~~~SisterSea~~~

By Victoria Marie (2006, 2013) Introduction Some of the current theoretical perspectives are seriously questioning “taken for granted” dichotomies and dualisms such as:  mind/body; intellectual/emotional; and, public/private.  Many of us acknowledge that the dividing lines are getting blurry, if not disappearing altogether.  Yet when it comes to spiritual/physical one of three things happen.  The spiritual is severed from the physical, denied existence, or wedded to religion.  Religion may be the way some of us choose to express our faith but spirituality is where love and compassion reside.  Love and compassion are not necessarily concomitant with religion but they cannot be separated from spirituality.  Someone once said, “religion is like a monument; spirituality is like a river.”  Spirituality is alive, changing, flowing, joining. …spirituality concerns the experience of striving for self-transcendence, to be in relati...

Shared Homily Starter 1st reading: Proverbs 8.22-31 , Responsorial:   Psalm 8 , 2nd reading: Romans 5.1-5 , Gospel: John 16.12-15 Thought themes:   Wholeness – Whole – Holy – Love Energy Several years ago, Sarah and I were on a Global Awareness Through Experience or GATE program in Mexico.  One of the places we visited was a café-general store and guest house in Cholula run by an Aztec family.  While we were chatting with owner’s daughter, our GATE program director asked her, if God was male or female in Aztec theology.  Her answer gave me one of those “Yes!” moments.  She said, “God is neither male nor female.  God is energy”.  The gods and goddesses in the Aztec pantheon are aspects of the Divine Energy that attends to a specific need of the people at a specific point in cyclical time, for example, harvest time or during drought, etc.  I relate this story to demonstrate how we have been taught to think in di...

Shared Homily Starter Acts 7:54-60 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 John 17:20-26 Today we celebrate the Seventh Sunday of Easter and also The Feast of the Ascension.   Jesus ascension as described in Scripture was a single event.    I believe that for us ascension is a process that begins in our mortal lives and continues even after.   What echoed in my mind with today’s readings were transformation and “the promises of Christ” or more specifically, the last phrase of one of the rosary end prayers, “that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ”.   That phrase brings to mind images of being pruned and moulded and growing into God’s plan for us.   I’m sure we all have said this phrase, which ends the rosary a thousand times.   But how much thought have we given these words.   I’ll come back to this. This week at Sr. Margaret Moore’s funeral, Fr. Ken spoke of the beatitudes.   The beatitudes are as Fr. Ken suggested─ ...

First Reading: Acts 14:21-27 Second Reading: Revelation 21:1-5 Gospel: John 13:31-35 I looked at today’s Gospel as having three parts.   The first part tells us about the Speaker.   The second part is like the bridge in a song that leads to the final verse.   The third part is a commissioning. So, what does the phrase the “Son of Man”, which we would rightly take to mean “a human being”, tell us about Jesus?   The first meaning of the phrase “Son of Man” is as a reference to the prophecy of Daniel 7:13-14, “ As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven.   And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.   To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.   His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed .”   The description of “Son of Man” ...