M3M: May 1, 2008
A Call to Simplicity |
Service Team: Nancy M., Lynn H.
Priest: Rick Wilson
OPENING #16 Born of Water
PRAYER #51 One in the Spirit
TABLE #57 Reveal Yourself
SANCTUS #31 Holy, Holy, Holy One 1
CLOSING #19 Christ is Risen From the Dead
A reading from the Christian Gospel : Matthew 18: 1-6 [The Message paraphrase]
At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?” For an answer, Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
A reading from The Tao Te Ching 28th Chapter first 2 paragraphs; translated by Gia-Fu Feng and Jane English
Know the strength of man,
But keep a woman’s care!
Be the stream of the universe!
Being the stream of the universe,
Ever true and unswerving,
Become as a little child once more
Know the white
But keep the black!
Be an example to the world!
Being an example to the world,
ver true and unwavering,
Return to the Infinite.
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
A Reading from the Continuing Revelation of God to People of Faith:
Benedict’s Way, Lonni Collins and Fr. Daniel Homan, OSB
Simplicity is trendy. People have shelves of books and attend conferences lasting a day or longer to learn how to downsize the clutter and complexity of their lives. This is one time when the cliché “Just do it” seems appropriate. … It isn’t just our dressers and closets and pole barns that are jammed. That’s the easy part to simplify. You just square your shoulders and cutback. The harder part? Ceasing all of our complicated artificiality. It is as if it comes naturally to us to disguise ourselves. We are master shape-changers, and we learn it young. We earn it from the first hurts, the times when somehow it was not enough to be ourselves.
With all the beauty and magic that is in us, we learn to lift a mask to our faces, we hide the tears, we tone down the laughter, and we start believing that all skies should be colored blue. The bigger problem, and maybe the root of why we accumulate, has to do with the clutter in our minds and hearts. Our relationships are cluttered, and our energy is fragmented in all directions. …
Keeping to the basics-this is the strength of the Benedictine life. And it starts with the courage to step out of the disguise and into the reality of who we are. It starts with dropping the masks, simplifying our words, our actions, our relationships.
… Even though it is a lt to ask, we are to believe that there is love in the universe packed into and overflowing in the snowflakes and sunrises and the birdcalls and the touch of a friend. We are to believe it enough tom take off the mask. No, it’s not easy. We aren’t going to get it right the first time we try. But keep trying and don’t stop believing. There’s a title of a little Benedictine book that says it well: “Always we begin again.”
Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
Thanks be to God.
