On a recent trip to the airport to fly to  California I, like all the other travelers, needed to produce a photo ID along with my boarding pass.  The security agent studied it carefully to be sure it matched the person he saw standing before him.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus proclaims boldly and without hesitation that His identity is I AM. He knows who He is and is confident that the person others see coincides with that identity.  As a baptized Catholic, I know my identity is to be a beloved child of God and witness of that love to everyone I meet.  Others have a right to expect that the words and actions they experience in my life are a good match to my professed identity.

Would I be able to pass through “security” today if I were checked on my Christian identity?

 The sculptures of Michelangelo; the beauty, climate, and food of Tuscany; the whole experience of Italy: these are the positive memories that brighten the windiest March day. The feelings of appreciation in my heart held there even a short while change me.

Scientifically I know that my heart vibrates at a different frequency, which every cell in my body picks up. Because the electromagnetic field of my heart is about five thousand times more powerful than that of my brain, my brain is less likely to focus on worry and stress and more likely to focus on love and creativity.  I’ve read that my heart’s electromagnetic signal can be measured from six to ten feet away, so anyone near me can probably benefit from my trip to Italy, too.

What if everyone in the world would hold positive memories for a few minutes every day?  Would our world receive the healing it so desperately needs?

As I heard the Scripture story of the Woman Caught in Adultery (John 8) read both yesterday and again today at Mass, I was struck by the vulnerability of women and how this has been true throughout the centuries.  Whether or not the woman is actually guilty almost seems secondary; so often she is “used” for the purposes of others.

Coming from Mass this morning and still reflecting on this story, I am heartened to read an email from Sister Mary Jo Toll at the U.N. telling us that she and Sister Mary Pat Dorobek will be together for the Commission on the Status of Women, meeting women and girls from all over the world and listening to NGOs, government Ministers for Women, and other agencies who focus on the issues of women and girls. I am grateful to know that our Congregation is represented in helping to make a difference in the lives of women and girls throughout the world.

So often, I don’t really know the story behind the faces of the women I encounter each day.  I pray that today I may look at each one with the same compassion that marked Jesus’ life and ministry.

Foundresses Sr. Mary Aloysia and Sr. Mary Ignatia

Our founding sister, Sister Maria Aloysia Wolbring, put herself into the hands of the dear God and, whether in Germany or the United States, did whatever needed to be done. Sometimes she was a local superior, sometimes not. She taught school, catechized, took care of the aged, managed a farm, struggled with American climate and language, served as advisor to the Superior General (although never a major superior herself), started many new affiliations, and most importantly prayed. In everything she trusted in God’s provident care.

Where are you being called to trust in God’s provident care?

I had the opportunity yesterday to read a piece on St. John of the Cross, and while it was about the fourth time I read it, it touched me in a whole new way.

In the book, Impact of God, Iain Matthew writes of God’s intense desire to enter our lives and give Himself to us.  He writes: “John dares to place on the lips of his God the words: ‘I am yours, and for you, and I am pleased to be as I am that I may be yours and give myself to you.'”

My reflection on this passage led me to pray the words of Psalm 63, but to hear them as though God was speaking them to me: “O Marilyn, you are my Marilyn whom I seek; for you my flesh pines and my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water. Thus have I gazed toward you in the sanctuary….”  What an amazing God who desires us more than we could ever desire Him!

Is God calling you to recognize in a new way His incredible desire to be part of your life?

As we celebrate today the Feast of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity, I’m reminded of how grateful I am of the gift of true friendship.  These two women of the early Church had a relationship deeper than owner and slave; they supported one another in a friendship that led to closer union with Christ. Together they lived for Christ and together they died a martyr’s death for Christ.

Our Constitutions as Sisters of Notre Dame remind us that “We appreciate true friendship which has its center in Jesus Christ and unites us in him.”  Only when our friendships are centered in him will they bear fruit.  Our Congregation has a rich tradition and history of friendship from Mary and Elizabeth, Saint Julie Billiart and Francois Blin de Bourdon, to Hilligonde and Elisabeth.  We have been richly blessed by friends who have influenced our desires to grow in our union with Christ and to bring about His kingdom. I thank God today for the friends within the community and outside the community who have influenced my desires.

Who has influenced your desires? For what friends are you most grateful?

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus asks us for freedom of heart. As our country faces economic crises, as our Church prays for a new pope, as we start our day with its unknowns, we need freedom of heart.

I feel humbly proud of the response of religious sisters after the apostolic visitation and later assessments, for after prayer they responded with equanimity and freedom of heart. We sisters felt the overwhelming support and alliance of the laity. Together we must move forward to make our Church and world more receptive to the peace Christ promised. This requires freedom of heart, that combination of peace and courage so that nothing outside us can trouble our hearts.

Ever since Charles Darwin gave us the phrase “survival of the fittest,” we’ve believed that the best, the strongest, the fastest will endure. But is that true? Darwin used the phrase “survival of the fittest” only once in a book that spoke of love 95 times and moral sensitivity 92 times.

Darwin believed the prime mover of human evolution is not natural selection nor survival of the fittest, but rather our capacity for love and caring for one another. If today everyone would start believing that our future depends on love and caring, how different our lives would be. As we go about our day making little choices, let’s be mindful that our future depends upon love and caring.

Many of us, perhaps, go into Lent with a sense of dread about what we can’t do and can’t have. So let’s approach  Lent differently this year.  How?  Let’s go to Cedar Point until March 28. Explore the rides!

The devil tempted Jesus to be self-serving, self-exulting, a real Power Tower. Isn’t that our Mean Streak, too? Jesus responds to the temptations with Scripture. Do we read the Bible regularly? It teaches us to be like the Frog Hopper.  F-R-O-G:  Fully Rely On God.

Lent leads us into the desert, where we become more aware of our egos and how they’re like the Scrambler that mixes up our thoughts so that our needs and wants are more important than those of others. To free ourselves from our small egos that always are afraid and seek control would be a great Lenten penance—a Matterhorn probably. We’ll be transformed into Christ, the Giant Wheel who turned “the worst thing, the ‘murder of God’ into the very best thing, the redemption of the world” (Richard Rohr).

 Traditionally we pray, fast, and give alms.  Do we? Or do we Dodgem? Most parishes provide a Millennium Force of opportunities, such as the Way of the Cross or parish missions. Don’t be a Maverick.  Be part of these events.

The ultimate purpose of Lent is to lead us to the Super Himalaya of the Church Year:  the Sacred Paschal Triduum (March 28-31). We enter into the very life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, an on-going reality, a Kingdom Carousel of joyous victory. One day we’ll meet the Gate Keeper. Will we be recognized as someone who rode the Corkscrew of the Lenten journey into the death and resurrection of Christ?

This morning I began to use a little book entitled God Speaks in Many Tongues.  It contains sacred texts from a variety of religious traditions followed by a meditation on a line or two from the text of the day by Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister.

The words of wisdom for today come from Hildegard of Bingen, who wrote centuries ago:  “God hugs you; you are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God.” 

What if we looked at Lent from the lens that God hugs us, each and every one of us on this planet?  What might our fasting look like?  What about our prayer — if we really believed and lived out of that sense of being hugged?  How different might our almsgiving be if we saw “the other” as not “other” but one “just like me?”

Think about it:  God hugs us … how loved we are.  Spread that love this Lent!  Transform the world!  Share a smile!  Impart a blessing!  Happy Lent!