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Breath of the Spirit

Pastoral, Liturgical, Teaching, and Social Justice Moments brought to you by www.DignityUSA.org.

Breath of the Spirit is DignityUSA’s electronic spiritual and liturgical resource for our members and potential members. Nothing can replace your chapter or other faith community, but we hope you will find further support here for integrating your spirituality with your sexuality and all the strands of your life.

We welcome relevant homilies, inspirational writings, social justice opportunities, or theological articles from other sources also — particularly from wise women and men who can help us grow as gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) and allied Catholic/Christians. You may volunteer to help with this program or send your comments by e-mailing info@DignityUSA.org ATTN: Breath of the Spirit.

MAY 2, 2010: FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 14:21-27
Revelation 21:1-5
John 13:31-33,34-35

We humans constantly work at being in control of our lives. We’re not only comfortable scheduling almost every minute of our day; many of us even attempt to map out the entire course of our careers. If we have a destiny in life, it’s to be one of our own making. To say the least, we’re goal oriented.

APRIL 25, 2010: FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 13:14, 43-52
Revelation 7:9, 14-17
John 10:27-30

One of the main points Fr. John O’Malley makes in his recent book, What Happened at Vatican II, is that the conciliar bishops had to deal with the possibility of development or evolution in official church teachings. Things that before 1962 we never thought would change were suddenly in danger of being drastically altered.

APRIL 11, 2010: SECOND SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 5:12-16
Revelation 1:9-11, 12-13, 17-19
John 20:19-31

I begin every course on gospels by stating, “Gospels aren’t biographies of Jesus.” No evangelist provides us with a life history of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were more interested in pointing out the implications of Jesus’ dying and rising for our own lives of dying and rising than they were concerned with giving us a day-by-day account of his activities.

APRIL 18, 2010: THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Readings: 
Acts 5:27-32, 40-41
Revelation 5:11-14
John 21:1-19

For reasons I have no time or space to discuss now, someone (either the original author or a new writer) added chapter 21 to John’s original 20 chapters. In so doing, he or she fortunately preserved and passed on one of the earliest accounts of a post-resurrection appearance of Jesus.

APRIL 3, 2010: EASTER VIGIL

Readings: 
Exodus 14:15-15:1
Isaiah 55:1-11
Romans 6:3-11
Luke 24:1-12

(Though all nine readings should be proclaimed tonight, because of space limits, I can only comment on four.) The practice in some parishes of streamlining tonight’s liturgy by proclaiming a mere handful of the nine readings is, among other things, a sign we’ve yet to understand Scripture’s main purpose. Many of us were taught to use the Scriptures as only proof-texts to confound the Catholic Church’s enemies. I had no clue why the particular writings which form the canon of our Bible were initially created, saved and collected.

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