Sr Kym Harris – Page 10 – Benedictine Monastery

July 23, 2020

Home-making

Acquiring our own house, whether we build, buy or rent it, is a big challenge. We need at least money, some expertise and an idea of what we want. But making a home – now that’s the great challenge. It is a work of the heart and while it can begin in a moment, it goes on all our life. Our homes have personalities. Every home is forged from the different people within – even a new born baby changes the dynamic.

Homemaking requires listening – to our own hearts and its needs, and to the hearts and needs of others. At times, this requires self-discipline and self-sacrifice. But the joy and contentment of being in our own home, when things are going well, is one of the deepest human pleasures.

God, too, is a home maker and desires to make his home in each of our hearts. In fact, God is already at work there now! Maybe we realise this, maybe not – that doesn’t change the passion of God’s love. But God is ever respectful of who we are and wants us to join with him in creating a home within us. Can you imagine what type of home you would like your heart to be? What would God like your heart to be like? Working together, you and God, what type of home are you creating?

Creative Father, loving Jesus, ever present Sprit, come make your home in me and in my family. As we rest in your love, may we grow into our truest selves, loving you and each other. We ask this in Jesus’ name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb.

July 23, 2020

St Joseph the Worker

St Joseph the Worker – Feast Day – 1^st of May

Work gets a bad press. All around us people make out as though working is a bad thing. If only they could win the lottery, they could get away from it all, if only they could retire early…… but would they be happy?

Jesus began his ministry at about 30 years of age. What was he doing before that? Working with his foster-father St Joseph in the family carpentry. Most likely he started helping out as a little nipper, so before he began his preaching he had probably worked for about 25 years. 25 years as a tradie, 3 years preaching. There is an important message here. In the creation stories, we are told how God delighted in making the heavens and the earth and found it all ‘very good.’

There is something inherently good about work. Not drudgery that demeans us. But good, even hard work that we can stand back from and say “It is good.” When we have completed something – be it a shift at the mines, the making of a meal, the teaching of a class, the washing of a dirty child, we need to stop for a moment and admire our work. With God, we should say ‘it is good.” Work should not be valued just by the wage it brings in but, more importantly, by the dignity it gives to us. As we work we share in God’s creative power.

Creative God, you have called us to share in your work of creation. Send us your Sprit that we may work like Jesus, delighting in the work of our hands and minds. We ask this in his name, confident that you may hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb.

Benedictine Monastery

Tanby via Yeppoon

July 23, 2020

Service

Anzac Day

When the first Anzacs floated into Gallipoli cove before dawn, they had no idea what they had let themselves in for. When they signed up months before, they probably thought this soldiering would be a good lark. The early photos and stories of their time training in Egypt bear that out. But landing at Gallipoli shattered their illusions. Horror and death and pain burst upon them. In the long months ahead they forged a type of service that has become, not only the best spirit of our armed services but also, a witness of service to the wider community.

The Anzacs survived Gallipoli and the trenches of Europe not on a ‘might warrior’ myth but by their commitment to each other and the belief they were working for a greater cause. To this day, Anzacs who receive medals for bravery always say two things: ‘My mates deserved this as much as I did,’ and ‘I was only doing my duty’. Also, to this day their former foes, the Turks hold those soldiers in esteem. In the midst of battle they recognised the spirit and goodness of their hearts.

Service is also an integral part of our nature as Christians. Often it is the most challenging part of our lives. Rarely do we serve in brutal situations but even mundane situations can call for courage. Only by supporting each other and trusting in the help of God will we persevere in strength and goodness.

Loving God, you sent you Son to live among us, to serve us. Send us his Spirit that we too may follow his example of love and service. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb.

July 23, 2020

Butterflies

Butterflies.

At the beginning of Lent, I noticed a swarm of caterpillars devouring one of our gardens. The bulb leaves – big and small were a mess but before I moved in to pick, kill and spray, I remembered how Easter time here on the Capricorn Coast is the time of the butterflies. So I left the caterpillars alone, looking ugly themselves and making the garden ugly. I waited in what looked like failure.

Now it is Easter and we are surrounded by hundreds of butterflies – blues, yellows, and blacks, and of course the glorious multi-coloured Jezebels. The butterfly is a traditional symbol of the resurrection of Christ. The ugly caterpillar chewing away at the garden gives little sign of the beauty to come when it emerges from its chrysalis. Jesus beaten, tortured, rejected, dead gives little sign of the radiant life to come when he emerges from the tomb.

At the Resurrection the women are told to go and tell the disciples to remember – remember the time in Galilee when Jesus preached, healed, was transfigured, when he transformed people’s lives. In remembering the good he had done in the ordinary life of Galilee, they will start to understand the Resurrection. So it is for us. In times of failure and difficulty, we need to remember those times when God brought something totally unexpected out of our sin or failure. These are our times of Resurrection pointing to the fullness of life in Christ.

Creative God, your Spirit can make all things new, even our sin and failure. When things go wrong in our lives, may the Resurrection of Jesus fill us with courage and hope. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb.

July 22, 2020

Transforming Lives

I did not like school. I was one of those misfit kids. Looking back, the teacher to whom I am most grateful was my Grade 1 teacher, Mrs Brown: she taught me to read and reading became my refuge. She also intervened when I, in a higher grade, was being badly treated by my teacher. Yes, you read that right and teachers reading this would know what that meant nearly 60 years ago. If she is alive, I doubt she would remember me but I do remember her. My older brother also remembers her fondly.

Reading is one of the most important abilities I have and having known people who could not read, I cannot underestimate how precious a gift it is. Mrs Brown did her job and what a fine job she did. I doubt that she ever received any awards or accolades, except the occasional remembrance by former pupils. She certainly transformed my life. Looking back now, I wish I had had an opportunity to thank her.

This coming Friday, we celebrate World Teachers Day. Take time this day to remember the teachers who transformed your life. Often the abilities they taught were, like reading, so ordinary we rarely acknowledge them but, with a little reflection, we can realise what a profound influence they had on us. If you have the opportunity, take this time to contact them and thank them. That is the best affirmation a teacher can receive.

Loving God, thank you for the teachers who have transformed my life. By my gratitude, may I show my child/ren how to be grateful for the people who serve and care for them in so many different ways.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 22, 2020

“And what happens when someone dies?”

Coming from a child, that is a question parents and teachers dread. Death is a mystery that we all struggle with and when a child asks it, we struggle even more. How can we answer honestly something for which there are no easy answers or pat evasions? Added to that, we are often ambushed by this question when we are dealing with the death of someone that we love.

For a Christian, the mystery of death is closely entwined with that other great mystery of life: God. Death and God! No wonder we get tongue-tied when a child blurts out the above question. And to make it even tougher, ultimately the answer to this question can only be answered in very personal terms…so I’ll share my answer with you.

Created in God’s own image, we are made for the fullness of love but while we are alive, here in this world, we experience limitations in our loving: time, space, our physical bodies, weakness in personality, our sinfulness. When we die we are released from these and given the opportunity to choose God, love and life in its fullness. Those we leave behind on earth suffer the loss of us…for a time. But the ones who have died are actually free to love us more than they could while on earth. Because of that, I often turn and pray to the people who loved me on earth: my parents, grandparents, and friends. Whatever might have limited their love on earth is now cut away and they love me with God’s own love.

In the Catholic Church, November is a time when we remember the dead. We remember them in prayer, knowing that they continue to love and care for us, with us all waiting for the day when we will be reunited in God’s glory.

Loving God, we grieve over those we love who have died. Hold us all together in your love that we may look forward to the day we will be reunited in the fullness of life. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 22, 2020

The Instinct of Love

Recently I attended the memorial service of a wonderful man. During the service, it was said that he wasn’t a religious man, implying that he didn’t know what came after death. His loving grandchildren did. Five of the seven wrote poems in which they expressed their love and their belief that his love would continue to be with them and guide them through their lives. How could it not? He had loved them so much, so deeply. Their instinct was right – they had known him in love and his love would go on. It was the greatest reality that they knew about him.

This week we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. The feast concerns another death, that of Mary, but also of the belief that after her death she was taken to heaven, body, soul and spirit to be with her son Jesus, to whom she had been so close here on earth. There is no direct Scriptural basis for this belief – but it has been an instinct of believers in the Church since its earliest times. Our belief holds that she, who was mother to Jesus, who shared his joys and sorrows so closely in his life, now shares his glory. She is a sign of the hope to us who hope to enter into the fullness of love and life with God. Do we really understand what this means? No, but like the grandchildren of the friend who died, we have an instinct that tells us that the love we have known will go on…and that God intends to cover us in glory, as he did Mary.

Loving Father, you have given us Mary as a sign of hope to us when we are fearful about what happens after death. In her, we see the fullness of life and love that you wish for all of us. Help us to trust in the glory that is to come. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear us.

Sr Kym Harris osb

July 22, 2020

Find your treasure

Book Week: Find your treasure

I am on the email list of James Clear, a self-help guru, who often has helpful hints. His passions are weightlifting, travel and photography – none of which are mine. But why would I read material from someone so different to me? Because the advice he gives is useful: find your passion, stick to it with practice every day and the aim for small changes. Why on earth would I read material from someone so different to me? Because he challenges and confirms my way of looking at life. Weightlifting! Beyond my experience or desires. Daily faithful commitment, oh how I want that. Reading the experiences of other people not only takes us beyond our narrow world, it helps us discover what is important in our own.

But we need to reflect on what we read…and on our own hearts as well. Jesus gave this advice: where your treasure is, there is your heart. As we read, we can notice what appeals to us and what we disagree with, who we admire and why, who we don’t want to be like. As we sift over these things, we clarify what is important to us, finding our treasure, we discover what would feed out heart.

How can we help our child/ren find the treasure, the focus of their lives? By helping them develop that reflective spirit that ponders on life. We can do this practically by talking about the books they read, the videos they watch. We can ask them what they liked? What inspired them? Who did they want to be like? Even the simplest picture can give entry into the heart.

Loving Father, your desire is to be the treasure in our hearts. As we ‘read’ our lives and discover you as the source of all goodness, may we help our child/ren to discover treasure through their reading. We ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear me.

July 22, 2020

A different kind of educational funding

A major issue in this election is school funding. It is important. Indeed, education is probably the most important investment we make in our nation’s future. That said, there is a different kind of funding we need to seriously consider: time and interest. One experienced teacher said that the two most effective things you can do for your child/ren’s education is to read to them and to listen to their reading. You might say ‘That’s okay when they are little but what about when they grow older?’ The commitment is still as important. Reading to and listening to reading with little children involves both, adult and child, speaking and listening. This is a commitment of time and attention through a neutral thing, a book, and the common experience can lead to communion. Children love this not just because their reading improves but because we are made for communion. Our God is a community, Father, Son and Spirit. Being made in the image of God, the desire to be with each other is wired into our heart’s DNA. We have a deep desire to be with each other. As children morph into adolescents the desire is still there but we, as adults, have to be more sensitive and creative in finding a ‘neutral’ thing, a hobby or interest, where we can be in communion with our child/ren. As we work to make connections, to find things that foster communion, we become more loving, more Godlike. It is not only our child/ren that are transformed. Our own hearts too are fulfilled.

Loving God, send me the wisdom of your Spirit so that I make find the best ways to spend time and show interest in my child/ren. Let our time together lead us into love and a richer life. I ask this in Jesus’ name confident that you will hear me.

July 22, 2020

What is good for your soul?

A volunteer, lined up to go and help during the Brisbane floods a few years ago, was asked why he was there. He replied: “It is good for the soul.” Most of us knew exactly what he meant even though the task for him involved working in stinking conditions, for people he did not know and with no payment at all. It was good for his soul because he was giving of himself – generously. Across the country at the moment – in Tasmania, outside Melbourne and across Far North Queensland, we are hearing about many people doing good for their souls, though they probably don’t see their generosity that way.

How often do we stop and ask ourselves: what is good for my soul? What actions make me a better person for having done them? We all know what a difference healthy food makes to us, but what about life-giving, soul-fulfilling actions? We each have different things that work for us but one way that works for all is giving of ourselves (not our money) in a selfless way. Rarely will we have the chance to do a dramatic rescue or even clean up a city after a flood but we are offered many simply and ordinary opportunities: ringing an elderly relative, listening to your child’s reading when you’ve heard the story ten times before, offering to do a job your spouse usually does. These actions are good for our souls for they take us out of our own concerns and connect us with other people. We are made for this: created in God’s image we come to the fullness of life in profound passionate self-giving, even in the smallest events of life.

Loving God, we have been inspired by the many people who gave of themselves during the recent disasters. Led by your Spirit, may we follow Jesus’ example and their example in showing love, even in the ordinary events of life. We ask this in his name, confident that you will hear us.