Intercessions ~ Seventh Sunday of Easter

We pray for the Church of God / asking that where it is weak,/ sinful or mistaken/ - integrity would be restored and spiritual energy rediscovered./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for travelers and their safety./ For soldiers and sailors who are damaged by war./ For the healing of our families and friends/ mindful of those who are sick/, in troubled marriages,/ or where there is addiction or financial problems./ We pray to the Lord.

We ask that our personal,/ familial and communal prayer would be heartfelt/ and that we would know true repentance for our own sins/ and the sins of the Church and the world./ We pray to the Lord.

In the season for weddings/ we ask God to bless the couples who will marry this summer,/ asking that they would be strengthened for the self-sacrifice required of a lasting and happy marriage./ We pray to the Lord.

As the feast of Pentecost approaches,/ we ask for a new out-pouring of the Holy Spirit that will bear an increase of faith,/ hope and love around the world./ We pray to the Lord.

We continue our prayer for the countries of the world,/ today praying for the people and lands of Greece,/ Greenland,/ Grenada,/ Guadeloupe,/ Guam,/ Guatemala and Guinea./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the children of the world who are on their way to birth,/ asking that they be welcomed and protected/ rather than refused or rejected./ We pray to the Lord.

And we pray for those who have died,/ asking for the forgiveness of sins/ and the peaceful and full life of the Kingdom./ We pray to the Lord.

For His Kindness is Everlasting

These delicate wildflowers, which are blooming now, are called bluets. They seem to be native to the North East Pennsylvania river lands. Quaker Ladies and Innocence are their lovely local names.

As close to the ground as they are found, they can be seen from a distance in dense patches, or if left alone in a lawn they can form impressive sprays of pink, white, lavender or blue. 

Here they get to bloom only a short while before the tractor takes them down with the first lawn cutting. But this year I successfully (!) moved two good-sized clumps of white and lavender bluets just a few feet where they will be safe from the mower and realized that, as with so many of the very lovely forest flowers, their root systems are shallow, found just below the soil line.

What a delight this year watching the forest green, seemingly from bottom to top, and paying close attention to the tremendous flower-fern variety found there. The woods were packed with thick ice this past winter and still the native flowers, with their shallow root systems, are appearing with vigor. So this spring I've recognized the forest as an image of  our own stories of survival.

Perhaps as the Easter time draws to a close we might call to mind some particular story of survival in our own lives or family life. That we have survived:

• family alcoholism
• domestic violence
• life threatening illness
• accident
• sex abuse
• depression
• suicide attempt
• a broken heart
• war
• an attack
• mental illness 
• imprisonment
• loneliness
• failure
• addiction

As life goes, we're as vulnerable as a bunch of shallow-rooted bluets in a severe winter. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his kindness is everlasting. Psalm 106:1

When The Doors Are Locked

CHRISTMAS HAS ITS OWN WONDER: A holy Mother with her Infant, shepherds and angels, a traveling star and guests from the East. But so does Easter: An angel conversation at the tomb, the love of the myrrh-bearing women, Magdalen thinking the Risen Jesus is the gardener, the faith-proclamation of Thomas, Jesus preparing breakfast on the beach for the down-spirited apostles.

And there is one Easter theme we might consider as soon the season will pass. It is Jesus appearing to the apostles, though the room where they have gathered is locked.

Jesus doesn't have a spare key.

He doesn't break down the door.

No one lets him in.

He appears (it is really Jesus!) despite the locked doors!

But what does it mean? Remember metaphor doesn't mean something is not real but rather it is most real because we experience it in some deeply personal way. 

We all have our locked up place. It isn't the computer requiring a password. It isn't the car parked on a city street. It isn't the office containing personal papers. But the locked place which concerns Jesus is my inner psychological place, my emotional room, my mind of memories, my heart which can be broken, perhaps a spiritual place.

But remember, the apostles are locked in for fear. And while we can lock ourselves in for fear, we might also lock ourselves in for shame, anger or sadness. Spiritual work begins by naming these inner places.

Some people live in inner rooms circling in sorrow or hate. Rehearsing old memories and wounds seemingly forever.

I was abused.

I was taken advantage of.

I was dismissed.

I was abandoned.

I wasn't included.

And the resentment can be very deep. I might be nursing a time of mistaken-ness, immaturity, ignorance or squandering selfishness. Perhaps I can't let go of a time ruined by a choice I made - an even deadly choice. Anyway, we might imagine ourselves in the felt misery of that inner room, and then this prayer.

The key may be lost Lord Jesus,

The light dim, I can't see the door,

The room sealed up,

The barricades high,

The air, long ago gone bad.

But come in,

come in, 

let's leave this room

before the Easter Springtime's past.

Refresh in my mind,

you see me always

the Mother watching her children

for danger may be near.

Indeed, you see me always,

but as I was in the womb,

the day of my birth,

all new and filled with

God thought and

divine breath!