I Have Come to Believe

I Have Come to Believe

Memorial of Saint Martha 

On the next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a grave sin.  I will go up to the LORD, then; perhaps I may be able to make atonement for your sin.”  Exodus 32:30

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  Do you believe this?”  She said to him, “Yes, Lord.  I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.”  John 11:25-27

Piety

 "For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men's faces."
— "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Study

How far have we come in just a week with our sister Martha? 

On the Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, the Gospel reading recounted the story of Jesus’ visit to Martha and Mary.  Martha was concerned about getting help in her hospitality duties and asked Jesus to intervene.  After all, we are a faith in which people often intervene for us with the Lord.  Moses did so in the first reading.  We have the apostles.  We have the Blessed Mother. 

But admonishing Mary was not the kind of intervention that the Lord offered.  Instead, he reminded Martha that her sister had chosen the better part.  But there is still a “best part,” as Fr. Thomas Keating has written.  That best part is the unity of the service to others and the service to the Lord. 

Today, on the Memorial of Saint Martha, we see the change that has overcome her with the belief in the Lord and the resurrection. 

Action

How do you reconcile your spirituality and action – what Fr. Joe McCloskey refers to as the Contemplative in Action?

There is an online retreat on Centering Prayer and Lectio Dvina offer by the website www.SpiritualityandPractice.com.  In honor of the change we see in Martha’s life and outlook, it might be a way to take what we do with Your Daily Tripod and dig a little deeper in all the parts of your life.  You can check out the link to this workshop here:  http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/ecourses/ecourses.php?id=45&key=co