A Poem: empty darkness

at arms length she
holds the church
withholding herself
she hides from grace

reclusive and alone
yet isolate and pure
she holds herself erect

now in death
her company no more
she awaits
the darkness
without definition

Fellowship Conversation?

I wonder what goes on during fellowship hour? What are most of the conversations about? Do people introduce themselves to one another? Do they share a little bit about where they are from and how long they have been members and communicants of the parish? Do they talk about world events and the tragedy of war and poverty? Do they talk about the needs people have within the parish family as well as beyond? Do they talk about their involvement in a servant ministry and the difference that ministry makes in the life of the parish? Are there suggestions about how the congregation might become more involved in the larger community reaching out to those in need? Do they make suggestions about how our life together might be strengthened, and do they share names with one another of people they haven't seen at worship for awhile and promise to call them sometime during the week? Do they engage those who are responsible for Christian formation and education and let them know how that ministry may help them be better Christian parents? What really goes on during fellowship hour?

Besides being a place of meeting following the liturgy it always has the possiblity of becoming the launch pad for ministry and mission.

The Eucharistic Offering

Why, on occasion, are the people incensed within the context of the eucharistic liturgy? What does this action imply?

Immediately following the procession, the Altar Table is incensed reminding us of the sacrifice of Christ, his offering of himself to the Father; during the offertory, incense is also used as the offering of bread, wine, and alms are presented on the altar; and the people are incensed as a sign of their own self-offering to God in the context of the Eucharistic Liturgy - "And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls, and our bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee." Those who believe gather week by week to make their offering to God and through their offering they become the Body of Christ.

Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself for us,
a (fragrant) offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:2

Preparing for Pentecost

The unfolding mystery ... is the paschal drama, the tale of the Son's dying and rising and ascending with humanity to the Father, a tale retold in the small circle of the monastic day, again in the wider sphere of the Christian week, and again in the cosmic cycle of the Christian year - an archetypal pattern made real by the power of the Holy Spirit, inexhaustible renewer of exhausted hearts. From the 40 days of Lent, whose knots and loopholes tell us that we are still in our sins, we reliably do make it to the 50 days of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, where we hear the final word God wants to say to us.

The Easter Monday prayer Vivendo teneant! .... "may we hold on to this in our lives!" - sums up ... monastic wisdom. The Christian regularity for which monasticism provides a template, daily rehearsing the paschal mystery, singing the psalms until they repeat in the heart, sitting at table with the same companions over the same unremarkable food, all this repetition leads not to boredom but to joy - objective Christian joy, the precise opposite of happiness on demand. We are to be sunk in joy whether we like it or not. Joy is ... a "Trinitarian conspiracy."

Carol Zaleski reflecting on Don Hugh Gilbert's
Unfolding the Mystery in Christian Century, May 1, 2007

The Forty-Fifth Day of Easter

O God, by the glorification of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit you have opened for us the gates of your kingdom: Grant that we, who have received such great gifts, may dedicate ourselves more diligently to your service, and live more fully the riches of our faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict

Chapter 4: What Are the Instruments of Good Works

62. To fulfill God's commandments daily in one's deeds.
63. To love chastity.
64. To hate no one.
65. Not to be jealous, not to harbor envy.
66. Not to love contention.
67. To beware of haughtiness.
68. And to respect the seniors.
69. To love the juniors.
70. To pray for one's enemies in the love of Christ.
71. To make peace with one's adversary before the sun sets.
72. And never to despair of God's mercy.

These, then, are the tools of the spiritual craft.
If we employ them unceasingly day and night,
and return them on the Day of Judgment,
our compensation from the Lord
will be that wage He has promised:
"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
what God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Cor. 2:9).

Now the workshop
in which we shall diligently execute all these tasks
is the enclosure of the monastery
and stability in the community.