Tag Archives: Prayer

Divine Office, Divine!

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For all  you, who pray the Divine Office  daily or are struggling in an attempt, you’ve got to check out DivineOffice.org.   They do an incredible job of presenting the Divine Office (Invitatory, Morning, Evening, and Night Prayer)  with beautiful music and a community of voices. I love the sense of community!

Your “Cloud of Witnesses” will have help cheering you on from this side of Heaven.  It’s a great way to begin the day and so blessed a way to end it.  Commuters, you’ll actually find this time beating back the devil.

Did I tell you it is FREE!

The really good news is you can download the podcasts and take them with you (FREE!!!!!!!!)

You Are My Hiding Place

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The Anchoress reminded me of a verse from the Evening Prayer of the Divine Office for Thursday Week I.

So let every good man pray to You

in the time of need.

The floods of water may reach high

they shall not reach him.

You are my hiding place, O Lord;

you save me from distress.

You surround me with cries of deliverance.   (Psalm 32: 6-7)

When I read the words, “You are my hiding place,” Corrie ten Boom’s story,”The Hiding Place” came to mind.  I was also reading Immaculee Ilibagiza’s book, “Left To Tell, Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust.”  Both Corrie’s story and Immaculee’s book leave vivid images of the faithfulness of God not only in the mind, but in the heart, .  Neither tells the story of the proverbial rose garden that we all want.  Corrie and Immaculee lose the people they love.  Their homelands become unrecognizable.

Corrie introduces us to her sister,  Betsie, who dies in the concentration camp.  What I loved about Betsie was how she made a home in the midst of  the horrific circumstances of the camp; cheery dish towels hung at the window.  Betsie’s actual home was the hiding place she made in the heart of God.  Betsie was prepared to die.

Immaculee’s book describes an actual hiding place, a bathroom that became a haven for her and seven other women for ninety-one days.  It was here they hid, and silently prayed, while hundreds of crazed, “machete-wielding” neighbors sought to butcher them.  Again, God proved to be the real hiding place.

The triumph of  their stories is told by the transformed hearts of these women of faith.  Their books are a witness to God’s faithfulness in times of desperation.

Old Bishop, New Priest

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WITH PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING TO

ALMIGHTY GOD

THE ARCHDIOCESE OF SANTA FE

ANNOUNCES

THE ORDINATION TO THE

SACRED PRIESTHOOD OF

JEFFREY N. STEENSON

THOUGH THE IMPOSITION OF HANDS AND THE INVOCATION OF THE

HOLY SPIRIT

BY HIS EXCELLENCY

MICHAEL J. SHEEHAN

ARCHBISHOP OF SANTA FE

SATURDAY,THE TWENTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY,TWO THOUSAND AND NINE

AT  TEN-THIRTY O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING AT ST.THOMAS AQUINAS CATHOLIC CHURCH, RIO RANCHO, NM

Jeffrey M. Steenson will be new to the Roman Catholic priesthood, but not new to our Lord’s vineyard.  When ordained February 21, 2009 by Archbishop Michael J. Sheehan of the Santa Fe Diocese of New Mexico, Steenson will continue a faith adventure that still astounds him.

It was much more than the divisions within the Anglican Church over issues such as the affirmation of the openly gay Gene Robinson as bishop, and the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first female presiding bishop, that coaxed the then Bishop Steenson onto a new path.  These issues were monumentally troubling to his church and he was himself,  “deeply troubled about where the Episcopal Church is heading.”  Bishop Schori had also blessed same-sex unions.  Though grave, still more important issues than these motivated his faith journey to the Roman Catholic Church.  No less than the Fathers of the Church held great sway in this matter of faith, conscience and desire.

Before he even entered the ministry, Jeff thought about entering the Roman Catholic Church.  One of his professors, a nun, did a very good job showing him that the early Church looked and was as it continues to be very Roman Catholic.  She also pointed out that she thought he might have a vocation to the priesthood but he was married and so that was then not to be.  Years passed, Jeff became an priest and then a bishop in the Anglican Church .

The Church Fathers still sounded Roman Catholic but life got very complicated.  It took the powerful personage of the inimitable Pope John Paul II to re-ignite his Catholic leanings.  He made a promise to himself that he would revisit his Catholic inclinations and act if that meant becoming a Roman Catholic.  Acting on the promise was tougher and so a bit late in being fulfilled.  He meant to act while JPII was still alive, and not doing so troubled him, but life as Rt. Rev Steenson of the Rio Grande Diocese of the Anglican Church made serious decisions too serious to rush.  Prayer, study, meetings and mentors,  more prayer and more study, soon demanded that conscience be honored.  The promise he made to himself ended with his resignation as bishop.  This was not without pain.  There were explanations to be given and loose ends, at all ends.  In his customary gentle manner,  Jeff reached out as best he could to make clear with persuasive reason and Patristic history the underpinnings of his choice.

Happily, eventually the sun did shine on the road ahead for Jeff and his wife, who shared these dilemmas and discoveries.  Soon came his entry into the Roman Catholic Church. and now, more promises to be made, the promises of the sacred priesthood.  Jeff goes forward carrying his faith-filled past in his heart, grateful for loved ones in his Anglican Church family and his beloved deep Anglican roots.   At this, a new beginning on a continuing faith journey, may God bless Jeffrey Steenson and his family.

Background Music

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The “how to” of coming to live with a charged bit of Holy Scripture playing like music in the background, amid all the happenings of your day, is relatively simple.  Like everything in life that we desire, obtaining it means we have to reach for it in some way.  This “reaching” may be reading some scripture before you go to bed or at the beginning of a day.  Perhaps,  listening closely to the Word proclaimed at Mass.  You may think, so many words.  I know it can be messy.  The secret is to simplify.  What can be simpler than inviting the One whose words they are to speak to you.  Come Holy Spirit.  Speak to my heart. In effect, the Word you are seeking will choose for you.  Remember this Word is alive.  You dialogue with someone and here our someone is the third Person of the Trinity.

The thought that stops you for an instant, that seems to sink beneath your stony surface, is the one with which to stay.  The injunction of Holy Scripture that tells us “Pray without ceasing” (1Thessalonians 5:17) indicates the Holy Spirit’s desire for this conversation.  Recall the words that were given to you.  Listen during the day.  Ask questions or just remember.  That’s the beginning.  I don’t know about you, but in one way or another,  I’m always at the beginning.

Living Lexio Divina

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Living with a charged bit of Holy Scripture playing in the background of my day sets me up for some animated discussions in my car, at the sink, wherever my day may take me.  Occasionally the conversation turns to Presence.  How we hunger for this Presence, this awareness of God, even though we may be flying in all directions.  Perhaps, the more the activity, the more the hunger.  It’s akin to searching for the car keys.  We begin thinking we know where to find them.  As they remain hidden, our pursuit turns to frustration and then to frenzy.  Relief comes only when we hold the keys in our hot little hands.

What does searching for car keys have to do with Lexio Divina, ruminating on Holy Scripture?  It’s simply that we are always on the go.  Getting to our destination depends on something as ordinary and necessary as the car keys.  Holy Scripture is such a key, however,  it is not inanimate but living and active.  When the Word, Lexio, comes to fruition, it is the listener who becomes the Word, in essence, and so reaches his destination.

Good Morning, Everybody!

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It’s wonderful to know that while I was asleep,  the Church was still at prayer  joined by a  “Cloud of  Witnesses”.   To my Cloud of  Witnesses, I say, “Good morning, Everybody!”

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12: 1

I guess you all are now a part of my cloud.