Mary van Balen

PHOTO: Mary van Balen
Be patient, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. Think of a farmer: how patiently he waits for the precious fruit of the ground until it has had the autumn rains and the spring rains! You too have to be patient; do not lose heart, because the Lord’s coming will be soon. The Judge is already to be seen waiting at the gates.James 5:7-8,9

The reading from this evenings Vespers speaks to my heart. While life seems to fly by the older one becomes, it can also seem to crawl along. Finding a job, for example, takes forever these days. Many things in life take time to unfold, and I try to hurry it along. That is not a good habit, I have discovered, but it is difficult to break.  Read More 

PHOTO: Mary van Balen
Jesus was walking along the sea of Galilee and saw two fishermen casting their nets out for a catch. He called to them and asked them to leave their nets and follow him and he would make them fishers of men.

What would make two grown men leave their nets and follow a stranger who promised to make them, of all things, fishers of men? What does that mean anyway? The only thing stranger than the invitation was the response of Simon and Andrew: Sure. We'll leave everything we know to follow someone we don't to become something we are not sure what it is. Read More 

PHOTO: Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
After an "on the porch" picnic of barbecued ribs, homemade applesauce and slaw, steaming cornbread, and fresh fruit, our small group moved to the living room for prayer and a report from one member of her recent trip to Africa where she had presented workshops on centering prayer and mid-life transitions to religious communities in Zambia.

Part of our prayer was reflection on wisdom from paleontologist,theologian, and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The adapted reading spoke to my soul, impatient and disheartened with my life's current situation.  Read More 

IMAGE: Artist Unknown
Last night I received a call from a good friend whose son suffers from chronic depression. He was not taking his medications and was sinking into a darker place than the one he usually inhabits.

After the call, I sat and let tears run down my cheeks. Another friend of mine has spent much of her income on medications and counseling, often doing without when disabilitly payments didn't cover the costs. Why are some of us afflicted with a disease that makes the moment by moment choice of life so conscious and excruciating? Life dishes out enough pain and suffering to challenge all of us. Why do some people have to face its difficulties already burdened? It's the Job question, I guess. Nothing new, but suffering is not rendered easier by its constancy throughout human history. Read More 

Painting: The Good Samaritan by Asian Artist He Qi
"Good energy," as my sister-in-law would say, has a life of its own, and last night it kept nine members of the spirituality group laughing and talking even after we had left the dinner table. Having moved into the living room, we presented a challenge to Noreen, the one who was charged with leading the unruly bunch in prayer and reflection.

I looked around the room and silently gave thanks for each person. We have been gathering once a month for seven years, committed to companioning one another as we move through life's joys and sorrows. Years ago we christened our gathering place "Sabbath House" because it provided a safe place of rest, renewal, and prayer, things I crave these days as I scrabble through a particularly thorny patch. Read More 

PAINTING: RUTH GATHERING WHEAT by Lorie McCown

This morning I spent time listening to the Word in Lectio Divina on Ruth 2,2-3;7. Ruth, a Moabite, had returned to Judah with her mother-in-law, Naomi, after she had lost her husband and two sons, one of whom had been Ruth's husband.

Two women with no men to care for or protect them,they returned impoverished. Read More 

PHOTO: A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Employee

Waiting for Dad to don pajamas and prepare for bed, I sat on a couch tucked away in a nook off the nursing home’s wide hallway. I checked voicemail, made a few calls, and then looked out the window beside me and watched a spider working on her web. She was large, her bulbous abdomen marked underneath with an orangey hourglass shape, and her long legs were darker at each joint. She waved them about until they detected a strand of silk, then she hurried along it to the end. Once there, she dropped quickly to another point along the window frame where she attached the new thread, then began waving her legs around again.

I looked at the web from a variety of angles but could see no pattern let alone the familiar radiating design I expected. Read More 

PHOTO: Bead Creative
The call came early in the morning: A seventh grade history teacher was sick; would I like to sub?" Yes. As I prepared for the day, I smiled at the timing. For months I had hoped for calls to substitute, but none came. Then, after my first full day of working as a large department store associate, when I was looking forward to a hot bath and putting organization back into my office, I received the call.

Life has always been like that evidenced by expressions like "Feast or famine," and "When it rains, it pours." The mess of my office would have to wait.

After assisting students as they researched the Catholic Church in Medieval times (a particularly embarrassing stretch in its long history), I spent the evening with my father.  Read More 

THE LAST SUPPER BY BOHDAN PIASECKI

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking.
Jn 13, 21-22



It is good to know that Jesus' spirit was troubled; not that I am glad it was, but that I am encouraged that it could be. Sometimes Jesus is presented as the all-knowing God who knew that when these torturous few days were over that all would be well...so no need to be troubled. It was all in the script.

I prefer Jesus to be more like the rest of us. He had to trust the One Who Sent Him, just like we do. Read More 

PHOTO: MARY VAN BALEN


Praise the Lord!
O give thanks for the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting.
And let all the people say, “Amen.”
Praise the Lord!
P 106, 1; 48



Today’s Psalm begins and ends with praise, but in between is a long list of Israel’s unfaithfulness and sin. From grumbling in Egypt to worshipping a golden calf to adopting the gods and rituals of the pagans, God’s people forgot the Holy One’s work in their lives and in the lives of their ancestors. They forgot who they were: God's own people. Forgetting who we are is easy to do: Our lives are busy and stressful; our country and the world struggle with injustices, hatred, and violence. Without roots sunk deep into the history of God and our ancestors, we do not see the Sacred in our midst; we do not remember that we are glorious children of God.

Jesus tells those who will listen that they do not see what is in front of them. John the Baptist gave testimony to the One who was to follow him, and his testimony was true. “He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s” (Jn 5, 35-36). Jesus was doing the work he was sent to do, and while those works were testimony to his divinity, many were unable to recognize it.

We need to be still, remember, and know that God is with us as God has always been, offering forgiveness and love because we are children of the Holy One. When we do remember who we are, our works will be testimony to the greatness of this Loving Presence and will be joined to Jesus’ life work of transforming the world.
© 2010 Mary van Balen Read More