As I begin to walk the last lap of Lenten practice, I am prodded by all the charges in sacred text to “walk in the Light!” Jesus claims that he is the Light of the world: “whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8: 12) However, as I follow the events of Holy Week, I sense and experience a great deal of darkness in Jesus’walk. Where or what is the light?... Read more
I keep walking, but in this week of Lent, I struggle with the attempt. Daylight Savings Time has descended, and morning walks are taken in the quarter light, in which my presbyopic eyes can’t always tell what the shapes and outlines mean; someone is nearly on top of me before I recognize that I need to adjust my place on the sidewalk; the colors are not visible; things that are sources of beauty in the light of the sun feel... Read more
I have walked half my way through Lent. The words from the King James Version of Ephesians bubble up in me: “Walk in Love! as Christ loved us.” (Eph. 5: 2) I was given such a surprising and welcome gift when I told my husband that I was choosing to walk this Lent. He replied without missing a beat that he would walk with me! On Easter Sunday we will have been married 45 years, and we have walked many... Read more
“Keep walking!” says the Spirit; so I do. I am challenged by the convergence of sacred text, “walk after the Spirit” (Rom. 8: 4), and the weather, windy and capricious around here. “The Spirit blows where it wills”, Jesus says; so in my daily walking, how do I walk in the Spirit, and not in the “flesh?” Who is this Spirit in my life? I have described it in the past as “energy.” It takes energy to get out of... Read more
So I began walking as my primary Lenten practice; one day it was my labyrinth, a few times it was around my neighborhood. I parked as far away in the parking lot from the door of my destination, reminding myself that the goal was the walking, the practice itself. Then it struck—the respiratory infection that had been lurking at the door burst into my body with a vengeance, replete with fever, headache, and general miseries. The weather outside was miserable too;... Read more
“Jesus walked this lonesome valley/he had to walk it by himself/O nobody else could walk it for him/he had to walk it by himself.” These old words from a gospel song are the words that arise for me in the Lenten season. It is about walking for me this year. It is not that I believe in and practice a completely private and solitary spirituality, but that this season of the Church year is the time for me to pay... Read more
We arrived at the retreat house mid-afternoon on a sunny, but blustery, day. We had not traveled far, but the approach up the driveway took us in to another world altogether, one without very good cell reception, daily newspapers, television screens. As we drove up, the door opened, or so it seemed, and she was waiting to invite us in. The hostess, now elderly, has belonged to this order since she was a teenager. She has celebrated her 50th anniversary... Read more
I have been flummoxed and baffled about the question of boundaries in a community of faith and in my own personal life. Recently I have been reminded of what happens in companies where boundaries have not been observed, ending in disarray and damage for all concerned. I have been wrestling with the discerning work of setting and observing boundaries. Does Jesus have something to say about this; is there a pattern of his behavior that I can use as a... Read more
“On the Sabbath we cease from our work, so that God can do God’s work in us,” says John Calvin. After the crunch, comes a time for rest and restoration. Marva Dawn in her book, Keeping the Sabbath Wholly, has limned four planes or movements for the Sabbath experience: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting. I am ready to enter each and every one. I am returning to the land of the only occasionally employed from an almost full time appointment, and... Read more
Sometimes it just all piles up–the deadlines, the endings, the “one-thing-necessary,” the unexpected phone call, the drop-in visitor, the expiring appliance! And how does one keep gathering one’s self under the eye of the Holy when everything seems intent on resisting any attempt at collecting, amassing or grouping? This week I am trying to practice the basic minimum requirements for keeping my heart and soul connected to the Mystery while the pieces of my life careen around me. do one... Read more
A Musing Amma
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