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Lethal injection executions; No more of this!

4/26/2017

I’m distressed by the current barrage of lethal injections executions of prisoners in Arkansas. Distressed is too weak a word. As a Christian, I can’t comprehend how anyone can say it is okay to kill someone because they have killed someone else. At least in this situation. “No more of this,” Jesus told his disciples at the moment of his arrest.
Jesus, appearing his history when he did, offered us a new way of being, and thus a new way of acting out in the world. Love God and neighbor. A concise, simple message, although not always simple to follow. I fall short of it all the time in the little things. Granted my life doesn’t offer me times when I have the power to kill or not to kill. That is grace.
To kill or not to kill is a complex issue. What about war? How do I feel about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor and theologian in Nazi Germany who joined a group plotting to kill Hitler? What about the right to life advocates? Complex issue. I can understand their points of view. But lethal injection executions of prisoners in U.S. prisons in 2017! I don’t get it. No more of this!

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Meeting Jesus during Easter Week

4/19/2017

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I love Easter Week, which begins Easter Sunday and ends the following Saturday, because Jesus feels especially present to me.
According to the Gospels, he was resurrected but hadn’t yet ascended.Jesus was still walking around, meeting two of the apostles on the Road to Emmaus, and showing Thomas his wounds in the Upper Room.
These stories encourage me to be attentive as I take a walk or sit in the Angel Room. Maybe I will meet Jesus, too. That’s what faith is.

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Good Friday forsaking

4/13/2017

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Good Friday tomorrow. Always a challenge for Protestants because Jesus’ crucifixion isn’t where we dwell. Our churches don’t display crucifixes; they show the empty cross, symbol of the resurrection. And yet, I notice more attention to Holy Week than I recall growing up. We’re beginning to face the complete picture, read the whole story.
Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, in “Christ’s Passion, Our Passions: Reflections on the Seven Last Words from the Cross,” helps me be present to Good Friday. In each chapter she addresses the comments in the gospels made by Jesus from the cross.
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ is the most provocative for me. It is hard to accept that Jesus felt such despair. Does that mean that he lost his faith? Bullitt-Jonas has faith that God was with Jesus even though he may not have been aware of it at the time. She asks us to enter into presence with Jesus and open up to what transpires. Listen to and learn from Jesus in his time of anguish and hopelessness.

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Dying is part of living~

4/7/2017

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At the moment I have several friends who are very ill, either in the hospital or in hospice. What’s going on here? It goes with having friends and with belonging to a church. If it weren’t for church, my list would be shorter, and my life less rich. By rich, I mean filled with deep meaning and compassion.
I consider it a privilege to be present to people who are ill or dying. Hospice is one way I learn that dying is part of living.

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April 02nd, 2017

4/2/2017

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     Yesterday I attended 5 o’clock Mass at the Duomo. An Irish (?) priest officiated in English, and two women read the scripture and passed the offer plate. The Gospel reading was the story of Lazarus; the message was the expectation and acceptance of change.
I took communion, not because no qualifying invitation was offered, but because I wanted to take in the spirit of love. I attend a church where anyone who wants to follow Jesus’ example of love is invited to the table. That is how I always approach communion, and so it was yesterday. I need all the reminders I can muster to keep a loving heart. Communion is one way for me.
     The Roman Catholic church preaches love and following Jesus. But their invitation to communion is limited to those confirmed in the church, and who thus believe in transubstantiation, that the bread and wine actually becomes the body and blood of Christ. This dogma goes back to the councils of the fourth century when, for its very survival, the growing church was dealing with heresies. What was important then, may not be important now. When should we hold on to tradition? When is it time to let a tradition go?
Christianity and Christians have always been challenged by what to take literally in the Bible, and what to interpret metaphorically.

      What did Jesus mean when, according the Luke 22:20 he said:
“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” ...
What did Paul mean in Corinthians 11:24: and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of Me.”

The Church may have its answers, but individual Christian have theirs. We come to their own understanding of what communion means so we can be loving.

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Meditating/praying in Florence

4/1/2017

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I’ve just finished writing an article entitled, “How about a Writing Vacation in Florence?” Now I am considering writing one about prayer, working title, “Walking around Florence with God.”
You don’t have to be Roman Catholic or even Protestant to do this. Maybe you don’t have to be Christian, but it probably helps because Jesus is present wherever you go in this city. It’s hard to get away from him. On the other had, if you meditate, any church will do. People leave you alone; it is socially acceptable to sit in church with your eyes closed.

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Lethal injection executions; No more of this!

Meeting Jesus during Easter Week

Good Friday forsaking

Dying is part of living~

April 02nd, 2017

Meditating/praying in Florence

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