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Category Archives: Lent
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Posted in Christianity, contemplation, disorientation, faith, Lent, Spiritual Formation, spirituality
Tagged Religion and Spirituality, suffering
Is It I, Lord?
“One of you will betray me.” The question hangs in the air.
The followers look at each other. And back at Jesus.
This week, I will share a few voices from that evening as the disciples
ponder this alarming accusation.
SIMON
This is a meal of liberation, and he speaks of a betrayer? What is wrong, my Lord?
Here I am, your Simon. You are the one who bids us to joy and laughter. Such long faces!
This sobriety does not befit the one who gives us mirth and life. Being with you is just so much fun.
Before you, I never knew such exuberance and high spirits. My foot was heavy, weighed down with many cares. Now, I run lightly. I laugh until my sides ache. I no longer worry about what others think of me. You cut loose all the voices within that condemned and taunted me. Fear vanished. Every day is a new adventure. I once thought happiness was a dream known only to children. I hoped only for a good living as I grew old. Now, I have grown younger in your presence, bolder, and full of joy. Sometimes, I just can’t stand so much happiness and weep for its sheer beauty.
But, my Lord, come smile, lift the cup. My brothers, he must be joking.
JAMES, The LESSER
The wind blows through the open window.
Somewhere, an animal screams.
A wolf leaps for the lamb’s throat.
The hawk soars across the moon’s passive face.
So he is betrayed. Will the Earth note it? Care?
Will I, James?
Betrayal is the way of things.
Whoever said the universe is trustworthy?
Thieves and murderers wait by the roadside.
Lovers are unfaithful. Children deceitful.
I should have known it would come to this.
For a few moments, I hoped he could change things,
had begun to believe there was safety in creation.
Yet, look at me, a creature myself.
How many times have I been false?
How many times have I sold out, given up, turned
away in anger, disappointment, or jealousy, and given
those around me to the powers of death,
the beasts and executioners who reside in me?
I am numb.
Oh Christ, don’t let them kill you!
I came with you, believed
staked all I had on you.
Lord, it is I who am betrayed!
PHILIP
He sits there so calmly with his arms outstretched. I hurt to see the pain in his face. His palm is open, accepting. There is no anger, no bitterness, no revenge, no resistance. He is like a lamb going to slaughter. I see only great sorrow.
What kind of man would announce to his betrayer the knowledge of his treachery? He loses all advantage. He may as well open his chest to the knife.
What kind of man is he? How is it that after spending so many days and nights together, he is still somehow a stranger? Despite his commonness and accessibility, he remains mysterious, ineffable.
What am I doing here? How did I get mixed up with these people? I am in over my head. I never thought it would go this far, get this out of hand. Someone is apt to get killed. I want to run back down the roads and valleys, run through the crowds, the villages, along the shores. I want to run back in time and space to where the word betrayer does not hang like a noose over this table.
Is It I, Lord first appeared in 1986 in the Presbyterian Survey.
This liturgical drama was initially commissioned by Westminster Presbyterian Church in Topeka, KS
Copyright 1994 Loretta Ross. All rights reserved.
Posted in contemplation, Lent, Lent Devotion
Tagged betrayal, Bible, faith, James the Lesser, Jesus, judas, last supper, maunday-thursday, Maundy Thursday, Simon
BREAKING NEWS
The first week of Lent begins with a Liar
The Father of Lies has been given a holiday of his own! Long neglected and maligned, The Great Deceiver will also be honored with a month of remembrance and celebration of the overlooked history of liars. The Fraudster, also known as Satan, the Devil, the Accuser, Beelzebub, and Lucifer, has been treated unfairly and harassed by so-called Biblical scholars and the media.
Chaos, Contempt and Control have been hired to plan the special events. Falsehood, Fabrication and Deception will be catering the food. The keynote speakers, Slurs, Smears, and Slanders will offer tips for the latest frauds, cons, and embezzlement schemes.
If they show up at all, (We all know how they are.) Fibs, Duplicity, and Menace will provide musical entertainment. And the eau de parfum, Essence of Arrogance will be infused throughout the venue to inflate further the egos of all who attend!
Small Print:
Of course, the event will be prepared for the enemy: Mercy, Love, and Compassion. We expect them to be in them to be in the streets with their signs: Integrity for Americans. Tell the Truth. They will have soap and water to wash out the mouths of any repentant liars and put out any fires in the liars ‘ pants.
The devil, that proud spirit can’t bear to be mocked. – Martin Luther
After his baptism, Jesus spends forty days in the wilderness. Here the Devil meets Jesus and tempts him. Each temptation is a bid from Satan for Jesus to grasp for power, control, and saving his own skin.(Luke 4: 1-13) Temptation targets our egos, which want to know everything, control everything, and be right. In the wilderness scene with the Father of Lies, Jesus demonstrates that any power he might have is not used to show off, control others, line his pockets with gold, or use force.
Because you compete with others
Others will compete with you. Tao De Ching
How might my ego get in the way of sharing the gifts God has given to me?
What tempts me to lie or misuse the gifts I have been given?
See you next week! Love and peace, Loretta
Posted in contemplation, evil, Lent, Spiritual Formation, Spiritual Practices
Tagged Bible, Christianity, ego, faith, God, Jesus, lies, The devil
The Elephant is Very Like a Rope
What is truth? What is reality? Wouldn’t it be nice to pick up the tail of reality, hand it to your neighbor, and declare, “Here, look, this is it: Truth!”
“Hoaxes, lies and collective delusions aren’t new, but the extent to which millions of Americans have embraced them may be,” writes Kevin Roose, in The New York Times.
Which part of the elephant are you touching or bumping up against? Is there a way for us to step back and see a bigger picture than our own hand grasping a tail? Some say: Why go to all this work to root out truth? It’s a free country. Why can’t I believe whatever I want and what makes sense to me? I don’t have time to track down every piece of information.
The ideology (Nazism) which the Barmen Declaration sought to unmask, and reject is an ideology of freedom, a false and idolatrous conception of freedom, which equates it with the freedom of each individual to do as he or she wishes.” Lesslie Newbingen, Truth to Tell
If I refuse to acknowledge my brothers and sisters, who are also taking hold of part of the elephant from different vantage points, I turn everyone else into an enemy and threat to my truth and my freedom. Is there a way out of the stalemates and battles that keep us at odds with each other?
Here is the latest issue of Holy Ground – Quarterly Reflection on Contemplation
It is an illusion that we can escape personal responsibility for our assertions of truth, regardless of how we interpret the first amendment. We have an obligation to discover our internal truth, that place of honorable veracity, where we are aligned and balanced with the larger eternal truths about ourselves and the world around us.
In the words of Charles Williams, Unless devotion is given to the thing that must prove false in the end, that which is true in the end cannot enter. Being true individually is vitally important to all of us together. Why? In the words of the old
Sunday school song – for there are those who trust me. (Howard Walter)
Truth is a communal experience that requires us all. As you are transformed by truth, so are the rest of us.
Lenten blessings!
Loretta F Ross
Posted in contemplation, Lent, Trinity
Tagged Barmen Declaration, Jesus before Pilate, truth
Broken Hearts and Weary Souls
The Christian who knows his or her business is the Christian who has the freedom to return again and again into that silent unchanging presence – the hanged God, whose love, whose generosity, springs out of depths we can never imagine. It is the sounding of those depths that is the heart of the contemplative life . . . the contemplative who knows how to enter into the silence and stillness of things is, above all, the one who knows how to resist fashion and power to stand in God while the world turns. In that discovery of stillness lies all our hope of reconciliation. – Rowen Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, May 2010
____________________
“The people of God have a long history of reaching for technical change to remedy their difficulties, instead of the adaptive change God is calling out from their hearts and minds.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused and said, “No! We will flee on horses” – therefore you shall flee! And, “We will ride upon swift steeds” – and therefore your pursuers shall be swift!
Isaiah 30: 15-16
Someone is always looking for a fast horse to save us from the hard work of learning, which requires us to face into our ignorance and vulnerability.”
_________________
Here on a late March day in 2020 with the mourning doves calling from their perches, the grass slowly greening, and robins hopping about the leaf mulch in the woods, some of us are given a most remarkable opportunity. The world is gripped with the ongoing crisis of the corona virus pandemic. We may wonder, Will I or my loved ones get it? Might we die from it?
Government and health department officials scramble to respond. Health care givers put on hazmat suits and masks. Others labor to provide the goods and services we have taken for granted. Some of us will reach out to neighbors and others in need and develop ways to tend the tissue of human connection, love and compassion. Nearly all of us are charged to stay home and do our best to stay healthy.
In our communal enforced solitude we may have just the right hermitage for facing into the truth of ourselves and going deeper into our prayer and silence. In the Winter issue of Holy Ground, which I wrote before the virus erupted, “Deep personal and communal changes are not something we roll up our sleeves and do. Such life-giving change is something that is done unto us.” Something certainly is being done to us all. What kind of changes might God be asking of you and your communities?
Here is the Winter Holy Ground issue which looks at grief and truth, transformation and hope. It starts with another story about that little fellow,
Forest Spryte, Esq. He showed up on my couch one morning.
HOLY GROUND WINTER 2020
– Broken Hearts and Weary Souls
But first do this now or soon.
Turn off your screens. Step away from daily tasks. Sit down. Be still. Listen. Yes you will fidget and worry. That is okay. Stay there a little longer, where God is waiting for you.
Notice your breathing. Feel your body. Be present to each moment, as best you can. Give up trying, thinking, and planning. And give yourself over to this great Mystery of Love which lives beyond words in silence. This is a love, which longs to be with you and be known by you. Allow the flowing Love and Mercy of God move through you. Surrender to your Beloved, who is beyond your knowing and to the peace that passes your understanding.
Here. Right here
in this sacred moment
of your infinitely precious life
is all you will ever need.
With you and “the hanged God” in these days
in love and prayer.
Loretta F. Ross
Posted in contemplation, Lent, Prayer, Silence, Solitude, Spiritual Practices
Tagged Adaptive change, Isaiah 30:15, Lent, Prayer, silence, solitude
Learning to Kneel
I fear that we are losing our capacity for reverence and wonder. From a perusal of headlines and social media it appears that the great American pastime is one of taking offense, being outraged over one thing or another, fighting over who deserves to be the one most offended, or should be offended immediately.
The experience of reverence is crucial because it provides us with an internal check on our oh-so-human tendency to think of ourselves as superior beings, an attitude that can justify all kinds of harmful behaviors. Paul Woodruff, Reverence: Renewing a Forgotten Virtue.
The need has never been more urgent for people in leadership positions to be educated in all matters related to dignity – both the human vulnerability to be violated and the remarkable effect on people when they feel that they are seen, heard, understood, and acknowledged as worthy. Donna Hicks, Dignity, p 7
New Issue of Holy Ground: Snowed In – Learning to Kneel
Including a guide to spiritual practices to deepen reverence for God, ourselves, and others.
Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now. Mr Rogers
Sanctuary News
New life is stirring at the Sanctuary – ideas, insights, and learning as I begin to ponder possibilities in our new location. I attended a Day of Mindfulness held at a stunningly beautiful building, built by the Unitarian Universalist Society. They had expected 50 people. 100 signed up. There is a hunger for depth and the wisdom that rises out of silence.
Spiritual guidance is keeping me busy. I am grateful for Zoom and other ways the internet helps us stay connected. Speaking of connection, I am also taking time for extended prayer, which I neglected for most of a year. The call to pray intentionally, as the heart of this ministry, seems stronger and more essential than ever. I have returned to setting aside one day a week for this, Mondays. Feel free to join me in Spirit. Let me know if you do.
When I consider what may be emerging for ministry here, I am struck by the awareness that The Sanctuary has always been about relationships, where we see, where we are seen, and held in the Presence of God.
Don’t miss any opportunity to exert the power you have to remind others of who they are: invaluable, priceless, and irreplaceable. Remind yourself too. Donna Hicks
Posted in contemplation, Lent, Prayer, Spiritual Practices
Tagged dignity, reverence, Spiritual practices for lent, wonder
The Profligate Daughter
“Truly I tell you, wherever, this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” Matthew 26: 13
We remember
how you ran through the streets of Bethany
clutching the precious flask under your shawl
dodging merchants, beggars
searching for the house of Simon
peering in dim doorways
hurrying to be back in time for supperhow with bold extravagance you broke the flask
and poured the fragrant oil on the One at table
and then were gone
while the oil ran like hot tears
from his brow
down his cheeks
dripping onto shoulders
soon to be soaked in the whip’s bloody lather.
And truly, where the gospel is preached,
women remember you
in acts of reckless outpouring love –
the egg money, hoarded over months for a new sofa,
handed to a daughter on a spring afternoon
for a prom dress
cakes and pies and holiday meals prepared for long into the night
visits to the sick and shut-ins on days off
patient listening to the tales of children
hours of rocking, holding, folding,
smoothing, soothing, embracing, forgiving,
breaking open the alabaster walls of self
and pouring love onto love
in the name of Love.
We remember,
blessed by your daring waste
of a Love which knows no scarcities.
“In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.”
― San Juan de la Cruz
Posted in contemplation, Lent
Tagged abundance, Alabaster jar, annointing, Matthew 26: 6-13, Sacrificial love, woman of Bethany
Valentine’s Day
But standing by the cross of Jesus was his mother…
When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near,
he said to his mother, “Woman behold your son!”
Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” John 19:25-27
It was Valentine’s Day. She held his limp body across her knees, as though she could rock a full grown man. His head rolled back against her shoulder, his throat bared to heaven’s jaw. She reached for his torn, red smeared hand. Did she remember the valentines he had made for her…the way his tiny hand gripped her finger, and the dear sounds he made when he nuzzled her breast? Did she remember the valentine gifts…the pretty rocks he brought her, the bird feather, the ripe olive, shiny and black?
It was Valentine’s Day. And there on the hill called Skull she held her Valentine and sang him a love song, a lullaby. It had no words, but was a mixture of the sound of angels’ wings, the smell of frankincense, and the taste of dust and blood. She looked at his eyes, the muscles of his chest, the strong sweep of his thighs, and thought of how divinity had swelled within her, of how she grew big and awkward as she puffed up the hills of Nazareth. My, it seemed only yesterday. She thought of him moving within her and of his birthing out of the dark pain. And she remembered how she felt that she could not bear his sweetness.
It was Valentine’s Day. He lay slumped on her lap like a great heavy mail sack stuffed with the cards and letters of creation’s lovelorn. They spilled from him with the blood. “Save me. Heal me. Help me. Love me. Save me. Heal me. Help me. Love me.” Over and over the messages were the same. Some were written in the scraggly script of the old, some in the sprawling letters of the very young, some on the finest stationary. Others were on scraps of newspaper, prison walls, and sheets from hospital beds. Some were stamped out in the snow, and some were imprinted on faces, especially around the eyes and mouth. “Save me. Heal me. Help me. Love me.”
It was Valentine’s Day. She sat there with God on her lap,holiness in a heap. From all appearances the love affair between God and creation had gone terribly awry. The Valentine sent to us had been trampled, torn, spit upon, and rejected.
She held her Valentine and her heart broke, and he, broken for her, for us, allowed himself to be held. And holding him she held all the others spilling from him, the whole aching lonely hearts club. And in that moment she became a Valentine herself sent from Love to be Love.
Those who follow God’s ragged Valentine, Jesus, get their hearts broken over and over. For Christ dwells in them, swells in love, and bursts their hearts with compassion. Such are the lovesick fools who hold creation’s broken ones. Such are the lovers who mother God’s children and in their mothering discover their own brokenness is mended.
It was Valentine’s Day. Some will come to call it Good Friday. It might even be fitting to call it Mother’s Day. But calling it Valentine’s Day helps me remember what love is all about.
This piece is from a collection of monologues and reader’s dramas I wrote a number of years ago titled Blessed Are the Poor.
This post first published Feb 12, 2009
Posted in Good Friday, Lent, Valentine's Day
Tagged crucifixion, John 19: 25-27, Pieta, suffering love
Love – In Small Doses #11
The Education of Desire
The woman stared at the fruit. It looked beautiful and tasty. She wanted the wisdom that it would give her, and she ate some of the fruit. Her husband was there with her, so she gave some to him, and he ate it too. Genesis 3:6 (CEV)
Loud, the crash and feral
thrashing of a heart
wedged in desire’s thornsno exertion heals
the festering woundat length
mind wears down
bows stiffly
folds into sheer being
draws up soft
sheets of silence___________________
How is it for you to sit still with your conflicted heart, enmeshed and torn by desire and longing for things you do not have?
Can you stay with your wounded heart until your mind stops trying to analyze and understand? Can you trust as you surrender into the silence? Will you discover tender compassion for yourself in your own suffering?
Will you hold still while unseen hands place a poultice,
warm and moist, where you hurt the most?
_____________________________________
Central Academy Lent 2015
1248 SW Buchanan
Topeka, Ks
Each Wednesday from Feb 25 to March 25
5:30 Gather for Soup
6:00 – 7:30 Class
It is not too late to join us. Don’t worry. You will fit right in!
Call or email to let us know you are coming so we have enough cookies.
Contact Central Congregational Church
(785) 235-2376; centralucc@yahoo.com
I am teaching a five week class on contemplation, Prayer of the Yearning Heart. It is a great help to practice contemplation in a group. Come sit with us a spell and let peace creep into your heart.
Posted in Contemplation, prayer, Lent, Love in Small Doses, Silence
Tagged contemplation, desire, Genesis 3: 6, letting go, temptation
Slamming Doors, Punching Walls
We don’t teach meditation to the young monks.
They are not ready until they stop slamming doors.
– Thich Nhat Hanh to Thomas Merton in 1966.
The Anglican priest across the table thought for a moment before he responded to my question. I was trying out my idea of a life and ministry focused on prayer. This man and his wife had formed contemplative communities in India and Hong Kong. “What suggestions do you have for me, a Presbyterian minister, about how I could do this?” I had asked, not even sure what I meant by a life of prayer.
“Holiness takes time,” Fr. Murray Rogers began. “You can’t hurry holiness.”
From birth to death faith development moves us toward deeper maturity. Followers of Jesus build strong, resilient, resourceful, creative lives through periods of doubt, struggle, disillusionment, and loss. Our life in God teaches us how to take responsibility for our inner lives – the anger, resentment, bitterness, sorrow, envy, and greed – whatever may be blocking the flow of grace in and through us. To take responsibility for our own attitudes, emotional states, opinions, and behaviors is to stop slamming doors or punching holes in one another. Mature souls require time to ripen and the ability to tolerate the slow pace and periods when it seems nothing positive is happening at all.
Such maturing requires us to look inside, to notice what is there, and to be present to what is so in our hearts moment by moment. In this process of looking we wake up to what is true and real, beyond our drama, blaming, projecting, judging, and attacking. We begin to love ourselves, God, and others more fully and freely.
This looking inward with awareness and compassion is called contemplation in the Christian tradition. Here we discover that the realm of God is within us, as Jesus told his friends. The practice of contemplative prayer or meditation grounds and fuels our awakened compassion and love, as we carry the fruit of our practice into the world with acts of justice, mercy, creativity, beauty, and courage.
Little seems more important to me than this work of opening our eyes to what is true and real. Our awareness is nurtured by noticing and appreciating the myriad miracles, which surround us each day. A few minutes of silent communion with the Giver of these gifts heals, soothes, brings insight, and draws us into Love’s embrace.
Instead of our conflicts, trials, suffering, and confusion overcoming us, they become the curriculum in the school for our soul. Our teacher is the Spirit in our times of attentive listening and contemplation. As we keep showing up for class, little by little, we are freed and transformed in Christ.
Love in Small Doses for the Sin Sick Soul – Part II
This lent I will be continuing and adding to a series, Love in Small Doses, which I first posted in 2013. These are short poetic takes on the themes and scriptures of lent. Each post will invite you to savor, slow down, or be still for a moment.
A teacher who has deeply influenced me is Carmelite author and nun, Constance Fitzgerald. Read her sweeping understanding of the significance of practicing contemplation in our time:
Teachers need to know how to educate for contemplation and transformation, if the earth is to be nurtured, if people are to be delivered from the scapegoating oppression of all kinds of violence, and if humanity is to fill its role in ushering in the next era of life on earth.
This may be the most basic challenge of religion today: not sexual mores, nor bioethics, nor commitment to justice, not dogmatic orthodoxy, not even option for the poor and oppressed nor solidarity with women, but education for a transformative contemplation, which would radically affect human motivation, consciousness, desire, and, ultimately, every other area of human life and endeavor.
All great change begins with a shift in perspective
within an individual soul and consciousness –
a truth told
a veil lifted
a sorrow rising
a cry piercing
a heart ravished
I look forward to our lenten journey together and the changes we discover along the way.
BTW: You can do this.
I am an old monk and still slam doors from time to time.
_________________________________
Topeka Area Readers Please Note !
Want to learn to MEDITATE or approach scripture from a PROGRESSIVE PROSPECTIVE? Here are two FREE options to deepen in the SPIRIT this year during Lent.
Central Academy Lent 2015
1248 SW Buchanan
Each Wednesday from Feb 25 to March 25
5:30 Gather for Soup
6:00 – 7:30 Class
Two class offerings this year
Sign up and RSVP for classes!
Contact Central Congregational Church
(785) 235-2376; centralucc@yahoo.com
I will be teaching the five week class on contemplation, Prayer of the Yearning Heart. Rev. Joshua Longbottom will be leading a study of the gospel of Mark from a theologically progressive perspective.
It is a great help to practice contemplation in a group. I hope to see some of you there!
If silence is not your thing, dig into Joshua’s class on Mark. I promise that it won’t be dull. You will definitely see things from a new perspective!
The Praying Life 