August 20, 2010
Memorial of Saint Bernard, abbot and doctor of the Church
By Melanie Rigney
The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the center of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among them in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? "Lord GOD," I answered, "you alone know that." Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD. I prophesied as I had been told, and even as I was prophesying I heard a noise; it was a rattling as the bones came together, bone joining bone. I saw the sinews and the flesh come upon them, and the skin cover them, but there was no spirit in them. Then he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus says the Lord GOD: From the four winds come, O spirit, and breathe into these slain that they may come to life. I prophesied as he told me, and the spirit came into them; they came alive and stood upright, a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1-10)
For he satisfied the thirsty, filled the hungry with good things. (Psalms 107:9)
When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a scholar of the law, tested him by asking, “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:34-40)
Piety
Lord, my bones are so dry. Please send Your spirit to help me come to life.
Study
We’re nearing the end of summer, the end of vacation and playtime for some. School starts again, and for the first time since early May, everyone’s going to be back in the office and intent on the corporate or governmental mission.
And whereas spring can be a magical time for us spiritually, fall can present a challenge. The days are getting shorter; it’s not light at six in the morning anymore, and sunset comes before eight. And, liturgically, we’ve got three more months of ordinary time before Advent.
For some, fall can be a sobering time of drought after an exciting, jam-packed summer. If your bones are dry, you’re not alone. The question is, how will you rejuvenate them?
Consider taking a page from your childhood this fall, and go back to school. Going back to school could mean hearing a lecture at your parish. Or maybe it will be attending a School of Leaders presentation or a diocesan or parish Ultreya for the first time in eons. Or maybe it will be volunteering at the upcoming Men’s Weekend. Or maybe it will be reading something that will challenge or deepen your faith.
Challenge yourself. Try something new. And remember, as you struggle to open yourself to spiritual nourishment, you may be surprised at the way the Lord is working through you to feed others. In a letter in September 1979, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta wrote a friend: “Jesus has a very special love for you. As for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.” It was just two months later that she was in Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize for the good she and her order had done for the poor of Calcutta.
Action
Looking for a good book? Check out a Catholic best seller. (http://www.cbpa.org/images/CB-0910.pdf)
