News from Sophia Christi

When I mentioned to my spiritual director that we are celebrating our 8^th anniversary as a community this weekend he said, “Wow, eight years!” Then he asked “Do you feel God’s gratitude?” I’ve come to expect such a typically Jesuit question from a Jesuit director. Still, it took me by surprise. “God’s gratitude?” I asked. “Yes,” he said. “God couldn’t do this without YOU.” So I sat with that as he softly said, with great tenderness, “God is grateful to you.”

As I’ve taken this statement into prayer and turned it over in my mind I’ve come to see it as the theme of our 8^th anniversary. God is grateful to YOU—all of you—for living this prophetic witness of inclusive acceptance and whole-hearted welcome of everyone—here and now—not outside of but WITHIN the Roman Catholic Church.

We wouldn’t be here without God, of course, but there is something radical-sounding in the assertion that God couldn’t do some things without US! Without us, though, God has no feet on the ground, no prophetic voice, no hands or words to comfort the sorrowful or encourage the fearful. Without us, there would be no Sophia Christi. The prophetic witness of this community wouldn’t exist. There would be no radically inclusive and welcoming Catholic Church here in Portland/Eugene where everyone is welcome at the table, whatever their background, and where a woman’s call to priesthood and ordination is verified, validated and celebrated. God can’t do this without us, all of us. God can’t do this without YOU! (more…)

Hear the words of Peace Pilgrim—a woman who walked across the country for 28 years after vowing to “remain a wanderer until [hu]mankind has learned the way of peace.”

“I have walked 25,000 miles as a penniless pilgrim. I own only what I wear and what I carry in my small pockets. I belong to no organization. I have said that I will walk until given shelter and fast until given food, remaining a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace. And I can truthfully tell you that without ever asking for anything, I have been supplied with everything needed for my journey, which shows you how good people really are….This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love. There is nothing new about this message, except the practice of it.”

I was reminded of her pilgrimage as I read the words of today’s Gospel. The disciples are instructed to take nothing but a walking stick and sandals for their feet. All they will need are those basic items that will allow them to continue walking over rough terrain. They are to carry no food, no money, no bag and no extra clothing. Instead, they are to rely on God alone as they bring God’s love and healing touch to everyone they meet. In offering to others all they’ve been given, they will receive all that they need. (more…)

Some decisions we make in life are just so clear!  We know they are right for us even when they take us outside the everyday pattern of our own lives.  In those moments when the only thing we know is that we are doing what we MUST do, and going where we MUST go—it is God in the depths of our being who is leading the way.  This is the situation Amos finds himself in as he stands before Amaziah, the priest of the sanctuary at Bethel in Israel.  God has sent Amos to confront the Israelites, including the king, with their glaring injustices against the poor and the weak among them.  It is a time of relative prosperity in Israel, a time of self-satisfaction and religious arrogance among those reaping the benefits of the nation’s success.  In the glow of that success they had lost track of their responsibilities to one another, and to their covenant as a people. Earlier Amos had reminded them where they came from saying: “Hear this word, O Israel, that the Lord pronounces over you, over the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt…”  It is to this FAMILY—a family that is not acting like a family, a family that is ignoring, even oppressing, its weakest members—that God sent Amos.

Every prophet in the Jewish Scriptures is sent on the same mission—to call the family of God back together.  The people need reminders that they are ONE people in a sacred relational covenant with the one and only God.  Like us, they forget who they are and what they’re here for.  They forget they are a family.  At best they resist taking care of the poor and the weak; at worst they exploit the vulnerable for their own economic or political gain. ‘But you are a family,’ Amos tells them.  He says this to the king and the priests, as well as the comfortable and the strong.  “All of us, including those you are mistreating, are God’s chosen people, God’s family.”  Amaziah refuses to hear what Amos is saying and tells him to get out.  (more…)