“So where do I find the voice of the good Shepherd? It’s in my very bones. I recognize the voice because it feels like the essence of me, a “me” not encompassed by the ego mind but as large as the Soul.”
“This week I’m conscientiously trying to listen to what is essential, not only with my ears but also my heart. I’m trying to hear messages of hope and trust, not condemnations, self-congratulations, or words of divisiveness.”
“It was a traditional spring holiday, a time for merry-making and pranks, singing and dancing, lighting bonfires and gathering flowers. Like many folkloric seasonal celebrations it acquired a Christian overlay.”
Long ago, the trees spoke to us,
and we listened,
and treasured their lore and wisdom.
After all,
woods and forests are ancient places,
giving life to creatures both great and small,
and many trees live longer than any of us individually.
“The word, joy, does not mean happiness. Nor is joy the explosion of giddiness. Joy is deeper – a spiritual experience, something the Apostle Paul dubs a fruit of the spirit, and ranking right up there with love and peace.”
“During this time I’m clinging to God’s word and immersing myself in God’s stories over and over again. I pray every day. I walk every day. I keep looking towards the rising sun.”
“Salvation history is based on submission. Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son. Mary allows herself to be impregnated by a powerful stranger. Jesus allows himself to be ordered to his death. And before that, even Jesus submits to to be half drowned in a river by his crazy fanatic cousin John. And the call of the prophets is no better, and few of them die in bed, happy and old.”
“Fasting from this sacrament, I wonder if there is anything in this time of social distancing that could possibly be as powerful in linking me with my fellow parishioners as the sacrament of Eucharist is. Would there be anything even half as powerful?”
“The idea of caring for the earth and its resources is a concept far older than Earth Day and goes back to the earliest chapters of the Bible. Earth and all stars were created by God and given to us to care for and nurture so that it might provide for us abundantly.”
“Almost half my week is still spent being an ‘essential worker.’ Yet at the same time, between our diocese temporarily closing our churches, and the very sobering realization that I’m the one most likely to infect our food ministry workers on Sundays, I’ve been in many ways ‘cut off from my congregation.'”