For this post, I’m going back to listing all the readings at the beginning in case you want to revisit them and pray with them. I’m not going to dive deeply into any one of them. My memory, limited though it is, says I’ve already sat with the first, third, and fifth readings and written about them here You can read posts related to these readings by going back to “Earth,Wind, and Fire,” and “Locked Doors.”
Nothing jumped out at me about those passages when I returned to them this time around. This experience seems ironic, given that today is Pentecost this year, and Pentecost celebrates the opposite of the spiritual blahs, a.k.a “spiritual dryness.” Pentecost celebrates the Holy Spirit giving the apostles what they need to witness to what they’ve experienced and learned so they can care for those who follow Jesus and help their spiritual family grow in numbers.
The psalm is a wonderful prayer of invocation and praise for this celebration. I need to pray with it, and I will, but when I read it this week, I just felt prompted to pray with its words, not to explore it more deeply.
I think what’s going on with me ties to what I posted about last week. Thanks to the first, third, and fifth readings, I can read about how the Holy Spirit moved within the early church. These passages are great reminders and great stories, but receiving the same reminder, reading the same story over and over, isn’t the same as experiencing for myself what the early church experiences in this week’s readings.
So I’m going to invite the Holy Spirit to enlighten my senses — my eyes, ears, mind, heart, and lips. I’m going to extend this invitation using the Pentecost Sequence. I consider it a beautiful example of sacred poetry, and more specifically, liturgical poetry. (These are the names I’m giving it. I don’t know if these are some names the professionals apply to it.) As far as I’m concerned, it cries out with all the longings of the human soul in ways that paint pictures on the canvas of the mind. The comprehensive quality and the vividness of the sequence as well as its musicality are the reasons it resonates with me this week. For me, these qualities are enhanced by John Michael Talbot’s musical version,, “Come Holy Spirit.” You may want to have headphones on when you click the previous link, as it leads to the original version posted on the song on the musician and composer’s YouTube channel.
When you have headphones, and you’re able to set time aside to enjoy beautiful prayers, music, and poetry, I hope you’ll join me in following the links in this post. These links lead to expanded forms of the prayer I’ll close this week’s post with: Come, Holy Spirit. Amen.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call. . .
Ephesians 1:18
In the first verse that jumped out at me from this week’s readings, we’re given a promise that I’ve long interpreted as a command that I was constantly failing to fulfill, a command that felt pretty close to impossible to fulfill.
The first verse does give us a mission, the mission — but not one that belongs to any one of us by ourselves. It’s one we fulfill in ways we don’t always understand because it is fulfilled not by us alone but by the Holy Spirit working through us. The reading from Ephesians reminds us of
the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way [italics mine].
Ephesians 1:19-23
This letter is written to a group of people who have allowed Christ to have dominion over their lives and who rejoice in the power and the hope of being members of his body. They are members of the early church because they’ve learned and experienced that Jesus came to be the first resurrected one among them but not the last. Their destiny is to be resurrected like him, provided they empty themselves as he emptied himself.
I imagine they knew they needed to surrender whatever blocked the movement of the Holy Spirit within and among them.. I imagine they knew “the fullness of the one fills all things in every way,” who works where he has room to work and they wanted to give him lots of room because they were excited to be the body tasked with putting that faith that the Spirit inspires into action so that the body can thrive (Eph. 1:23). (It’s weird to me to use a gendered pronoun to describe the Spirit, which has nobody, but because Jesus does so in John 14:15-21, I’ve done so here.) To me, to thrive means to remain open and to grow, not to stagnate.
I feel the most open, the most consistently on a path of growth when I’m not settling for recounting someone else’s experience of the Spirit’s movement but looking for its movement within and around me and sharing what I experience and see. This sharing what I experience is my current understanding have of what it means to be a witness. A friend of mine once said that this understanding wasn’t completely different from being a witness in court or the witness of an accident. Should I find myself in these situations, I’m not called to repeat what I haven’t personally experienced.
So how can I experience the movement of the Holy Spirit within and around me so that I can be a witness to the life he offers? For me, this is where the second verse I started this post with comes in. I ask the Spirit “to enlighten [my] heart, that [I] may know the hope that belongs to his call” [italics mine] (Eph.1:18).
This knowing isn’t merely a process of the mind. It isn’t the result of memorization, though memorization can lay the groundwork for knowing with the heart. What we receive from those who came before us and those who journey with us, which is partly head knowledge, gives us words for naming our experiences and names for how those experiences relate to each other. This language gives us a means for interpreting our experiences and for putting them into perspective. Without the words we’ve been taught, we couldn’t share our heart knowing with one another. We would neither be able to name the heart knowledge we had in common, nor what is unique to each of our callings. And both the unique aspects and the shared ones are important facets of each person’s vocation and effectiveness as a witness.
Lord, teach me to have a humble spirit that’s open to Your wisdom and beauty so I can recognize and experience both in the people and places around me and share my experience of You with others. Amen.
The Bible.The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm
Confession (or a peek behind the curtain): as I’m writing these words, it’s May 9. Since my Lenten Stations of the Cross series wrapped up, I’ve been writing the posts ahead. I hoped that by doing this, I’d have more time to reflect on the readings, and I’d be able to publish reflections that refer to the Mass readings for the day
Well, I got the first benefit with this post, but not the second. This post isn’t going to refer to this week’s readings because I just realized I looked at the wrong day’s readings when I started working on this post. The result is that this post makes a connection to last week’s readings — the readings for May 7 — not the readings for May 14.
Still, I enjoyed the connection I encountered between a verse in the May 7 Gospel reading and Psalm 23. So, with the exception of this introduction, I’m going to publish this post in what I previously thought would be its final form. The next post may relate to the readings for May 21, but then again, knowing me, it may not. Thanks for coming along with me on the adventure that is this blog.
“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else, believe because of the works themselves”
John 14:11
You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Indeed, goodness and mercy* will pursue me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of the LORD for endless days.
Psalm 23:5-6, The New American Bible Revised Edition
The readings for this Sunday don’t include Psalm 23, but I’ve found a point of intersection between the next two verses of the psalm and John 14:11, a verse from today’s Gospel reading. To me, verses 5 and 6 of Psalm 23 have something to say about how the Shepherd’s service shows even those who are not members of His fold just how powerful authority employed for care is. This care holds a power that everyone recognizes and wants to benefit from, even though not everyone recognizes the Foremost and Ultimate Shepherd and Host for who He is. Few people wouldn’t marvel at a host setting a banquet before a guest. According to the New American Bible Revised Edition, the banquet would signal to the psalmist’s enemies that he’s a “friend and guest” of God (Psalm 23: 5n).
But this host doesn’t just prepare a feast that would be enticing to anyone. He prepares his guests for this feast the likes of which they’ve never seen and can’t imagine or prepare themselves for. He helps them present the best version of ourselves to the world by anoint[ing] [their] head[s] with oil” (Psalm 23:5). The New American Bible Revised Edition says “a perfumed ointment made from olive [was] used especially at banquets” (23:5n). The third line of verse 5 and the note that accompanies it remind me of how someone is anointed with oil at baptism. According to information about the liturgy of baptism from the Diocese of Savannah, Georgia, “The celebrant anoints the person to be baptized with the Oil of Catechumens (an oil that has been blessed by the bishop for the candidates for Baptism) or imposes hands on the person. In this way, the person is being called to renounce sin and to leave behind the domination of the power of evil.” Artza adds that “Biblically, to be anointed was something of great significance, as it symbolized the Lord’s favor.” This Divine call and favor prepares the person for the heavenly feast, a gathering (communion) of the Host and His guests that satisfies their every desire and fills them with joy they can’t contain. I imagine it overflowing so that it can be shared among the guests and the host.
Many guests haven’t yet arrived at this feast, yet they aren’t totally cut off from its delights. They encounter “green pastures” and “still waters” that restore their souls after they’ve walked through “dark valley[s],” “the valley of the shadow of death” even (Psalm 23:2 and 4, The New American Bible Revised Edition; New American Bible, 2001 edition). These gifts help them endure the next valley they must pass through on the way to the feast as well. He doesn’t just lead them to these delights, either. These delights are both behind and ahead — for looking forward to and back upon for reassurance. They are ahead and behind because the Shepherd is always ahead, beside, and behind the members of His flock (Psalm 23: 4, The New American Bible Revised Edition). He is with them, and He “pursue[s]” them (Psalm 23:6, The New American Bible Revised Edition). [They are] “in the father, and the father is in [then]” (John 14:11).
Lord, remind me to look for You behind me, beside me, and ahead of me so that I may abide in You and so that You and Your works may be glorified because of my life. Amen.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday 30 April 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.
He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side, with your rod and your staff that give me courage.
— New American Bible, 2001 Edition
He guides me along right paths* for the sake of his name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.
— New American Bible Revised Edition, 2011
Psalm 23: 3b-4
He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley I fear no evil; for you are at my side, with your rod and your staff that give me courage.
— New American Bible, 2001 Edition
He guides me along right paths* for the sake of his name. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.
— New American Bible Revised Edition, 2011
As I announced at the end of last week’s post, I’m continuing to sit with Psalm 23 this week. The first line of this week’s excerpt paints a different picture in my mind than the “green pastures” or “still waters” of last week (Psalm 23: 2). I picture Jesus walking with me in a canyon. He’s behind me, actually. He has one hand on each shoulder, and I know that, using power I trust though I don’t understand it, he will guide me along the often steep, rocky path between the river at the bottom of this canyon and its rim. There will be times when I roll backwards (I use a wheelchair, remember?), many times, but he won’t let me fall the several stories into the raging river that carved the canyon. I won’t get lost in this place and be trapped forever. This is what being guided “in” or “along right paths” looks like to me (New American Bible, 2001 Edition; New American Bible Revised Edition). Maybe the canyon is this life.
So what’s with this line about “for his name’s sake”? (New American Bible, 2001 Edition).
To me, this phrase is a reminder of who God is. God is all that’s good: God is presence rather than absence, truth rather than lies, self-giving love rather than apathy. God cannot be what and who God isn’t, so the Shepherd of Psalm 23 can only lead sheep along the path that not only protects them but also allows them to thrive.
The path that allows them to thrive is often not well lit. The sheep’s view of the Light Source is blocked by the high canyon walls that surround the valleys through which the Shepherd leads them. Yet being surrounded by darkness is no reason to fear it because the Shepherd is with them in it. He isn’t guiding the herd through the darkness from a distance. He became a sheep himself and allowed himself to be slaughtered so he could walk alongside others facing slaughter and show them how to avoid this fate.
The rod was used to fight off wild animals and to count the sheep and direct them. The rod prodded them during the day in the fields and at night into the sheepfold. A willing sheep would respond to the prodding, but a stubborn, strong-willed sheep would not.
While sheep might not be as dumb as often suggested, they do have characteristics that give some merit to that claim. They’ll indiscriminately eat just about anything, regardless whether it is something that could harm or kill them. They endlessly wander, seemingly without direction. And many sheep stubbornly resist the shepherd’s prodding. That’s why the staff, with a crook at the end, is needed. The shepherd uses the staff to more strongly exert his authority and to gently, but firmly, pull the sheep back to the fold and keep the sheep moving in the right direction. He can also use the crook of the staff to pull the sheep from harm.
You can view a picture of these tools here. I think of a staff as a support for something else, but it’s apparently not just a supportive device, such as a cane is. It can be used to grasp and pull wandering sheep back to the shepherd if they won’t come back on their own, Abbot writes.
Being prodded back to the right path or pulled to it may not feel very comforting or courage-infusing when it happens. But sometimes it’s necessary to endure temporary pain to prevent longer-term pain. The cross is the ultimate example of this truth. The Shepherd submitted to it to deliver us from eternal pain, and because he didn’t want the pain of being eternally separated from us. In accepting the cross, he promised that any pain we face won’t last forever if we also accept his cross. In surrendering to the cross, he offers us courage and comfort through it, despite the pain it inflicts.
Other ways life follows the pattern of this truth come to my mind:
A medical treatment has difficult side effects but slows or halts the process of a life-threatening disease.
A Good Samaritan performs CPR, and this action causes bruising or popped ribs, (This can happen. Click here to see my source for this example.) but a person’s life is saved, and he or she eventually makes a full recovery.
Parents set boundaries for their children’s technology and media usage, or we set boundaries for our own indulgence in the things we enjoy, and the boundaries aren’t enjoyable in the short term, but living within them makes for healthier lives and means having time to learn important lessons and to build, repair, and strengthen relationships.
Someone misses an occasion he or she is look forward to, choosing instead to get started on a school project or to look after his or her health or someone else’s. Missing out is unpleasant but serves a greater good and pays off in the long term.
So the rods and the staffs of life keep us, the sheep, from wandering off, getting lost and likely getting attacked and killed in the process. We may not experience the rod or the staff as pleasant, but the Shepherd is aware of dangers that sheep aren’t. The shepherd knows the rod and the staff protect his sheep from the greater suffering — or worse — that they’d face if he didn’t use them.
And sometimes, even at the times they’re used, the rod and the staff don’t feel like punishments to the sheep, according to Jack Albright, retired clinical chaplain and freelance writer:
It is used in drawing sheep together into an intimate relationship. He will use his staff to gently lift a newborn lamb and bring it to its mother if they become separated. He does not use his bare hands for fear that the ewe will reject her offspring if it bears the odor of his hands upon it.
“[The staff] is also used for guiding sheep through a new gate or along a dangerous, difficult route. He will use the slender stick to press gently against the animal’s side, and this pressure guides the sheep in the way the owner wants it to go. Thus the sheep is reassured of its proper path . . .”The staff is also used for guiding sheep through a new gate or along a dangerous, difficult route. He will use the slender stick to press gently against the animal’s side, and this pressure guides the sheep in the way the owner wants it to go. Thus the sheep is reassured of its proper path . . . Keller says that he has seen a shepherd walk beside a pet or favorite sheep with his staff gently resting on its back. It appears that they are in touch or walking hand-in-hand. Sheep are not easily trained but this may be a method of training her as a leader.
The Shepherd’s staff – a source of comfort
This excerpt reminds me that, yes, a shepherd reassures his or her sheep. The Good Shepherd does this better than any other. It also reminds me that the Good Shepherd came not just to walk alongside us, amid his flock, but to teach us to be a leader like him. Thank You, Lord, for being the Foremost and Ultimate Shepherd.
And Lord, even when Your protection and your training aren’t experiences I’d like to repeat, help me to recognize You loving me through these difficult times. Help me to respond eagerly to Your efforts to shape me into a leader with Your eyes, Your heart, Your mind, and Your will. Amen.
The Bible. The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday, 7 May 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm.
Sitting with the Sacred 