Advent IV: A new hymnal introduces an Advent hymn new to me: Rejoice, rejoice take heart in the night. Though dark the winter and cheerless, the rising sun shall crown you with light; be strong and loving and fearless. LOVE BE OUR SONG AND LOVE OUR PRAYER AND LOVE OUR ENDLESS STORY; may God fill every day we share and bring us at last into glory. (Marty Haugen, 1983) It is after all about Love, this Advent-Christmas thing. And I... Read more
Advent III: Let all mortal flesh keep silence, and with fear and trembling stand; ponder nothing earthly minded, for with blessing in his hand, Christ our God to earth descended, our full homage to demand. (Liturgy of St. James, 4th Century) Much of the important preparation of Advent happens in silence. Zechariah lives in an imposed silence. Elizabeth is left without a conversation partner for most of her pregnancy. And surely Mary could only muse in silence as to the... Read more
Book Review for The Showings of Julian of Norwich: A New Translation by Mirabai Star Lady Julian is a longtime friend and teacher to me. She has been since I first read her Revelations of Divine Love in seminary. I wear a ring on my right hand that tells me “All will be well,” and I am able to turn the inner circle around the outer frame as a prayer or in times of anxiety. So I went to meet... Read more
Advent II: My city is full of potholes and cracked sidewalks. It was a critical talking point in the latest mayoral election–who was the candidate who would make our roads and paths viable so that we could get to where we go in safety? The Advent texts and hymns call us to this task this season: Make you straight what long was crooked, make the rougher places plain; let your hearts be true and humble, as befits God’s holy reign.... Read more
Advent Begins: Week I I have been wondering how to take the Advent charge to prepare the way for the coming of the Holy One into my little corner of the world, into my little sphere of influence. As often happens, I am given direction by sacred text in Scripture and in song. In this 17th Century Advent hymn, Joannes Olearius gives us this direction based on Isaiah 40: Comfort, comfort you my people, tell of peace, thus says our... Read more
When I sit down to eat with my beloved ones, we always begin by going around the table to name the things for which we are thankful! Depending on their age, each child and adult states quite concretely what it is that makes her or him grateful–dollies, hexbugs, friends, houses to live in, food to eat. I too am grateful for each tangible gift that Grace brings in to my life. However, this year I am pondering the intangible, the... Read more
Sometimes my best intentions are not enough to bring good news to those around me. I think I mean well. I try to listen truly, deeply, humbly, but much need is greater than my capacity to meet, or what I have to offer is not a preferred response for the one to whom I offer it. It discourages me. It did this week, when in encounters I had hoped to be helpful turned out to be ones in which my... Read more
Humility is a spiritual quality for which I have never prayed! As a woman I often felt that it was something thrust on me, in the Church and in the world; it was something that someone else thought I ought to have, and I resisted that notion. Then culturally, the caricatures of the meek or the humble were never attractive either–doormat, milquetoast, mouse—none of them inspired me to do what I was made and called to do, or to dream... Read more
It is almost November, All Saints Day, and the roses that still bloom in my garden come from a saint named Marianne. Marianne was a parishoner in a church I served. When I first became aware of her, she was married to a Husband-in-Charge, so it was very hard for me to know much about who she was. Faithfully occupying the same pew every Sunday morning, she seemed like one of those members of the flock you could count on... Read more
Reflections on The Dave Test by Frederick W. Schmidt I welcomed this book into my library, but more importantly into my inner heart, because I found it to be a book that spoke the truth about life and death, even the small lives and deaths in between our birth date and date of death. Frederick Schmidt writes out of deep personal pain, but also out of deep conviction born of wrestling with the Holy One, prompted by the crucible of... Read more
A Musing Amma
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