Breaking Open God’s Word
A Three-year Cycle of Reflections on the Sunday Readings of the Liturgical Year
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Today, more than ever before, a new movement is surfacing, indicating that many people yearn to become more deeply involved in understanding the Bible. It helps them find a pattern of life on which they can authentically follow Jesus Christ. When we gather as a Christian community each weekend,, two important segments help us to enrich our lives as we listen to the word of God and then participate in the Eucharistic prayer, remembering what Jesus asked us to do when he said: “Do this in memory of me.” Breaking Open God’s Word, is a book that will help you reflect on various passages of scripture and then apply them to your everyday lives.
The contents of Breaking Open God’s Word are my personal reflections representing my own point of view. I sense that Jesus often lived and ministered outside the box of tradition, and as his follower, I try to live my spiritual life with the same authentic pattern. This sometimes calls me to live outside the box. My reflections may shock some, but that is not my purpose. I only want readers to use a creative approach, and I pray that these reflections might spark some personal insights in your hearts and enable you to bring your personal gifts to God after you have echoed personal responses in your own heart.
The contents of our church year are filled with the richness of grace, when we take time to contemplate the mysteries that lie hidden in the pages of scripture. Be ready for Jesus to change your heart and point out a more beautiful direction for your faith journey as you continue to break open God’s word, and let it cleanse your heart and wash over your being each week. You can tell Jesus what you hold in your heart and prepare to bring with you a fitting gift to give to God when you attend church each weekend.
May your journey through Breaking Open God’s Word
, enrich you as you walk through these pages and draw yourselves closer to a more intimate relationship with God. Walk steadfastly all the days of your life so you will deepen your love of God, who enables you to walk into eternal life, knowing that you already met God each week. My fervent prayer for all who will read my personal reflections is that it will draw us together as the body of Christ, and deepen our relationships with one another.
At the end of Breaking Open God’s Word, I have chosen three special feast days as I reflect on my journey from life to death. Please take time to journey with me, bringing your own experiences of your faith life. Let this time of traveling through the church year be a rich experience for all of us who use Breaking Open God’s Word to follow in the footsteps of Jesus and to prepare for eternity. Christmas speaks of the birth of Jesus. We can contemplate our own births as the beginning of our journeys through life with God. Ash Wednesday shows us steps we can take to redeem our sinful lives. The Feast of All Saints is the culmination of a journey when saints receive the reward of their earthly labors. We look forward to the day when God calls us home.
God quietly steals into the world
Wanting to share beauty and life
That was lost by the sins of our weakness
That turned creation back into chaos.
With the presence of God Who stoops down to share love
Bringing a barren land back to its pristine beauty By placing new life in our midst.
Ash Wednesday
As we once more begin to replace life with deathGod knew we needed another beginning Relearning how we could become co-creators
By turning tarnished beauty into new life once more We then walk for forty days with the baby, now grown.
A second chance to redeem ourselves
Time to ask for reconciliation
For the evils that we let creep into our hearts
We now need another re-sanctification
Through prayer, almsgiving, and penance.
A lifetime spent asking for the gift of grace
To become like the Child given to us so long ago
So that we, like him, can come back to God
To enjoy the reward of our labors
Ready to return from whence we came.
God quietly stealing down to us once again “Well done, good and faithful servant
Enter into the joy of eternal life.”
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About the Book
Breaking Open God’s Word: A Three-year Cycle of Reflections on the Sunday Readings of the Liturgical Year invites readers to embark upon a journey through the riches of the Catholic Church’s three-year lectionary for readings for Sunday Mass. The lectionary, a sequence of appointed passages from the texts of the Old and New Testaments, pairs readings with the seasons and feasts of the church year.
Sister Celine Goessl, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross, has taken a lifetime practice of prayerful listening to the messages God shares through scriptural texts and brought it into conversation with her immersion in the details of daily life to create the collection of reflections appearing in Breaking Open God’s Word. The intent of this collection is to help God’s Word enflesh itself in the reader’s daily life and to empower him or her to take action to live as Christ’s presence in other people’s lives.
You may watch the changing of the seasons in your parish’s worship and hear the variety of texts read at Mass. As you do, and you find life presenting you with ever-changing challenges to your faith, Breaking Open God’s Word offers to accompany you on your daily journey. Along the way, Sister Celine Goessl’s prayerful reflections can offer you inspiration and guidance for living and witnessing faithfully in whatever circumstances you face each day.
About the Author
Celine Goessl, a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Holy Cross, has served as a teacher, community leader, pastoral administrator, spiritual director, retreat leader, and lecturer. She earned a master’s degree in theology at St. John’s University and her doctor of ministry degree at St. Mary’s Seminary and University.