Happy Saturday!

lmeade62 · August 2011

Happy Saturday everyone! My FI arrived safely last night, and we are enjoying a cool summer morning with the door open, the cats on the deck, and the sound of the waterfall running sweetly after lots of rain last night.

<happy sigh />

Today...probably some tidying up and then cantoring at Mass tonight...

Linda

Hope61 · August 2011

Linda--Sounds like a lovely morning!

I'm "recovering" after being in a really bad mood last night. lol. Hopefully today will go better... Going to read for a bit, take a shower, do some cleaning, walk over to 11:30 Mass, and then head out to the in-laws' to go to DH's uncle's pig roast with them. DH is already at his parents' house, sleeping the day away--he's on night shift at the hospital last night, tonight, and Sunday night--ugh.

lmeade62 · August 2011

Katie - I hear you about the bad mood. Isn't it something how those can just come up for no reason, then dissolve overnight? Sounds like you have a good day planned, though I know it's gotta be rough with the DH away so many nights. Is he on call, or is he a resident? What type of doctor is he?

mica178 · August 2011

Good morning!

Today is an errands day. H is heading out to CA for work for the rest of the weekend.

I just received this homily from H's friend, and I thought I'd share:

I. The bishop in Ireland
My old friend, Bishop Noonan, told me a story once of a little boy he saw in an Irish restaurant who, all through a meal, was pestering his father for something. Finally the father said,”Enough of this foolishness, boyo, eat your meal and don’t be a brat.” When the meal was over, the boy snuggled up next to his father and the father gave him a big hug. If you are Irish, you realize what a big deal this is. I used to joke with Bishop Noonan that the basic principle of Irish morality is: “Never touch another man, except in anger.”
II. Cannanite woman
Today’s Gospel gives rise to similar questions as the story: How do you deal with the silence God? What do you do when God says, “no.” In this today’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a Caananite woman who has a very reasonable request: She wants her daughter cured. Not only does Jesus, at first, refuse to help her but he is downright rude. He calls her and her sick daughter, “dogs.” “It is not meet to take the bread of the children and cast it to the dogs.” The woman responds with an extraordinary acclamation of faith, “Even the dogs eat what falls from the master’s table.” Jesus cures her daughter and concludes, “what great faith you have.”
III. Prayer is not about getting what you want
Being pragmatic modern people, we tend to think that prayer works when we get what we want. I fear it is not so simple as that. Sometimes God answers our prayers and the answer is “no.” Sometimes God is silent. Sometimes prayer is not about getting what we want but about learning to reach down deeper for our faith when we don’t get what we want. Prayer does not change God; prayer changes the one who prays.
IV. How would I respond?
Imagine you are this poor woman who has, not only been told “no” by Jesus, but has been called a dog by Jesus. How to respond? As for myself, I fear that I would get angry or be hurt but I pray that I would respond as the woman did, with a deeper trust. No wonder Jesus tells her, “what great faith you have.” Pray for faith like the faith of this woman. It is easy to believe and trust when you get what you want. It is much harder to believe and to trust when God is silent or when God says, “no.” V. The illogic of prayer
This woman is extraordinary on all accounts. The dramatic heart of the dialogue comes when we wait to see how she will respond to being called a dog by Jesus:. She says: “Truth, Lord, but even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master’s table.” There is a certain lack of logic here. The woman admits that Jesus has no responsibility to help her with the “truth, Lord.” Then, she proceeds to beg Jesus to help her. I think this bit of illogic is the whole secret of prayer. Notice that in the “Our Father” we pray that God’s will be done at the same time that we pray for our daily bread and a bunch of other things, whether they are God’s will or not. How do we explain this contradiction? This is the deepest mystery of prayer. Prayer, in its purest form, is nothing but pillow talk with God. Prayer is best expressed in intimate whispers and terms of endearment.
VI. Prayer is about trust
Prayer is not about arguing with God, influencing God, convincing God or getting what we want from God. Prayer is something much simpler than that. Prayer is simply about trusting and loving, no more and no less. In the end we are, each on of us, very like the little boy Bishop Noonan saw in the Irish restaurant. We don’t always get what we want. But in the end all that matters is that we get a bit closer to Our Father. Prayer is not magic and it is not about power. Deeper prayer, plain and simple, is deeper intimacy with our God. In the words of a famous British poet: “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, just might find, you get what you need.”

Hope61 · August 2011

Mica--thanks for sharing, what a great homily, and something to be thinking about...

Linda--he's a med student, 4th year. He's on his ER rotation right now, and has to do 3 night shifts. The nice thing was, he meant to go straight to his parents house (40 minutes away) after the 10 hour shift, but came here (15 minutes in the wrong direction) first just to say good morning to me. So sweet

lmeade62 · August 2011

@Mica - loved that, about the woman...isn't it so true? It's humbling to know that in truth, we aren't worthy to receive the scraps from God' table, and yet we ask anyway, and He gives them to us anyway, because He loves and because we have faith. That's a new spin on it...I always ponder why Jesus was so rude to her to begin with; perhaps a test?

A couple of weeks ago, we were in the middle of that dreadful heat wave, and I drove into town about 26 miles away to do a little shopping. In the town where I went, it was just pouring down rain. It had done this there the day before, but we hardly got a sprinkle at my house, about 26 miles southwest of there. I was driving home, in the pouring rain, just giving God the hardest time about letting it rain one place and not the next and telling him how mean I thought he was because we needed that rain too. We did get quite a bit of rain at our house, too...BUT the most interesting part was the next day. We were just relaxing, and all of a sudden the sky got dark and we got this lovely little thunderstorm and a bunch of rain. When I looked on the radar, the storm was so tiny I could hardly see it...and it was right over us! Gave me chills, I tell you...and it's good to know that God can listen to us berate him sometimes, and respond with a wink and a smile.

@KatieAnne - three night shifts, that's a lot. But how very, very sweet of him to come home first! That's an Awww moment if I ever heard one.

mica178 · August 2011

KatieAnne -- I remember doing night shifts in med school and residency. Ooph, those were rough. Poor guy, at least there's a finite number of times he has to do them. Hang in there, both of you!

Sometimes I ponder what God "thinks" of our prayers, if he laughs at our puny concerns when he has to think about the universe for eternity. Then I remind myself that he loves us and has a plan for us, and I laugh at myself for getting too philosophical.

I love Fr. Valle's homilies. They always make me think, and they always warm my heart with reminders of God's greatness and love. And they make me grateful for priests like him who spread the word so beautifully.

professorscience · August 2011

Today I learned I am still logged in under my old username on my FMIL's computer.

Anyway, thank you for sharing that, Mica! It's wonderful!

mica178 · August 2011

lmeade -- I was thinking about this passage and your question. Historically, didn't the Caananites and the Jewish people hate each other? The priest today during his Homily said he thought of Jesus' strong words as a test/teaching opportunity for the disciples, since they were the ones who originally treated the woman so harshly. One might say that this Gospel passage was a leading indicator for Christianity to reach beyond the Jews and to Gentiles (think about the second reading from this week, Paul to the Romans).

doctabroccoli · August 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_happy-saturday?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:a6dff857-aba6-4ace-9466-ec6d3968e8a2Post:3484e186-575a-4a03-b53a-0ce026edb461">Re: Happy Saturday!</a>:
[QUOTE]lmeade -- I was thinking about this passage and your question. Historically, didn't the Caananites and the Jewish people hate each other? The priest today during his Homily said he thought of Jesus' strong words as a test/teaching opportunity for the disciples, since they were the ones who originally treated the woman so harshly. One might say that this Gospel passage was a leading indicator for Christianity to reach beyond the Jews and to Gentiles (think about the second reading from this week, Paul to the Romans).
Posted by mica178[/QUOTE]

Our priest also related the reading to the gospel. He talked of all people being welcome in the Church, which is what makes this week's gospel so difficult to swallow. I don't know if he did it on purpose or not, but to me, he was highlighting the human nature of Jesus. As humans, we take care of our own first. The woman was a Caananite, so not one of Jesus' own. But she showed him great respect, and so he took care of her. Our priest challenged us to learn from Jesus - to help those not our own in their time of need.

And this is way less eloquent than his actual homily, but that's the really abbreviated cliffnotes version!

lmeade62 · August 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_happy-saturday?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:a6dff857-aba6-4ace-9466-ec6d3968e8a2Post:3484e186-575a-4a03-b53a-0ce026edb461">Re: Happy Saturday!</a>:
[QUOTE]lmeade -- I was thinking about this passage and your question. Historically, didn't the Caananites and the Jewish people hate each other? The priest today during his Homily said he thought of Jesus' strong words as a test/teaching opportunity for the disciples, since they were the ones who originally treated the woman so harshly. One might say that this Gospel passage was a leading indicator for Christianity to reach beyond the Jews and to Gentiles (think about the second reading from this week, Paul to the Romans).
Posted by mica178[/QUOTE]

That's a lot like what our priest said, as well...that the other two readings spoke of reaching out and including everyone, and Jesus was making a point to his disciples, who would have excluded the woman. It was very thought provoking; I've always wondered about that passage, and the discussion this week - here and at Mass - have shed a lot of light on it.

I really hope that we continue to make this a forum to talk about the faith, in addition to the wedding topics!

Linda

mica178 · August 2011

I just love how the vastness of the Bible comes together the more one reads and ponders. After all, the NT is in the OT concealed, and the OT is in the NT revealed. The more that I read the Bible (I read from different sections of it daily), the more I am in awe of God's love.

I love talking about the faith (I like looking to Scripture to back up arguments) and would love to use this board in that way.

Happy Saturday!

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