We Gather Together

"How about grabbing a drink sometime?" "Would you like to get a little bite to eat?"

How many times have we gathered for meals or drinks with friends, family members, co-workers, team mates, colleagues, or even strangers?  Why do we do this?  I'd say it's not simply to satisfy our hunger, but because we are a communal people.  What does this mean, though?  Communal people?  Well, a shorter answer would be that we are people who long to gather close to others with whom we can share common ground.  More often than not these gatherings give us the opportunity to step outside of our individual selves and re-invigorate our lives through our interactions with each other.

What are some examples of these communal gatherings?  Well, perhaps the most ideal example is in church on Sundays.  In the Catholic tradition, we "grab drinks" and "a bite to eat" with each other once a week at mass in the Eucharistic meal of Christ.  This communal gathering offers us invigoration for our spiritual lives.  However, if we go there simply to "feed" ourselves without participating fully and without recognizing that we are there with each other, then we are severely missing the point.  We wouldn't show up to a dinner party and eat the food and leave without mingling or making conversation with the host and other guests, would we?  Well, sharing the Eucharist with each other on Sundays is the best expression we have of God inviting us to the ultimate "dinner party."

But, church is not the only place where we experience our communal nature.  For example, we experience our longing for community with our families on days such as our recent Father's day.  When we show up at a run group or exercise class, we immerse ourselves in those nourishing communities.  Also, our "day jobs" connect us to people in ways that help us function well in society.  The list could go on and on.  Though we may gather in these communities for different reasons, we should remember that we are nonetheless equally important working parts in those communities. 

To bring things together, here are a couple of final thoughts:
1.  By gathering in community, we connect ourselves not just with those in that community, but also with each other's subsequent communities.  Think of how many people that ultimately may include!
2.  By gathering in community, we must understand that communities are not perfect.  Therefore, we should never exclude anyone from our communities as a result of that imperfection because we are all imperfect and sinful.
3.  In light of this past Sunday's gospel, by gathering in community, we become the product of the tiny mustard seed that has bloomed into a great plant (Mark 4: 26-34).

Remember, the Spirit moves where it will.

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

Love, Unity, and Birds

Over the last two weeks, the Catholic Church has celebrated two wonderful feast days: the feast of the Holy Trinity (June 3) and the feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ or Corpus Christi (June 10).  At their core, these feasts remind us of how our personal faith in God is at its best when it is relational with one another.  The Holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit shows us the importance of our individual roles in life while also being eternally joined to others for one sacred purpose: to love.  Similarly, through the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, we become united to God and one another not just in our sharing of communion, but also in our sharing of community.  We often here the language at church calling us to be "one with God," but do we actually stop to think about the power and responsibility that comes from such language?  Taken seriously, it is nothing short of a radical challenge for us bring real love and real peace to everyone.

A couple of days ago, I had the privilege of being in my friend's wedding.  As I think about this wonderful experience, I realize that this celebration took the aforementioned feasts and united them together as one.  The bride and the groom, through their love for one another, joined together with God as a wonderful sign of the Trinity.  Also, as all of us at the wedding celebrated the love of the couple, we also joined them in the celebration of the Eucharist (Body of Christ) which only strengthened the bond we have with God and with one another (Trinity, yet again).  This celebration brought people together from many different faith and cultural backgrounds, but in our mutual love for the bride and groom, God united us all together regardless of our differences.  I believe this was the Spirit working at its best.

As we continue to sense the Spirit in our lives, I conclude today's post with a short video of "startling birds" from Britain in what is called a murmuration pattern.  I think the movement of the birds in the video very much resembles the movement of the Spirit in our lives: seemingly unpredictable at times but clearly present (if we take the time to look). 


http://vimeo.com/31158841 


May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.

Presence of Power

Over the last few days, I have heard people talking about a very common word: power. Below are those references I've noticed lately as well as a link to a true story about a “powerful” soccer team from ESPN's Outside the Lines.

The first references comes from my good friend, Fr. Thomas Vigliotta. He has referred recently to power in terms of the abuse that it receives in many avenues of life (businesses, schools, families, churches, etc.). He was raising the concern that many if not all of the injustices in the world are a result of an abuse of power. His message did not attempt to condemn anyone, but it did invite us to ask ourselves when have we perhaps abused power given to us and likewise when have we fallen victim to others in their abuse of power. In answering those questions, we widen our perspective of what it means to be “powerful.”

Secondly, my yoga instructor the other day referred to power as a source of energy that allows us to function each day. She said that concentrating on our yoga practice was a great way to reconnect with a personal power that comes from within us. She said that in life our power can seep out of us as we share our power with others like water seeps out of a bucket with holes in it. However, in order to sustain our ability to share that power, we must recharge the source of that power whether through yoga, prayer, or other self-serving modes of nourishment.

Lastly, in my June 2012 Living with Christ daily guide to the mass, Rev. George M. Smiga wrote about how “God's power is universal.” What he meant by this is that the every single individual person in the world is able to convey God's power. He suggests that we access this power not so much through pride wealth, might, or extraordinary people or events, but rather, we find God's power more so in the humble, the poor, the weak, and the ordinary (as we'll see in the story of the mustard seed at mass in two weeks). He says, “[God's power] displays itself in common things: in faithful marriages, in honest friendships, in simple sacrifice.”

All three of these references to power share great insight into how the Spirit acts in our daily lives. If we can recognize ourselves as weak, poor, humble, and ordinary, then the power of God begins to fill us up. When the power of God fills up our spiritual water buckets, we begin to understand the need to refill ourselves with God's Spirit on a regular basis. And, if we refill ourselves with God's Spirit regularly, then we are much less likely to abuse that power which we received as a gift from God in the first place. 

I believe the below video is a great example the Spirit working within a group of men who decided to stand up to an abuse of power.  The video is twenty minutes long, but very much worth it.

Defiance-- The Story of FC Start

May we be ever-faithful, ever-mindful, and ever-joyful.