Good Friday Five

Kathrynzg brings today's Friday Five to RevGalBlogPals:

Tell us what you are up to, share the way you're pacing your week, ask for prayer or offer it, seek liturgy suggestions or hit the conversations going on over at Ye Holy Facebookee.

For verily, verily we are all in this together.

1. Not being a pastor, I have less liturgical preparation for this Holy Week. Instead, I am anticipating the arrival of family today: oldest son DC with his wife AA and our GRAND baby Avery--and youngest daughter MJ with her boy friend CM. Anticipation, cleaning (not enough), and preparation for all this company, while missing our other two children and their partners.

2. Hot Cross Buns! I fondly recall my mother sometimes baking Hot Cross Buns for Good Friday. I've done it a few times before, but decided this year to make them for the company and my Friday morning Renovare Group. I found a recipe here, but made twice as many as recommended by the recipe, which made a better-sized roll for me! It only took about 3 1/2 hours to bake them, counting the two times for rising.

3. I've been surprised by the invitation I have received in the last two sessions of our Wednesday Lectio Divina group, as we have meditated on small portions of the gospel from the Lectionary. Both times I have received a strong invitation to travel the journey with Jesus as one of his followers--being swayed by the cheering of the crowds on Palm Sunday; the misunderstanding of Jesus' mission; and being consumed with fear and doubt at his arrest and crucifixion. I am trying to stay in the moment, so I will be surprised at the early Easter Vigil on Sunday.


4. I volunteered to read scripture at the Good Friday service at All Saints Episcopal Church, so I will be gone during the dinner hour tonight. In preparation for that, I am making a chicken and vegetable meal in the crockpot this afternoon.


5. For Lent I am reading daily the selections from Small Surrenders by Emilie Griffin and Simplifying the Soul by Paula Huston. However, I have not read any of the devotionals for Holy Week, so I will spend time doing that after I post this Friday Five.

Lent: A Sea of God's Mercy

Lent, A Sea of God's Mercy

by Catherine Doherty

"I was praying and it came to me that Lent is a sort of sea of God's mercy. 

In my imagination Lent was warm and quiet and inviting for us to swim in. If we did swim in it, we would be not only refreshed but cleansed, for God's mercy cleanses as nothing else does.

Then I thought of our reticence. I don't know if it is reticence or fear to really plunge into God's mercy. 

We really want to be washed clean; we want to be forgiven.

 But these desires meet with something else inside.

 I say to myself that if I do enter into the sea of mercy I will be healed, and then I will be bound to practice what Christ preaches, his law of love, which is painful, so terribly painful. 

There by that sea I stand and think: If I seek mercy I have to dish out mercy; I have to be merciful to others.

What does it mean to be merciful to others?

 It means to open my own heart, like a little sea, for people to swim in.

If we stand before God's mercy and drink of it, it will mean that the Our Father is a reality, and not just a prayer that I say. "Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come..." We like that part and have no problem saying it.

But then we come to: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.... Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." 

We shake our heads and say, "Yes, it's Lent; it's true we should be forgiving everybody." 

But we don't like trespassers. If strangers come to use our beaches we will say to ourselves: What are they doing here? 

Why do they come to our beach? It's not easy to make of one's heart a little sea of mercy for the other.

We should also be listening to God's will. But we think: Wait a second! "Thy will." What does that mean?

It means many things. For instance somebody is thinking of entering a convent and they say, "Well, I don't know; I'm afraid. Maybe I won't measure up." Silly people! Of course they won't measure up, but God will measure up for them. If he calls them, he'll give them the grace. 

As we look at the will of God -- to go to a convent or to marry or to just live in the world in the conditions of today, to submit oneself to somebody else-our hackles rise up against authority. 

To submit to the will of God would be to put our toe in the sea of God's mercy.

Lent relentlessly moves on and shows us who we are -- our true identity as Christians, what it means to be Christian.

The mercy that we must give to others includes that of standing up for the poor, the lonely, those who have no education and cannot stand up for themselves. 

It means to engage in what we call social justice on behalf of our sister and brother. That involves opening ourselves to being pushed around and crucified. 

This always happens to those who stand up for others. 

Do we want to go into the sea of God's mercy, to be washed clean so that we begin to do the things of Christ?

What is this Lent all about? 

It is to go into some strange and incredible depths of ourself and there to meet the sea of God's mercy and swim in it, having shed all garments, garments of selfishness and fear."

Found gratefully at Blue Eyed Ennis. If go there, you can also view a lovely video of chanting.

Gethsemane

 "Christ in Gethsemane" by Michael O'Brien.

Gethsemane
by Mary Oliver

The grass never sleeps.
Or the roses.
Nor does the lily have a secret eye that shuts until morning.

Jesus said, wait with me. But the disciples slept.

The cricket has such splendid fringe on its feet,
and it sings, have you noticed, with its whole body,
and heaven knows if it ever sleeps.

Jesus said, wait with me. And maybe the stars did, maybe
the wind wound itself into a silver tree, and didn’t move,
maybe,
the lake far away, where once he walked as on a
blue pavement,
lay still and waited, wild awake.

Oh the dear bodies, slumped and eye-shut, that could not
keep that vigil, how they must have wept,
so utterly human, knowing this too
must be a part of the story.

Our Lord of Omnipotent Frustration

Our Lord of Flaked Paint freckling
sallow skin and emerald robes,

Our Lord of Mudpuddle Eyes
that look away in weary irritation,

no one can touch your loneliness,
God cut off from God.

You who flamed a world into being
with only words, stood

in the midst of bickering men,
fig trees dying, and sparrows

falling to the ground.
Were there days when heat and dust,

the smell of stale crowds
pushing you from place to place,

asking for one more resurrection,
food for thousands

or withered hands healed,
made you want to slash the canvas,

fly back to heaven and start fresh
on some new world far away?

Days where your head ached
from sun on sand and water,

where your throat scraped raw
from shouting Blessed are. . . to men

who would go home, forget, and return
to nail you to a piece of wood?

No one understood your stories,
could grasp that you would trade

legions of angels
for nine ungrateful lepers,

the friend who turned you in,
and never enough sleep.

Our Lord of Omnipotent Frustration
with your halo like a setting sun,

your hand is raised as if to bless me,
though I can't imagine why.

~~Jana-Lee Germaine

Christian Century, November 3, 2009.

Garden of Liminal Space

Father Ron Rolheiser, president of Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX and member of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate writes a column. Today's is the first of six in his Lenten series:

"There's never a good time to die, to bid final good-byes, to lose health, to have a heart attack, to be diagnosed with terminal cancer, to lose friends, to be betrayed, to be misunderstood, to lose everything, to be humiliated, to have to face death and its indescribable loneliness. That's why there's a powerful resistance inside us towards these things.

"We can take consolation in knowing that this was the case too for Jesus. He didn't face these things either without fear, trembling, and the desire to escape. In the Garden of Gethsemane "he sweated blood" as he tried to make peace with his own loss of earthly life.

"The Garden of Gethsemane is, among other things, "liminal space". What is this? Anthropologists use that expression to refer to special times in our lives when our normal situation is so uprooted so that it is possible precisely to plant new roots and take up life in a whole new way. That's usually brought about by a major crisis, one that shakes us in the very roots of our being. Gethsemane was that for Jesus.

"It's significant that Jesus didn't go straight from the last supper room to his crucifixion. He first spent some time readying himself. What's incredible in his story is that he had only one hour within which to do this inner work.

"Imagine this scene: You're relatively young, healthy, and active. You've just enjoyed a festive dinner with close friends, complete with a couple of glasses of wine. You step out of the dining room late at night and you now have one hour to ready yourself to die, one hour to say your final good-byes, to let go, to make peace with death. Sweating blood might be a mild term to describe your inner turmoil. This would surely be an intense hour.

"And so it was for Jesus. That's why his liminal time is often called his "agony in the garden" (an apt term to describe real "liminal space".) What's interesting too is what scripture highlights in his suffering in Gethsemane. As we know, it never emphasizes his physical sufferings (which must have been pretty horrific). Instead it emphasizes his emotional crucifixion, the fact that he is betrayed, misunderstood, alone, morally lonely, the greatest lover in the world, with God alone as his soul mate.

"And what's burning up his heart and soul in Gethsemane? Jesus, himself, expresses it in these words: "If it is possible, let this cup pass from me!" His resistance was to the necessity of it. Why death and humiliation? Couldn't there be some other way? Couldn't new life somehow occur without, first, dying?

"In the Garden, Jesus comes to realize and accept that there isn't any other way, that there's a necessary connection between a certain kind of suffering, a certain letting go, a certain humiliation, and the very possibility of coming to new life.

"Why that necessity? What do we ultimately sweat blood over? Perhaps Job put it best: "Naked I came into this world and naked I leave it again." We are born alone, without possessing anything: clothing, a language, the capacity to take care of ourselves, achievements, trophies, degrees, security, a family, a spouse, a friend, a reputation, a job, a house, a soul mate. When we exit the planet, we will be like that again, alone and naked. But it's precisely that nakedness, helplessness, and vulnerability that makes for liminal space, space within which God can give us something new, beyond what we already have.

"There are times when we sense this, sense its necessity, and sense too that one day, perhaps soon, we will, like Jesus in the Garden, have to make peace with the fact that we are soon to exit this life, alone, but for our hope in God. That's Gethsemane, the place and the experience.

"Our own prayer there, I suspect, will be less about necessity than about timing: "Lord, let this cup be delayed! Not yet! I know it's inevitable, but just give me more time, more years, more experience, more life first!"

"To feel that way is understandable and, if we're young, even a sign of health. Nobody should want to die or want to give up the good things of this life. But Gethsemane awaits us all. Most of us, however, will not enter this garden of liminal space voluntarily, as did Jesus ("Nobody takes my life, I give it up freely!"). Most of us will enter it by conscription, but just as really, on that day when a doctor tells us we have terminal cancer or we suffer a heart attack or something else irretrievably and forever alters our lives.

"When that does happen, and it will happen one way or the other to all of us, it's helpful to know that we're in liminal space, inside a new womb, undergoing a new gestation, waiting for new birth - and that it's okay to sweat a little blood, ask God some questions, and feel resistance in every cell of our being."

Silly Peep

S'more-Fearing Peep

Yearning for God

Diane Walker's Lenten art is another way to say "Yearning for God."

Whispers

When your soul whispers of its deepest longings,
may you quiet yourself to listen.
May you follow the path of yearning to the One alone
who blends the uneven edges into a life of meaning.
May you meet and be united with God
and give thanks for the whispers
that led you there.

From Lenten Blessings on ExploreFaith.org

My Youngest Daughter

I was very proud of my daughter as she presented her chemistry research along with seven other seniors at Trinity University on Friday. (This is a better picture than the one below that I posted with my Ipod.) She was poised and knowledgeable as she spoke and answered questions.

Only having taken chemistry in high school, I did not understand much that was going on. However, I met a retired chemistry professor who has taught a freshman elective about "Theology of Mystery Novels." That intrigued me!

I enjoyed watching MJ and husband CB interacting with the various professors and students. CB was in his element asking questions and talking about his former career as a research chemist.

Doubts

"DOUBTS are the ants in the pants of FAITH."

~~Frederick Buechner

Too hot!

Feeling befuddled today, the last day of March, with an all-time-high-temperature of 93 degrees F. here in Corpus Christi, TX. It is the last day of March!

I want to appreciate the last days of our "spring" with the wildflowers profusely blooming. This time of year in Texas is usually reminiscent of summers I remember from living in Bellingham, WA. BUT not at 93 degrees!

My daughter's Chemistry Research

Info About RA in 1 minute

Be Silent

Surrender in Christ

God said,

"Dear child, I have shown you that no guilt on earth can be atoned by experiencing suffering simply as pain to be endured. Only when suffering is accepted with longing, love, and heartfelt contrition does it have meaning. The value is not in the suffering, but in the soul's God-focused desire, while suffering. This desire and all other virtues possess value and life solely through my only begotten-Son--Christ crucified--because his surrender is the power of your love. Through virtue, the soul can follow his sacrificial footsteps. This surrendering in Christ is the only way suffering has value in reconciling the soul to me.

"This reconciliation is accomplished through a gentle, unifying love born from the sweet knowledge of my goodness and generated through the godly sorrow of the heart discovering its sinful nature. This self-awareness gives birth to a genuine contempt for one's sin and for the soul's selfish sensuality. It also creates a vibrant, sustaining humility. So you see, those who know genuine contrition and humility can suffer without growing impatient. In fact, that is how they repent."

~~Catherine of Siena: Dialogue

Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. Following Christ: A Lenten Reader to Stretch Your Soul. Brewster, Mass.: Paraclete Press, 2010. 99.

This is also posted today at the RevGals' prayer blog A Place for Prayer. Prayers are posted there daily, so please visit here, too!

Make the World More Beautiful

Miss Rumphius is one of my most favorite children's books. Its message is about a strong and adventurous young woman who becomes the crazy "Lupine Lady" in her old age, because her grandfather taught her that she must do something to make the world more beautiful. That is a message we all need.

This video shows you the picturebook while it is beautifully read by Tara Rose Stromberg. (It is 12 minutes long, but is well worth the time.)

It all adds up!

"Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. 

Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections, 

but instantly set about remedying them – every day begin the task anew. "
– Saint Francis de Sales

Eknath Easwaran writes:



"While we were living on the Blue Mountain in India, we noticed that our local bank had a very neighborly arrangement for collecting funds from the villagers. Poor villagers have very little to save, only a few copper pennies at most. To encourage them to deposit even these few pennies every day, the bank employed a boy with a bicycle to go into the village to their homes, collect their few coppers, and enter the total in their account.

"In meditation it is the same: when the Self comes, we can say, 'We are no great saint, but a few times today we have tried to be patient. A few times today we have tried to put our family first. A few times today we have resisted some little craving for personal satisfaction.' This is how most of us are going to make progress for a long time: a few pennies here, a few pennies there, collected every day. But in these innumerable little acts of selflessness lies spiritual growth, which over a long period can transform every one of us into a loving person. To quote the bank advertisement, 'It all adds up.'"

 1000 pennies = $10.00

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Books Without Batteries

I love books! And right now I am enjoying the newest novel of one of my favorite mystery writers (Jacqueline Winspear). It is a new hardback book so that I can loan it to friends and to my youngest daughter! It looks really good: Elegy for Eddie.

So I am going back to reading the newest Maisie Dobbs mystery!

Easter Egg Tree in Germany

Tradition of the Families Kraft and Rumrich of Saalfeld, Germany

70,000 Veils

Muslim Hadith (narrations about deeds and words of Mohammed)

“God hides himself behind 70,000 veils of light and darkness. If he took away the veils, the penetrating light of his Face would at once destroy the sight of any creature who dares to look at it.”

A Sufi Saint of the 20^th Century by Martin Ling

“Before we can experience the ‘Face’ (presence), however, we have to remove the veils that come between us and the ‘Face.’ If the goal of prayer, then, is to see the ‘Face of God,’ the task of prayer is to remove the veils that prevent us from seeing. . . . God removes the veils.

“The veils are not in God, but in us. The Divine Being is translucent. It is our being that is veiled, that is beclouded by illusions that hide reality; that of the world. Veiled in illusions, we cannot see what is actually present to us.” (14)

Seeking the Face of God by William H. Shannon