20/01/07 weel of Epiphany 2
20/01/07 in the week of Epiphany 2
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]
Collect
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ¹s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 30, 32; Psalm 42, 43;Isa. 46:1-13; Eph. 6:10-24; Mark 5:1-20
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 5:1-20. "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most High God?"
Mark lived in a demon-besotted world. The closest I have ever come to understanding what it would be like to find demons in every corner is to think about the way people talked about germs when I was growing up. Germs were everywhere, but you couldn't see them, and they could get into you and harm you without your ever knowing it. Germs were scary. So are the demons that haunt the Palestinian landscape in Mark. But Mark's demons are scary with a difference. Have you ever noticed that for most of Mark's gospel the demons are the only living creatures that immediately recognize Jesus for who he is--Son of the most High God, the One who will clear the world of demons and make lives whole again? There's something almost comic about the way the demons flee from Jesus at every turn in this gospel. But this divine comedy of healing is not just slapstick. Stories like this in Mark arouse all our fears of shame and entrapment by the demons that haunt our own world, but then aim to release us from such fears by recounting Jesus' powerful acts of healing and reconciliation. Like the crowds who witness these miracles, we too are released from despair to amazement, from fear to faith, from the mute acceptance of things-as-they-are to a joyful conversion of life.
++++++++++
Today we remember:
Fabian, Bishop of Rome
Psalm 110:1-4 or 126; 2 Esdras 2:42-48; Matthew 10:16-22
O God, who in your providence called your servant Fabian to the office of Bishop, and guided him so to strengthen thy Church that it stood fast in the day of persecution: Grant that those whom you call to any ministry in the Church may be obedient to your call in all humility, and be enabled to carry out their tasks with diligence and faithfulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
read more: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Fabian.htm or
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Fabian
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Machakos (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
We continue to observe the week long prayers for Christian Unity:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/wop-index.html
God, our Father,
here we are your people meeting together in service to adore you.
We humble ourselves as your church universal
in celebrating and bringing to our memory
that you gave yourself up for the whole world.
Join our hearts together that it may be known that we are your children,
that your presence will be among us,
and we may keep unity in the bonds of peace,
which you prepare in the covenant we have with your Son, Jesus Christ.
(Zephanie Kameeta, Namibia. In: “Why, O Lord?” © 1986, WCC, p. 47)
O Lord, open my eyes
that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succour.
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor,
because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for you.
(Shona prayer, Zimbabwe. In: “The Prayers of African Religion”, John Mbiti © 1975 SPCK, London, U.K. In the US: Orbis Books, Maryknoll NY, USA, 1975, pp. 148-49.)
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Come, then, O beautiful soul. Since you know now that your desired Beloved lives hidden within your heart, strive to be really hidden with Him, and you will embrace Him within you and experience Him with loving affection.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 1.8
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Yearning for Perfect Love
When we act out of loneliness our actions easily become violent. The tragedy is that much violence comes from a demand for love. When loneliness drives our search for love, kissing easily leads to biting, caressing to hitting, looking tenderly to looking suspiciously, listening to overhearing, and surrender to rape. The human heart yearns for love: love without conditions, limitations, or restrictions. But no human being is capable of offering such love, and each time we demand it we set ourselves on the road to violence.
How then can we live nonviolent lives? We must start by realizing that our restless hearts, yearning for perfect love, can only find that love through communion with the One who created them.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
(20) We as Tertiaries endeavour to serve others in active work. We try
to find expression for each of the three aims of the Order in our lives,
and whenever possible actively help others who are engaged in similar
work. The chief form of service which we have to offer is to reflect the
love of Christ, who, in His beauty and power, is the inspiration and joy
of our lives.
O God, by the life of blessed Francis You moved Your people to a love of
simple things: may we, after his example, hold lightly to the things of
this world and store up for ourselves treasure in heaven through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Gift of Prayer Within Us"
A Hasidic Jew said, to be able to experience ourselves as givers of energy, we have somehow to know ourselves as God (here you find a thin line between truth and illusion!). We have to know who we belong to, we have to believe in the divine indwelling, we have to trust our souls. The Hasidic Jew said something beautiful: "When I pray I'm God." Prayer itself is God. It's not an activity to get God to like me, or to talk to God. It's not something that I do for God; prayer is God ion me loving God outside of me, and God outside of me loving God in me. The Spirit is the gift of prayer within us (see Romans 8:26-27). A lot of us feel unhappy with our prayer lives. I always tell this to people on retreats: I don't really care where you are in the stages of prayer, just ask yourself, Do you desire to pray? As long as the desire to pray is there the Spirit is still alive in you. When there isn't even the desire, then you are in trouble.
from A Man’s Approach to God
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html
Jesus teaches
How blessed and virtuous is the spiritual intoxication that gives us time and opportunity to contemplate our beloved! Yet what we see has a dreamlike quality, because this kind of vision is not the result of human will or effort, nor of any searching on our part; it is something that dawns upon us like a visitation from heaven.
Whose voice can be compared with the voice of Jesus? His teaching and precepts comprise the sum total of perfection, and his voice has the power to stir its hearers to the heart. It penetrates like a two-edged sword, enabling his message to flow into the heart with a gentle persuasion such as no other teaching has ever been able to command. He makes no high-sounding speeches, yet his words reveal the deep mystery of the Godhead.
In times past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son, with the strong, powerful accents of a lover.
Gilbert of Hoyland, (~1172), a Cistercian, wrote in the style of Saint Bernard, whose commentary on the Song of Songs he completed.
read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_of_Hoyland
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/
Jan. 20 - May 21 - Sept. 20
Place your hope in God alone. If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself, but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge.
Grace and goodness come from God, the Rule insists. We are not the sole authors of our own story. What does come from us, though, are the decisions we make in the face of the graces we receive. We can either respond to each life grace and become what we might be in every situation, whatever the effort, or we can reject the impulses that the magnate in us called goodness brings in favor of being less than we ought to be.
It is those decisions that we must bend our lives to better.
Live in fear of the day of judgment and have a great horror of hell. Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire. Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. Hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do, aware that God's gaze is upon you, wherever you may be. As soon as wrongful thoughts come into your heart, dash them against Christ and disclose them to your spiritual guide. Guard your lips from harmful or deceptive speech.
Motives for the spiritual life change as we change, grow as we grow. At earlier stages it is the fear of punishment that controls passions not yet spent. At a more developed stage, it is the desire for ceaseless life that impels us. At another point, it is the shattering awareness of our own mortality that brings us to brave the thought of a life beyond life and its claim on us.
Whatever the motive, Benedict reminds us that the consciousness of God's presence, behind us, within us, in front of us demands a change of heart, a change of attention from us. From now on we must think differently and tell a different truth.
Prefer moderation in speech and speak no foolish chatter, nothing just to provoke laughter; do not love immoderate or boisterous laughter.
A Jewish proverb reads: "Not every heart that laughs is cheerful" and Ben Sirach taught in Ecclesiasticus,21:20 "Fools raise their voices when they laugh, but the wise smile quietly."
Unlike a culture that passionately pursues unmitigated and undisciplined bliss, Benedict wants moderation, balance, control in everything. Life, he knows, is more than one long party. He wants a spirituality in which people are happy but not boisterously unaware of life in all its aspects, responsive but thoughtful, personable but serious. He wants us to keep everything in perspective. Benedict warns us over and over again in the Rule not to be overtaken, consumed, swept up, swallowed by anything because, no matter how good the thing that absorbs us, we lose other goods in life because of our total lack of discipline about a single part of it.
The Talmud writes: The Torah may be likened to two paths, one of fire, the other of snow. Turn in one direction,and you die of heat; turn to the other and you die of the cold. What should you do? Walk in the middle. (Hagigah, 2:1)
++++++++++
The Almost Daily Emo:
"JESUS GOES TO HIS HIGH SCHOOL REUNION" AND "GLADTO BE ALIVE"
Today's eMo is really two different meditations on texts that will be read in many churches this Sunday. The first is the usual sermon preparation eMo. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the church's work with the poor and those who suffer from the effects of war or natural disaster, deals with the ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attibution. No further permission is necessary.
+
Jesus Goes To His High School Reunion
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. -- Luke 4:7-8
Five years out, you're worried. You feel, in fact, as if you were still in high school: I wonder if so-and-so will be there, and if he's still a bully? I wonder if my old boyfriend will be there, and if he ever thinks of me? Will anyone bring up the embarrassing thing that happened to me in 11th grade?
Ten years out, you wonder if others are more successful than you are. You try to gauge that by looking at them, but it's hard to tell. You are shocked to see that some of the guys are now almost completely bald, and you understand the current head-shaving trend in a sympathetic new light.
Fifteen years out, you're too busy to go.
At twenty, people who used to be lean as snakes all have tummies. Two of them don't, though; they look just as they did when you were all eighteen. Jerks. But you decide to be a bigger person than that, and so you talk to one of the beautiful sleek ones, and right away you remember why you liked her so much. And one of the bullies seems not to remember how mean he was to you. He seeks you out. He is really interested in your work and he gives you his card.
Your math teacher says it's all right to call him Frank now, but you find that you cannot. He will always be Mr. Brown. He smiles and nods.
People you didn't really know then turn out to be lovely people. Even people you disliked have finally grown up and turned out all right. You finally grew up and turned out all right. Who would have thought it?
Jesus' trip home turned out a little like your most nightmarish imagining of your high school reunion -- at the end of the visit, they tried to kill him. They seemed unable to let him change, become the adult God had ordained for him to become. So he had to leave. Didn't go to the next one, I guess.
Thank God, none of us remain as we were. Nothing and no one remains as it was, not a thing in all the world. Everything has a destiny, and everything heads toward it. Don't bother trying not to go there. Save your energy for the journey.
+
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
+
And here is the ERD meditation:
Glad To Be Alive
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. -- I Corinthians 12:26
What is it like to survive an event like Hurricane Katrina? I'd just be glad to be alive! we say to ourselves as our hearts go out to the children involved and we try to imagine their experience, and "glad to be alive" would certainly be one feeling a person would have. But there are others. Survival is anything but simple.
Susie and her three daughters found that their response was much more complicated than just "glad to be alive." They moved from place to place to place, as she struggled to keep three young girls safe from the chaos immediately following the disaster. Finally, they made it to Susie's mother in Minnesota.
Safe at last, we think. But again there was more to it than just "safe at last." The girls were traumatized by all that had happened. They awoke screaming from dreadful nightmares. They couldn't eat. They were too frightened to go to school. Susie decided to home school them, but she herself was shaken and afraid, and it didn't go as well as she had hoped. She had a hard time sleeping at night. In the daytime, tears often overtook her without warning. Where had her life gone?
With the help of Katrina Aid Today, an interfaith consortium of which Episcopal Relief and Development is a member, Susie received counseling and employment help. KAT sent her girls to Camp Noah, a program specifically designed to help children who have survived a major flood.
The fear that had paralyzed the family began to dissipate under the wise care of people who knew just how to help. The girls began to think of the future again, as well as of the frightening months just past. They began to talk of going back to school, and soon they were back, and excited to be there.
At last, Katrina is taking its place in the past for Susie and her children. They survived it. They made it. At last, "glad to be alive" begins to make some sense to them. Glad to be alive. Glad to have each other. And glad to have found the help they so desperately needed.
+ To learn more about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext 5129.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]
Collect
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ¹s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 30, 32; Psalm 42, 43;Isa. 46:1-13; Eph. 6:10-24; Mark 5:1-20
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 5:1-20. "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the most High God?"
Mark lived in a demon-besotted world. The closest I have ever come to understanding what it would be like to find demons in every corner is to think about the way people talked about germs when I was growing up. Germs were everywhere, but you couldn't see them, and they could get into you and harm you without your ever knowing it. Germs were scary. So are the demons that haunt the Palestinian landscape in Mark. But Mark's demons are scary with a difference. Have you ever noticed that for most of Mark's gospel the demons are the only living creatures that immediately recognize Jesus for who he is--Son of the most High God, the One who will clear the world of demons and make lives whole again? There's something almost comic about the way the demons flee from Jesus at every turn in this gospel. But this divine comedy of healing is not just slapstick. Stories like this in Mark arouse all our fears of shame and entrapment by the demons that haunt our own world, but then aim to release us from such fears by recounting Jesus' powerful acts of healing and reconciliation. Like the crowds who witness these miracles, we too are released from despair to amazement, from fear to faith, from the mute acceptance of things-as-they-are to a joyful conversion of life.
++++++++++
Today we remember:
Fabian, Bishop of Rome
Psalm 110:1-4 or 126; 2 Esdras 2:42-48; Matthew 10:16-22
O God, who in your providence called your servant Fabian to the office of Bishop, and guided him so to strengthen thy Church that it stood fast in the day of persecution: Grant that those whom you call to any ministry in the Church may be obedient to your call in all humility, and be enabled to carry out their tasks with diligence and faithfulness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
read more: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Fabian.htm or
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Fabian
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Machakos (Kenya)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
We continue to observe the week long prayers for Christian Unity:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/wop-index.html
God, our Father,
here we are your people meeting together in service to adore you.
We humble ourselves as your church universal
in celebrating and bringing to our memory
that you gave yourself up for the whole world.
Join our hearts together that it may be known that we are your children,
that your presence will be among us,
and we may keep unity in the bonds of peace,
which you prepare in the covenant we have with your Son, Jesus Christ.
(Zephanie Kameeta, Namibia. In: “Why, O Lord?” © 1986, WCC, p. 47)
O Lord, open my eyes
that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succour.
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor,
because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for you.
(Shona prayer, Zimbabwe. In: “The Prayers of African Religion”, John Mbiti © 1975 SPCK, London, U.K. In the US: Orbis Books, Maryknoll NY, USA, 1975, pp. 148-49.)
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
Come, then, O beautiful soul. Since you know now that your desired Beloved lives hidden within your heart, strive to be really hidden with Him, and you will embrace Him within you and experience Him with loving affection.
St John of the Cross
Spiritual Canticle, 1.8
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Yearning for Perfect Love
When we act out of loneliness our actions easily become violent. The tragedy is that much violence comes from a demand for love. When loneliness drives our search for love, kissing easily leads to biting, caressing to hitting, looking tenderly to looking suspiciously, listening to overhearing, and surrender to rape. The human heart yearns for love: love without conditions, limitations, or restrictions. But no human being is capable of offering such love, and each time we demand it we set ourselves on the road to violence.
How then can we live nonviolent lives? We must start by realizing that our restless hearts, yearning for perfect love, can only find that love through communion with the One who created them.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
(20) We as Tertiaries endeavour to serve others in active work. We try
to find expression for each of the three aims of the Order in our lives,
and whenever possible actively help others who are engaged in similar
work. The chief form of service which we have to offer is to reflect the
love of Christ, who, in His beauty and power, is the inspiration and joy
of our lives.
O God, by the life of blessed Francis You moved Your people to a love of
simple things: may we, after his example, hold lightly to the things of
this world and store up for ourselves treasure in heaven through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Gift of Prayer Within Us"
A Hasidic Jew said, to be able to experience ourselves as givers of energy, we have somehow to know ourselves as God (here you find a thin line between truth and illusion!). We have to know who we belong to, we have to believe in the divine indwelling, we have to trust our souls. The Hasidic Jew said something beautiful: "When I pray I'm God." Prayer itself is God. It's not an activity to get God to like me, or to talk to God. It's not something that I do for God; prayer is God ion me loving God outside of me, and God outside of me loving God in me. The Spirit is the gift of prayer within us (see Romans 8:26-27). A lot of us feel unhappy with our prayer lives. I always tell this to people on retreats: I don't really care where you are in the stages of prayer, just ask yourself, Do you desire to pray? As long as the desire to pray is there the Spirit is still alive in you. When there isn't even the desire, then you are in trouble.
from A Man’s Approach to God
++++++++++
From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html
Jesus teaches
How blessed and virtuous is the spiritual intoxication that gives us time and opportunity to contemplate our beloved! Yet what we see has a dreamlike quality, because this kind of vision is not the result of human will or effort, nor of any searching on our part; it is something that dawns upon us like a visitation from heaven.
Whose voice can be compared with the voice of Jesus? His teaching and precepts comprise the sum total of perfection, and his voice has the power to stir its hearers to the heart. It penetrates like a two-edged sword, enabling his message to flow into the heart with a gentle persuasion such as no other teaching has ever been able to command. He makes no high-sounding speeches, yet his words reveal the deep mystery of the Godhead.
In times past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son, with the strong, powerful accents of a lover.
Gilbert of Hoyland, (~1172), a Cistercian, wrote in the style of Saint Bernard, whose commentary on the Song of Songs he completed.
read more: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilbert_of_Hoyland
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/
Jan. 20 - May 21 - Sept. 20
Place your hope in God alone. If you notice something good in yourself, give credit to God, not to yourself, but be certain that the evil you commit is always your own and yours to acknowledge.
Grace and goodness come from God, the Rule insists. We are not the sole authors of our own story. What does come from us, though, are the decisions we make in the face of the graces we receive. We can either respond to each life grace and become what we might be in every situation, whatever the effort, or we can reject the impulses that the magnate in us called goodness brings in favor of being less than we ought to be.
It is those decisions that we must bend our lives to better.
Live in fear of the day of judgment and have a great horror of hell. Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire. Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. Hour by hour keep careful watch over all you do, aware that God's gaze is upon you, wherever you may be. As soon as wrongful thoughts come into your heart, dash them against Christ and disclose them to your spiritual guide. Guard your lips from harmful or deceptive speech.
Motives for the spiritual life change as we change, grow as we grow. At earlier stages it is the fear of punishment that controls passions not yet spent. At a more developed stage, it is the desire for ceaseless life that impels us. At another point, it is the shattering awareness of our own mortality that brings us to brave the thought of a life beyond life and its claim on us.
Whatever the motive, Benedict reminds us that the consciousness of God's presence, behind us, within us, in front of us demands a change of heart, a change of attention from us. From now on we must think differently and tell a different truth.
Prefer moderation in speech and speak no foolish chatter, nothing just to provoke laughter; do not love immoderate or boisterous laughter.
A Jewish proverb reads: "Not every heart that laughs is cheerful" and Ben Sirach taught in Ecclesiasticus,21:20 "Fools raise their voices when they laugh, but the wise smile quietly."
Unlike a culture that passionately pursues unmitigated and undisciplined bliss, Benedict wants moderation, balance, control in everything. Life, he knows, is more than one long party. He wants a spirituality in which people are happy but not boisterously unaware of life in all its aspects, responsive but thoughtful, personable but serious. He wants us to keep everything in perspective. Benedict warns us over and over again in the Rule not to be overtaken, consumed, swept up, swallowed by anything because, no matter how good the thing that absorbs us, we lose other goods in life because of our total lack of discipline about a single part of it.
The Talmud writes: The Torah may be likened to two paths, one of fire, the other of snow. Turn in one direction,and you die of heat; turn to the other and you die of the cold. What should you do? Walk in the middle. (Hagigah, 2:1)
++++++++++
The Almost Daily Emo:
"JESUS GOES TO HIS HIGH SCHOOL REUNION" AND "GLADTO BE ALIVE"
Today's eMo is really two different meditations on texts that will be read in many churches this Sunday. The first is the usual sermon preparation eMo. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the church's work with the poor and those who suffer from the effects of war or natural disaster, deals with the ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attibution. No further permission is necessary.
+
Jesus Goes To His High School Reunion
When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. -- Luke 4:7-8
Five years out, you're worried. You feel, in fact, as if you were still in high school: I wonder if so-and-so will be there, and if he's still a bully? I wonder if my old boyfriend will be there, and if he ever thinks of me? Will anyone bring up the embarrassing thing that happened to me in 11th grade?
Ten years out, you wonder if others are more successful than you are. You try to gauge that by looking at them, but it's hard to tell. You are shocked to see that some of the guys are now almost completely bald, and you understand the current head-shaving trend in a sympathetic new light.
Fifteen years out, you're too busy to go.
At twenty, people who used to be lean as snakes all have tummies. Two of them don't, though; they look just as they did when you were all eighteen. Jerks. But you decide to be a bigger person than that, and so you talk to one of the beautiful sleek ones, and right away you remember why you liked her so much. And one of the bullies seems not to remember how mean he was to you. He seeks you out. He is really interested in your work and he gives you his card.
Your math teacher says it's all right to call him Frank now, but you find that you cannot. He will always be Mr. Brown. He smiles and nods.
People you didn't really know then turn out to be lovely people. Even people you disliked have finally grown up and turned out all right. You finally grew up and turned out all right. Who would have thought it?
Jesus' trip home turned out a little like your most nightmarish imagining of your high school reunion -- at the end of the visit, they tried to kill him. They seemed unable to let him change, become the adult God had ordained for him to become. So he had to leave. Didn't go to the next one, I guess.
Thank God, none of us remain as we were. Nothing and no one remains as it was, not a thing in all the world. Everything has a destiny, and everything heads toward it. Don't bother trying not to go there. Save your energy for the journey.
+
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10
Psalm 19
1 Corinthians 12:12-31a
Luke 4:14-21
+
And here is the ERD meditation:
Glad To Be Alive
If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it. -- I Corinthians 12:26
What is it like to survive an event like Hurricane Katrina? I'd just be glad to be alive! we say to ourselves as our hearts go out to the children involved and we try to imagine their experience, and "glad to be alive" would certainly be one feeling a person would have. But there are others. Survival is anything but simple.
Susie and her three daughters found that their response was much more complicated than just "glad to be alive." They moved from place to place to place, as she struggled to keep three young girls safe from the chaos immediately following the disaster. Finally, they made it to Susie's mother in Minnesota.
Safe at last, we think. But again there was more to it than just "safe at last." The girls were traumatized by all that had happened. They awoke screaming from dreadful nightmares. They couldn't eat. They were too frightened to go to school. Susie decided to home school them, but she herself was shaken and afraid, and it didn't go as well as she had hoped. She had a hard time sleeping at night. In the daytime, tears often overtook her without warning. Where had her life gone?
With the help of Katrina Aid Today, an interfaith consortium of which Episcopal Relief and Development is a member, Susie received counseling and employment help. KAT sent her girls to Camp Noah, a program specifically designed to help children who have survived a major flood.
The fear that had paralyzed the family began to dissipate under the wise care of people who knew just how to help. The girls began to think of the future again, as well as of the frightening months just past. They began to talk of going back to school, and soon they were back, and excited to be there.
At last, Katrina is taking its place in the past for Susie and her children. They survived it. They made it. At last, "glad to be alive" begins to make some sense to them. Glad to be alive. Glad to have each other. And glad to have found the help they so desperately needed.
+ To learn more about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1-800-334-7626, ext 5129.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 12:06 PM
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