Slowing Down

For me, these first few weeks of Lent have a core focus of caring for Diane before, during and after her knee surgery. Little victories are celebrated-like coming home from the hospital and then going back to Prince Frederick to have the staples removed, and finding out that everything is going really well, then stopping at Starbucks and treating ourselves to smoothies. Life slows down.

Part of my routine these days is preparing for adult Sunday School. This past week we studied John 4:5-42, which I suspect is the longest Gospel reading in the lectionary, and brimming with issues and nuances, from Samaritan woman to living water to sowing and reaping. My slowing down with Diane gave me a chance to read it again and again, but I still fussed about whether I was ready to lead the discussion. Then it snowed on Saturday night! Snow always slows things down, and I love to tale pictures of the snow, and the church grounds is one of my favorite places. The daffodils were up in front of Middleham Chapel and covered with snow.

So I thought, we may have one or two people for Sunday School. To my surprise and delight, eleven people came, together with great reflections about the gospel. So slowing things down makes good things happen.

Hugh Davies

Prayer, Walking, and Labyrinths

During the recent Middleham and St. Peter’s young adult and family retreat, I introduced to the adults the spiritual practice of walking prayer. It is a practice I use since I have great difficulty in sitting in one place and meditating. But if I am able to move, to walk while also quieting my thoughts, I find it easier to reduce the constant chatter for longer periods of time. It is even better if I can walk in a labyrinth.

Every month I try to go to the Cathedral Crossroads at the National Cathedral on the last Tuesday evening of the month. Among other activities, they spread out two canvas labyrinths, one in each transept, to allow for prayer through walking. There is always a musician, often a harp and Native American flute player, providing soft music that echoes the length of the nave. Everyone walks in their socks, to protect the canvas pattern from wear and dirt.

Every time is a different experience. Sometimes it is crowded, so we need to share the paths and figure out how to get around each other. Sometimes I am alone, or there are only one or two other persons. At the end of the evening, everyone still in the Cathedral is invited to join in the service of Compline, a corporate closing for the day.

Sometimes, as I walk, I become calmer, less anxious, more able to get on with life when I am done. Letting go of my thoughts helps to let go of negative feelings accumulated over the day. Sometimes, new perspectives or insights will emerge from the quietness. Occasionally I sense a presence that might be the Holy Spirit. Even those all to frequent times when I feel like I didn’t get much out of the walking, I know I need to do it anyway. I cannot predict or control what will happen, but I need to show up and walk if anything is going to happen. That is true of all spiritual practices.

If you have never tried it, my only advice is to ignore whatever anyone says you are supposed to do. Just start walking at whatever pace feels right, and see what happens. Oh, and do try to stay on the path, though I have seen persons make their own path. Many people, like my Mom, never could figure out why anyone would want to do it, though she was willing to try it once. Each person is different.

David and I have been building a garden around a simple five circuit labyrinth in our yard, combining my interests of gardening with labyrinths. The photo on the left is from last May shows the grass paths that run among the flower beds.  Each week you can read about what is blooming and see pictures at Labyrinth by the Bay. If you are ever in the neighborhood, please feel free to stop by and walk the paths with a view of the Bay.

More information about labyrinths can be found at the Grace Cathedral, where the current awareness of use of labyrinths was started by Dr. Lauren Artress.

The Labyrinth Society has a worldwide labyrinth locator, so when you are far from home, you can find a place to walk a labyrinth.

Bruce Calvin 

Food for Thought

How is it that so many of our holidays, religious and otherwise revolve around food? Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, Fourth of July, Easter to name a few, all involve social gathering and eating. Lent, on the other hand, often revolves around not eating. After we gorge ourselves on pancakes and sausages on Shrove Tuesday, we might momentarily feel like not eating for a week. We might even feel we can give up certain foods for forty days. The notion of fasting might even enter our minds.

Jesus considered it. In fact, the Latin name for Lent, Quadragesima, means forty or fortieth, and refers to the forty days Christ spent in the desert, fasting and praying, which is the origin of the Season. We in our humble ways pay tribute to this event during Lent. Most of us don’t truly fast, although that is a term that can be loosely interpreted. Does that mean you can only have water? Does that include eating small meals once or twice a day, or one larger meal at the end of the day? Are we still fasting if we just modify our diet, go meatless, if you will, and eat only vegetables, fruits, seafoods, salads, pastas, and beans? That actually sounds healthy. Hardly a sacrifice.

So what are we doing here? Giving up bad food, eating healthier food, feeling better. Maybe that’s what God intended!

Joan Shisler

Retreats: a break with the usual

This last week, I took a 36 hour retreat at St. Anne’s Hermitage in Smithsburg, Maryland. The time was spent in reading, prayer and walking. Oh yes, also sleeping. I found the time away from my usual routine was a good way to give space to the Holy Spirit to breathe some newness into my heart and soul.

A retreat can be as simple as setting aside an hour or two from your daily routine with the intention of spending it in reflection, prayer, and meditation. The place could be one of your favorite spots in nature or going into a room in your house and shutting the door. It is a time to turn inward through prayer, reading, or meditation and being open to an infusion of God’s grace. A retreat is an ancient form of spirituality going back to the time of Jesus who would regularly draw apart from his ministry for times of quiet and prayer.

Fr.Showers

Stations of the Cross

Via Delarosa, The way of the Cross. The Great Hall has joined in the Lenten tradition. Recently added were the Stations of the Cross for personal reflection and for group reflection on Wednesday April 20th. This tradition dates back to the 5th century when pilgims longed for a closer relationship with the Crucified Christ by following in His footsteps. The tradition had eight stations based biblical accounts. The original eight were #1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 12, & 14. In the 15th & 16th century the number of stations varied from the original eight to sometimes as many as thirty. The fourteen we use at Middleham & St Peters was established in 1857. Join us as we explore this most significant adventure. Close your eyes experience the sounds, the horror, and hear Jesus say Forgive them during the 12th station. Anything is possible when one with the Spirit.

Antidisestablishmentarianism: A Lenten tribute to Uncle Ralph

I've been doing some intentional thinking about family as part of my Lenten journey this year. It feels like a pilgrimage in some respects, but the journey is into the once-known as opposed to the unknown and it's proving to be more challenging than I anticipated. I've recognized at least one true thing: Some skeletons were meant to stay in the closet. But happily, some are meant to be brought back into the light, and so it has been for my Uncle Ralph, husband of my father's younger sister, Christine,

My Uncle Ralph introduced me to the Life of the Mind. He was and remains the smartest man I ever met. It's taken me a long time to realize this because he was so unpretentious about his brilliance. He was also married to my Aunt Chris, who could light up a room before she was even in the same county. She was from another planet. Red hair, freckles, youthful even in old age, she had a mischievous smile and a wicked wit in my child's memory. "Bobby, would you like onions on that mayonnaise sandwich for lunch?", i.e., an endless stream of tongue-n-cheek one-liners some of which I still remember with a mixture of joy and embarrassment. She could always make me laugh, even at myself.

As for my Uncle Ralph, he was an engineer-type, smart, clever, serious, sometimes aloof but never disconnected from what was happening in the moment. He had sad but smiling eyes and a weather-worn face reminiscent of a younger Arnold Palmer. He spoke quickly (for a southerner) in clipped tones and his knowledge base was so broad that it was sometimes hard to follow what he was saying, as though his brain was always working overtime.

Uncle Ralph's Biblical profile would fix him somewhere between Jeremiah and Ezekiel: Intense and weird, like some of those third and fourth century Christian Era desert ascetics in Egypt. He was a compulsive tinkerer especially with electronics and often could be seen with a transistor radio on his belt with an ear plug attached, like a 1950's prototype of the Ipod. He came up with stuff that now seems far ahead of its time. My particular favorites were the skateboards and scooters he fashioned out of 2X4's and roller skate wheels. It's a wonder my cousins and I are still alive since this was in the hilly suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama where I would visit them in the summer. I would return home to Savannah with jeans permanently stained with Red Mountain clay and the heels worn out of my sneakers.

Uncle Ralph, Aunt Chris and my cousins came to our tiny house in Savannah for Christmas one year, when I was six or seven. Like my cousins, life, for me, revolved around Santa's visit on Christmas eve. However, a couple of days before Santa was to arrive that year, I was "busted" by my Uncle Ralph when he caught me looking under a bed where one of the adults had hidden Santa's Big Present. I had already started to suspect the whole Santa-down-the-chimney thing and sure enough, there it was: The big Santa gift for me and my cousins mysteriously hidden away in the guest bedroom. A swat on my bottom and a very stern look from Uncle Ralph sent a strong message that I will never, ever forget: Always be humble about newly discovered insights!

Uncle Ralph, like my own father, died too young. Cigarettes and traditional southern cooking are some of the things I still hold responsible for those and other untimely deaths of people I have loved and who loved me. But Uncle Ralph's demise seems like a loss larger than most. His mind was a beautiful gift from God to all who knew him.

And about that word in the title, "Antidisestablishmentarianism": According to my Uncle Ralph it was (and still is, according to Wikipedia) the longest word in the English language. Google it and see for yourself. I was seven when he taught me this and much more. And the funny thing is that after 34 years as an Episcopal priest in the American version of the Church of England, I probably owe my professional career to those activist antidisestablishmentarianists!

What Saints are hidden in Your closet?!

Bob Stephenson

Using the Daily Examen

We all wonder how, or even if, God is present in our lives, other than those times when we are specifically involved in religious or church activities. Everyday things like attending a meeting at work, loading the dishwasher, or commuting on crowded roads certainly don't feel spiritual.

The Examen is a tool designed by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, to build a spiritual awareness by reflecting on what has happened during the day.  In fact, he thought doing the examen was so important, he required the members of the Society of Jesus to use the examen twice a day: at Noon, and before going to bed at night. 

Rev. Adam Thomas wrote a description how he used a form called the Awareness’ Examen in Encountering the Examen.  The five steps or questions that he considers and writes about in his journal are: Be mindful, Be thankful, Be Humble, Be reflective, Be responsive.

If you want to use the examen, you can simply spend a minute for each step:

1. Open yourself to be aware of God's presence
2. Give thanks for what happened during the day
3. Remember and review the day, noting both the good and the bad
4. Select one event and pray about it
5. Respond to what you have experienced

There are many resources that describe the Examen and provide different versions of the steps on the web.  If you are still looking for something to explore during the remaining days and weeks of Lent, consider this unique form of prayer.

Bruce Calvin

Sekem: The Living Desert

On our recent trip to Egypt, Dave and I stayed at Sekem, about 50 miles Northeast of Cairo, for a few days. It is a modern story of how part of the Egyptian desert was transformed into a vibrant social and spiritual community.  Sekem was founded by Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish in 1977 as an initiative to integrate spiritual, cultural and social responsibility, with education and commercial enterprise. Winning the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Prize for its special model, Dr. Abouleish has also been praised as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur.

We were impressed with what this group were doing, employing around 2,000 local people and educating their children. We want to share to share a movie about Sekem with others in the Parish who would like to hear of something other than the current turmoil in the Middle East.  So if you would like to see an example of how some Egyptians are helping transform the Middle East, I would like to hear from you.

Brenda Hollweger

What if it's All True?

Kathleen Staudt, in a recent essay at the Daily Episcopalian, invites us all to consider an alternative discipline during Lent.  She certainly gets my attention by challenging the skeptic in me, the part that doubts some, if not all, of those mysterious and miraculous things told in the Bible really happened. For example, did Jesus feed the thousands with just a few loaves of bread and fish?  Could he really cure the man blind from birth or the woman who simply touched his robe?  I have always struggled with believing those events occurred as they were recorded.

In What if it's all true, Kathy urges the skeptics like me to take a "time out from doubt."  She notes

Lent is a time to stretch our faith -- to live with these familiar stories, which we’ve called Good News. Take a break from questions about what may be “factual” or accurate and ask “What if it’s all true?”

She continues by exploring how that "what if" perspective might change what we hear from those stories, and new meanings that can be opened up. If I, or maybe you, can let go of the barriers created by skepticism, and accept the mysterious ways in which God seems to work, something may change within.

I am going to try doing this for the rest of the season of Lent. Anyone else feel called to try out "What if it's all true?"

Bruce Calvin

Bridging the Theological and the Mundane

Michael Jinkins, President of Louisville Theological Seminary writes in the Christian Century about formative moments for faith at an early age. He writes about Matthew 6:34 “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” It had been the text of a Sunday sermon when he was a young boy. On the way to the car after the service he asked his mother what it meant. Her response, “hummm, I guess it means that Jesus doesn’t want us to worry about the future, there’s enough for us to worry about today.” Jinkins later realized that it was from such encounters that he learned from his mother how to bridge the mundane and the theological.

All of us know much about the mundane aspects of life, from making the bed in the morning, brushing your teeth, to turning out lights when you leave a room. Yet how do we move toward seeing in the mundane an opportunity to experience grace? This Lent, I am seeking to slow down my pace a bit and be open to experiencing God’s presence as I straighten the sheets and move through the mundane parts of my life. Perhaps it is too much to expect an epiphany.  But Moses was only doing the routine, the mundane stuff of life when he encountered the burning bush. At the very least I hope to sense anew in everyday activities the words of Karl Jung, “bidden or not bidden God is present.”

Fr. Showers

Perspective

It seems that much of what we experience in life depends on our perspective of what it is that happens to us. Do you view challenges, good or bad, as opportunities to be met head on, with strength and perseverance, or as an invasion of your personal routine that completely throws you off track into an abyss of depression and worry?

Do you see the glass as half full or half empty? For me, I usually end up with Door Number 1, but sometimes, in the beginning, Door Number 2 smacks me in the gut, until I get my bearings.

I recently had a back ache. For those of you who have suffered back pain and know what I’m talking about, maybe I should rephrase that description. PAIN! I was told to take some over-the-counter pain relief and that eventually I would recover. I am currently feeling much better, but I still feel I need be conscious of how I move. I knew, somehow, that I would probably recover, sooner than later. Compared to the pain and suffering going on in the world today, particularly in Japan after the recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power problems, my singular pain seems somehow seriously insignificant. Recovering from this incomprehensible disaster will take years. Perspective.

In the season of Lent, we are given the opportunity to do some soul searching and thinking about our faith . Traditionally we are supposed to engage in fasting, almsgiving and praying. We have modified these to better fit our lifestyle. Giving up something for Lent allows us to focus on our spiritual strength and perseverance in following Christ. While doing without something for 40 days may throw off your routine, the change it requires challenges you to be more aware of what sacrifice is all about. Lent is not only about giving up something, but also giving of yourself. Be grateful that you have what you have and consider giving your time or treasure to someone less fortunate. Praying, any time, any where, any way, for anyone, works.

Joan Shisler

Love is Stronger than Death

Having read Love is Stronger than Death by Cynthia Bourgeault, an Episcopal priest who fell in love with Rafe, a Trappist hermit in the evening of both their lives, I felt it was so moving that it could very well be of interest to other members in our parish.

The author’s writing reflects the deeper meaning behind the title after Rafe dies. My own dear brother John died unexpectedly January 2nd, 2010 in England and the book spoke personally to me as a result. It is a beautiful book, dealing with our beliefs or not, of being able to touch our loved ones who have passed on, through our deep love for them.

I know some of our members have already read the book and enjoyed it, so I would love to set up a discussion group for those and others who might be inspired to read it, too. My own work at my Meditation Retreat Center in NC dealt specifically with this very issue just over a year ago, so I can bring the fruits of that time to the discussion also. I have an extra copy should anyone else want to borrow it. Let me know if you are interested in a joining a 2 hour discussion group by commenting below or contacting me directly.

Brenda Hollweger

Anglican Prayer Beads

Since early times, people of many different religious traditions have kept track of their prayers to God by using pebbles, beads or a string of knots. In the mid 1980s the Rev. Lynn Bauman blended the Roman Catholic Rosary and the Orthodox Jesus Prayer Rope to create Anglican Prayer beads.

Anglican prayer beads are made up of four sets of 7 beads called “weeks”. The number 7 signifies wholeness and completion. It also represents the 7 days of creation, the 7 seasons of the church year, the 7 sacraments and the 7 days of the temporal week.

Separating the weeks is a single bead called a “cruciform”. These four beads form a cross.

Anglican Prayer beads use a cross instead of the crucifix used in the Roman Catholic Rosary. Separating the cross and the weeks is an “invitatory bead”. This brings the total number of beads to 33 which represent the number of years in Jesus’ earthly life.

Many prayers in the prayer book are easily adapted to the prayer beads but the beads also lend themselves to our own prayers. The King of Peace Episcopal Church provides sample prayers and detailed instructions.

I find praying with the beads helps me to be mindful and quiet and better able to focus my prayers as I work toward a deeper relationship with God.

Leah Rayburn

A Time to Build Up

As a school-age child, my friends and I would eagerly await the Lenten season. We would consider thoughtfully what we would each give up for Lent. My list often included giving up one of the five C’s: candy, chocolate, cookies, cake, or chips. Junk food as one item encompassed too many things. Why give up many things when just one would do. Then there were the things that we tried to get around, like giving up vegetables, (that we could group together), or going to bed on time or chores. We’d still be giving up something, but it wouldn’t be too painful!

We spent so much time focusing on the minute details of what we had to give up, we neglected to see the bigger picture, which is what Lent is really all about. Lent is about awakening your spiritual understanding, self -sacrificing and preparing to embrace the word of the Lord, the world of the Lord.

Eventually it dawned on me that focusing on the details was actually the way to force yourself to focus on the bigger picture, your beliefs and how you could increase your awareness of your relationship with Jesus. Being aware forces you to be active rather than passive in your faith. It requires you to be a participant rather than a spectator. Being a spectator is necessary sometimes to listen and learn from others.

Lent gives you the opportunity to participate in the process enabling you to not only see and hear what is going on, but to feel the faith that surrounds you as well. Take the time to look around you; to take a look at where you've been, where you are now, and where you want to go from here. Lent is a time to build up our faith. We must always have faith, in ourselves, in others and in the word of the Lord. Lent is a time for us to reflect, not on what we are giving up, but on what we are getting instead.

Joan Shisler 

Trauma and Grace

I too am alternately mesmerized and repelled by the tragic news from Japan, which for me is intensely personal. In the past I have always associated Japan with experiences of grace, not tragedy. As a college student, I lived there for a year which profoundly shaped my life. Since then I have been blessed by over 50 years of close friendship with three generations of the Japanese family with whom I lived near Tokyo, visiting them in Japan several times (most recently last Easter with my daughter, for my Japanese goddaughter’s wedding celebration), and welcoming them when they visit us here. All the family is now well and safe following the earthquake and tsunami, thank God. But the continuing nuclear crisis causes ongoing anxiety and uncertainty.

Each day as I read the papers, listen to the news, and pray for Japan, I’ve been trying to imagine what it must be like for the thousands of people who in a single moment lost their homes and most or all of their possessions, and are now cold and hungry in shelters, fearing that nuclear fallout will be the next Plague to befall them. And I’ve wondered how they can not only survive physically but transcend these traumas emotionally and be able to move on with their lives.

So last week when a friend sent me a book called Trauma and Grace, it immediately became my Lenten reading. It was written by Dr. Serene Jones, President and Professor of Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. It is a series of essays written over about ten years in which she uses the lenses of trauma theory and theology to help her understand the impact of various kinds of severe trauma experienced by friends and students, and how individuals and communities can best support people who have experienced such trauma. I find the book compelling as I ponder the impact of multiple traumas on so many Japanese and look for glimpses of hope. What sort of resurrection might possibly emerge from such suffering? How might it come about? Jones helps me put my concerns and questions into a Biblical and theological context in ways I find illuminating. If you’re interested, the book is available on Amazon and other online bookstores.

Nancy Warren

The Jesus Prayer

There is an ancient prayer with roots in the early church that simply says “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.” A longer variation is: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

I had read about the prayer many years ago. My first exposure was through The Way of a Pilgrim, written anonymously by a nineteenth century Russian. The book describes how one person incorporated the Jesus Prayer into every moment of his life, developing a practice of unceasing prayer, as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18:

Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (Revised Standard Version) 

As a prayer rooted within and central to the Eastern branches of the Christian church, it is considered a building block to establishing a life of prayer. One early sixth century writer, John Climacus, recommends the use of the prayer in his Ladder of Divine Ascent. By the way, Climacus was a member of St. Catherine’s monastery in the Sinai desert that David and I visited in January.

It is only within the last few years have I actually tried to use the Jesus Prayer in my own life. I started during a time of deep despair and pain, when I needed something that would stop the churning of destructive thoughts and feelings. By focusing on the words, which carried my pain and my need for mercy, I could often let go of the self judgment and guilt. Inhaling on the first six words, and exhaling on the last words moved me from shallow anxious breathing to slower, deeper breaths. Over and over I would repeat the prayer, because if I stopped, the other negative thoughts would quickly return.

It did make a difference, and has became one of my spiritual practices. Later, I was able to call upon my practice, reciting the Jesus Prayer as I was lying in the Emergency Room waiting for hours until I was finally rolled into surgery to have my appendix removed.

You may want to try it out for yourself. Rather than wait for a time of crisis like I did, recite the prayer to yourself for just a few minutes at first. Certainly no more than five minutes. As that begins to become comfortable, you can lengthen the time, or look for periods when you can pray it while doing something else. It is like yoga or working out in the gym; the more you practice, the more limber and strong your prayer can become.

If you want to learn more, there is a newly released video, Mysteries of the Jesus Prayer: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of an Ancient Spirituality by Norris J. Chumley and John A. McGuckin that explores the places and people who formed and were formed by the Jesus Prayer. I have written a review of it on my other blog Know that I Am. 

Bruce Calvin

Jesus: A Fourth Dimension?

Thinking about last Sunday's account in Matthew's gospel where Jesus encounters the tempter raises the following questions: Was Jesus able not to sin? or Was Jesus unable to sin? What do you think?

It might be easier to relate to the first, being able not to sin. It's probably something we've managed just as an act of will like, no chocolate in Lent or, daily prayer and study.

The second, unable to sin, sounds more like a transcendant quality or even a loss of that all important free will, God forbid!

But such either / or questions are somewhat one-dimensional in their assumptions about reality and Jesus was by no means one-dimensional. In fact, his frequent references to the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven, may suggest that his reality included something like a fourth dimension that allowed him to see from here to eternity.

Paul Tillich described our humanity at its best as a multidimensional unity, which may provide a way into understanding an inability to sin.

Speaking of dimensionality you might want to check the website http://www.360tr.com/kudus/kiyamet_eng/index.html

Bob Stephenson

Lectio Divina - Praying the Scriptures

During Lent, I find the practice of Lectio Divina a good discipline. St. Benedict was one of the individuals who helped create this discipline in the sixth century. In his monastic community, daily life was guided by three elements; liturgical prayer, manual labor, and Lectio Divina.

In Lectio Divina, the formal progression is to read the Biblical passage slowly and then spend time in silence. Then read the passage again and enter into a time of prayer. The passage is then read a third time and you enter into a period of contemplation with an on openness to our loving God. This may reveal to one a new insight or understanding about life or a certain situation which you are facing.

Fr. Showers

A Plan for Living

In the early 1970s, I attended St. Meinrad Seminary located in southern Indiana. The school is housed on the grounds of St. Meinrad’s Monastery which is a Benedictine Archabbey. Some years later I was given a copy of the Saint Meinrad Prayer Book. Father Julian Peters, OSB writes in his preface:

The Benedictine tradition of ora et labora became a thread that has been woven into our association with Saint Meinrad. Once you’ve been touched by that perspective of prayer and work, it is easy to see how one’s spirituality, one’s love of liturgy, one’s listening for God’s call in life has been enhanced.

The prayer book includes a piece titled Just For Today – A Plan for Living. The plan has ten affirmations. Perhaps during Lent it might be helpful to take the following three affirmations and seek to follow the Benedictine practice of prayerfully putting them into the work of daily living.

Here are three affirmations:

Just for today, I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life’s problems at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

Just for today, I will be unafraid. Especially, I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.

Just for today, I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not get found out. If anyone knows of it, it will not count. I will do at least two things I don’t want to do – just for exercise. And I will not show anyone that my feelings are hurt. They may be hurt, but today I will not show it.

Fr. Showers

Prayers for Japan

Whenever there is a disaster in the world, whether a work of nature or of human intention, there are two common responses: watch with morbid fascination or turn away from the horror.  Since I am not a fan of horror movies, you can safely conclude that I do not watch in morbid fascination.  Watching violent scenes in fictional movies, I can only see a little bit before I close my eyes.

So tonight, as I watched an hour's worth of video and still photos of the destruction caused by the tsunami in Japan, I was sorely tempted to turn it off.  Then, I decided that I needed to see it, to begin to understand the extent of damage on the land and people of a place I have never been.  They reported that the main island of Japan moved eight feet and that the shock stopped the rotation of the earth for a fraction of a second!  I did not know that either would be possible.

In the face of literally earth shaking power, how small we are!  How could we possibly imagine that we could in any way affect what happens with our prayer and with our concern? When I pray, or you pray, or we pray, what do we really think that means?  Certainly God is not going to change everything back or bring people back to life again. 

It is hard to keep this horrific event in my mind, especially since it continues to get worse and nuclear power plants threaten to melt down.  Even as I write, I want to turn away from it.  Yet, a poem by St. Theresa of Avila, which I learned as a song several years ago comes to my mind.  One stanza states:

Christ has no body now but yours.

No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Yours are the eyes through which he looks

Compassion on this world.

I feel deeply challenged to continue looking, learning, experiencing, and responding, because I am a part of the Body of Christ.  If Christ lives in me and through my presence, then I need to use my eyes, my hands, my feet to act with the love and compassion that I have known in my own life.  While that sentence might sound pious or glib, I find it both frightening and empowering.  I don't know that I will be able to face into what will be expected of me.  Already I have had my illusion of being in control and safe shattered by knowing that tens of thousands who felt the same way had their whole world and life destroyed in just minutes.  Whatever they tried to do, it was not enough to save their lives.


Prayer is one place where I need to bring this existential anxiety, to express it to God, to pour out all of my responses.  This is not easy prayer with nice words and poetry.  This is prayer filled with shock, fear, anger and maybe, eventually hope.  I might even begin to understand how to be "the eyes through which he looks (in) compassion on this world."

Bruce Calvin

The Two Channels of Faith

Every year I read an additional book during Lent, often with designated readings for each day of the season. This year I selected Lent with Evelyn Underhill, edited by G.P. Mellick Belshaw. Underhill (1875-1941) was an English, Anglo-Catholic mystic and retreat leader who still provides guidance to the Christian mystical tradition through her writing.

In one passage from The School of Charity, Underhill describes the “mysterious inner light that glows at the heart of Christianity” as being fed by two different parts, or in her words “channels” of our learning about and understanding that which is Holy.

Along one channel a certain limited knowledge of God and things of God enters the mind. . . . Along the other channel, God Himself comes secretly to the heart, and wakes up that desire and that sense of need which are the cause of prayer.

In a world which tends to focus either on intellectual knowledge or on emotional feeling of/for God, she provides a much needed reminder that there is a place for both the mind and the heart. It took me many years on my faith journey to learn this simple truth of how closely they are tied together.

Underhill continues by pointing to a more challenging reality:

with the deepening of prayer, its patient cultivation there comes – perhaps slowly, perhaps suddenly – the enrichment and enlargement of belief, as we enter into a first-hand communion with the reality who is the object of our faith.

As a reluctant mystic, I have had small glimpses of “the reality who is the object of our faith,” but am far from any first-hand communion. Have you had a sense of God being with you in particular times or situations?

Ash Wednesday videos

The Episcopal Cafe, which is a blog I check daily, has found several different videos for Ash Wednesday that are short, interesting, and creative.  Rather than try to explain them, I will send you there to see them.

Also on Episcopal Cafe is a story about priests providing an Ash Wednesday service on the sidewalks of the Tenderloin section of San Francisco, Ash Wednesday in the Streets. If Middleham and St. Peters were to do a service on the streets or parking lot, where in Calvert County do you think it could be appreciated?


Bruce Calvin

Lent, with a Twist

So, what are you afraid of? I’m sure the list is extremely varied and lengthy. I am also sure that none of us is afraid of everything, a diagnosis that Lucy gives to Charlie Brown at her five-cent psychiatry stand in A Charlie Brown Christmas. She says he has pantaphobia. Actually, pantaphobia means “absolute fearlessness,” the fear of nothing. Panphobia is the fear of everything. It would not be a good thing to be afraid of everything or afraid of nothing. From phobias to monsters under the bed, I’m guessing we all fall somewhere in between. Now that I have you contemplating what you might be afraid of, the true point of this letter is to get you thinking about Lent, with a twist.

Just as Advent prepares us for Christmas and the birth of Christ, the purpose of Lent is to prepare us for Easter and the death of Christ. It is usually a time of sacrifice, repentance and reflection. Traditionally Lent is a time for us to give up something. I have found that giving up something for 40 days is very doable, but once the 40 days are over, I usually revert to incorporating whatever I have given up back into my life. This year, I think we should give up something that may just change our lives permanently.

So, take stock of your life. What are your bad habits or things you want to change? I have heard that it takes 21 days to change a habit. That gives us 19 extra days to work with. What do you want to change? What are you afraid of? Can you face that fear and change it? It has been said that our ultimate fear is the fear of death. Don’t fear that this is going to be a psychological diatribe about fearing death. It’s not. Suffice it to say that Jesus came to reconcile us with God, free us from the fear of death and dying and give us the assurance of eternal life. That’s why we pass through Lent and celebrate Easter.

While we think about change and fear during Lent, let’s take death off the table and concentrate on something else. For Lent I think you should consider changing how you feel about the negativity in life and search for the positive. Don’t hate, love. Don’t panic, take a deep breath. Don’t think differences are bad, embrace them. Don’t let fear guide you, make an effort to understand what you are afraid of. Don’t judge someone or something based on ignorance, learn about it. You might be surprised to see that your fears are unfounded and that your life can be enriched by your new found knowledge. Don’t let fear paralyze you. Be brave. Find the courage to face something you fear and give it up for Lent.

Joan Shisler

Lent: Not Just About Giving Up Chocolate

I borrow the title for this blog entry from an article from Lubbock Online, the internet home of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. It picks up our theme for this blog, questioning the prevalent idea that  giving up something for Lent is what you are "supposed to do."

Incorporating a new practice is becoming increasingly common, said the Rev. Edson Way of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church. Some people choose to adopt disciplines like Bible study or volunteering — activities that are, Way said, “motivated toward self-improvement and improvement of the surrounding world.”

You can read the whole article at Lent: Not Just About Giving Up Chocolate.

So, what are your hopes and plans for beginning a new practice?  Please let us know by clicking on the "comments" link just below this article.  You will be asked to copy the letters in the word verification box when you are done, to prevent spam/robot comments.

Never responded to a blog before?  Maybe you can make that your new practice in Lent, to comment on this new way of sharing community?

Bruce Calvin