Tonight is All Hallows’ Eve, Samhain (pronounced sow-win), or Halloween depending upon your perspective. Literally All Hallows’ Eve means the night before Hallowmass (All Saints’ on Nov 1st and All Souls’ on Nov 2nd).
In the ancient Celtic tradition, Samhain was the Festival of the Dead. It was a festival to mark the end of the harvest season and to usher in the dark half of the year. It was also a time when the veil between the physical and the spiritual worlds was very thin. It was a time when your ancestors were honored. Bonfires were lit as jack-o-lanterns were carved initially out of turnips and later out of pumpkins to celebrate this sacred time. The early Christian church gave these festivals new names and new Christian meanings.
Today, All Hallow’s Eve is Halloween and many of the customs (wearing costumes to fool the evil spirits and jack-o-lanterns) have carried forward into the present day. In some of the more remote parts of Ireland and Scotland though, the spirit of Samhain and the bonfires is very much alive and well.
Today has been an emotional day for me. We attended an on-line retreat through Abbey of the Arts with Christine Valters Paintner. The Samhain retreat was titled Listening at the Threshold: Voices of Saints and Ancestors. It was a time to spend reflecting on ancestors and those who have died. While I was a pastor in Estes Park for five years, I officiated at 50 funerals. That doesn’t include our mothers and several other friends, colleagues, and extended family members. That’s a lot of death for one Padre to absorb. When you consider that all of this was pre-COVID-19 it blows my mind that I didn’t have any pandemic related deaths from March through the end of August. I am thankful for that both for myself and more importantly for my former parishioners. However, COVID-19 did take the lives of family members of parishioners.
Now, we are on the cusp of the annual All Saints Day service at Carrollton Presbyterian Church. There have been a lot of stories and people on my mind and in my heart. During today’s retreat we explored the family connections we all have. There is the family with whom you share DNA and there is the family you choose or who choses you. I am so incredibly thankful for such a cloud of witness who are present and who have passed through the veil. Each one has made a tremendous spiritual impact on my life.
In the first letter of James, we read the following: Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. (1 James 3:2) This is the same letter where we read this about love: Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
Beloved, let us love one another… In these uncertain times of politics, fear-mongering, hatred, and pandemic we definitely need more of that sort of love. In addition to that concept of love, we need a radical re-framing of who is our neighbor/family.
Jesus did re-frame who our neighbor is. In the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12), he turned the tables on the religious elite in a philosophical and political sense. He would later turn the tables on them literally when he condemned their use of the Temple as a “Den of Thieves” when he entered Jerusalem for the last time.
Blessed are… the poor in spirit… those who are physically and spiritually dragging thanks to the oppression of the religious and political system… not blessed are the kingmakers or the powerful elite. Blessed are the poor in spirit… theirs is the kin-dom of heaven. I say kin-dom because instead of Empire, it emphasizes the connectional and familial nature of the concept Jesus called kingdom.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted… that comfort often comes from strangers in these COVID-19 days. The nurse, the technician, the doctor, the chaplain… the one who pause to simply let the dying person know that they aren’t alone. That hopefully brings at least some measure of comfort to a family who cannot be with their loved one in their final moments. I have experienced this as a chaplain and pastor. Such holy moments hopefully means so much to so many.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. The meek who are often buried in the shadows of the rich and powerful (those who have sold their soul to the Empire)… they shall be given a precious gift which they will not take for granted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. They won’t be filled with empty promises and half-truths or outright lies. They will truly be fed spiritually and physically.
This list goes on through the merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. This upside down economy of the love of God will create families and siblings connected by the Spirit, not by DNA.
The bottom line for us is this: We are the family of God, sisters and brothers literally and spiritually. As the family of God, we must be examples of love, justice, mercy, and peace. May it be so, Amen.
“In the ancient Celtic imagination, this was considered to be a ‘thin time’ when the veil between heaven and earth grew more transparent and the wisdom of our ancestors was closer to us. We are reassured that we are not alone, that we share the world with a great ‘cloud of witnesses’ and ‘communion of saints’ just across the veil. These next several days are a threshold space and in thresholds we are closer to the other world which is always here. The communal honoring of the dead continues for the whole month of November.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Seasons: A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year – A Self-Study Online Retreat
How will you honour this time of the thinning of the veil? What will you do to create the time and space to allow the wisdom of your ancestors and spiritual guides to flow through you?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
As so many neighbors and friends recover from Hurricane Zeta
We pray for their continued protection
As Samhain, All Hallows’ Eve, approaches
As we hold close in our hearts our loved ones
Our loved ones who have crossed over the threshold
May your Spirit guide and sustain us
Help us to Be Still
Help us to learn from you
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a day of work and reflection
It has been a day of writing
It has also been a day to walk with those we love
Walking through the Valley of uncertainty
What a sacred privilege indeed
Lord, watch over those whom we hold close in our hearts
Walk with us we pray
Spirit guide us through the wilderness
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“I would say that I’m a nonviolent soldier. In place of weapons of violence, you have to use your mind, your heart, your sense of humor, every faculty available to you . . . because no one has the right to take the life of another human being.”—Joan Baez
Joan Baez met Thomas Merton in December 1966 at the Abbey of our Lady of Gethsemani. She put Merton’s words into a song, The Bells of Gethsemane https://youtu.be/WwIGeGVXpSQ. What a gift of song this is for such a time as this.
The picture isn’t the best (from too far away and cropping it didn’t help much), but this picture represents a sacred moment that Denise and I had in the Rocky Mountain National Park at Sheep Lake. The moose in Sheep Lake… he just didn’t care… I’ll make it a Moose Lake, he said, and share it with the duck! For five years we had the honor of being guests in our wild neighbors home. Along with that honor we encountered moments of awe and wonder.
The Rocky Mountain National Park has taken a serious hit thanks to the East Troublesome and Cameron Peaks wildfires. It has been hard for us to watch this unfold from Georgia. As I wonder about our wild neighbors and how they are faring in this challenging time, I also have to wonder how humanity’s bad behavior has contributed to this disaster. Climate change is very real and it has been impacting the world for quite some time now. Our mistreatment of the environment has accelerated the change.
In Genesis 1:26 we read how humankind was made in the image of God and how God gave them “dominion” over creation. Radah (רָדָה) is found in twenty-seven passages in the Hebrew Scriptures. In every instance the word is used to reflect “rule” or “dominion” over a kingdom or a people. I have struggled with this concept and the way in which that verse is used by christians to justify the rape of the planet by humankind. I know that is a serious phrase, but this is a serious issue and we literally are raping the planet.
Thanks to Abbey of the Arts (https://abbeyofthearts.com) and our online Abbess, Christine Valters Paintner, I have come to a better understanding of how to respond to creation from a different perspective. For instance, I didn’t shoot the picture of the moose or take it. When you slow down to simply be still, you can receive such wonderful gifts. The practice is called Visio Divina or Sacred Seeing. I received this shimmering gift. We had another experience when we were hiking in the park and out of the corner of my eye I saw the antler of a bull moose! I believe that he called out to us in a very real sense. As a result of listening, we were gifted with forty-five minutes to simply be with him. The result was an incredible experience of the holy.
Such a beautiful moment we will cherish forever. This also gives us a very vivid picture of the effects of the wildfires. Over the five years we were there, we got to know various wild ones because of their distinct way of presenting and because of specific markings or antler patterns.
The reason that I began reflecting on creation and our dance with the sacred is because I began reading Christine’s book, The Wisdom of Wild Grace (https://abbeyofthearts.com/books/the-wisdom-of-wild-grace-poems/). This is a book to savor, not to plow through. I have finally had some time to savor it today. She had me at the introduction, specifically page 12. That was the genesis of my own musings and this blog post. What we need most right now is a revolution of love. We desperately need to fall in love with creation so that everything we do reflects this love… to see the world in a new way, to make time to sit outside and cherish the breezes or to fall more in love…
Thomas Merton in his book, New Seeds of Contemplation, writes about creation and Genesis in his reflection called The General Dance. I love how Merton reflected on creation and the wonder and awe of it throughout his life. Journal entries and photographs reveal the love Merton had for all things living.
This following quote speaks to my heart about creation and the sacred dance. What is serious to men is often very trivial in the sight of God. What in God might appear to us as “play” is perhaps what He Himself takes most seriously. At any rate the Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance… Yet the fact remains that were are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance. (pp. 296-297)
So we race back and forth in our daily tasks and rarely seem to slow down. That is the way of the Protestant Work Ethic I guess. But if we “work” so hard that we miss the mystery that is life, love, and creation, I think we completely miss the plot. As for me? I think I am going to do more than look out of the office window at church. I believe I will go out and savor the wonder of it all and see what Spirit has in store.
“We are bound in a delicate network of interdependence because, as we say in our African idiom, a person is a person through other persons. To dehumanize another inexorably means that one is dehumanized as well.”—Desmond Tutu
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a very good day (yes, it is Monday)
A time for reflection
A time to Be Still
A time for fellowship with a friend and colleague
Time spent with my seminary advisor on Zoom
Time spent with my sweetheart
Yes Lord, a wonderful day indeed
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a long day, Lord
While we have been glued to newsfeeds
Our Rocky Mountain family has been living this in real time
Our firefighters working 16+ hour days
Especially a dear friend who was just certified as a volunteer firefighter
They are working around the clock
Protecting and defending our beloved National Park
The homes of our family, friends, and community
For our beloved community who has evacuated that they may feel your arms of love and peace wrapped around them
We lift heartfelt prayers for snow
We pray for energy for those who continue to fight the fires
We pray for our wildlife family
Lord, when prayers are too deep for words
When all we can do is weep
You know our hearts and hear our prayers
Thank you
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
On Saturday we will have the second Full Moon in October
The Moon will shine down on All Hallow’s Eve
Sister Moon will cast her glow upon us all
The Tuesday of the week we left Estes Park she smiled upon our new adventure
On Samhain she will look down upon our sacred space
Dear Sister Moon
I pray that you will shine your light on recovery in our Mountain home
I pray that you will shine your redemptive and healing light upon our wildlife neighbors
I pray that you will shine your light upon our neighbors as they return
I pray that your healing and redemptive light will cleanse
Oh Sister Moon, on this coming All Hallow’s Eve
Shine upon us and connect us
Connect us with Mother Earth and each other
Connect us I pray
Dona Nobis Pacem et in Terra
Grant Us Peace on Earth
