The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A day of worship, work, and meetings
Also a day to spend in the wonder of your Creation
A time for reflection and contemplation
Thank you for this day which you have given to us
Thank you for my sweetheart and our puppy
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…
Today Denise and I went for our wee ramble after Zoom worship and multiple Zoom meetings before and after. It had been a busy Monday as always. However we were able to walk from the church to Lake Estes and then around Lake Estes before heading back to the church.
Each day when we walk, we are always surprised by what Spirit has in store for us. Today it was our elk friends along with the Bald Eagle that hangs out on the power towers along Highway 36 next to the Lake. The above picture was taken with my iPhone. I also have a number of wonderful photos which are still on my Canon’s memory card. I didn’t develop them tonight because it was more important to snuggle with my sweetheart and our sweet puppy dog on our deck.
These words of Thomas Merton from his poem “Cables to the Ace” which I have shared before, spoke once again to my heart. My worship is a blue sky and ten thousand crickets in the deep wet hay of the field. My vow is the silence under their song. (Collected Poems, p. 400)
May we indeed find both worship and our Creator in the midst of creation. This is especially important as we navigate the new reality which the pandemic has put in front of us.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been an amazing day, Lord
A time for introspection
A time for study
A time of worship
A time for fellowship
A time to enjoy the music of dear friends
A time to snuggle next to the fire with my sweetheart
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…
As I prepared for tonight’s worship service and message I was thinking about a lot of things. The theme was being led by the Spirit through whatever we are experiencing or have experienced in life. One of the things which kept bubbling up as I reflected and then offered the message was the concept of love. You know… love God with all of your heart, mind, and soul… love your neighbor as yourself. But then I had to focus on the other part of Jesus’ law… love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Ouch!
One of the things that I have observed as we enter the tenth week of virtual worship and sheltering-in-place or safer-at-home is the need for that silence. I crave that silence as I seek to be a shepherd in these times of turmoil. Yes, the silence is also helpful as I continue my on-line seminary class.
Again and again as we walk the same route for our daily or near daily walks I am struck by the gifts received each day. When we slow down and walk silently in a contemplative fashion, Spirit speaks to us as only She can. Same route yet different gifts if we are only aware enough to see them. Today Denise looked up and we spotted this beautiful little bird on a wire.
Such a gift to receive for both of us. But it was only by being attentive in the silence, while blocking out the sounds of cars and tourists, that we were able to receive this gift.
Tonight we have been enjoying music from various friends (Nadine Sekerez, Clay Rose, and Martin Zellar). Their music is soothing and is such a gift. Even when listening to music you have to distinguish between music as background (you know, folks talking above the music at the Winery or wherever musicians may be playing) and music as the focus of your attention. Tonight it was music as a focus and as a gift.
Silence can be like that. For a long time I avoided silence because I was afraid of what I might find in the midst of that silence. After all, in silence I had to face myself, warts and all, in a way that could be quite uncomfortable. However, the further I find myself walking this pathway of life, the silence is where I can truly Be Still and Know that God is God.
Thomas Merton wrote a beautiful piece about the gift of silence in Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.
I beg you to keep me in this silence so that I may learn from it
the word of your peace
and the word of your mercy
and the word of your gentleness for the world:
and that through me perhaps your word of peace may make itself known
where it has not been possible for anyone to hear it for a long time. (p. 178)
Dear reader, may we learn from the music which touches the soul… may we learn from the silence and wonder of nature… may we learn about peace, mercy, gentleness, and love from the Spirit. May we learn and may we grow.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a good day, Lord
Time with my sweetheart
Time for studying
Time for contemplation
Time to enjoy the wonders of your Creation
Time to simply Be Still
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…
Meeting God in the ordinary things of life. When you slow down enough to breathe in and breathe out… when you pause to be still in the midst of it all… when you listen for the gentle whisper of God’s call to you… it is then that we can meet God.
When Elijah hid in the cave for fear of Jezebel and her minions, he felt terribly alone. He was mad at his situation and he was mad at God. He was called out of the cave where he had been hiding. As the story goes, Elijah didn’t find God in the mighty wind, the earthquake, or the fire. God wasn’t in the catastrophic events… God spoke in the sheer silence! (1 Kings 19:11-12)
How often in my own life has God chosen to speak in the sheer silence? God had called me in the sheer silence many times, including in my initial call to ministry and in my subsequent re-call into parish ministry after my years in the Air Force Chaplain Corps.
As I spend time with Thomas Merton I truly have come to appreciate how God spoke to him in the silence and then compelled him to speak with the voice of a prophet to a world in darkness. In his book The Sign of Jonas, Merton reflects on the fire watch which the monks take turn doing. They shared the job of “night watchman” keeping watch over the monastery, charged with spotting any signs of fire in the monastery. In that silence, he encountered God.
He says on page 356: Now is the time to get up and go to the tower. Now is the time to meet You, God, where the night is wonderful… Now is the time to meet You, God. In these uncertain times and isolation due to COVID-19 there is more silence than many of us are used to.
My prayer is that in this time we can indeed go to the watchtower where we can meet God in the silence of the night or day. Perhaps in that time, God will lead us through the Valley of the Shadows into a new day.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A slightly dreary and overcast day today
Yet also a time to relax and simply Be Still
Be Still and know
Be Still
Be
Even on a cloudy day the sun shone through
Conversations with dear friends over FaceTime
Time to relax with my sweetheart
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 discipline of spiritual practice helps us to cultivate our ability to see below the surface of things, to have a transfigured vision of the world.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Water, Wind, Earth, & Fire: The Practice of Praying with the ElementsWhich spiritual practices have helped you over the years and which ones just weren’t a good fit for you?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
This has been such an incredible day, Lord
Midday Prayer with dear parishioners
Afternoon Social Hour with dear parishioners
Meeting and sharing with dear friends on our walk (properly masked and socially distanced of course)
Making new friends
Sharing hopes and dreams with so many
Seeing hope and a future that no pandemic can steal from us
Lord, a day in your creation, surrounded by your love
For all of this I give you thanks
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…
At times these days in Shelter-at-Home or Safer-at-Home it is easy to feel like you are on the set of the film “Groundhog’s Day” where you watch Bill Murray’s character begin over and over and over again. When we used to run exercises in the AF to prepare us to Shelter-in-Place, it was typically for a chemical spill or biological warfare attack. The thing is, this wouldn’t last for long because the weather patterns would help to disperse the chemical agents. This time, we don’t have the comfort of the usual answers we had in the military. Wind isn’t always your friend and the virus can easily seep into your environment.
I have been thinking a lot about this lately. I have also been remembering all of the hours we spent in our NBC (Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical) protective gear which included clothing, gloves, and protective masks with filters. I thought those were bizarre times back then which including being able to sleep in a gas mask which was a challenge for this Padre who was claustrophobic! Eventually I learned how to sleep in the mask which was a major accomplishment for me.
Now we find ourselves in weird times as a community, state, nation, and world; we are struggling to be safe and cautious without being reckless. Lord these are weird times and I seek every day how to live in a way that honors God’s call to love and serve God’s children.
Part of our daily ritual (weather permitting) is to get out and take our masked walks in the midst of God’s creation. If we slow down enough on those walks, God shows us amazing things. Thomas Merton in his book Dancing in the Water of Life says the following about the dawn of each new day: One lovely dawn after another. Such peace! Meditation with fireflies, mist in the valley, last quarter of the moon, distant owls—gradual inner awakening and centering in peace and harmony of love and gratitude. (p. 250)
Dear reader, my prayer for all of us is that we can find that peace each and every day. If we stop and listen… if we stop and truly see what is shimmering… if we truly wait for the Lord’s revelation… then we will be able to walk through each day with hope, love, and light.
