| This Easter and Eastertide we find ourselves in a very strange place indeed. Having received an extra heaping helping of Lent, wanted or unwanted, we all are adjusting to a new normal, facing uncertainty, and many encountering in small and big ways what Nadia Bolz-Weber has rightly named a Pandemic of Grief. An Easter Sunday with empty churches, phone calls instead of hugs, and physical distancing will be strange to say the very least. However this season, both Lent, which we are exiting, and Easter Tide, which we will be entering, offers something for us uniquely suited to our current reality. Lent invites us into stillness, self exploration, fasting (not just food!), surrender, letting go, preparation, and compassion. Easter week invites us into grief and compassion (Good Friday), which transforms into the hope and celebration (gratitude) of the resurrection. All the while we are surrounded by more grace and love than we will ever know. In this year “2020” may these spiritual gifts and practices help us to see clearly. We all have our lense through which we see the world, some call a world-view. May our lenses be filled with the Holy Spirit. May they be ones of gratitude, compassion, and hope. May our social distancing be an opportunity for stillness, surrender, and letting go. May we live into “yes, and”, honor our grief and the grief of others with compassion while also holding gratitude and hope. May we see God’s constant outpouring of love and grace that like the Easter event, like the Valley of Dry Bones, continues to transform, transmute, and resurrect. |
| The word “Tenebrae” comes from the Latin meaning “darkness.” The Tenebrae is an ancient Christian service that makes use of gradually diminishing light through the extinguishing of candles to symbolize the events of the last two days of Jesus life. Online Holy Week Gatherings: Holy Week Silent Prayer 12:15pm| https://zoom.us/j/735301950 Maundy Thursday Tenebrae 7pm Good Friday Tenebrae 7pm | https://zoom.us/j/811432836 Easter Celebration 11AM |
| Online Weekly Schedule: Silent Prayer Sits Weekdays 12:15pm-12:45pm: https://zoom.us/j/735301950 Lectio Divina Thursday’s 5:30pm: https://zoom.us/j/264971819 Contemplative Movement Friday’s 5:30pm-6:30pm:https://zoom.us/j/386874404 House Church Sunday’s 4pm-5pm: https://zoom.us/j/993530287 |
| “I Worried” by Mary Oliver I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers flow in the right direction, will the earth turn as it was taught, and if not how shall I correct it? Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven, can I do better? Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows can do it and I am, well, hopeless. Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it, am I going to get rheumatism, lockjaw, dementia? Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing. And gave it up. And took my old body and went out into the morning, and sang.” ― Mary Oliver, Swan: Poems and Prose Poems |