God shines through you

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | March 21, 2016 | Comments Off on God shines through you

“I formed you, and set you as a covenant of the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from confinement, and from the dungeon, those who live in darkness.”  (Isaiah 42:6b-7)

Imagine God reading Isaiah 42:1-7 to you to remind you that you were formed to be a light for the nations. A tall order, but you can do it, because the Lord is your light and salvation (psalm 27). God will shine through you, because God needs you. God needs your knowledge, skills, personality, talents to build up the earth. God plans through our thoughts and feelings to achieve the aim of creation: to bring all into one in love.lord

Sometimes we think God’s will is floating in cyberspace, and unfortunately there’s no app to know God’s will. But God wants us to be part of the plan. The plan (God’s will) is co-created through the exercise of our own hearts and minds. Actually God’s plan needs our own best thinking. When we’re prayerful people, God speaks to us in our own voice; in other words, God’s thoughts are our thoughts. This means that when we ask “Which way, God?” the answer is God’s ways are our ways. Wow! Although we can do nothing without God, God still works through us for the redemption of the world by our own activity. Cooperating with God is grace and blessing. God wants us to get involved, aim toward union with others, and help all creation come to its best fulfillment. Some call this “christifying” the world through our own actions or “going to heaven through earth.”

As we begin Holy Week, be open to God who speaks through your own person. Be like Martha who did what she did best for Jesus by preparing a meal. Be like Mary who did what she did best for Jesus by anointing Jesus’ feet. Be like Jesus who kept heading toward Jerusalem.

How does God shine through you best? How can you be a light to the nations?

How can you use the opportunities of this Holy Week to “christify” the world?

Loving God, I give you my hands, heart, and voice today to aid you in your plan to bring about a world united in love. Give strength to my hands to serve, give your Spirit to my heart to love, and give courage to my voice to speak your words of truth. I ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, who allowed someone to wash his feet as a sign of comforting encouragement as he set out for his death in Jerusalem.

Memories of His Foster Father

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | March 10, 2016 | Comments Off on Memories of His Foster Father

The Solemnity of St. Joseph falls the day before Palm Sunday this year. The juxtaposition of St. Joseph whom we know only in the context of Jesus’ childhood with the passion and death of Jesus joseph-makes me wonder what role Joseph may have played during the passion of Jesus? Did memories of Joseph cross Jesus’ mind on the way to Calvary? Perhaps Joseph’s strength gave Jesus strength. Perhaps Joseph’s obedience to an angel helped Jesus learn obedience through what he suffered. Palms waving—a glimpse of Joseph’s play? Rough wood of the cross—Joseph’s calloused, splintered, bleeding hands? Twenty pieces of silver—Joseph’s integrity knowing the real worth of the Child in his care. The compassion of Jesus toward the weeping women of Jerusalem—Joseph’s compassion toward Mary? Jesus’ silence during trial—Joseph’s silence? Peter’s betrayal—Joseph’s words to his little boy when Jesus heartbroken by a friend’s words came from school or synagogue to hear Joseph’s wise advice? Dying with words of forgiveness on his lips—the words of Joseph as he approached death? Jesus’ trust in Abba first learned in a boy’s trust in his foster father? The Joseph who trudged to Bethlehem and who anxiously made his way to Egypt certainly was with Jesus every step of the way to Calvary.

 

The Parable of the Snowfall

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | March 8, 2016 |

ice-crystal-Walking outside during a recent wet snow somehow had me reflecting on the parable of the Sower and the Seed in the context of a March snowfall in Ohio. It went something like this:

Once there was a sky full of snow clouds from which small snowflakes fell lightly. Some fell on the lake. Others fell on the sidewalk and driveways. Still others fell on the grass. Those tiny flakes, though infinitesimal in weight, formed tiny rings on the water. Those that fell on the sidewalks and driveways immediately melted. Those that fell on the grass stayed there and eventually mounted into two-inch piles of white fluff. So what were the snowflakes saying to me? My ruminations equated snowflakes with Lenten practices: prayer, fasting, good deeds. The Lenten practices forming circles on the water represent the impact of the “little things” done for God and God’s People. Nothing is too lightweight. Good reaches out in wider diameters of good. Lenten practices falling on concrete and asphalt are transformed from solid into liquid. In that, these Lenten practices represent a change in us. A sacrifice here or an hour of service there changes us: we are a little kinder, a little more generous. We may even change the state of another from destitution to subsistence, for example. Finally the Lenten deeds falling on grass represent the cumulative effect of the whole Church, the Body of Christ. Millions of good deeds unite in a pure white offering.

Well, parables don’t have exact one-to-one correspondence, so what would you make of this parable?

Dark Stained Glass

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | March 8, 2016 | Comments Off on Dark Stained Glass

stainedglassAn unknown author wrote “Without faith, we are as stained glass windows in the dark.” A priest wanted to show the stained glass windows depicting the nativity of Jesus at all the Christmas Masses, but nearly every Mass was celebrated in darkness. He created an elaborate plan for a huge spotlight strung outside to illuminate the window. It worked. Without light a stained glass window is just a black space in the wall without meaning. Without faith our lives are dark places without meaning. Let today be colored brilliantly by your faith.

On Which Page of the Bible Am I?

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | March 3, 2016 | Comments Off on On Which Page of the Bible Am I?

bibleSomeone said, “The more I read my Bible, the more I see myself within its pages.” I wonder which pages. Wouldn’t that make a day of reflection—finding yourself on one page of the Bible? Where would we begin to look? The Psalms that encompass almost every human emotion? The Gospels wherein the words and actions of Jesus Christ are the model for our lives? Is there a story in which I could insert my name?

Notes that Leap and Dance

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | February 29, 2016 |

jump_joyFranz Joseph Haydn wrote: “When I think of God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes leap and dance as they leave my pen: and since God has given me a cheerful heart, I serve him with a cheerful spirit.” Apparently the thought of God created spontaneous symphonies for Haydn. What does the thought of God do for you and me? For Haydn, God gave the joy that led to music, gifts to the world continually giving joy. And when we hear Haydn’s music or compositions of other famous composers, is our soul connected to the divine? Does praise of God leap from our mouths?

Led Back in Peace

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | February 24, 2016 |

In Isaiah 55 we read “For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song.” Long before The Sound of Music, Isaiah knew “the hills are alive with the sound of pathwaymusic.” Going for a long walk in Oak Openings, I feel excited at the prospect of what I might see. This past weekend’s unseasonably warm weather brought humans out of hibernation, filling the paths with families of wide-eyed children. Completing the red trail, I felt the peace accompanying these minutes when my mind had only the focus of watching the path. A focused mindlessness that would lead later to meditation. George Herbert was right: “Where there is peace, God is.”

Change in the world

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | February 18, 2016 |

Mahatma Gandhi stated, “We must become the change we want to see in the world.” Lent and New ActionYear’s Day are the traditional times to consider change. It’s easy to see that our world must change. We can’t continue polluting the air and water, we can’t keep killing one another, we can’t keep letting the poor become poorer, we can’t keep closing our borders to refugees and immigrants. But what can one person do in the face of world problems? I can recycle and reuse, I can become politically involved, I can participate in organizations that make my town and world better. I can become the change I want to see.

The Last Lap of RCIA for All of Us

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | February 11, 2016 |

The catechumens are now approaching the third phase that begins with the Rite of Election on the First Sunday of Lent (February 13-14). After their names are enrolled during this ceremony, they will be called the Elect, and they have every right of the Catholic Church, such as a Catholic funeral.

Perhaps you will be present at the liturgies when the Elect enroll their names or celebrate the Scrutinies on the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Sundays of Lent. Like everything else in liturgy, these rites are not spectator sports. We baptized Catholics also enter into the ceremonies. Will we intensify our dying with faith2Christ in surrender to God?  Will we change our style of living in areas that require scrutiny?  Will we become a Sprit-filled community of deeply committed Christians who bear witness to our faith? Are we undergoing adult conversion? No matter how old we are or how many times we have received the sacraments, we are all in the process of formation. Our baptism, First Communion, and Confirmation were just milestones.  Now keep on going!!!!

Room for improvement?

By Sr. Mary Valerie Schneider | February 9, 2016 |

animal-21772_640As we begin Lent and look for ways to improve, the first place to look is with our family. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” How true! Is there some tension in the family? Is there an elephant in the living room that no one wants to address? Even in the best families, there are things that could be altered for mutual benefit. Besides personal resolutions, discuss with spouse or family those family idiosyncrasies that could be part of Lent’s metanoia, the change of heart that will make everyone’s hearts a little lighter.