Category: Humanity

Introspection

Published by mhelbert on September 12, 2019

I’m getting older.

Ok. That’s no surprise to anyone. We all are.

But, as I approach retirement sometime next year, I’ve spent considerable time in self-reflection. I search within to see if there actually has been any purpose to this life of mine.

I find little there.

Yeah, I followed the path that stretched before me. A path, by the way, that was mapped and defined by minds and wills other than my own. I have had my shares of humanity’s ubiquitous ‘Ups and Downs.’ Clearly, nothing out of the ordinary. I experienced many things that others have not. Some good; some not so much. Overall, my time walking this life has been functional, yet nondescript.

I have not had to struggle like so many in the world. Creature comforts have been available to me. I don’t need to walk 5 miles to a common well in order to have water to drink. There are several taps in my house that readily deliver that life sustaining liquid. Nor, am I required to sit and beg or dive into dumpsters for food. My local Mega Mart has everything that I could possibly want or need to satisfy the grumbling in my gut. Clothes, shelter, family…all of the things that seem to define the so-called American Dream have materialized before me.

So, what do I lack? For I must lack something.

In all of my travels and experiences I have never truly experienced happiness.

Maybe, happiness is simply overrated. I was told many years ago that as a Christ follower I should have something called ‘Joy.’ They said that happiness is nothing but a counterfeit version of Joy. We should not seek that at all.

But, when in every waking moment it feels like I have a Dementor from the world of Harry Potter sitting on my shoulder, well, something is amiss.

People I talk to about this don’t understand. They look at the stuff I have and the things that I’ve experienced and tell me that I should be glad.

Yet, the emptiness, the sadness remain.

“See a doctor and get some medication because what you describe sounds like simple depression that can easily be treated.”

Nope. Been there; done that. Medication doesn’t help. It only flattens my emotions until I feel nothing at all. Better to feel pain than everlasting numbness.

“Jesus is the answer to all of your problems.”

I’m sorry to say that’s simply not true. Contrary to what so many in the fundagelical world say, there is no God Shaped hole in us that only Jesus can fill. But, there does seem to be something that is missing. But, God isn’t it.

“Eat, drink, and be merry,” Qoheleth encourages. For what else is there for humanity to enjoy? Well, I can do one of those three things. Drinking is off the table because, well, I’m a recovering alcoholic and that wouldn’t be a good thing. Be merry? Well, that’s kind of the point of this post. Being merry eludes me.

Now, before anyone decides that I must be broken and that you are the one person in the world appointed to fix me.

Don’t. Please.

I’m not broken.

Sad? Yes.

Lonely? Ok.

Unsatisfied? Definitely.

But, this is how I feel. And, yes, feelings matter.

I have no intention of throwing in the towel and surrendering to despair. I also have no intention of lying to myself about my own reality.

Yeah, I’m getting older. But, as Dylan Thomas wrote,

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I intend to follow his lead.

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Brad Jersak on Grace

Published by mhelbert on August 15, 2019

I read this today and think that it’s an excellent way to talk about God’s Grace and how that relates to who we are vs. who we aspire to be as Christ followers. So, Enjoy!

“Confession showers your soul and conscience in my mercy, rather than asserting you have no need for it. Confession opens your heart to welcome Grace to transform the Way of your being. Confession reminds you that sin is a failure of love, and I’m calling you back to love. It opens your ears to hear me call you to back to the Father’s house. It calls you, also, to forgive others and to seek their forgiveness. Confession, in short, is a discussion with Grace and a surrender to divine Love. We have this conversation often, not because your heart is rotten, but because the plaque of sin obscures your truest self. It wants removal so that you shine brightly in this world.”

Read the entire piece by Brad Jersak here.

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Innit Cool?

Published by mhelbert on June 27, 2019

Since June 2 I’ve had the opportunity to lead an adult Bible study at the church I currently attend. The priest here had started a similar study in the weeks before Lent. It was set aside as we all entered into the Easter season. It happened that several people thought that the study should be resurrected, (pun intended). So, Fr. Alex asked me if I would be open to help. So, here we are.

We are currently following the Revised Common Lectionary reading for each Sunday. Fr. Alex stated that it might be helpful to take a closer look at some of the passages that would be read that morning. So often these are simply read during the service without a great deal of reflection. This Bible study could help to provide tools with which they could reflect more fruitfully.

That all sounds ok.

I’m glad to help out with this. Especially, since I have the training and education to take on this role.

As we started things I knew that at some point Fr. Alex and I would touch on a common text. And, we would have divergent ‘takes’ on that text. I wondered how the folks who sat in on the Bible study and listened to Fr. Alex’s sermon might hear those different views. And, how I might address them.

Well, this past Sunday we did just that. We both spent time on the same passage from the Gospel according to Luke. And, yes, we looked at the passage from two distinct perspectives.

The text was from Luke 8:26-39. It’s the story of a man who was possessed by many demons. He lived among the tombs in the region of the Gerasenes on the eastern end of the Sea of Galilee. The story tells of how he could not be restrained by any means as he ran naked through the tombs. When Jesus and his disciples showed up, the man confronted Jesus and begged Jesus to not torment him. Jesus asked his name. The man said, “Legion,” for many demons dwelt in him.

The story goes on to state how “Legion” begged Jesus to send them into a local herd of pigs, who subsequently ran down a slope into the sea where they drowned.

Now, there’s a whole lot in this passage. People a lot smarter than me have argued about who the man was; where exactly did this happen; why pigs?

Fr. Alex shared from the pulpit how this passage demonstrated a clear political message that would have resonated with the original hearers of the story. He explained how Roman troops, who at the time occupied Israel and the surrounding territories, could be assembled in a group of about 6,000 soldiers called a Legion. Also, around this time a particular legion known as the Legio X Fretensis occupied Jerusalem and had on their banners the image of a boar.

You can begin to see where Fr. Alex was drawing similarities between the story and actual events.

His point was that the people who heard this originally would have understood the references and seen the story of Jesus overcoming the evil forces brought by Rome and “bringing justice into the midst of human suffering.”

He then reminded us of a message he gave on Pentecost Sunday in which he explained how we, as the Body of Christ, are the very hands and feet of Jesus in our world today.

If we are that, then we have the obligation and task to be the bringers of justice and deliverance to the oppressed people that we encounter. He cited the grave humanitarian catastrophe that is currently happening on our southern border. He challenged us to consider how we might each respond to the mounting injustice.

AMEN! Preach it!

But, then…there was my take on the story.

You see Fr. Alex had been inspired to share his liberationist understanding by news articles during the week that exposed what was happening to people. People made in the Image of God. People for whom Jesus gave his life.

I, on the other hand, was inspired by another of our Sunday lections. This one from Is. 65:1-9. The first couple of verses in this text reveal God desperately seeking God’s own people. God cries, “Here I am, here I am,” to people who ignore God. Isaiah wrote that God was sitting at the city gates with arms outstretched. This would have been how a beggar acted.

Certainly not God.

Yet, here we have an image of God revealed as a servant in order to help the people God so loved. I saw God allowing Godself to be seen and known by a people who had no interest.

The bottom line there was that God DESIRED to be seen and found. God was open for business. Come on in!

Similarly, at least to me, in the Gospel text my mind zeroed in on Jesus’ encounter with the possessed man. Jesus said,

“What is your name?”

Wow!

Here was a man who was obviously tormented. He had been chained and tied. He lived among the dead. He was naked and cast out.

And Jesus looked into his eyes and asked, “Who are you?”

Jesus, like God in the Isaiah text, made himself vulnerable to someone who was in desperate need. Someone who was potentially violent. Someone who had been cast aside and rejected.

Someone who was made in the image of God and for whom Jesus was willing to give His life.

Yeah, Fr. Alex and I came at the same text from two very different places and came to two different conclusions.

But, are they really that different?

Fr. Alex saw the text and gave us an actionable charge. As a pastor, that’s what he’s called to do. He energized us to get involved to help however we can with time, money, prayer.

I came to the text as a contemplative and revealed, I believe, a piece of God’s heart that will also lead to action. Albeit, a different flavor. I desire people to see, feel, touch, and know God intimately. To live and experience God’s deep love for all of the Cosmos. Then, to share that with others. Perhaps, especially with those who are suffering at the hands of a strong oppressor.

So, different takes on the same text. Both speaking God’s Word to those who can hear.

Innit Cool?

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Love Your Enemies, Or Love God?

Published by mhelbert on June 20, 2019

It should really be a no-brainer. In fact, it seems that if you love God you will necessarily love your enemy.

Right?

For anyone whose home isn’t in some cave deep in the jungle that statement would ring true. But, for those of us who live and breathe in the U.S. things are a bit more nuanced, to say the least.

I spend a lot of time reading blogs, essays, and news reports from various sources. (Admittedly, Fox News is not one of them.) These pieces cover subjects from climate change to koalas with VD.

There is one topic that seems to garner a bit more than its fair share of coverage. That is, White Evangelicalism.

What is this, you ask?

White Evangelicalism is the broad umbrella that folks use to cover White conservatives who share some kind of Evangelical faith in God. These are the folks who voted overwhelmingly for Donald “Pussy Grabber” Trump. Some polls show that a good 83% of these people who profess to follow Jesus of Nazareth voted for him.

White Evangelicals are largely conservative politically and socially. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that. I respect their right to make those choices and will go to the mat with anyone who would try to take that right away. However, many of these people go well beyond simply supporting conservative causes. These others actively work to deny the rights of others to express themselves in a like fashion.

People like Steven Anderson, pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church. Pastor Anderson is vocally anti LGBT. His hatred for LGBT people has gotten him banned from several countries in Africa and Europe.

There’s Robert Jeffress of First Baptist in Dallas. He is a noted supporter of Mr. Trump and other hard-line, nationalist conservatives. In his mind it seems that there are only two groups of people, White Evangelicals and Everyone Else. Everyone Else is, well, you get it. He and others whom historian John Fea refers to as Court Evangelicals have an agenda that seems to desire an American theocracy with White Evangelicals at the helm. No other solution to what they see are the ills that plague this nation is possible. For them it is a zero sum game where any gain by Everyone Else is necessarily a loss for White Evangelicals. Period. End of story. This causes Pastor Jeffress and others like him, say, Franklin Graham, Jim Dobson, Jerry Falwell, Jr., and others to view Everyone Else as enemies to be vanquished.

So what? Who really cares what a bunch of crotchety old white guys think, anyway?

Well, me for one.

Yeah, I consider myself part of Everyone Else. But, that’s not why what these people think or say. The thing that bothers me is that they spew their hatred for Everyone Else in the name of Jesus. And, I’m sorry, that doesn’t cut it. These people don’t get a free pass to hate others in the name of a Person who hated no one.

So, a few days ago as I was praying I had to confess to God that I felt that these people were enemies of the Gospel. That also made them my enemies. This was hard for me to say. After all, I lay claim to faith in God through Christ. Just like many of those White Evangelicals do. Shouldn’t I consider them my sisters and brothers? After all, not all siblings get along real well. But, they’re still siblings none the less.

Well, maybe. I supposed sisters can grow up in a way that will alienated them from their sisters and brothers. They could technically become ‘enemies.’

But, what I feel is different. It’s like these people are illegitimate children. Bastards born of a different lineage all together. How was I to deal with this? Should I attack them like they attack Everyone Else? No, that doesn’t sound right. Should I embrace them and engage with them with the love of Christ? That sounds like enabling. I don’t think that’ll work either. What then?

So, I prayed.

A couple of days before this I led a Bible study at the church I attend. One of the texts we looked at was Psalm 8. In that Psalm is this line: ” Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger,” NRSV. I don’t like that translation so much. Looking at the original language I think a better translation would be, “Out of the mouths of children and sucklings You have established a stronghold that will silence Your foe and avenger.” It seems that the praise of those who are the weakest and most vulnerable is capable of silencing the loud clamor of those who stand opposed to God.

I realized that I don’t need to take White Evangelicalism to task. I really don’t even need to deal with them at all. My first obligation is to praise God and live in a manner that reveals God’s heart for EVERYONE, (White Evangelicals included). By doing that and encouraging others to do likewise, the voices of the Enemy will be silenced.

Should we love our enemies? Yeah. But, that doesn’t mean that we must engage with them on their terms. Our first responsibility is to love and engage with God. Anything more is just noise.

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Rachel Held Evans – You Will Be Missed

Published by mhelbert on May 6, 2019

On April 26 I shared that author and all around great person Rachel Held Evans was not doing well. She had a bad reaction to treatment for an infection. The treatment caused her brain to have seizures. She was placed in a medically induced coma to stop the seizures.

Today, it’s with deep sadness that I share that Rachel passed on Saturday, May 4.

Here is what her husband, Dan, shared,

“Rachel was slowly weaned from the coma medication. Her seizures returned but at a reduced rate. There were periods of time where she didn’t have seizures at all. Rachel did not return to an alert state during this process. The hospital team worked to diagnose the primary cause of her seizures and proactively treated for some known possible causes for which diagnostics were not immediately available due to physical limitations.

Early Thursday morning, May 2, Rachel experienced sudden and extreme changes in her vitals. The team at the hospital discovered extensive swelling of her brain and took emergency action to stabilize her. The team worked until Friday afternoon to the best of their ability to save her. This swelling event caused severe damage and ultimately was not survivable.

Rachel died early Saturday morning, May 4, 2019.

This entire experience is surreal. I keep hoping it’s a nightmare from which I’ll awake. I feel like I’m telling someone else’s story. I cannot express how much the support means to me and our kids. To everyone who has prayed, called, texted, driven, flown, given of themselves physically and financially to help ease this burden: Thank you. We are privileged. Rachel’s presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her.”

We join with Dan and all who knew and loved Rachel in mourning her passing.

I will share more later.

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Indigenous Spirituality

Published by mhelbert on January 9, 2019

One of the basic tenets of Western Christianity is that only those people who believe in Jesus as the Son of God can be saved or accepted by God. They cite especially the text in the Gospel According to John where Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by me.”

That does sound pretty exclusive.

So, missionaries and colonists took their understanding of God and the Gospel and went out to the uttermost parts of the world in order to make disciples of all people.

It looks like the right thing to do. From a certain point of view.

A point of view that I no longer find tenable.

As I walk among friends from diverse cultures I find that God has already shown up to them. No, not like with Jesus. But, truly the influence of Creator is not the personal property of Christians or Jews. Creator has touched the hearts and lives of billions of other souls in ways that we in the West just don’t seem to understand.

And, THAT’S OK!

We don’t need to understand. We do, however, need to love and encourage each of these cultures to cultivate their relationships and understand of God. We can do that without imposing our Western culture on them.

So, I have no problem sharing this link to a group called, the International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers. These women have a heart for Creator, Creation, and all those who call this big piece of space rock home. I believe that they have truly experienced God. Their Way, Truth, and Life may look different than mine. That doesn’t mean they are wrong.

So, I invite you to click on the above link and check them out. Who knows, we may all learn something!

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Happy New Year!

Published by mhelbert on January 1, 2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2019 is finally under way.

At my age it seems like no big deal. One year looks pretty much like the last and the last.

However, during the last bit of 2018 my heart began to move in a new and different direction. I’m not sure what that even means. Perhaps, I’ll share some of it as I see it more clearly.

Until then, though, I want to share something from Fr Thomas Merton. Merton was a Trappist monk who lived at the Cistercian monastery at Gethsemani, KY. His writings are golden for those of us called to a more contemplative path toward faith. Here is how he recorded a personal epiphany. This is something that more of us would do well to consider and embrace.

“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift.”

― Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guily Bystander

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The Image of God

Published by mhelbert on December 28, 2018

Image from http://www.messagetoeagle.com/astronomers-probe-the-cosmic-web-of-the-universe/

God, Almighty Creator, seated in the Heavenlies on Your Throne! All Powerful, Ever Present, All Knowing!
This is the image that most Christian sects share somewhere in their core beliefs. These are images that help followers grasp the enormity of God. For, as they also teach, God is Infinite, Eternal, Alpha and Omega, First and Last. These words describe how impossible it really is us to wrap our finite, human brains around any concept of the Divine.
In fact, it is so impossible that the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, states clearly that we humans are not to even attempt to imagine God in any physical form. It seems that God was pretty serious about that.
Of course, we didn’t pay much attention to that.
Yesterday, my wife and I spent a couple of hours at the Cleveland Museum of Art. (What a great resource! But, that’s another story.) One thing that was abundantly clear was that artists throughout history have tried to imagine the image of God! Canvas and paint; carved wood, alabaster, and other stone; precious metals and gems. We saw images of God the Father looking down from the sky. There was one where the Holy Spirit was painted as a giant dove whose wings appeared to be proceeding from the mouths of Father and Son. I even saw one rendering of the Holy Spirit that looked more like an over-fed pigeon from Central Park in New York City made of silver. These were offered by various artists to render God, to usher the Divine into the non-Divine. And, no one seems to mind. There were wars fought over images and icons. “It’s ok to make these images. Just so long as we don’t “worship” them.
I considered this today in the quiet of my office, candles burning casting a gentle, living light.
What image might I use to describe God? How might the divine be understood by mere flesh and blood?
As I sat silently in God’s presence I saw an image.
I saw what many scientists think the Universe looks like. It reveals a vast network of light. Clusters of stars and nebulae connected to each other by “threads” made of the same stuff. In between there is Dark Matter and Dark Energy, (not all is light). Nebulae, dust, stars, comets, Black Holes, debris of every king, light, dark … All of it. Every creature, plant, and rock. The very particles of light and every wave of energy.
GOD.
I AM.
I AM BECOMING.
Near us.
Within us.
Yet…
Not us.
Entirely, “Other.”
This is what God ‘looks’ like!
Yet, even this is not quite right. Is it?
We tend to see God by way of negation.
God is not there.God is not present with “Them.”
God is not, cannot be, this or that.
I call bullshit on that.
God is not a negation; a non-presence. God is a lively, vital Presence! God is a resounding YES! It may be said that God penetrates into the very essence of the Universe and reaches beyond both time and space.
That, my friends, is entirely Inclusive.
Make no mistake, I think that there is definitely a difference between God and Not God; Creator and created; Divine and Non-Divine. Yet, they cannot be separated.
I have no idea how any of this works. So, please don’t ask. I’m not God; not Divine. I’m just a clump of dust that somehow contains the essence of the Divine. A spark of that live-giving energy that resides within molded clay.
May I be a clay lamp rather than a clay pot.

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It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Published by mhelbert on December 25, 2018

The song says that this is the “Most Wonderful Time of the Year!”
I really want to believe that.
But, it’s so bloody hard.
It’s not hard because of all the chaos and turmoil that is churning around the globe.
Politics and the economy effect people, for sure. And, unless you’re part of the 1%, the effect
isn’t necessarily good.
Then there are the wars and famines and stuff. Those things are never good
Families break up, (or, are broken up by the aforementioned war and stuff).
The news carries stories of robbery, rape, murder, fires, floods, etc. that destroy people
and all of their hopes and dreams.
No, these aren’t the things that make this time of the year a tad less than “Wonderful.”
I think that there’s a presumption out there that because of an event 2,000 years ago we
are somehow special. We are made in the image and likeness of some Creator God that
has chosen us to stand on the necks of others. The perceptions that we, at least in the West,
have of ourselves is that we are ‘exceptional.’
But, are we…really?
There’s another story that’s told this time of year. One that may truly be exceptional. A story that was told a very long time ago. A story that should show us what it means to be human in this world. This story talks about vulnerability and danger. There is action and escape. More importantly, though, I think that the story reveals God’s heart in a way that all of the “Thou Shalt Not” commands can never possibly show.
So, let’s take a look, shall we?
“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up form the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.’
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby , who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.”
Take a few minutes. Read it again. Chew on it.
Where are all of the ‘exceptional’ people? You know, the ones with money, prestige, and power. Where are the governments who wage war on other nations? And, their own people. Where is Wall Street, Madison Ave., and all of the other centers of economic power?
I don’t see them. Do you?
I only see a family in a backwater town in an occupied country trying to get by.
So, how is it that so many of us simply don’t get it? We go about life day by day without a care or a clue. “We’re special!” we tell ourselves.
Are we?
No, I think not.
That family in the story was special. As are all of the other families just like them throughout the world.
This is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

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Magnificat – The Song of Mary

Published by mhelbert on December 24, 2018

I really wish that there was an image of Mary with a fist raised in defiance. Something to really illustrate the strength of that young woman.

Yesterday at church we used the Song of Mary, or the Magnificat, for a responsive reading. During the sermon our Priest asked us to read it again. Then, he challenged us to take our bulletins home and spend some time reflecting on these words of Jesus’ mother.
Before that challenge, though, he shared some background for the song. He did this, of course, to color our own meditation on it. Well, that is his job; to guide and instruct.
He helped us to understand that at the time Mary was pregnant with Jesus, she was extremely vulnerable.
She was a young woman, probably a teenager.
She was not married. (At least officially.)
She was not well to do. (It was implied in the text that she came from a poor family.)
All of these are what we would call ‘risk factors.’ Any one of which could be life threatening. All of them together? She was in real peril for her life. At the very least, she could be cut off from her people. Her family, friends…her God. And, at worst? The Law of God stated that someone who had committed adultery should be taken outside the town and stoned to death.
And, yet, when God’s messenger came to tell her that God had taken notice of her and desired that she would be the conduit through whom the salvation of her people would arrive, well, her response was epic.
“Behold, the servant of the Lord. According to your word, may it be come to me.”
Wow! Stop to consider that for a minute. A stranger just showed up in Mary’s room and informed her that God thought it would be a great idea if she became pregnant. Right! But wait! There’s more! The child that would be conceived would be called “the Son of the Most High!” Mary, a young woman from a backwater town, who had nothing to offer anyone, let alone God, offered all that she could. Herself.
She knew the risks. She understood consent.
She still gave.
So, when the story tells of her arrival at her cousin, Elizabeth’s home, and Liz’s own child leaps within her because of the child that is growing within Mary, Mary’s own joy cannot be held.
In the face of all of the powers that be who would condemn her for getting pregnant and those who would throw the Law at her, she stood in defiance and gave the praise and glory to the One Who had performed this great act of power.
With that in mind, her is Mary’s Song. Read it. Reflect on it.*
“My soul praises the greatness of the Lord!
And, my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior!
For, He has noticed the lowliness of His servant.
For, Behold! From this time all generations will consider me blessed!
For the Mighty One has done great things to me.
And, His name is Holy!
His mercy is to generations and generations of those who revere Him.
He has performed mighty deeds with His powerful arm,
He scattered the arrogant intent of their heart.
He tore down the powerful from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
Those who hunger He satisfied with good things,
And, the rich he sent away empty.
He has come to the aid of His child, Israel,
To remember mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers; to Abraham and his descendants into Eternity.”
*(Translation mine.)
May you have a truly blessed holiday!
And, take a minute to remember a strong, young woman whose own humility before
her God made this all possible.

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