Daily HOMILY for December 30, 2013: Monday after Christmas, Cycle A

PODCAST - Press sideways triangle below to listen

or click here if there is no triangle
In 2014, I am facilitating a 12-week interactive online course in contemplative prayer and action for priests with Saint Luke Institute.  Please visit SLIconnect.org to learn more:  https://www.sliconnect.org/product/living-god-program-contemplative-life-2/

Monday after Christmas

St. Luke’s Institute

December 30, 2013

ANNA THE WIDOW ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Widows and widowers know the wrenching grief the death of a spouse brings and the great gaping wound it leaves in one’s life

Ø  Anna, the prophetess, experienced this at much too young an age

Ø  She could not have been much older that 21 or 22 when she lost her husband and may have been a widow for over 60 years

EFFECT OF LOSSES +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  In a culture where a woman’s ID was essentially connected to her relationship with her father or husband, Anna’s being thrust into this state must have been particularly devastating

Ø  Deep grief, no matter its source, has a way of shaking the foundations of our ID

Ø  Who are we, when we are no longer someone’s spouse, brother, sister, child, or friend?

Ø  When we are no longer pastor, minister, teacher, community member?

Ø  When we can no longer garden, walk, write or see?

PROVIDING FOR GROWTH ++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Primitive societies allowed a widow communally protected solitary space to mourn her loss, accept her vulnerability, and reach within for a renewed and deepened ID

Ø  Anna found that protected space in the Temple

Ø  There she was able to find her identity in God

Ø  Healed and renewed she became a spokesperson for God, a prophet

SLI ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Our losses can be openings to a deeper ID

Ø  With the support of others, we allow ourselves the protected solitary time and space needed to turn more totally to God

Ø  With the help of therapists, we are better able to accept, adjust to, and integrate our losses in life

Ø  Within a protected space, those unnerving psychic earthquakes can deepen our experience and conviction of God’s ever loving presence

CONCLUSION +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ø  Those commissioned from SLI tells us that in the light of that presence we can see in new ways

Ø  In the light of that presence we are able to reveal God’s compassionate presence to others

Ø  That day will come for all of us

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++