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Comfort the grieving--show up

5/9/2022

I just attended visiting hours at the local funeral home for our neighbor who died of a heart attack at age 41, leaving a wife and two year old. I know they celebrate Christmas but I have no idea what they believe and practice. (Many of the people I know who celebrate Christmas wouldn’t say that they are Christian.)
Regardless, when responding to the grieving I keep away from expressing in words any beliefs. No one wants to hear, ‘He is in a better place’. It is up to the grieving to conjure from inside themselves what comforts them. One of the benefits of a church or temple service is that we who are grieving take the words of the minister, priest, or rabbi into our hearts, and say, “Yes, I know what that means; I feel comfort; in the midst of this loss, I feel hope.”

Worshipping in person at SSJE

4/25/2022

On Sunday I worshipped in the chapel of the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (www.ssje.org) in Cambridge. Worshipping in person, eye to eye, even with masks coving the rest of our faces, always take me to a deeper place with God. The communal love of God becomes transparent.
After the intensity and excitement of Holy Week services, this Second Sunday in Easter service was calm, routine, and welcoming. Although church ritual and creeds were present, the service was about each of us coming to faith—personal, no fanfare, no hierarchy The brothers were present, and except for a few, were sitting amongst us, worshipping among us. It made me smile to think that very likely they were grateful for that.
Brother Geoffrey was presider and preacher, a role he knows well. This day he was especially relaxed and comfortable. He preached on John 20: 19-31, about Thomas coming to faith. Yes, coming to faith was the theme of the sermon, a theme that Br. Geoffrey often mentions. Coming to faith does not come from the mind, but from God when we open our heart to God.
I know that I can’t make myself come to faith, even as much as I try or wish. But how to let go of that? I don’t know how, but I know that it happened. I feel free.

Praying scripture

4/5/2022

Peter Paul Rubens

Lectio Divina is a popular, traditional way to study scripture. A Google search offer the following:

Traditionally, Lectio Divina has four separate steps: read; meditate; pray; contemplate. First a passage of scripture is read, then its meaning is reflected upon. This is followed by prayer and contemplation on the Word of God.

This process, which is laborious, time consuming, and intellectual, usually doesn’t fulfill my needs. When I go through the process I might feel ready to write paper for a divinity class, but I don’t feel prayerful, more loving, or closer to God, which is what I desire.
Here is another, and clearly a simpler way to pray scripture, offered by the student minister at church on Sunday.

Read a scripture.
Ask where you see God in it.
Ask where you see yourself in it.

That’s it. Give it a try.

The Prodigal Son and God's forgiveness

3/29/2022

On Sunday I sat in my apartment overlooking the Duomo and attend morning Eucharist on line from SSJE www.ssje.org. Br. David preached on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 13: 11-32). He talked about the choices we make, some good, some not so good. We all know the choices the younger son in the parable made; we know the choices his father made; we can understand why the older brother chose to be angry. We also understand the array of other choices each could have made.
God forgives. God welcomes us home from our wrong choices. God understands when we hold onto our anger. God will always be with us: Son you are always with me and all that is mine is yours (13:31b).

Praying in Florence

3/24/2022

Why do we become stuck in the belief that prayer happens best when we are in a church, or when we sit down in some pious way in some quiet spot? Thankfully I’m moving away from those ideas as the only or best prayer ways.
Yes, I have some favorite player churches here in Florence, but the entire city is becoming a favorite prayer landscape. In the parks I can be thankful for God’s creation. Every person I pass along the Arno can receive God’s love through me. My prayers for Ukraine feel pure and hopeful, as a walk along with God and God walks along with me. Try it!

Praying for Metanoia

3/23/2022

In the Boboli Gardens

Thanks be to God, I have returned to my beloved Florence, once again to walk around with God. I always say that is what I do, for sure it is my intention, and yes I do just that. But, of course, I miss miserably most of the time. That’s the way it is with serious and challenging commitments that they ask for a significant change. In theological language it is called metanoia: to change in one's way of life resulting from penitence or spiritual conversion.
On this trip I am committed in a new way to be conscious of God’s presence not just day by day but moment by moment. Believing that God is always present is the first step; I’ve got this one!. It is the remembering that is my challenging goal while I’m here— to remember God more and more, not only when I sitting in my favorite church, but as I walk along my favorite streets. When I remember, metanoia happens.

A Prayer for Ukraine

2/25/2022

Let evening come for my friend

2/15/2022

1985

I posted the following on my cotttagebythesea.net blog. But I want to say something more to my prayer friends. Chet was three days younger than me. He lived a good life in all the ways we can hope for or imagine. He was faithful, feeling Christ’s presence walking with him.
Yes, my friends are dying, and so will I, sooner rather than later. God has been good to me on this part of my journey. Right now, the next leg of the itinerary may be mysterious but I have faith that it will be heavenly and awesome, and, that those still living this earthly segment, will be just fine!

You know me, I am not the prophet of gloom or sadness, but I am feeling sad this morning, sad but not gloomy.

Chet, my wonderful principal during my joyful teaching days, died yesterday, appropriately on Valentines Day. All of the Haynes School alumnae teachers knew that his life was coming to an end. On our monthly zoom meetings, which he named The Quilt, he had shared the host of medical issues that he was dealing with. Individually we were able to be in touch with him via email. Right up to the end Chet was cognizant, grateful, optimistic, and joyful. His wife, three children and grandchildren were with him when he died.

Three very good friends of mine have died in the year of 2022. For sure, that is fodder for gloom and sadness. But what appears is lives well-lived. So I say, "Let Evening Come."

Coleridge

2/4/2022

He prayeth well, who liveth well
Both man and bird and beast;
He prayers best, who liveth best
All things both great and small:
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
Coleridge

Pray for peace

1/7/2022

I feel so frustrated/sad/angry/fearful/responsible/arrogant/righteous… for the vitriol in our politics. AND, I know that it isn’t just in others with whom I disagree; it is also in me. “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me,” goes the song.
I am hearing that I am to pray for peace, which means that I stop listening to the news. But I want to have it both ways—pray for peace and also feel superior and righteous about my point of view. Would you please say a prayer for me about this?