Good News Will Make You Crazy

In Common Prayer, a Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals, authors Shane Clarborne, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove and Enuma Okoro have compiled a variety of devotional resources.

Their prayers for Monday of Holy Week are based upon the story in Mark 14:3-9, of the woman who anointed the feet of Jesus - a radical act of devotion. They include these words of Emmanuel Katongole, a contemporary Ugandan theologian.

Mary represents the ‘rebel consciousness’ that is essential to Jesus’ gospel. Wherever the gospel is preached, we must remember that its good news will make you crazy. Jesus will put you at odds with the economic and political systems of our world. This gospel will force you to act, interrupting the world as it is in ways that make even pious people indignant.

They close with this prayer:

While we sat in darkness, Lord Jesus Christ, you interrupted us with your life. Make us, your people, a holy interruption so that by your Spirit's power we may live as a light to the nations, even as we stumble through this world’s dark night. Amen. 

In closing, I leave you with this blessing for Holy Week:

May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ go with you, wherever he may send you;
may he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm;
may he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you;
may he bring you home rejoicing, once again into our doors.

Father Showers

Forward Day by Day

If you looking for an easy-to-use way to take a few minutes everyday to read some scripture, read a short commentary, and pray, Forward Movement Publications has several formats that you can use. This company

is an official, non-profit agency whose mission is to reinvigorate the Episcopal Church day by day. Since 1935 we have published the quarterly devotional Forward Day by Day, as well as pamphlets, booklets, and books that encourage and nourish people in their lives of prayer and faith.

Forward Day by Day is a small booklet which is available at all of the worship locations in the parish at no cost.  Each day it lists recommended readings from the Psalms, the Hebrew Scripture, New Testament letters, and Gospel.  There is a short reflection on one verse or short section of one reading exploring the meaning of that passage.  There is also a request to pray for a diocese, program or service related to the Anglican Communion across the globe.  You can use as much, or little, of these materials as you desire or have time.  If you read the all of the scripture passages over a period of three years, you will have read through the Psalms and Gospels several times, and covered significant portions of the Hebrew Scriptures and letters. 

The authors of the scripture reflection change each month, so there is a chance to experience a variety of perspectives and writing styles.  Writers include ordinary people as well as church professionals.  For this month, there is a very powerful writer, described as an

Oklahoma prison inmate who first wrote in these pages in 1998. He was paroled in 2003 and is now working as a substance abuse counselor.

If you prefer an electronic option, you can read Today's Meditation on your computer, friend it on Facebook, follow the Twitter feeds, and soon they will make it available in various mobile platforms.  This is convenient, since you can also access the scripture readings digitally rather than need to carry around your Bible. There is also the option to read and leave your own comments about the reflection of the day on the web page.

There are a variety of other resources provided, including How to Use, a Morning Resolve, and a Prayer Chapel which includes a place to submit a prayer request, light a digital candle, and a library of prayers from the Book of Common Prayer and other sources.

I use the booklet myself to read, mark and inwardly digest scripture everyday, and highly recommend these materials.

Bruce Calvin

Lent for Children

The internet is a unique entity. It’s also hard to describe. Since I’ve been contributing to this blog, several things have happened to me. 

1. I have not had chocolate. Not intentionally, but just because the temptation did not present itself. 
2. I have been thinking quite a bit about my relationship with God, my faith and my church. More questions than answers have evolved out of that. 
3. I have been googling several Lenten words on the internet and have inadvertently been taken to several sites that have intrigued me.

I would like to share two of those sites I landed on that I believe will increase your Lenten awareness, particularly but not exclusively, if you have young children around you.

The first one is Aslan’s Library and it deals with theological books for children. The article that caught my eye is entitled, Walking Through Lent With Children.

Celebrating religion and faith is a personal experience, but it should also include family and specifically children. As you read this article, you will arrive at the second site designed for families. It is called This Classical Life and the article is “Lent at Home.”

I am tempted to make the gingerbread pancakes and the pretzels just for fun. The prayers, recipes and other links are equally intriguing. I am anxious to see where these musing will take us all now. . .

Joan Shisler

Lent and the "Three Legged Stool"

As a child, a cradle Episcopalian, Lent was mysterious, dreaded and made little sense. As children, we were told that we must give up something for Lent. No, giving up helping to wash the dinner dishes did not count. We had to give up something we liked, such as candy. So for me it really was chocolate! The Sunday before Ash Wednesday, our Sunday school teachers would chart the things each child was giving up. Then each Sunday we report to the class on our progress. Few, if any of us, ever kept our fast for the entire 40 days. When we reported that we had failed, we were treated like sinners - told to repent, pray and try harder the next week. Why we were doing all this was never explained - or at least it did not stick with me. Something about helping us to better understand how Jesus suffered and to just have faith. Lent was dreaded. It stood for dreary, sometimes scary music, bare altars, meatless meals on Wednesdays and Fridays and church school on Wednesday afternoon as well as Sunday. Looking back on it all, it is amazing that I remained an Episcopalian.

Then this Sunday afternoon my grandson reminded me once again why I am an Episcopalian. He is participating in the confirmation class for teens. This week's lesson was on the "Three Legged Stool" theology of the Episcopal church based on Scripture, Tradition and Reason. After our discussion, I was thrilled to realize he "gets it" and understands how important these three legs are to an Episcopalian. He understands Lent and many other aspects of the Episcopal church far better than I did as a teen because along the way people have taken the time to use the "three legged stool" to explain our faith to him and not simply state as I received, "You just have to believe and have faith".

As an adult, I have applied the "Three Legged Stool" to my personal practice of Lent. At first it was an unconscious or subconscious exercise, but now it is very purposeful. No more giving up chocolate. Now I look forward to Lent. It is a time I set aside for personal renewal and spiritual growth. I do not give up something, but try to add something to my spiritual journey. Just as I evaluate my secular life at the beginning of each new year, I do the same during Lent for my spiritual life. I take a good hard look at my journey and new horizons for myself. I use the parts of the three legged stool. For scripture, I make this a time to read something that will aid my scriptural understanding. This year I am reading "The Last Week" by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan about what the Gospels teach us about Jesus' final days in Jerusalem. For tradition, I am trying to better understand "my neighbor" in two areas of the world by reading "Neighbor", by Ben Daniel, a book about illegal immigration and the book "Haiti" by Philippe Girard. Armed with this new knowledge, I rely on meditation and prayer to help me better glimpse the path God wants me to follow for this next part of my life. Using the "three legged stool" I have come to believe that you find God in the "stranger " and a part of the kingdom of God lies within ourselves. During each Lent I do not give up something, but ask God to guide me as I seek him and his kingdom. .

Dandy

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?