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Showing posts from August 20, 2017

Journey’s Joys

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This summer I had the opportunity to take a month off.  I traveled north by car.  This gave me the opportunity to pack some items for delivery to Sinsinawa and plan for several events and visits.  For the drive, I had intended to listen to lectures on spirituality and scripture but the changing scenery really captured my heart.  I drove in silence except with the GPS voice reminded me of my next route change or a car on the side of the road or even that police were spotted ahead. Driving through Kentucky there was a sign that caught my attention.  You know the digital signs set up to given instructions of a lane closure or other related notices.  What was recorded made me laugh (and to be cautious of other drivers):  “This Ain’t A Nascar Raceway!” I wanted to move that sign to Florida and plant it many places on I-95. The sign also made me think of the ways we sometimes go through life events at racing speeds and don’t take time to savor the experience unfolding like Kentuck

Reclaiming Lament

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Developing a practice of praying the psalms – the 150 prayer-poems from the Hebrew Scriptures – in the Divine Office has been a gift of Dominican life.  The psalms reflect the broad range of human emotions:  jubilation, anger, gratitude, loneliness, awe, and more.  There is no tidying up raw emotion – the psalms give prayerful voice to all of these feelings authentically and fully.          Recently, I have been appreciative of the psalms of lament which have been used for millennia in praying through grief and loss.   Moreover, as I begin to study Dominican life in earnest here at the Collaborative Dominican Novitiate, I’ve been reminded that St. Dominic prayed and preached with tears.   I was received as a novice and sent to begin my canonical year with an outpouring of loving support and a solid week of joyful celebrations, which filled my heart with gratitude.   Yet, the events of the past week have brought me back to our rich Judeo-Christian tradition of lamentation.