Tag Archives: prayer

Good Shepherd

Steadfast & Extravagant God

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“In the absence of holiness, You are still God. You are steadfast.”

This morning, I prayed with these words from the song Steadfast by singer songwriter Leslie Jordan. A good reminder with everything going on in our world and even in my own head and heart. Because, you see, we are human. We get hooked, we get annoyed, we can hook and annoy other people. Then there is the state of the world and the harm done to real families and earth, our common home, by selfish and misguided individual and collective human action. Yet God is still God. God is steadfast. Always.

God is still God and God is always on the lookout for us, steadfast and in love with these imperfect souls created in the image and likeness of God. God is love, and so this means we are a reflection of this love, created in and for love, and even when we stray from that path, God is there already in love with us, loving us into our fullest being.

In today’s Gospel reading (Luke 15: 1-10), Jesus tells two stories to a group of folks who are complaining about the sinfulness of another group of folks (when they no doubt had their own flaws to contend with). In the first, the story is of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep alone in the desert to search out for the one who is lost.

And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’

The second story is of the woman who searches high and low in her house for her lost coin, her treasure. She too rejoices when her seeking ends in the discovery of that which was lost. Jesus tells those gathered around him–and us–“In just the same way, I tell you, there will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

God is love, and God’s love is bigger than our brokenness. In the absence of holiness–in ourselves, in others, in society–God is still God and God’s love is abundant and never ending. God does not give up on us!

I was struck by these words at the end of a reflection on this reading, by Nick Wagner in the book I use for my morning prayer, Give Us this Day:

“These are stories about a God who loves us with wild extravagance. The Divine Seeker refuses to calculate odds or cut losses. God’s love persists beyond reason and celebrates beyond proportion. Jesus invites us to participate in God’s excessive seeking–not because it makes sense, but because the joy of finding transcends all calculation.”

May we who are made in the image and likeness of God, imperfect as we are, strive to mirror God’s excessive seeking for goodness, light, love, and peace. May we never give up on ourselves or one another. May we be steadfast like God is steadfast. Amen.

YOU are God

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This morning during my contemplative prayer time, these words came to me over and over: “YOU are God.”

God is love. God is the source of everything that is good. God is God, and we are not … hence all the humanness of our shared reality.

God is.

As the saying goes in the Black church: “God is good all the time. All the time, God is good.”

YOU are God. These words grounded my heart during my silent prayer this morning, as my mind wandered to the many troubles plaguing our human and earth community. God is God. Those humans in power and those abusing power are not God.

Later, I found myself reflecting on the character Groot in the Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy movies. Just as the one phrase, “YOU are God,” repeated over and over again in my heart during my meditation this morning, Groot has just one phrase: “I am Groot.”

Yet this phrase has a surplus of meaning. In the Marvel universe, Groot is a a member of the Flora Colossi, a race of treelike alien beings from Planet X. Highly intelligent creatures, Flora Colossi have a stiff larynx that is only capable of making a sequence of sounds that we hear as “I am Groot.” His friend Rocket apparently understands Groot’s language, and helpfully offers his interpretation skills for the benefit of all. What sounds to us like three simple words can carry a variety of meanings, depending on the context and delivery. Without giving away any serious spoilers, at one point Groot’s sequence of sounds meaningfully shifts to “We are Groot” after a moment of self-sacrificing love for his friends.

Now, WE are not God. Yet we are made in the image and likeness of God. We are made to love. We are made to be and do good. We are made to care for creation and one another. We are not good all the time, but all the time we are called back to love and goodness through the mercy of God. And for that, I am very grateful.

May We Be A Sanctuary

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This morning a small group of us prayed outside the gates of Delaney Hall, the for-profit immigrant prison operated by GEO Group in our name. We gathered outside for a simple prayer service while the first group of families were forced to wait on an active driveway outside the gates for the chance to visit their loved ones detained in this 1,100 bed facility. This was the second week of the Let Us Pray Sunday morning prayer service outside Delaney Hall. Different faith traditions will be leading prayer each week. This week’s prayer was in the Christian Tradition and organized by Pax Christi NJ.

We began singing the song, Please Prepare Me, praying that we might be a sanctuary for the families and their detained loved ones.

We then listened to the word of God: Jeremiah 17: 5-11, Romans 12: 1-12, and Matthew 11:28-30. I was then honored to offer a brief reflection on the scripture readings, which is copied below. It was a beautiful experience of church with friends and strangers praying together that we may find refuge in God and be rooted in love.

Reflection by Susan Francois, CSJP – Delaney Hall (August 31, 2025)

Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-11, Romans 12:1-2, Matthew 11:28-30

Chances are, right now, you have a piece of paper or a coin in your pocket with the words “In God We Trust” written on it.  Our currency has carried these words since President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a law making “In God We Trust” our official national motto in 1956.  The context of this law, of course, was the Cold War. The inclusion of the motto on our nation’s money was seen as a response to the anti-religious stance of the Soviet Union.

We just heard proclaimed words from the prophet Jeremiah, in which he reminded his community to trust in God, not people and not money.  His preaching was in a different context. He was worried that the people were placing their trust in the wrong things and turning their hearts from God.  He wanted them to understand that actions have consequences.  He predicted (correctly as it turns out) that they would be exiled to Babylon.

I can’t help but wonder what he’d make of our context today.  Take the last line from the passage from Jeremiah, where he compares a partridge that broods but does not hatch to those who acquire wealth unjustly.  In the end, they are just fools. Unjust fools.

The building behind me is operated by GEO Corp under tax-payer funded 15-year $1 Billion contract.  GEO’s own press release announcing the deal in February proudly predicted that the “contract is expected to generate in excess of $60 million in annualized revenues for GEO in the first full year of operations.”  

And yet, even with all this profit, families with small children, pregnant mothers, and elderly relatives of persons detained behind these walls are not provided with a safe place to wait for the chance to see their loved ones before they are deported.  They are required to wait hours in the hot sun—and with this being Labor Day weekend, we know colder and wetter weather is around the corner—without shelter, without access to a bathroom even. I suspect that the prophet Jeremiah would have looked at this private-for-profit prison operation and declared that the GEO shareholders are earning their wealth unjustly.  

Let’s shift Jeremiah’s focus from those detaining our migrant brothers and sisters to their faithful loved ones who come to stand at the foot of these gates today.  Despite the odds, despite the difficulties, no doubt even in despair, they come each weekend in hope to spend a few moments with their loved ones.  “They are like a tree planted beside the waters that stretches out its roots to the stream.  It does not fear heat when it comes, its leaves stay green.”

The leaves that sustain them, I suspect, are rooted in love.  Love for their husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, brother, sister, or friend who are inside these walls.  Love for each other. Those of us who have been privileged to volunteer here these past few months have seen so many actions of kindness and love between strangers on this driveway. Volunteer to visitor. Visitor to visitor. Visitor to volunteer.  

By our very presence—as visitors, as volunteers—we are refusing to conform to this age of inhumanity where cruelty seems to be the point.  We trust in love, and my Christian tradition teaches that God is love.  Jesus, God-with-us, love incarnate, invites us in the passage we heard from Matthew’s Gospel to find sanctuary in his love, where we will find rest.

May we be love.  May we be loved.  May we be sanctuary for one another.  May we trust not in the unjust laws of men or the unjust pursuit of profit through human suffering, but in the love of God.

Retreat Notes (2025 Edition)

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I will be honest. Given the state of the world, it felt a little self-indulgent to spend a week away in silence and the beauty of God’s creation this year. And yet I leave renewed and strengthened by God’s love, grateful for the wisdom of tradition and my community’s expectation that each sister take an annual retreat (it’s in our Constitutions!).

Mother Evangelista, one of the first sisters to profess vows in the community in 1884, taught this to her novices:

“Retreat – What is it? A Spiritual Holiday with our Lord. … God comes to us now with His hands spread out over us, and filled with every kind of grace and gift. Are these gifts for me Lord? Is it I?“

I can relate. This year, I returned to Wisdom House, an interfaith retreat center in Connecticut run by the Daughters of Wisdom. When I was a novice, I made my retreat here both years. It is a sacred space filled with beauty where I have received many graces and gifts, this year being no exception.

I leave with three messages tucked into my heart from this week, wisdom for the journey.

1. Strengthen Your Weak Knees

The week before my retreat I twisted my knee. Given that one of my favorite things to do on retreat is go on long walks in the woods, this was problematic.  Thankfully I am improving and was able to take (slow) walks with the help of a knee brace.

God has a (serious) sense of humor, however. The Sunday reading as I began retreat was from Hebrews 12:

For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it.

So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed (emphasis added by me).

I burst out laughing at mass as this passage was proclaimed. OK God, I get it. But just to make sure I got the message, later that same day, I was listening to new music by Sandra McCracken, who it happens released a song based on this same verse in July!

Strengthen your weak knees became a theme of sorts for this retreat. The journey is not without challenges, but I find strength in God and community (and knee braces) and stay on the path. Speaking of paths, I visited the Montfort Fathers Lourdes Shrine in Litchfield and made a prayer video set to the song.

2. Do Whatever He Tells You

I attended daily mass this week at a local parish, where on my second visit  I noticed a beautiful stained glass window of the wedding at Cana. I love the look on Mary’s face as she looks over her shoulder at Jesus. Aren’t you going to do something, her whole being says to her son. And to the servants (and to me), she says simply, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Life can be overwhelming on the best of days. Right now … well. Sigh. I have been mostly unplugged this week but have been reading (and praying with) the news. Enough said.

I also carry with me the stories of the immigrant families I have met on my visits to the Delaney Hall detention center in the face of cruel,  inhumane, and constantly changing visitation policies at the for-profit prison. Another reflection point this week that kept coming up for me (and is in the video above) was standing at the foot of the cross. My experience of accompaniment at Delaney Hall has been a true foot of the cross experience. I can feel helpless in such moments. Like Mary and the other women, I suppose.

As I prepare to return back to real life, I am encouraged by Mary to follow her son. “Do whatever he tells you. He is the way. Love is the way.” My task is simply to listen to him and act accordingly. Small acts of love add up. And as Pope Leo reminded us that first day from the balcony at St. Peter’s… “God loves all of us and evil will not prevail.”

3. Be Like Wise and Rational Fish

Bear with me here … This morning, on the feast of St Augustine, I was drawn to look at the Office of Readings for the day, which I presumed would have something from him. Sure enough, it was the “Late have I loved you” bit, which is lovely and worthy of reflection, to be sure.

But it was the daily reading from St. Columbanus (different from Columba apparently), a sixth century Irish Missionary that caught my attention. Reflecting on Living Water, he wrote:

“We are called to the source and fountain of life … From this Life comes everything: wisdom, life, eternal light. The Creator of life is the fountain from which life springs; the Creator of light is the fountain of light. So let us leave this world of visible things. Let us leave this world of time and head for the heavens. Like fish seeking water, like wise and rational fish let us seek the fountain of light, the fountain of life, the fountain of living water.“

His words came back to me later as I happened upon a bubbling brook on my morning walk in a nearby nature preserve. Remember, I was necessarily walking slowly thanks to my weak knees so I noticed things! I even took advantage of a conveniently placed bench to ponder this living water (and later make a video, because why not?).

God’s love is everywhere if we but have eyes to see and ears to hear (and weak knees to slow us down). God gives us living water to sustain, refresh, and renew us. May we, like wise and rational fish, remember to seek out and be light and love in the darkness amid the dry times in which we find ourselves.

Thanks for reading. I have been praying for you, yes you, during these days of retreat. May we all remember that God is good. All the time. And so are we.

Peace for Us – a poem for this moment

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This morning as we grapple with the death dealing decision of the current occupant of the White House to choose destruction over diplomacy, with far reaching consequences we can only imagine, I found myself praying with this poem by my friend Susan. She has been in heaven more than 5 years now. Praying with her wisdom and insight and wonderful way with words in this disturbing moment, and counting on her to whisper into the ear of her loving God on our behalf.

Peace for Us
by Sister Susan Dewitt, CSJP

You who are peace for us
came among us into such trouble,
into the Emperor’s world of calculations,
straight roads, good money, crucifixions.

You who are peace for us
came among us into a conquered people,
unfashionable stubborn believers
in the promise and the Word.

You came to a serving woman,
who trusted the impossible promise
you who are peace for us
would bring to birth in her,

You came naked and helpless,
you who are peace for us,
asking us to hold you, feed you,
asking us to help you grow

You ask us now to help you
to make a place for you
who are peace for us
among our tangled riches,

our politics, anger and fear,
to be the womb that holds you,
to be the milk that feeds you,
to be peace for you.

May God’s Will be Done

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O God

You gave us, Your people,

free will

(which we use for good or for ill).

As we exercise all that makes us human,

may we remember that we,

all of us, 

each and every one of us,

are created in Your image and likeness.

O God,

may we be guided by Your love,

may we follow Your wisdom,

may we use our free will with

compassion and mercy.

O God,

may Your will be done,

to respect human dignity,

to protect Your creation

for good.

Amen

Chaos, paradox, and prayer

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Things are a bit chaotic these days. (Mis)information flies at us at rapid speed, often before we can process its effect or prepare for potential impacts. The very landscape beneath our feet is shifting, even as the people of Myanmar, Thailand, and China face the reality of an actual earthquake. Systems we have relied on for decades  to hold things together are being dismantled. The list goes on.

What is a person to do? How do we hold fast to love as we seek to be people of peace amid the chaos?

One of my daily practices is to take time in the morning with the daily Scripture readings and reflections in Give Us This Day.

This morning, after reading and praying with the news (see the first paragraph), I turned to this prayer resource.  I was gifted with a reflection by my friend Sister Julia Walsh, FSPA on “The Power of Paradox.” Here is an excerpt:

“I don’t remember where I heard it or where I read it, but it’s been rattling around in my mind a lot lately that the healthiest and holiest people are the folks who are conscious of the power of paradox. These good ones can love those they disagree with and want goodness for those who have harmed them. They are the saints who can hold two contradictory truths together, who aren’t threatened by inconsistencies.

I wonder how different our church and our world might be if we were taught from a young age that prayer is a type of communion with the mystery, that it is the practice of embracing opposite truths as they coexist. Opening ourselves to seeing every side and knowing we will forever be limited in our knowing is another way we can touch the cross of mystery; it is a way we get to put our fingers into Christ’s side.”

And so I pray …

And so I choose to stand in love and solidarity, keeping the peace of Christ in view on the horizon of my heart as I scan the landscape, trying to make sense of it all.

I hold fast to what I know is good and possible and true. I resist being limited by darkness or division but seek light and love, even when it is obscured or makes no sense in the circumstances. I refuse to demonize others or deny their human dignity, even if their actions harm others and earth. God can hold the paradox and the tension. God is bigger than it all, and God is good all the time. All the time, God is good. And so are we. And so are you.

Earlier this month, I had the chance to visit an art exhibit at SFMOMA, an installation by Yayoi Kusama called “Dreaming of Earth’s Sphericity: I Would Offer My Love.” It was a mirror room, filled with color and to be honest a bit disorienting, a chaotic paradox of sorts.

We entered through a WillyWonkaesque door, which required us to duck to enter the box that held the mirror room. Inside our senses were bombarded by this …

It was both expansive and confining. Illuminating and confusing. Overwhelming and enjoyable. We were only in the room for two minutes. It felt so much longer. And so much less.

I was there with good friends who know and love me as I know and love them. I was also there with strangers I did not know and will never know again.

The words of the artist point the way, just as Julia does.

“Enter the place of colors

Polka dots let in the sunlight of the earth

The heart is filled with the shining light of the sun

All of the people who enter seeking the joy of being alive

Let there be eternal harmony among all in the circles and cycles of living

Peace and endless love for all.”

Amen

The Dignity of Love and Public Service

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Today would have been my parents’ sixty-fifth wedding anniversary. Theirs was a partnership that was grounded in their love of God, one another, and all of God’s people, especially those who are experiencing poverty. This morning in prayer, as I reflected on what is happening in our country and to the very weft and weave of our democracy, I give thanks for all they taught me through their example about the dignity of love and public service. I am also calling for their intercession for our country at this time.

They both began their careers in public service before they met. My Dad came to Washington from Iowa in 1956 to work at the US Patent Office before going to law school at George Washington University. My mom grew up in the DC Suburbs and worked in office administration for the Department of Justice before working for NATO in Europe (Yes, she was in Paris in the 1950s!).

In my Dad’s memoir, Me? I’m from Iowa, he shares how during their courtship and after they were married, they talked about faith and politics, which were always intertwined throughout their lives.

“After meeting in May, we went out a lot. And we talked, and talked. Starting with religion, we discussed why we were both Catholic, and found that we had some devotions in common. We talked about international issues, Communism and its failings, and the need to get involved in politics. … Following up on the political discussions we had during our dating and while on our honeymoon, we said now is the time to move ahead.”

Over the course of their marriage, my parents participated in the political campaigns of others and for my Dad’s own campaigns for local elected office. Dad served as an elected judge and later member of the County Council for several decades, before moving into transportation policy at the state and federal level. Mom worked on the staff of members of Congress and in the area of social work to support incarcerated people. Throughout it all, they were guided by their faith and the Gospel call to seek justice, especially for the most vulnerable.

My siblings and I grew up with the expectation that it was our responsibility to leave the world a better place than we found it, and most importantly to use our God given gifts in service of the common good. We learned first hand the promise and possibility of good government to make systemic change in support of human dignity, such as when my Dad helped to pass fair housing laws and desegregate the public schools. We saw how important it is to use our voice and influence to advocate for justice, such as when my Mom joined protests organized against discriminatory housing sales practices in our town. There are so many more examples of their witness in action. It is no coincidence that at one point or another, all of their five children worked directly in public service.

Me in the corner at the feet of my Mom (Left), as my Dad (Right) talks with Senator Barbara Mikulski at a political event

During these times, I am feeling the pull to call on our Cloud of Witnesses. This morning I am asking my parents to pray for our country, for all public servants who are under attack, for the health of our democracy, and for those who are already being impacted by the takeover of government agencies and the rapid dismantling of life-saving programs. Eileen Schmelzer Francois and Frank Francois, pray for us.

I stand in the truth

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I choose this morning to stand in the truth–
of goodness and love and beauty–
always goodness and love and beauty.

I lean on the faithfulness of our loving Creator,
who calls us to be one human family.
Always. Everywhere. No matter what.

I walk in the footsteps of the cloud of witnesses,
real men and women who faced their own troubling times,
holding fast to goodness and love and beauty,
making them real through courageous action for the least among us.

I take up what is mine to do today and for tomorrow,
no more, no less.
That is the task.

I trust in the words of our redeemer:
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the peacemakers.
He never said it would be easy,
but all things are possible through God.