Blog Archives

New Year's Resolution: "Follow Me!"

12/31/2012

How’s this for a New Year’s resolution? It was the entry for the last day of the year in Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community, a daily devotional that I’ve been reading for about ten years. I highly recommend it. I quote:

Not to make judgments about other people’s light, but to obey the light given to you is all that concerns you.

        Lord, what shall this man do?
        ‘What is that to you? You follow Me!’

So cast down your imaginations—don’t try and work it out. It wont’ be like what you read in books.

Be real with God.
Don’t try to re-live someone else’s journey.

       ‘What is that to you? You follow Me!’

Praying together~

12/30/2012

One of my ministries is to visit people from my church. Some are hospitalized or in rehab facilities, others are at home but can’t get out easily. I have no official capacity, nor is there any formal expectation that I will pray with them. However, I always go with the possibility that I may ask them if they’d like a prayer. I just wait for God to lead me. Usually these people welcome the invitation, relieved to be invited into this intimate relationship when two or more are gathered together.

Why should this praying together be such a hurdle? After all, we worship together at church, chat at coffee hour, serve on committees with one another. Why should it be so difficult to pray together one-on-one during times of illness, when fear and loneliness are apt to come upon us, when we desperately long for God?

Not extravagant, but enough~

12/27/2012

Jesus, born in a stable. Just think about it. Not extravagant, but enough--a worthy message to ponder. My nativity picture may be ‘Renaissance idyllic’; after all, barnyards can be smelly, noisy, and chaotic. I’m not searching for something in between, or some idea of what the ‘right amount’ might be. There’s no answer there. I do know that I’m feeling content and peaceful this Christmas and we hardly bought a present. I made my husband his favorite brownies, and he gave me a book from the put and take. We have family and friends around. We are ‘very grateful’.

Advent continues~

12/25/2012

View from the Angel Room this morning.

The day we’ve all waited for is here. This Christmas we have no little people waking us. Strange? Certainly different from past years and from what the commercial world tells us our Christmas will be. I’m not sad or nostalgic; my memories are of gratitude.

     This Christmas morning I have time to sit here in my Angel Room and think about the long awaited Jesus in my life. All Christmas accessories have disappeared from mind as I ponder the familiar Gospel stories from Luke and Matthew. I don’t even need a Bible to tweak my memory; the words are deep within me.

      As I write this, God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit are resting in me, surrounding me, leading me,…. But today is Jesus’ special time and I feel his presence, that he is available to talk with me. Advent continues, this new beginning, a beginning that will begin again and again and again, and last forever. I am comforted as I remember Jesus words: “And surely, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

     You doesn’t mean just me; it means you and you and you, everyone. So, I offer you, my readers whoever you are, a blessed Christmas, yes, a Merry Christmas.

Bread and wine~

12/23/2012

Taking communion to church members is one of the graces that we can offer. Our members are in nursing homes, hospitals, rehab institutions, home bound, you name it. Many are elderly, with a long history of church going and a deep connection to communion.

Today my pastor took communion to one of our elderly members who is in rehab. When I visited him later in the day, I was in awe of depth of his appreciation and the peace that surrounded him. I need to remember that although there is something particularly compelling when the pastor arrives at the door for a visit, all of us can come with blessed bread and wine.

Walking on water--a few thoughts~

12/20/2012

On my cottage by the sea blog today I wrote about the surfers enjoying the waves yesterday. Clearly, they owned the present moment. One in particular rode the waves for quite a while, before falling down. Without a doubt he was talented and experienced!
     Watching these men and women surf and fall brought to mind the story of Jesus walking on the water and Peter going out to meet him. When doubt overcame Peter, he began to sink, calling out to Jesus, “Lord, save me” (Matthew 14.30).
      The surfer, like Peter, had faith and experience in keeping upright, but then, perhaps through a combination of fear and circumstance, he began to sink. Oh, so like all of us humans. We can’t do it all by ourselves. Even when we try to live through faith, difficulties arise and we fall. In our best moments we call out for God’s saving help.
     One more thought. According to Matthew’s gospel, before joining his disciples on the boat, Jesus had fed the five thousand and then gone ‘up the mountain, by himself, to pray.’ Throughout the gospels, we are told of Jesus going off the pray. For me, that message always speaks to me. On a faithful day I think it helps me remember to call out.

Praying in the silence~

12/19/2012

At the cottage I never turn on the TV. I could, but I don’t. At home I often watch The News Hour. The other evening, however, I turned it off. I didn’t want any more details of the killings; I didn’t want any more analysis about gun control.
Please don’t misunderstand me. I know all this has to be done, but not for the role I feel called to play. Details and analysis are counterproductive (to use a worldly term) to my prayer. The more silent and simple I become, the clearer God can hear my prayer for love, which I believe is the prayer of everyone--the church-goer, the upright citizen, the helpful, the helpless, the mentally ill, everyone. We all want the unconditional love that is God; that is what I am praying for.

Interfaith Service in Newtown~

12/17/2012

Last night in my living room I watched, no, I participated in the Interfaith Service from Newton, Connecticut. The service was initiated and planned by the local clergy association, and it was its members, the local religious leaders from the churches, temple and mosque in the town who offered prayers from their particular tradition. The only non-local participants were Newton First Selectwoman Patricia Llodra. Governor Dan Malloy of Connecticut, and the President of the United States, Barack Obama. It was a service of truth, brutal truth; and a service of filled with faith, hope, and charity.

Pray for them~

12/15/2012

Prayer corner at the Iona Abbey

Evil was present; God is weeping.

Then I heard God say to me, “Pray for them."

More prayer questions~

12/14/2012

“You cannot intercede if you do not believe in the reality of Redemption.” That statement by Oswald Chambers has be thinking, wondering, questioning. Chambers goes on to say, “In intercession you bring the person, or the circumstance that impinges on you before God until you are moved by His attitude towards that person or circumstance.”

Lots going on here. One thought is that my purity of heart towards the person I’m praying for has bearing on it all. But on whom? Me? The person? Both of us? Are they separate? Maybe it’s about honesty with myself, before God. What part does my desire for the person to heal and find peace have to do with all? With the actual prayer? With God hearing and responding? Certainly honesty is a worthy place for me. But the truth is that sometimes my selfishness, jealousy, or competitiveness stands in the way of love; and this just somehow has to matter. The grace of it all is that through prayer, my self-centeredness can change to love.
Thank you for listening to my ramble. The story isn’t over.