It seems to me that everything that I am and do should reflect the Christ that surrounds me, fills me, and directs me. I think it’s a wonderful prayer for all of us in times of trouble, because it reminds us that Jesus is all that we are, have, and will be. Patrick’s confidence was amply displayed when he prayed this prayer.
What are the gifts you might have that aid in the discernment of the gifts of others in your spiritual community?
For me, taking up the cross is not one huge, single, life-altering event. It is thousands of little choices that I make or fail to make every single day.
In biblical numerology, seventeen is the number of heads and horns of diabolical significance. It is the number of the day of the Flood. It also numbers the day on which the Ark came to rest, somewhere in the Ararat mountains.
Seventeen may choose its own significance.
“God’s got the whole world in his hands.” I could see the congregation singing along with them. Smiling, too. Needing the reminder. Needing the children’s hope and joy. Their sense of innocence. Their future.
What counts is that he says to her in her language, Aramaic, “Get up.” And she does. And then he instructs the happily hysterical family to do something useful. “Get her something to eat.” Yes, the Bread of Life is saying stop hanging on me and get her a bowl of soup.
Most recently our own Episcopal bishops announced that they, too, are aware of this situation and they have so graciously carved out nearly two whole hours during dinnertime to listen to the stories of women who feel they have been abused. Two hours. Perhaps the mascot for GC 2018 should be a biting serpent. They are treating women the same way the Israelites treated Miriam.
The message that God gives us over and over and over again in the Bible to love your God, love your neighbor as yourself. How much simpler can it be?
We can’t have forgiveness without confession and atonement. Atonement must take place and like the death on the cross it will be messy and painful.
Each of us belongs so completely to God that all we have to do to find God is turn our attention there. Every moment is replete with the Beloved. God, God’s self will teach us how best to be in communion with God, how God wants us to pray. For each of us it’s a little different, I think. It’s a relationship thing.