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Mission Sunday
July 18 , 2004
by Matt Gorden

Thank you Father Karl / Charles / Smith and welcome back. I’m glad to help you out with a homily on your first Sunday back. Again, my name is Matt Gorden and I have been a parishioner here at St. Margaret Mary for 14 years with my wife, Deni and our two boys.

I have volunteered to talk to you today about my experiences on two Housing Mission trips I took in the past year to the Dominican Republic or “DR”. Today is Mission Sunday, the only day of this entire year that the Diocese of Orlando has dedicated to raising funds and raising awareness for the numerous projects in our Sister Diocese of San Juan de la Maguana. First, let me orient you. The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean country that shares its island with the country of Haiti. It is about an hour and a half flight from Orlando. Our sister diocese is generally a six-hour drive from the capital, on the western side of the country, through farmland and many square miles of steep mountains and valleys.

How did I get involved in the Housing Mission? I’d never been on a mission before. In fact, I was a lot like Martha in today’s gospel….. so busy with the details of life, my responsibilities, my family, keeping the lawn mowed…just like many of you. Jesus would have admonished me to “be more like Mary” and quiet myself down to hear God’s word. Well, sometimes God’s calling comes via e-mail, asking for help. My friend Steve Marshall acted as the middleman for the Holy Spirit. When I quieted myself down long enough to listen to God, I knew I had to get involved.

I’d like to ask you to quiet yourself for a few minutes…. Be like Mary in today’s gospel…. Clear your mind of the tasks and items on your list of to-do’s for today and the week ahead. Let me and the Holy Spirit take you on a trip to the town of Guayabal. Imagine yourself as part of a poor family that the Orlando diocese mission is helping.

First - imagine your “home”. It is 10 feet by 10 feet and “constructed” of palm fronds, cardboard, some wood boards and mud…. No real walls. Your floor is nothing but dirt. The 10 x 10 home is divided into an eating area and a sleeping area by a piece of cardboard. Beds are made of straw mats. There is a table and two chairs made of tree limbs and scrap lumber held together by rope in your “dining room”. The kitchen is outside, essentially a fire inside a hand made rock oven. The bathroom is an outhouse you share with two other families. This is the home – again, only 10 feet by 10 feet – where you live all your life. Moms give birth here, the kids grow up here and the family takes care of their aging parents here.

As the mom, you are wearing one of your two outfits. You are fortunate to own a pair of shoes. Your role is to gather the food – when available – and that is a daily challenge. Occasionally you might be able to barter for a few eggs or a chicken. You also prepare the food, in one of your four pots -- without a refrigerator, microwave, Saran wrap or any electricity or running water – and serve your family in the only 4 bowls you own. You make sure that your chickens and burro are secure….. and you try and keep most of the animal waste out of the living areas and off the kids, including the toddler, who runs around without a diaper.

OK kids, you also rise at dawn to help the family with the chores of living and surviving. One of you must walk 200 yards down hill to the water pipe (if the water is turned on that day), and fill your (2) 1 gallon containers with water and carry them back home. Fortunately, the Americans in Orlando have donated water-filtering systems, so the water won’t make you sick like it used to. One of you will get ready for school in your 1 blue blouse and 1 pair of jeans. Try and keep them clean as your cousin must wear the same clothes to school later in the day for the afternoon session.

After breakfast, you finish your homework. You have to do it while the sun is up, because your house has no electricity for lights or anything else. Make sure you write small and use both sides of the very precious paper. You only get one pencil every month from your teacher so handle it with great care

For entertainment, you play tag, or play a game of baseball – using sticks and trash -- or play in the river on the hot days…even though your mom worries about the many parasites swimming with you. You don’t own any manufactured toys or a bike or board games....so you make toys with your hands. You and your friends play dodge ball with a grapefruit. And you are the champ at rolling an old wheel rim down the street with a stick. Just like kids did 2000 years ago.

A small example from my first trip – I was given about 40 used tennis balls to bring down, donated by another parishioner in the diocese with a county club connection.. When I brought those balls out, I thought there was going to be a riot, the kids were so excited. But as excited as they were, those kids shared those balls, making sure everyone was able to play. It was the highlight of the town for the whole week. Imagine – being able to play baseball with a real ball instead of a piece of fruit or wadded up trash! And my boys feel deprived if we can’t take the Playstation on vacation….

OK – so now you’re the Dad of the family. You must collect firewood high in the mountains by foot or, if you are lucky, with your burro. You are responsible for growing, finding and delivering the majority of the food for your whole family. On top of that, your “paid job” six days a week is to plant, cultivate and harvest beans, coffee, avocados as part of a co-op. For all his efforts he might make an average of $3 per week. That’s rising before dawn and working very hard physical labor until dusk…or beyond. And hoping that you don’t get sick or hurt while doing it.

If you get sick, there is a clinic in town but there is no real medicine there. A doctor comes to town once or twice a week for a few hours. The doctor comes to this mountain village to supplement his income because he doesn’t earn enough with his practice on the coast taking care of the too few tourists. If you can afford it, you have to buy your medicines at a pharmacy, that is - if there is anything to buy. Usually there are no antibiotics or other basics available. So any cut, eye infection, fever, rash or headache is just part of living.

Many children and adults in the rural areas suffer from malnutrition and lack of basic health care. I have spoken with the nurses and doctors and seen pictures from other missions where the 8 year olds are the size of our 5 year olds. There are distended bellies, crossed eyes and dark skinned children with blond hair because their body does not have the proper nutrition to provide pigment for their naturally black hair. Even last February, we had to go through some difficult challenges just to get eye ointment for a little girl with pink eye, which if left untreated, could really lead to blindness.

I’ve given you a bleak picture, even though it is realistic. Many of our Dominican sisters and brothers lack the tangible necessities of adequate housing, access to potable water, electricity, medical services, nutritious diets and sources of income. Yet, they are overwhelmingly wealthy in faith, love, hope, generosity, and hospitality. They are also the most content, loving and sharing people I have ever met. It is something you have to experience to really understand….. They are much more like Mary, than like Martha. They are in touch with the most important things - in this life. And the children are so generous. I witnessed children being given a bottle of orange drink and immediately passing it over to several other siblings and friends prior to their taking a drink. Would your kids do that? Mine still have a little room for improvement in this area.

So what can we do? People…I mean, moms, dads and kids….. live in this kind of poverty on probably two thirds of our planet. We certainly pray for God’s mercy upon all of them…. but what else can we REALLY do for them? Let me give you some ideas from our Mission Office on how you can share your time, talent and treasure.

First, there are the Mission Trips, like the Housing Mission in which I’ve been able to participate. This program is modeled after Habitat for Humanity, with the new homeowners contributing over 800 hours of construction time. The new mission home is 750 sq. feet, about the size of a two-car garage. That’s 3 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and bathroom with shower. They are made with steel frames and concrete floors. The first phase of the housing project is just wrapping up in the next month or so with the completion of 37 new homes for the poorest of the poor. These folks will move from their shacks into these houses soon. You don’t have to be in the construction industry to help on this mission, although we love to have construction professionals and trades people. I’m in fact planning to return again in February if you are looking for an experienced tour guide.

As you’ve heard, healthcare assistance is vitally needed. Medical and surgical missions have been going to the Dominican Republic from our Diocese for 11 years. If you’d like to donate your talents to a mission trip, they are scheduled throughout the year and typically go from Saturday to Saturday. Also - Spanish language skills are not a requirement as there are some translators available - Although bi-lingual volunteers are an added blessing on any trip.

What if you just can’t make a mission trip? Of course, writing checks is an absolutely wonderful way of sharing our treasure with others. Please know that every single dollar that is collected is used for only mission projects and is used prudently and efficiently. The average income in this region ranges from nothing to only several dollars a month, so your generosity can go a long, long way. Even just $25 will be enough to buy a 50 lb. bag of rice and feed a family of 4 for months. The Orlando Diocese has a “Water Filtration Project” with our sister diocese. For about $35, an uncomplicated filter system of buckets and clay and charcoal can be installed. These cost the Dominicans approximately $3. Already, there has been an 85% drop in waterborne diseases for the families with filters.

The mission office is doing so many other things with your donations. A few of the other programs include:

· “Adopt a Teacher” A missionary is currently training 40 adults in 5 mountain villages to be pre-school and kindergarten teachers.

· A Vitamin & Nutrition Program This program provides supplements for fortifying milk and vitamins for pregnant or nursing mothers.

· The Sustainable nutrition program called the “Pollo Loco” project. A long-term missionary is helping villages learn how to raise chickens and pigs so that the children continue to have a source of protein.

Another thing you can do is support SMM fundraising for mission programs. The Tuesday Morning Men’s Bible group hosted a fundraiser last January for the Housing Mission, a professional musical variety show called “Father Tom Smith and the Dreambuilders”. Those two shows funded 8 houses, several scholarships for SMM youth to attend a mission and raised additional thousands for supplies. A complete new home can be built for $ 5000. What a real estate bargain! We’ll be hosting a new show by the same performers again next January. Please consider helping us with your time and talent and come to the show itself when you see it scheduled in the Church Bulletin.

Donations of goods are also welcome. Some of the other needs I saw were for books in Spanish – both for children and adults; quality shoes – again both children and adults; and sturdy kitchenware. The Mission Office has some BIG WISHES as well, like a forklift and a small school bus – if you happen to have one of those. Don’t worry about getting your donation down to the DR, the diocese sends down multiple trailer-size cargo containers several times per year.

You can also help by referring someone to the Mission office you might know with a unique skill. For example, does anyone know a HYDROLOGIST? That’s an engineer that plans water distribution systems. The next housing site of 50 homes needs a reliable water source. Someone in this parish has got to know a hydrologist.

If you don’t have talent or treasure to contribute, you can donate your time. The Mission Office in downtown Orlando can use your envelope stuffing, copying and administrative skills. Could you spare 2 – 4 hours a months helping there? Go to missiondr.org to view the various projects and needs. There is even a golf tournament coming in September, if you can help out.

As Father Walsh has told us numerous times, each of us is on this earth for a purpose, a distinct and individual mission. What is your mission? Your purpose? You CAN “DO THE BETTER PART”…and make a difference to a mom, dad and child in real need. If you chose to go on a Mission Trip, I guarantee that your life will be significantly changed for the better if you could find just one week to spend in our sister diocese. Every single time I take a shower, I think of my days in the DR. I marvel at the blessing of available water, hot water in fact, at anytime day or night

Come with me next February when I head down again for a week. You will come back a much better mother, father, son or daughter. St. Margaret Mary has several parents and their kids leaving at the end of this month on a construction mission. If any of you are here today, God Bless You.

In closing, I’d like to remind you to please give generously during the second collection. If you didn’t bring your checkbook today, please mail or drop off a check to the office made out to the Diocese of Orlando with Mission Office on the memo line.

I will be available in the courtyard after Mass to share pictures and information about the good work our diocese is performing for the poorest of the poor. If you have any questions or comments, please stop by.

Thank you, and as they say in the DR, Via con Dios.

Sister Diocese Reflection
July 6-7, 2002 - top

by Brock Magruder
Good Afternoon, brothers and sisters! I’m Brock Magruder, and I’m an Ophthalmologist, or eye surgeon. I’m here to update you on the mission with our sister diocese of San Juan de la Maguana in the Dominican Republic.

I’m new to this ministry; I first visited the D.R. this past February. Before I went, I wasn’t even sure exactly where I was headed. I looked at a map of the Caribbean and learned my destination was southeast of Florida, between Cuba and Puerto Rico. Our sister diocese is in the western, mountainous region near the border with Haiti.

I had felt a call to participate in our mission for several years. Like most of you, I had listened to the annual summer mission appeals. I particularly recall hearing about the water filter systems being installed in homes, and about a child with a rare leg problem who was brought here for extensive surgery.

In regard to eye care, our mission has been blessed to have an independent ophthalmology and optometry group provide their services, though on an intermittent basis. I have been a bit frustrated, though, since this group has always been fully staffed and had no place for me to participate. In January I called Sr. Bernadette McKay, who directs every aspect of the mission, with a renewed commitment to get involved. The timing was could not have been better. She was ready to start an eye program of our own. There is need for eye care to be a larger and permanent part of the mission, with a regular schedule and without having to depend on the generosity of other groups. I have taken on the task of putting this program together.

On this first trip, I tagged along with a medical group that went up into the mountainous villages where the most needy live. I found myself in a crowded clinic, a converted church building hastily set up for the day by the mission team. It was one large room, separated into smaller examination areas by bed sheets hung from string. These hung to about knee level, so that dusty shoes, bare brown feet and surgical scrubs were visible underneath. There was a constant hum and chatter in both Spanish and English, and no real privacy. Yet the sheets did provide some dignity for our patients.

I had set up my eye clinic across a dirt courtyard in the backroom of the church. Here, unlike the clinic area, I could shut out the sunlight in order to do my examinations. Around midday I was told that Bibi, one of the other doctors, requested that I come and examine a patient with her. She wanted me to try to determine if the child was able to see. His name was Eduardo, and he made a lasting impression on me.

Eduardo’s mother had died. They were found together; he was trying to suckle at her lifeless breast. There was no other family. A kindly old woman had taken him in to her home and had brought him to the clinic. He was severely malnourished, more the size of a three month old than his true age of nine months. His thin limbs moved in a stiff and jerky way. Bibi cradled him gently, holding a bottle to his mouth.

We knew that he was starving, but his lips and palate were as uncoordinated as his arms, and he seemed unable to develop any suction on the nipple. Most of the precious formula was gathering on his chin. After several minutes, he had only succeeded in taking a small amount.

His eyes moved with no more purpose than his mouth or limbs. He tended to gaze to the right, but he periodically looked around as if searching for something. I could detect no sign that he could see my fingers, my face, or even any light.

So here we had a severely malnourished orphan with complex neurological problems who was probably blind. It was not clear whether the malnutrition had caused the whole picture, or whether he had brain damage from some other cause.

In twenty-one years of training and practice I’ve seen my share of sad cases and I’m sure I’ve become jaded to some degree. But as I headed back to my makeshift eye clinic where patients waited, I couldn’t help wondering how I would feel if Eduardo was my neighbor, my son, or my little brother.

Most of the cases of malnutrition in the children I saw were more insidious. These children have dull looks on their faces and they just don’t grow; scratches and scrapes don’t heal. They don’t laugh and play. The combination of brown skin and blonde streaked hair is a tell tale sign that a child is slowly starving and can’t produce pigment. Their immune systems can’t fight off infections. Runny noses turn into coughs that don’t get better. Parents are helpless as their children get worse; some die.

To me, one of the saddest aspects of chronic malnutrition is that when kids aren’t growing, brains aren’t developing normally either. If nutrition is poor early in a child’s life, intelligence will never be normal. So there is a window of opportunity; once this window closes this person can never attain the mental potential he was conceived with. Many, many of the adults have limited intelligence; they cannot understand even the most straightforward concepts and instructions. No doubt these people were chronically malnourished as children. In this society, the adult male breadwinner eats first, followed by the women. Children are lowest in the pecking order, even though they are the most vulnerable. Here I witnessed the cycle of poverty firsthand, as the legacy of poor nutrition, ignorance, and mental limitation was passed from generation to generation.

But there is hope! I am happy to report to you that progress is being made on the nutrition front. In the village of Los Guayuyos, I witnessed the results of the first several months of a food and vitamin supplementation program aimed at severely malnourished children. We found that the kids were putting on weight, and we saw more play and laughter. What I really found inspiring was that once this nutrition program had been set up, the villagers were running it on their own. The grandmothers would mix up the brown sugar, powdered milk, and soy protein every morning. Families would walk to the village, sometimes several miles, so each at risk child could get her cup of protein and calorie dense “gruel.” The child’s name was checked off a master list daily so that we knew when we examined each child how often he had received the supplement. I saw this program as a great example of empowerment, with the villagers taking a stand for the health of the children in their community. The children of Los Guayuyos are certainly not out of danger, and many, many more villages need help. But know that your mission programs have a significant impact in both the short and long term for the people of San Juan de la Maguana.

Another exciting nutritional project is the foodspa program. Foodspas were developed to address the chronic malnutrition, especially for protein, on a long term and sustainable basis. You’ve heard the expression “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a woman to fish, feed her for a lifetime.” This project aims to teach people to farm, in ways that best utilize the conditions God has given them. A foodspa is a chicken and pig enclosure that maximizes animal growth for meat, produces eggs for daily protein, and yields rich compost for vegetable gardens. Ten of these were set up in June near Los Guayuyos; 40 more are scheduled for August.

You may recall reading a column in the Orlando Sentinel in March describing the foodspa project, and praising it as the best of Christianity in action. I couldn’t agree more. A foodspa is renewable, self sustaining, empowering to those who use it, and has the ability to impact the health and well being of future generations.

While I expected to have a good feeling about going to the D.R. and “doing my share”, I was unprepared for the personal spiritual rewards that I have received. Having a glimpse of the world from the perspective of a Dominican villager helped open my eyes and my heart. I was able to leave behind all the trivial everyday worries that consume my attention, and focus on a worthy task. And Sr. Bernie made sure that each night we had reflection time, even if we were worn out after seeing myriads of patients, packing and unpacking equipment, and traveling. These scripture based reflections centered on the concept of Global Citizenship. I was able to ask myself the questions: What is my community? What responsibility do I have to that community? Who is my neighbor? Who am I in the world? How would Christ have me answer these questions?

In Fr. Derk’s homily last Sunday, he reviewed the “marching orders” that Jesus gave the apostles. These guidelines were spelled out in the Gospels of the last several weeks, and are meant for us, too. In a nutshell, Christ said to “follow me” and “take care of my people.” I invite you to consider what “my people” means to you. Is it your family? Your group of friends? Is it our parish? All Catholics? Is it Christians? Americans?

Before I went to the D.R., I never viewed those who live in San Juan de la Maguana as even in my sphere of influence, much less as in any way my personal responsibility. I would say that “my people” symbolized for me my family and friends, plus those I could easily help. I would not have said truthfully that I considered the poor a part of my community. While I would certainly pray for them in a general way, I did not see them as individuals; they belonged to some group of “others.” I think that by keeping the needy out of my consciousness, I conveniently avoided seeing their humanity.

The gift I got from our brother and sisters in San Juan de la Maguana is the experience of that humanity. I have never felt so humble as when I slept in a simple house and felt more welcome than I ever have in my life. A family with almost nothing by our standards wanted to share all they had with me, who has so much. I realized I have never been so generous or welcoming with my own guests.

Today’s Gospel from Matthew can be seen as a continuation of our marching orders. I hear Jesus calling me to be like him:

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;”

Clearly this is an invitation to walk with the Lord. He has spelled out our responsibilities. Now he asks us to actively live our Christianity. He asks us to follow him and take care of his people. We are also reassured that although this active path may seem difficult, we may expect it to give us rest and peace:

“And you will find rest for yourselves.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

With those thoughts in mind, I ask of you three things.

First, I ask for your prayers. Please pray for all the poor of the world, both those without basic needs and those in spiritual poverty. Please pray specifically for the people of our diocese and that of San Juan de la Maguana, and for the success of the mission between us.

Secondly, I ask for your involvement. If you feel the Holy Spirit calling you to help with this mission, I’m certain there is a need you can fill. We need doctors, nurses, pharmacists, translators, organizers, and all sorts of support people. There is plenty to do here in Orlando if you are not interested in traveling to the D.R. The flyer in last week’s bulletin contains a lot of useful information, so check it out.

Thirdly, your money is needed. This mission is supported primarily by donations; the majority of the budget comes from this annual weekend collection. Fifteen dollars supports a child in the nutrition program for a month. Twenty-five dollars will provide a water filter system for a family. A foodspa, delivered, assembled, and equipped with animals and feed costs $2500. Know that whatever you contribute will have a significant impact.

I beg you to give generously to the second collection today.

I’ll be at the back of the church to answer any questions you may have.

I would like to leave you with a few words that came to me the evening I met baby Eduardo.

It’s called simply “I Am”:

I Am...

Motherless and starving

Softly crying

My eyes wander. Do I see?

My hunger aches

I cannot suckle

Who loves me?

Thank you and God Bless You!

Thanksgiving 2002
by Elizabeth Buckley - top

Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving. My name is Elizabeth Buckley, and I have been a member of this parish community for thirty years now—(my birthday was just this past weekend, and actually I was born on Thanksgiving day!—along with my parents Ann and Marty and my brother Martin, and his wife Pam and their three kids, my Aunt Joanie and Grandma Kate.

On this day of Thanksgiving I am most thankful for all of the ways that my family has shared their gifts of faith and love, and helped and supported me in being the person I am.

And I am thankful for SO many people and things in my life: close friends and loved ones, this wonderful parish community, life-giving work, good health, having a vision of peace and justice, nourishing food whenever I am hungry, and for our Mother Earth who supports and sustains us all. Not to mention a comfortable home, a car to drive, and a closet full of clothes.

The list could go on and on, and the longer it gets, the more I am mindful of the more than 2 billion people in this world who live on less than $1 a day, and go without many basic human needs.

Today’s gospel reading reminds us how important it is to give thanks to God. When the ten people with leprosy asked for Jesus to have pity on them, He said, “go and show yourselves to the priests”, and it was on the way that they were cured.

So one might guess that the nine who didn’t return to give thanks to the Lord were simply going to show the priests first, just as Jesus had instructed.

But we know from the gospel that the one person who turned back AS SOON AS HE SAW HE WAS CLEANSED—praising God in a loud voice, and throwing himself before Jesus to give thanks—was the one who was saved by his faith.

So the gospel is telling us that we should give thanks RIGHT WHERE WE ARE, right in this moment, wherever the grace of God finds us. Right where you are, before anything else. Doesn’t matter where you are. Or what state you’re in. Broken, blest, joyful, pained... Jesus is telling us that by waking up to God’s healing power, following our hearts, pausing where we are, and TURNING BACK if need be, we can be led to a place of greater faith and salvation.

When I think about WHERE I AM now, in some ways it is a turning back. I never really expected to come back home two years ago and stay. At that time, I had traveled to different countries and experienced the gift of other cultures, studied Buddhism in India, worked with inner-city youth, completed a Masters degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, and had just finished an internship at the Carter Center in Atlanta. I was on my way to show the priests the all the gifts I could offer to make this world a better place.

But after a fruitless job search, I moved back home and was living with my parents and grandma and was doing landscaping full-time. It was definitely a funny situation to report at my 10-year high school reunion for someone who was voted “most likely to succeed”. Didn’t exactly fit in with social norms or my great expectations.

And then I met Mary Ann Gilbert—of our very own social justice ministry—who told me about the sisters in Apopka, and a door opened, and I woke up again to God’s healing power in my own life. Now I’ve been working with the Farmworker Association for almost two years, on a project that deals with the effects of pesticides and environmental contamination on human health, learning about ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE and the reality that toxics disproportionately impact low-income communities of color.

So I give thanks because I am truly grateful for this opportunity to learn and understand about the struggle of farmworker communities, to challenge my own privilege, to work closely with people of color, and to see farmworkers not as “the poor” but as friends, colleagues, experts, leaders, and agents of social change. So I want to give thanks in a loud voice to the workers who work the soil, and plant the seeds, and harvest the crops that put the food on our tables today.

Sometimes it is so easy to forget all of the work that goes in to the things we have available so readily. I know from Grandma Kate’s stories that it wasn’t so long ago that many families made their own clothes, or had a vegetable garden, or at least knew the dressmaker or tailor. Yet now we go to Wal-Mart and have everything at our fingertips at amazingly low prices.

And the question is, am I awake to the reality alive in these things? Am I willing to open my eyes and heart and mind to the interconnectedness of all God’s creation? When I give thanks for the things I have, do I also give thanks to the people who made them possible? And do I make choices that honor the sacrifices they make and the hardships they endure?

On this subject of interconnectedness I have been so inspired by the writings of Thich Hhat Hanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to promote peace and mindfulness:

In his book Peace is Every Step, he invites us to look at a sheet of paper, and writes:

“If you are a poet, you will see clearly that there is a cloud floating in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper. The cloud is essential for the paper to exist.”

And he continues by pointing out that we can also see the sunshine in the paper, and the logger who cut the tree, and the wheat for the logger’s daily bread, and the logger’s father and mother, too. They are all present in this sheet of paper. He writes, “As thin as this sheet of paper is, it contains everything in the universe in it.”

We can think in this same way about everything around us—our food, clothes, shoes, paper, pens, anything. In asking, “where did this come from?” we can give thanks in a deeper way and honor the dignity and work of all of God’s creation.

And so we “bless the Lord of the universe who everywhere does great things”, as today’s first reading reminds us. We give thanks for everything in God’s creation, knowing that we are connected, that our personal choices have global consequences, and that God has a plan for each of us.

I certainly haven’t figured out what that plan is, but I feel something stirring inside me that keeps moving me closer. And I give thanks for the journey of THIS LIFE, which is such a gift, so fleeting, with all its ups and downs. I know that I wouldn’t be where I am today without all the stuff that came before, the good stuff and the tough stuff.

But God gives us the grace to stretch toward the good and joyful, toward whatever vision or feeling inside that moves us to be here in prayer this morning. St. Paul tells us that we are “fully enriched” and have all the spiritual gifts we need. Like a sprout, we instinctively grow roots for strength and naturally bend toward the light of the sun.

In our deepest of hearts, we have all that we need, and know what brings us joy if only we LISTEN to that small voice inside…

the voice that grows as we spend time with God, and make friends with Christ, who lives in all of God’s creation, in everyone we meet, especially those who are most forgotten.

So we ask ourselves today, “Given everything we have, is there anything more the Lord is asking of us? Can we listen more faithfully to what God is telling us?”

Because we know that we can’t turn around to give thanks to God until we wake up to God’s healing presence in our lives. God is curing us all the time, if only we make the time and space to slow down, listen, and see how we are connected to God who is made manifest in all the world around us.

Then we can turn back RIGHT WHERE WE ARE to give glory and praise and thanks to our awesome, compassionate, loving Creator God in whom all things are possible.

Amen.