Error
— Read on m.facebook.com/sharer.php

Welcome to 2025! It is amazing to me that we are a quarter of the way through the 21st Century. The world has changed a million times over since my birth and there is more and more to be amazed by, and to wonder at. Yet as I wend my way through this first month of 2025 nothing amazes me as much as God’s abiding love for me, and for each and every one of us!! Moreover this great love is based on intimate knowledge of us. We are known and loved! Deeply, deeply and fully-God loves us!

We may sometimes say to a friend who pays us a compliment – “If you REALLY KNEW ME, YOU WOULD NOT FEEL THAT WAY”. This may come from humility or good self knowledge yet it is an attempt at an honest repsonse. But today, I want you to know that the Loving God who DOES REALLY KNOW YOU LOVES YOU! No matter what- we ARE KNOWN AND WE ARE LOVED!

AND I HOPE THAT YOU WILL JOIN ME IN AMAZEMENT AND GRATITUDE FOR GOD’S AMAZING LOVE!

The Psalmist captures this so beautifully:

“OH LORD, (Yahweh) You’ve searched me,

and you know me.

You know when I am standing or sitting,

You read my thoughts from far away…

You created my inmost being

and stitched me together in my mother’s womb…..

For all these mysteries I thank you–

For the miracle of myself,

for the wonder of your works–

my soul knows it well…” PSALM 139:1-2 and 13-14

LET US SAY Thanks!

AND SO I WANT TO BEGIN THIS NEW YEAR saying a heart felt THANK YOU-

THANK YOU BELOVED GOD FOR KNOWING ME, FOR KNOWING US- AND FOR LOVING US!

WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!!!!!. NO MATTER WHATEVER or WHOMEVER WE ENJOY OR LOVE- OR WHATEVER ELSE HAPPENS-GOOD OR BAD- OR ANYWHERE IN BETWEEN-WE ARE LOVED.

OH MY-THANK YOU GOD!!

Bless you abundantly in this new year !

Have you ever wondered where you belong? Or experienced loneliness, including the loneliness of the non-affiliated? Or said to yourself: “well, I’m on my own here!” Perhaps you have moved to a new place. Or perhaps your closest relatives and friends have passed on? Or moved away? Or you experienced a painful divorce or separation. Perhaps you have come to a new level of understanding in your life and find yourself thinking differently about important things- so you feel you have no one to talk to. Perhaps you have been discovering who you are and feel others may be shocked about “the real you”. Perhaps you feel “different” and that you just don’t fit anywhere. Perhaps you wonder if God loves you or if anyone else does. Or, perhaps you have people around but deeply miss that special someone.

To experience loneliness is a normal and natural part of living. While it is almost always difficult, and can be painful, it is not per se a bad or necessarily negative part of life. Being alone allows for growth and meeting challenges. Some who are too busy to even breathe may wish for aloneness and even loneliness. Many writers have tried to comprehend it and have even found the positive sides of loneliness. It can help us to find ourselves, and it can help us to experience God’s love for us. Yet it can also be overwhelming. It is not to be trivialized.

Throughout history loneliness has been a subject of study and speculation. Clark E Moustakas wrote a seminal book on loneliness in 1961: simply entitled Loneliness (Prentice Hall, A Spectrum Book). He said: “It takes creative courage to accept the inevitable, existential loneliness of life, to face one’s essential loneliness openly and honestly. It requires inner fortitude not to be afraid or overwhelmed with the fear….of being alone”(P. 34). In this book he discusses well known and famous people who faced what he calls existential loneliness. Antoine de Saint- Exupery (Aviator and Author of the Little Prince) faced death on a desert island. Yet, he did not die, he came to feel an aliveness, a deepening awareness and a sense of the importance of human communion that he had not known before. He said that one can not buy friendship or the beauty of the night sky, or women, or trees and flowers. He developed ” a rapturous commitment to his fellow man and within this commitment he discovered the foundation for compassion, self-fulfillment and living happiness”( Moustakas, 1961, op. 61). In 1972 Moustakas expanded his ideas on loneliness in his book Loneliness and Love where he says that periods of loneliness can inspire authenticity, honesty and more meaningful love relationships. Loneliness can bring us into meaningful contact with ourselves so we can better love others.

The author Robert S. Weiss, wrote and edited a landmark book entitled Loneliness: Emotional and Social Isolation (1973). He used classics such as “Affectional Bonds…” by John Bowlby To discuss grief work and the serious nature of loss and loneliness. Weiss points out that none of us will escape from loneliness and the keen importance yet difficulty of developing new relationships. Yet the “answer” lies in creating new relationships after loss if isolation is to be managed and for hope to expand into new lives. The importance of developing social networks beyond individual relationships is clear. Identifying our interests and becoming part of wider groups and communities related to our interests can be very helpful. Pursuing our interests also does a great deal to mitigate against loneliness.

And what of faith? Perhaps the most positive thing about loneliness is that it allows us to find and rely upon our loving God. In my own life as I experience the loneliness of the aging process (outliving many whom I have loved) and geographic distance from those closest to me I talk frequently with Jesus. More than talk, I lean upon Him and trust Him to always be there for and with me. I want to share that with others who experience any of the many types of loneliness there is. The song I learned in my youth is true: “Let us have a little talk with Jesus, Let us tell Him all about our troubles. He will hear our beck and cry, and He will answer bye and bye”. I do experience His answer- there is even the provision of new relationships and the chance to love again. And I know that, despite how it sometimes feels, I am not alone. Jesus the Christ is walking beside me and I am walking beside Jesus. I pray to follow his example in enacting love and justice. I pray to be there for others so that they know that they are not alone.

I sometimes visit a LGBTQ website and today a woman who felt cutoff from the church due to her gayness asked poignantly ( “I believe so much in Christ… Can I be baptized, my current church says I can’t as I am gay”. I quickly told her that she could indeed be baptized, that I would be happy to do it if she lived nearby and that God loves her completely . I hope she will read this reflection and feel the love of Christ in God. Another reader wrote and thanked me for my comment. May God put these words where they are most needed. And may all find communities where they are loved and accepted.

Regina Boyd has written a book entitled Leaving Loneliness Behind: Five Keys to Experiencing God’s Love and Building Healthy Connections with Others ( Ave Maria Press, 2023). There is an accompanying workbook with this enlightening book. I heartily recommend it to everyone-those who feel lonely and those who do not at this time in their lives. It provides good preparation to face life’s vicissitudes, including loneliness. I also recommend The Art Of Being Alone, Renuka Gavrani,2024. This is about transforming loneliness into solitude, a much better state of being.

I will end this reflection with a quote from the Apostle Paul who wrote to the church at Ephesus. “Brothers and sisters: You are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone….in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). Wow!!! We are not alone-we are the members of the HOUSEHOLD OF GOD! Thanks be to GOD!

I have been feeling lonely lately and for many of the above noted reasons. But I thank Christ Jesus for being there with me and including me in God’s HOUSEHOLD. I pray that you will find your way to our loving God too.

Blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, RCWP

Good Shepherd Ministries, Southwest Florida, 10/28/24

I love today’s readings about justice and love in the Lectionary. Jesus tells us that he has come “to set the earth on fire! And he speaks about the divisions his teaching will possibly promote (Luke 12: 49-53). Our Christian faith is not a “mushy” faith where you believe what you like and all is always nice. Jesus asks difficult things of us- to follow him in setting the earth on fire! On fire with what? With the love of God- and with justice. Paul writing to the church at Ephesus reminds us that through faith in Christ we receive power and grounding in the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge (Ephesians 3:14-21). Our Psalm of the day reminds us that the earth is full of God’s goodness and that God loves justice and right (Psalm 33:1-19).

And so we ask ourselves today: what are the issues of our times and in our lives that must be solved with justice and love? Well, we know that God places a priority on the loving the poor of this earth. And this can only mean that we must act to ensure that the poor are poor no more! This is not answered by simply giving alms in the collection plate. How, indeed do we address structural poverty in our societies and cultures. How can we identify it and remedy it? What about raising minimum wage so that all labor is justly rewarded? What about making clear our views of the poor and of poverty-and eliminating all blaming of the poor for poverty. What about willingness to share our wealth through the tax system instead of rewarding the rich who need no reward simply for being rich. What about working side by side with those who work for a meager living and exposing the inequities of pay? I’m sure you can think of many ways to promote the equality and justice for which Jesus stands.

And what of dealing with our prejudices against people of other cultures that we do not know or understand? I have found that learning the beauty of other cultures stretches us in Jesus’ direction. How blessed we are when we strive to make both our lives and our churches steeped in people of other cultures.

I will leave it to you to identify issues of injustice and ignorance of others yet somehow judging that which we do not know. I will leave it to you now to follow Jesus in setting the world on fire with truth and justice and love.

Love and blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee, Roman Catholic Woman Priest

Good Shepherd Ministries of SW Florida

10/24/24

From time to time I like to share my poetry from my book (now available on Kindle but mostly out of print) The Flame Keeper: And other Poems, PublishAmerica, 2007. These are excerpts from MAMA, pp. 45-48.

Mama

“Beautiful and slim

Shapely and smart,

You are the Mama

of my heart….

I feel your pride in me;

you praise my every

effort and see me as

you hope I will be.

Your love and faith in me

gave me confidence to be

my best self….

you shepherded my

homework and my mind,

making sure I read and

understood well beyond

my Dick and Jane reader.

Classics, poetry, opera

and all things a Brooklyn

child from a poor

family would never know.

You took me

(everywhere)

And we rode the train into

the city

to see the tree at

Rockefeller Center and

the lions in the Central Park Zoo.

You shared your love

of the library with me.

You opened the world

beyond our street

to me and my friends.

You were not scared

of the world beyond Brooklyn….

I wish I had bought you a house

all paid for, and took you on trips

to Florida and France,

adorning you with….all

the beautiful things

you deserved.

But, you loved me anyway,

always finding the good about me

and everyone you knew….

you slipped away….before

I could ,in turn, be there for you

beyond my own needs and desires.

But you knew it anyway….

(how much I loved you)…..

And that will be throughout all

eternity, where you wait

with His Mother, for the final

arrival of your child in glory.”

Rev. Dr. Judith A.B. Lee,

August 26,2004

“You Do It”: Reflections of a Roman Catholic Woman Priest

Prayer is our lifeline to God. Often we pray for others: for those we love and those we know and those we do not know. When the love of Christ fills us we want the best for everyone, and especially we want no one to be without and need basics like food and shelter and, yes, love and caring. We pray in the spirit of the prayer that Jesus taught us: for the kingdom (kin-dom) of God to come on earth so ALL will have daily bread and the experience of being forgiven (Matthew 6:9-13). Indeed, Jesus taught us how to pray and he often went aside to pray: to talk with his Father. We can pray the formal prayer Jesus taught us and we can just talk with him as we do with friends and share with him and his Father about what is in our hearts and what we need, and the needs of those around us and the needs of the whole world. Prayer is powerful and it is important for us to pray as much as we can: Paul suggested that we “pray continually”- I Thessalonians 5:17). And yet, Jesus suggests action as much as prayer.

In all four Gospels there is an account of Jesus feeding large numbers of people. He is completely attuned to the human needs for food and physical well being. In John’s Gospel (John 6: 1-13) he involves the disciples in his concern to feed the huge group. In Matthew(14:13-21), Mark 6:35-39) and Luke(9:13), the disciples bring him their concern about the hungry crowd and he responds- asking them ” YOU GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO EAT”. They are at a loss as to how do this until Jesus takes what little is available, a few loaves and fishes, and multiplies it, instructing the disciples how to pass the food out to feed the whole crowd with plenty left over.

So when the disciples brought Jesus their concerns for the basic needs of others, Jesus tells them to meet these needs-“YOU give them something to eat! And when they were overwhelmed and did not know how to do this, he provided what was needed. Jesus is saying to us: yes, pray for the needs of others, but try to meet these needs yourself! Don’t leave it at a prayer.

Many years ago-in 2007 and 8, Judy Beaumont and I began a program of reaching out to homeless and hungry people in Lion’s Park in Fort Myers. The only way we could do this was to mobilize two different church groups to volunteer to cook for the crowd on Fridays. We were so blessed this took off with much enthusiasm. In fact one group began its own ministry in another park on Monday nights as well. That group led by Pastor Joe Irvin and his wife Cece Simon continues to do this to date! We also began a feeding program in an indoor facility bought for that purpose. When Pastor Judy B and I could no longer do Friday nights in the park faithful volunteers, a woman and her husband continued-Chris Miller and Rick Judy. Even when Rick went home to God a few years later Chris and her team of volunteers continued this loving work. Friday night feeding in Lion’s park continues with people who want to serve and help gathering at 4:15 to participate. How amazing is this-seventeen years after the feeding began! May God continue to bless Chris Miller and her friends!

The other day someone with serious breathing problems asked me to pray that the broken air conditioner and porous wall in her apartment be fixed. Instead I added my voice to hers by calling the landlord and stressing that these needed to be fixed immediately. Within two days they were fixed. She thanked me for my prayers-which indeed were prayers of doing something not asking God to fix it. Now, I in no way had the skills to do this, but I did have the skill to call and get it done. So when you are asked for prayers, indeed you can pray but also ask yourself and perhaps the person asking “Is there some way I can help?” Yes, there are things way beyond our abilities or even purview that may be needed when prayer is asked and prayer is always a wonderful gift to give. But just sometimes, maybe WE are the answer to prayer. Let’s look for those times when we can be at least part of the answer to another’s prayers. Then, as Jesus said, God’s kingdom-kin-dom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

With Love and blessings,

Pastor Judy Lee,

Good Shepherd Ministries of Southwest Florida

Some of the participants who began with us in Church In the Park

IF

If

I

can

still

write

I

am.

Writing and sharing poetry is one of the great joys of my life, although I have not been writing much lately. These days there is much more to do to keep things going and the time to write is elusive. In 2007 I published a book of poetry and IF was among them. The Flamekeeper And Other Poems is now out of print so from time to time I will publish some of the poems here.

Here is the leading poem-for Markie.

The Flame Keeper

It burns brightly,

the pilot light

in each of us,

and brighter still

the sparks ignited

between us

when sweet love,

family and friendship

are present,

another pilot

to guide us safely

home,

a north star

to accompany us

on the journey

so its never

completely dark.

And yet, there are

so many ways

the light grows dim

and fades away,

or is snuffed out

in an instant.

Life and spirit

precious

and sweet

yet so fragile-

a candle

in the night, burning lower,

and lower,

once oh so bright

it flickers, making

long shadows

on the wall.

There are those

who tend the flame,

who shield it with

their hands

cupped round,

or block the wind

with their own

bodies and souls,

who lovingly and carefully

keep the flames alive.

They whisper words of hope

and tell it like it is—

they dare the unthinkable,

they call,they write

they hold on so

the flame keeps burning,

no matter what.

They catch the

essence ebbing

and breath life back

into it again.

They keep the

family together

and the dear friends

from getting lost.

They may waver,

but touching heart

and soul together

they hold your hand

and walk you home.

They are the

flame keepers,

and they

are blessed.

Judith AB Lee

Last week l was able to visit New York (Brooklyn) and Connecticut and Maryland once again. It was a whirlwind tour but it was wonderful to touch home soil once again.

Laura now lives in Sheepshead Bay, her happiest stop in a long journey. Waterford Houses there is an Orthodox Jewish Community and she is home! Her roommate is Catholic and they are best buddies now though her visits from Danielle are her lifeline- and our visit once a year or so, of course!

Then we went to the main event in Hartford Ct to honor Judy Beaumont who had a building named after her for her accomplishments in housing for the homeless and low income in Hartford. Beaumont Lofts is at 102 Pliny Street where she was the Executive Director of My Sisters Place for many years before moving to Fort Myers and continuing her work with the homeless here with me.

Ruth Weiner was instrumental in the original MSP 2 with Judy Beaumont and in naming it after her now. Thank you Ruth!

Felice lived at 102 Pliny as a small child and she also became our loving God Child. She loved her GodMom Judy B so much and was so glad to help honor her with her son.

Christy King and Stacey Miles were two of the first women helped at My Sisters Place. Judy and l had a group called Successful Women and both were in it. Stacey came to honor Judy as well. We were so blessed!

Senator Blumenthal honored her as well and remembered her well from earlier meetings,

It was my greatest honor to assist in Judy’s Memorial. Thank you Annette Scheidecker and all who made this a beautiful Dedication of Beaumont Lofts,

Thank you all for honoring Rev. Judy Beaumont, RCWP. Judy was ordained a priest in 2012 but her whole life was one of service and love.

Special thanks to Marilyn Rondeau who made this whirlwind tour possible. I am so blessed!

Being in Maryland with my extended family makes me know deeply that l still have a home.

Thanks Be to God!

Blessings to all, Pastor Judy Lee

July 5,2024