It is known as Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday. It is the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. There are various traditions surrounding this day. Shrove comes from the Latin word shrive. Before the season of penance (Lent) begins, the people were to obtain absolution from their sins via Confession. There was also a tradition of emptying the cupboards (in the days before refrigeration) of all the ingredients (butter, eggs, and fat for example) which would be given up for Lent. Around the world the typical meal was pancakes, thus giving this day another name, Pancake Day. The feasting was a last time of eating a lot before the time of fasting during Lent.
In Mobile, Alabama which is the originator of Mardi Gras in the United States (the tradition was “borrowed” by New Orleans) the season runs from Epiphany through the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday. It is a time of parties, masquerade balls, and parades. My first experience with Mardi Gras was in 2010 when Denise took me to a parade. In 2011 we attended a Mardi Gras Ball together while I was still on Active Duty.
Living in New Orleans for a year and Mobile for over thirty years Denise has a lot of memories of Mardi Gras. The vast majority of them are memories of good friends, good food, love, and laughter.
Today’s Mardi Gras was spent getting new tires and lights for my car (it’s an all-day deal when you drive down and up the mountain to the dealership), pulling Denise’s dead car battery, and buying a new one and installing it. We finally made it to our churches Pancake Dinner only to receive a call from the hospital for a chaplain to see a patient in need.
As the patient shared her story of grief and multiple losses, Mardi Gras all of a sudden wasn’t that important. What was important was the opportunity for her to begin processing the losses experienced in the last few years. I guess in a way, she was confessing her fears and doubts. What I was able to offer was a listening ear, compassionate heart, and the assurance that what she was experiencing was not unusual or crazy. It was a normal reaction to a whole lot of trauma and other experiences that bubbles up. I could see her countenance visibly lift and hear the audible change in her voice. The time spent in conversation and listening was a sacred experience for both of us.
In a serendipitous way, this hospital call resonated with some reading I had done earlier in the day while waiting for the car to be finished. In his book Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts, Thomas Merton had this to say about Ash Wednesday. Nevertheless, the liturgy of Ash Wednesday is not focused on the sinfulness of the penitent but on the mercy of God… The God of Ash Wednesday is like a calm sea of mercy. In <God> there is no anger. (p. 96-97)
So in the midst of Mardi Gras, pancakes, and a busy day; God was present. God and God’s peace, mercy, and presence was in that hospital room. My prayers will continue for this patient as she walks this journey called life.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Another day of ministry is completed
It has also been a time of reflection and study
It has also been a 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…
Tonight at our Church Session (Council) Meeting we discussed a lesson from the PC(USA)’s Lenten Devotional, “Becoming a Beloved Community: A Matthew 25 journey to the cross.” In the introduction Donna Frischknecht Jackson, the editor of “Presbyterians Today” posed this question about this Lenten season being different: What if this Lenten season… we looked beyond personal disciplines and committed to creating beloved communities in our own backyards–communities reflecting the inclusive and healing love that Jesus modeled as he made his way to the cross. (p.2)
She also shared the origin of the term “Beloved Community.” While it was originally coined by Josiah Royce, a 20th Century American philosopher, it was popularized by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King spoke often of the beloved community as an illustration of God’s kingdom as truly a kin-dom. This beloved community is a society based on justice for all and selfless love of one another. For King, a community became “beloved” when every person had their basic needs met. (p. 2)
Community… Beloved… Justice for All… Equality… these concepts aren’t pipe dreams, they are a reality toward which Christ-followers are called to build. As I considered this calling, I was reminded of Thomas Merton’s Epiphany on the corner of Fourth and Walnut in Louisville, Kentucky.
As he stood on the corner (now Thomas Merton Square), he was overwhelmed by his connection with all of the people.
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all these people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world. . . .
This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud. . . . I have the immense joy of being man, a member of a race in which God Himself became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now that I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.
Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes. If only they could all see themselves as they really are. If only we could see each other that way all the time. There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed. . . . But this cannot be seen, only believed and ‘understood’ by a peculiar gift. (Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander)
I believe that if Thomas Merton and Dr. King had been able to meet and share some time together, they would have both embraced the thought of the Beloved Community and the Kingdom of God as the Kin-dom of God. Perhaps this should be the journey we begin as this Lenten season begins. The journey will obviously continue long after Lent is over, but this is a good place to begin.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
After a wonderful weekend with my sweetheart
After a long day of traveling
We are enjoying the fireplace
We are relaxing after a full day
With a thankful heart I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
This past weekend Denise and I took a short trip to San Francisco. I guess you could say it was a brief getaway before the very busy season of Lent begins. For this Padre, the Lenten journey is a spiritually challenging, yet rewarding time. For those who choose to, we go deeper in our spiritual reflection and journey.
Yesterday we spent time at Saint Ignatius parish on the campus of the University of San Francisco. As I looked at the statue of Saint Ignatius, I really felt his eyes looking directly into mine. Was he calling me to a time of reflection and silence? Was he calling me to go deeper as I experience this Lenten season?
The transformation of the Lenten journey for me has been a journey in itself. When I was growing up, I don’t remember much about the Wednesday services. What I do remember are the dinners afterwards. I also remember the decisions of what to give up for Lent as I got older. The first Ash Wednesday service I participated in while in Seminary was incredibly powerful. As I read Psalm 51, the weight of that psalm hit me hard. That began a period of introspection for me. Yet there was still a negative weight that fell upon me during Lent.
In the past several years I have begun looking at Lent not so much as a period of “sacrifice” but more as a time to examine my life and see what new ways I can serve the Lord. Is there a new spiritual practice that I can adopt that will carry on after Lent is over.
Are you looking for a different perspective for Lent? Was this indeed what Saint Ignatius was inviting me to do? Perhaps he was leading me towards this reflection from Thomas Merton which is in his book Seasons of Celebration: Meditations on the Cycle of Liturgical Feasts. 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… We must remember the original meaning of Lent, 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. (p. 91)
May this season indeed be one of healing for each one of us and for the church, the body of Christ. Perhaps out of that healing, we might share Jesus’s message of love, grace, mercy, and peace.
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a short, yet wonderful weekend
Time with my sweetheart is always a blessing
Time to ponder your call and seek your presence
Time to see your face in ALL of your beloved children
Especially your children whom society has cast aside
For this reminder and this blessing I 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…
Today was another wonderful day in San Francisco. There is so much history here. There is also so much family history for me. My Dad was born in San Francisco on August 30, 1929. He grew up here and came back after I was born to earn his Bachelor of Science in Accounting degree from the Jesuit University of San Francisco when I was a very young child. I guess the Jesuits and St Ignatius were a part of my spiritual DNA before I knew it! My Dad’s oldest brother Dick (a WW2 US Army Air Forces Technical Sergeant) is also buried at the Presidio National Cemetery in San Francisco. I guess there is a whole lot of family spiritual history here as well.
We have had such a wonderful time visiting with a dear friend and seeing the sights.
We also had a stark reminder that while tourists can wander around, some of our dear sisters and brothers don’t have it as well. The number of homeless wandering the streets and sleeping wherever they can is overwhelming. At one point, we were walking on the sidewalk and passed a shopping cart, a tarp, and a fellow who was waking up. I felt as though we had walked through his living quarters and a huge part of me wanted to apologize for invading his space. Later on, we passed a tent which was pitched on the sidewalk next to two churches and across the street from a synagogue.
Who is my brother? Who is my sister? Every one created in the image of God by God is a member of my family. This took me back to Las Vegas when I was stationed there from 1998-2002. When the Olympics came to Salt Lake City, they removed the homeless population from the city and shipped them down to Las Vegas! It was both heartbreaking and appalling to me.
While Jesus said we will always have the poor with us, he didn’t tell us to ignore them. He didn’t tell us to make them less than human. Just as Saint Francis kissed the leper, we are called to especially embrace those who make us “feel” uncomfortable!
Thomas Merton wrote about the beginning of love and I believe that this is incredibly important to our embracing of all God’s children, especially those who make us uncomfortable and those we want to ignore.
The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them. (No Man is an Island)
He also said the following in his book, Thoughts in Solitude: There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished by our vital relation with realities outside and above us.
There is so much to consider, ponder, and adjust within our very core.
While this has been a wonderful few days for us. It has also been an incredibly challenging time for us. Denise and I have both thought of our friends who are homeless and who we know by name and by relationship.
Lord, help us to be instruments of your peace… your love… your sacred embrace…
A powerful blog, Jake!!
They say that the legendary Delta Blues guitarist Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for his extraordinary ability. They say it. But his contemporaries insist that Johnson himself never told that story. Bluesman Johnny Sines, for instance, said that he would have called him a liar if he had.
Promoters and recording companies used the story to attract audiences and to sell records. But those early twentieth-century black musicians—many of whom had escaped the misery of sharecropping by laboriously developing their craft—knew an insult when they heard it…
— Read on jakeowensby.com/2020/02/21/learning-to-love/
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
What a wonderful day with my sweetheart
We enjoyed the wonders of God’s creation
The beauty of the day was refreshing
So many opportunities to simply Be Still
Thank you Lord for this day
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 was a full day of walking and exploring San Francisco. We walked over ten miles and saw so much. At times we sat and simply soaked in the sound of the waves hitting the shore in the bay. At other times we enjoyed the quiet and solitude of parks and churches. There were moments when we were overcome by the noise around us. Crowds and loud conversations that drowned out our own thoughts and conversation.
Time away with my sweetheart has been wonderful. We have basked in the beauty of God’s creation. We have enjoyed each others company. We have enjoyed time with seals, sea lions, and gills like this friend at the top of the blog.
As I reflect on silence and the need for spiritual refreshment and restoration, I can’t help but think of Thomas Merton and his own quest for solitude and spiritual refreshment. This piece from his book, Thoughts in Solitude spoke to my heart.
When we have really met and known the world in silence, words do not separate us from the world nor from other men and women, nor from God, nor from ourselves because we no longer trust entirely in language to contain reality.
Choosing our words wisely and making time for silence and contemplation are crucial. I know this is true for me as well as for Denise as we serve God together. In this world of so much noise, may we embrace the moments of silence where our hearts and souls are restored.
