anxious, unbelieving and prideful heart” (Gerald May, Addiction and Grace).  Pretty convicting statement, isn’t it?  Relentless, compulsive work, which our society has tended to reward and admire, is seen in scripture as a sign of weak faith and assertive pride; as if God could not be trusted to accomplish His will, and we could rearrange the universe by our own efforts.

It’s not hard work that gets us in trouble, but the fretful and feverous toil, the world’s discordant noises, the praise and the blame of men, our own confused thoughts and vain imaginations that keep us awake at night.

At the end of the day, it is not a matter of working or nor working, but a question of who is in charge.

How did you do last night giving Him the “night-watch”?

It is vain that you rise up early and go to bed late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives sleep to his beloved.  Psalm 127:2

Brennan Manning shares this story in The Ragamuffin Gospel: “I was en route from Clearwater, Florida, to Des Moines, Iowa, to lead a retreat.  Bad weather rerouted my plane to Kansas City where we had a  layover.  I was wandering around the terminal in my clerical collar, when a man approached me and asked if he could make his confession.  We sat down in the relative privacy of the Delta Crown Room and he began.  His life had been scarred with serious sin.  Midway through, he started to cry. Embracing him, I found myself in tears, reassuring him that the prodigal son experienced an intimacy with his father that his brother never knew.  The man’s face was transfigured.  The merciful love of the redeeming God broke through his guilt and self-hatred. 

As I fastened my seat belt in the DC-10, I heard an inner voice like a bell clanging deep in my soul: ‘Brennan, would you do for yourself what you have just done for your brother?  Would you so eagerly and enthusiastically forgive yourself, accept yourself, and love yourself?’”

In the words of Francis MacNutt: “If the Lord Jesus Christ has washed in you in his own blood and forgiven you all your sins, how dare you refuse to forgive yourself?”

Then turning to the woman, but speaking to Simon, [Jesus] said, “Do you see this woman?  . . .  She was forgiven many, many sins, and so she is very, very grateful. If the forgiveness is minimal, the gratitude is minimal.”  Luke 7:43-47