I went to a funeral yesterday.

photo: picture: S.Shull @ flickr

I went to a funeral yesterday.

When I tell people that they sometimes get sad for me or wonder how that could have any deep joy for me, spending my time that way.

Going to church is easy and it smells good and it sounds purdy and it's a nice contemplative break from a busy noisy world.

Following The Way as Jesus laid out, however, means showing up; being an active participant in a congregation; being present and prayerful in the lives of others; that's the chore, that's the task, and it's the hardest part: living in community.

When one of my dearest heart's marriage ended, she was reluctant to return to the altar because she felt like she had made promises on that altar she found she couldn't keep. Wuhl, sometimes that happens, and isn't that why we're always repeating our vows? pledging to help one another live those vows?

Thing is, you gotta walk that aisle and you gotta show up at that altar and you gotta lay down your broken life on that altar day after day in order to be healed and restored, refreshed and renewed. We're gonna help one another get up that aisle week after week and hopefully, one long healthy day away from now, someone is going to love us enough to help us take that last important walk and place us lovingly in our final resting space, and continue our memory by telling tales of our love and participation among the other Travellers in that parish, forever.

So ... yeah ... I went to a funeral yesterday ... and I'm'a go and walk up that aisle today ... I will, with God's help. Join me, won't you?

Advent 4 2015 02 Tuesday

If we want to get God’s vision for our life, we must want to hear it, we must withdraw to hear it, and then we must wait to hear it. “…I will station myself…” I will stay put, I will unplug, I will stop the internal chatter, I will concentrate on this one conversation, on of joyful thanksgiving and prayerful sharing with God. Most of the time we’re running so revved up, we can't get slowed down enough to tune into God. So, how do we slow down? We take deep breaths. Pull in the calm of God's Holy Spirit and let go of the day, the cares, the worries. We empty our mind with each exhalation of breath. We relax our muscles, we let the tension drain out, and we focus the mind to a pinpoint. The most common form of praying in the Hebrew Scriptures is standing with eyes wide open looking up to heaven and talking out loud to God. Not a speech, not poetry, not even complete sentences. Then wait and listen for that still small voice. Expect a dream, an insight, a whisper. This is the faith factor where you wait expectantly. Waiting on God is never a waste of time. In fact, it's some of the best time you are ever going to invest in your life. - Rick Warren, sort of

Advent 2 2015 05 Friday

<We must speak to God as a friend speaks to a friend, communicating all that concerns us, our schedule, our passions, our thoughts, our fears, our projects, our desires, and in all things recognizing God's engagement, and seeking God's counsel.> <For me, prayer means launching out of the heart toward God; a cry of grateful love from the crest of joy or a cry for help from the trough of despair; Prayer is a vast supernatural force that opens out my heart, and binds me close to God.> - St. Ignatius of Loyola, sort of / Saint Damasus

ADVENT 4: Monday: God Replies, Thank you for bearing the light

We may say, <Thank you for this Advent journey. The anticipation has filled my life and made me long for a closer relationship with you.> and God replies, <Blessed are you who bear the light through unbearable times, who testify to its endurance amid the unendurable, who bear witness to its persistence when everything seems in shadow and grief. Blessed are you in whom the light lives, in whom the brightness blazes—your heart a chapel, an altar where in the deepest night can be seen, the fire that shines forth in you in unaccountable faith, in stubborn hope, in love that illumines every broken thing it finds. – Jan Richardson>

Advent Reflection: God Arrives in the Form of a Child

This is just so obvious, I'm even embarassed to share it. That a symbol could be so obvious all along and for me to have missed it for 50 plus years is just startling to me.

A dear friend (and the Canon for Pastoral Care of The Episcopal Diocese of New York, ThankYouVeryMuch) posted something this morning which just stunned me. She said, in part:

Protecting God: So often in our prayer we ask for God's protection. The story of the Annunciation to Joseph reveals, however, that God desires the mutuality of our protecting God, too...

and I guess ... I guess I never truly meditated on the enormous obvious symbol of God coming to us as a helpless little baby who needs OUR protection and nourishment. it brings a whole new and obvious level to me of us as God's co-creators, defining our responsibility in this whole elaborate dance. wow. just wow. Us as God's nuturer.

then another friend got out of me that I've always been taken with, as early as Genesis 3, <[they] heard the sound of God as God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day...> and God used to walk with Enoch, too. It always makes me fall in love with God all over again. The thought of finishing vespers and then taking a nice stroll with God always made me think that God might be a little lonely and I've always thought of the teachings of Jesus to be MAINLY about the fact that people STOLE GOD from other people with their religiosity and legalism and Jesus basically said, don't you know that's all crap? just TALK talk with God ... have a conversation as you would with a trusted parent or someone who is MADLY in love with you ...

so, anywho ... this is some good "meat" to chew on. i look forward to meditating on this for a good long while ...

ADVENT 2: Wednesday: Let's Take a Spiritual Bath

photo source: Exsodus of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

<Just as, when we are tired physically, a bath in fresh running water invigorates us, so, when we are tired or discomforted mentally, spiritual communion, bathing in the ocean of the Infinite, invigorates the mind and clarifies the thinking. Every person should take time for this inner communion, time when she separates herself from all that appears /detracting/ or /draining/, time to plunge into the living waters of /the Infinite, the Calm, the One True Vibration/. Just as we take a sun bath, so there is an inner light into which we may plunge, an inner consciousness in which we may bathe. The rays of this invisible Sun penetrate the soul just as the rays of the physical sun penetrate the body, renewing and rejuvenating. As water purifies itself by flowing, so an inner realization of the flow of Spirit through us purifies the stagnant pools of morbid thought, and in so doing, eliminates stagnation in the physical body.>

- Holmes, Ernest (2007-12-27).

The Art of Life (Kindle Locations 1359).

Penguin Group US. Kindle Edition.

ADVENT 1: Thursday: An Advent Examination

<Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would desire to abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place. Daily we can make an Advent examination. Are there any feelings of discrimination toward race, sex, or religion? Is there a lingering resentment, an unforgiven injury living in our hearts? Do we look down upon others of lesser social standing or educational achievement? Are we generous with the gifts that have been given to us, seeing ourselves as their stewards and not their owners? Are we reverent of others, their ideas and needs, and of creation? These and other questions become Advent lights by which we may search the deep, dark corners of our hearts.>

-Edward Hays, A Pilgrim’s Almanac, p. 196