Tag: disbelief

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Minute Meditation – Now and at the Hour of Our Death

That tragic tension between surrender and disbelief that tries to hold on, mirrors all of us who are born reaching out for the food of intimacy and who die trying to lift our arms to embrace and be embraced by our mother who birthed us and our spiritual mother who rebirthed us into a new life in God. Mother. Food. Intimacy. The images of the Incarnation and the death of Jesus. Mary is there, his mother and ours. She is there in our beginning and in our end. And in her Assumption she, with the Father and the Son, is there in our final embrace of the intimacy we were born for. All of it in the Spirit, which overshadowed her and returned at Pentecost to overshadow the disciples and us in our Baptism and Confirmation, our new birth and new life of purpose in the Mystical Body of Christ. Mary. She is the one who is there when we are born and when we live and when we die. Mother. Mary. Intimate Presence. Pray for us “now and at the hour of our death.”

— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary
by Murray Bodo, OFM

//Franciscan Media//

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Seeking God in Suffering – News That Devastates

News that Devastates

DAY 1 | Psalm 77:1-4

I cried out to God for help; I cried out to God to hear me.— Psalm 77:1

The phone call. The knock on the door. The doctor’s words. The death pronouncement. Many of us can remember times in our lives when we received news that we immediately knew would change the course of our future. Waves of dread ran through our bodies, and we could barely stand. “Oh, God!”

For followers of Christ, calling out to our God—the source of our life and strength and hope—is a natural response to shock, fear, disbelief, and grief. Sometimes “Oh, God!” is all we can say as our mind races and our world blurs. It’s our 911 call to the God of the universe.

One of the wonderful things about the Psalms is that, by example, we are granted permission to cry out to God in desperation. It’s human to fear death when we’re diagnosed with cancer. And it’s human to want to die when we lose a precious child or spouse. God’s people are not required to be stoic in difficult times. Instead, we are invited to collapse into the arms of God, who will hold us tightly, catch our tears, and carry us through whatever lies ahead.

The writer of this psalm does not rush to resolution but lingers in the distress and sleeplessness of overwhelming grief. He merely asks God to help and to hear. And that’s more than enough.

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Oh, God, sometimes life hits us with such hard blows that we can barely breathe. Thank you that when we feel overwhelmed with fear or grief, you hear our cries and come near to us. Amen.