shades of gold

"Sometimes silence isn't golden.

Sometimes it's just yellow."

Jan Kemp

May we know when to speak up,

especially for those who have no voice.

Steel Thyself

"The trouble with steeling yourself against the harshness of reality

is that the same steel that secures your life against being destroyed

secures your life also against being opened up and transformed

by the holy power that life itself comes from.

You can survive on your own.

You can grow strong on your own.

You can even prevail on your own.

But you cannot become human on your own."

- F. Buechner, The Sacred Journey

Love vs. Death

"The resurrection doesn't answer any

of our curious questions about life after death,

Such as how will it be? How will it look?

But it does reveal to us that, indeed,

LOVE is stronger than DEATH.

After that revelation, we must remain silent,

leave the whys, where, hows, and whens behind,

and simply trust."

-Henri Nouwen, Our Greatest Gift

window art from  here

Easter Monday

This is what our clergy feel like

after the marathon of Holy Week.

He is Risen!

They are Recuperating!

Good Friday

"He began in the darkness of a stable,
Loved in the twilight of Passover,
Died in the darkness of crucifixion.
Arms outstretched in the manger,
Still outstretched on the cross.
...Asking to be held at birth.
Asking to hold at death.
And past death?
Arms still outstretched."

- Donna Huswick



Jesus Loved Judas

Jesus loved Judas.  He loved him when he chose him to be his disciple.  He loved him when he stole from the common purse, and when he left in the night to seal Jesus' fate.  Jesus also loved him when he dipped the bread in the wine and gave it to Judas as a foretaste of the great banquet.  

The fact that Judas could not respond to such unfathomable love did not change how much Jesus loved Judas.  Is there anything that can separate any one of us from the love of Jesus? 

Is there something you are carrying that you are tired of carrying?  
For what do you seek reconciliation?

-based on Holy Wednesday Lectionary reading - John 13:21-32.
Art: Kiss of Judas Iscariot, anonymous painting of the 12th century, Uffizi Gallery, Florence.

                                                                

Ultimately,

Forgiveness is not a thing,

it is GOD.

-Martin L. Smith                                      

how old are you?

"You can judge your age

by the amount of pain you feel

when you come in contact with a new idea."

- Pearl S. Buck

we are all ministers

"Ministry is entering with our Human Brokenness into communion with others

and spreading a word of HOPE. This hope is not based on any Power to Solve

the problems of those with whom we live, but on the LOVE of GOD,

which becomes VISIBLE when we let go of our FEARS of being out of Control

and enter into his PRESENCE in a shared Confession of Weakness.

This is a HARD VOCATION. It goes against the grain of our Need for

self-affirmation, self-fulfillment, and self-realization.

It is a call to true HUMILITY."

-Henri Nouwen

.and yes, this is what each & every one of us is called to

each & every day, with God's help.

artwork by Sieger Koder, found here

positive thinking

The trick is to realize that

the shit that falls on you is fertilizer.

- Ron Mangravite

MCMLIII

Do you know what happened 58 years ago?

TV Guide published their very first edition.
*

Jack and Jacqueline were wed!
*

Elizabeth was crowned the Queen of England!
*

And one wacky leprechaun was born!
*

"Do not regret growing older.

It is a privilege denied to many."

— Unknown wise person



spring garden poem

A TRACE

"You that give new life to this planet,

you that transcend logic, come.

I am only an arrow.

Fill your bow with me and let me fly.

Because of this love for you

my bowl has fallen from the roof.

Put down a ladder and collect the pieces, please.

People ask, But which roof is your roof?

I answer, Wherever the soul came from,

and wherever it goes at night, my roof is in that direction.

From wherever spring arrives to heal the ground,

from wherever searching rises in a human being.

The looking itself is a trace of what we are looking for,

but we have been more like the man who sat on his donkey

and asked the donkey where to go.

Be quiet now and wait.

It may be that the ocean one,

that we desire so to move into and become,

desires us out here on land a little longer

going our sundry roads to the shore."

Rumi: The Big Red Book

by Coleman Barks, p. 316

photo is of The Hermitage Cottage Spring Garden in Saintfield, Northern Ireland

"Hyancinth with dome-shaped hacquetia and early red tulips behind; along centre path"

A lovely photo in homage to "from wherever spring arrives to heal the ground"

got tunnel vision?

"Whatever story we are attached to,

that's where our devotion is.

There's no room for God in it."

-Byron Katie

The photo is absurb but too true.

When I can only see my view of reality

there really is no room for God to break through.

What story am I grasping too tightly?

What keeps me from experiencing God's freeing embrace?