Verse of the day
And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.
– 2 Corinthians 3:18
Voice of the day
The most important thing to remember is this: to be ready at any moment to give up what you are for what you might become.
– W.E.B. Du Bois
Prayer of the day
Lord, guide us as we change and navigate this world; thank you for all that we are becoming.
Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the season of Lent. There are many traditional observances that people take up during this holy season. Some give up red meat on Fridays. Others might give up chocolate or alcohol for the Lenten season. Some folks choose to take a 40-day break from Social Media. These days of “fasting” aren’t a way to earn credit with God but rather they invite the individual to look beyond the physical world and join Jesus in his 40-day fast in the wilderness (you can read the following passages about Jesus and his wilderness experience — Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, and Luke 4:1-13).
In the past, Denise and I have followed the tradition involving doing some new act of faith and/or service that will go beyond Lent. Ultimately, I believe that this season invites me to reflect on the life and ministry of Jesus with a special focus during Holy Week and his journey towards the cross. I believe it calls me to remember and to return to the central relationship of my faith, Jesus.
I truly appreciate the Ash Wednesday reflection that Thomas Merton wrote in his book, Seasons of Celebration. He opens the reflection with the following words: Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of the great Easter cycle. (p. 91)
He also reminds us that the season of Lent is about far more than fasting.We must remember the original meaning of Lent, as the ver sacrum, the Church’s “holy spring” in which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a communion with the rest of the Church. Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing. (Lent and Easter Wisdom From Thomas Merton, p. 2 Kindle Version) One of the most profound Lenten experiences that I had was when I was deployed to Afghanistan and Uzbekistan in 2005. My colleague and friend, Fr Steve was working with a Sergeant who was preparing to join the Catholic Church. At the Easter vigil mass on the Saturday before Easter Sunday, he was welcomed into the church. It was a joy-filled moment for the Sergeant and for each one of us who was at the service.
So this evening the congregation that I am currently serving as the Interim/Transitional Minister will gather for worship. As a part of that service, I will make a cross of ashes on the worshippers forehead as a reminder that even though we came from dust and to dust we shall return we are also embraced by the love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness of our loving Creator. May this Lenten season be a time of reflection and blessing for you, dear reader, as we walk this journey together.
“Sacred time is being present to the moments of eternity available to us at any time we choose to pause and breathe.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
Is your daily life governed by the rushed and frenzied multi-tasking, or punctuated by mindful moments of silence, solitude, and sacred time?
President Carter has decided to enter hospice care and spend his remaining days with his family in the comfort of his own home. I have walked with many families through this journey and believe that hospice care is a gift to the patient and their family. Both of our moms were in hospice and died with grace and dignity at home.
President Carter is a humble Peacemaker/President who is perhaps best known for his work after he left the White House and went to work with Habitat for Humanity and developed the Carter Center’s mission to Wage Peace, Fight Disease, and Build Hope at home and around the world. Read more about this work by clicking on this link: The Carter Center.
As I reflect on this humble servant of God and the people of the world, I am thankful for the work that he has done and the work that the Center will continue to do into the future. my prayer is that the below quote might guide and direct me as I continue to be a Peacemaker.
“The bond of our common humanity is stronger than the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.” — Jimmy Carter
I wrote this reflection a few weeks ago for the Abbey of the Arts’ “Monk in the World“ blog.
When I was asked to contribute a Monk in the World guest post, I was not exactly sure what direction the post would take. I looked back at some of my earlier posts for the Abbey and noticed how what was going on in my life at the time when I was writing informed my post. The last post that I wrote was written in the middle of 2020 amidst the isolation created by the global COVID-19 Pandemic.
It is now nearly three years since (almost to the month) the shutdown and a lot has happened. My wife Denise and I moved from the church in Estes Park, Colorado to a new call in Carrollton, Georgia. During the late summer and early fall of 2021, we crisscrossed the country (from Carrollton to Austin, Minnesota, to Florence, Alabama, to Mobile, Alabama) caring for my dad, Denise’s dad (in Florence), and her former mother-in-law (in Mobile) who was still a very dear friend and grandmother to Denise’s two sons.
We somehow managed all of that driving and work while at the same time I was pastoring a church and working with them in-person and via Zoom, emails, and phone calls as they tried to figure out how to come out of the pandemic and re-imagine what church could be post-pandemic. During that time, Denise’s dad, and her boys’ grandmother both died. My dad (in Austin) finally made it out of the hospital, but his cognitive decline was increasing.
On December 26, 2021, I contracted COVID-19 and was laid up for about ten days. I continued to suffer from the impact of long-COVID and had to resign from the church for health reasons on February 6, 2022. Now we find ourselves on the Gulf Coast of Alabama where I am serving a church as their Interim/Transitional Minister.
As I look back at these last few years, I am slowly realizing that we had a lot of traumatic thresholds that we were able to walk through thanks to the grace of Godde and the prayers, support, and encouragement of dear friends who are family. It was through Christine’s guided meditation at a recent Wisdom Council retreat that I had time to reflect prayerfully on these thresholds. The word that came to my heart was Hope. Whether I realized it or not, during the most traumatic times of transition, hope was present even though I didn’t realize it at the time. Hope was standing on the threshold with us and was guiding us in Love.
Over the past seven years I have spent a lot of time studying and reflecting on the writings of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk from the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky. Sadly, he died on December 10th, 1968, which was 27 years to the day after he entered the monastery. His writings have had and continue to have a profound influence on my own life and spiritual journey.
During the Wisdom Council retreat, a prayer of Thomas Merton’s which has played a significant role in my own spiritual journey came to mind. My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. And I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. (Thoughts in Solitude, p. 79)
Hope stands on the various thresholds of life and Hope is accompanied by Love. As I walk with the congregation that I am currently serving through the process of transformation as they seek to call a new pastor, Merton and thresholds have played a big role in that ministry. Whatever you, dear reader, may be going through in your own journey as you approach your own thresholds, my prayer is that you will sense the presence of Hope and Love with you. May you, like Merton, …not fear, for Godde is ever with you, and Godde will never leave you to face your perils alone
“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these—to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do.” — Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“The way to healthy living is to shift from quantitative economic growth to quality of life, food, water and air—to shift from craving to contentment and from greed to gratitude.” — Satish Kumar
There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and mercy of God to the whole world. There is not an act of kindness or generosity, not an act of sacrifice done, or a word of peace and gentleness spoken, not a child’s prayer uttered, that does not sing hymns to God. — Thomas Merton in The Seven Story Mountain (p. 161-162)
These words from today’s end of day reading from Thomas Merton: Book of Hours spoke to my heart after a very challenging day. May God continue to lead us in such a song of daily praise!
“It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti
Quit keeping score altogether and surrender yourself with all your sinfulness to God who sees neither the score nor the scorekeeper but only his child redeemed by Christ. — Thomas Merton (Merton’s Palace of Nowhere by James Finley, p. 30)
Denise, my wife and partner in life, love, and ministry, found the above quote from Thomas Merton in a book that she was reading this past week. The quote stayed with me throughout the week and helped inform my sermon this past Sunday. I was preaching from the lectionary Gospel reading Matthew 5:21-37.
This particular reading is always an interesting challenge when it comes around in the lectionary cycle. Amongst the challenging concepts in it are the infamous if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off, and the statement that if you divorce and remarry you are committing adultery. Yeah, not exactly easy passages to preach on, especially since they are in the same chapter as the Beatitudes!
I have always struggled with this particular passage and the seemingly harsh and judgmental tone in Jesus’ words. They seem to be counterintuitive to the message of loving God, neighbor, and self. Carrying out this action of hacking off hands and plucking out eyes results in this extreme result — An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. (Quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi)
Yet these extreme examples have been used by christians (lower case is intentional) to pummel others into shame and submission. The first time that I preached from this passage years ago, a woman left worship in tears. I went out to check on her after the Benediction. She wasn’t offended by what I had said, rather she was overwhelmed by the grace that the sermon had offered her. Grace that had never been offered to her by the “church” after her abusive husband had left her and she had re-married.
I believe that Jesus used these extreme examples to make a point. Instead of being smug and self-righteous because one believed that they were keeping the law and were therefore better than others, the individual should instead humbly realize that they are not perfect.
This brings me back to Merton’s quote. As a Christ follower I am not called to judge others. As I used to say in the military, That decision is above my pay grade! Instead I believe that I am called to see everyone as one of God’s children. To stop keeping score and see others as they are (and as I am)… a frail, fragile, and broken child who is loved with a grace-filled love by my creator. Perhaps if we did that, by God’s grace, mercy, and love there might be peace in this world.
Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem “Ring Out Wild Bells” from his book, In Memorium said the following about such a possibility for peace.
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
The wonderful singer, songwriter, and artist Alana Levandoski has a lovely version of the poem. She always gives me hope when I hear her sing this song. Ring Out, Wild Bells This is my prayer for each one of us.
