Embracing a Common Future

 

 

Edmund Rice Christian Brothers

North America

Thursday, 09 August 2007

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DEEPENING THE SPIRITUALITY

OF THE HEART OF BEING BROTHER

[New!]Reflection on Phillipians 2

Cultures usually need

the new life of strangers/outsiders

in order to survive,

otherwise inbreeding leads to decay.

Anthony Gittins

 

Reflection         Yes

I love the word

     And hear its long struggle with no

        Even in the bird's throat

And the budging crocus.

Some winter's night

      I see it flood the faces

            Of my friends, ripen their laughter

And plant early flowers in

     Their conversation.

 

You will understand when I say

     It is for me a morning word

Though it is older than the sea

     And hisses in a way

            That may have given

   An example

            To the serpent itself.

 

It is this ageless incipience

     Whose influence is found

           In the first and last pages of books,

In the grim skin of the affirmative battler

      And in the voices of women

              That constitutes the morning quality

     Of yes.

 

We have all

     Thought what it must be like

              Never to grow old,

   The dreams of our elders

              have mythic endurance

Though their hearts are stilled

            But the only agelessness

     Is yes.

 

I am always beginning to appreciate

             The agony from which it is born.

   Clues from here and there

             Suggest such agony is hard to bear

   But is the shaping God

             Of the word that we

            Sometimes hear, and struggle to be.

              by Brendan Kennelly

 

Scripture         Philippians 2

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care-- then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.

 

Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death--and the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion.

 

Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth--even those long ago dead and buried--will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.

 

Some Questions for Reflection

How does Paul present Jesus as stranger?

Cultures can be challenged by Strangers. How did Jesus challenge Jewish identity of his day?

What can we learn from Jesus’ example?

 

 

Blessed Edmund

The God-fire which burned in the heart of Blessed Edmund became in him the energy for transformation in the lives of many others also, especially the people who were poor, neglected and relegated to the margins of mainstream society. ... the wonderful mystery which Edmund and his early companions set out to express in their life and mission was to be nothing other than the god-life within them.

Introduction - Constitutions, 1996

 

Congregation

"Our sharing and reflection ... have drawn us to a global way of looking at the earth, its people and its needs. ... we bring a special sensitivity to the search for global unity in the one Creator God."

 

PRAYER

Welcome, Lord Jesus,

into our flesh, into the heart of humanness.

I welcome Your godly holiness upon earth.

I welcome Your complete humanness

upon my life world.

I welcome You, Yourself, into my life and self.

I thank You that I may embrace humanity

and find myself embracing You.

For You remain in our flesh now and forever,

among humankind whose eyes reflect Your eyes,

whose use of words matches Your use of words,

whose need of you matches

Your willing need for us.

                                            Amen.