(Is 35:1-10; Ps 85; Lk 5:17-26)<\/p>\n
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A man told a psychiatrist that he suffered from nightmares \u2013 sometimes he dreamt he was a teepee, other times he was a wigwam. When he asked what his problem was, the psychiatrist replied simply that he was two tents (two tense)!<\/p>\n
Did you know that the readings today can change our life, and heal us of spiritual blindness?<\/p>\n
How you might ask? Through what I like to call teepee spirituality \u2013 balancing faith, fellowship and self-awareness in our lives.<\/p>\n
The first two readings are filled with hope for newness and healing. From the prophet Isaiah, we hear words like: \u201cThe desert will rejoice and blossom, God is coming to save us, the eyes of the blind shall be opened, the lame shall leap like the deer, water will break forth in the wilderness, the redeemed shall walk on a holy way singing for joy.\u201d Psalm 85 repeats that God is coming to save us, and justice and peace will prevail. Does this not fill our hearts with hope for healing and wholeness?<\/p>\n
Then in the gospel of Luke we see it all being fulfilled \u2013 through teepee spirituality. I once owned a teepee that I would often set up at the Lac St Anne pilgrimage. One always starts with three poles to erect a teepee. It is the same with a balanced Christian life \u2013 three poles are needed also, and they are the poles of faith, fellowship and self-awareness. In the gospel incident, there is the faith of the paralytic and his friends; there is fellowship as his friends go to great lengths to assure his healing, and there is self-awareness \u2013 the paralytic knows beyond doubt that he could not move and needed healing.<\/p>\n
This gospel is another reminder of the two-fold mission of Jesus \u2013 to redeem and to sanctify; to forgive and to heal. Here we see him doing both \u2013 forgiving and healing.<\/p>\n
This passage is important for us because in so many different ways, we are all paralytics, all in need of healing. May I suggest that one area of healing is our spiritual blindness, our lack of self-awareness. We can\u2019t heal what we can\u2019t feel, and we can\u2019t heal what we do not acknowledge. Our eyes need to be opened to who we are and our need for healing of especially our painful emotions and negative attitudes like false pride, selfishness, excessive need for power and control and stubborn self-righteousness that we might not even be aware of.<\/p>\n
Some examples will illustrate. Years ago, I participated in a group exercise in which we were shown a gym with ropes strung across it at shoulder height. We were blindfolded and told we had five minutes to find a key. After a few minutes of following a rope and bumping into others going the other way, I thought it could not be a physical key taped to the rope \u2013 it had to be a trick, perhaps a saying, so I offered \u201chelplessness,\u201d \u201cpowerlessness,\u201d \u201chumility,\u201d \u201ccooperation,\u201d etc., but did not find the key. One sensitive person did. He ran into a wall, started to cry and when asked if he was okay, replied that he needed help. That was the key \u2013 asking for help! I had thought of many words, but I didn\u2019t ask for help. That was when my eyes were opened \u2013 I was going through life relying on my own power, and not really asking God, or others, for help, and that awareness led to some healing for me.<\/p>\n
Another time my eyes were opened was after a pastoral team meeting at the hospital in one community where a brother Oblate and I had decided to co-pastor the parish. I could see that he was agitated, and when we dialogued marriage-encounter style, I read these words, \u201cAt the meeting today, I felt that they would do what you want anyway, no matter what I said.\u201d I was shocked. This was the first time in all my life and ministry that I became aware of my tendency to control, to give the impression that I was in charge here, and that was hurting a brother Oblate. Now that I was aware of this, I could humbly think about this, share it with others, pray about it and experience healing of it.<\/p>\n
I travel a lot, and in one parish, some parishioners expressed to me their frustration with their pastor, who is very controlling, dictatorial, makes decisions on his own, gets angry when anyone suggests a different way, and wanders off on other topics than the word of God when preaching. The people are very hurt, feel put down and cheated, and some are even staying away from worship. I can only hope that somehow, this pastor\u2019s eyes will be opened someday, and he might be open to healing for himself, and enjoy a better relationship with his parishioners.<\/p>\n
As Richard Rohr told us during one of our retreats, \u201cYou are who you are, what are you afraid of?\u201d\u00a0 That really hit me, because at that time, I was afraid of myself, and that if others really got to know me, they wouldn\u2019t like the person I was \u2013 probably because at that time, I didn\u2019t really love myself. Even that saying led to some healing for me.<\/p>\n
There is a saying that might help us in this healing journey: \u201cName it, claim it, don\u2019t blame it, tame it and then you can aim it.\u201d In other words, once we have experienced healing ourselves, we can help others on their healing journey.<\/p>\n
The Eucharist is an experience of teepee spirituality, of forgiveness and healing. We celebrate our faith in Jesus Christ, we do so as a community gathered in fellowship, and we are aware of our sin and shortcomings in the penitential rite and just before communion as we profess that we are not worthy for Jesus to come under our roof.<\/p>\n May our celebration today open our eyes to our need for healing, and bring us that healing through teepee spirituality – faith, fellowship and self-awareness.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ADVENT WEEK 02 01 Tee Pee Spirituality and Healing (Is 35:1-10; Ps 85; Lk 5:17-26) ************************************ A man told a psychiatrist that he suffered from nightmares \u2013 sometimes he dreamt he was a teepee, other times he was a wigwam. When he asked what his problem was, the psychiatrist replied simply that he was two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent","category-homilies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5547,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/St-Nicholas.jpeg\")
Today we are invited to honor St. Nicolas. Little is known about the early life of Nicholas. In the early 4th<\/sup> century, he was made bishop of Myra in Lycia (now Turkey). Famous for his charity, he became the focus of popular cults and devotions in the early Middle Ages. He was so popular that he was chosen joint patron of Russia with Saint Andrew; he is also a patron of sailors and children. In many parts of the world, he still plays a role as Santa clause.<\/p>\n