Invoking the Garden Saints ~ A Morning Prayer for the Nation

There are saints beyond counting, most of whom fit into one category or another. Of course, there are the apostles. Then there are martyr-saints, saints who were kings and queens, monks and nuns, popes and bishops. There are saints who were married with children (finally recognizing that lay people are supposed to be holy too). Dig around (no pun intended) and we see there's even a category of Garden Saints. 

Here's a home-made morning prayer we might offer on behalf of our needy country (and others too) suffering, what Pope Francis has called, an epidemic of animosity. But the right politics won't put us back together. As a nation we need to do some very deep, personal, inner work - sometimes called spiritual gardening. Might the Garden Saints plant seeds of new goodness, unity, reconciliation, courtesy and healing in our hearts. 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

I arise today in the gentling of Francis,

   in his lauding of the Creator.

I arise today in the common sense of Brigid,

   in her community-building and inner flame.

I arise today in the discipline of Cuthbert,

   in his interior hermitage and animal friendships.

I arise today in the persuasion of Ansovino,

   in his awareness of the littlest and sharing of plenty.

Holy Dorothy of Caesarea,

   we'll need your patience today.

Holy Elizabeth of Hungary,

   may we care for one another.

Holy Fiacre of Meaux,

   may our hearts be closed to no one.

Holy Isidore and Maria,

   bless us in our prayer.

Holy Kessog of Scotland,

   cover us with justice.

Holy Nauchlan of Deeside,

   stave off our spiritual hunger.

The ever-bloom of Mother Mary, be ours this new day.
The generosity of Phocas, be ours this new day.

The watchful gaze of Magnus, be ours this new day.

The non-hate of Werenfried, be ours this new day.

The ordinariness of Adelard, be ours this new day. 

May Joseph, whose staff bloomed lilies, delight us.
May Swithin the rain-maker, uphold us.

May Rita, whose winter-garden bore figs, shield us.

May Urban, who tended vines, strengthen us. 

May Valentine, with his rooster, inspire us.

From the beginning of creation...

Hold this picture-thought.

After leaving there, he came into the territory of Judaea and Transjordan. And again crowds gathered round him, and again he taught them, as his custom was. Some Pharisees approached him and asked, 'Is is lawful for a man to divorce his wife?' They were putting him to the test. He answered them, 'What did Moses command you?' They replied, 'Moses allowed us to draw up a writ of   dismissal in cases of divorce.' The Jesus said them, 'It was because you were so  hard hearted that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female. This is why a man leaves his father and mother, and the two become one flesh. They are no longer two, therefore, but one flesh. So then, what God has united, human beings must not divide.' Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, 'Whoever divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.' Mark 10:1-12

At face value Jesus is giving us a new law about marriage. If that's the case, then we must acknowledge that the teaching is much more strict than the rules of the Church today. There's much more going on here than that, but we must look at the larger context to understand.

A few lines before and then immediately following the twelve verses above, Jesus makes two references to children. They serve as bookends to the verses about divorce.

Then he took a little child and stood him in front of them all, and putting his arm round him, said to them, "Anyone who welcomes one little child like this for my sake welcomes me. And the man who welcoming me is welcoming not only me but the one who sent me!" Mark 9:36,37

Then some people came to him bringing little children for him to touch. The disciples tried to discourage them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant and told them, "You must let little children come to me - never stop them!  For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Indeed, I assure you  that the man who does not accept the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Then he took the children in his arms and laid his hands on them and blessed them" Mark 10: 13-16 

Then right between these two references and in the middle of the verses about divorce, (did you catch it?) Jesus says, "But from the beginning of creation God made them..."

Jesus is inviting us to accept his teaching and live with the utter simplicity and acceptance of children. And the focus of the teaching in this chapter is the words, "the beginning of creation." 

Lots of people believe that the end time will be the moment of God's punishing evil and rewarding good. There's scripture to support that belief. But they also like to think of themselves as rewarded and the people they don't approve of as punished. But all the more, (and this was not an unusual Jewish belief in Jesus' time) in the end, creation will be restored to its original plan or state. 

The most well known psalm 23:2-3 suggests this restoration, "Beside restful waters he leads me, he refreshes my soul."  In the Book of Job, poor Job having lost everything is promised a new beginning. And we remember the rainbow after the flood waters receded and Noah and his family left the ark - creation as it was in the beginning. 

So the verses about divorce are really much more about our eventual return to the state of right relatedness. Our destiny is to "return to the garden," a garden of such delight and where we walked with God in the cool of the evening. God will give back to us what we've lost.

I remember our third grade class being introduced to the Encyclopedia Britannica in the mid 1950's and sitting with classmates writing our first research reports. Somehow volume E wound up in front of me, and how I enjoyed the discovery of everything about elephants, especially the differences between African and Indian elephants. The picture accompanying the article was something like the one above. 

What ancient memory must reside in these marvelous animals! And how horrifyingly awful it is that an elephant is shot and killed every fifteen minutes. A world without elephants?! That since those 3rd grade days elephants are near extinction, because ruthless, greedy people want the money that's made by stealing their tusks. How we insult God!

I really need to believe that in the end, God, in His most wonderful creative imagination, will not leave us in sorrow before all the terrible losses of this earth: our destroying the animals and plants, spoiling the water and air, blowing up the mountains and ripping out everything below the earth to make things that we then throw away. In effect, turning the entire, spinning planet into a huge heap of trash . 

Oh Jesus my God, that we would know the truth of your words, that in the end, we will know creation "as it was in the beginning." And Jesus, that I would miss nothing and appreciate deeply everything of what remains. Amen.

Yes! Going Down A Dark Road ~ Can You Name It?

Someone terribly unnerved wrote about this picture, trying to figure me out with my reference to the dark road: "Are you making a political statement?" First of all, it's good to be unnerved by the picture. Images of any kind that don't elicit a felt response are pretty useless. The people who create TV commercials know this. 

And maybe the image is un-nerving because we've probably all been in a car on a desolate night like this. But as Advent begins, what I'm saying with the photo is: Name this; it's an interior place.

You know, we can sit in church for a hundred years, listen to hundreds of sermons, light the candles, watch the vestments change color, hear the readings and liturgical prayers go around and round and still never go inside, which is where true religion takes place. I don't know about you, but I wasn't given Christianity as a spiritual way - a way of exterior religious observance - but not an inner spiritual path. But we grow with God's help and those we meet along the way.

How can I celebrate Christmas, the Feast of Light, if I don't first identify my own personal darkness? And while some darkness is sin, pray we realize that's by no means all it is. We don't know where the dark road in the photo is going, do we? Is there some part of my life that feels like that?

This road is slippery and narrow. Does that touch some inner place? I'd be thinking, "O God, please don't let me break down here." Does that resonate within me? How un-settling this darkness is. Can I identify in my life the inner place that feels so desperate for light or for an experience of safe arrival? 

Friends, this is the spiritual life. And if  Advent, in these darkest days before the solstice, doesn't take me to these inner places where I need the Child to be born who is called LIGHT - then I'm just roasting chestnuts and jingling bells. 

We might interrupt our regular prayer routine for at time and sit with this photo and get to naming some of it: 

• the loneliness perhaps,
• the fear of what lies ahead in my life, 
• where I'm feeling closed in, 
• where I'm unnerved or feeling desperate, 
• the terror of a breakdown. 
• where I'm kind of slipping and sliding, 
• where interiorly I know I could go over the edge,
• an inner place where I'm gripping the wheel, 
• maybe the dark road is the road of resentment,
• or the lonely road of my personal discontent. 

Many people never look there, keeping religion all external. Look out the window these dark days and what do you see? You see yourself reflected in the dark glass! These are metaphors for sure. But metaphor doesn't mean something's not real. Metaphor means it's MOST real - it's what's going on with me personally. I get it! This is where the Christmas Child wants to be born again. Now I can make my prayer: perhaps the best prayer I've ever prayed.