Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

Transcript

Speaker 1: How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord mighty God! My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest. In which she puts her young. Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

Speaker 2: You are listening to Scripture for your inner outcasts. It's September 11th, 2026, Friday of the 23rd week in Ordinary Time. Today's guest presenter is Cassie Kimball, a doctoral candidate in historical theology at Boston College.

Speaker 1: Hi everyone. This is Cassie and I am excited to be reflecting on the Psalm for today, which is Psalm 84. How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord mighty God. My soul yearns and pines for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow, a nest in which she puts her young. Your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God. I love this Psalm. For a long time, long before I knew about parts work, maybe even before I became Catholic. And now with the parts work lens, I hear the psalmist voicing primary attachment needs here to feel safe and secure, to feel at home and belong. But the psalmist also voices perhaps some of the complications our parts might feel about these needs, depending on the tone of voice in which we read verse three, it could be an expression of hope or trust. Even the sparrow and the swallow finds a home for their young, and so will I. Or it might express something perhaps more difficult, like jealousy, anger, or hopelessness. Even the sparrow and the swallow find a home for their young. But part of me still feels adrift, homeless, exposed or unprotected. I love that this psalm, like the Psalter in general, gives us permission to voice these complicated feelings, the polarizations within our internal systems. This Psalm in particular gives us permission to voice complicated feelings about God.

Speaker 1: One of the most helpful things I've learned in my journey of Catholic parts work with souls and hearts is that different depictions of God might be just too overwhelming for younger parts, particularly young exiles. And so perhaps we can read verse three in terms of parts having their attachment needs met in the way that works for them. Baby sparrows and swallows certainly have different needs than baby alligators, elephants, or humans. It takes different things to make them feel safe. So I'd like to share an experience that I have recently that brought this home for me. Some of my really vulnerable exile parts were up, wanting safety and protection from God, wanting to belong in God's house, but feeling hopeless about this ever being possible. Any image of God or his house available to them felt too risky or otherwise just didn't work. And around this time, I found myself at Eucharistic Adoration And these younger parts found themselves feeling safe. There was something about Jesus presenting himself in the humility of a still silent Eucharistic host that they felt okay with. And in my mind's eye, I saw one of my parts flop down like a cat in the sun, totally comfortable receiving the light and love radiating from the monstrance. This was a God with whom she could feel at home and safe. And at least for the moment, she could say with the psalmist, how lovely is your dwelling place, Lord mighty God. For me.

Speaker 2: Souls and hearts has lots of resources on attachment needs, attachment to God and also God. Images. You can find further reading on all these topics linked in the description of today's show.

Speaker 1: Let's end with our invocations. Our Lady, our Mother and tire of knots. Pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint John the Baptist pray for us.