Finding God in Ordinary Time

Copyright © 2018 by Christine Marie Eberle.

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Praying from the volume Thirst by Mary Oliver, published by Beacon Press, Boston. Copyright © 2006 by Mary Oliver. Used herewith by permission of the Charlotte Sheedy Literary Agency, Inc.

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Contents

INSPIRATION from PEDRO ARUPE, SJ

Origins And Observations

The Four Terrains

PART ONE: AWAKE TO SEE

1. FINDING GOD IN THE MORNING SKY

2. FINDING GOD IN PLAIN SIGHT

3. FINDING GOD IN THE BACKYARD

4. FINDING GOD IN THE COMPOST BIN

5. FINDING GOD IN STILLNESS

6. FINDING GOD AT THE CAMPSITE

7. FINDING GOD AFTER THE STORM

PART TWO: MESSENGERS OF GRACE

8. FINDING GOD IN A FLOWERED HOUSEDRESS

9. FINDING GOD ON THE PHONE

10. FINDING GOD IN MERCY

11. FINDING GOD IN MY ARMS

12. FINDING GOD IN THE CAFETERIA

13. FINDING GOD IN SMOKY FUR

14. FINDING GOD ON THE ONCOLOGY FLOOR

PART THREE: FAR FROM HOME

15. FINDING GOD ON HOLY GROUND

16. FINDING GOD IN AN OUTSTRETCHED HAND

17. FINDING GOD IN UNCERTAINTY

18. FINDING GOD IN FORGIVENESS

19. FINDING GOD IN A FOREIGN TONGUE

20. FINDING GOD IN THE GRIKES

21. FINDING GOD AT MY FEET

PART FOUR: WORKING IT OUT

22. FINDING GOD IN IRREVERENCE

23. FINDING GOD IN IMPERFECTION

24. FINDING GOD IN FAILURE

25. FINDING GOD IN THE YES

26. FINDING GOD IN PURE GIFT

27. FINDING GOD AT THE WATER’S EDGE

28. FINDING GOD IN A FORTUNE COOKIE

PRAYING BY MARY OLIVER

QUESTIONS FOR GROUPS

SCRIPTURE INDEX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Nothing is more practical than finding God,

that is, than falling in love

in a quite absolute, final way.

What you are in love with,

what seizes your imagination,

will affect everything.

It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning,

what you will do with your evenings,

how you will spend your weekends,

what you read,

who you know,

what breaks your heart,

and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love,

stay in love

and it will decide everything.

—PEDRO ARUPE, SJ

Origins and Observations

I’m really glad I’m always able to pray so well, said no one, ever.

In my quarter-century of spiritual conversations with young and not-so-young adults, one theme has come up over and over again: people of faith are anxious about prayer. We know we should pray, and often we try, but we don’t think we’re very good at it, and we’re sure other people are better. We yearn to feel close to God, but most days, we just feel clueless.

It doesn’t help that some people reach adulthood with way too much religious baggage—images of God that are problematic yet persistent—while others arrive with suitcases nearly empty, having gotten through adolescence without acquiring a scrap of religious vocabulary. Whether we start by struggling to erase the picture of God as an angry old white guy with a beard, or by staring at an alarmingly blank piece of paper, moving into a mature relationship with the living God is both a challenge and the work of a lifetime.

The people of Jesus’ day were not so different. If they were, he wouldn’t have had to resort to so many similes. Just think of all the things Jesus said the reign of God was like: an old woman; a new wineskin; a merchant’s search for fine pearls; a mustard seed. Urgently he piled simile upon metaphor upon analogy—anything that could reveal the ways of God in the language of ordinary experience.

I did not always understand this. The particular flavor of my Roman Catholic upbringing didn’t dwell on experience and metaphor; it emphasized answers and rules. In matters of faith, it was important to know the right answers and abide by the rules. And so I did. I was a good daughter, a good student, a good Catholic (or so I thought)…and unbearably self-righteous.

It wasn’t until the fifteenth year of my Catholic education that I realized there was more to faith than doctrinal certainty. At Saint Joseph’s, Philadelphia’s Jesuit university, I majored in English but