Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Commemoration of John Donne, 1631, and Joseph, Patriarch
WORSHIP: 12 NOON

Glory to You!
You built your cross as a bridge over death, so that departed souls might pass from the realm of death to the realm of life.
Your murderers handled your life like farmers: they sowed it like grain deep in the earth, for it to spring up and raise with itself a multitude of people.
Come, let us offer Christ the great, universal sacrifice of our love, and pour out before him our richest hymns and prayers.

Ephrem the Syrian (307-363)

• PRAY FOR SOMEONE IN DISTRESS. SEND THEM A CARD.

Monday, March 30, 2015

WORSHIP: 12 NOON
Reading: Mark 11:1-11

"Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut."   (Mark 11:8)

Jesus chose the way of the prophet Zechariah for entering into Jerusalem, on the back of an unridden colt. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth."

God of peace, we enter now with Christ into Jerusalem. May we have the same mind among ourselves that was in Christ Jesus. Amen

• PLACE THE PALMS FROM THE PALM SUNDAY LITURGY ON YOUR ALTAR.

Sunday, March 29, 2015 - SUNDAY OF THE PASSION/ PALM SUNDAY

Sunday, March 29, 2015 - SUNDAY OF THE PASSION/ PALM SUNDAY
WORSHIP: 8 & 10:45 AM
Mt. 21:1-11; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16;Phil. 2:5-11;
Mt. 26:14—27:66

Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death -
even death on a cross.
Therefore God has also highly exalted him
and gave him the name that is above every name.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION FOR SUNDAY OF THE PASSION (Phil. 2:8-9)

There in God's garden stands the Tree of Wisdom,
Whose leaves hold forth the healing of the nations;
Tree of all knowledge, Tree of all compassion,
Tree of all beauty.

Its name is Jesus, name that says, "Our Savior!"
There on its branches see the scars of suff'ring;
See there the tendrils of our human selfhood
Feed on its lifeblood.

Thorns not its own are tangled in its foliage;
Our greed has starved it, our despite has choked it.
Yet, look! it lives! its grief has not destroyed it,
Nor fire consumed it.

See how its branches reach to us in welcome;
Hear what the Voice says, "Come to me, ye weary!
Give me your sickness, give me all your sorrow,
I will give blessing."

This is my ending, this my resurrection;
Into your hands, Lord, I commit my spirit.
This have I searched for; now I can possess it.
This ground is holy.

All heav'n is singing, "Thanks to Christ whose passion
Offers in mercy healing strength and pardon.
Peoples and nations, take it, take it freely!"
Amen! My Master!
Kiralyi Imre von Pecselyi (1590-1641), tr. Eric Routley

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

"Let this same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,…"  
(Philippians 2:5)

Martin Luther described sin as a person's being "curved in on itself", incurvatus in se, concerned only with one's own needs, desires, one's own puny little world. As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, where reaction to his world-upturning teachings and life is building to a deathly confrontation, we see clearly how absolutely faithful he is to his identity as the Christ the Anointed One, Christ the Compassionate One, open and vulnerable to the world. He set his face "like a flint" (Is. 50:7) and turned not backward. How simple it would have been to disappear into the wilderness ravines east of the city. How difficult, to ignore the deep human instinct toward self-preservation and to continue on the road, in spite of risk, in spite of threat.

Merciful God, may we never turn backward from our calling as people of your heart. Amen

 TAKE BIT OF PURE OLIVE OIL. ANOINT YOUR HANDS, YOUR EYES, YOUR LIPS, YOUR EARS, YOUR HEART.

Friday, March 27, 2015

Reading: Psalm 31:9-16

"Into your hand I commend my spirit:
you have redeemed me, O LORD God of truth."   (Psalm 31:5)

The antiphon chosen for the psalm on the approaching Sunday of the Passion is from verse 5, not from among the verses chosen for chanting on this day. But we sing this phrase from Psalm 31:5 every time we use the office of Compline, or Prayer At the Close of Day. It is a beautiful prayer to use to end the day, before lying down to rest: "Into your hand, O LORD, I commend my spirit." Only in the Gospel of Luke do we hear these words from Jesus on the cross at the end of his life, contrary to what composites like the Seven Last Words would lead us to think. In the passion account according to Mark, which we will hear in two days' time, Jesus cries out using words from Psalm 22, as he does also in Matthew's account. Why, we could wonder, did Luke choose Psalm 31:5?

Merciful God, into your hands we commend our spirits Amen

• EAT NO MEAT OR OIL TODAY.

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Reading: Isaiah 50:4-9a

"The LORD God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced;
 therefore I have set my face like flint,
 and I know I will not be put to shame."   (Isaiah 50:7)

The Hebrew scriptures do not generally use specific words for emotions, but rather use descriptive words related to the effects on the human body, especially the face. When Jesus overthrew the tables of the moneychangers in the Temple, Psalm 69:9 was quoted: "Zeal for your house has consumed me." The word for "zeal" actually means "intensively red", as "to be red in the face". The word generally translated as anger is to be "short of nose", for the way the nose crinkles short and the nostrils flare in anger. In the Ash Wednesday reading Joel 2:13, where God is said to be "slow to anger" (KJV "longsuffering"), the Hebrew says God is "long of nose", that is, calm and not riled up with a face scrunched in wrath. In this third song of the suffering servant from the prophet Isaiah, which is often associated by Christians with Jesus the Christ, God's servant sets his "face like flint", that is, with absolute confidence and resolve (see Ezekiel 3:8-9) for, "my vindicator is near".  God is there, God is present. God is not a God far-off. As followers of the Incarnate Christ, this we know to be true.
And we can set our faces like flint.

Help us, O God, and may we always know that you are near. Amen

 MAKE A DRAWING, PAINTING, OR POEM IN YOUR JOURNAL.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION, Is. 7:10-14, Ps. 45; Heb 10:4-10; Luke 1:26-38
Reading: Isaiah 58:5

"Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?"

It is not totally out of character on this Feast of the Annunciation to talk about almsgiving, or acts of justice, or acts of compassion, one of the disciplines of Lent. Mary's great hymn of praise, the Magnificat (pronounced not at the Annunciation, but, rather, at the Visitation to Elizabeth…), has at its center the raising up of those of low degree. "Those of low degree" can include any one of us at any time as well as the stranger. Those who are in poverty as well as those who are in a state of spiritual impoverishment. Those who who are homeless as well as those who are seeking, seeking, seeking. Those on the brink of despair as well as those of "low degree" known only to God. There is no "they."  During Lent,  may the taking on of these disciplines of fasting, prayer, and acts of compassion awaken us to the Christs we meet each day and all those in need of assistance, both friend and stranger.

Loving God, may our hearts be open to all whom we encounter in life. Amen

 SPEAK TO SOMEONE AT CHURCH YOU’VE NEVER SPOKEN TO BEFORE.
 IF YOU HAVE FASTED FOR SOME MEALS DURING LENT, DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH THE MONEY SAVED.

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Commemoration of Oscar Romero, archbishop and martyr, 1980

I have no wit, no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is in the falling leaf:
O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk;
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;
My life is like a frozen thing,
No bud nor greenness can I see:
Yet rise it shall - the sap of Spring;
O Jesus, rise in me.
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), "A Better Resurrection"

Most loving God, your ways are not our ways; calm our hearts and soothe our questing minds with your wisdom.   Amen

 MEMORIZE A SCRIPTURE VERSE.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Reading: John 12:20-33

"Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies, it bears much fruit."   (John 12:24)

Spiritual truths are not limited to books of Scripture or theology or liturgies or to Bach cantatas or the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins, spiritual truths find us in many places. Take the musical The Fantasticks (Schmidt/Jones). The protagonist El Gallo takes the young, naive, head-over-heels couple Matt and Luisa out to experience real world hurts, temptations, and tragedies. The action pauses. El Gallo faces the audience and says:
There is a curious paradox that no one can explain:
Who understands the secret of the reaping of the grain?
Who understands why spring is born out of winter's laboring pain?
Or why we must all die a bit, before we live again?
I do not know the answer. I merely know it's true.
I hurt them for that reason. And myself, a little bit, too…

• GIVE THANKS FOR ALL THE HURTS, TEMPTATIONS, AND TRAGEDIES YOU HAVE SURVIVED AND GROWN FROM.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT
WORSHIP: 8 & 10:45 AM
Jer. 31:31-34; Ps. 51:1-12; Heb. 5:5-11; John 12:20-33

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies,
it remains just a single grain;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT (John 12:24)

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain,
Wheat that in dark earth many days has lain.
Laid in the earth, my risen Lord is seen:
Love is come again, like wheat arising green.

In the grave they laid him, Love by hatred slain;
Thinking that he would never wake again;
Raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.

Forth he came at Easter like the risen grain,
He that for three days in the grave had lain;
Raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.

When our hearts are wintry, grieving or in pain,
Your touch can call us back to life again,
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been;
Love is come again like wheat arising green.
John MacLeod Campbell Crum (1872-1958)

• PLANT SHALLOW CONTAINERS WITH WHEAT GRASS TO PLACE ON THE TABLE FOR EASTER.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Commemoration of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury,1556
Reading: Hebrews 5:5-11

"Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through what he suffered…"   (Hebrews 5:8)

When hardship comes to us, as it always will, we often want to flee, and quickly. But quite often, as years pass, we discover that hardship has taught us important lessons: trust in God, trust in our own mysterious inner strength, compassion toward others, release of fear and anxiety, gratitude, wonder. Help does not always come in the form we momentarily desire. What may come may simply be an increased capacity for endurance. But God pleads with us not to harden our hearts - to remain hopeful, God-trusting, open, and loving. God wills for us abundant life.

Hear our voices when we call, O God, and strengthen us to release all that keeps us from abundant life in you. Amen

 TAKE A GRATEFULNESS WALK. GATHER SOMETHING FOR YOUR ALTAR.

Friday, March 20, 2015

Spring Equinox
New Moon 3:36 am
Total solar eclipse over the arctic
Reading: Psalm 51:1-12

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me."   (Psalm 51:10)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God,” we sing as the season of Lent begins. “Create in me a clean heart, O God,” we sing in the liturgy at the Great Entrance of the Eucharist. A clean heart. The heart, as has been said before, is where the whole person comes together – body, spirit, mind. What is intended by the mind takes up residence in the body and spirit. What is done with the body takes residence in the spirit and the mind. All are interwoven. In the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke over and over again about intention. How crucial are the intentions of the heart! Other people see our actions which may seem just, but God sees the motivations, the intentions, the energy behind our acts. In T.S. Eliot’s play, Murder in the Cathedral, Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket struggles with the possibility of martyrdom, and whether he might actually be desiring the glory that comes with it:

“Now is my way clear, now is the meaning plain:
Temptation shall not come in this kind again.
The last temptation is the greatest treason:
To do the right deed for the wrong reason.”

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me. Amen

• WRITE A LETTER TO SOMEONE YOU HAVE NOT SPOKEN TO IN A LONG TIME.

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Thursday, March 19, 2015
JOSEPH, GUARDIAN OF JESUS
Reading:  Jeremiah 31:31-34

"No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, 'Know the LORD', for they shall all know me…for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more."   (Jeremiah 31:34)

The Greek word for repentance, metanoia, means "beyond-mind", and to repent would mean to "go beyond the mind that you have". So repentance is a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of perception. On Passion Sunday we will hear: "Have the same mind among yourselves that was in Christ Jesus…" Go beyond the mind that you have. Put your mind to it. Change. So, repentance is not just about recognizing failings, acknowledging hurt and division. It is not just about feeling bad. It is about going beyond the mind that put you there. It is about changing, transformation, new life, new mind, new heart. "They shall all know ME."

Place your teaching within our hearts, O God, that our minds may attain to wisdom. Amen

 PRAY FOR SOMEONE YOU HAVE WRONGED.  PRAY FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS WRONGED YOU. PRAY TO FORGIVE.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Commemoration of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem
Reading: 1 Timothy 2:1

"First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone,…so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity."

During the season of Lent we use either the Great Litany or the Kyrie, which is an Orthodox litany or ektenia, for the entrance rite. Litany is from the Greek, litaneia, meaning "supplication". Luther developed litanies, both in Latin and German (1529), based primarily on the Roman church's Litany of All Saints. This is the form that we sing to open the liturgy during Lent. In 1544, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, compiled and crafted The Exhortation and Litany, which was the first liturgy in English, commissioned by Henry VIII. The liturgy was used for processions, and was requested by Henry when he witnessed the poor response of the people to the existing Latin processions. He decreed that there were to be "set forthe certayne godly prayers and suffrages in our natyve Englyshe tongue." Cranmer used part of the Sarum processional, Luther's litany, and the Orthodox litany. It has come down to the present Book of Common Prayer in much of its original form. Kyrie, we pray, in both the Great Litany and the Kyrie. Kyrie eleison. Lord, have mercy. Kyrios was the Greek word chosen by translators to stand for the Hebrew name of God: YHWH. When we pray Kyrie eleison, we are proclaiming God as Lord, and putting our lives in God's care.

• PRAY THE LITANY.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Commemoration of Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, 461

Impleta sunt, quæ concinit
David fideli carmine
Dicendo nationibus
Regnavit a ligno Deus.

All down the windy woods, along the throbbing hedge,
And in the starting sedge,
Yea, in all choirs and places where they sing,
I hear its growing cadences that ring:
Noblest of the processionals of earth,
The great Vexilla Regis of the spring:
And topping the soft hill
With sudden joy of emerald fluttering,
Against the sky's bright edge
I see the mighty banners of the King…

…Lo! on these eager branches shall be hung
That Life of which the woods have ever sung;
Making themselves soft harps for the hand o' the rain
To whisper of his pain,
And 'neath the poignant bowing of the wind
Subdued to move,
Crying to all mankind
The secret of the sacrament of love.
Yea! from a Tree
God shall shine out at thee;
For this doth Nature grow,
To this the kingly banners forward go.
Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), "March Music"

(The opening Latin in Underhill's poem is a verse from Fortunatus' hymn "The Royal Banners Forward Go": That which the prophet-king of old/Hath in mysterious verse foretold,/Is now accomplished, whilst we see/God rule the nations from a tree.)

O God of light, open our eyes that we may see ourselves, the world, and you, more clearly.  Amen

 TAKE A WALK. NOTICE SHADOWS. NOTICE TREES. GIVE THANKS.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Reading: John 3:14-21

“And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up."   (John 3:14)

In the Weimar Altarpiece by Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Younger, the Crucifixion of Christ has central place. In the background one sees the Bronze Serpent and the suffering people of Israel. Martin Luther, standing in the foreground next to the cross, holds a Bible and points to a melded text of John 3:14, 1 John 1:7a and, finally, Hebrews 4:16: "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Luther was initially very much against images in the churches, finding them too associated with what he considered to be the waywardness of the church of Rome in his time. But as paintings and liturgical furnishings and many beautiful artistic works began to be destroyed all across Europe, he changed his mind, writing: "When I hear of the Passion of Christ, it is impossible for me not to make images of this in my heart…why then should it be sinful to see it before my eyes?"

May we approach you with confidence, O God, knowing you will help in time of need.   Amen

 MEMORIZE A HYMN. LISTEN TO BACH CANTATA BWV 68, "ALSO HAT GOTT DIE WELT GELIEBT".

Sunday, March 15, 2015

FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT
WORSHIP: 8 & 10:45 AM
Num. 21:4-9; Ps.107:1-3, 17-22; Eph. 2:1-10; John 3:14-21

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him should not perish,
but have eternal life.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION FOR THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT (John 3:16)

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul,
What wondrous love is this, O my soul!
What wondrous love is this that caused the Lord of bliss
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul, for my soul,
to bear the dreadful curse for my soul!

When I was sinking down, sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down, sinking down,
When I was sinking down beneath God's righteous frown,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul, for my soul,
Christ laid aside his crown for my soul!

To God and the Lamb, I will sing, I will sing,
To God and to the Lamb, I will sing;
To God and to the Lamb who is the great I AM,
While millions join the theme, I will sing, I will sing;
While millions join the theme, I will sing!

And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on;
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on;
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on;
And through eternity I'll sing on.
Author unknown

• IN THE ANGLICAN CHURCH THIS IS "MIDLENTING" OR "MOTHERING" SUNDAY, AND IS CELEBRATED WITH SIMNEL CAKE AND VISITS. www.fullhomelydivinity.org/Lenten%20customs.htm

Saturday, March 14, 2015

Reading: Ephesians 2:1-10

“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."   (Ephesians 2:10)

During Lent, we are all like catechumens, like those learning the Christian faith and its aspects before baptism. The word "catechumen" is from the Greek kata - "down" and ekhe - "sound". In a sermon on baptism, St. John Chrysostom taught that the word catechumen came from the word "echo", and that what he was teaching them was to "echo down" into their minds and into their lives. Here we read from the letter to the Ephesians, with these verses instructing us that in Christ we have been made a new creation by God, adopted and created for good works - it is God's doing, we are admonished in 2:8. This is Luther's "faith active in works". As he writes in his Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "Faith is God's work in us. It changes our hearts, our spirits, our thoughts and all our powers. Faith cannot help doing good works constantly. It is just as impossible to separate faith and works as it is to separate heat and light from fire!"

God of all Wisdom, may your Word echo down into our minds, into our hearts, and into our very lives.  Amen

• LIGHT A CANDLE AND IMAGINE WAYS THAT YOUR LIFE CAN BRING WARMTH AND LIGHT INTO THE WORLD.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Reading: Psalm 107:1-3,17-22
Antiphon:
“Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress."   (Psalm 107:19)

Read all of Psalm 107: one of the longer psalms, it has 43 verses. In this psalm are four vignettes (4-9, 10-16, 17-22, and 23-32), the third of which is chanted on this coming Sunday in Lent. The overall psalm is about the lovingkindness of God, also translated as "steadfast love", and the four vignettes are of God helping God's people. After an introduction in 1-3, telling of the redeemed coming from four directions, the first story begins: "Some wandered in desert wastes…" answered by "God led them by the straight way". In the second, "Some sat in darkness and gloom" with, "God brought them out of darkness". In the third, "Some were sick through their sinful ways," and "God sent out God's word and healed them…". The fourth will be sung later this year, on the Sunday with Jesus' stilling of the storm: "Some went down to the sea in ships…" and, "God made the storm be still." At the center of each story is today's antiphon: "They cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress." We are not dropped on this planet without comfort or aid. God is at hand. "Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the LORD" (v. 43).

O God, you desire abundant life for every living thing. Hear us when we call to you.   Amen

 PLACE ON YOUR ALTAR A PICTURE OF SOMEONE EXPERIENCING HARDSHIP. PRAY FOR THEM.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Commemoration of Gregory the Great, 344
Commemoration of Symeon the New Theologian, 1022 (Orthodox)
Reading: Numbers 21:4-9

“The people spoke against God and against Moses, 'Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?'"   (Numbers 2:5)
 
One can find pages and pages of debate about exactly how long the Israelites were in Egypt, given two different numbers in Genesis 12:13 - 400 years, and Exodus 12:40 - 430 years. Symbolic numbers are common in the scriptures. Let us just decide that it was roughly 10 generations (also a symbolic number!). And during that time in Egypt the Israelites were constantly exposed to the gods of Egypt and the images and statues of those gods. We know how indelibly values and customs are passed from generation to generation without thought or scrutiny. So it is not so surprising that the Israelites made a calf of gold to pray to while Moses had disappeared onto Mount Sinai. Now, in the desert, Moses has created another image, upon God's instruction, that the people will latch onto. The serpent of bronze. Everett Fox translates nehash nehoshet as a "copper viper" to keep the alliteration and wordplay. And once again the people latch onto it, treating it as a cult object. They carry it with them to Canaan, and name it Nehushtan. We encounter it again in 2 Kings 18:1-4, when King Hezekiah smashes it, because people are praying to it. Old habits, old values, old allegiances die hard. And it seems, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" is the hardest commandment to keep.

God of Compassion, may you always have the primary place in our hearts and in our lives.  Amen

 IN YOUR PLACE OF PRAYER, PLACE A SYMBOL OF SOMETHING THAT OFTEN PULLS YOUR LIFE AWAY FROM GOD. PRAY ABOUT IT.
 LOVERS OF BAROQUE MUSIC MAY ENJOY LISTENING TO JAN DISMAS ZELENKA'S CANTATA "IL SERPENTE DI  BRONZO" AT  www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4hpDxMeJSo

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

WORSHIP: NOON, soup meal follows; 7 PM, soup meal at 6 PM.
Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:16

"Rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks for everything."

There is a rabbinic story that goes as follows:
A rabbi entered a room where his son was praying. The baby was crying in
his crib. "Son, can't you hear that there is a baby crying in this room?"
"I'm sorry, Father, but I was praying and I was lost in God." The rabbi
replied, "Son, one who is lost in God can see the very fly crawling up the
wall."
Prayer is not about escape from the world. We are advised to pray
with one eye open. It is not about just God and me or just Jesus and me.
Prayer drives us, naked and vulnerable, into an encounter with both the
Holy and the world, where we encounter not only God, but our own true
self. Prayer is not just silence, not just words, not just mantras, not
just centering. It is all of these and more. It is a letting go of
control, a falling into the steadfast love of God. It is action. It is
life. Frederick Douglass, escaped slave and statesman, wrote: "I prayed
for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs."

 A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BOOK ON PRAYER IS SR. JOAN CHITTISTER'S THE 
BREATH OF THE SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON PRAYER (TWENTY-THIRD PUBLICATIONS).
 TRY PRAYING THE ORTHODOX JESUS PRAYER THROUGHOUT THE DAY: "LORD
JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, HAVE MERCY ON ME, A SINNER."

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Commemoration of Harriet Tubman, 1913, and Sojourner Truth, 1883

The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade above
To make one texture of faded brown
And fit the earth like a leather glove.

Before the leaves can mount again
To fill the trees with another shade,
They must go down past things coming up.
They must go down into the dark decayed.

They must be pierced by flowers and put
Beneath the feet of dancing flowers.
However it is in some other world
I know that this is the way in ours.
Robert Frost (1874-1963), "In Hardwood Groves"

God of life, grant us courage to go down into the dark decayed. Amen

 PLACE AN ICON ON YOUR ALTAR AND MEDITATE ON IT.

Monday, March 9, 2015

Commemoration of Gregory of Nyssa, 394
Reading: John 2:13-22

“Making a whip of cords, [Jesus] drove all of them out of the temple…His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me'."   (John 2:15,17)

The Temple complex in Jerusalem was built on a hill variously thought to be Mount Zion (2 Samuel 5:7) or Mount Moriah (Genesis 22:2). The courts were a group of graduated rectangles set within each other, and as one moved from the outer walls inward and toward the west, one came closer to the Holy of Holies. The most exterior court was the Court of Gentiles, which was surrounded by colonnades, where the rabbis taught. This court had been set aside, in keeping with Isaiah 56, for any non-Israelites who wanted to worship God. But the Jewish Temple authorities had allowed the Court to be filled with livestock and commerce related to their own purity rites, ignoring God's command that it be a place of prayer. And then Jesus arrived. Prophecy, absent from the life of Israel for four hundred years, had returned.

God of all nations, you have a heart of love for all who seek you. May your house always be a house of prayer.  Amen

 READ ISAIAH 56 AND JEREMIAH 7, REFERRED TO IN THIS GOSPEL READING FROM JOHN.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
Ex. 20:1-17; Ps.19; 1 Cor. 1:18-25; John 2:13-22
WORSHIP: 8 & 10:45 AM

We proclaim Christ crucified;
the power of God and the wisdom of God.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT (1 Cor. 1:23,24)

Open now Thy gates of beauty,
Zion, let me enter there,
Where my soul in joyful duty
Waits for Him who answers prayer.
Oh, how blessed is this place,
Filled with solace, light, and grace!

Lord, my God, I come before Thee,
Come Thou also unto me;
Where we find Thee and adore Thee,
There a heaven on earth must be.
To my heart, oh, enter Thou,
Let it be Thy temple now!

Here Thy praise is gladly chanted,
Here Thy seed is duly sown;
Let my soul, where it is planted,
Bring forth precious sheaves alone,
So that all I hear may be
Fruitful unto life in me.

Thou my faith increase and quicken,
Let me keep Thy gift divine,
Howsoe'er temptations thicken;
May Thy Word still o'er me shine
As my guiding star through life,
As my comfort in my strife.

Speak, O God, and I will hear Thee,
Let Thy will be done indeed;
May I undisturbed draw near Thee
While Thou dost Thy people feed.
Here of life the fountain flows,
Here is balm for all our woes.

          (Benjamin Schmolck, 1672-1737
          translated by Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878)

Saturday, March 7, 2015

Commemoration of Perpetua and Companions, martyrs, 202
Reading: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

“For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength."   (1 Corinthians 1:25)

Paradox again.  In the cross, the values of the world run up against the values of God. In the cross, seemingly incompatible opposites come together: + God and human + heaven and earth + death and life + power and vulnerability +  transcendence and immanence + the Holy and the ordinary + past and future +  ruler and servant + emptying and wholeness + darkness and light +. Each time we trace the sign of the cross upon ourselves, we are signing ourselves with this paradox of God's power and wisdom in Christ Jesus, crucified and resurrected servant, trampling death by death. Who could have ever known that loving with such holy love would release such transforming power into the world?

O Crucified and loving Christ, so set your cross in us that our lives may reflect its vulnerable power.  Amen

 MAKE THE SIGN OF THE CROSS DURING YOUR PRAYERS TODAY.

Friday, March 6, 2015

Reading: Psalm 19

Antiphon:
“The precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is clear, enlightening the eyes."   (Psalm 19:8)

After meditating on the way all creation sings praise to and shows forth God, the psalmist leads us in praise of God's commandments, finally chanting that God's ordinances are sweeter than the drippings from the honeycomb. (This is one of the rare occasions in the Hebrew scriptures when the word actually refers to bees' honey; most often the word used refers to fig syrup...) Do we usually think of God's precepts as something that "rejoice the heart"? What is the connection between the creation's telling of God and the teaching (Torah) of God? Could it be that God's commands that set the universe in motion and keep it from chaos are the equivalent of the commands that God has given for human life, intended to keep it from chaos?

God of life, may we find our life in relationship with you sweeter than honey. Amen

 USE HONEY ON SOMETHING YOU EAT TODAY. SAVOR ITS SWEETNESS.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Full Moon 12:06 pm
Reading: Exodus 20:1-17

"You shall have no other gods before me."   Exodus 20:3

The narrative of the exodus of the people of Israel here completes a circle, from Sinai where Moses first saw the burning bush and received God's command to free the Israelites, to the foot of Sinai again, now with all the throng who left the oppression of Egypt. For eleven months the people camp at the foot of the mountain. For forty days Moses converses with God on the mountain. And yet there is no eventual worship of Mount Sinai, for God is a God who travels with the people, not confined to one mountain, one tree, one building, one statue. And God gives them a sign of the circular nature of covenant, directed to a second person singular - you: ten "words", ten ways to show that their hearts and lives belong to God, not to any other loyalty or lure.

God of covenant, open our hearts, so that we may always be aware of your presence. Amen

 EAT ONLY BREAD OR COOKED RICE FOR ONE MEAL; SET ASIDE THE MONEY SAVED FOR AN ACT OF LOVE.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

JEWISH FESTIVAL OF PURIM BEGINS AT SUNSET
WORSHIP: NOON, soup meal follows; 7 PM, soup meal at 6 PM.
Reading: Psalm 25:5

"Lead me in your truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day long."

Over the centuries it has been a practice in the church to veil crosses and icons during the season of Lent. The oldest written evidence of this symbolic custom is from 7th century France, then, in Italy about the year 1000. It is intended as a fast for the eyes, a part of the discipline we consciously take on during the days of Lent's austerity. In a few cathedrals and monasteries, Freiburg and Millstadt Abbey, to name two, a large Lenten veil was hung between the congregation and the altar, sometimes painted with scenes of the Passion. In the Sarum rite, a Lenten array of white linen covered the altar during Lent. In the Orthodox church, the royal doors to the altar remain closed to signify how sin separates us from God. Veiling the crosses and icons is a simplifying of our worship environment, just as we are simplifying our daily lives with prayer and fasting. All these are not ends in themselves, but aids to preparing the soil of our spirits and our lives for newness to spring up with the Risen Christ.

All-loving God, we place in your care our hearts, our wills, our lives. Amen

 TAKE SOMETHING ON – DAILY PRAYER, A NEW ATTITUDE, HELPING A NEIGHBOR…

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Commemoration of John Wesley, 1791, and Charles Wesley, 1785

"…Hard it is, very hard,
To travel up the slow and stony road
To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better
To make but one sceptered miracle,
Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power
And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.
Yet this was not God's way, who had the power,
But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,
The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,
That power destroys in passing, something supreme,
To whose great value in the eyes of God
That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear witness."

Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), from "The Devil To Pay"

Hold us in your peace, O God, and help us to let go into your mysterious will. Amen

 GIVE SOMETHING UP – A BAD HABIT, A GRUDGE, DESPAIR …

Monday, March 2, 2015

Reading: Mark 8:31-38

"For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it."  Mark 8:35

Paradox offers the dominant, logical left brain a task that it cannot complete, and so it reluctantly relents and lets the right intuitive brain take a try at it. That is oversimplified, of course, but in essence, close enough. Our western educational system trains and rewards the left brain - logic, sequential thinking, causal thinking, standardized tests. The right brain deals in symbols and patterns and is the realm of imagination, and thus, of faith ("the conviction of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1). Jesus' parables and teachings are rife with paradox, which prods us out of our usual way of approaching reality. It reminds us that we cannot completely know God, that God is ultimately Mystery, no matter how clever we are, and that the ways of the world are not necessarily the ways of God.

God of the desert, God of the wanderer, teach us to live in the land where we do not know, confident and trusting in your steadfast love. Amen

 TAKE THE FIRST STEP IN DOING AN ACT OF LOVE YOU HAVE PUT OFF FOR A LONG TIME.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT
WORSHIP: 8 & 10:45 AM
Gen. 17:1-7, 15-16; Ps.22:23-31; Rom. 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ,
by which the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT (Gal. 6:14)

O Christ, unto your cross we raise

Our eyes in gratitude and praise,

And lift up holy hands in prayer

For what your grace embodied there:

A heart of love, so high, so broad -

The unrelenting love of God.

To you, O Christ, we lift our days

To be the vessels of your grace;

Drawn to your cross, our lives redrawn,

We serve the world unto your dawn;

Fed at your meal, we turn to feed

All those in hunger, those in need.

Your outstretched arms embrace the world

To which in mercy we are called;

May we take up your cross, O Christ,

To take up lives of sacrifice,

And follow in your selfless path

That draws abundant life from death.

This cross can call, this cross can prove

A sign of God's unchanging love;

Lift up our hearts, transfigure us

Into the pattern of your cross;

So may our hearts receive this sign,

And so embody love divine.

           

            Copyright©2013 Susan Palo Cherwien