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Breath of the Spirit

Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.

Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing info@DignityUSA.org ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

JUNE 28, 2009: THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
II Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Mark 5:21-43

Today’s first reading contains one of the most important lines in all of Scripture: “justice is undying.”

Scripture scholars for a long time had been looking for a biblical “smoking gun:” a verse or passage showing how our Jewish ancestors in the faith came up with the insight that there’s a life after this one. From almost nowhere, about 100 years before Jesus’ birth, Pharisees began to believe it was possible to step beyond this mortal existence into an eternal experience of Yahweh.

JUNE 21, 2009: TWELFTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Job 38:1,8-11
II Corinthians 5:14-17
Mark 4:35-41

Those who’ve heard about Job’s “patience” from the letter of James but have never cracked the book which bears his name have a lot to learn about this famous individual. Patience certainly isn’t in the fore of this unfortunate person’s quest to discover why Yahweh is treating him so unjustly.

JUNE 14, 2009: BODY AND BLOOD OF JESUS

Readings: 
Exodus 24:3-8
Hebrews 9:11-15
Mark 14:12-16, 22-26

Scripture scholars faithfully point out the changes made between the earliest scriptural account of the Lord’s Supper in I Corinthians 11 and today’s earliest gospel account in Mark 14. Most important, during the 10-12 year interval between Paul and Mark’s writings, it appears the Eucharistic “pot-luck meal” has been discarded.

JUNE 7, 2009: HOLY TRINITY SUNDAY

Readings: 
Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40
Romans 8:14-17
Matthew 28:16-20

The authors of our Christian Scriptures couldn’t have imagined celebrating today’s feast of the Trinity. They were much more interested in discovering what God was doing for us than what made God, God. Even our catechism tells us God made us before it tells us about the three persons who constitute God. The church came to the insight of the “three in one” only at the Council of Nicea in 325 CE, about 200 years after the last biblical writing. The theologians who composed our Scriptures only reflected on the actions of God which directly affected their lives.

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