Foot-washer

 Published in the JagWire, Mercy Academy's alumni magazine. On September 22, we celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the anniversary of the day in 1827 on which Catherine McAuley, founder of the Sisters of Mercy, opened the first “House of Mercy” in Dublin, Ireland.  Mercy Academy observed the day with a scholarship reception, a tribute to three of our Sisters of Mercy, and mass presided by Archbishop Joseph Kurtz. In his homily, the archbishop recalled one of the most beautiful lines from scripture, Psalm 85:11, “Mercy and truth have met each other; justice and peace have kissed.”   Other renditions of the first part of the verse have, “where mercy and truth meet.” That phrase would make a fitting motto for Mercy Academy. Before all of our wonderful academic, athletic, artistic and service programs, we are a “school of mercy.”   A place where we learn to forgive each other, to teach each other, to counsel, correct, and accept,   to be patient when we ...

A reflection written for Mercy Academy on Mercy traditions.  In this reflection, I am going to explore one of our Mercy rituals: praying the Hail Mary together on Friday mornings by joining hands and making a circle in the classroom.     On Tuesday, we celebrated the first mass of the year, the Feast of the Assumption of Mary.  We heard the first part of the Hail Mary proclaimed in the Gospel on the lips of Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin:  “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.”  So, why do Catholics pray these words now?  We see in Mary what God did: a simple Jewish girl who said ‘yes’ to the terrifying, transformative path God laid before her.  Because of this she was chosen to become the Mother of God.  As she proclaimed, “He has looked with favor on his lowly servant / From this day all generations will call me blessed: / the Almighty has done great things for me / and holy is his Name.”  (NAB, Luke 1:46-...

Ash Wednesday Reflection. A reflection for an all school prayer service at Mercy Academy on  Feb 18, 2015.   What if you knew that you were going to die tomorrow? This last week we have gone through a riot of colors: red, lacy and a million shades of … pink for Valentine’s Day.   On Monday, a huge blanket of white enveloped us over what has turned into a longer-than-expected winter break.   Today brings us new colors, the purple of Lent (which is a symbol of repentance) and the dusty grey-black of ashes.     Ash Wednesday and Lent call us to remember our own mortality.   They are a reminder of the stark fact that we all, each one of us, are going to die.   If you are a teenager, you may not have given this much thought. You can be excused for feeling like you’re going to live forever. I sincerely hope that you don’t have much experience of death at your age.   It is worth considering, though, that how ever long your life is, it w...

A Reflection Following the Death of a Student's Parent.  I have had to offer a variation on this reflection too many times in my work as a campus minister.  This is your life, joys and sorrow mingled, one succeeding the other. Catherine McAuley’s Letter to Frances Warde May 28, 1841 The hard truth about being alive is that if we live long enough, we will experience the death of several people that we love.   Seeing these loved ones die is incredibly painful and almost impossible to make sense of. Why does a good God allow people to suffer?   Why do people have to die in the first place? What purpose could it possible serve.          There are not good answers to these questions.   I have spent a long time wresting with them, myself, and the only answer I find satisfying is this: we do not suffer alone.   Our pain troubles God so much that he came to be with us.   God took the form of a human being and told us that...

  Reflection on the Death (Transitus) of St. Francis. Offered at Our Lady of the Woods chapel at Bellarmine University on October 2, 2014.  Readings: https://www.franciscanpenancelibrary.com/transitus-of-saint-francis I have come to know St. Francis through the Franciscans here at Bellarmine and through reading about his life.   I would like to share some of the lessons that I have learned about his life and death. St. Francis teaches us how to die well.   If you were able to able to the Campus Ministry office today, you received a pot filled with Brother or Sister Plant.   This afternoon in the quad, the friars blessed our pets, which we call, “Brother Dog,” “Sister Cat,” or if you are my wife, “Sister Hermit Crab.”   This evening, as our prayer began, perhaps you noticed Sister Moon glowing down at us.   St. Francis praised God through all of these creatures and creations of God. Tonight we also recognize and commemorate the one that he ca...

  Good morning, class of 2023.   You have just heard two readings from the Bible and I am going to give a short reflection on them.   The first reading was about God creating a new thing; the second about Jesus calling new disciples to follow Him.   This year, you will be taking a theology class about the Bible and one idea that you will be hearing is this: the Bible is addressed to each of us here today, not just to the original audience two or three thousand years ago.     So, when we hear God saying, “behold, I am making something new” in that first passage, what He is talking about is you!   You are becoming something new today, with you choices and with God’s help.   You are becoming a high school student and more specifically, a Mercy girl.   You are beginning a new journey in your life and a process of becoming a new person.   What is a Mercy girl? I suspect you have already begun to form an idea through your experiences here...

Every morning at 5:30AM (and at a slightly more merciful 7:15AM on Sundays), the Benedictine monks of St. Meinrad rise from their beds, gather together in their common prayer space, and begin to pray.  They have not spoken since 10PM the previous evening, making their first words of the day significant. Their leader speaks a line from Psalm 51: “O Lord, open my lips.”  His brothers respond in unison, “…and my mouth will proclaim your praise.”     This June, I spent five days at St Meinrad, a monastery nestled in rural southern Indiana taking a class on Benedictine spirituality with Fr. Brendan Moss, OSB, a monk of the house.  Along with nine other lay Catholics, I kept the liturgy of the hours, prayed lectio divina (an ancient form of reflection on Scripture), lived and ate in community, attended class, and practiced so-called “holy leisure.”  Of all the elements of our full days, I found rising early to pray to be the most challenging.  Getting...