Get with the Mystery!

9 Pentecost, Cp11, July 21, 2013   

Gen. 18:1-14    Ps.15  

Col. 1:21-29  Luke 10:38-42 

Lectionary Link

  The word mystery has various meanings for us today.  When we think of literature and cinema, Mystery is a genre which sometimes is synonymous with detective stories; the mystery is "Who dunnit?"  And the detective is the one who, if successful, solves the crime.  Of course there are many other varieties of the genre of Mystery in literature and cinema and television.

  In the study of religion, there is a classification of the Greco-Hellenistic religions as "Mystery Religions."  In various Temple based communities, initiates were initiated into the particular "mysteries" or secrets about the life of the gods and goddesses.

  Christianity was born within the crucible of the various expressions of Judaism at the time of Jesus and the many kinds of Mystery Religions which was part of the Roman Occupation of Palestine and the cities of Asia Minor. 

  Mystery religious were regarded to be false religions or competitors to the message of Christ since they centered upon the gods and goddess of the Greco-Roman religions and the Roman army also integrated Mithraism from Persian into the pantheon of Greco-Roman gods and goddesses.

  In Greco-Roman society, a person could have three religious perspectives; one was the civil religion in the cult of the Emperor, the other was a more philosophical religion and the third a more secretive Mystery Religion participation.  There were secrets and secret rites involved in the practice of a Mystery Religion.  We know about Mystery Religions from Christian writers who wrote against their practice and how they had come to influence those Christians who were regarded as heretics.  The success of Christianity meant that many of the writings of the Mystery Religions were destroyed.  One of the sad facts of human history is that doctrinal and ideological winners usually destroyed the writings of the losers.

  Tarsus where St. Paul was born was a prominent center for Mystery Religion.  The early Christian Movement could have a mystery and secretive status within the Roman societies, though the Christians were often persecuted because they refused to participate in the Roman civil religion, the cult of the Emperor.

  The Christian movement shared common language use with the people in the places where it grew and blossomed.  It is not surprising that things which are common to Mystery Religions are also found in the Christian movement.  All of the Mystery religions had sacred meals,  ritual baths as part of initiation and Divine human beings who had died and had rebirths, and who had goddess consorts or mothers.

  St. Paul had come into an experience of a mystery; he had been knocked to the ground by a mystical experience.  In this experience, he found that the physical Jesus of Nazareth could now be experienced the Risen Christ as a new and particular personal presence of God in his life.  After this experience, he coupled his study of Judaism with the religious vocabulary of his learning context and he gave birth to Gentile Christianity.

  St. Paul received a mystery that could compete with the mysteries of the Mystery Religions of his time.  The experience of St. Paul could be replicated by others who Paul found could also have an experience of the Risen Christ.  The entire Christian Movement became constituted by people who had this experience and shared it and were fascinated to see that they had the ability to transmit this experience in a communal way.  What the church did was to encode this Risen Christ Mystery experience within secretive writings which were shared only with the initiated members of the body of Christ.  Those who were in the body of Christ, understood themselves to be under the directed guidance of Christ as their head.  They were excited to witness the replication of the experience of the Risen Christ through what they called the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

  The writings of the church initially were secretive and they were coded.  How did a person have the life of Christ born within oneself?  They had this experience of being inundated, surrounded, cleansed and bathed by the Holy Spirit.  They were over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit.  So one can easily see how the early Christians coded this experience in the life of the Virgin Mary.  The Virgin Mary was every Christian whose life had been miraculously over-shadowed by the Holy Spirit and the life of Christ was born within a person who was initiated and began the life process of spiritual transformation.

  So, in the Epistle that we have read today, one finds that Paul is touting to fellow initiates this secret Mystery.  What is the mystery?  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  If one lived in Roman Society, one would be tempted to want the benefits of participating in their civil religion, the cult of the Emperor.  One could come to public recognition through participation in the Roman Civil religion.  But Paul said, to know the birth of Christ in oneself was to know such a particular presence of God in such a personal way that one had the fame and glory of being known and recognized by Christ.  One did not need the civil religion of Roman society because of the experience of being profoundly known and loved by Christ.

  The early Christian community also practiced the continual event of the reception of the Risen Christ into one's life.  This was the communal meal of the Holy Eucharist.  This is a mystery tradition of believing that the words Jesus used to associate the essence of his life with bread and wine, recited again and again could renew each recipient into the knowledge of the closeness of Christ to one's life.  In the Eucharistic meal, the church encoded in a liturgy the Mystery of how the Risen Christ was a real presence within the bread and wine.  Not surprisingly, the Latin word for the Greek "mysterion" is sacramentum.  A sacrament is the ritual way of perceiving the grace of the presence of Christ.

Why did the church practice rituals?  Why did the church publish the mysteries within the Epistles and Gospels which became the New Testament?  Paul and others knew that if the Mystery of the Risen Christ was not preached, practiced and renewed, it could be neglected and forgotten.  In fact, Paul wrote about people who had experienced the joys of the Risen Christ but lost the reality through non-observance and by refusing to share the experience so it could be replicated in the lives of others.

  The mystery of Christ in us can become neglected and forgotten, when our active and busy lives express the priority of earning a living and taking care of the ordinary issues of the life.

  The Mary and Martha story in the Gospel is not about Martha the worrywart worker who is troubled by her navel gazing space cadet sister who gets approved by Jesus for being able to neglect the practical work of hospitality by being on a perpetual religious retreat.

  Some would like to reduce this story to: Martha bad.  Mary good.

  This is not the purpose of the Gospel story at all.  The purpose of the Gospel story is to reveal that the Risen Christ is known and attended to by taking the time to spend in devoted contemplation of the Mystery of the personal presence of Christ to us.  The mistake of Martha is the human mistake to think that all of the other tasks of our lives are incompatible with and competing with the vocation that we have to contemplate the Risen Christ in our lives.

  It is not an either/or matter; it is both/and.  Yes the practical work needs to be done and should be done, but each person needs to know how and when to attend to moments of contemplation when the personal presence of the Risen Christ is being known in some telling way.

  The message of Mary choosing the better part is this:  Don't neglect contemplation of the Risen Christ in life.  Don't miss the continual replication of Christ in you, the hope of Glory.

  Today, we are invited to complement our active lives of work with the intentional practice of contemplation.  It was not difficult for Mary to tune into Christ.  In contemplation one learns to retreat into one's interior life as a retreat of being constituted and refreshed to go forth into the work and busyness of one's life.

  The Gospel Today:  Christ in you, the hope of glory.  Don't miss the glory.  Don't miss the experience of being personally recognized by God.  And don't neglect contemplation of the Risen Christ.  Amen.

Sunday School, July 17, 2016 C proper 11

Sunday School, July 17, 2016      9 Pentecost,  C proper 11

Themes

What is the most import “computer” center of the human body?

Is it our legs? Stomach? Arms? Heart? Mouth?

No it is our head which houses the most important computer center of our entire body.

So how do we know that our head is the most important computer center of our body?

We know when we learn to think and when we practice thinking and learning.

Paul said the church was like a body made up of many organs and parts.  But Paul wrote that the head of the body, the church was Christ.

And so how do we make the church function the very best?  We keep in touch with Christ as our brain.  We look to his life and his words and his example and the people whom he has inspired. 

We stay in touch with Christ so that we can make the church a group of people who practice love and kindness and service and telling people the Good News of Christ being with us as our Head.

Mary and Martha were friends of Jesus.

Sometimes in our lives we need to be very active.  We need to work; we need to prepare food, wash the dishes and the clothes and clean the houses.  Martha was a very good worker and she was upset when Mary was not working as hard as she was.  Mary was doing something else.  She was sitting and learning from her best friend Jesus.

In our lives we need to know when to work and when to stop working and learn to get to know Jesus as our best friend who can help us grow in being the very best persons that we can be.

Work is good; prayer and learning from Jesus is also very good and most important.  We need to take time to work but never forget the importance of prayer and talking to Jesus.

Sermon

  Ding dong, the door bell rings.  And you open the door and you have surprise visitors; it’s grandmother and grandfather.  They are on a trip and can only spend a few hours at your house.  What do your parents do?

  Do they make you go finish all of your chores?  Do they make you leave the room and wash the dishes?  Do they make you practice your music lesson or finish your homework?

  No, why?  Because grandmother and grandfather are only going to be there for just a few hours and so everyone gets to spend time being with them.

  Well, Jesus dropped in one day at the home of his friends Mary and Martha.  And they were very excited because Jesus was a special person in their lives and they could not see him all of the time, so they wanted to make his visit special.

  Martha loved her friend Jesus and she was a good hostess.  She wanted to treat Jesus as a special guest.  So she wanted to get the house all fixed up and cleaned and she wanted to get the food all prepared.

  But her sister Mary just sat in the living room talking with Jesus.  And that upset Martha because Mary wouldn’t help.

  Jesus was not worried about getting food and he was not worried if the house was not in order or if the good napkins were put out and fresh flowers were in place.

  Jesus only wanted to spend time with his friends:  He wanted Mary and Martha to be with him and talk with him.  And he wanted to talk with him and tell them some wonderful things.

  Did you know that you and I can sometimes be so busy we forget that God is our friend and that God just wants to spend time with us?

  That is why God gave us the commandment about the Sabbath or worship day of Sunday.  It means that we are to stop everything in our lives sometimes and just take time to be with God, to be with Christ.

  And we do this by hearing the stories of the Bible.  We do this by praying with others.  And we do this each day by setting aside some time to just talk with Christ.

  Jesus was happy that Mary took time from her work to talk to him.  And Jesus is happy when we take time to pray and to spend time with God.

  Let us remember what Mary did.  She remembered to take time to be with Jesus.  And so we should do the same.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

July 17, 2016: The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

Gathering Songs: Jesus in the Morning, Only A Boy Named David, I Come with Joy, Christ Beside Me

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and forever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Jesus in the Morning, (Christian Children’s Songbook,   # 134)

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in the morning, Jesus at the noontime.  Jesus, Jesus, Jesus when the sun goes down.

Love him, love him, love him in the morning, love him at the noontime.  Love him, love him, love him when the sun goes down.

Serve him, serve him, serve him in the morning, serve him at the noontime.  Serve him, serve him, serve him when the sun goes down.

Praise him, praise him, praise in the morning, praise him at the noontime.  Praise him, praise him, praise him when the sun goes down.

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People:            And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Liturgy Leader: In our prayers we first praise God, chanting the praise word: Alleluia

Litany of Praise: Alleluia

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the Letter to the Colossians

Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 52

But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; * I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.

I will give you thanks for what you have done * and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly.

Liturgy Leader: I invite you to let us know what you are thankful for today

   As we thank God let us chant Thanks be to God

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God!

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

   Thanks be to God!

(Sing Birthday blessings or wedding blessings to those present who are celebrating)

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People:            Glory to you, Lord Christ.

As Jesus and his disciples went on their way, Jesus entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was distracted by her many tasks; so she came to him and asked, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People:            Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon – Father Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Liturgy Leader: Next in our prayers, we remember people who have special needs.  As we pray let us chant:  Christ Have Mercy

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy.

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Youth Liturgist:          The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:                        And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering

Offertory Song: Only a Boy Named David, (All the Best Songs for Kids, # 112)

Only boy named David.  Only a little sling.  Only a boy named David, but he could pray and sing.  Only a boy named David, only a rippling brook.  Only a boy named David, and five little stones he took.  And one little stone went in the sling and the sling went round and round.  And one little stone went in the sling and the sling went round and round.  AND….round and round and round and round and round and round and round.  And one little stone went up in the air.  And the giant came tumbling down.

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

And so, Father, the gifts of bread and wine will be presented at the Eucharist. We ask you to bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Bless and sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that we may love God and our neighbor.

We remember that on the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. AMEN.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:       Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast. 

Words of Administration

Communion Song: I Come with Joy, (Renew! # 195)

I come with joy a child of God, forgiven, loved and free, the life of Jesus to recall, in love laid down for me.

I come with Christians far and near to find, as all are fed, the new communion of love in Christ’s communion bread.

As Christ breaks bread, and bids us share, each proud division ends.  The love that made us, makes us one, and strangers now are friends.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Christ Beside Me (Renew! # 164)

Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, king of my heart.  Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me, never to part

Christ on my right hand, Christ on my left hand, Christ all around me, shield in the strife.  Christ in my sleeping, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising light of my life.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ.

People: Thanks be to God! 

Be Ready to Make the Contemplative Choice

9 Pentecost, Cp11, July 21, 2013   

Gen. 18:1-14    Ps.15  

Col. 1:21-29  Luke 10:38-42 

Lectionary Link

  What if you gave a dinner party and invited a special guest and a report of that dinner party become written down.  And what if the written report of that dinner party became a part of Holy Scriptures and came to be regarded as God’s word.  When there are only a few vignettes that are recorded in the life of Jesus, each vignettes or narrative become metaphors and theology.

  This is what has happened to the Mary and Martha story.  The Mary and Martha story has become typology for religious personalities, or for that matter it models lots family or community disputes.  One could see a parish dispute along this line.  One person thinks that church is only for contemplation, communion and prayer.  Don’t ask me to work in the kitchen or do clean up on my “spiritual” time.   One can see every flustered parish worker who is upset that people benefit from the practical work without feeling any obligation to help out.

  And it does seem as though Jesus takes the sides of those who are more interested in contemplation and devotion rather than the practical work of hospitality.

  To counter this apparent preference of Jesus for those who practice contemplation over work, the church throughout history has tried to rehabilitate the Martha tradition.  After all, the church that became a vast institution with lots of property has had an incredible need for a vast division of labor.  The church has needed “free labor.”  The church has needed to valorize works of hospitality as creative ministry.

  The Mary and Martha religious personalities have been perpetuated in a very conscious way by monastic orders.  Some religious orders have defined themselves as “Mary” orders, or committed to contemplative prayer and have very little or no contact with the outside world.  Other orders have defined themselves as “Martha” orders or committed to works of service, education  and hospitality.  And other orders have tried the balance the two; work and contemplation.

  One of the things that happens when we generalize a narrative event into theologies and types, is that we steal its significance as a singular event.  If we generalized we could say that Jesus prefers contemplation and devotion to him over the works of hospitality.  And we forget that this is just one event in the life of Jesus, Mary and Martha.  One event does not establish everlasting character.  One event with the exchange of dialogue does not establish the final pronouncement upon anything.

  I would like for us for our reflections today to honor this event as a singular event in the lives of Mary, Martha and Jesus.  And in so doing, I think we could make the following statements.  This one event does not mean that Jesus disapproves of the works of hospitality.  It does not mean that Mary was a perpetual space cadet who used contemplation to “get out of doing the work.”  It does not mean that Martha was against contemplation because she was just a nervous uptight obsessive compulsive hostess with the mostest.

  This story is just one event in the life of Jesus, Mary and Martha.  And you and I may have unique, singular events of this kind at times in our lives when we are confronted with three aspects of our personalities that conform to the behaviors, decisions and words of the persons in our Gospel story.  For short hand, we might say we have the Mary aspect, the Martha aspect and the Christ aspect of our personalities.

  Mary had arrived at a crucial time in her life.  She had discovered a friend and a mentor who was getting through to her like no one had ever done before.  What does one do when the invitation to have a mentor friend and to have the possibility of creative advance and new insight is set right before us?  What does one do when one’s heart has fallen in love with one who offers personal enlargement and hope?  When those events of invitation are put before us, all of us have a very practical side; we have a proverbial “Martha aspect of our personalities.”  “You can’t take time off for the luxury of contemplation; there’s too much work to do.  How can you justify taking time off to do this when there is so much work to do?”  And then we have the umpire of our consciousness, the Christ aspect of our personality.

  What does the Christ aspect of our personality recommend?  Whenever we have the opportunity to be mentored into peace, wisdom, joy or further excellence of any sort, we need to take the time.  We need to hear the Christ aspect of our personalities give us the permission to attend to contemplation when a new opportunity is presented to us even though the ordinary work of life might have to be delayed or restructured.  It is so easy to let all of the ordinary tasks that need to be done to keep us from taking the invitation to an opportunity that may not come again.  And this is when we need the Christ-wisdom to choose contemplation insight over the practical chores that need to be done.

  Why would I refer to the Christ-aspect of personality?  In the writings in the Pauline tradition we have the expression, “Christ in you the hope of glory.”  The life of Jesus and the word of Jesus have left the legacy of the Holy Spirit making the risen Christ as the guiding presence of wisdom to which we have access.  And so we can know a Christ-aspect of our personalities to access the guidance of wisdom with our lives to read the signs of our lives that continually invite us to further excellence.

  Mary took the opportunity which was offered to her in a session of learning from Jesus.  She was affirmed for making the right decision even though it meant that she neglected some of the ordinary duties.  There will always be meals to serve and dishes to wash, but there is not always the unique invitation to advance one’s spiritual life forever.  So Mary made the right decision.

  We too need to make the right decision when it comes to invitations to new breakthroughs for our spiritual, intellectual and emotional lives.  May God give us grace to hear the Christ aspect of our personalities when we need to take new steps of spiritual excellence.  Amen.