Faith, Comfort, Courage & Good Hope

As we prayerfully ponder Veteran's Day and also the state of our world, we can pray for an outpouring of the gifts of faith, comfort, courage and good hope. What follows are elements of the liturgy Rev. AndreaGrace prayed with WHIMM and the BeLoved Community over the weekend.

May this be a resource for your own prayer time. Let the Spirit guide you to what elements will enrich you and your circle of love today.

Prayer Practice: Compassion

In the gospels, we see over and over that Jesus had compassion. The word “compassion” comes from the Latin – to suffer with another.  As a spiritual practice, compassion invites us to enter into another person’s pain, to breathe with them.  Joyce Rupp is a contemporary spiritual leader whose life’s work is focused on compassion. Sometimes the problems of the world can seem so big and distant. In prayer, we can have compassion. We can use books, videos, podcasts, movies, music and listening to other people's stories to enter into their pain - for short periods of time.

Listen to Shania Twain sing “Soldier” and watch the video. Breathe with Spirit, our veterans and their families.

Trusting in God’s goodness and that when we pray, graces are poured down, speak the names of veterans from your own lives with the words: God Bless [Veteran’s name] and their circle of love, for example, God bless Rich and his circle of love.

Saints & saints to Inspire & Companion Us

("Saints" with a capital "S" led holy lives and are recognized by The Church. "saints" with a lower-case "s" led holy lives - but The Church does not recognize them... yet!)

Saint Joan of Arc lived in the 1400s in France. At the age of 13, she began having mystical visions. She went on to lead the army to victory over the English. She integrated prayer in the war - having priests line the roads praying as well as rquesting that the soldiers receive sacraments before battle. Eventually, she was captured by the British and then burned at the stake by the Catholic Church for heresy. Her mom and brother petitioned the Church and 20 years later, in a complete reversal, she was canonized a saint. Joan is an inspiration for those in our armed forces and for young people who are inspired to make the world a better place. Her family inspires us to continue to work to make sure our loved ones legacies are accurate and for reform in the Catholic Church. Learn more about St. Joan of Arc.

saint Alleta Abel Sullivan lived in the 1900s in Iowa. She and her husband, Thomas, were Irish Catholics who had seven children. Their five sons enlisted together in World War II and served on a ship that was torpeoed. They perished together. Alleta and Thomas turned their grief into energy to help garner support for the the United States' war efforts. Because of the Sullivans' experience, as well as a family that came after them, the Department of Defense made policy changes preventing future families from losing all their children. Alleta inspires us to turn our unthinkable hardships into forces for good. Learn more about saint Alleta.

Believing that death does not separate our souls, we can ask these powerful women to be with and pray with us, to be with our families, to be with our veterans and their families.

Scripture Readings

These Scripture selections are based on the Comprehensive Catholic Lectionary.

Second Book of Maccabees 7:1-42 tells the story of a mother and her seven sons who were martyred for their faith when Greece was ruling Judea.

Psalm 17 asks God to listen to our prayers and protect us. Consider the version in the book, Rejoice, Beloved Woman! The Psalms Revisioned by Barbara J. Monda.

2nd Thessalonians 2:16-17 (adapted from (Rev. Eugene. Peterson’s The Message) - St. Paul or one of his disciples wrote this letter and prayer to the community in Thessalonika when they were being persecuted for their faith.

May Jesus the Christ and our Loving God, who reaches out in love to surprise us with gifts of unending comfort, courage and good hope, refresh you, strengthen your hearts, invigorate your work, and enliven your speech.

Luke 20:27-40 - in this Gospel, the Sadducees question Jesus about the afterlife. November is Indigineous People's Month. Consider reading this in The First Nations Bible: An Indigenous Bible Translation of the New Testament by Terry M. Wildman

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Rev. AndreaGrace's Reflection

All of our readings today – and even the saints – showcase what we might call untimely deaths  and the pain and resilience of mothers. The writer known as Paul summarizes it so beautifully: gifts of unending comfort, courage and good hope, refresh you, strengthen your hearts, invigorate your work, and enliven your speech.

• As the psalmist encourages us, we need to turn to God with our pain  - not just when we lose someone, but all of the pains we suffer every day, every week.
  

• We learn to recognize God comforting us, in the peace that washes over us, the joy that bubbles up in us, the loved ones who offers an encouraging word, the pet that snuggles with us.
  

• We can learn to listen in prayer, to conscientiously receive God graces – like wisdom as to what our next right step should be and the courage to take it.
  

• Spiritual remembering is reviewing our life and recognizing how God was present to us and helped us through different seasons, periods. By practicing spiritual remembering, we come to recognize that we are a "Paschal" people. "Paschal" from pasqua – meaning Easter. When we think back to the days preceeding Easter, we have:

  • the ordinary times of meals shared with loved ones and serving each other on Holy Thursday

  • the pain of betrayal and untimely deaths on Good Friday

  • the liminal space and waiting of Holy Saturday

  • the new life in ways beyond our wildest imagination of Easter.
    

• One of my favorite names for God is Holy-Mystery-Creating-Goodness. We see this with Alleta Sullivan who turned unthinkable tragedy into power for good – at individual and systemic levels.
  

• When we pray, we connect with God, we release and we receive. As intercessors praying for others and situations, we invoke God’s blessings and that God’s will comes to fruition. Prayer is like giving someone the password for WIFI so they can connect or turning on the electricity so someone can have lights. The WIFI and electricity is present but the people are not connected.
  

• Prayerfully ponder a time that your Faith brought you Comfort, Courage and Good Hope.

  
  

A Blessing

Be blessed my sisters and brothers with a faith that flourishes deeper day by day.

Be blessed with being comforted by God and others – and then being able to comfort others.

Be blessed with courage and wisdom, that you will know what God is inviting you to do, and that you will have the willingness and ability to do it.

Be blessed with good hope that even in the face of difficulty, you may trust in Holy Mystery Creating Goodness.

Be blessed with growing more intimately in God’s love and being transformed to share it more abundantly.

Praying with Songs

Let There Be Peace on Earth performed by the Young People's Chorus of New York

Be Not Afraid by Bob Dufford, performed by Catholic Artists

City of God by Dan Schutte

2 Invitations for YOU!

Pray with Rev. AndreaGrace on Sunday mornings on Zoom at 10 AM ET

Wherever you are on your spiritual journey, whatever you have done or not done, please know that Rev. AndreaGrace will be thrilled to have you join her for prayer on Sunday mornings on Zoom at 10 AM ET. Sign-up here to get the zoom link.

Join Rev. AndreaGrace for an Advent Day-Long Retreat: Journeying in Hope, Peace, Joy & Love

Saturday Dec. 6 in person in Sudbury, MA OR Saturday, Dec. 13 on zoom

Learn more here

PS - please share this blogpost and invitation with someone.