Franciscans never believed that “blood atonement” was required for God to love us. We believed that Christ was Plan A from the very beginning (Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 1:3-14, John 1:1-18). Christ wasn’t a Plan B after the first humans sinned, which is the way most people seem to understand the significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Great Mystery of Incarnation could not be a mere mop-up exercise, a problem-solving technique, or dependent on human beings messing up. The Incarnation was not motivated by a problem but by love.
Did God intend no meaning or purpose for creation during the first 13.8 billion years? Did the sun, moon, and galaxies have no divine significance? The fish, the birds, the animals were just waiting for humans to appear? Was there no Divine Blueprint (“Logos”) from the beginning? This thinking reveals the hubris of the human species and our tendency to anthropomorphize the whole story around ourselves.
The Franciscan view grounds Christianity in love and freedom from the very beginning. It creates a coherent and positive spirituality, which draws us toward lives of inner depth, prayer, reconciliation, healing, and universal at-one-ment, instead of any notion of sacrifice, which implies God needs to be bought off. Nothing changedon Calvary, but everything wasrevealedas God’s suffering love—so that wecould change!
Jesus was precisely the “once and for all” (Hebrews 7:27) sacrifice given to reveal the lie and absurdity of all “sacrificial” religion. But we perpetuated such regressive and sacrificial patterns by making God the Father into the Chief Sacrificer, and Jesus into the necessary victim. Is that really the only reason to love Jesus? Is there no wondrous life to imitate?
This “being saved by his death” language allowed us to ignore Jesus’ way of life and preaching, because all we really needed Jesus for was the last three days or three hours of his life. This is no exaggeration. The irony is that Jesus undoes, undercuts, and defeats the sacrificial game. Stop counting, measuring, earning, judging, and punishing—ways many Christians are very well trained in—because they believe that is the way God operates too. This makes the abundant world of grace largely inaccessible—which is, of course, the whole point.
It is and has always been about love from the very beginning.
Gateway to Silence: I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
References: Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking, disc 3(Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), CD, MP3 download; and Things Hidden: Scripture As Spirituality(Franciscan Media: 2007), 200-202.
Jesus, thank You for coming physically to us. You became human. A real human with a real body. Who can imagine that God, the truth eternal life, became man? The people who witnessed Your life saw You with their physical eyes. They felt You with their actual hands. You weren’t a vision or a dream, but the real God that came to bring joy and life to us. Thank You, Jesus!
reason it's called “nice cream” is because it mimics classic ice cream, but is better for you. It's also sometimes called banana soft serve because if you eat it straight out of the food processor, it's a similar consistency to soft serve.
Banana ice cream, also called nice cream, is my favorite healthy ice cream because it’s quick and easy to prepare. The main ingredient is banana which turns creamy when frozen. Today I’m going to show you how to make it, without an ice cream maker using just two other ingredients Frozen mixed fruit and non dairy milk
Mixed Fruit Nice Cream
Ingredients
1 frozen ripe banana
1/2 of a 48 ounce bag of mixed frozen fruit
1/2 to 1 cup oat milk or any non dairy milk
Instructions on
Place all the ingredients in a blender or food processor. Pulse till creamy.
Scoop into a sugar cone or into a bowl.
You can place any extra nice cream in ice cube trays for later use
Just thaw the frozen nice cream by microwaving for 20 seconds to easily scoop it into a sugar cone or into a bowl.
This is an easy and quick dish to prepare to fix your craving for the Chinese Sticky Rice dish but you do not have the sticky rice on hand.
Instant Pot Chinese Rice
1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms (around 4 pieces)
1 cup long grain rice
1 and 1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 teaspoons Hoisin or Oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil (optional)
2 pieces Star anise
1/8 tsp schichuan pepper (optional)
Place all the ingredients in the Instant Pot and cook at high pressure/manual for 10 minutes. Then allow the pressure to release naturally for 10 min. Then quick release. Cut the mushrooms into smaller pieces before serving.
Easy peasy tofu teriyaki. One pan preparation yet so good. Add to your rice bowl or eat as is.
Tofu Teriyaki
15 oz firm tofu drained and cut into cubes
Teriyaki sauce
6 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons syrup
1 teaspoon each garlic, onion powders
1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch in 2 tablespoons water.
Mix soy sauce, syrup garlic onion and ginger in a saute pan and mix. Add the tofu and allow the sauce to boil and then add cornstarch water slurry. Allow the mixture to boil till tofu is covered with sauce.
These little bites are addictive. I almost ate the whole thing. My picky taster, my husband, loves these too. He was surprised that something I prepared healthy is actually decadent.
Peanut Butter Coconut Rice Chex Bites
1/2 cup peanut butter
6 dates, chopped
1 1/2 cup coconut flakes
2 cups Rice Chex cereal, crushed coarsely
1-2 tablespoons maple syrup
Place all the ingredients in a bowl, mix with your hands and shape into balls. I prefer that the Rice Chex are not pulverized.
Dear Lord, help me to continually say yes to You.Help me not be afraid to trust You and Your will for my life.I want to experience everything You have for me
She was much perplexed by [Gabriel’s] words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. —Luke 1:29
Religious obedience means a willingness to let go of the consequences on some level and to trust a Bigger Picture. This is what we see Mary doing here in the great annunciation scene. In the obedience of faith we do something because it is true at a deeper level, we feel called at a deeper level perhaps, and not because it immediately works, makes sense or shows likelihood of “success.” Often, we have to let go of the immediate consequences to trust larger or longer-term consequences. Mother Teresa loved to say: “We were not created to be successful but to be obedient.” Obedience is to be true to our deepest voices, which is the only way God can speak to us. But that means we have to have some deeper voices! We have to be practiced in prayerfully listening to our unconscious, to others and even “entertaining angels who usually come unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). How else could Mary have been ready for Gabriel?
Sooner or later we all have to say, “I have to do what I have to do,” as did Franz Jägerstätter, the Austrian peasant who almost single-handedly opposed Hitler. Have you ever been caught that way by the Word of God? “I just know I have to do it. My family doesn’t understand, my friends criticize me, but I know it is the Word planted in my heart for me at this time.” One must feel very lonely and filled with doubt at such times. Yet, after all is said and done, the will of God, more than anything else, is the feverish desire to do the will of God. People who are centered in God instead of themselves always hear larger voices. Such people will know what they must do without being able to prove it. They have the passion to carry through on what must be done. Blessed Franz Jägerstätter was not supported by his church, church teaching, his bishop, his parish priest or even his wife (she told me so personally, with tears in her eyes!).
Mary’s “yes” was said in the darkness of faith. She was not certain, nor assured by any Scripture quote, doctrine or pope. She just heard what she heard, and did what God asked her to do, accepting the consequences. She had enough inner authority to not need a lot of outer authority.
Reflect
In what way do you have a feverish desire to do the will of God?
God, you are my ever-patient creator. You are my abundant invitation. Help me to respond to the layers of my life with a Yes you have heard before. Help me echo the Yes that Mary gave in these places of my life…
1 (8-ounce can) whole water chestnuts, drained and diced
2 green onions, thinly sliced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
lettuce leaves
INSTRUCTIONS
In a sauté pan, add the shredded tofu, garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and Sriracha and cook at medium heat until onions become translucent and the tofu has absorbed the sauce Add chopped water chestnuts and green onions and stir. Season with salt and pepper to taste. To serve, spoon tablespoons of the mixture into center of lettuce leaf and roll if you like.
