Mary van Balen

His betrothed was pregnant. Not his child. Still, he loved her and wanted to spare her the shame and consequences of her condition. What to do? How to love her in such impossible circumstances. And his life? What next for him if what he had most desired and planned was no longer possible?

With so much weighing on his mind and tearing at his heart, how did Joseph sleep deeply enough to have the dream? He did, though, and remembered it on awakening. Mary hadn't been unfaithful. Really she had been radically faithful to the One they both worshipped.

In the midst of his turmoil, what word had he received? Get up. Take Mary home. Love her. Love her child. Make a home.

Extraordinarily common instructions from Adonai Yir'eh, the God Who Sees.

Difficult for Joseph, no doubt, this faith, this call to live as if nothing unusual had happened.

Today, in the midst of personal and national grieving for the victims of Sandy Hook Elementary, in the face of a "fiscal cliff" and global economic crisis, in a world filled with poverty and violence, in a world where children are not safe, where the vulnerable are not protected. In such a world, what is Adonai's word for us?  Read More 

Last week I was feeling particularly discouraged. Selling intimate apparel was never my dream job! As I spoke with customers and cleaned out fitting rooms that had been left a mess, I wondered what a person with a graduate degree, an educator, and author was doing in my position. The Holiday shopping season looming ahead did littel to brighten my mood.

I guess I had forgotten the lessons learned from Brother Lawrence about "Practicing the Presence of God." Reading through some of the reflections in Liturgical Press's new monthly prayer guide, "Give Us This Day," reminded me of the call to be present to God in the ordinary events of our lives.

The October "Blessed Among Us" reflection highlighted a woman I have read, Caryll Houselander, an English laywoman mystic whose vocation was to help others become aware of Christ in our world. She was not the stereotypical mystic. She enjoyed a drinking, battled for twenty years to give up chain-smoking, and was left broken hearted by the man she loved. She never married.

Her mystical visions were of Christ in those around her. In one, she saw him suffering in a Bavarian nun, who being German, suffered discrimination during WWII in England. In another, she saw Christ in each person in a busy railway station. In some he was rejoicing, happy, in others, suffering and in pain. Her first book. This War Is the Passion,"was written in 1941 and presented the sufferings of those traumatized by WWII through the perspective of the passion of Christ.

She was an artist, a wood carver, but later in her life, writing became her primary artistic expression. Read More 

PHOTO: MARY VAN BALEN
Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha's house. The prophet sent him the message: "Go ad wash seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will heal, and you will be clean." But Naaman went away angry, saying, "I thought that he would surely come out and stand there to invoke the Lord his God, and would move his hand over the spot, and thus cure the leprosy. But his servants came up and reasoned with him. "My father," they said," if the prophet had told you to do something extraordinary, would you not have done it? All the more now, since he said to you, 'Wash and be clean,' should you do as he said" So Naaman went down and plunged into the Jordan seven times at the word of the man of God. His flesh became again like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
2Kg 5, 9-11; 13-14

As I write, I hear the Oscars on the downstairs television and am struck by the irony. Many people are glued to the television screen watching the annual glamourous awards for high profile achievement while I sit in my office, reflecting on the expectation of a man for a dramatic miracle but who is instructed instead to perform a common action: bathe in the river. Naaman was incensed. Had he journeyed so far only to be told to do what he did routinely in his homeland? Elisha's instructions were insulting.

Our society values celebrity, as evidenced by tonight's television extravaganza. Importance is often equated with wealth, fame, and good looks. Our heroes and heroines are stars of sports, movie, music and we like splash and pizzazz.. So did Naaman.

We also value great achievements. They might be accomplished by a pilot like Scully, who landed a plane on the Hudson without losing a life, or a scientist who develops some new procedure to treat illness. Our heroes are usually bigger than life people who do extraordinary things. Read More