Living Stones: A Reflection on Our Priesthood by A Roman Catholic Woman Priest
“Lord Jesus
Eternal Priest
You have called me to your Priesthood
to carry on the work which You began
Fit me/I pray You/for this
task with such faith that through my
voice even the disbelieving may listen to your word
With such hope that through my hands even the despairing may be held fast to your grip
And with such charity that
through my heart even the despised
may know that You never cease to love them. Join me so deeply to
Yourself that no one I meet shall lie beyond Your saving reach.
Amen”.
This is a beautiful prayer/poem about the priesthood anonymously written on a wooden plaque and given to me and Pastor Judy Beaumont by our then bishop Bridget Mary Meehan shortly after my ordination as a Roman Catholic Priest through Roman Catholic Women Priests in 2008. It was given to Bridget Mary when she was ordained a priest in 2006. It is on the wall in the room Rev. Judy Beaumont,RCWP used as an office. She truly lived it and read it daily and every time I pass it I stop and pray it again. But it is not only a prayer for ordained priests and for ordinations, it is a prayer for all of us who, as Peter says, come to Christ, the living stone, (I Peter 2: 5 and 9-“you are a royal priesthood, a chosen people, a people belonging to God”.
As women priests we cherish our awesome charge and try to live up to it, however hard it may be. (The ordination within RCWP is valid as it is ultimately through a line of bishops in good communion with the church but illicit as the Roman Church has not yet caught up with Jesus in his inclusion of women and all people as disciples and apostles). [See for example Women Find A Way: the Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic WomenPriests, edited by McGrath, Meehan and Raming, Virtualbookworm.com Publishing Inc. (2008)]. But we also believe strongly in the priesthood of all believers and share the job description written so beautifully above with each one. (Below is Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan with Pastor Judy Lee and Natasha Terrell and Brenda Cummings, two members of Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community in Fort Myers, Florida).
These are unsettling times. The other day, tired of staying home and worried about health and human injustice all around especially toward black people and toward the LGBTQ community and other things, I heard myself humming an old hymn: “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand all other ground is sinking sand…” I felt safe and secure on my Rock surrounded by many others called “church” , but also recognized that the winds of adversity and trouble may and often do still blow strong no matter where we stand. And in the strong wind( I remember the sound of Hurricane Irma passing by over my home a few years back- like a deafening roaring of a huge train passing over) we may become focussed on personal survival rather than on reaching out to one another with the message of God’s inclusive love-for everyone. The challenge to who we are as followers of Christ is to keep on building the kin-dom of God , and not to become just self and survival oriented.
The Apostle Peter in his Epistle (I Peter 2: 4-10) tells us that as we find our shelter in Christ, the living stone/structure rejected by mortals but approved by God we become the stones of the spiritual edifice of which Christ is the cornerstone. We, (not a building made of stone,glass and steel) become the place where God can dwell and where others can find the love and comfort of God. Peter quotes the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 28:16-17a) ” I am laying a stone in Zion a block of granite, a precious cornerstone , a solid foundation.Those who put their trust in it will never be disappointed. I will make justice the measuring line,and integrity the plumb line…” But the quote in I Peter 2:9 falls short of including the mandate of justice as our work. Peter says ” But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,a consecrated nation, a people set apart, belonging to God, that you may sing the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into the wonderful divine light…” And, if we go back into the section of Isaiah that Peter is quoting, that clearly means to hold up the light and the measure of justice and integrity as it applies to all people . Yes, Black Lives Matter. Yes your life matters with this loving God. Yes, no matter who you are by virtue of birth, race, gender, sexual orientation, culture or class- justice must reign for all and you matter- to our Loving God and to all who stand upon the rock. Reach out your hand and pull someone up onto the solid rock as they feel they may be slipping away due to injustice and hatred. We are given the essential job of priests, we are ALL challenged to live our lives as living sacrifices for Love and justice. Let us live our lives to bring the kin-dom of God on this troubled planet. Amen.
Some of the members of Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community with Pastor Marina Teresa(Gold top) and Pastor Judy Lee.
Blessings and Love,
Pastor Judy Lee
Rev. Dr. Judith Lee, RCWP
Good shepherd Ministries of Southwest Florida
Holy, Holy Saturday A RC Woman Priest Reflects- April 11,2020
On this Holy Saturday we go with the women to the grave. We pray. We mourn. We do not yet experience hope or understand anything about resurrection. We are in darkness before the light dawns. For many fearing and experiencing the swift sword of the COVID-19 virus and the unexpected loss of our dearest ones it is Holy Saturday. World-wide in this pandemic, not just in our own spheres, it is Holy Saturday. We pray for them today, and all who serve them with love and care. For the many losing loved ones to the ravages of war and hunger and thirst throughout the world, we pray. For the many who lose loved ones to a realm of natural illnesses not yet vanquished by knowledge of prevention and cure, we pray. For all with cancer,Alzheimers’ disease,and other life altering and life threatening illnesses, we pray. For all who don’t know You and the Light and Healing You bring, we pray. For all who know no Easter, no rising from the dead, we pray.
In Pope Francis’ Holy Saturday Homily today he said that when Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to see the tomb at dawn (Matthew 28:1-10) and the huge stone in front of the grave was so dramatically rolled back they were given a message of the greatest HOPE. First, they were told not to be afraid. That is a clear message for us today, here and now too-Do not be afraid. Then they were told that the crucified Jesus they were seeking was not there-“He has been raised just as he said”. By now they must have been in total shock and awe, but they were invited to “Come and see the place where He lay”. They were then told to hurry and go and tell the other disciples that he has been raised from the dead and goes before them to Galilee where they will see Him. And you know the women did RUN and they did become the first apostles telling the Good News that Jesus was raised from the dead! He also said that the fact that Jesus went to Galilee was so important. Galilee was not the heart of Jerusalem it was often called Galilee of the Gentiles. Jesus was leading them to go tell EVERYONE, that Jesus rose and because He rose from the dead they too, no matter who they are, can live-now and forever! The message of the empty grave, of the cross and resurrection is a message of HOPE-death does NOT have the last word-Amen!
For those for whom the cross, and its meaning as the gateway to life, remains covered we pray.
With all who keep vigil today waiting for Easter, we pray.
For all who have gone to their Easter and live in Your Light and love forever, we pray. And we ask them now to pray for us.
For our own Easter, our own rising from the bonds of death, now and forever, we pray.
Here is a link to my earlier blog that tells about the beautiful Holy Saturday Easter Vigil Service and pictorially illustrates its sequences and meanings:
Holy Silent Saturday: Until Fire and Light Pierces the Darkness
May the light and love of Easter break through for you this night.
Love and blessings,
Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP
Were You There? Good Friday 4/10/2020
“Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh, oh!……………….
Sometimes it causes me to tremble,tremble, tremble,
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
I can still feel the strong baritone voice of Mr. Leopold Dyce, a Jamaican-American leader in our diverse Brooklyn,New York community and the Choir singing this African-American Spiritual in the church of my childhood and youth as we followed Jesus to the cross and heard the seven words from the cross. Mr. Dyce’s trained voice could literally tremble and cause us to tremble. As I sing it with my church members now, the quality of the voices may lack but the empathy and identification with the suffering of Christ is as strong as ever it was among those who know suffering. All who have suffered in any manner WERE there. Moreover, the good news is that the One who suffered on that day IS here with us now as we suffer. One Priest said Good Friday is the feast day of those who suffer-the humiliated,throughout the world. Another reminded us of the loneliness of Jesus on that day, and the loneliness of those who loved him when they thought he was lost to them, dead forever. The aloneness of that day is striking and perhaps some of us experience a small part of such loneliness now when we can not come together in person in our communities for worship, adoration and comfort on Good Friday despite virtual and social media ways of sharing.
In the midst of this coronavirus-COVID-19 pandemic so many are now suffering with the actual illness, others suffer as they lose loved ones, and watch them suffer from afar,others suffer as they selflessly serve and care for those with the illness-and many live in paralyzing anxiety about the illness. Our prayers today are for all those who experience this tragic illness and those who care for them medically or serve them in meeting basic needs. For the transit workers in New York City and elsewhere who keep the city rolling while they catch the virus, for all grocery store personnel and all essential workers and first responders who respond to us during this epidemic. For all who put self aside and reach out to others during this pandemic,may they feel the presence of God with them in healing and peace.
We could not do it this year in the presence of the epidemic but our Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community followers sang this deeply moving African-American Spiritual yearly as we walked through the streets of Fort Myers following the Way of The Cross and praying at places of misery in our neighborhood. And we again sang this plaintive hymn during the Good Friday Service. These were the strong and moving voices of those who knew the pain of racism, social class/poverty, being LGBTQ,being different/other/on the margins in this country. Some also knew the crosses of homelessness,illness without medical coverage, and hunger. They knew suffering yet most of all they knew that Jesus was right there with them in their suffiering. You might listen to “Were You There?” on youtube during your Good Friday meditations.
But the words of another old hymn lift me up today…(From the 3rd verse of “What A Friend We Have in Jesus”
“Are we weak and heavy laden,
cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior still our refuge;
Take it to the Lord in Prayer.
Do your friends despise, forsake you?
Take it to the Lord in Prayer;
In His arms he’ll take and shield you;
You will find a solace there…
What a friend we have in Jesus….”
The theologian Bernard Cooke argues that friendship is the paradigm of our relationship with God. We have a Divine Friend who knows our pain and all of our humanity because he experienced it. God’s abiding friendship is exemplified in Jesus on Good Friday as he lays down his life to destroy death so that we may live forever- beyond our physical deaths. But we must wait for Easter to come. He died the torturous death of a revolutionary who offended all of the powers that be of his times with the simple truth of God-love. We too shall die, though perhaps more peacefully. Our beloved Friend has died in the greatest injustice of all times. And so dying he breaks the bonds of death for us.
“Yes, God so loved the world as to give the Only Begotten One,that whoever believes may not die,but have eternal life” (John 3:16-TIB).
“GREATER LOVE HAS NO ONE THAN THIS-
TO LAY DOWN ONE’S LIFE FOR ONE’S FRIENDS.
AND YOU ARE MY FRIENDS…
LOVE ONE ANOTHER….” John 15:13-17
Today we lose our best Friend and we deeply mourn- though Easter will come.
We will all have our Calvary-yet we are not nor will we be alone. Our Friend is right there beside us. Amen.
Here is a link to “being there” with the Good Shepherd Community in past years:
Below is one of our early Good Shepherd members, Michael Murray who was Jesus for us as we walked the Way of The Cross in Lion’s Park in Fort Myers with members of our Good Shepherd Community. He was a homeless Veteran when we met him but was so thankful to be housed that he wanted to carry the cross for us for two years. He died with COPD after 9 years of living in his home and caring for his kitties in 2018. We were so thankful for his life and his friendship with Jesus and with us. As he carries the cross with members’ prayers nailed to it, our Deacon Hank Tessandori and Elder Harry Gary look on.
A Blessed Good Friday,
Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP
judyablfollowingSheWhoIs 
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