Chris Manion's Blog, page 2

About Mary, the Mother of God

I grew up as a cradle Catholic yet have not memorized the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God. I can’t explain it. Mary is even my middle name. You’d think I’d do better.

The Holy Spirit calls me to continue to learn about her. In this blog post, I share some of what I’ve learned with you, suspecting you may be like me—Mary plays too small part in my daily life.

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Sister Ann Shields, SGL

This is a “mistake” that needs to be corrected according to Sister Ann Shields, a renowned author and member of the Servants of God’s Love. So here I am correcting it in my wee way for my wee life.

The History of Mary’s Birthday

By long tradition, the Byzantine Church celebrated the birthday of Mary, the Mother of God, the Blessed Mother of Jesus, on the first day of their liturgical year, September 8. (The Catholic Church places Mary’s Divine Maternity at the beginning of the fiscal year but still celebrates her nativity on September 8. See the list of feast days below).

By the 7th century, her birthday made it to the western church and its liturgical calendar. September 8 is nine months after we celebrate Mary’s conception without sin, the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.

The Church honors its saints and holy ones by commemorating the date of their death or martyrdom. The only birthdays the Church celebrates are those of Mary and John the Baptist because their birthdays are so intimately connected with the birth of Jesus.

John, the last of the prophets, was so sensitized to the Presence of Jesus that he did uterine somersaults when pregnant Mary approached her cousin Elizabeth in her sixth month of carrying her long-prayed-for-son about whom the angel Gabriel prophesied.

John’s mission was to announce the coming of Jesus. Mary’s mission was to bear Jesus in her womb and give birth to Him. Tradition and the Bible state both sets of their parents were not fertile. Their conceptions and births to women beyond their prime were notable and celebrated, and in John’s case, promised by the angel Gabriel. Both John the Baptist and Mary always point to Jesus.

He who loves the Immaculate will gain a sure victory in the interior combat.

Maximilian Kolbe, martyr

 

Mary, the Mother of God—We Celebrate Her Life Almost Every Month

The Church dedicated the month of May to Mary. I remember that much growing up. We had a May crowning of Mary, Queen of Heaven, each year in elementary school and the teachers chose some special boy and girl to place the crown on the head of the church’s statue of Mary as we sang the hymn Immaculate Mary. This tradition continues in my parish today at St. Rita Catholic Church in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

I did not realize that except for April, the church celebrates some part of Mary’s life to honor Our Mother. Some of Jesus’ last words were to His Mother and beloved disciple, John. “Woman, behold your son.” Jesus gives His mother to John and the entire world. “Then he said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother.'” Jesus wants us to go to Him through Mary, just as He came to us through Mary.

Her Special Feast Days[image error]

Mary, Mother of Sorrows

One way to improve your relationship with Mary and honor her as one of your teachers—she’s always pointing to Jesus—is to choose a few of these special days and on them, ask her to lead you closer to her Son. She wants nothing more than this.

Jan. 1: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (holy day)

Jan. 8: Our Lady of Prompt Succor

Feb. 2: Presentation of the Lord in the Temple

Feb. 11: Our Lady of Lourdes

March 25: Annunciation

May 13: Our Lady of Fatima

May 31: Visitation

June 27: Our Mother of Perpetual Help

Aug. 15: Assumption

Aug. 22: Queenship of Mary

Sept. 8: Birth of Mary

Sept. 12: Most Holy Name of Mary

Sept. 15: Our Lady of Sorrows

Oct. 7: Our Lady of the Rosary

Nov. 21: Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Dec. 8: Immaculate Conception (holy day)

Dec. 12: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Some of Mary’s Titles

[image error]Mary, the Mother of God, is known by many titles (Blessed Mother, Madonna, Our Lady), nicknames (Star of the Sea, Cause of Our Joy), invocations, (Mother of Mercy, Mother of Hope, Mother of Good Counsel), and names associated with places (Our Lady of Loreto, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Fatima).

Mary is the Mother of Christ, and Christ is head of the Church, so Mary is the Mother of the Church.

We also see Mary as the model of the Church, for she agreed to God’s will to give birth to Jesus despite the possibility of being stoned to death for conceiving a child outside of marriage. She supported and displayed her faith in her Son throughout his ministry.

Some of her titles include:

Ark of the New Covenant. (The original Ark of the Covenant contained the man

na of the Holy Eucharist, Moses’ tablets of God’s Laws, and Aaron’s staff. Jesus called himself the New Covenant at the Last Supper, forgiving all sins and restoring the path to eternal life with his Father in heaven. Mary, who carried Jesus within her, therefore bears this title as the new ark.)

Mystical Rose

Tower of Ivory

Refuge of Sinners

Comforter of the Afflicted

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Our Lady of Perpetual Help

My mother-in-law had a special devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. She kept an image of her on the fireplace mantel and lit a votive candle before her image whenever she prayed for a special request or when my husband and I were travelling. Whenever she got mad at Mary, she’d blow the candle out.

Click this five-minute video on the Litany of Blessed Mary for more titles.

Prayers to Mary, the Mother of God

Besides the Hail Mary, my favorite prayers involving Mary are songs.

Hail Holy Queen

Immaculate Mary

Luke 1:46-55/Magnificat: Holy is Your Name

 

Mary, Mother of Jesus,

help me be humble, patient, pure of heart

and obedient

to the will of God.

 

I love that Mayr’s last recorded words in the Bible are “Do whatever He tells you.” May we always follow her counsel and instructions.

Read another post on obedience and how God’s reaching out to you in everyday moments. Click here.

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The post About Mary, the Mother of God first appeared on Chris Manion.

Centering Prayer: The Best Thing You Can Do

If you are competitive like me, you may hear an inner dialogue when someone says they’ve done something admirable: I wonder if I could do that? or, I could do that better (a thought that started my 26-year-career in direct sales). Even though competition often brings out the best in me, centering prayer is one thing I do that is non-competitive. It’s also the best thing I do and it could be the best thing YOU do.

Unlike most things I’ve done to improve myself, I didn’t seek this type of prayer out. But God knew I needed it.

Weekly church attendance and Bible study didn’t calm down my inner rough spots. I’d go to Church or read my Bible and then continue to act in unChristian-like behaviors. Until I discovered this new method of praying. Without centering prayer, I’d be a hard-driven, competitive, crazy woman. I’m pretty sure about that.

What You Get From Centering Prayer

A deepened relationship with your best friend, Jesus.
Spiritual gifts you hoped for but never thought you’d get.
Answers to questions.

I confess to being a type A. I can’t help myself. It’s how I’m wired. I’ve always got to be doing something well, usually multiple-somethings. And I like to do them as well as I can.

Excellence is a high value of mine, but not to the point of perfection. I lean towards the Quakers who intentionally create one square in their quilts that’s “off” a little…the God square. This less-than-perfect square reminds them only God is perfect. I like that. I like most things that work to keep me humble. It’s so easy to get full of yourself, isn’t it?

It's so easy to get full of yourself, isn't it?
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This one thing—the best thing you and I can do—started out hard for me. Why? Because I could not judge it. One of the rules of the centering prayer method: God is in control of the agenda. Not you or me. He controls the outcome. Still with me?

There was no DOing anything. Instead, in centering prayer you give permission for Someone else to run things for a while. Sure, you may think. How hard can that be?

This one thing involves sitting, which I do plenty of as a writer. But a centering prayer sit involves a different type of sitting. Back straight, legs preferably folded, body relaxed. Alertness.

Centering prayer brings DOing things into proper balance and order.

How I Learned the Method of Centering Prayer 

Centering prayer happened to me by happy accident. Many people attend centering prayer workshops or groups to learn the method. God was my instructor. I describe how he introduced me to this new way of praying to me in Chapter 13 of my book, God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul. The short version? God got a bit irritated with how long I spent justifying a request for his help for another person. Somehow He imprinted the following question within me, a sort of cough that got my attention. It sounded like this: “What part of ‘I know everything’ do you not understand?” That got me to shut up and sit still pretty quick.

Apparently I had been doing a wee bit too much talking during my prayers. Know anybody who talks too much? What do YOU do with them? A-huh.

After a while, I began hearing about Thomas Keating and centering prayer. I didn’t know what it was.

Contemplative Outreach co-founder Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk, and two fellow monks (Fathers Pennington and Meninger) created and named this method of praying after a phrase Thomas Merton used. Merton is one of four great Americans the pope cited in his 2015 U.S. congressional speech. Thomas Merton, also a Trappist monk, described contemplative prayer as “centered entirely on the presence of God.” 

The two parts of the prayer that I like the most are

It is a receptive, not concentrative, form of prayer. Receptive means receiving something, being open to someone giving me a gift or meeting a new person. I like that approach to prayer. 
You don’t have to do anything but consent to be in God’s presence. You don’t have the agenda; He does. You don’t have to come up with any words; silence is the order and language of this prayer. 

I think of my 20-minutes of centering prayer as little valentines to God. When I notice my thoughts veer away from Him, I intentionally release those thoughts, then gently pay attention to God’s presence. once again. That release of our thoughts are valentines, I say. Some prayer times, God gets lots of valentines from me.

I’d Still be Arguing with God

If I hadn’t discovered centering prayer, I would still struggle and argue with God about how life’s going and how frustrated I am with it. The magnificent graces and healing that take place unbeknownst to me during centering prayer have transformed me, not by my doing, but by God’s grace and mercy. He answered questions I didn’t even know I had. And smoothed significant rought spots without my even knowing it.

Centering prayer offers you the deepest union with God you can achieve while still here on earth. But don’t take my word for it.

Click to see my memoir for more on centering prayer and my other books here.

Click here for an explanation of the method of centering prayer at Contemplative Outreach.

I recommend Keating’s spiritual classic Open Mind, Open Heart (half a million copies sold) and Cynthia Bourgeault’s guidebook Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.

For more posts like this one, click below.

I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance 
Pruning a Lesson in the Garden of Life
Defending Christian Faith: Lessons Learned

The post Centering Prayer: The Best Thing You Can Do appeared first on Chris Manion.

Centering Prayer: The Best Thing You Can Do

If you are competitive like me, you may hear an inner dialogue when someone says they’ve done something admirable: I wonder if I could do that? or, I could do that better (a thought that started my 26-year-career in direct sales). Even though competition often brings out the best in me, centering prayer is one thing I do that is non-competitive. It’s also the best thing I do and it could be the best thing YOU do.

Unlike most things I’ve done to improve myself, I didn’t seek this type of prayer out. But God knew I needed it.

Weekly church attendance and Bible study didn’t calm down my inner rough spots. I’d go to Church or read my Bible and then continue to act in unChristian-like behaviors. Until I discovered this new method of praying. Without centering prayer, I’d be a hard-driven, competitive, crazy woman. I’m pretty sure about that.

What You Get From Centering PrayerA deepened relationship with your best friend, Jesus.Spiritual gifts you hoped for but never thought you’d get.Answers to questions.

[image error]I confess to being a type A. I can’t help myself. It’s how I’m wired. I’ve always got to be doing something well, usually multiple-somethings. And I like to do them as well as I can.

Excellence is a high value of mine, but not to the point of perfection. I lean towards the Quakers who intentionally create one square in their quilts that’s “off” a little…the God square. This less-than-perfect square reminds them only God is perfect. I like that. I like most things that work to keep me humble. It’s so easy to get full of yourself, isn’t it?

[bctt tweet=”It’s so easy to get full of yourself, isn’t it?” username=”chrismanionbook”]

This one thing—the best thing you and I can do—started out hard for me. Why? Because I could not judge it. One of the rules of the centering prayer method: God is in control of the agenda. Not you or me. He controls the outcome. Still with me?

There was no DOing anything. Instead, in centering prayer you give permission for Someone else to run things for a while. Sure, you may think. How hard can that be?

This one thing involves sitting, which I do plenty of as a writer. But a centering prayer sit involves a different type of sitting. Back straight, legs preferably folded, body relaxed. Alertness.

Centering prayer brings DOing things into proper balance and order.

How I Learned the Method of Centering Prayer 

Centering prayer happened to me by happy accident. Many people attend centering prayer workshops or groups to learn the method. God was my instructor. I describe how he introduced me to this new way of praying to me in Chapter 13 of my book, God’s Patient Pursuit of My Soul. The short version? God got a bit irritated with how long I spent justifying a request for his help for another person. Somehow He imprinted the following question within me, a sort of cough that got my attention. It sounded like this: “What part of ‘I know everything’ do you not understand?” That got me to shut up and sit still pretty quick.

Apparently I had been doing a wee bit too much talking during my prayers. Know anybody who talks too much? What do YOU do with them? A-huh.

After a while, I began hearing about Thomas Keating and centering prayer. I didn’t know what it was.

Contemplative Outreach co-founder Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk, and two fellow monks (Fathers Pennington and Meninger) created and named this method of praying after a phrase Thomas Merton used. Merton is one of four great Americans the pope cited in his 2015 U.S. congressional speech. Thomas Merton, also a Trappist monk, described contemplative prayer as “centered entirely on the presence of God.” 

The two parts of the prayer that I like the most are

It is a receptive, not concentrative, form of prayer. Receptive means receiving something, being open to someone giving me a gift or meeting a new person. I like that approach to prayer. You don’t have to do anything but consent to be in God’s presence. You don’t have the agenda; He does. You don’t have to come up with any words; silence is the order and language of this prayer. 

I think of my 20-minutes of centering prayer as little valentines to God. When I notice my thoughts veer away from Him, I intentionally release those thoughts, then gently pay attention to God’s presence. once again. That release of our thoughts are valentines, I say. Some prayer times, God gets lots of valentines from me.

I’d Still be Arguing with God

[image error]

If I hadn’t discovered centering prayer, I would still struggle and argue with God about how life’s going and how frustrated I am with it. The magnificent graces and healing that take place unbeknownst to me during centering prayer have transformed me, not by my doing, but by God’s grace and mercy. He answered questions I didn’t even know I had. And smoothed significant rought spots without my even knowing it.

Centering prayer offers you the deepest union with God you can achieve while still here on earth. But don’t take my word for it.

Click to see my memoir for more on centering prayer and my other books here.

Click here for an explanation of the method of centering prayer at Contemplative Outreach.

I recommend Keating’s spiritual classic Open Mind, Open Heart (half a million copies sold) and Cynthia Bourgeault’s guidebook Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening.

For more posts like this one, click below.

I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance Pruning a Lesson in the Garden of LifeDefending Christian Faith: Lessons Learned

The post Centering Prayer: The Best Thing You Can Do first appeared on Chris Manion.

Why Writers Need a Book Launch Team: We’d Rather Hide

Writers need a book launch team because quite frankly, we’d rather hide.

In the middle ages, trumpeters would precede a King’s entrance. Kings hate to be unnoticed, although a few shy kings have graced our world over the centuries.

Writers are like medieval kings. We hate when our books go unnoticed. Like kings of yesteryear, we are not likely to go about announcing a book’s arrival. Most of us hope someone heralds the book for us. That’s something that happened in yesteryear.

A New Publishing Reality

A new publishing reality is upon us. We need trumpeters, a.k.a. Book Launch Teams—also called Street Teams—to herald a book’s arrival. A street team member is an ambassador for a music group, author, or brand who recommends, promotes, or simply passes out flyers and bookmarks.

The trumpeters riding with the King blow as hard as they can into their horns. The gatekeepers and town watchmen hear the sound and pass the word. Every town had a system for getting the word out. 

Every town also had plenty of folks who loved an excuse to show off what they knew, who had a special love for socializing—any excuse at all was fine—and they would scurry to the outskirts folk who wouldn’t hear the horn or who may be a little deaf. Everybody deserves to see and take part in a royal visit.

Every author needs a book launch team or street team of folks who love to have the inside scoop on a new book, who have a special love for sharing good news. Readers appreciate a new, enjoyable read. Writers understand how much effort goes into writing a book. So readers and writers often make up the bulk of an author’s Street Team. And a few good friends.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes a Street Team to introduce a new book today. Social media makes it a breath-above-effortless to scurry to the folks in their circle of influence and let them know the good news of a book’s imminent arrival.

Announcing a Children’s Picture Book

The Light We Cannot See is my latest book to be released in October, a children’s picture book for lovers of angels and little ones. I’d love for you to join my Street Team and trumpet the news of this special story dedicated to all those who have a little one in heaven they love and miss.

Book Launch Team Perks:

Advance copy
Free books!
Chocolate prizes
Knowing you made a difference in building literacy in the world
Prize drawings

Street Team Member Requirements

Write one sentence about the book. Post it where books are sold.
Tell a few friends about it. Parents, godparents, grandparents, pre-school teachers.
Brownie points if you ask your library or school to order it

JOIN the Book Launch Team!

Click on the contact form on this site or here to join.

The post Why Writers Need a Book Launch Team: We’d Rather Hide appeared first on Chris Manion.

Why Writers Need a Book Launch Team: We’d Rather Hide

Writers need a book launch team because quite frankly, we’d rather hide.

In the middle ages, trumpeters would precede a King’s entrance. Kings hate to be unnoticed, although a few shy kings have graced our world over the centuries.

[image error] Writers are like medieval kings. We hate when our books go unnoticed. Like kings of yesteryear, we are not likely to go about announcing a book’s arrival. Most of us hope someone heralds the book for us. That’s something that happened in yesteryear.

A New Publishing Reality

A new publishing reality is upon us. We need trumpeters, a.k.a. Book Launch Teams—also called Street Teams—to herald a book’s arrival. A street team member is an ambassador for a music group, author, or brand who recommends, promotes, or simply passes out flyers and bookmarks.

The trumpeters riding with the King blow as hard as they can into their horns. The gatekeepers and town watchmen hear the sound and pass the word. Every town had a system for getting the word out. 

Every town also had plenty of folks who loved an excuse to show off what they knew, who had a special love for socializing—any excuse at all was fine—and they would scurry to the outskirts folk who wouldn’t hear the horn or who may be a little deaf. Everybody deserves to see and take part in a royal visit.

Every author needs a book launch team or street team of folks who love to have the inside scoop on a new book, who have a special love for sharing good news. Readers appreciate a new, enjoyable read. Writers understand how much effort goes into writing a book. So readers and writers often make up the bulk of an author’s Street Team. And a few good friends.

Just as it takes a village to raise a child, so it takes a Street Team to introduce a new book today. Social media makes it a breath-above-effortless to scurry to the folks in their circle of influence and let them know the good news of a book’s imminent arrival.

Announcing a Children’s Picture Book

The Light We Cannot See is my latest book to be released in October, a children’s picture book for lovers of angels and little ones. I’d love for you to join my Street Team and trumpet the news of this special story dedicated to all those who have a little one in heaven they love and miss.

Book Launch Team Perks: [image error]

Advance copyFree books!Chocolate prizesKnowing you made a difference in building literacy in the worldPrize drawings

Street Team Member Requirements

Write one sentence about the book. Post it where books are sold.Tell a few friends about it. Parents, godparents, grandparents, pre-school teachers.Brownie points if you ask your library or school to order it

[image error]

JOIN the Book Launch Team!

Click on the contact form on this site or here to join.

The post Why Writers Need a Book Launch Team: We’d Rather Hide first appeared on Chris Manion.

I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance

When we testify, our voice—what we write, draw, create, and say—carries power. This essay reflects on the power of that voice and my decisions to convey love.

For almost a decade, I’ve followed the trend of choosing a focus word for the year. In 2013, when I retired from my sales career, I choose the word JOY for obvious reasons. The year proved challenging, and the word bolstered me.

I received my word of the year in 2021 during a Catholic Mass: Testify.

I will not argue a word I receive at Mass. At least not after five minutes.

I knew it was God’s word for me for two reasons. One, I’d asked God for a word to focus me in His will this year, and two, it engaged me immediately. Rebel that I am, I protested against this word. God listened patiently as I resisted. In the Bible, Jesus tells a parable to the elders near the end of the gospel of Matthew. A father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard. One refuses but later repents and works as his father asked. The second son says “sure” but never does the work. I reacted to the word TESTIFY and its built-in request, like the first son (MT 21:28-32).

Similarly, in I Corinthians 1:26-31, Paul attests Christ will build His church through the weak and base, not the ones you think should be first. I took minor comforts from these scriptural references as I released the brakes from the back seat of the tandem bike I now rode with Jesus and began a relaxed pedaling into the year 2021.

The word TESTIFY scared me. The word brought images to mind of activists and people the media currently scourges. People run away from those who TESTIFY. So it seemed to me.

In my fear.

Our fears must never hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

John F. Kennedy

TESTIFY had a ring to it that resonated in an utterly foreign vibration to the melody and rhythms within me. Yet the word thumped like a low drum beat in the jungle of my heart as I pedaled with the Lord through the year. I could not ignore it. It called to me like God called little Samuel in his dreams.

Repeat after me, “Yes, Lord” when you hear the call.

Every Christmas, we hear homilies and preachers encourage us to say our own “Yes” to God the way Jesus’ mother, Mary, said her fiat to the angel Gabriel. We don’t need to know how we will accomplish something. It is enough to say yes to what God calls you. That is all.

That is everything.

He will direct our paths. He will make them straight.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

At Mass, I melted into a weak “yes” as the word TESTIFY lay like butter on warm toast before me. Perhaps it was my guardian angel who brought this gift to me during Mass. Perhaps it was the Lord Himself. I don’t know. What I know is God expected my yes but as always, left it fully up to me to accept or not.

It was a holy request, one that humbled me, and asked me to look at this word more closely. To embrace it as we try to embrace our brothers and sisters who are unlike us. Make peace this word by embracing it. Incorporate it into my life. To love it as we are to “love one another.”

I cannot say I love this word yet. It still scares me. Yet I hear Fr. Luke Farabaugh (parochial vicar at St. Rita Church in Santa Rosa Beach, FL) in my head as he speaks lovingly about evangelizing, about being ambassadors for those who need something their hearts long for. Something we people of faith have. I know it is what I am called to do.

Beware of Rationalizations. Mine: Evangelization is for someone else.

We can rationalize anything, not because we have rejected the greatness of God as Satan did, but because we listen too often to his seductive voice as Eve did.

“Go and preach” is not something I thought applied to me. I’m outside the narrow realm of those called to preach. To TESTIFY. My thoughts affirmed my exclusion regularly. I ignored the fact that God sees and knows all our thoughts.

Like a child ignores her mother’s voice.

I ignored the fact that Jesus warned us about persecution for standing with him in a moral and holy life of divine love.

Those who speak of being the greatest are the ones Jesus asks to move down the table, away from the seat of honor. We are to serve, like slaves. Like Him. To embrace the antithesis of supremacist attitudes. To wash stinky attitudes that people walk on—including our own—the way Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. Quietly. Without comment. Humbly.

I am not outside or above those called to serve. To TESTIFY. To “baptize all nations.” Isn’t that for priests, deacons, and missionaries? I can see the communion of saints in heaven collectively shaking their heads or rolling their eyes. The wiser ones crack a smile.

Unable to do anything by myself, although I love to think the opposite, I remind myself “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). I try to believe this.

The Gift of Obedience

As I climb the mountain called TESTIFY, I sense my smallness.

I take consolation as my protest against this word dies—as all protests against Jesus’ hard sayings must die—in John 5:19 “The Son can do nothing by himself.” Even Jesus did nothing on His own. He reminded us of this many times.

I can do nothing without Him. None of us can.

Once again I step into the three words from an old hymn that most challenge me: trust and obey. (See the intro to my memoir for more.)

Facing Fear: Reprisals, Disapproval, Rejection

We protest God’s call because we desire affection. We want to be loved by others and to avoid conflict. I want easy.

The thought of speaking out these days and getting pushback makes me uncomfortable.

I am loved, I remind myself. By the One who loves us all.

They will love me, I remind myself, those who keep God’s word, obey His law of love, and choose to serve as Jesus showed us. I ignore the taunts of evil snickers in the background.

The pushback will come as it did for Jesus, from those who cannot see Love standing right in front of them. They cannot—choose not—to see or hear the Truth Jesus spoke and modeled lovingly.

That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t love anyway, despite the pushback or ridicule.

I resolve to love softly. The way one speaks to a baby.

To Testify is To Love

I see now that to TESTIFY is to love.

The One who loves us came to show us a radical love, a sacrificial way to love. Knowing I will get pushback and ridicule when I testify is my cross to bear. My sacrifice to God this year is to love and embrace my word. His word.

To testify is my invitation to love. My gift of obedience. Ugh. No wonder St. Paul ran away and hid for three years after the Lord spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

So where do I start? If I just peddle on the tandem bike behind Jesus, watching his back, I do okay. But when I turn my head, I see people making human sacrifices like pagans of old. I see myself an ivory-skinned elder behind a Middle Eastern Jew who keeps stopping our bike to talk to the indigent and the puffed-up Pharisees and Scribes like upstart Paul.

I hear the crazy “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25) in the middle of a gusting storm about to capsize our boat taking on water.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt (1633)

God is Greater.

In my gardens, I sow seeds. I hope they’ll turn into cheerful flowers and vegetables in the future. Golden wildflowers adorn my front yard. Browns and lavenders coat the desert near Phoenix where my parents died. Green blankets the land of Ireland, home of many of my ancestors. All colors contain an energy unique unto themselves just as all people contain energies.

I shall testify to that energy, to the beauty of colors. To flowers that bloom in the night. To the power of light in darkness.

I shall testify to the joy of love. To being one in Christ’s Body. To the dying and rising and embracing of Truth. Even though it scares me to do so.

I shall:Advocate for the right of all children to be safe and loved.Speak out against the human sacrifice we call abortion.Protest actions against the sanctity and dignity of life including those of clergy and the Church.Treat my body as the temple of God that it is and seek to treat others the same.Search for Christ in all I meet and affirm God’s goodness within them.Fail often but not allow that to discourage me or stop me from dusting off my knees and getting back on the bike behind Jesus to pedal away again.Testify to the power of love spoken softly by the way I treat others and the natural world.I Shall Testify Through Him, with Him, and in Him.

I shall testify to love.

When we pray the Confiteor we confess what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do. Whatever I can say about love, about God, will at least not fall in the “failed to do” column in the review of my life, from this day forward. I take encouragement from the little held by the apostles when Jesus asked them to feed the five thousand. Even though they didn’t understand what he was asking or how they could fulfill it, He worked with them to perform a miracle they only later understood to the full. It still unfolds for us today. I’m willing to obey to “testify” and have it unfold for me even though I don’t understand. Even though I am afraid.

I shall give what little I have, digging into the purse of my heart and

pulling out my deepest truths to deposit as my offerings, just as the widow did with her two coins. For Jesus, that will be enough.

I will tremble and be afraid and do it anyway. For where there is Love, there is God. And God is where I find my peace. “There is no peace without justice, but neither can there be justice without love.”

When we testify, our voice carries power. I bow deeply to all, especially my creative friends, who use your voice in the genre and media it best comes out of you because sharing your voice makes us all better. The world needs our voices. God gave them to us to share. So when we do—through Him and with Him and in Him—I imagine His glorious smile.

Here’s to making God happy.

For more reading on social justice, click here and here.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments below.

 

 

 

The post I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance appeared first on Chris Manion.

I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance

When we testify, our voice—what we write, draw, create, and say—carries power. This essay reflects on the power of that voice and my decisions to convey love.

For almost a decade, I’ve followed the trend of choosing a focus word for the year. In 2013, when I retired from my sales career, I choose the word JOY for obvious reasons. The year proved challenging, and the word bolstered me.

I received my word of the year in 2021 during a Catholic Mass: Testify.

I will not argue a word I receive at Mass. At least not after five minutes.

I knew it was God’s word for me for two reasons. One, I’d asked God for a word to focus me in His will this year, and two, it engaged me immediately. Rebel that I am, I protested against this word. God listened patiently as I resisted. In the Bible, Jesus tells a parable to the elders near the end of the gospel of Matthew. A father asks his two sons to work in the vineyard. One refuses but later repents and works as his father asked. The second son says “sure” but never does the work. I reacted to the word TESTIFY and its built-in request, like the first son (MT 21:28-32).

Similarly, in I Corinthians 1:26-31, Paul attests Christ will build His church through the weak and base, not the ones you think should be first. I took minor comforts from these scriptural references as I released the brakes from the back seat of the tandem bike I now rode with Jesus and began a relaxed pedaling into the year 2021.

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The word TESTIFY scared me. The word brought images to mind of activists and people the media currently scourges. People run away from those who TESTIFY. So it seemed to me.

In my fear.

Our fears must never hold us back from pursuing our hopes.

John F. Kennedy

TESTIFY had a ring to it that resonated in an utterly foreign vibration to the melody and rhythms within me. Yet the word thumped like a low drum beat in the jungle of my heart as I pedaled with the Lord through the year. I could not ignore it. It called to me like God called little Samuel in his dreams.

Repeat after me, “Yes, Lord” when you hear the call.

Every Christmas, we hear homilies and preachers encourage us to say our own “Yes” to God the way Jesus’ mother, Mary, said her fiat to the angel Gabriel. We don’t need to know how we will accomplish something. It is enough to say yes to what God calls you. That is all.

That is everything.

He will direct our paths. He will make them straight.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
    and lean not on your own understanding;
 in all your ways submit to him,
    and he will make your paths straight.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)

At Mass, I melted into a weak “yes” as the word TESTIFY lay like butter on warm toast before me. Perhaps it was my guardian angel who brought this gift to me during Mass. Perhaps it was the Lord Himself. I don’t know. What I know is God expected my yes but as always, left it fully up to me to accept or not.

It was a holy request, one that humbled me, and asked me to look at this word more closely. To embrace it as we try to embrace our brothers and sisters who are unlike us. Make peace this word by embracing it. Incorporate it into my life. To love it as we are to “love one another.”

I cannot say I love this word yet. It still scares me. Yet I hear Fr. Luke Farabaugh (parochial vicar at St. Rita Church in Santa Rosa Beach, FL) in my head as he speaks lovingly about evangelizing, about being ambassadors for those who need something their hearts long for. Something we people of faith have. I know it is what I am called to do.

Beware of Rationalizations. Mine: Evangelization is for someone else.

We can rationalize anything, not because we have rejected the greatness of God as Satan did, but because we listen too often to his seductive voice as Eve did.

“Go and preach” is not something I thought applied to me. I’m outside the narrow realm of those called to preach. To TESTIFY. My thoughts affirmed my exclusion regularly. I ignored the fact that God sees and knows all our thoughts.

Like a child ignores her mother’s voice.

I ignored the fact that Jesus warned us about persecution for standing with him in a moral and holy life of divine love.

Those who speak of being the greatest are the ones Jesus asks to move down the table, away from the seat of honor. We are to serve, like slaves. Like Him. To embrace the antithesis of supremacist attitudes. To wash stinky attitudes that people walk on—including our own—the way Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. Quietly. Without comment. Humbly.

I am not outside or above those called to serve. To TESTIFY. To “baptize all nations.” Isn’t that for priests, deacons, and missionaries? I can see the communion of saints in heaven collectively shaking their heads or rolling their eyes. The wiser ones crack a smile.

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Unable to do anything by myself, although I love to think the opposite, I remind myself “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Phil. 4:13). I try to believe this.

The Gift of Obedience

As I climb the mountain called TESTIFY, I sense my smallness.

I take consolation as my protest against this word dies—as all protests against Jesus’ hard sayings must die—in John 5:19 “The Son can do nothing by himself.” Even Jesus did nothing on His own. He reminded us of this many times.

I can do nothing without Him. None of us can.

Once again I step into the three words from an old hymn that most challenge me: trust and obey. (See the intro to my memoir for more.)

Facing Fear: Reprisals, Disapproval, Rejection

We protest God’s call because we desire affection. We want to be loved by others and to avoid conflict. I want easy.

The thought of speaking out these days and getting pushback makes me uncomfortable.

I am loved, I remind myself. By the One who loves us all.

They will love me, I remind myself, those who keep God’s word, obey His law of love, and choose to serve as Jesus showed us. I ignore the taunts of evil snickers in the background.

The pushback will come as it did for Jesus, from those who cannot see Love standing right in front of them. They cannot—choose not—to see or hear the Truth Jesus spoke and modeled lovingly.

That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t love anyway, despite the pushback or ridicule.

I resolve to love softly. The way one speaks to a baby.

To Testify is To Love

I see now that to TESTIFY is to love.

The One who loves us came to show us a radical love, a sacrificial way to love. Knowing I will get pushback and ridicule when I testify is my cross to bear. My sacrifice to God this year is to love and embrace my word. His word.

To testify is my invitation to love. My gift of obedience. Ugh. No wonder St. Paul ran away and hid for three years after the Lord spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

So where do I start? If I just peddle on the tandem bike behind Jesus, watching his back, I do okay. But when I turn my head, I see people making human sacrifices like pagans of old. I see myself an ivory-skinned elder behind a Middle Eastern Jew who keeps stopping our bike to talk to the indigent and the puffed-up Pharisees and Scribes like upstart Paul.

I hear the crazy “Where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25) in the middle of a gusting storm about to capsize our boat taking on water.

[image error]

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt (1633)

God is Greater.

In my gardens, I sow seeds. I hope they’ll turn into cheerful flowers and vegetables in the future. Golden wildflowers adorn my front yard. Browns and lavenders coat the desert near Phoenix where my parents died. Green blankets the land of Ireland, home of many of my ancestors. All colors contain an energy unique unto themselves just as all people contain energies.

I shall testify to that energy, to the beauty of colors. To flowers that bloom in the night. To the power of light in darkness.

I shall testify to the joy of love. To being one in Christ’s Body. To the dying and rising and embracing of Truth. Even though it scares me to do so.

I shall:Advocate for the right of all children to be safe and loved.Speak out against the human sacrifice we call abortion.Protest actions against the sanctity and dignity of life including those of clergy and the Church.Treat my body as the temple of God that it is and seek to treat others the same.Search for Christ in all I meet and affirm God’s goodness within them.Fail often but not allow that to discourage me or stop me from dusting off my knees and getting back on the bike behind Jesus to pedal away again.Testify to the power of love spoken softly by the way I treat others and the natural world.I Shall Testify Through Him, with Him, and in Him.

I shall testify to love.

When we pray the Confiteor we confess what we’ve done and what we’ve failed to do. Whatever I can say about love, about God, will at least not fall in the “failed to do” column in the review of my life, from this day forward. I take encouragement from the little held by the apostles when Jesus asked them to feed the five thousand. Even though they didn’t understand what he was asking or how they could fulfill it, He worked with them to perform a miracle they only later understood to the full. It still unfolds for us today. I’m willing to obey to “testify” and have it unfold for me even though I don’t understand. Even though I am afraid.

I shall give what little I have, digging into the purse of my heart and

[image error]pulling out my deepest truths to deposit as my offerings, just as the widow did with her two coins. For Jesus, that will be enough.

I will tremble and be afraid and do it anyway. For where there is Love, there is God. And God is where I find my peace. “There is no peace without justice, but neither can there be justice without love.”

When we testify, our voice carries power. I bow deeply to all, especially my creative friends, who use your voice in the genre and media it best comes out of you because sharing your voice makes us all better. The world needs our voices. God gave them to us to share. So when we do—through Him and with Him and in Him—I imagine His glorious smile.

Here’s to making God happy.

For more reading on social justice, click here and here.

Thanks for reading. I look forward to your comments below.

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The post I Don’t Want to Testify – A Reflection on My Resistance first appeared on Chris Manion.

It happened one summer to Howard Cooper

It happened the summer Howard Cooper turned fifteen. The year was 1885. Sweat beaded on foreheads and the high-pitched hum of cicadas buzzed in trees.

Southern belle Katie Gray walked home from the railroad station and said something to Howard as she passed him. She’d known him before.

Maybe a taunt. Maybe a pleasantry.

We’ll never know.

He may have averted his eyes. Or not. He may have offended her immature sexuality if he didn’t attempt a look. He followed her into the woods where something happened.

She told her father who gathered friends into a mob. They found him after five days . Newspaper stories convicted him. When mobs grew outside, the sheriff moved him for his safety.

Howard Cooper Convicted. No Presumption of Innocence.

He never stood a chance.

An all-white jury convicted Cooper in less than a minute. Rape. Katie Gray never testified to rape. Cooper steadfastly denied he raped her. It’s hard to say if the prosecution presented evidence of rape.

The judge sentenced him to death by hanging. His attorney appealed the case. He’d already won two earlier cases for black rights magnifying local outrage. The trial violated Cooper’s 14th Amendment rights; Maryland prohibited Blacks from serving on juries.

On the morning of the appeal filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, a mob of masked men collected in twos and threes. One pulled out a rope.

They waited ’til after midnight not wanting to lynch on a Sunday.

On July 13,1885 at 1:00 a.m. with a noose already around his neck, they dragged Cooper from jail. Someone tossed the rope over a sycamore tree branch. Forty men pulled, causing death by long suffocation.

Old Baltimore County jail Towson, site of the 1885 lynching of HOWARD COOPER., and of his memorial marker.

The mob left his body hanging “so angry white residents and local train passengers could see his corpse,” according to Cooper’s plaque. As with most lynchings, they never held anyone accountable for his murder.

Breaking Ground in Racial History

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 Presidential candidate, granted posthumous pardons on May 9, 2021 to thirty-four Black men and boys lynched between 1854 and 1933 in his state including Howard Cooper. The announcement makes Maryland the first and only state to issue a comprehensive set of pardons to men, women and boys (NPR News) immorally lynched in the 19th and 20th centuries, a small but important victory.

Each lynching traumatized entire communities, causing millions of African Americans to migrate from the South.

Many who witnessed the horrors of lynching never spoke of it. Their fear of being the next lynching victim terrified them into accepting racial hierarchy. Similar fear continues today, for example, where some usurp the rule of law with their own violence.

Museums and Memorials

In 2018, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in Montgomery honoring the memory of lynching victims. $20 million in private and charitable donations supports its education mission, part of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. It displays the history of slavery and racism in America, and connects systemic racial cruelties of the past and present. Visitors learn how lynching became legalized capital punishment, how we dehumanized people, and suppressed Black voters by closing polling places or changing rules at the last minute.

Another similar organization, The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, documents and advocates for public acknowledgement of lynching murders, and works to honor and dignify the lives of the victims. They believe racism continues to inflict injuries that cannot be healed until confronted. Truth comes before reconciliation.

Some things take a long time to change.

Maryland leads the nation in recognizing and pardoning Black Americans lynched by whites.

Critics of the lynching memorials say that dredging up the past will only create racial division, exposing animosities that have festered for years. The only way to heal those wounds, others say, is to confront what happened. The history of lynching includes the construction of a gallows on the Capital lawn on January 6, 2021.

“I don’t think it should be that hard to look at history and imagine the impact it had and continues to have — and do something about it,” founder of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, Will Schwarz said. “You can draw a straight line from this nation’s acceptance of lynching to cops shooting blacks in the back today.” 

It remains to be seen whether any of these new efforts help the nation confront our racial crimes and how they foster white supremacy.

I hope so.

Politicians still rile up white mobs and incite racial violence. We get to decide how far we’ve come and if we’re turning back. Back to a summer long ago. A summer to remember.

Additional reading on similar topics:

https://sojo.net/articles/dismantling-last-plantation

https://sojo.net/media/ep-4-valerie-kaur

https://sojo.net/articles/love-letter-black-church-PBS-Henry-Louis-Gates-Jr

 

follow me on Instagram.com/manion.c

The post It happened one summer to Howard Cooper appeared first on Chris Manion.

It happened one summer to Howard Cooper

It happened the summer Howard Cooper turned fifteen. The year was 1885. Sweat beaded on foreheads and the high-pitched hum of cicadas buzzed in trees.

Southern belle Katie Gray walked home from the railroad station and said something to Howard as she passed him. She’d known him before.

Maybe a taunt. Maybe a pleasantry.

[image error]We’ll never know.

He may have averted his eyes. Or not. He may have offended her immature sexuality if he didn’t attempt a look. He followed her into the woods where something happened.

She told her father who gathered friends into a mob. They found him after five days . Newspaper stories convicted him. When mobs grew outside, the sheriff moved him for his safety.

Howard Cooper Convicted. No Presumption of Innocence.

He never stood a chance.

An all-white jury convicted Cooper in less than a minute. Rape. Katie Gray never testified to rape. Cooper steadfastly denied he raped her. It’s hard to say if the prosecution presented evidence of rape.

The judge sentenced him to death by hanging. His attorney appealed the case. He’d already won two earlier cases for black rights magnifying local outrage. The trial violated Cooper’s 14th Amendment rights; Maryland prohibited Blacks from serving on juries.

On the morning of the appeal filing to the U.S. Supreme Court, a mob of masked men collected in twos and threes. One pulled out a rope.

They waited ’til after midnight not wanting to lynch on a Sunday.

On July 13,1885 at 1:00 a.m. with a noose already around his neck, they dragged Cooper from jail. Someone tossed the rope over a sycamore tree branch. Forty men pulled, causing death by long suffocation.

[image error]

Old Baltimore County jail Towson, site of the 1885 lynching of HOWARD COOPER., and of his memorial marker.

The mob left his body hanging “so angry white residents and local train passengers could see his corpse,” according to Cooper’s memorial plaque. As with most lynchings, they never held anyone accountable for his murder.

Breaking Ground in Racial History

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a potential 2024 Presidential candidate, granted posthumous pardons on May 9, 2021 to thirty-four Black men and boys lynched between 1854 and 1933 in his state including Howard Cooper. The announcement makes Maryland the first and only state to issue a comprehensive set of pardons to men, women and boys (NPR News) immorally lynched in the 19th and 20th centuries, a small but important victory.

Each lynching traumatized entire communities, causing millions of African Americans to migrate from the South.

[image error]Many who witnessed the horrors of lynching never spoke of it. Their fear of being the next lynching victim terrified them into accepting racial hierarchy. Similar fear continues today, for example, where some usurp the rule of law with their own violence.

Museums and Memorials

In 2018, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice opened in Montgomery honoring the memory of lynching victims. $20 million in private and charitable donations supports its education mission, part of the Equal Justice Initiative’s Legacy Museum: From Enslavement to Mass Incarceration. It displays the history of slavery and racism in America, and connects systemic racial cruelties of the past and present. Visitors learn how lynching became legalized capital punishment, how we dehumanized people, and suppressed Black voters by closing polling places or changing rules at the last minute.

Another similar organization, The Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, documents and advocates for public acknowledgement of lynching murders, and works to honor and dignify the lives of the victims. They believe racism continues to inflict injuries that cannot be healed until confronted. Truth comes before reconciliation.

Some things take a long time to change.

Maryland leads the nation in recognizing and pardoning Black Americans lynched by whites.

Critics of the lynching memorials say that dredging up the past will only create racial division, exposing animosities that have festered for years. The only way to heal those wounds, others say, is to confront what happened. The history of lynching includes the construction of a gallows on the Capital lawn on January 6, 2021.

“I don’t think it should be that hard to look at history and imagine the impact it had and continues to have — and do something about it,” founder of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project, Will Schwarz said. “You can draw a straight line from this nation’s acceptance of lynching to cops shooting blacks in the back today.” 

It remains to be seen whether any of these new efforts help the nation confront our racial crimes and how they foster white supremacy.

I hope so.

Politicians still rile up white mobs and incite racial violence. We get to decide how far we’ve come and if we’re turning back. Back to a summer long ago. A summer to remember.

Additional reading on similar topics:

https://sojo.net/articles/dismantling-last-plantation

https://sojo.net/media/ep-4-valerie-kaur

https://sojo.net/articles/love-letter-black-church-PBS-Henry-Louis-Gates-Jr

  Why it took 100 years for America to learn about the Tulsa massacre

 

[image error]

follow me on Instagram.com/manion.c

The post It happened one summer to Howard Cooper first appeared on Chris Manion.

Pruning: A Lesson in the Garden of Life

Pruning is something I have to make myself do. I like things to look natural. At some point, whether it’s a beard or a bush, most things can use trimming up.

So I snipped.

I snipped too fast.

I do quite a few things too fast.

The roses in my garden looked leggy, so I retrieved my pruning clippers, garbage can, and my most protective gardening gloves. Snip. Snip.

I took me a while to learn not to wince while pruning. I loved all the leaves or flowers on branches, vines, and stalks that bring me such peace and joy in my garden. Without regular pruning, however, many of the things I love grow awkward, out-of-shape, and crowd out other beauties nearby.

Pruning is a necessary element in a garden and a soul. So is paying attention.

If we do life too fast, we lose an opportunity to enjoy beauty.

In winter, a hard pruning of the rose bushes produces abundant new growth in spring. In Florida, the roses are dormant in winter, but often they bloom throughout the season, especially the shrub rose. So there’s no good time or day to prune the roses. Just do so before the onset of spring, warm weather, fresh growth.

When pruning, keep your eyes on your work.

Soon the clipped branches filled the garbage can. Some branches, unattended too long, had to be cut down into smaller sections to fit. The work tired me and as usual, I pushed myself to go on a bit more. Sometimes, it’s better to rest, take a break, or simply continue the work the next day.

I took my eyes off the branch I was trimming, assessing the next one to prune. Clip. Clip.

As I placed the pruned branches in the trash can, a lovely red lip smiled at me from inside its bud. I shook my head. I’d clipped a bloom which I tried not to do in this particular pruning. Putting it aside, I slowed myself down a smitch and finished my work.

After closing the lid on the clippings and putting the trashcan roadside to be collected, I stored my garden gloves and clipper, then took the budding branch inside and placed it in a glass jar.

 

When pruning, keep your eyes on your work. When being pruned, keep your eyes on God
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Chris Sauter Manion

That one clipping rewarded me for over a week with a glorious opening of its petals, smiling at me on my windowsill as I washed vegetables, dishes, and filled my filtered water container. An accidental clipping became a lesson of how God uses everything, how beauty exists in each moment when we slow ourselves enough to take the time to notice.

See as God sees

How easily God forgives our sins as I forgave myself for a careless clipping. And how refreshing one single recovered flower or sinner can be to the one who sees its beauty.

Of course, there are no mistakes when God does His pruning.

The next time you sense a pruning moment for your heavenly Father, perhaps you might shift what you focus on. Instead of the pruned place that smarts from the shaping or discipline, perhaps you can see yourself in God’s vase as He gazes upon you day after day, waiting for you to open your beauty to Him, seeing His loving eyes upon you, and the smile you bring to His face.

Instead of focusing on what you may have lost, focus on where new sprouts are budding. Where do you sense that happening within you? Around you?

Quotes to Memorize about Pruning




a freshly pruned branch cut stands out

Spiritual pruning enhances spiritual growth by removing whatever inhibits growth. Memorize one or two of these Scripture quotes to remind you of this truth. Behold yourself as God’s beloved, as God’s holy temple, as a beautiful flower or fruit tree in God’s garden.

“And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:5

“Remember not the former things,
    nor consider the things of old.”

Isaiah 43:18

“For behold, I create new heavens
    and a new earth,
and I shall not remember the former things
    or come into mind.”

Isaiah 65:17

For more like this, click for Lessons Learned in Defending Your Christian Faith.

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The post Pruning: A Lesson in the Garden of Life appeared first on Chris Manion.