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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.

AUGUST 2, 2009: EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Exodus 16:2-4, 12-15
Ephesians 4:17, 20-24
John 6:24-35

I vividly remember the pictures in my grade school Bible History of Israelites catching the manna floating down from heaven. I don’t remember any pictures, though, of them grabbing, killing and cleaning the quail which “came up and covered the camp.” Such a scene probably was regarded as too disturbing for young minds. As it does in today’s gospel pericope, the manna always took center stage. Manna has become the classic symbol of Yahweh’s care for Yahweh’s people.

JULY 26, 2009: SEVENTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
II Kings 4:42-44
Ephesians 4:1-6
John 6:1-15

During my minor seminary career we regularly were treated to Sunday night movies: three reel, 16mm presentations of recent (and highly censored) hits. Since the seminary had just one workable projector we took two short intermissions while the projectionist changed reels.

JULY 19, 2009: SIXTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Ephesians 2:17-18
Mark 6:30-34

As the late John McKenzie pointed out in his book Authority in the Church, both the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures rarely say anything about obeying those in authority. When the authority issue comes up the point of discussion almost always revolves around the abuses perpetrated by those exercising authority. Scripture is only written when our sacred authors discover problems in their communities. No problems; no Scripture. If those who wielded authority in biblical communities acted according to God's wishes, our Bible would be much thinner.

JULY 12, 2009: FIFTHTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Amos 7:12-15
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:7-13

Even casual Scripture readers quickly discover that prophets have problems with religious leaders and religious leaders have problems with prophets. Today’s first reading narrates a classic confrontation between the two.

JULY 5, 2009: FOURTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Readings: 
Ezekiel 2:2-5
II Corinthians 12:7-10
Mark 6:1-6

Biblical redaction critics enjoy pointing out the changes Matthew made to the story he found in today’s Marcan gospel pericope.

Among other things, redaction critics are interested in how sacred authors alter material they copy from other sacred authors. Such changes help to surface the different theologies which lie behind a specific writer’s work. Since Scripture parallels a newspaper’s editorial page, not its news page, we presume different authors can, and do have different takes on the same incident. No two are exactly alike.

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