Great Saturday

The Burial of Christ ~ Stavronikita Monastery Mount Athos

Come, let us see our life lying in the tomb, that He may give life to those that in their tombs lie dead. Come, let us look today on the Son of Judah as He sleeps, and with the prophet let us cry aloud to Him: Thou hast lain down, Thou hast slept as a lion; who shall awaken Thee, O King? But of Thine own free will do Thou rise up, who willingly dost give Thyself for us; O Lord, glory to Thee.

Today a tomb holds Him who holds the creation in the hollow of His hand; a stone covers Him who covered the heavens with glory. Life sleeps and hell trembles; and Adam is set free from his bonds. Glory to Thy dispensation, whereby Thou hast accom;ished all things, granting us an eternal Sabbath, Thy most holy Resurrection from the dead.  Greek Hymn from Holy Saturday Morning Vigil

Good Friday ~ With Tears and Loud Cries

This is Claude Vignon's painting: Two Angels Presenting the Holy Face. The story of Veronica wiping the face of Jesus along the Calvary way is not found in the gospels. It sounds as if it could though, along with Simon helping Jesus carry the cross and the women of Jerusalem weeping for Jesus, and the myrrh-bearers returning to the tomb on Sunday morning.

Here, two angels hold the towel or veil Veronica offered. Vignon's depiction is different though in that he shows the face of Jesus very awake and alive, looking heavenward. Maybe Vignon was inspired by this verse from the Letter to the Hebrews:

In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard for his godly fear.  Hebrews 5:7

Another translation says, "in the days of his frailty..."  I like that word choice better because it suggests that in Christ, God has joined us utterly in our vulnerability and weakness. The word frailty leads me to believe that Jesus offered cries and tears for every suffering face on this planet. At Gethsemane and Calvary, Jesus saw all of human suffering throughout history, and instead of changing the channel (as we do) he offered up cries and tears from his all-knowing and feeling heart.

But there is more. The painting reveals deep shadow and light. Look closely! The splendid angels are threaded with golden light and their wings are iridescent. Their brightness invades and dispels the deep shadow around them. 

Shadow is a personal word too. One Christian blogger who is not afraid of psychology says: "Everything our mind will not allow into the light, for various reasons, ends up in the shadow, where it has an impact on us beyond our normal awareness." 

Lent is ending now: the springtime, yearning for the light. Light will shine into the darkness on Holy Saturday night. And these days, the sun is pushing back the winter's darkness. Shadow is my forbidden self - my "don't even go there" self. The prophet Isaiah calls it my "land of darkness," or "land of gloom." (9:2)

These angels are lifting up Veronica's towel (Veronica = true image). Maybe during these last Lenten hours I can lift up my own untouched, unturned self, something of my shadow: the comparing, the competing, the judging, the anger, the regrets, the worrying, the blaming, the guilt, the fear. Consciously lift it up into the light. Then I will be free. Be encouraged!

Intercessions for Easter Sunday

We pray with Pope Francis this Easter day:/ May God grant the leaders of nations the courage they need to prevent the spread of conflicts/ and to put an end to the arms trade./ May God sustain the efforts of those who bring comfort and relief to civilian populations caught in horror and death./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the Jewish people who celebrate Passover these full-moon days./ For those in prison or in hospitals at Easter./ For those whose hearts are hardened to love,/ mercy and life./ We pray to the Lord.

Wednesday is the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr./ who said,/ "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."/ May we learn his message well./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray boldly in Christ's Risen light/ for those who have no home,/ no family at Easter./ For the victims of racism and terrorism./ For persecuted Christians,/ and those whose land is a battleground;/ a land of devastation and destruction./ We pray to the Lord.

Our nation carries a great shame/ as its children and young people die in gun violence./ We pray to know and to do God's will./ On Easter Sunday we pray for our hearts to be transformed by Christ's light:/ his light of justice and compassion./ We pray to the Lord.

Finally we pray for those who have died since last Easter/ and for those who are sad for the loss of loved ones./ We pray to the Lord.

Resentments Are Like Winter Weeds

Lent is almost at its end and with that, these weeks of reflecting on Lent as the Church's Springtime. Yesterday the temperature went up into the high 40's and I could feel the strengthening sun. A final thought occurred to me as I ventured out into the garden:

When the snow and ice recede the first thing the gardener sees are the winter weeds. A weed is simply a plant that grows with a will of its own and where the gardener doesn't want it to grow. Winter weeds grow through the winter without the light of day. Some spread far and wide beneath the snow. Some have a deep carrot like tap root. Some are pulled out easily; others are resistant. The gardener might think, "How did you get in here?"

Winter weeds have been named wherever they grow and folks complain about them, names like: Mares Tail, Shepard's Purse, Chickweed, Annual Bluegrass, Penny Cress, Purple Dead Nettle aka Henbit, Ground Ivy aka Creeping Charlie.

Resentments are like winter weeds - especially the digging out part. But when the job is done then the garden is free and ready for the show.

Resentments are negative feelings towards other people. Sometimes they just pop up or sneak in. They can send down a tap root deep into heart and mind. They can even spread beyond myself to other people. Resentments (like winter weeds) can even look attractive - flowering and trailing along. And like winter weeds, resentments take up a lot of space and can choke out the beautiful things you really want to see grow and bloom.

These last days of Lent, the Church's Springtime, we can name these weedy resentments for ourselves and get free to meet the Risen One, who Mary Magdalen thought was the gardener. 

Again, resentments are any negative feelings I have towards someone. Why bother getting free of them? Because Jesus doesn't allow them to stay in the garden. We're to pray them away. Can it be done? Absolutely, if I desire it.

As the winter weeds all have names, name the people with whom we have resentments. Don't analyze, rehearse or judge them. Write them down, first names only. Then each day between now and Easter, pray their names and then carefully pray this prayer. 

Lord as you know, I have resentments with all of these people, and even if I don't feel it right now, I ask you to remove them; take my stony, cold, hard heart, and make it into a heart of mercy, compassion and love. Amen!

Notice the only person I'm asking God to change is myself. Happy gardening!

April's Open Window

This painting (of another open window), is by the contemporary Russian artist, Sergey Ivanovich Smirnov (+2006) titled Warm April. Smirnov painted this window many times: different season, different time of day, slightly different angle, with a bowl or table or plant nearby, window open, window closed. But here, he has even told us it is a lovely day in April. The tree has yet to leaf-out. The last bit of snow on the church roof is receding.

An artist is an explorer. Am I? This may mean, "I am so looking forward to this summer's first-time trip to Italy." Or it may mean, I am not afraid of the struggle that comes with self-knowledge. Or it may mean, I read outside my comfort zone. Or it it may mean, I listen well in conversation - my interaction is not a collection of knee-jerked, partisan answers. 

Remember the 1969 Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel hit song, The Boxer: "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest."  Think American politics these days!

Smirnov isn't bored with or afraid of the different angle. Indeed, he seems eager to look at something from this way, then that. The opened window lets in something new. Jesus was a master in this regard: Taking something ordinary and everyday he'd say, "The Kingdom of God is like..." then offer a new insight into God's rule, God's presence. Always with a twist and even some humor.

• I mean really: the gospel guy who works an hour gets the same pay as the  guy who worked in the sun for the entire day!?  
• I mean really: a well-off shepherd with one hundred sheep abandons the ninety nine and goes off recklessly searching for the foolish one that wandered off!?
• I mean really: a woman turns the house upside down and inside out looking for a penny!?

Jesus is an artist-explorer. I may sit by Smirnov's open window and ask, Am I? Or do I only hear what I want to hear and disregard the rest?

Lenten Honeybee and Heather

On a warm and sunny day, usually between Palm and Easter Sundays, stores will have displays of Easter plants out front where shoppers will be sure to see them: potted daffodils, hyacinths, tulips and lilies. This weekend, one store with the million products, offered large, purple, heather plants which the honey bees quickly discovered. You could hear the bee-buzz while some feet away.

The honeybee is privileged in producing the wax that's used for the making of altar candles. Indeed, the honey bee gets a shout-out in the Easter Night Exsultet which sings praises to the great candle: 

On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,

accept this candle, a solemn offering,

the work of bees and of your servants' hands,

an evening sacrifice of praise,

this gift from your most holy Church.

But now we know the praises of this pillar,

which glowing fire ignites for God's honor,

a fire into many flames divided,

yet never dimmed by sharing of its light

for it is fed by melting wax,

drawn out by mother bees

to build a torch so precious.

Honey bees have been symbolic of a high functioning monastery where (bee-hive like) every monk has his job which he performs virtuously. 

In ancient Greece the honey bee was symbolic of the life of solitude as bees would take up residence and build nests in caves and hollowed out tree-trunks. 

We may put the two images together: the monk in solitude - alone with God. And there is something of the monk in each of us. Saint Symeon tells us a bit about it in his short poem.

Solitary, one who is unmixed with the world,
and continually speaks with God alone.
Seeing he is seen, loving he is loved,
and he becomes light glittering unspeakably.
Blessed he feels himself more poor,
and, being close, yet goes as stranger.
O miracle strange in every way and inexplicable!
For immense richness I exist penniless,
and having as I think nothing, possess much,
and I say, I thirst, in the midst of waters.

P.S. Honey Bees are called the "Heroes of our Planet" for their pollination-gift which makes flowers, fruits and vegetables possible. As the honey bees go - we go. But they are disappearing for our obsession with insecticides. We might have a care.

From Tadpole to Frog ~ Lenten Transformation

I have some serious color deficiencies, but even I can see the wonderful shades of green in this very alive photograph. In the spring we can see masses of transparent frog eggs in the still waters of a pond. Then seemingly thousands of tadpoles appear which transition over the next weeks from a tiny animal that is mostly tail to this amazing creature of eyes, legs, camouflaged skin and capacities for life in and out of water. From egg to tadpole to frog, it is a spring symbol of transformation, transition, change, personal evolution. 

Change is at the heart of the Christian spiritual life. Some people don't get it: "This is who I am, take it or leave it," a defensive person might say, or, "I couldn't care less what you think, this is the way it is..." 

Thomas Merton writes that a man enters a monastery to change. That might strike some folks as odd, having looked upon monasteries as centers of religious industry, prayers, disciplines and asceticisms. St. Paul sums it up in Romans 12:2:

"Don't let the contemporary world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-make  you so that your whole attitude of mind is changed, so that you may discern for yourselves what is the will of God  - what is good and acceptable and mature."

Notice this - Paul's advice or injunction is that our mind be changed. He uses the word "re-made". "Christ, you have come to disturb us," Dostoevsky wrote. Jesus Christ is supposed to be a thorn in my side, not a sedative. I would suggest that this change or renewal will manifest itself primarily in how we think of other people and how we treat them. 

In a monastery everyone is welcome. Guests are not asked about their dogma or church census form, morals and values, nationality, voting record, party affiliation, prayer life, sexual orientation, marital status, social security number or legal status. Everyone is welcomed - for free! The rule of St. Benedict says that the only time someone is told to leave is if his/her behaviour is disrupting the rhythm of the place. 

And a monastery is a symbol of how we ALL might live, as if to say, "See, we all can live peacefully and in love."  Love is actively seeking the good of the other. To love is to accept other people as they are or, "as they may become." That is a very great challenge. The transition to love is everyday.

In the Lententime ~ Spring Is New Air

This painting is Edward Gordon's "Wind from the Sea." He is a master of light, isn't he? Notice the light and shadow in every curtain fold, the alternating light on the wood floor and rug, the light and shadow through the legs of the chair. 

But there is a second window, the window which appears in the framed picture on the wall, and that secondary room has its own light/shadow play going on. Light falls on the text in front of the person at the desk and on the globe.

But while we might pay attention to the light, there is the invisible aspect of the air. It is a particularly breezy day - there are whitecaps on the sea. And while there is light coming from a side window, is that a storm brewing out the front window looking towards the water and the horizon? For all its apparent simplicity, there's a lot going on in this picture.

The Lenten spring brings increased light, but also fresh air - air that's strong enough to lift curtains. People say, "I can't wait for a mild day so I can open the windows and get some fresh air into this house." Indeed, but there's also a  kind of  fresh air for our minds.

At an AA meeting someone might use the term, "Stinking Thinking". Nasty thinking. Negative, ungrateful thinking. Resentful thinking. Brooding, poor-me thinking.  Hateful thinking. Self-righteous thinking. Know-it-all thinking. Those inner rooms need a blast of fresh air. Look again at the sea beyond the window. Does the painting suggest that by allowing in fresh thinking, we might be giving entre to a storm? The inner chaos that can occur when what's old, stale and toxic gets blown away. Some people will run to shut and lock that window.

Thomas Merton writes in the introduction to one of his journals that after the Second World War the monasteries of this country were bursting at the seams as men returned from the Europe of flame, explosion, destruction and death; the Europe of refugees, the orphaned, the homeless, the starving; the Europe of camps and exterminations, rape and plunder. Some men "stuffed it all" and never spoke a word about it. Maybe these were men who hit their wives and children, who became alcoholics and haters of those who were "different". Some (Merton says many) went to monasteries to consider it all - to repent not only for themselves but for humankind - to examine what it means to be a human person as we stand before God.

There's hardly a television commercial I see that I don't think, "O God, we really don't get it." And our political scene....!?  Talk about needing fresh air.

The picture within a picture may be extending an invitation to go to a very deep inner place - a second inner room. A global inner room! The little figure in that second picture (book on desk and hand on globe) might be an explorer. Get it? We might land people on Mars and still never be real explorers. The real exploration is of soul and mind.

Edward Gordon has painted a room of air and light for us, and even kindly provided a chair where we might sit awhile.

Hyacinths in the Lenten Spring

I imagine in the not too distant future, opening a web page will afford one not only the experience of seeing this hyacinth but smelling it too. It is intense. Hyacinths come in white, peach, orange, salmon, yellow, pink, red, purple, lavender and a wide variety of blues. 

In the Language of Flowers the hyacinth's color sends a varying message: blue signifies sincerity, yellow - jealously, purple - deep regret, red - playfulness. But a white hyacinth's meaning is loveliness and the offering of prayers for someone. Praying for someone - what a lovely idea. 

Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers Neighborhood) said, "To be a truly successful person in the things that matter, three things are necessary. The first is kindness. The second is kindness. The third is kindness." Praying for someone is simply kind.

We might be sitting with this white hyacinth nearby or in hand. If you're familiar with its powerful scent, let it create the atmosphere for your prayer.

A prayer for a spouse.
A prayer for a child.
A prayer for a sibling.

A prayer for a priest.
A prayer for a politician.
A prayer for an enemy.

A prayer for a colleague.
A prayer for a boss. 
A prayer for neighbor.

A prayer for someone on the road.
A prayer for someone in a store.
A prayer for someone I see but don't know.

A prayer for a face on television.
A prayer for a voice on the radio.
A prayer for anyone in trouble.

A prayer for someone struggling to get back to health.
A prayer for someone whose job is unpleasant or exhausting.
A prayer for someone who is giving up.

A prayer for someone embittered.
A prayer for a prisoner.
A prayer for someone thrown away.

A prayer for......

Mogens Vantore ~ Still Life With White Hyacinths

Intercessions ~ Palm Sunday

As Christians begin Holy Week today,/ may we hear and feel the prayers we pray,/ for those who will preach the message of the cross,/ for the safety of those who pray in Jerusalem this week./ We pray to the Lord.

Spring has officially begun./ May we begin anew:/ growing our spiritual vision,/ detecting God's presence,/ seeing others rightly,/ in love and justice./ May Christ's light dispel stubborn ignorance./ We pray to the Lord.

Young people march across the nation this weekend,/ demanding that their lives and safety be a national priority,/ and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in the nation's schools./ May we listen to them with our hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for law enforcement,/ investigtors and helpers during the three weeks of bomb menace in Austin, Texas./ We pray for those who live where bombs explode everyday,/ and boldly ask for the removal of bombs held in our own hearts./ We pray to the Lord.

As Passover begins this Friday,/ we pray for the Jewish people around the world;/ may they grow in the love of God./ For those who persist in the hatred of Jews/ and who cloak that hatred in religious beliefs./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those in prison,/ the sick,/ the home bound,/ the weak and the children of war./ For those who this week feel they hate God,/ or who hate their lives./ We pray for a peaceful world./ We pray to the Lord.

Spring Equinox ~ Balance and Restoration

Though the fourth winter storm is predicted for the Northeast as we speak, Spring began officially at 12:15 P.M. yesterday. The Cherry Blossoms  in Washington are not sufficiently opened yet to be harmed - they are due to open fully around March 27. A friend who helps me with science things writes:

The Spring Equinox is one of the two days of the year when the earth's axis of rotation is not tilted towards or away from the sun. The sun crosses the equator and we experience a balanced day and night, and light and dark. Equinox mean equal night. It marks the beginning of the season in which the hours of daylight will overcome the hours of nighttime darkness. 

It means winter has ended. It is a day of balance. Now the light begins to grow. Light wins over darkness, light which guarantees life. We can each name the darkness as we perceive it. But light wins and with that light comes life, and warmth, and birth, and hope restored. Don't we need this restoration?

And in just days from now we'll stand in a dark-as-night church and the great candle with the new flame will enter the church, and we'll sing greetings to it and the One who rose from the dead before dawn and left the tomb empty.

And we'll each "catch" the light from the candle and take it to ourselves, and every face will be illumined, and we'll see each other in the light. We'll see the others as they really are - God's dear ones all, and each saved from the darkness which will seemingly be pushed through the walls to the beyond. 

Do I believe it matters that Christ rose from the dead in a world that feels so very dark?  Here is an old translation from the Latin of a bit of the Easter Night Exsultet - the hymn to the candle.

Let the earth also rejoice illumined with such resplendent rays; 

and enlightened with the brightness of the eternal King,

let it feel that the darkness of the whole world is dispersed. 

Let also our mother the Church rejoice, 

adorned with the brightness of so great a light; 

and may this temple resound with the joyful voices of the people. 

In the Lenten Spring ~ Mother of God, Enlightener of Minds

The spring days are lengthening. Since the Winter Solstice the daylight has increased by over two hours and will continue to do so until the middle of June (the Summer Solstice). Here is an icon of the Mother of God whose title invites us to pray about inner light: Mother of God ~ Enlightener of Minds. 

The literature proposes the Enlightener of Minds be invoked for those with weak, disordered or unstable minds, or that we might improve our study, classroom attention or test-taking skills, or know how to make a right decision to solve a problem. 

But I would suggest there is something more fundamental going on here for anyone who has set out to walk the path of Christian discipleship. It's my mind (your mind) that is in need of enlightenment - an enlightenment that will lead me to possessing a Christ-mind - which is an evolved, en-spirited, renewed, changed mind.

• From thinking they ought to do it my way - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From thinking I understand why he is that way - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From thinking there is only one way - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From so much disapproval - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From the curse of negativity and self pity - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From being blind to the people closest to me - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From racist, prejudicial, fearful, stereotypical assessments of people - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From thinking I have to comment on everything - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From defensive, protectionist thinking - enlighten me, O Lady.
• From I can't be bothered or That's far away thinking - enlighten me, O Lady.
• Enlighten me, O Lady, what Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid, means. Jn 14:27
• Enlighten me, O Lady, what Love one another as I have loved you, means. Jn 15:12
• Enlighten me, O Lady, what As you wish that people would do to you, do so to them, means. Lk 6:31
• Enlighten me, O Lady, what Whoever does the will of God is my brother, my sister, and mother, means. Mk 3:35
• Enlighten me, O Lady, what For God so loved the world, means. Jn 3:16

Spring Growth Starts In The Low Place

Here are some low-to-the-ground tulip shoots breaking through frosty ground. There's a Tibetan saying:  When the spring bloom comes, where does it start? Does it start on the hilltops or down in the valleys first? Growth begins first in the low places.  

The low places. Humility comes from the Latin humus: soil or good earth. It doesn't mean we're dirt but:

• Stay realistic about yourself. 
• Come down to earth about yourself. 
• Always remain a student. 
• My life is on loan to me. 
• I am not indispensable; I can be replaced.

"Oh, you're special!"  No, I'm not; I'm like everyone else. But while I'm not special, I am needed, and God has given me all I have to make my contribution.  I have a role to play, and only I can play it. The Down Syndrome child who gives smiles and hugs all day is giving what he/she has to give, and it is of great value in an often scowling world of loneliness and alienation.

There was a piece on the morning news about two little elementary school girls who throw birthday parties for kids who never get a party.  While excitedly tearing open boxes of party supplies one said, "I think not having a birthday party means you are not loved." Everyone has a contribution to make. Humility is knowing it, and doing something about it.

Suihan Sanyou ~ The Three Friends of Winter

Because of their ability not only to survive but flourish through the severe East Asian winter weather, pine, bamboo and plum together symbolize steadfastness, perseverance and resilience. Pine and bamboo are evergreen, and plum can bloom in February, as I discovered in a nursery this past week where young plum trees, pots standing in snow, are already flowering.

When everything else has withered or gone dormant, these three signal hope and call us to lean into the face of adversity and challenge. Of course, the Lenten Christian may have in mind the determination of Jesus, who, in Luke's Gospel, is always on his way to Jerusalem, where he will be rejected, die for love of us and rise from the dead on the third day.

When the days drew near for him to be received up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke 9:51

He went on his way through towns and villages teaching, and journeying towards Jerusalem. Luke 13:22

"Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem". Luke 13:33

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. Luke 17:11

And when he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. Luke 19:28

Jesus passing between Samaria and Galilee by choice (he could have gone by a different route) is notable, because Samaria was unfriendly territory. We all have a winter-way, a Samaria-way to walk. Take heart, and consider the Three Friends of Winter. 

If I were president of the United States, I would personally deliver pine, bamboo and plum trees to the people of China, Japan and both Koreas - late winter signs of a tenacious and unwavering desire and committment to build a peaceful world.

Spring is a Deep Breath

This is British Landscape artist Mark Preston's painting titled: Breezy Day. The flowering tree, swayed in the stiff breeze, suggests early spring, but if that's purple heather in bloom, it could be June or July. Perhaps the artist couldn't make up his mind which season he likes best, so he combined the two. Small matter. For our purposes it's the alive air at the top of the hill and the invitation to breathe deeply!

We were made for breathing: "Then God shaped man from the soil of the ground and blew the breath of life into his nostrils, and man became a living being." Genesis 2:7.  Not only have we been made for breathing, but breathing is a sacred thing. God's own life is in our breathing. 

And then there is the breath of the Easter Jesus carrying our second birth, sharing heavenly life: "After saying this he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit..." John 20:22

Maybe Spring, with its opened windows and outside walks, invites us to consider the gift of breathing. Lots of people don't breathe well for a number of reasons: perhaps they are out of shape or suffer from asthma or emphysema. Maybe their lungs have been weakened from smoking.

Or we don't breathe well because we're always running around. "I'm totally out of breath," the frenzied person complains. So much running around makes for shallow, unconscious breathing. 

But also, when we're running around all the time, we've left the present moment and are in the past, mulling over yesterday and its fear, anger, panic and disappointment. Or we're in the imagined future, worrying, stressed, managing and overwhelmed. 

Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk who invites us to sit each day for twenty minutes of deep and conscious breathing. Many people will immediately say, "That's impossible! Who has twenty minutes!? Only monks have the luxury of twenty minutes." Maybe that's the point he's making - it's a problem for first world people. Anyway, we do what we can. So maybe stop for ten minutes - five minutes. Just sit, attentive to God's first gift - breath.

In this conscious breath, I receive God's gift of life.
In this breath, I am nowhere else.
In this breath, I am here in this single moment.
In this breath, I am right where I am supposed to be.
In this breath, I inhale all that is good.
In this breath, I exhale negativity.
In this conscious breath, I inhale the renewing Holy Spirit.

Spring Rain and Buckets of Tears

All this snow the country is experiencing, soon it will turn to spring rains: swollen streams, filled reservoirs, rain barrels, buckets and wells. "April showers bring May flowers" the saying goes. The photo here is of a plastic garden bucket filled to the brim with spring rain. And in Psalm 39:12 the psalmist prays: 

O Lord, hear my prayer,

O Lord, turn your ear to my cry;

do not be deaf to my tears.

Life on this planet is a complicated often painful affair. The psalmist knows, and in three short bursts he calls out to God: Hear my prayer; turn your ear to my cry; don't be deaf to my tears. We're not strangers to God; our lives matter. The psalmist seems to understand that we're in a partnership with God, and so he's confident in calling out with his three requests, as if to say: "Hey, I'm over here; don't forget me." We all know that place.

But how deep the psalmist's pain must be - he calls his prayer a cry. We heard this before in Psalm 5:3: Attend to the sound of my cries, my King and my God.

Don't be deaf to my tears! These are loud, sobbing tears. God doesn't need the reminder to pay attention of course, but we feel the need to express the grief and pain with the attendant questions: Am I alone in this? Is there a remedy? Will I feel this way forever?

Some people hold in tears, even for a life time. "You need a good cry" someone might say, or, "You've got buckets of tears inside."  An old wound, abuse, rejection, self-hatred, betrayal, loneliness, sickness, exploitation, loss, failure. We might put a bucket out in the yard where it will fill with rain these next spring weeks - a Lenten invitation to acknowledge the tears, (they are actually a healing gift) and to bring them to this psalm verse.

Archbishop Anthony Bloom wrote: "Don't pray until you feel something." Well, there you have it.

Intercessions ~ Fifth Sunday of Lent

Winter Hellebore ~ Lenten Rose

Grant that those who lead and govern in the church,/ in the nation,/ in business,/ education and around the world,/ may be peaceable people,/ of good heart and good sense./ May we not be discouraged by all that overwhelms us./ We pray to the Lord.

As Lent continues and Holy Week approaches,/ grant that as we proclaim Christ with our mouths/ we would never deny him by our thinking and our actions./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the many people we will encounter or work with this week:/ whose family life is troubled,/ who are sick or sad,/ who are full of anger,/ frustration or anxiety./ We pray for our  families,/ colleagues and friends./ We pray to the Lord.

Monday is the Feast of Saint Joseph,/ guardian and protector of Mary and the Infant Christ./ We pray for the nations which claim him as their patron:/ Austria,/ Belgium,/ Canada,/ China,/ Croatia,/ Indonesia,/ Mexico,/ Korea,/ Peru,/ the Philippines and Vietnam./ We pray to the Lord.

May Christianity/ and the world's many religions,/ help humanity to find its way off the road of hate./ Strengthen the reconcilers and healers;/ conversion for those who punish,/ threaten and bully others./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those who have no home,/ no voice,/ no employment,/ no security,/ who feel no future for their children,/ who are exhausted with fear,/ who feel the pain of being marginalized and un-welcomed./ We pray to the Lord.

Swallows Return ~ The Lenten Spring

The Swallows which have been wintering in Central and South America since last autumn, started their spring migration back north in January. We might know the story of the Swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano Mission in California in time for the Feast of St. Joseph, March 19. It will be a little while yet before they arrive in North East Pennsylvania, but they are on their way.

Swallows are almost magical, acrobatic birds which seem to land only long enough to feed their chicks. Otherwise they are in full flight, swirling in great flocks called kettles. A swallow can fly upwards of 600 miles in one day, most of the time picking insects out of the air. 

At Lourdes in France, at night when thousands of pilgrims are in procession and carrying lighted candles, the air above fills with hundreds of swallows feeding on the insects drawn to the light. A pilgrim can't help but feel this great sense of connection to God's wild-world: the stone cave and the Lourdes spring, candle flame along the River Gave and the whirling swallows which seem to stitch together the pilgrim prayer and heaven. Very neat!

Psalm 84:3-4 references swallows while telling of the Jerusalem temple's open-air beauty; how the soul, full of longing and love, feels at home there: 

My soul is longing and  yearning,

is yearning for the courts of the Lord.

My heart and my soul ring out their joy

to God, the living God.

The sparrow herself finds a home

and the swallow a nest for her brood;

she lays her young by your altars,

Lord of  hosts, my King and my God.

For the Christian furthermore, the swallow symbolizes the soul crying out for spiritual food: 

• The Gospel Word,
• An en-visioned homily that challenges and inspires,
• The sayings of the saints,
• Christ's Eucharistic Gift,
• The food of God in nature's symbolic encounters,
• The lessons I learn through compassionate sharing,
• The nourishment offered through human creativity.

The Invitation Of The Spring Night Sky

It is said that now 80% of North Americans and Europeans are unable to see the Milky Way, the enormous spiral of dense stars we live in, because our man-made earth lights block out the light of the stars. What a loss for us, as the stars are beautiful and invite us to ponder the God who imagined and placed them.

"He knows the number of the stars and calls them each by name." Psalm 147:4

My science-resource-friend shares a few observations about the spring night sky.

Every star that we can see in the night sky is part of our own Milky Way galaxy. The appearance of the "spilled milk" in the sky is a dense concentration of these stars. The earth is located along one of the arms of the this spiral galaxy about two thirds out from the center. In the springtime this Milky Way lies level with the horizon (like a plate flat on a table), so it is virtually invisible.

In the northern spring sky we are looking out of the plate of the galaxy, unhindered by intervening dust and into the dark, starless space between galaxies. In the direction of Virgo, Leo and Ursa Major lie hundreds of galaxies which cannot be easily detected during other times of the year.

The Big Dipper, our signpost in the sky, swings high overhead during the spring pointing the way to other stars as the night sky transitions from the winter to the stars that will adorn the heavens for the next few months.

It appears that the winter stars are disappearing more rapidly at this time of year because the days are lengthening - there are fewer dark hours. The stars are there, we just can't see them in the light,  so they have already set before the night darkness comes.

What happens in the outer world of nature symbolizes what may happen in our inner lives. So perhaps the message of the spring night sky, which looks out into space from a new angle, is: May we see far beyond ourselves, as things that have been hidden are now becoming visible. We might begin on the road, which we all have in common. 

• Someone just cut me off - perhaps he is rushing to an elderly mother who phoned sounding anxious and troubled. 
• Someone has come up on me too fast and is riding my tail - perhaps she is late to join her father for an important doctor visit. 
• Someone is driving too slow for this lane - perhaps it's someone with a new license and who isn't comfortable on the road yet.
• Someone is driving erratically - perhaps on the hands-free phone she is being berated by her boss for being late. 

Who knows, but that's just the point, we don't know. Driving is something we have in common and compassion might begin by imagining that everyone else on the road is going somewhere important, and at any time of the driving day or night, carries distracting burdens. So we might drive defensively, but also with awareness of the many others. And in this, we'll be serving ourselves well too - making ourselves less agitated.

Fasting and Feasting

I knew a devout Catholic man who fasted all day each Friday until his evening dinner. Commendable. But he was nasty to his wife. Hmmm. 

Then this week some friends sent a kind of litany prayer which was given out at the parish Lenten Soup Supper on Friday. The prayer seemed to get to the heart of the matter, but I recast it a good bit, adding some nuance that might be helpful. 

Like prayer and alms-giving, fasting is a component of Lent. But the purpose of the fasting isn't to make ourselves miserable (as if somehow that pleases God) but to redefine, change or evolve us. So, a fast from food, sure, but there's much more. And then of course, there's the flip side, the feasting, which is to embrace the new Christ-Heart.

• Fast from so much judging of other people...Feast on my own struggle to live an authentic Christian life.
• Fast from emphasizing how people are different from me...Feast on this: We're all God's children.
• Fast from the darkness that wants to get into my mind...Feast on Christ who calls himself, Light of the World.
• Fast from words that are like pollution...Feast on this: Blessed are the clean of heart.
• Fast from complaining and discontent...Feast on the blessings of each moment.

• Fast from irritability and anger...Feast on this: For most people, life is a very hard slog.
• Fast from rehearsing all the aches and pains...Feast on listening to others.
• Fast from pessimism and cynicism, down, down, down...Feast on this: Resurrection: Jesus really rose from the dead.
• Fast from so much worrying...Feast on this: God's got his eye on the sparrow.
• Fast from still more worrying...Feast on mindful appreciation.

• Fast from all the negativity...Feast on God's goodness that has brought me to today.
• Fast from having to change and correct everyone...Fast on this: God doesn't play favorites.
• Fast from stressing out...Feast on unceasing prayer.
• Fast from hostility...Feast on surrender and non-violence.
• Fast from bitterness and resentment...Feast on forgiveness.

• Fast from being too concerned about my own comfort...Feast on compassion for other people.
• Fast from discouragement...Feast on God's delighting in our desires and trying.
• Fast from depressing thoughts and predictions...Feast on Mary's Prayer: "The Lord has done marvels for me; holy is his name."
• Fast from lethargy...Feast on the things that bring joy and enthusiasm.
• Fast from suspicion...Feast on the truth of God's presence and love.

• Fast from the thoughts that weaken me...Feast on Dashing them against Christ the Rock.
• Fast from shadowy sorrows...Feast on the increased light of Spring.
• Fast from gossip...Feast on a monk's kind of silence.
• Fast from the problems that leave me feeling overwhelmed...Feast on prayer that keeps me on my feet and leaning in.
• Fast from so much time listening to the news...Feast on a book that will enrich and gladden.

In the Lenten Spring

By chance I read the back of the ketchup bottle in the diner while waiting for my meal. If it's true for ketchup - that it makes people smile - how much more true it is for us! That we can make people smile. 

Mother Teresa would often say that a smile is the gift we all have to give to someone else. World of tears, fears, loneliness, discouragement, despair. Feeling un-invited, excluded, unwanted, forgotten. Today is Lent's half-way point.

At the Lighting of the Lamps

Greek artist Loukas Geralis (1875-1958) gives us this painting titled, "Lighting of the Candles." Actually, the young fellow is lighting oil lamps in the chapel before the sanctuary icons. He has  gently pulled the lamp down by its pulley. His oil can with its long spout stands on the wood bench. A friend who lived in a Russian monastery for some time was given this job of waking up even earlier than the monks to light the chapel lamps each morning  He said it was a mystical time of silence and stillness.

But once again, this outer world moment symbolizes an interior event: each morning, lighting the lamp of trusting, interceding, hoping, commending, struggling, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote: Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."

We might join this devout young lamp-lighter as he prays and lights the darkness-dispelling lamps. Can you name it? We might pray protection from the darkness - the darkness that wants to invade and un-nerve us each day. Some of it originates from inside; some from elsewhere:

• from the darkness of my worst impulses, protect me, Lord.
• from dark responses, protect me, Lord.
• so much of what we do and say isn't really necessary or helpful, protect me, Lord.
• from obsessing so much, protect me, Lord.
• from dire, panicked predictions, protect me, Lord.
• from disgust, cynicism and depression, protect me, Lord.
• from the darkness of trouble-makers, haters and resent-ers, protect me, Lord.
• from the bad-spirit of punishment and ill will, protect me, Lord.

The Message of the Sugaring Season

The Pennsylvania Maple Sugar Syrup season has already come and gone. Sometime between the middle of January through the middle of February, during some days of a freeze-that, freeze-thaw cycle, the sap of the Maple trees starts to run.

Maple trees produce a liquid mix of ground water and sugar which moves up and down the tree depending on the late winter temperatures. The trees are tapped and the sap is collected in buckets. Thickened by evaporation forty gallons of the watery sap is transformed into about one gallon of concentrated syrup. 

What happens in the outer, natural world is symbolic or reflective of what can happen in our inner world. Transformation is the message of the Maple Syrup Season. Many people won't explore that - like the man in the peach orchard who contents himself with counting leaves. 

"You have come a new creation and have clothed yourself in Christ," the priest says to the newly baptized. A new creation! And Jesus said, "I have come that you may have life and have it in all its fullness." John 10:10

Catholics have transformation at the center of their religious-spiritual lives. At every Mass we hear these words prayed over the bread and wine: 

Therefore, O Lord, we humbly implore you: by the same Spirit graciously make holy thee gifts we have brought to you for consecration, that they may become the Body and Blood of your Son our Lord Jesus Christ at whose command we celebrate these mysteries.

Eucharist doesn't mean only that the bread and wine are transformed, but we're supposed to be transformed too. Don't just admire Christ, don't just believe in Christ, don't even just content myself trying to imitate Christ, but BE Christ. 

But what's the transformation? St. Irenaeus says, "The glory of God is the human person fully alive." The Eastern Christian calls it divinization. One Anglican priest speaks of it this ways: Individuation is the process by which the individual in the course of his/her life is pressed to realize his innate capacities to the full and become what he has it in him to become." And Carl Jung said that to be another Christ means that "I would live my own unique self as truthfully and as beautifully as Christ lived his."

How do I do that? I might begin by imagining it for myself. We say, You are what you eat. We might also say: You are what you listen to; You are what you read; You are what you look at; You are what you choose; You are what you fall in love with; You are what you desire. 

Be Christ! Transform resentment, fear, despair into new energies. That's an important place from which to start. Take Jesus at his word and desire the fullness-life he promises. That full life is for NOW. Innate capacities means that from the moment I came to exist, God had gift-ed each of us with possibilities and potentials. Many of us have never given these things any serious attention.

Spring enjoins us to transformation