Five Simple Suggestions for a Holy (and Wholly Productive) Lent

Lent is here, and if you have not already begun a Lenten Discipline, you might feel a little anxious.  The countdown to Easter has begun - what can be done to make the best use of this time of preparation?  Especially if you feel you are already behind in this effort!

Lent does not have to completely alter your normal schedule to be powerful and help you to feel changed in a really beneficial way.  Here are five things you can add to your life that will only take a few minutes, but may just alter your perspective. (And you do not need to add all five things - pick what works for you!)

1.  Do one nice thing each day.  This could mean offering a smile to someone you pass on the street, letting a car into traffic ahead of you, or paying for the coffee of the person behind you at the drive through. Savor a small moment of pleasure in offering this tiny gift.  
(This is good for your heart.)

2.  Make note of two things you are grateful for each day.  As you wake up in the morning, even before you get out of bed, think of a gratitude.  Repeat the process as you lay your head down on your pillow at night.  Starting and ending each day on a positive note is bound to improve your outlook.  
(This is good for your soul.)

3.  Read three pages of a book.  Okay - you might read a lot every day, but for some of us, making our way through that book might be taking far too long as we are dragged away to other things.  Make that time to read just three pages of whatever you want (this does not have to be a Lenten devotional!) and enjoy making progress.  
(This is good for your mind.)

4.  Drink four glasses of water each day.  Again, some of you are far ahead on this - others need a little reminder to stop, get up and move around, re-hydrate, stretch a little, and maybe take a moment to be grateful for being alive today.   (This is good for your body.)

5.  Take five minutes to talk to God - no interruptions allowed.  Walk away from the phone or computer (or the family) and just be quiet with God.  You might write out a note, or pray silently, or doodle as you think, or just stare into space.  Use this time for you and God to be together.  This is time well invested in your most important relationship.  
(This is good for your spirit.)

The days we count as we approach Easter will go by very quickly.  You owe it to yourself to make the most of them.  It doesn't require a special book, or a retreat - just you and God.  You have the time and the tools already, and these Lenten practices might even last beyond the forty days.

"WHAT IN YOUR FAITH INSPIRES PEACE AND HOPE?" A Christian perspective

shared by Rev. Charles Edward, OLW, Deacon

"WHAT IN YOUR FAITH INSPIRES PEACE AND HOPE?"

This is a very loaded question. Just as we are all connected by our humanity and our one breath, so too are we all connected.  All humanity longs for something. Be it affirmation, acceptance,  love and a desire to be made whole.

The vehicle that  inspires me the most on this journey is that of prayer and community.  To some it may sound a little bit odd that I am not focusing of Jesus.  But the true essence of Christianity  is to be in relationship with the Infinite / God.  Pure Love.

To me that is revealed in the gift of His Son.  Fully human and full divine.  In the humanity of Jesus, we see that he is always longing for a relationship with His Father.  Relationship is being in conversation with one and other which less to community.  That is  what prayer is.  The examples of those individuals in Scripture hold for my a sign for a deeper relationship with the Infinite.

This longing is not self contained.  It is contagious.   It moves me to a wide way of living out my humanity.  The is why community is so important.

Jesus NEVER JUDGED ANYONE.  He is the perfect reflection of PURE LOVE which we all long for.  That realty gives me a Peace that this culture cannot give me.

We all live life in the ordinary.  The very fact that we are here shows that we are all on a journey but have  various paths. One is not above the other. Just a different observation leading to living "life to the fullest".  Nothing more nothing less.

That  is the core of the teaching of Jesus.   "Love the Lord your  God and your neighbor as yourself." Culture tells us that we are our own person. But in reality we are communal people. 

Community to me is where my hope lies.  It is here that hope is created.  Being able to see the diversity in each of us.  Thank God that he did not have a cookies cutter.  Our lives would be very boring.   But the key question that I pose is this  " Are we willing to be really be open to that reality?"  It's taking a risk of either being accepted or rejected. 

So are you and I willing to take that risk?   I say "YES" that's the reason for our being here. 

{On Jan 24th, Brother Charles Edward was a participant in an Interfaith Forum, held at St. Paul's 

Church (see picture above).  These are some of  his thoughts around the topic "What in your faith 

inspires peace and hope?", told from a Christian perspective}

It's What's Inside That Counts (or do you put leaven in your bread?)

The lesson shared in the Sunday school classrooms this morning will be the Parable of the Leaven.  In reflecting on many different news stories and media campaigns this week, it seemed the Holy Spirit was choosing for me as I prepared for the presentation to the class this morning, as well as thought about Martin Luther King Day (or in some places Civil Rights Day) tomorrow.

In the parable, the woman mixes leaven into the flour, and the bread rises.  Simple really, yet there is so much "bubbling" under the surface.

In the current political race, we are told repeatedly, by all sides, that we need to look carefully and see the true nature of the candidates, with every individual convinced they are the best one for the job.  We need to look at what is inside.

This past week, the Anglican Communion suspended the Episcopal Church from full privileges and voting rights due to the work of the Episcopal Church to allow same sex unions in church, as well as other decisions.  What is inside all of this?  Are we to continue to love all and accept all as Jesus taught (the opinion of the Episcopal leadership) or love all people, but become more reserved in our open acceptance (as statements from the Anglican leadership suggest).  With the record the Episcopal Church has on many civil rights issues, it seems very unlikely that any steps will go back.  This leads to many questions, including what is inside each of us?  If we say that we are to love one another, how do we respond to this new situation?

Tomorrow, we will recognize Civil Rights Day.  We will think about and honor so many who have tried to make us focus on something that is really simple - it is what is inside that counts.  Not the color of our skin, where we live, how much money we make, what political party we may call our own, or what church we worship in - but what is inside each of us.

So, whether you will mix three measure of flour with leaven or not, you have a chance today to wonder about how God works inside you.  I wonder, what will you find?  I suspect you will like some parts of yourself more than others - as that is the nature of humans.  But if you remember the teachings we share in our church, you will know that God loves and accepts you for you, and asks us to do the same for others.  That can be very difficult when we disagree, but hopefully remembering this will allow us to share in peaceful disagreements, and set an example of demonstrating kindness, even to those who do not ask for it, in all areas of our lives.

It is indeed what is inside that makes all of the difference.

Image of yeast bubbling over

Pictures from our wonderful Animal Blessings on St. Francis Day!

We received so many wonderful pictures of the Animal Blessings, indoors and outside!  Here are just some of our favorites.  Thanks so much to all who participated, and to our God for making all of the wondrous variety of creation!

Holy God: 

No sparrow falls without your attention; nothing dies that is lost to you; 

nothing comes into being without your love.  

Give us just and compassionate hearts, that we may serve the earth and all its creatures,

 holding fast to the vision of your peaceable reign in which all will live with you

             eternally; through the Risen One, Christ our Savior.  

Amen.

Shabby Scriptures

The word of our God shall stand for ever.—Isaiah 40:8

My Bible is falling apart. And no wonder; I received it at Sunday school on September 29, 1957.

With colorful plates, maps, a concordance and student dictionary complete with illustrations from ark through Zion, it was perfect for a child.

Of course, I’m no longer a kid. Over the years the inexpensive leatherette cover has broken off along the edges. The gold leaf gilding on the title rubbed off years ago and “Holy Bible” has become a dull gray shadow. In fact, the entire front cover sloughed off a couple of months ago, taking the first forty nine chapters of Genesis with it. I stuck it back with cellophane tape, but even that has loosened, so I keep my Bible together with a rubber band. My shabby Scriptures.

They should look a lot worse. For the first thirty years I owned this Bible, I thumbed through it only casually, mostly at Sunday school. Then a dear friend introduced me to daily devotional reading—just as I was going through a divorce with four small children to care for. Bible reading became part of my early morning routine. Over the next fifteen years I underlined and highlighted my favorite passages, all the verses that really made a difference to me. Now I wouldn’t trade that Bible for a more handsome or sturdier edition. It’s my constant companion, my never failing guide through life. No matter what struggles I’m going through, I can always turn to it for the help

I need.

Yes, my Bible may be falling apart, but thanks to the wisdom in its pages, I’m not!

Dear Lord, thank You for Your Word hidden in my heart.

—Gail Thorell Schilling

The Sunday, November 20, 2005 entry by Gail Thorell Schilling included in the “Daily Guideposts 2005” is reproduced with permission from Guideposts, Guideposts.org. Copyright © 2004 Guideposts. All rights reserved.

Help Me to Trust Your Time...

A time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted.—Ecclesiastes 3:2

Blue flax, newly transplanted from a friend’s yard, fluttered by the mailbox as I stared dumbly at the letter from my landlord of five years. “Therefore, you must find another rental before September 1.”

I shook my head in disbelief. Just a few months earlier the same landlord had invited me to choose new carpet and plant a garden. All spring I had removed sod, forked loam, fertilized and planted gifts from my friends’ gardens. Now the delphinium, lavender, lilies, tulips, daffodils and veronica would stay behind. I’d be gone before the painted daisies, grown from seed, showed their colors.

Leaving my garden was the least of my worries. Where would I go? Rentals were few, and my job search hadn’t turned out the way I had hoped. After twenty three years in my cozy community, why was everything falling apart now?

Or was it? For several years I had pondered relocating two thousand miles back east to my native New Hampshire to keep closer tabs on my frail parents, who were now in their eighties. Was this the right time?

Within days, pieces of the transcontinental move clicked together: I would live at my parents’ summer place in New Hampshire, just an hour away from them, and teach at a nearby junior college. Carol, my friend since college, would drive back with me. I would keenly miss my community and my garden, but I knew my parents needed me nearby.

Minutes before departing, I dug up the English rose I’d planted just weeks earlier. “Rosie” would travel with us and begin a new life in New Hampshire, too. As I started the car to begin our journey, Carol slid in and offered me a nosegay plucked from my now abandoned garden. She smiled.

“Something pretty for the trip—and seeds for your new garden.”

Lord of creation, help me trust Your time, not my own.

—Gail Thorell Schilling

The Thursday, August 26, 2004 entry by Gail Thorell Schilling included in the “Daily Guideposts 2004” is reproduced with permission from Guideposts, Guideposts.org. Copyright © 2003 Guideposts. All rights reserved.

Grace - and Pie

But unto every one of us is given grace.… —Ephesians 4:7

“I'm just stupid!” wailed my daughter Tess, then twelve, as she slammed her bedroom door. She had tried to make macaroni and cheese out of a box; unfortunately, she hadn't drained the water before adding the cheese powder. Now her siblings teased her about her “orange soup.”

“Dear Lord, this child needs a success, quick! What can I do?”

Try again. Cook something easy with her. Don't give up or she will too.

When I invited Tess to make dessert, she zeroed in on a new recipe, Pink Angel Pie: prefab pie crust, a can of cherry filling and some meringue. How hard could that be?

First, she jerked the plastic wrap off the frozen shell, sending it skidding across the counter to shatter on the floor. Before she could cry, I picked up the pieces and swallowed my rebuke. “You know, Tess, pie dough is just like clay. You can just pinch it and press it back together.” Next, she opened the can of cherry filling and dropped the gooey lid on the kitchen rug. I stayed calm.

Now the tricky part: separating eggs. Once again, I withheld critique as she fished a few egg shell shards from the bowl, then beat the egg whites soft and high, splattering meringue on the cabinets. With a flourish, my increasingly confident daughter spread the fluffy topping on her creation and slid it into the oven for browning.

Well, Tess's dessert drew rave reviews from her siblings, and “orange soup” has become a family legend. Best of all, God gave both my daughter and me grace when we sorely needed it, thanks to Pink Angel Pie.

Gracious Lord, thank You for sending abundant grace wherever we are, even in a stained, meringue spattered kitchen.

Digging Deeper: Ps. 21:6–7; Luke 6:37–39

—Gail Thorell Schilling

The Monday, February 11, 2013 entry by Gail Thorell Schilling included in the “Daily Guideposts 2013” is reproduced with permission from Guideposts, Guideposts.org. Copyright © 2012 Guideposts. All rights reserved.