Back from Iona

Although the six of us--Carol and Bob Rogow, Claudia and Harry Smiley, and June and I--got back to the States on Thursday, it's only now that I've really had the open time to let you know that God blessed our trip to Iona so that it's memory now lies deep within us with thanksgiving. As we get to see most of you personally sometime this summer, we'll share our stories, especially about the people of Ireland and Scotland, and notably about Iona itself. I will be taking a bus back to Richmond, Kentucky, on Wednesday while June stays in Georgia. When I'm back in my study and can work comfortably with a better computer, I'll post a few of my favorite photos and tell you more about the trip. While Ireland and Scotland are beautiful in many places, it's truly good to be back home again.

See you in two weeks!

As soon as we return from Ireland and Scotland, I'll post a few pictures, especially those I hope to take while on the Isle of Iona. In the meantime, for your lectio, some words for Henri Nouwen:

Are you in love with Jesus? Do you know the incarnate God? In our world of loneliness and despair, there is an enormous need for men and women who know the heart of God, a heart that forgives, that cares, that reaches out and wants to heal.

On Pilgrimage in Ireland and Scotland

June and I will be in pilgrimage in Ireland and Scotland from May 11 until May 23. We're going with two other couples: Claudia and Harry Smiley, Carol and Robert Rogow. After flying to Dublin, we're driving up the east coast, bed and breakfasting along the way, for a few days so that eventually we can cross the Irish Sea by ferry and head up to and through Glasgow, Scotland. The high and outer-most point of our journey will be the Isle of Iona, the ancient "thin place" of Celtic Christianity, where we'll stay for two nights. A good bit of our time will be spent in and around the Abbey where we'll have opportunities to pray and participate in the Sunday liturgy. Please remember us in your prayers, asking that we have a safe and Spirit-filled pilgrimage. When we return, I'll do my best to share all that the Lord will have given to us during our journey.

Image: Inside the Abbey Church by Roger Wilco

May 8: Dame Julian of Norwich, Contemplative

This morning June and I attended the Eucharist at The Church of the Good Shepherd in Covington, Georgia. As we entered the sanctuary, Fr. Tim Graham handed us this information about Dame Julian of Norwich, whose commemoration is May 8 (and was transferred to our mid-Week Holy Communion, as is often the practice among many parishes). For more information about this remarkable woman, visit The Order of Julian of Norwich.

Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

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May 19 June 16: Lectio Divina: An Online Retreat and Practice Group

Yesterday I received the following announcement from Jan Carter, who provides leadership for a weekly Centering Prayer meeting in Lexington:

The ancient practice of praying the Scriptures is being rediscovered and renewed in our time. Known as Lectio Divina (Divine Reading), it is one of the great treasures of the Christian tradition of prayer. Contemplative Outreach is
pleased to partner with Spirituality & Practice to make this teaching more accessible through an online retreat format.

Lectio Divina flows out of the Hebrew method of studying the Scriptures which is called haggadah, learning by the heart. Haggadah was an interactive interpretation of the Scriptures by means of the free use of the text to explore its inner meaning. This online retreat will present the Christian version of this spiritual practice working with passages from the Bible. However, the method of divine reading can be used with any sacred text, so people of all traditions are invited to join us.

Lectio Divina online retreat and Practice Group will run from May 19 - June 16, 2008. This course is based on the Contemplative Outreach Lectio Divina introductory workshop. P articipants will receive a weekly email with step-by-step instructions in the Lectio Divina method. Two other weekly emails will provide answers to your questions and links to audio programs with commentary on this classic practice.

Replicating what you might experience during a face-to-face retreat, you will have access to a private Practice Circle at SpiritualityandPractice.com where mentors from Contemplative Outreach will provide further guidance and support. Here you'll have an opportunity to report on your experiences with this practice and learn from others working with it. The Practice Circle will be available for an additional month for further sharing as you incorporate Lectio Divina into your daily life.

The fee for participation in this online retreat and Practice Group is $39.95. To sign up, go to Spirituality and Practice: E-courses.

If you have any questions, please email Spirituality and Practice: E-courses.

If you in the least bit interested, I urge you to participate in this e-course.

Photograph: courtesy of W.T. Bryant

Bringing to Your Attention a New Blog

In our daily prayers we all pause, perhaps spending considerable time, to remember the needs of others and making intercessory prayer on behalf of those who have asked us to pray for them and/or who need our prayers. For the past several weeks some friends and I have been talking about the possibility of creating a small ecumenical group of Christians who might wish to learn more about non-violent Christianity, how we might both pray for and promote justice (so prominent a prayer in the Psalms), and how we might concretely help to feed the hungry and poor (again, so prominent in the Psalms). Right now we are in the early stages of thinking how we might gather together interested Christians. We're reading and studying; we're praying for the Holy Spirit's guidance and for discernment. As a "background" resource, I've created a blog which may interest you: Peaceful Christians, Promoting Justice, Providing Food, Protecting Environments. Might you take a look at it. Perhaps it may be something of a series of prayer concerns that you and I will want to incorporate into our daily prayers on a regular basis. And perhaps we may find some linkages that might connect the two groups. Think about; pray about it. I'll put a link on our blog here to the new blog: Peaceful Christians, Promoting Justice, Providing Food.

Making Intercessions for Sandy and Toby

This afternoon I receive an email from a friend who has written to a number of Christian friends in Richmond, asking for prayers on behalf of her friends. Here is a lightly edited copy of the email I received:

My husband is at the UK hospital right now, sitting with a friend whose wife was flown in last night, suffering from a brain aneurysm. She is in surgery right now, they give her a 50/50 chance of survival, with lots of terrible possibilities in the event she does survive (paralysis, brain damage, etc.) We all know people like Toby and Sandy . . . and they are very dear to us and especially to my husband. Any
prayers you wish to raise for Sandy, Toby, their family and the doctors, and
in particular for patience, understanding and acceptance would, I know, be most appreciated. Thanks.

In your daily prayers please offer intercessions for Sandy, Toby, their family, and the doctors. I will circumspectly keep you informed about those for whom we are praying.

Preparing for the Feast of Pentecost (May 11)

This evening I received this message from Daniel B. Clendinen:

May 11 is Pentecost, the perfect week to announce that we've just added translation of our webzine into four new languages---Dutch, Greek, Hindi, and simplified Chinese. We now offer Journey with Jesus in 14 languages; check out the country flags on our navigation bar.

For Pentecost we've posted the poem "O Comforting Fire of Spirit" by Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179). David Werther has a new music review. Richie Furay's "The Heartbeat of Love" (2007) will take you straight back to Buffalo Springfield and Poco.

I review Ron Sider's new book The Scandal of Evangelical Politics (2008), and the powerful film There Will Bloood. My essay for May 11 is called "From the inspiration of the Spirit to the Institution of the Church." Pentecost grace, peace, and joy to each and every reader.

Take a look at Clendinen's thoughtful essay as you prepare yourself for this coming Sunday's worship. And enjoy the beautiful icons he includes as the sacred images accompanying the essay.

Image Source

This Week and Clendinen's Journey with Jesus

I was unaware, as perhaps you are, that at the beginning of May the world is commemorating the genocide of six million Jews in the Holocaust by observing Yom Hashoah — Holocaust Remembrance Day. For this reason, in his commemtary for this coming Sunday's worship and prayer Daniel B. Clendenin writes not so much on the lectionary readings as on how we might remember the Holocaust and with Amartya Sen commit ourselves to three ways by which we oppose violence "caused by the illusion of identity."

May 2: Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Theologian, Doctor

On May 2 we remember one of the giants in the Faith: St. Athanasius. According to Lesser Feasts and Fasts, "rarely in the history of the Church has the course of its development been more significantly determined by one person than it was by Athanasius in the fourth century" (248). Whenever we say the Nicene Creed and confess that "we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father," we owe, in large measure, that orthodox articulation of our Faith to St. Athanasius.

In the fourth century, Athanasius, often as a minority spokesman, spoke out vigorously against the heretical views of Arius. Yes, it's true, as Sam Portaro notes, "Arius was partially right; most heretics are. Jesus was a man, a mere mortal" (Brightest and Best: A Companion to the Lesser Feasts and Fasts, 83). Indeed, our Lord was fully human; he spent nine months in the womb of Mary, he went to school to learn how to read, he ate passover meals and drank passover wine, he wept, slept, worked in a carpenter shop, took boat rides, read Scriptures, spoke out against hypocrisy and misdirected piety, upset temple tables, lived a life of celibacy and poverty, announced the arrival of the Reign of God, and eventually died as a common criminal. But at the same time, without denying any of his manliness and humanity, Jesus was fully divine. As the eternal Word of God, Jesus created and still creates the world, loved Abraham, journeyed with the people of Israel, stilled a wild sea storm, turned water into wine, miraculously multiplied food, brought the dead back to life, healed lepers, and absolutely forgave and forgives sin. As Robert Capon in The Fingerprints of God rightly tells us, "His Godhead was 100 percent God, without a scrap of humanity in it; and his humanity was 100 percent human, without a scrap of Deity in it. Each was utterly true to its own nature, completely itself and none other; and yet each was perfectly one with the other in the Person of the Word of God" (106). We owe a great debt of theological gratitude to Athanasius for helping the Church preserve and live by that Mystery, the Incarnation. Like C. S. Lewis, you may enjoy (as several of us have during the past month) one of Athanasius most popular writings, On the Incarnation.

Uphold your Church, O God of truth, as you upheld your servant Athanasius, to maintain and proclaim boldly the catholic faith against all opposition, trusting solely in the grace of your eternal Word, who took upon himself our humanity that we might share his divinity; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.

May 1: The Feast of the Ascension

Since my May parish newsletter did not arrive in the mail this week, this afternoon I stopped by my church in Lexington to ask if there might be an service tomorrow evening on Ascension Day, May 1. The parish secretary told me (with some sadness in her voice), "No, we used to have one, but not many people showed up, and we no longer have a service of worship on Ascension Day." Although I was disappointed to hear that not-so-good news, I was not surprised. The Feast of the Ascension is a celebration which, always falling on a Thursday, is slowly disappearing from the worship life of many congregations. We keep saying in the Creed that "He ascended into heaven," but we no longer regard that great event as important as the Incarnation, the Passion of Our Lord, and His Resurrection.

That doesn't mean, however, that in our daily prayers we too may forget that forty days after His Resurrection, Our Lord Jesus returned to His Father eternally so that he might live fully everywhere in His Church. To celebrate His return, this evening and tomorrow many Christians turn their thoughts to our Lord’s ascension and what it means to the Church, to the world, and to one personally. In his Letters and Papers from Prison, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Today is Ascension Day, and that means that it is a day of great joy for all who can believe that Christ rules the world and our lives.”


Several years ago M. Basil Pennington, a Cistercian monk and one-time abbot visited me in Massachusetts and gave me, after a nearly day-long talk on the porch, a strong five-minute blessing with his big hands solidly on my head. His journals from trips to the Holy Land have just been published. After visiting the spot on Mount Olivet where Jesus is said to have ascended, Basil wrote:

It is good that Jesus ascended. His mission was complete. He gave us all. He deserves to sit on the right hand of the Father in glory. The reality of his Ascension gives us the courage to transcend ourselves and open us to divine contemplation. In Christ’s going ahead, we are assured that there is heaven for all of us humans, there is intimacy and at-homeness with the divine.

Basil’s right. Any desire for Jesus to live in a certain place with a single address is much like that desire of Peter, James, and John to domesticate the Transfiguration. But Jesus would have none of that so that "we can transcend ourselves."

The Ascension tells us that Jesus presents himself to us all at once in a multitude of ways: when we read and hear the Gospel, when we table with Him in our homes and churches, when we meet children, when we visit prisoners, when we put diapers on babies, dresses on women, and coats on men, when we stand for justice, when we work for peace, when we serve the poor, when we reach out to our enemies, when two or three of us come together and name Him. In other words: when we love one another.

And then there's this which Mark Harris announces: "The ascension proposes that Jesus Christ has taken a place above all the principalities and powers in the world. He has become that to which we turn in order to find meaning and fulfillment in living." In this sense the ascension is a key doctrine in these latter days. It is not one that super-patriots of any stripe, those who place their loyalties to nation about that of Christ, will like very much. If we turn to Paul, we see that he speaks of the "spirit of wisdom" by which to discern these things. If we use that spirit, we'll be led to proclaim Christ's absolute rule--not as king, but as one who feeds and sustains. Giving all other powers their due and their respect, in the final analysis we Christians cannot totally and without reservations embrace the flag, support the government, or pledge allegiance to the country for which they stand. Rather we end up having to say with Paul that Christ Jesus is "far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come." Perhaps the visual notion of the ascension is the movement of the Christ to the place at the head of the table as our great high priest, the head of the true state that is the Church, the Body of Christ of which Christians are all parts.

Image source: Ascension

April 29: Catherine of Siena, Teacher, 1380

On Tuesday, we remember and give thanks to God for the life and witness of St. Catherine of Siena, a remarkable woman. Pope Pius II canonized Catherine in 1461. Her feast day is April 29 in the new Roman calendar and April 30 in the traditional Roman calendar. This date is observed by various Christians including Anglicans and Lutherans. Pope Paul VI bestowed on her in 1970 the title of Doctor of the Church - making her the first woman, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, ever to receive this honor. In 1999 Pope John Paul II made her one of Europe's patron saints. Saint Catherine is also the patroness of the historically Catholic American sorority, Theta Phi Alpha.

Everlasting God, who so kindled the flame of holy love in the Heart of blessed Catherine of Siena, as she meditated on the passion of your Son our Savior, that she devoted her life to the poor and the sick, and to the peace and unity of the Church: Grant that we also may share in the mystery of Christ's death, and rejoice in the revelation of His Glory, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Rogation Days

The calendar in my prayerbook tells me that April 28, 29, and 30 (that is, today, tomorrow, and Wednesday) are Rogation Days. And here's what the note on the backside of the calendar's April page tells me about Rogation Days:

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday before thie festival of the Ascension of Our Lord have long been observed as days of prayer for the fruits of the earth and have been more recently expanded to include prayer for human labor and for peace. Congregations may observe the Rogation Days on these days or, preferably, on days days closer to seed time in their areas. The traditional observance consists of Holy Communion preceded by an outdoor procession. This procession may take place at the fields and other locations where labor is perfomed or out of doors on teh church grounds. At various stoppoing point or "stations,"
appropriate Scripture lessons and prayers may be read. Hymns may be sung during the procession. The Litany is begun as the procession enters the church. Petitions concerning the care and fruitfulness of the earth may be inserted into the Litany following the final set of petitions with the response "We implore you to hear us, good Lord." After the Kyries which conclude the Litany, a prayer for the Stewardship of Creation is said as the Prayer/Collect of the Day.

Now, to be quite honest, I have never participated in a Rogation Day Eucharist with Litany, but I'd surely like to, especially with a bunch of farmers, field laborers, gardeners, nursery workers, and anyone who likes to get his or hands soiled up from planting seeds and flowers. From what I know, it's still done in and around country parishes, especially in the mid-West. If anyone knows of a parish observing a Rogation Day in the area, let me know. For now, however, June and I will most likely go out by the garden one evening early this week and say evening prayers with special thanksgiving for God's gift of plants and trees around the house.

Here's a particularly fitting prayer for your Rogation Day; I found it at the conclusion of an exceptionally fine homily, "An Earth Day Sermon," by Steven Whitney, an Anglican professional environmentalist:

Lord, we thank you for this opportunity to reflect on your creation, your covenant with all living things, and our obligation to be good stewards of the gifts you have provided. Help us to understand that each of us has an important role in Caring for Creation, by the choices we make and by the actions we take. Give us the wisdom to choose thoughtfully, and to act with care, in accordance with your will, and your love of this good Earth, our island home.

It's Still Eastertide!

Running my fingers across the calendar days of Eastertide (fifty in all, until we come to the Vigil of Pentecost on May 10th), I calculate that we're now thirty-five days into the Season of the Resurrection, still singing our Alleluias "for the Lord is risen indeed!" Lest anyone tend to disremember, here are two memorable celebrations of the Resurrection joy that I found on YouTube. The first is the Vigil celebrated at St. Gregory of Nyssa, Episcopal Church, San Francisco. The second, a tad less ecumenical, is recommended by Ben Witherington, who says, "Get on up with your Good Self, Kanye and Eminem ain't got nothin' on you." Take a gander, ye geese in the flock of the Risen Lord. Enjoy!

Easter Vigil
Nazbo Rap II

Image Source

Getting Ready for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, April 27, 2008

Again, I urge you to visit Journey with Jesus, a weekly essay on the Biblical lectionary by Daniel B. Clendenin. This commentary for this coming Sunday is titled "From Synagogues and Sanctuaries to Bars and Boardrooms: The Apostle Paul at the Areopagus." In addition to his lectionary essays, be sure also to visit the Book Reviews, Film Reviews, Poetry, and Music Reviews .

Today: Saint Mark the Evangelist

Almighty God, who by the hand of Mark the evangelist have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

To learn more about the "first Gospel," written by the one whom have come to call Mark, visit L. Michael White's The Gospel of Mark: A Story of Secrecy and Misunderstanding in The Story of the Storytellers. Image Source.

Andy attends the consecration of a new sanctuary

Last Sunday Andy, along with his Gerogia neighbors Gayle and Michael Folkerts, went to nearby Covington to be among friends at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd as their Bishop of the Atlanta Diocese consecrated their beautful new sanctuary, baptismal font, lecturn, pulpit, and altar. June, alas, didn't have the opportunity to attend because she and her daughter Becky were on their way home from Florida, having disembarked from their cruise ship earlier in the morning. Since spending more time in Georgia in the past two years, June and Andy have come to appreciate the parish priest, Fr. Tim Graham and many in the congregation. To show our appreciation, Andy commissioned the two icons that have been installed in the narthex. If you come to visit June and Andy in Georgia and are with them on a Wednesday or Sunday (when the Eucharist is offered), you'll be invited to come and see the church. To see more of the consecration, visit the slideshow!

Getting Ready for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 20, 2008

Be sure to visit Daniel B. Clendinen's Journey with Jesus as you prepare for this coming Sunday's lectionary readings. His commentary on the Sunday Gospel is especially helpful. It begins with this paragraph:

In our politically-correct culture, few opinions generate more hostility than ones like the words of Jesus from this week's readings: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me" (John
14:6). Or consider Peter's words: "There is no other name [than Jesus] under heaven given to men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). Truly, Jesus is a stone that causes us to stumble and a rock of offense (1 Peter 2:8).

Interested? Read the rest of his essay!

Image source: //www.crosswoodsgallery.com/sc_images/products/389_large_image.jpghttp://www.crosswoodsgallery.com/sc_images/products/389_large_image.jpg

Praying and Working for the Conservation of Creation

This morning I was privileged to meet Rusty Pritchard, editor of Creation Care: A Christian Environmental Quarterly (visit Your Family Blog for details). I've placed a link to this fine publication and urge you to subscribe. An article by Greg Pitchford, "The Restoration of All Things," is especially fine reading, a superior piece of work; when it becomes available online, I'll alert you to it.

My prayerbook sets aside every Tuesday as a day wherein we might pray for Creation and Providence; it includes this collect for the conservation of natural resources:

Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth, you make us workers with you in your creation: Give us wisdom and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Our Parishes: Six New Links

This afternoon I thought it might be a good to add six links to our list of places to visit. Five of these links are to local churches to which friends in our daily-prayer group are communicants: First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, The Episcopal Church of Our Saviour, St. Thomas Lutheran Church, and Faith Lutheran Church in Lexington. In hopes that some friends from St. Mark Roman Catholic Church may soon take an interest in our community of daily pray-ers, I’m also placing the parish on our list. You may wish to look around. If you know of another parish we should include in our Praying Daily list of churches, let me know.