31/03/07
[PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS A "MENU" FROM WHICH TO PICK AND CHOOSE. PLEASE DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE TO PRAY ALL OF IT. PLEASE THINK OF IT AS A BUFFET OF THE DIFFERENT FLAVORS OF CHRISTIANITY. THANK YOU]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144; PM Psalm 42, 43
Jer. 31:27-34; Rom. 11:25-36; John 11:28-44 or 12:37-50
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Jeremiah 31:27-34. I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
At the end of our labyrinthine journey through March, we are called back to basics. Jeremiah reminds us that God has claimed our hearts, inscribed on them the law: love God and love your neighbor. This is to become our heartbeat, the very rhythm of our breathing. Breathe in the love of God; breathe out love for others. This is how one walks the labyrinth, in toward the center of the soul, back out into the world.
Lent itself is like a labyrinth, the twists and turns of Jeremiah's laments balanced by John's clear sense of Jesus as Messiah, with side roads down the psalms, interspersed with Paul's persuasive words to the church in Rome. The darkness of Lent is interrupted by celebrations of St. Joseph and the Annunciation (and St. Patrick's Day, whispers the ghost of my Irish grandmother). The heart of all our disparate roads and readings this month is that if we love God and tend to others' wellbeing, our own hearts in their deepest place will be well, and we can walk back out of the labyrinth of Lent into the light of the world. The journey always brings us home to Christ.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
John Donne
Psalm 27:5-11 or 16:5-11
Wisdom 7:24--8:1; John 5:19-24
Almighty God, the root and fountain of all being: Open our eyes to see, with your servant John Donne, that whatever has any being is a mirror in which we may behold you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Namibia (Southern Africa)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
34. YOUR CARBON FOOTRPINT
SAT 31 MAR
Take 10 or 20 minutes today to calculate your carbon footprint and become more aware of how you can make a difference in the battle to slow climate change.
> Calculate your footprint here:
http://www.bp.com/carboncalculator.do?categoryId=9008641&contentId=7025802
How can you reduce your carbon footprint? Visit Tearfund's climate change pentathlon and play their online game with creative ideas on how to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
> Play climate change pentathlon:
http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Climate+change+and+disasters/Pentathlon.htm
If you find the game useful, email the link to friends.
Idea by: James Alexander
Lent quote: "Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing." – Thérèse of Lisieux
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A Celtic Prayer
http://www.faithandworship.com
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child
one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanity
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as carpenter
and yet in whose creative hands a world was fashioned
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as fisherman
and yet pointed to a harvest that was yet to come
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as teacher
and opened eyes to truths that only
the poor could understand
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as healer
and opened hearts to the reality of wholeness
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as prophet, priest and king
and yet humbled himself
to take our place upon the cross
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as servant
and revealed to us the extent of his Father's love
for human kind
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus, who rose
from the ignominy of a sinner's death
to the triumph of a Saviour's resurrection
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
for the sake of me
and you
and other sinners too
God so loved the world
Blest are you Lord Jesus, our Saviour and Redeemer
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
By how many paths, in how many manners, through how many means do you reveal your love to us.
St Teresa of Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.
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Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
R. Shime'on said, Be careful in reading the Shema' and in Prayer; and when thou prayest, make not thy prayer
an ordinance, but an entreaty before God, blessed is He, for it is said, For God is compassionate and easily-entreated, longsuffering, and plenteous in grace; and be not wicked unto thyself.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Travelling With the Eyes of God
Travelling - seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people - is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, "How was your trip?" we might be less eager to go. Travelling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories.
This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people ... and be happy to return home.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
There is no reading on the 31st day of the month.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
PRAYER LEADS to a loving union with the Holy One but not for private enjoyment. Prayer draws us into unity with Christ, into communion and community. Compassionate action results, growing out of the love of God. We receive the love of God and return that love in grateful devotion. We pray, not to get what we want from God but to consent to what God wants. Prayer expresses relationship, sometimes with words, sometimes deeper than words can express.
- J. David Muyskens
Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God
From page 58 of Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God by J. David Muyskens. Copyright © 2006 by J. David Muyskens.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Foundation of Life"
We became convinced in nine years of community building at New Jerusalem that you can only build on life. All else is sand. You cannot build on fear, guilt coercion or even idealism. You cannot build on gospel passages, Church commandments or papal mandates unless they are ultimately putting you in touch with life. You cannot build on death. Unforgiveness, repressed hurts, denied feelings, unconscious anger will eventually show themselves as unfit foundations for community. They might appear to be energy in the short run, but they will in time show themselves to be negative energy, incapable of real life. "Wisdom has built herself a house" (Proverbs 9:1, JB). And wisdom knows that you can only build on the foundation of life. This journey into ever deeper life is the essence of faith community.
from Sojourners, "All of Life Together is a Stage"
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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.htm
The marvelous power of the cross
When Christ is lifted up on the cross do not let your inward gaze dwell only upon the appearance he had in the eyes of the wicked, to whom the word was addressed through Moses: Your life will hang before your eyes; night and day you shall be in dread, and have no assurance of your life.
Oh the marvelous power of the cross, the glory in the passion! No tongue can fully describe it. Here we see the judgment seat of the Lord, here sentence is passed upon the world, and there the sovereignty of the Crucified is revealed. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when you stretched out your hands all the day long to a people that denied and opposed you, until at last the whole world was brought to proclaim your majesty. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements combined to pronounce judgment in execration of that crime; when the lights of heaven were darkened and the day was turned into night; when the land was shaken by unwonted earthquakes, and all creation refused to serve those wicked people. Yes, Lord, you drew all things to yourself; the veil of the temple was torn in two and the Holy of Holies taken away from those unworthy high priests. Figures gave way to reality, prophecy to manifestation, law to gospel.
Leo the Great,(400 - 461), bishop of Rome, left many letters and sermons to attest to his teaching and preaching.
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
HEEDFULNESS V. HYPOCRISY IN OURSELVES
"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him Life for them that sin not unto death." 1 John 5:16
If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centres and forget that God says - ". . . he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.
One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us "life for them that sin not unto death." It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.
Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 49: On the Observance of Lent
Although the life of a monk
ought to have about it at all times
the character of a Lenten observance,
yet since few have the virtue for that,
we therefore urge that during the actual days of Lent
the brethren keep their lives most pure
and at the same time wash away during these holy days
all the negligences of other times.
And this will be worthily done
if we restrain ourselves from all vices
and give ourselves up to prayer with tears,
to reading, to compunction of heart and to abstinence.
During these days, therefore,
let us increase somewhat the usual burden of our service,
as by private prayers and by abstinence in food and drink.
Thus everyone of his own will may offer God
"with joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6)
something above the measure required of him.
From his body, that is
he may withhold some food, drink, sleep, talking and jesting;
and with the joy of spiritual desire
he may look forward to holy Easter.
Let each one, however, suggest to his Abbot
what it is that he wants to offer,
and let it be done with his blessing and approval.
For anything done without the permission of the spiritual father
will be imputed to presumption and vainglory
and will merit no reward.
Therefore let everything be done with the Abbot's approval.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
"Once upon a time," an ancient story tells, "the master had a visitor who came to inquire about Zen. But instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own concerns and giving his own thoughts.
"After a while, the master served tea. He poured tea into his visitor's cup until it was full and then he kept on pouring.
"Finally the visitor could not bear it any longer. 'Don't you see that my cup is full?' he said. 'It's not possible to get anymore in.'
"'Just so,' the master said, stopping at last. 'And like this cup, you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen unless you first empty your cup?'"
A monastic Lent is the process of emptying our cups. Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the spiritual stamina to say yes to its twists and turns with faith and with hope. Most interesting of all, perhaps, is the fact that Benedict wants us to do something beyond the normal requirement of our lives "of our own will." Not forced, not prescribed for us by someone else. Not required by the system, but taken upon ourselves because we want to be open to the God of darkness as well as to the God of light.
Benedict tells us that Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be. We applaud the concept in most things. We know, for instance, that even people who were married years ago have to keep working at that marriage, consciously, and intently every year thereafter or the marriage will fail no matter how established it seems. We know that people who own businesses take inventories and evaluations every year or the business fails. We too often fail to realize, however, that people who say that they want to find God in life have to work everyday, too, to bring that Presence into focus or the Presence will elude them no matter how present it is in theory.
An ancient people tell us that when the moment of a great teacher's death was near, the disciples said, "What is it we will see when you are gone?" And the Master said, "All I did was sit on the river bank handing out river water. After I'm gone I trust you will notice the water." Spiritual mentoring is a staple of the Benedictine tradition. The role of the abbot or prioress is to evaluate the directions the seeker intends to take. Like anything else, the spiritual life can become an elixir of novelties, a series of fads, an excursion into the whimsical. Benedict counsels the zealous to submit themselves to the scrutiny of wisdom so that the spiritual remedies they fancy have the merit of the tried and the true, the sensible and the measured. It is so easy to ply extremes and miss the river of tradition. This chapter reminds us that the purpose of personal restraint is to develop us, not to ravage our energies or confuse our perspective on life.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXIII
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"PALM SUNDAY POLITICS" AND "WOMEN DOING WHAT THEY CAN"
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 eMos. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the Church's ministry to the poor and those who suffer because of war or natural disaster, explores the work of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attribution. No further permission is necessary.
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Palm Sunday Politics
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen... Luke 19:37
One always wonders, at the beginning of this week, just how things could go so wrong, so quickly. Did people really cheer wildly for Jesus, vying for the honor of having his donkey track mud all over their their best clothes, only to call for his death within a matter of days?
Ah, but it was two different crowds, scholars tell us. It was ordinary people who were out on the street the day Jesus made his triumphal entrance. The ones who called for his execution were a different group -- more powerful people, people who had much to lose if his open resistance to corrupt power were to succeed. People who had long ago decided to get along by going along with an occupying power. They needed everybody to keep below the radar and not make waves. This would be the way to survive the occupation that humiliated Israel and threatened her always-shaky fidelity to God.
So ancient Israel was like 21st century America in one way -- it was not of one mind. People disagreed about what was right, and many felt that their very survival hinged that disagreement. Polarized, we might say today: what was right for one group looked disastrous to another.
Perhaps to both sides -- all sides -- Jesus looked like a leader in a political fight. He was crucified between two other political prisoners -- the word "bandit" was used to describe revolutionaries, and it is "bandit," not "thief," that appears in the oldest account.
For if politics is about the moral fabric of life together, Jesus was highly political. Does it impair our sense of Jesus' sonship to know that his struggle was political? It would if that were all we had of him. But we have so much more: the teaching, the healing, the example of prayer and intimacy with God.
To say nothing of what will happen in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday.
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At the Liturgy of the Palms: Luke 19:28-40
At the Liturgy of the Word: Isaiah 50:4-9a + Psalm 31:9-16 + Philippians 2:5-11 +Luke 22:14-23:56 or 23:1-49
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And here is the ERD meditation :
Women Doing What They Can
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. -- Luke 23:56
Because women in poor countries often lack the direct participatory power and decision-making authority in civic life we expect here, we sometimes think they have no power at all. This is a mistake.
The women watching the crucifixion of Jesus were probably invisible to the authorities overseeing the terrible event. Who would care about their presence? Certainly they could do nothing to prevent his death. But they took careful note of where he was laid to rest, so that they would remember where it was when they came to visit again. And then they went home and made preparations to do what they could do, which was to anoint the body of their dead brother. Because they were willing to do what they could do, it was to them that the first news of resurrection would come.
In 20 countries worldwide, Episcopal Relief and Development equips women living in poverty to do what they can do. It is rarely anything very big: a small business making and selling candles, cooking and selling food, making and selling baskets, selling eggs. With small loans, they begin to make small money. And then they make more. They reinvest, and make still more. Enough for a school uniform and books. Enough for other things.
In many towns, ERD money goes to dig a well, which is the single most important factor in fostering the education of girls. It is women and girls who draw water. A well nearby can make the difference between educating a girl and not educating her: she can spend the hours she would have spent walking back and forth to the river in school instead. And in school, she meets a teacher, perhaps a nurse: women who show her something of what she might become.
Worldwide, ERD money goes to preventive medicine for poor children. Mothers are trained in the use of anti-malarial mosquito nets, so that they need not watch their children die of the preventable disease. Mothers are given better seeds and farming tools for greater crop yields -- the majority of the world's farmers, after all, are women.
Poor women already know to do the next thing they can do. What we do is offer them a wider view of what that might be.
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To learn more about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1-80-334-7626,ext 5129.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
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Lazarus Saturday, March 31, 2007 Great Fast The Saturday Before
Palm Sunday
2nd Vespers Palm Sunday: Zephaniah 3:14-19 Epistle: Hebrews 12:28-13:8
Gospel: St. John 11:1-45
Victor Over Death: Zephaniah 3:14-19 LXX, especially vs. 16: "At that
time, the Lord, shall say to Jerusalem, Be of good courage Zion; let not
thine hands be slack. " When the Lord Jesus came into Bethany, there
were two prevailing opinions in the village concerning His visit: first,
if the Lord had arrived prior to Lazarus' death, He could have healed
him and prevented his dying (Jn. 11:21,32,37); and, second, since
Lazarus was now dead four days, there was no possibility of Jesus
restoring him to life (Jn. 11:23-24, 39).
During three years of ministry, the Lord had convinced many that He was
able to reverse illness and prevent death (Jn. 11:37). However, none
could imagine the possibility of Lazarus' revival after four days,
because of the manifest power of corruption after death (Jn. 11:39).
Even though the Lord had told His disciples that Lazarus was dead and
had assured them, "I go that I may wake him up" (Jn. 11:11-15), they
simply followed in silence. An aura of futility enervated hope in
everyone; their hands were "slack," overwhelmed by fatal assumptions
(Zeph. 3:16).
In considering the Gospel for this day, are you able even to imagine
yourself running through the streets of Bethany and shouting at
everyone, "God is in thee; the Mighty One shall save thee" (Zeph.
3:16,17)? In all honesty, probably even such an impulse - to imagine
doing this - is generated by familiarity with the outcome of the
narrative in St. John's Gospel. But how much of such a thought is the
result of deep conviction that God is able to remove death?
Nevertheless, let us consider the issue more carefully and heed the
Prophet Zephaniah's word.
Zephaniah exhorted God's People to sing, shout, rejoice, and "exult with
all your heart" (vs. 14), and he gave them reasons to do so. Likewise
in the raising of Lazarus after he was four days dead, the Lord Jesus
gave ample reason for people to shout, "Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes
in the Name of the Lord! The King of Israel!" (Jn. 12:13). Among them
were witnesses, "the people who were with Him when He called Lazarus out
of his tomb and raised him from the dead" (Jn. 12:17). But, St. John
tells us, others, who were not present at Lazarus' tomb also met the
Lord "because they heard that He had done this sign" (Jn. 12:18). Like
them, Beloved, we have the testimony of reliable witnesses - not just to
the raising of Lazarus, but to the reality of Jesus' own Resurrection
demonstrated by the Lord Himself just a few days later.
Look at why the Prophet urged the People to such exuberant celebration.
"The Lord has taken away the judgments against you" (Zeph. 3:15).
Consider next why all men die. Because "all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Hence, all of us are under God's
judgment of expulsion from Paradise (Gen. 3:3,24). But the Apostle
agrees with Zephaniah: "There is...now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
Are we not united to Christ if we "walk according to the Spirit" (Rom.
8:1)? Zephaniah further declares that God "ransomed thee from the hand
of thine enemies" (Zeph. 3:15). Not only at Lazarus' empty tomb but
from His own Light-filled tomb, the Lord Jesus cast out death,
corruption, and all tears. To cap off his reasoning, Zephaniah reminds
us that "the Lord, the King of Israel, is in the midst of thee" (vs.
15). And Christ is among us. He is and He shall be!
What evil should we fear now? Loss of income? Social ostracism?
Incurable cancer? Aging and death? The only evil that it is reasonable
to fear is the loss of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Listen
to Him: "Who has taken up a reproach against [you]? Behold, I will work
in thee for thy sake" (vss.17,18). The Lord Jesus will save those that
were oppressed, and receive them that were rejected; and "make them a
praise and honored in all the earth" (vs. 18).
O Vanquisher of death, Hosanna in the highest. Glory to Thy might, O
Savior!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
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Blessed are those for whom Easter is...
not a hunt, but a find;
not a greeting, but a proclamation;
not outward fashions, but inward grace;
not a day, but an eternity.
Collect
Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners: Grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what you promise; that, among the swift and varied changes of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
AM Psalm 137:1-6(7-9), 144; PM Psalm 42, 43
Jer. 31:27-34; Rom. 11:25-36; John 11:28-44 or 12:37-50
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Jeremiah 31:27-34. I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
At the end of our labyrinthine journey through March, we are called back to basics. Jeremiah reminds us that God has claimed our hearts, inscribed on them the law: love God and love your neighbor. This is to become our heartbeat, the very rhythm of our breathing. Breathe in the love of God; breathe out love for others. This is how one walks the labyrinth, in toward the center of the soul, back out into the world.
Lent itself is like a labyrinth, the twists and turns of Jeremiah's laments balanced by John's clear sense of Jesus as Messiah, with side roads down the psalms, interspersed with Paul's persuasive words to the church in Rome. The darkness of Lent is interrupted by celebrations of St. Joseph and the Annunciation (and St. Patrick's Day, whispers the ghost of my Irish grandmother). The heart of all our disparate roads and readings this month is that if we love God and tend to others' wellbeing, our own hearts in their deepest place will be well, and we can walk back out of the labyrinth of Lent into the light of the world. The journey always brings us home to Christ.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
John Donne
Psalm 27:5-11 or 16:5-11
Wisdom 7:24--8:1; John 5:19-24
Almighty God, the root and fountain of all being: Open our eyes to see, with your servant John Donne, that whatever has any being is a mirror in which we may behold you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Namibia (Southern Africa)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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40 Ideas for Lent: A Lenten calendar http://ship-of-fools.com/lent/index.html
34. YOUR CARBON FOOTRPINT
SAT 31 MAR
Take 10 or 20 minutes today to calculate your carbon footprint and become more aware of how you can make a difference in the battle to slow climate change.
> Calculate your footprint here:
http://www.bp.com/carboncalculator.do?categoryId=9008641&contentId=7025802
How can you reduce your carbon footprint? Visit Tearfund's climate change pentathlon and play their online game with creative ideas on how to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
> Play climate change pentathlon:
http://www.tearfund.org/Campaigning/Climate+change+and+disasters/Pentathlon.htm
If you find the game useful, email the link to friends.
Idea by: James Alexander
Lent quote: "Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing." – Thérèse of Lisieux
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A Celtic Prayer
http://www.faithandworship.com
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us a little child
one of us, flesh and blood to share in our humanity
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as carpenter
and yet in whose creative hands a world was fashioned
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as fisherman
and yet pointed to a harvest that was yet to come
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as teacher
and opened eyes to truths that only
the poor could understand
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as healer
and opened hearts to the reality of wholeness
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as prophet, priest and king
and yet humbled himself
to take our place upon the cross
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus who came to us as servant
and revealed to us the extent of his Father's love
for human kind
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
Blest are you, Lord Jesus, who rose
from the ignominy of a sinner's death
to the triumph of a Saviour's resurrection
For God so loved the world
ALL: That all might have eternal life
God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
for the sake of me
and you
and other sinners too
God so loved the world
Blest are you Lord Jesus, our Saviour and Redeemer
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
By how many paths, in how many manners, through how many means do you reveal your love to us.
St Teresa of Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
Abba Poemen said that Abba John said that the saints are like a group of trees, each bearing different fruit, but watered from the same source. The practices of one saint differ from those of another, but it is the same Spirit that works in all of them.
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Sayings of the Jewish Fathers (Pirqe Aboth)
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/sjf/index.htm
R. Shime'on said, Be careful in reading the Shema' and in Prayer; and when thou prayest, make not thy prayer
an ordinance, but an entreaty before God, blessed is He, for it is said, For God is compassionate and easily-entreated, longsuffering, and plenteous in grace; and be not wicked unto thyself.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Travelling With the Eyes of God
Travelling - seeing new sights, hearing new music, and meeting new people - is exciting and exhilarating. But when we have no home to return to where someone will ask us, "How was your trip?" we might be less eager to go. Travelling is joyful when we travel with the eyes and ears of those who love us, who want to see our slides and hear our stories.
This is what life is about. It is being sent on a trip by a loving God, who is waiting at home for our return and is eager to watch the slides we took and hear about the friends we made. When we travel with the eyes and ears of the God who sent us, we will see wonderful sights, hear wonderful sounds, meet wonderful people ... and be happy to return home.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
There is no reading on the 31st day of the month.
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
PRAYER LEADS to a loving union with the Holy One but not for private enjoyment. Prayer draws us into unity with Christ, into communion and community. Compassionate action results, growing out of the love of God. We receive the love of God and return that love in grateful devotion. We pray, not to get what we want from God but to consent to what God wants. Prayer expresses relationship, sometimes with words, sometimes deeper than words can express.
- J. David Muyskens
Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God
From page 58 of Forty Days to a Closer Walk with God by J. David Muyskens. Copyright © 2006 by J. David Muyskens.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Foundation of Life"
We became convinced in nine years of community building at New Jerusalem that you can only build on life. All else is sand. You cannot build on fear, guilt coercion or even idealism. You cannot build on gospel passages, Church commandments or papal mandates unless they are ultimately putting you in touch with life. You cannot build on death. Unforgiveness, repressed hurts, denied feelings, unconscious anger will eventually show themselves as unfit foundations for community. They might appear to be energy in the short run, but they will in time show themselves to be negative energy, incapable of real life. "Wisdom has built herself a house" (Proverbs 9:1, JB). And wisdom knows that you can only build on the foundation of life. This journey into ever deeper life is the essence of faith community.
from Sojourners, "All of Life Together is a Stage"
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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.htm
The marvelous power of the cross
When Christ is lifted up on the cross do not let your inward gaze dwell only upon the appearance he had in the eyes of the wicked, to whom the word was addressed through Moses: Your life will hang before your eyes; night and day you shall be in dread, and have no assurance of your life.
Oh the marvelous power of the cross, the glory in the passion! No tongue can fully describe it. Here we see the judgment seat of the Lord, here sentence is passed upon the world, and there the sovereignty of the Crucified is revealed. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when you stretched out your hands all the day long to a people that denied and opposed you, until at last the whole world was brought to proclaim your majesty. You drew all things to yourself, Lord, when all the elements combined to pronounce judgment in execration of that crime; when the lights of heaven were darkened and the day was turned into night; when the land was shaken by unwonted earthquakes, and all creation refused to serve those wicked people. Yes, Lord, you drew all things to yourself; the veil of the temple was torn in two and the Holy of Holies taken away from those unworthy high priests. Figures gave way to reality, prophecy to manifestation, law to gospel.
Leo the Great,(400 - 461), bishop of Rome, left many letters and sermons to attest to his teaching and preaching.
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Daily Readings From "My Utmost for His Highest", Oswald Chambers
http://www.myutmost.org/
HEEDFULNESS V. HYPOCRISY IN OURSELVES
"If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him Life for them that sin not unto death." 1 John 5:16
If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we turn our discernment into the gibe of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centres and forget that God says - ". . . he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." Take care lest you play the hypocrite by spending all your time trying to get others right before you worship God yourself.
One of the subtlest burdens God ever puts on us as saints is this burden of discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him and form the mind of Christ about them, and as we intercede on His line, God says He will give us "life for them that sin not unto death." It is not that we bring God into touch with our minds, but that we rouse ourselves until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.
Is Jesus Christ seeing of the travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with Himself that we are roused up to get His view about the people for whom we pray. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 49: On the Observance of Lent
Although the life of a monk
ought to have about it at all times
the character of a Lenten observance,
yet since few have the virtue for that,
we therefore urge that during the actual days of Lent
the brethren keep their lives most pure
and at the same time wash away during these holy days
all the negligences of other times.
And this will be worthily done
if we restrain ourselves from all vices
and give ourselves up to prayer with tears,
to reading, to compunction of heart and to abstinence.
During these days, therefore,
let us increase somewhat the usual burden of our service,
as by private prayers and by abstinence in food and drink.
Thus everyone of his own will may offer God
"with joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thess. 1:6)
something above the measure required of him.
From his body, that is
he may withhold some food, drink, sleep, talking and jesting;
and with the joy of spiritual desire
he may look forward to holy Easter.
Let each one, however, suggest to his Abbot
what it is that he wants to offer,
and let it be done with his blessing and approval.
For anything done without the permission of the spiritual father
will be imputed to presumption and vainglory
and will merit no reward.
Therefore let everything be done with the Abbot's approval.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
"Once upon a time," an ancient story tells, "the master had a visitor who came to inquire about Zen. But instead of listening, the visitor kept talking about his own concerns and giving his own thoughts.
"After a while, the master served tea. He poured tea into his visitor's cup until it was full and then he kept on pouring.
"Finally the visitor could not bear it any longer. 'Don't you see that my cup is full?' he said. 'It's not possible to get anymore in.'
"'Just so,' the master said, stopping at last. 'And like this cup, you are filled with your own ideas. How can you expect me to give you Zen unless you first empty your cup?'"
A monastic Lent is the process of emptying our cups. Lent is the time for trimming the soul and scraping the sludge off a life turned slipshod. Lent is about taking stock of time, even religious time. Lent is about exercising the control that enables us to say no to ourselves so that when life turns hard of its own accord we have the spiritual stamina to say yes to its twists and turns with faith and with hope. Most interesting of all, perhaps, is the fact that Benedict wants us to do something beyond the normal requirement of our lives "of our own will." Not forced, not prescribed for us by someone else. Not required by the system, but taken upon ourselves because we want to be open to the God of darkness as well as to the God of light.
Benedict tells us that Lent is the time to make new efforts to be what we say we want to be. We applaud the concept in most things. We know, for instance, that even people who were married years ago have to keep working at that marriage, consciously, and intently every year thereafter or the marriage will fail no matter how established it seems. We know that people who own businesses take inventories and evaluations every year or the business fails. We too often fail to realize, however, that people who say that they want to find God in life have to work everyday, too, to bring that Presence into focus or the Presence will elude them no matter how present it is in theory.
An ancient people tell us that when the moment of a great teacher's death was near, the disciples said, "What is it we will see when you are gone?" And the Master said, "All I did was sit on the river bank handing out river water. After I'm gone I trust you will notice the water." Spiritual mentoring is a staple of the Benedictine tradition. The role of the abbot or prioress is to evaluate the directions the seeker intends to take. Like anything else, the spiritual life can become an elixir of novelties, a series of fads, an excursion into the whimsical. Benedict counsels the zealous to submit themselves to the scrutiny of wisdom so that the spiritual remedies they fancy have the merit of the tried and the true, the sensible and the measured. It is so easy to ply extremes and miss the river of tradition. This chapter reminds us that the purpose of personal restraint is to develop us, not to ravage our energies or confuse our perspective on life.
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Church Fathers Lenten Reading Plan
Read Excerpts from the Church Fathers during Lent
http://www.churchyear.net/lentfathers.html
St. Cyril of Jerusalem: Catechetical Lectures: Lecture XXIII
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"PALM SUNDAY POLITICS" AND "WOMEN DOING WHAT THEY CAN"
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 eMos. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the Church's ministry to the poor and those who suffer because of war or natural disaster, explores the work of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attribution. No further permission is necessary.
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Palm Sunday Politics
As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen... Luke 19:37
One always wonders, at the beginning of this week, just how things could go so wrong, so quickly. Did people really cheer wildly for Jesus, vying for the honor of having his donkey track mud all over their their best clothes, only to call for his death within a matter of days?
Ah, but it was two different crowds, scholars tell us. It was ordinary people who were out on the street the day Jesus made his triumphal entrance. The ones who called for his execution were a different group -- more powerful people, people who had much to lose if his open resistance to corrupt power were to succeed. People who had long ago decided to get along by going along with an occupying power. They needed everybody to keep below the radar and not make waves. This would be the way to survive the occupation that humiliated Israel and threatened her always-shaky fidelity to God.
So ancient Israel was like 21st century America in one way -- it was not of one mind. People disagreed about what was right, and many felt that their very survival hinged that disagreement. Polarized, we might say today: what was right for one group looked disastrous to another.
Perhaps to both sides -- all sides -- Jesus looked like a leader in a political fight. He was crucified between two other political prisoners -- the word "bandit" was used to describe revolutionaries, and it is "bandit," not "thief," that appears in the oldest account.
For if politics is about the moral fabric of life together, Jesus was highly political. Does it impair our sense of Jesus' sonship to know that his struggle was political? It would if that were all we had of him. But we have so much more: the teaching, the healing, the example of prayer and intimacy with God.
To say nothing of what will happen in the early morning hours of Easter Sunday.
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At the Liturgy of the Palms: Luke 19:28-40
At the Liturgy of the Word: Isaiah 50:4-9a + Psalm 31:9-16 + Philippians 2:5-11 +Luke 22:14-23:56 or 23:1-49
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And here is the ERD meditation :
Women Doing What They Can
The women who had come with him from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. -- Luke 23:56
Because women in poor countries often lack the direct participatory power and decision-making authority in civic life we expect here, we sometimes think they have no power at all. This is a mistake.
The women watching the crucifixion of Jesus were probably invisible to the authorities overseeing the terrible event. Who would care about their presence? Certainly they could do nothing to prevent his death. But they took careful note of where he was laid to rest, so that they would remember where it was when they came to visit again. And then they went home and made preparations to do what they could do, which was to anoint the body of their dead brother. Because they were willing to do what they could do, it was to them that the first news of resurrection would come.
In 20 countries worldwide, Episcopal Relief and Development equips women living in poverty to do what they can do. It is rarely anything very big: a small business making and selling candles, cooking and selling food, making and selling baskets, selling eggs. With small loans, they begin to make small money. And then they make more. They reinvest, and make still more. Enough for a school uniform and books. Enough for other things.
In many towns, ERD money goes to dig a well, which is the single most important factor in fostering the education of girls. It is women and girls who draw water. A well nearby can make the difference between educating a girl and not educating her: she can spend the hours she would have spent walking back and forth to the river in school instead. And in school, she meets a teacher, perhaps a nurse: women who show her something of what she might become.
Worldwide, ERD money goes to preventive medicine for poor children. Mothers are trained in the use of anti-malarial mosquito nets, so that they need not watch their children die of the preventable disease. Mothers are given better seeds and farming tools for greater crop yields -- the majority of the world's farmers, after all, are women.
Poor women already know to do the next thing they can do. What we do is offer them a wider view of what that might be.
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To learn more about ERD, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1-80-334-7626,ext 5129.
Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org
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Lazarus Saturday, March 31, 2007 Great Fast The Saturday Before
Palm Sunday
2nd Vespers Palm Sunday: Zephaniah 3:14-19 Epistle: Hebrews 12:28-13:8
Gospel: St. John 11:1-45
Victor Over Death: Zephaniah 3:14-19 LXX, especially vs. 16: "At that
time, the Lord, shall say to Jerusalem, Be of good courage Zion; let not
thine hands be slack. " When the Lord Jesus came into Bethany, there
were two prevailing opinions in the village concerning His visit: first,
if the Lord had arrived prior to Lazarus' death, He could have healed
him and prevented his dying (Jn. 11:21,32,37); and, second, since
Lazarus was now dead four days, there was no possibility of Jesus
restoring him to life (Jn. 11:23-24, 39).
During three years of ministry, the Lord had convinced many that He was
able to reverse illness and prevent death (Jn. 11:37). However, none
could imagine the possibility of Lazarus' revival after four days,
because of the manifest power of corruption after death (Jn. 11:39).
Even though the Lord had told His disciples that Lazarus was dead and
had assured them, "I go that I may wake him up" (Jn. 11:11-15), they
simply followed in silence. An aura of futility enervated hope in
everyone; their hands were "slack," overwhelmed by fatal assumptions
(Zeph. 3:16).
In considering the Gospel for this day, are you able even to imagine
yourself running through the streets of Bethany and shouting at
everyone, "God is in thee; the Mighty One shall save thee" (Zeph.
3:16,17)? In all honesty, probably even such an impulse - to imagine
doing this - is generated by familiarity with the outcome of the
narrative in St. John's Gospel. But how much of such a thought is the
result of deep conviction that God is able to remove death?
Nevertheless, let us consider the issue more carefully and heed the
Prophet Zephaniah's word.
Zephaniah exhorted God's People to sing, shout, rejoice, and "exult with
all your heart" (vs. 14), and he gave them reasons to do so. Likewise
in the raising of Lazarus after he was four days dead, the Lord Jesus
gave ample reason for people to shout, "Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes
in the Name of the Lord! The King of Israel!" (Jn. 12:13). Among them
were witnesses, "the people who were with Him when He called Lazarus out
of his tomb and raised him from the dead" (Jn. 12:17). But, St. John
tells us, others, who were not present at Lazarus' tomb also met the
Lord "because they heard that He had done this sign" (Jn. 12:18). Like
them, Beloved, we have the testimony of reliable witnesses - not just to
the raising of Lazarus, but to the reality of Jesus' own Resurrection
demonstrated by the Lord Himself just a few days later.
Look at why the Prophet urged the People to such exuberant celebration.
"The Lord has taken away the judgments against you" (Zeph. 3:15).
Consider next why all men die. Because "all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God" (Rom. 3:23). Hence, all of us are under God's
judgment of expulsion from Paradise (Gen. 3:3,24). But the Apostle
agrees with Zephaniah: "There is...now no condemnation to those who are
in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).
Are we not united to Christ if we "walk according to the Spirit" (Rom.
8:1)? Zephaniah further declares that God "ransomed thee from the hand
of thine enemies" (Zeph. 3:15). Not only at Lazarus' empty tomb but
from His own Light-filled tomb, the Lord Jesus cast out death,
corruption, and all tears. To cap off his reasoning, Zephaniah reminds
us that "the Lord, the King of Israel, is in the midst of thee" (vs.
15). And Christ is among us. He is and He shall be!
What evil should we fear now? Loss of income? Social ostracism?
Incurable cancer? Aging and death? The only evil that it is reasonable
to fear is the loss of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ. Listen
to Him: "Who has taken up a reproach against [you]? Behold, I will work
in thee for thy sake" (vss.17,18). The Lord Jesus will save those that
were oppressed, and receive them that were rejected; and "make them a
praise and honored in all the earth" (vs. 18).
O Vanquisher of death, Hosanna in the highest. Glory to Thy might, O
Savior!
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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