Tag Archives: Lent

Trustworthy? – a prayer during Lent

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Oftentimes it isn’t a question of how much trust you put in the Universe, or the Maker, or whatever noun you use here. More likely it is the case of how much trust that Creator puts in you.

I am reflecting on a comment from a friend who said this week:

“I am so tired of the awful things these crazy religious people do and say that it makes me ashamed to be a Christian.”

I find no stress in the things those people do or say as much as I do stress out in the knowledge that these people do not have a clear understanding of the “Religion“(sic) that they profess. I wonder: given that many professed Christian people today pick up half-backed drips and drabs of ideas on what they (personally) think is right, stir that with a few out-of-context Biblical quotes (you know the ones!) and add the watering down of contemporary Biblical translations written for an un-reading contemporary society, and prayers that are long, rehearsed recitations of that pray-ers personal shopping list,

How much would God – the Maker – the Universe – trust them to follow – and seek – Universal Truth?

Being a spiritual person is very easy to do. Being a religious person is very difficult. Religion is not all perfect, and in a perfect world it is a constantly-evolving thing. Just as God evolves (no more plagues… no more earth-drowning floods… no more destroying cities with fire or turning people to salt), so must we, and so must our understanding of what “religion” means outside of our own experience.

Spirituality is a single effort. Religion happens in public (in communion, if you will.) To become proficient at both, you will (spiritually) break a sweat, and then your tongue will ache from the bite marks, and your ears will ring from all the listening instead of speaking. And at that end, while you are all sweaty, numb-tongued, and ear-ringing, somewhere in there you will find the God who is looking to find you. For those who believe in Born Again, realize that this salvation moment and subsequent baptism is not the end of the party. Maybe it’s too obvious for some to see that the term Born Again means a re-birth. It means a time to begin this new journey – to listen and learn, and to develop into the person to be loved (always) and trusted (more) by God.

For those who come from a tradition of Infant Baptism: As Dorothy Allison once said to me (and made me cry!)

You. Owe. Me.

In your early months of life when you were Baptized, a lot of people stood around and made promises on raising you up as a good and faithful and well-meaning person. I have done this many times over the years in our parish and take that obligation very seriously to do whatever I can to help that child grow up to be the best person they can be.

Review your church’s Baptismal Covenant. Check to see if the people around you are holding up their part of the deal. Look inside to see if you are holding up yours. I will entertain no arguments about this being something that was done on your behalf in infancy. I will hear no arguments from the other team saying that Infant Baptism is invalid. I will make it very simple for you: if you agree with the concept as it pertains to you, then you should review, take notes on what should improve in your life, and the lives of those around you. (see “communion,” above)

If you do not believe in such things and you consider it invalid, then please feel free to shut up, stop whining about how bad your life is, and use the door out of that mindset to find your own spiritual bliss.  It really is out there. Just keep in mind that the spirituality part is very easy. The religion part will make you work.

  • Will your meditations and your prayers and your actions through the 40 day desert of Lent lead you to a place of knowing-more?
  • Will you arrive at a point of understanding even a tiny bit  more than you did before you began?
  • Will these 40 days of contemplation and redemption land you even one step closer to being that person in whom God -Maker – Universe puts their almighty trust that you – at last – are seeking the better path?

So many questions, and so few days to come closer to your own answers!

- Keep the faith!

 

A prayer on the Trust of God, for Lent

 

God of Peace,
You have put your Holy Spirit
in our hearts.

Your spirit renews at every moment
your love for us.

And we wish to do
all we can
so that the trust you place in us
overflows
in love for others.

- Amen

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Days and Bad – a Lenten call to prayer

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When we open our eyes and our feet hit the floor in the morning, we never know how the day is going to end up at the vesper bell – only that it is our day to take and use… our day to run and grow … our day to hold on and survive. In the middle of  those holding-on days it’s difficult for us to remember (or to believe) the words of the Psalmist, “This is the day the LORD has made; rejoice and be glad in it.”

The season of Lent begins easily enough for us, a bit like making New Years resolutions: we fill our fancies of the things that we are going to “give up for Lent” (most times not knowing why we are supposed to “give up,” and even more times not knowing that while we “give up,” we must also “take on.”)

For those of us who are still keeping track of such things by Monday of next week, we realize that the giving-up and the taking-on isn’t nearly so simple as we thought it would be. The fewer-still who are still with it the following week begin to wonder how they ever managed to do this in the past.

By the third week, we start pondering to God just how long 40 days can actually be!

Believe it or not: that’s the way it should be. Those who follow the practice step into 40 days of serious contemplation, days of contrition and forgiveness, and strive for some sort of spiritual renewal, be it great or small. Lent is a time for change, it is a time for “polishing the silver” of our spirit and our hearts before we venture into the long season that some folks call

Ordinary time.

We must become extra-ordinary people in very short order, so that we may see our way through that long summer season of practicing what we have read, learned, and felt while we were putting a spit-shine on our souls during Lent.

I have two different sentences of a call to prayer today, one for the good days and one for the bad days. I keep in mind when I’m in my meditation time that I rarely have a full day that is either one or the other. They are a glad mix of the two. Use them separately or together, as your meditations and prayers lead you.

- Keep the faith!

 Oh Lord,
Take heed to my words.
Listen as I cry.

 (- Alleluia)

There is joy, Lord,
for all you defend:
They will rejoice evermore!

(- Alleluia)

(inspired by Psalm 5)

Great Silence and Great Darkness – Thoughts from the Easter Vigil

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Do you ever feel in your life as if you have looked to the cross TOO much?  You have seen so much suffering, so much physical and emotional blood spilled that when it comes time for the Good Friday story of the beating and the death of Christ, you need to look away – look to ANY other corner of this story for compassion?

I offended a great number of my friends in the first half of the 1990s when finally I had had enough, and adamantly reused to go to one more AIDS funeral among my friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers, the guy in the tea house who knew somebody who I’d had a drink with once…. Death all around. It was in the air around us all, with anger and depression and wild activism you would not believe. It was a time when uninformed people riding through the Dupont Circle METRO station in Washington, DC would hold their breath for fear of coming in contact with “IT.”  And like the two presidents in ofice during those days, none of those uptight stick up their backside, rock-ribbed people never even bothered to call out “IT” by its name.

At least the word “cancer” could be whispered, ever-so-softly, with little fear of its appearing in the conversation like Bettlejuice.

In those days, I had to look away from the Cross, from the death and the suffering – to look toward something that my exhausted spirit could cling to, just as Ebenezer Scrooge begged his Future to show him some compassion associated with the un-named death he saw all around.

As I grew older and the world became (slightly more) informed and my focus moved away from losing my friends to AIDS, to loasing my cancer buddies, and losing those moving off from age and various infirmity. My perspective changed and was a bit better at looking up in the face of ultime love, sacrifice, and compassion, if slightly, if for a second.

I found an interest in the story of the two Marys in the Easter  story, and how the side characters had to deal with the Passion of Christ, in the immediacy of the moment.

While I collect my thoughts on what has turned into a great evening of waiting… Of spending quiet, happy hours with friends and family, I sit in the dark stillness of the Easter Vigil, waiting for the sun to rise - trying to close off my thoughts and be ready for the Great Getting-Up Morning that is Easter.

Tonight, though, as we wait in the darkness, my spirit becomes tired again, and I want to look away from the Cross both out of habit, and of fear that I have to sit through one more “dark time.”

How much more darkness, Lord, will there be?

That Feeling will pass. Life is what it is. Dark nights, Sunny Days. Rain and Cloudless skies. All of that…
 along with being able to look straight-on into this most silent, most fearful of nights, that Feeling is wound up in who and what we are.

And what we hold as the Truth.

While sorting through my Saturday and filing away the memories of the  grandness of it all, Isit now in the darkness, thinking of Mary, Jesus’ Mom.

I can’t add words of explanation beyond what Bruce Springsteen says in his song,

Jesus Was an Only Son

Vigils cannot last forever. We won’t always live in the stressful circle of anticipation of things that (until we see the Truth) we can only imagine.

Watchman! Tell us:
What of the night?
What of the night?

The watchman answers:
The morning cometh…

And also the night.

 

Keep the faith!

“Jesus Was An Only Son”
Lyrics

Jesus was an only son
As he walked up Calvary Hill
His mother Mary walking beside him
In the path where his blood spilled
Jesus was an only son
In the hills of Nazaree
As he lay reading the Psalms of David
At his mother's feet
A mother prays, "Sleep tight, my child, sleep well
For I'll be at your side
That no shadow, no darkness, no tolling bell,
Shall pierce your dreams this night"
In the garden at Gethsemane
He prayed for the life he'd never live,
He beseeched his Heavenly Father to remove
The cup of death from his lips
Now there's a loss that can never be replaced,
A destination that can never be reached
A light you'll never find in another's face,
A sea whose distance cannot be breached
Well Jesus kissed his mother's hands
Whispered, "Mother, still your tears,
For remember the soul of the universe
Willed a world and it appeared."

Proper for Thursday in the First Week of Lent – Overcome our Spritual Enemies

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Strangthen us, O Lord, by thy grace, that in thy might we may overcome all spiritual enemies, and with pure hearts serve thee; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

- Amen

(Rite 1 – Traditional)

The readings for today:

  • Esther (Apocrypha) 14:1-6, 12-14
  • Psalm 138
  • Matthew 7:7-12

Proper Collect for Wednesday in the First Week of Lent

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Bless us, O God, in this holy season, in which our hearts seek thy help and healing; and so purify us by your discipline that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

- Amen

(Rite 1 – Traditional)

The readings for today:

  • Jonah 3:1-10
  • Psalm 51: 11-18
  • Luke 11: 29-32