The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
What a day of ministry
Worship, Prayer, Reflection, Fellowship
Reaching out to those we love
Enjoying some 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…
This has been another wonderful yet exhausting day of ministry. Zoom Midday Prayer and Fellowship with our congregation. Stephen Ministry training, and time with dear parishioners.
It has also been a time to connect with dear friends in ministry and on the frontlines of the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City. At times it can feel overwhelming. I remember that feeling well from my time in hospital ministry and crisis response as a USAF Chaplain. I am reminded though of the depth of connection and mutual support amongst colleagues in the Chaplaincy, Medical Corps, and Mental Health Community to name a few. When the “stuff” hits the fan, we were a united team providing care to those in need. So tonight I pray for our dear friends in NYC and ask you, dear reader to do the same. For them and for all the care providers all around the world who are knee deep in the trenches. When you are up against the wall (psychologically, spiritually, or physically) I can tell you first hand that those prayers and the love of so many friends and strangers make a huge difference.
Thomas Merton, in his book Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation says the following about our connection to each other and to the Universe:
“Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into infinite further possibilities for study and contemplation and interest and praise. Beyond all and in all is God.”
During this time of struggle when so many are putting their lives and their spirits on the line, may we indeed be connected as we seek to serve the God of Love!
“There are many stories in the Christian tradition, especially from the desert and Celtic monks, in which connection to animals had a special status and significance and God could be found offering signs and guidance through their presence.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Have you ever felt intuitively guided by an animal? What insight did your spiritual guide lead you to discover?
This particular one has taught us to slow down, breathe in, breathe out, and Be Still ❤️🐾
To say that this day has been intense would be an understatement. As we prepared for Midday Prayer, the Spirit was speaking. She was speaking words of wisdom and hope despite the grim outlook with so many dying, including family members of parishioners. She was speaking words of encouragement as we seek to be the hands and feet of Christ in these trying times.
This evening we received our orders from the County and the Governor of Colorado to shelter in place. Our church had already suspended worship as per common sense and the recommendation from the Governor and our Presbytery. The church had been closed and all meetings/gatherings had been suspended. Now the office is closing and we will work from home.
We moved all the sound equipment from the Chapel at the Church to our small home where we will set up a new Alternate Sanctuary for Virtual Worship. This new and ever evolving reality is here for a while. A length of time that we cannot define. In this time we can either be ignorant and ignore it, be depressed and see no hope, or see and hold the flickering light of hope which God offers us. As Jesus said in John 1:5–this light shines in the darkness and the darkness will not overcome it.
While I ponder all that is going on, tears fall. Yet even in the midst of the tears, the light flickers and shines. For Denise and for me, ministry is changing and evolving to meet the current crisis and needs of our church family and our own families.
In these times, we both seek the place of contemplation and reflection which God offers. We seek the secret place where Jesus tells us to pray and to pour out our hearts to God. I came across this piece by Thomas Merton in tonight’s final reading for Wednesday from the book, Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours.
Let there be a place somewhere in which you can breathe naturally, quietly, and not have your breath in continuous short gasps. A place where your mind can be idle, and forget its concerns, descend into silence, and worship {God} in secret.
There can be no contemplation where there is no secret. (From New Seeds of Contemplation (p. 82-83))
Dear reader, may we all draw strength from that place of centering and contemplation as we seek to shine the light, love, mercy, and peace which Christ offers.
“The purpose of walking the rounds is multifaceted. The first is that walking helps to slow us down. The poet Wallace Stevens once said, “Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.'”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD,The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
How do you feel when you walk around a lake or engage in circular moments of prayer?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Lord, it has been another long day of work and worship
It has been a full day of preparation for tomorrow and the rest of the week
I am thankful for the sacred pauses today
For time with dear friends listening to their music
Music which lifts my sweethearts and my souls
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…
“Creativity and contemplative spirituality nurture and support each other in their commitments to the slow way, to a close attention to the inner life, and to the sacred being revealed in each moment.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Artist’s Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
What or who supports you in nurturing your creative and spiritual practices?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Another long but productive day in ministry
Meetings with colleagues and friends over Zoom
Worship and then Worship preparation
Working with my Sweetheart is always a blessing
At the end of a long day we have much to be thankful for
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 we enter the second week of Virtual Worship and Fellowship since the cancellation of worship and gatherings following the arrival of the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus in Colorado. To be honest, it has been both surreal and scary to watch the march of the COVID-19 across the nation and world. As I watch healthcare workers, first responders, and others work around the clock along with our Public Health officials I am humbled and amazed at their tenacity and courage in the face of insurmountable odds.
So, what do we do as people faith who walk with so many people through these times? I know for me and for Denise that the pace is exhausting as we provide worship and fellowship opportunities in this new Virtual realm. We also know that we are not along as we gather with others who are in ministry several times a week to share encouragement, insights, and the common bond of love. I remember folks asking me a number of years ago, “Who takes care of Padre?” I would add to that now, “Who takes care of Padre AND Denise?” We are both thankful for so many who do care for us and walk with us. Our professional colleagues… our friends… our co-workers and leadership at Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies… our Presbytery of Plains and Peaks Executive Presbytery, Rev Denise Pass… and of course, each other.
As we pray for a slowing down of the pace of worship and fellowship preparation via Zoom, Emails, and Phone Calls… we try to look for opportunities each day to Be Still. In a posthumously (2007) book Thomas Merton: A Book of Hours, I read the following from Monday’s night prayer:
Be Still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, the try to speak your
Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who
Are you? Whose
Silence are you?
Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.
Oh be still, while
You are still alive,
You are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.
I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult… — “In Silence,” Collected Poems of Thomas Merton, p. 280-281
In these times, I believe that we are called to Be Still and listen for the blowing of the Holy Spirit (Ruah… Hebrew for Wind) in our midst.
May we find in this silence dear reader, our hope, our faith, our equipping, and the love which God calls us to share with the world.
“Some of us may ask whether the inward journey of the desert is selfish in the face of so much suffering in the world. Is the path of the monk or hermit a path of fleeing our responsibility to others? For those in the desert, the practice of hospitality became indispensable. The contemplative life is meant to cultivate our ability to open our hearts to the stranger we encounter both in our outer worlds as well as within.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated and Explained
When has time alone helped empower you to reach out to others?
