Intercessions ~ Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time ~ Returning to the Green Time

Returning to the long weeks of liturgical green/ we ask to grow in personal goodness,/ and that our worship would green and grow out of a clean  heart./ We pray to the Lord.

Summer Solstice was observed this week;/ the longest day and the shortest night./ We pray that our spiritual lives would be lived in the full light of mercy,/ inclusion,/ compassion and  justice./ We pray to the Lord.

Strengthen and comfort those who live in fear and  gloom everyday:/ fear of terrorism,/ corruption,/ power abuse,/ wars,/ job loss and family disintegration./ We pray to the Lord.

The United States is suffering an epidemic of drug abuse claiming countless lives./ We pray for a new national sobriety/ and the blessing of every effort to restore the nation to inner freedom./ We pray to the Lord.

We are being quickly reduced by new depths of nastiness,/ non-cooperation and wasteful partisanship./ We ask for a national restoration of all that is best in us./ We pray to the Lord.

Bless the sick and those who care for them/ mindful of medical staff which is overworked and paid unfairly./ We pray with grateful hearts for those who help around the world where terrorism kills and destroys./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the turning of hearts to those who die unwanted,/ untended,/ unseen,/ or by the wars and terrorist violence which claim so many lives today./ We pray to the Lord.

Green Means Grow

new growth ~ soft green on spruce tips

HAVING COMPLETED the Easter cycle and the subsequent feasts of Trinity and Corpus Christi, we've returned to the long summer weeks of liturgical green. We're being told through color: Now go and grow in these things ~ grow in your own resurrection, up and out of yourself into a new creation. 

I'm listening to the many speeches of the many people who are declaring themselves as presidential candidates these days: They are saying the exact same things, making the same promises, using the same cliches and jargon they have been using since I can remember having a vote. New logos but otherwise, same old, same old. 

Why is a green question. We seldom ask why because the answer might very well be terribly threatening. That's why there are lots of folks already arrayed against the pope's pending encyclical about environment and climate and global poverty - they fear the pope's thoughts will threaten their (our?) security, power, money, elitism.

Many people won't even consider therapy or counseling because there the essential question is why. We want to answer, "I don't know" hoping it will get us off the hook or end our discomfort.

Personal growth really only happens when we ask why. May your green weeks of ordinary time be a time of why?!

~ ~ ~ 

But in symbology green is also the color of hope, the second of the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity. Faith acknowledges and bows before an invisible world: "and so with angels and archangels and all the hosts of heaven we say, holy, holy, holy." 

Hope is not to be confused with wishing: "I sure hope there's no traffic...I hope rain doesn't ruin my vacation...I hope this recipe turns out..." Rather, hope means, I entrust myself, my little world and all of creation to God who I trust will act. 

And I allow for God to be God ~ and to act as and where and when God will act. It is a very beautiful virtue keeping us from becoming cynics. You can't please a cynic, for whom everything pushes down.

Intercessions ~ Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

It is the season of ice./ we pray for those whose politics,/ willingness and hearts are frozen and cold./ We pray to the Lord.

Christians are suffering terrible persecution in North Korea,/ Somalia,/ Iraq,/ Afghanistan,/ Sudan,/ Iran,/ Nigeria,/ Eritrea and Pakistan,/ We pray for these brothers and sisters in Christ./ We pray to the Lord.

The cold brings suffering with it./ We pray for the homeless,/ those who live in poorly heated places,/ and for those who work out-of-doors./ We pray to the Lord.

We return to the liturgical green time - the color of growth and life./ We ask for the greening of faith - that it would be evolved,/ reflective and mature,/ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the sick and those who assist them./ For the safety of travelers./ For the peace and well-being of family members and friends./ We ask for those who do us any kindness to be blessed./ We pray to the Lord.

Haiti was devastated by an earthquake five years ago,/ now it is overwhelmed by many hundreds of thousands of people infected with cholera./ We pray for a generous and helpful global response./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those who have died this week,/ mindful of the thousands killed by terrorists in the troubled country of  Nigeria/ with many children among them./ We pray for those who help and for those who mourn./ We pray to the Lord.

Returning to the Green Time

IT WILL BE A GOOD WHILE YET before we see green like this, nevertheless, the Church returns to the Green Time now that the Feasts of Christmas, Holy Family, Epiphany and the Lord's Baptism are passed. Green is the symbol of freshness. We can all understand that - we see the sixteen wheeler with "Delivering Farm Fresh Produce" proclaimed on the side. Each school semester invites a fresh start. A couple setting out together after a time of hurt understands fresh start as well.

A problem for religion is when its rituals, vocabulary and theology becomes stale or even dead - when the culture hasn't got a clue what the religion is talking about because the religion has lost its freshness. Say the word Nativity to too many Americans under the age of sixty and it's clear they have no idea what's being referenced. Believe it!

Kathleen Norris addresses this in her book, Amazing Grace, where she re-articulates the meanings of many dozens of spiritual-religious words that have become alienating of spirit-deadening jargon. One of those words is salvation. What's that? Just that I'll go to heaven (what's that?) if I'm good, obedient and have claimed "Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior" (more jargon!)

For the Christian, green is the color of hope for salvation. Hope is a noun but it is also a verb - it's an action word meaning to trust that God will act - will act for my salvation. Kathleen Norris reminds us that the Hebrew origin of salvation means to make wide: that I can find myself in scary, tight places where I'm in inner danger, where I can't be productive, where I'm devolving or inhibited, silenced by fears, compromised..... Salvation is coming to the wider place where I am able to be more fully human and alive, as God made me to be.

A boy who had done very bad things and who lived in a very dark place tapped his forehead in front of me once and said, "Father, this is my neighborhood and it's a bad neighborhood to go in to." If he said that with a sense of having to get out of that narrow, dangerous inner neighborhood, then salvation has started in him.

I need to get out of this angry mindset.

I need to get away from this dangerous company.

I need to avoid that troublesome person.

I need to get free of this life and joy-stealing addiction.

I need to unburden myself of  this energy-wasting resentment.

I need help with this depression.

I need advice with this nagging problem.

I need to find a happier path.

I need to observe the speed limit.

I need to listen more carefully ~ make time for my children.

I need to lose some weight.

I need to get honest.

So this Sunday, if you go to a church that features liturgical colors and you see the green - consider the meaning of salvation - finding the wider way.

P.S. Jesus' injunction to enter through the narrow gate is another conversation.