(photo by Tom Delaney, Sherburne County, Minnesota, 2025)
The weather is a bot cooler this weekend in Central Minnesota. It may just be a coincidence, but there seem to be more large dragonflies flying this weekend. The cooler temperatures make pasture management a pleasant day outdoors. I came upon this Blue Vervain (Verbena hastata) on our south pasture. It’s a native species in Minnesota. A little research finds that Blue Vervain has been used as an herbal tea to treat depression, coughing and headaches (Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, 2022). Frances Densmore notes in her Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians (1928) that the soft inner part of Blue Vervain was used to treat nosebleeds, apparently by inserting it up your nose (p.356). I will have to keep that in mind.
Today’s Liturgy of the Word includes a reading from Paul’s letter to the Hebrews. The reading today focuses on the topic of discipline. Today we most often think of discipline as a strong act of will to follow a rule or regimen when we would otherwise be inclined to do something else…something less disciplined. In its original sense, the word “discipline” means the undertaking of learning, and to be a “disciple” means to be a learner. It is this sense of discipline that Paul writes about in the reading for today. It is an understanding of discipline that still has a place in our modern world. These days it is possible to call something “discipline” that isn’t truly an experience of learning. We also are sometimes dismissive of a rule or set of rules as just a bunch of things someone else is telling you that you should be doing, and don’t see the rules in their true function of guiding a person toward learning. Monastic rules and religious vows are a good example of things that people often don’t understand as guidance toward spiritual experience and profound personal realization.
Back to Paul’s letter! In the last section of the reading, Paul encourages (as he is so often the consummate encouraging guy), “Make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed” (Hebrews 12:13). When we see references to straight paths, or straightening paths, we can know that the author speaker is talking about justice. Justice is a principle of things in “right relationship” to each other. The analogy of the straight path is that a person is walking in a just path, a right path — walking and living in a way that is justified. You might notice that our modern day word processing programs on a computer have a built-in option to straighten the sides of written text or a paragraph: left justified or right justified. The understood value of a straight path is that it gets you form the place you are to the place you want to be, or should be, by the most direct and shortest route. When we’re not on a straight path, our way forward in life gets complicated and we run the risk of getting sidetracked and way off course. Paul also has the insight that to the extent you are experiencing lameness because of weakness or injury – and we’re talking spiritual, emotional, and mental self here – you can have a really hard time walking that straight path of justice. It makes sense that walking any path is harder going when you’re weak or suffering.
In the last part, Paul makes an amazing statement that reflects a profound insight. Paul sees that what makes us lame (metaphorically) is that we are disjointed, meaning that we are literally pulled apart — mentally, spiritually, emotionally. We are not our whole selves, but rather we are in pieces. The offenses, hurts and traumas that we experience can do this to us, all in a moment, or gradually and even unnoticed over time. The great singer Patsy Cline immortalized the feeling when she sang: “I fall to pieces…” It’s a real human experience! And Paul doesn’t leave us without a way back to wholeness. Paul writes that we can be healed and made whole, with the things in our life back in right places and with us feeling stronger. Writers in past centuries of Christian spirituality called this process “recollection” or recollectio in Latin. Spanish Franciscan friar Francisco de Osuna wrote about it extensively in how work The Spiritual Alphabet. In turn, this work went on to inspire a legendary figure among the great Spanish mystics, Teresa de Ávila.
Paul points to making justice as the way to put ourselves back together when we have fallen a part and gone to pieces emotionally, spiritually, and mentally. The REACH Forgiveness Process taught through Live and Forgive is a research-validated way to close gaps in justice through the process of forgiving. The process approaches forgiveness with the understanding that transgressions create an injustice gap that can be closed with forgiveness. The process recognizes that forgiveness and justice work together. When you work a solid forgiveness process, you are also working a process of restoring justice by restoring yourself to wholeness, health and even strength. That is a good thing to give yourself.
This text is an original work of its author Tom Delaney and was entirely composed without the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
If your parish or faith community is seeking a deeper experience of healing, mercy, and spiritual renewal, Live and Forgive is here to help. To begin the conversation, email Live and Forgive presenter and facilitator Tom Delaney at tom@liveandforgive.com—Tom will be glad to connect with you in a spirit of welcome, respect, and shared faith.
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